Realism and the Kharaa

HarrowerHarrower Join Date: 2005-03-16 Member: 45478Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Yes they do go together.</div>Alright look: NS is phenomenal for when it was released. The blending of RTS and FPS in a way that is interesting in the first person and relatively balanced is quite a feat and was pulled off with excellence.

Now though, you have a great base of operations (NS) from which to derive all sorts of good ideas. My post today focuses on the combative first-person elements.

Picture yourself, if you will, in a 4x8x20 foot hall with a pistol. Now imagine that at the end of the hall there's an angry pit bull. If you're any good with the pistol, the dog will be dead by the time he growls at you, but let's say for sake of argument that you're not a good shot or that you didn't notice the growling barking slobbering canine until he was on top of you.

The dog has a plethora of options open to him. He can bite at your legs, disabling your movement and dropping you to convenient biting height, he can simply jump on you attempting to tackle you (see jedi outcast's "saber lock" effect for ideas on this one), or he can bite at your hand, removing the gun. He can bite the gun itself (though this may not be very smart, remember that he is, in fact, a dog). Additionally he can attempt to wrestle the weapon out of your hand (a trained dog) or run up to your head (after tackling you, or perhaps by jump-running up your body) to deliver a killing blow to your neck.

The skulk-marine combat is good. Very good even. The way staging works adds atmosphere to the game, but in my opinion, NS2 should examine these aforementioned close-range combat mechanics especially since much of NS's combat hinges on exploits in the engine physics which may or may not be (as) effective (if effective at all) when switching to a newer platform.

That is all.

Comments

  • ScrapScrap Join Date: 2005-01-06 Member: 32953Members
    aww yeah, suggested the bite gun and bite certain bodyparts thing myself. Supporting this idea because i would like to see a more slower paced game that leaves you more time to think your actions through. Well atleast to me these kind of ideas seem to make the game slower, meaning you wont just kill the guy but cripple him and need a plan your killing moves( neck bite or whatever) but we are a minority hoping for this stuff to get ingame and most people dislike this so were kinda out of luck
  • HarrowerHarrower Join Date: 2005-03-16 Member: 45478Members
    By "most people" who do you mean?
  • PetcoPetco Join Date: 2003-07-27 Member: 18478Members, Constellation
    Natural Selection isn't really going for the 'slower games', they did away with it when they upgraded from 1.0x to 2.0 and above. Zunni is making a mod which is also an FPS/RTS hybrid which is suppose to be slower paced gameplay.


    Back on topic, I think this is a little too strong(tackling marines on the floor, lower their movement speed, etc).

    Skulks win most fights if they ever get to the marine if they have at least 20 health.

    Marine > Skulk, when has a chance to fight the skulk before he is near biting range.

    Skulk > Marine when the skulk is near the marine's feet.

    A single skulk against a 5 marines, the skulk can possibly take out 2-3 of the marines if the marines are closely together and the skulk is at biting range at least 20 health.

    It happens quite often if a decent skulk were to circle around a group of marines and bite them.

    It can happen the same for the marine when a group of skulks 10 feet away come charging, but you see that less often because of ammo limits(50 shots, you can kill 10 skulks if you <i>don't miss</i>).
  • Parse_ErrorParse_Error Join Date: 2002-03-18 Member: 331Members
    While an interesting idea, it does have a few issues.

    There is a delicate balance between realism and fun that all developers have to continually fight with. Everyone always dreams of these hyper-realistic situations that they'd like to program only to find out that if they had coded every little nuance of the real world into their game, it'd take them roughly the same amount of time it's taken for Duke Nukem Forever, probably longer.

    Additionally you have to consider how players will feel about this. An experienced skulk ( as currently implemented ) can probably take out a reasonably experienced LMG toting marine in just a few well placed attacks. Being in a position where you get bitten and fall to the floor unable to move because you've been disabled, would you really want to have to just lay there? Or would you rather have died already instead of being a sitting duck?

    Slower gameplay is cool sometimes, but I've seen situations where games can last forever already (several hours for one round) and by making the gameplay even slower might annoy a lot of people.
  • NEX9NEX9 Join Date: 2005-03-08 Member: 44299Members
    in said thread with bite gun i my self did plenty ful amounts of input and research i trolled you tube and goggle for 4 horus plus to bring some of the greatest dog bite take down movies on the web

    i cant find it any more ill have to search things scrapers posted

    crap i found a thread but its not the one with the links in it

    <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=2664600057972145664&showtopic=98494&st=0" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....=98494&st=0</a>
  • NEX9NEX9 Join Date: 2005-03-08 Member: 44299Members
    GO HERE!!!

    <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=5856281655506289664&showtopic=98716&hl=mantis" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....6&hl=mantis</a>

    i reember i used the word mantis as in praying mantis in the thread WOohoo
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