Possible building solution
WhiteWolf22
Join Date: 2009-08-21 Member: 68559Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2009-08-21 Member: 68559Members, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">my thoughts about how to solve the discussion marines: - build or not?</div>Well, you might have noticed the discussion about the role of the MAC's and if marines should be able to build or not...
I believe to have a suitable idea how to get everyone satisfied, but first my personal opinion:
Something I most loved about Natural Selection was, that it was much more than just a simple shooter. It had a complex, intelligent and rewarding gameplay with different roles and a lot of possibilities how to play it. (Of course I love scifi stuff too, and NS had a great design)
What I loved too, was that marine and alien gameplay was really different - while marines are organized around a central commander, the alien team was much more dynamic and responsibility was shared across all teammates.
My favourite task is to build up a base and strategically important structures, while having to defend myself (or being defended by teammates) and acting as a kind of supporter. Just running around to shoot something isn't as interesting as creating a complete ecosystem of structures needed to accomplish a specific task - in this case to defeat the aliens, of course. But thats my opinion. I know that there are a lot of players thirsty for competition and some virtual blood, and that is an important role, too.
What I want to say is, i like NS for being a mix of RTS and shooter, what adds a lot of complexity and freedom of choice how to play it. This mix is the spirit of NS.
With the MACs being the only builders, the commander has its strategic gameplay, but what about the rest of the team? It's about having interesting tasks, everything left will be shooting and defending each other or robots. Of course, it is much easier to understand and to learn, but i think that this will "dumb down" the gameplay. Also I believe, that this solution will separate the comm from the rest of the team - everyone does his thing, there's no real reason to follow the commander's orders. He might become an unseen "ghost" building stuff around you, while you're on the hunt for aliens.
BUT - HOW TO SOLVE THIS IN A WAY, KEEPING THE GAME'S SPIRIT AND HAVE EVERYONE SATISFIED?
How would you like this:
MAC's should be redefined to be NO BUILDERS, but: THEY TRANSPORT THE RESOURCES THAT ARE REQUIRED TO BUILD A STRUCTURE. Structures cannot just appear out of the air, and somehow the material for them has to be transported. Marines can't carry those resources around - so having robots to do that would be plausible.
MORE THAN THAT: marines (maybe everyone or a special support class) still need to build up the structures (with their welder or tech-tool, not bare-handed), this will ensure the cooperation with the commander and pleases everyone, who wants to build. But the robots still are very important and have to be guarded, what adds a well defined task for the "gunslingers" and strategic depth. The marines who build things up can be defended too, but they can be careful and defend their own or each other.
On the alien side, I miss the gorge being the "builder". Having a very similar gameplay on both sides with alien commander and those ... forgot their name ... flying ... building .. thingys .. :D .. as counterpart to the MACs takes away a lot of feeling for "being another species" and depth / variety. So, please consider giving back the builder/support-role to the gorge.
Now it's up to you. I personally believe this to be a very interesting solution, adding strategic depth, giving "just kill it"-players a task, instead of spreading across the map alone and being killed useless, letting players who love to build up things ... build up things and so on.
I believe to have a suitable idea how to get everyone satisfied, but first my personal opinion:
Something I most loved about Natural Selection was, that it was much more than just a simple shooter. It had a complex, intelligent and rewarding gameplay with different roles and a lot of possibilities how to play it. (Of course I love scifi stuff too, and NS had a great design)
What I loved too, was that marine and alien gameplay was really different - while marines are organized around a central commander, the alien team was much more dynamic and responsibility was shared across all teammates.
My favourite task is to build up a base and strategically important structures, while having to defend myself (or being defended by teammates) and acting as a kind of supporter. Just running around to shoot something isn't as interesting as creating a complete ecosystem of structures needed to accomplish a specific task - in this case to defeat the aliens, of course. But thats my opinion. I know that there are a lot of players thirsty for competition and some virtual blood, and that is an important role, too.
What I want to say is, i like NS for being a mix of RTS and shooter, what adds a lot of complexity and freedom of choice how to play it. This mix is the spirit of NS.
With the MACs being the only builders, the commander has its strategic gameplay, but what about the rest of the team? It's about having interesting tasks, everything left will be shooting and defending each other or robots. Of course, it is much easier to understand and to learn, but i think that this will "dumb down" the gameplay. Also I believe, that this solution will separate the comm from the rest of the team - everyone does his thing, there's no real reason to follow the commander's orders. He might become an unseen "ghost" building stuff around you, while you're on the hunt for aliens.
BUT - HOW TO SOLVE THIS IN A WAY, KEEPING THE GAME'S SPIRIT AND HAVE EVERYONE SATISFIED?
How would you like this:
MAC's should be redefined to be NO BUILDERS, but: THEY TRANSPORT THE RESOURCES THAT ARE REQUIRED TO BUILD A STRUCTURE. Structures cannot just appear out of the air, and somehow the material for them has to be transported. Marines can't carry those resources around - so having robots to do that would be plausible.
MORE THAN THAT: marines (maybe everyone or a special support class) still need to build up the structures (with their welder or tech-tool, not bare-handed), this will ensure the cooperation with the commander and pleases everyone, who wants to build. But the robots still are very important and have to be guarded, what adds a well defined task for the "gunslingers" and strategic depth. The marines who build things up can be defended too, but they can be careful and defend their own or each other.
On the alien side, I miss the gorge being the "builder". Having a very similar gameplay on both sides with alien commander and those ... forgot their name ... flying ... building .. thingys .. :D .. as counterpart to the MACs takes away a lot of feeling for "being another species" and depth / variety. So, please consider giving back the builder/support-role to the gorge.
Now it's up to you. I personally believe this to be a very interesting solution, adding strategic depth, giving "just kill it"-players a task, instead of spreading across the map alone and being killed useless, letting players who love to build up things ... build up things and so on.
Comments
I really thought about splitting the marines into 2 classes, one for doing the damage, and one for support/engineering. You should be able to change this whenever you like - the best way would be to switch it at the armory - if you buy the tech-equipment, you have less firepower but the new engineer status, once you sell it, you're damage dealer again.