Laser add-on
La Chupacabra
Join Date: 2008-02-25 Member: 63729Members
Join Date: 2008-02-25 Member: 63729Members
Simply!
Laser as a weaponry add on:
- not only a point-laser as in HL games, but a straight line-laser that starts from the weapon and ends at the object (as in NS menu screen)
- really cheap,
- needs to be activated with secondary fire, when it is:
>> aliens have easier job spotting you, obviously HOWEVER
>> you have easier job spotting clocked structures / aliens, because the laser will stop in mid-air (rather than on the wall)!
>>> the laser, instead of point laser ( o ) could be wider, dash-like ( ------ ) to make it a bit easier to detect clocked aliens and make it more obvious that its function is not to make aiming easier!
Laser as a weaponry add on:
- not only a point-laser as in HL games, but a straight line-laser that starts from the weapon and ends at the object (as in NS menu screen)
- really cheap,
- needs to be activated with secondary fire, when it is:
>> aliens have easier job spotting you, obviously HOWEVER
>> you have easier job spotting clocked structures / aliens, because the laser will stop in mid-air (rather than on the wall)!
>>> the laser, instead of point laser ( o ) could be wider, dash-like ( ------ ) to make it a bit easier to detect clocked aliens and make it more obvious that its function is not to make aiming easier!
Comments
>> you have easier job spotting clocked structures / aliens, because the laser will stop in mid-air (rather than on the wall)!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm not quite sure about the logic behind each of these.
If it's a laser... unless it were pointing straight at you, why would it make them more noticeable? *
And if it's to be used as an anti-cloaking device... if cloaking allows the lifeform to either refract light or blend in to their surroundings (like a chameleon); why should it have trouble with a laser pointer?
* Oh wait, you're saying we can see the lines the lasers make ala Star Wars.
...??
Probably the most common inaccuracy in sci-fi action games/films.
(Just to make sure, yes I understand this is not a weapon.)
If it's a laser... unless it were pointing straight at you, why would it make them more noticeable? *
(...)
* Oh wait, you're saying we can see the lines the lasers make ala Star Wars.
...??<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nope, more NS style.
[attachment=35819:Clipboard01.jpg]
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Probably the most common inaccuracy in sci-fi action games/films.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, yea, but I always thought that NS is more about the fiction rather than science (alien races, teleportation, siege cannon, cloaking...).
<!--quoteo(post=1677534:date=May 3 2008, 07:24 PM:name=Harimau)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Harimau @ May 3 2008, 07:24 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1677534"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->And if it's to be used as an anti-cloaking device... if cloaking allows the lifeform to either refract light or blend in to their surroundings (like a chameleon); why should it have trouble with a laser pointer?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It would be way cooler if the light could be actually refracted, but I don't think that the (refraction coolness):(time-spend-on-implementing) ratio is good enough. Laser which stops in mid-air would do just fine, since the player will get the idea that he has detected sth cloaked. Still, it wouldn't be some uber cloak counter, because you would have to shine the laser on the cloaked structure / alien in the first place. It's more like a ammo-saver when you know that there is a SC or a cloaking gorge nearby and don't want to brainlessly spray ammo all around the place.
EDIT:
anyway, it would be a nice thing to see (in my subjective opinion of course) a marine squad gradually proceeding from room to room, checking out all vents, dodgy ambush spots etc with lasers (taking into account that aliens invested in SC). Of course you could add rocket-propelled-grenade, which bounces off walls infinitely and makes a little atomic explosion on impact, but hey! why not add something brainy rather than destructive?
but yeah, it should be togglable (with, say the j button or something)
*player has been banned for rambo'ing*
No no, you missed my point. I'm saying (because of the reasons I gave) that the laser would *not* stop in mid-air, due to the nature of the cloaking ability, which shouldn't have any trouble accounting for it(the laser).
<!--quoteo(post=1677870:date=May 7 2008, 04:52 AM:name=Khaze)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Khaze @ May 7 2008, 04:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1677870"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You <b>would</b> see the laser beam if the air was smoky/misty enough, would you not? Talking in terms of real life, of course; anything goes in sci-fi (nearly so, anyway).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yeah i know this, but are we going to have smoky or misty environments (always) in NS2?
We don't really know what's the nature of the cloaking ability - we can speculate things that are somehow related, but which would not gave the same effect because it's just pure si-fi. Following this "logic", we can call this add-on a laxer, a type of laser than would stop in the mid-air, because.... it uses a light source which produces elliptically polarized light, with a unnatural rotation that makes it impossible to refract!
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You would see the laser beam if the air was smoky/misty enough, would you not? Talking in terms of real life, of course; anything goes in sci-fi (nearly so, anyway).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yeah i know this, but are we going to have smoky or misty environments (always) in NS2?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't know how it exactly works, but it seems that visibility is linked with the intensity of the laser:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Starfield_Optical_Range_-_sodium_laser.jpg" target="_blank">"The orange beam is observed due to the intense laser light scattering off particles in the air."@wikipedia</a>
Good riddance! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1678176:date=May 9 2008, 09:33 AM:name=La Chupacabra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(La Chupacabra @ May 9 2008, 09:33 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1678176"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->We don't really know what's the nature of the cloaking ability - we can speculate things that are somehow related, but which would not gave the same effect because it's just pure si-fi. Following this "logic", we can call this add-on a laxer, a type of laser than would stop in the mid-air, because.... it uses a light source which produces elliptically polarized light, with a unnatural rotation that makes it impossible to refract!
yeah i know this, but are we going to have smoky or misty environments (always) in NS2?
I don't know how it exactly works, but it seems that visibility is linked with the intensity of the laser:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Starfield_Optical_Range_-_sodium_laser.jpg" target="_blank">"The orange beam is observed due to the intense laser light scattering off particles in the air."@wikipedia</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually "cloaking" technologies do exist but not as a true cloaking field.
A true cloaking field (physics definition) would mean 100% replication of what light would normally do through that space from any angle. In other words, the light traveling where the cloaked volume is would appear unchanged, not matter what the refraction, reflection, diffraction, or intensity is. If our marine's laser shown through a true cloaking field then you wouldn't see any difference. The original idea of cloaking in SciFi came from chameleon lizards' ability to camouflage themselves by matching their skin pigments to the the same colors and pattern their surroundings are reflecting visible light.
Furthermore this idea would look tacky unless you developed code to accurately render the light scattering effect of paticulates and a system for accounting the particulates in a volume in a gradual (not sharply indexed) manner then it would look abnormal and be immersion breaking. Yet doing so properly would exponentially increase system resource strain on client machines to the point where it would be silly to implement for such a small effect.
Unless it can be demonstrated as a non-immersion breaking (looks correct/natural in the appropriate particulate suspension densities) and low resouce consumption effect worth it to the gameplay experience, then the conclusion here is crystal clear
<b>
vote <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->no<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></b>
I also agree with the_x5
This idea wouldnt work physically.
I vote <b><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green"><!--/coloro-->YES<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--></b>.
Every game that has ever had laser sights, including ns via plug-ins, has been extreamly impractical and stupid looking.
As for game balance it would not help. We know nothing about balance in ns2 and it could be balanced without it. In ns cloaking was already to gimp to need another counter.
I vote no