More genre-appropriate pistol/melee idea
Mortos
Join Date: 2006-11-28 Member: 58763Members
Join Date: 2006-11-28 Member: 58763Members
As well as the new concept meets the goals of the system, it really doesn't seem like it belongs in an NS game. Far to complicated and unintuitive. The game has so far kept marine weapons in the simple/gritty range, and adding electric shock weapons with gradually increasing damage curves seems to deviate far from the feel of NS.
I suggest this instead
Pistol/Melee - The pistol does exactly what it did before, but with lower damage and a fixed max fire rate. A pistol is a trusty backup sidearm in any combat situation, and I think it's just the implementation, not the weapon, that was broken and needed to be changed. With the pistol equipped, the marine should be able to right click to smack with the butt of the gun, like in l4d, knocking back jumping skulks, etc. This wouldn't work with primary weapons as they are bulky and/or too fragile.
C4 - This doesn't necessarily have to be C4, but it's something which can be attached to a given alien structure, requiring you to stand near it for a few seconds, planting each explosive. Some structures only take 1, others might require you to plant 2 or 3, then step back and set it off, destroying the alien structure. This isn't as boring as slowly watching it's health drop while knifing, but still requires to you listen very carefully for approaching aliens, since you are vulnerable while setting the devices. It also has the added bonus of being the kind of crude, easy-to-understand weapon, that we are so familiar with.
And before people cry 'nanites!' or something equivalent, keep in mind that the game merely uses high-tech explanation to achieve low-tech results. I just fear electric, multi-purpose weapons puts the game on a slippery slope of plasma cannons, emp grenades, and all sorts of other explicitly high tech stuff that the team was so vocal about avoiding in NS1.
Edit: I just noticed that ideas similar to this were mentioned in the official thread, so then this can be a place to discuss the concept as a whole.
I suggest this instead
Pistol/Melee - The pistol does exactly what it did before, but with lower damage and a fixed max fire rate. A pistol is a trusty backup sidearm in any combat situation, and I think it's just the implementation, not the weapon, that was broken and needed to be changed. With the pistol equipped, the marine should be able to right click to smack with the butt of the gun, like in l4d, knocking back jumping skulks, etc. This wouldn't work with primary weapons as they are bulky and/or too fragile.
C4 - This doesn't necessarily have to be C4, but it's something which can be attached to a given alien structure, requiring you to stand near it for a few seconds, planting each explosive. Some structures only take 1, others might require you to plant 2 or 3, then step back and set it off, destroying the alien structure. This isn't as boring as slowly watching it's health drop while knifing, but still requires to you listen very carefully for approaching aliens, since you are vulnerable while setting the devices. It also has the added bonus of being the kind of crude, easy-to-understand weapon, that we are so familiar with.
And before people cry 'nanites!' or something equivalent, keep in mind that the game merely uses high-tech explanation to achieve low-tech results. I just fear electric, multi-purpose weapons puts the game on a slippery slope of plasma cannons, emp grenades, and all sorts of other explicitly high tech stuff that the team was so vocal about avoiding in NS1.
Edit: I just noticed that ideas similar to this were mentioned in the official thread, so then this can be a place to discuss the concept as a whole.
Comments
It may be complicated but it is intuitive.
Sounds kinda overpowering, especially if you consider that Alien structures have a higher relative cost than Marine structures. In larger games, this gets even worse, as Alien individuals take longer to accumulate enough res through their divided pool to drop structures. In one version hand grenades did something like double damage to structures, and as a result, Marines would take down structures absurdly fast. On large servers, Marines could just hand grenade rush the hive and take it down almost instantly. Perhaps the Alien res model will change, but the ability to quickly kill structures with little to no tradeoff doesn't strike me as a good idea.
Maybe a simple easy fix could be to just plain combine the pistol and the knife?
I imagine a more futuristic looking pistol, with a blade attached to the underside and a flashlight on top (jst for looks). The pistol works like a stock standard pistol and right click swipes the knife horizontally.
I somehow feel that in a role playing sense, the aliens skin is able to negate the effects of electricity.
Maybe even, while you have the pistol out, your character is actaully holding a knife in his opposite hand.
Something else to think about :)
I somehow feel that in a role playing sense, the aliens skin is able to negate the effects of electricity.
Maybe even, while you have the pistol out, your character is actaully holding a knife in his opposite hand.
Something else to think about :)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This sounds like a good idea! I like the idea of having a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other.
I thing taser is better than knife + pistol separately. It is little futuristic but why wouldn't they shoot crippling electricity rather than bullets.
I think the changed map layout makes building destruction more difficult. On NS1 world tazer rushes could probably kill the hive in seconds too.
I considered the explosives too when it came to taser alternatives, but thought UWE wants the building destruction integrated into the marine instead of relying on specific items that run out quickly.
I'm not a big fan of electricity either, but I think a cool name, design, animations and sounds are going to help a lot if they decide to implement features like this. A cattle prod overkill sounds reasonable weapon for self defence against skulks after all.
But they aren't necessarily proposing an electricity gun. It is a taser... With prongs...
I think that the taser thing is a very bad idea, honestly taking away a secondary weapon like the pistol and/or knife and replacing it with something that on the surface so far sounds like it will never be used at all is not a good move.
I agree that it wasn't the weapons but rather the implementation. Even still the pistol when used correctly could defend against small aliens well enough to duck and run if needed. This shock thing seems way too complicated, just add a melee with knockback and zero cooldown time for firing afterwards. This would level out the pistol especially if its damage was reduced.
One thing that was a failure with the pistol was that after about the first 5 minutes of a game it was useless. There were no significant upgrades allowing it to remain a modest backup to primary weapons as both teams strengthened in both firepower and damage resistance. I'd say offer a few ammo types for the pistol, something that allows you to target specific prey and offer some sort of decent protection should you run out of primary ammo. Even something like exploding rounds that did a small .25 meter knockback per each successful hit and a bit of damage.
Just my thoughts.