Alien vision and the Alien Commander?
SiniStarR
Join Date: 2010-04-13 Member: 71380Members
Join Date: 2010-04-13 Member: 71380Members
Not sure if it has been brought up before, but I am wondering how people would feel about the giving the alien commander alien vision, while in the top down view. Unlike marines, the aliens are great at taking advantage of the darkness. Sadly the AC, more often than not, is tending to rooms that are very difficult to see because the power goes out. Infact it is sometimes really hard to tell what is happening when a big battle takes place. What do you think?
Comments
Is it really necessary though? Being able to see where your infestation is, what direction bullets are coming from when structures are being attacked, what's being built (power nodes), whats on fire from the flamer, etc., etc. will all disappear when Alien View is active. Alien view is meant as an advantage for Aliens on the front line, not the Alien in the birds eye view.
I've suggested alien view mode for commander before, as it's impossible to see what's going on in SA if the lights are out, perhaps instead of Alien View, a different view that essentially sticks point lights on cysts (for the commander only) so that they can see what's around
Technically, when a power node goes out, it is supposed to go black for a few seconds then turn into a red tint. However, sometimes the red tint never shows up in Alien Comm view. This isn't an issue that should be fixed by adding Alien View to the Alien Comm., it should be fixed by making sure the dim to red interface is presented in the Alien Comm. view when it's supposed too.
Yes it is. Even the red tint makes it hard to see sometimes from the comm's birds eye view. You can easily toggle the alien view on and off to see your DI and, presumably, DI will show up in alien view eventually.
Agreed, no alien view. Just fix this bug and it would be fine, I can see why people suggest alien view for comms.. but the issue your running into is just it staying black in a area and not turning red like it should.
The occasional red tinting of pitch blackness is not sufficient. Aliens are intended to have the upper hand in the darkness: Commander still qualifies.
Any area on the map is PERFECTLY visible with the Red ambient lighting applied. There is not need for Alien View within the Commander role, your not physically viewing the entire map, your viewing it from a birds eye view. Also, you are not always able to view the entire map in it's whole (and what is going on in different locations), you are only able to view areas of the map you currently control. To implement the Alien View would be a bad choice as when viewing locations throughout the map (not controlled), you will not know if it's powered or not (alien view doesn't have a difference in powered/non-powered areas). This is a key point when notifying your team if their area marines in a location or if that location currently have some form of building going on.
If you want to find a way of brightening up the Alien Commander view, turn up your in-game brightness and ask UWE to fix the lighting transitions (powered -to- non-powered) while in the commander view.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0txpeJUsbCw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0txpeJUsbCw</a> @7:20
even with the red tint, it is hard to simply see all the small obstacles so simple building placement can be hard in some rooms. like heliport on summit.
I don't want alien vision, I want it to be a bit brighter by default.
You are of course entitled to your own opinion, as am I.
<!--quoteo(post=1867827:date=Aug 9 2011, 12:40 PM:name=vizionz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vizionz @ Aug 9 2011, 12:40 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867827"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->To implement the Alien View would be a bad choice as when viewing locations throughout the map (not controlled), you will not know if it's powered or not (alien view doesn't have a difference in powered/non-powered areas). This is a key point when notifying your team if their area marines in a location or if that location currently have some form of building going on.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm sorry, I don't see how the inclusion of Alien Vision would prevent you from seeing what areas are and are not controlled.
<!--quoteo(post=1867827:date=Aug 9 2011, 12:40 PM:name=vizionz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vizionz @ Aug 9 2011, 12:40 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1867827"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If you want to find a way of brightening up the Alien Commander view, turn up your in-game brightness and ask UWE to fix the lighting transitions (powered -to- non-powered) while in the commander view.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah. Or give the Commander Alien Vision.
Indeed my friend.
<!--quoteo(post=1868102:date=Aug 10 2011, 10:32 AM:name=KuBaN)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (KuBaN @ Aug 10 2011, 10:32 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1868102"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm sorry, I don't see how the inclusion of Alien Vision would prevent you from seeing what areas are and are not controlled.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Alien View does not permit the user to view effects such as building sparks, flamer, smoke, etc. One of the best techniques in scoping out where Marines are building/attack, are these effects that are no longer visible in the Alien View (rebuilding a power node, as to building a phase gate/other structure in a location). The sparks emitted show you where the object is being built/attacked. The most valuable effect to point out is where your structures are being shot/attacked from. Being able to say "Marines are attacking the Reactor Core Harvester from the Data Core side" will allow the Aliens to properly flank the attackers properly. None of this is possible with Alien View activated in Commander mode.
<!--quoteo(post=1868102:date=Aug 10 2011, 10:32 AM:name=KuBaN)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (KuBaN @ Aug 10 2011, 10:32 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1868102"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->\Yeah. Or give the Commander Alien Vision.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Do you understand how much stress it would put on a client to fully render an entire map with the Alien View in the "birds eye" view. Try and little experiment on a locally ran server. Go Alien, kill yourself, then free roam out of the map and just take a peak down. You will experience significant FPS drop (because your forcing the game to render the entire map. Not active the Alien View and the entire map is forced to re-render with the (gross) Alien View interface. Keep it simple and have UWE fix the lighting transition issues and the problem is solved.
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Let's just <b>agree to disagree </b>:) You win, I win, whatever, this isn't getting anywhere! UWE just needs to communicate with the public more on it's concepts and suggestions.