Something concerning me (and suggestion) about motion tracking

includeinclude aka RpTheHotrodDallas, TX Join Date: 2003-01-08 Member: 12027Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
One thing that always bugged me was that motion tracking totally removed suspense and the fear of the unknown from the game, at least for me. You run into rooms knowing you're totally safe or knowing exactly where the baddies are around you. It's honestly almost a built-in wall hack. It really removes suspense and fear, which were both key (imho) to Natural Selection.

What really drew NS to me originally was the whole suspense feeling as a marine walking into a room. On the alien side, it was the suspense of pulling off that perfect ambush.


Instead of DEAD ON motion tracking showing exactly the location of a moving target (floor, wall, ceiling, etc...), how about this?


3 tiers in motion tracking upgrades.

First tier

Imagine a shape of a piece of pie. Now, have the point of it pointing down and the round part up top. It's much like V with a curved top. The tracking works like an overhead tracker looking down. With level 1 tracking, enemy movement is "updated" every few seconds, but you only see blips of the movement. With level 2 tracking, the tracker now handles behind you, as well, so you have a north pie piece and a south pie piece. Additionally, blips are pinged slightly faster. With level 3, left/right pieces come into play and you have a 360 degree motion tracking. Additionally, the range of the tracking is slightly increased.

With this, you can know if something is moving in the room ahead, but not EXACTLY where (in NS, you can tell exactly where, whether in the floor, on a wall, on the ceiling). All you have is a graphic representing a top-down look.

Now, some might think this is a downgrade to the NS motion tracking. The trade off benefit is that, although you no longer have pin point motion tracking, you now can upgrade motion tracking to a whole 360 degrees around you, helping to prevent flanking ambushes.

This would still maintain the motion tracking mechanic, but helping to prevent spoiling suspense.

Comments

  • MinstrelJCFMinstrelJCF Join Date: 2009-05-10 Member: 67379Members
    edited June 2009
  • MinstrelJCFMinstrelJCF Join Date: 2009-05-10 Member: 67379Members
    edited June 2009
    Or an implementation like the marine motion tracking in Alien vs Predator/2, 180 degrees and doesn't show you the precise location of enemies.
    <img src="http://games.softpedia.com/screenshots/Alien-vs-Predator-2-Patch_1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
  • slayer20slayer20 Killed a man once. Join Date: 2007-12-13 Member: 63157Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    MT was made so that you could see where the enemies are at without being ambushed.

    It's a great thing to have, and personally, I don't think it should be changed.
  • homicidehomicide Join Date: 2003-11-10 Member: 22451Members
    Game over man, game over.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Join Date: 2008-06-17 Member: 64467Members
    edited June 2009
    It's going to stay the same no matter what is decided here. I say just try to learn something fun about it, and think about that every time you turn a corner and shoot a skulk right in the face, dead on with a shotgun,even when hes cloaked. Then imagine his rage quit <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
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