I'd like to see a marine cloaking device that stays on while you move. It'd have to be a bit weaker than aliens cloak though, more refracty and obvious, like halo. Maybe you can only activate it temporarily, then it has to recharge (think the arbiter missions from halo 2). If more nerfing is needed, maybe it reduces your armor's effectiveness while cloaked.
Essentially, that's already planned but that would fall under the "new" content stuffs/category, so it's going to be until at least v3.5 before it makes it in. Ideally, with a new backpack like model.
McGlaspiewww.team156.comJoin Date: 2010-07-26Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
Beta v3.3 is very near release. Likely this weekend. I'm going to organize some playtest sessions to hopefully catch and squash any bugs that I might have missed. Then, just tie up a few loose ends and publish this sucker. Of course, it will all come with a change log, so read it once it's posted if you want to find out what's changed.
McGlaspiewww.team156.comJoin Date: 2010-07-26Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
Here's a quick vid of Demo-Mines. All the main components of them are working, but there are still some rough edges to smooth out. This was actually a pain because (unless I'm mistaken) this is the first "multi-mode" weapon in NS2. I didn't do a trick of having two weapons crammed in the same slot. The demo-mines basically have two modes and each mode has its own associated 1P & 3P models. The odd sound you hear around the 30s mark is what happens when you try to switch modes without any deployed mines.
Nice work, but I don't really see why I would use it. If mines are still always triggered by enemies...what is the purpose of a remote control? Structure demolition or did I miss a new anti-mine skill? Just curious.
Nice work, but I don't really see why I would use it. If mines are still always triggered by enemies...what is the purpose of a remote control? Structure demolition or did I miss a new anti-mine skill? Just curious.
Mines are very rarely used in MvM. Considering their very limited auto-trigger range (2), you basically have to be right on top of them for them to go off. I increased their explosive range (was 3, now 5). This opens up the option for ambush tactics. Place them on a ceiling is an option now. Basically, since there aren't things crawling on walls and ceilings, if you don't place them on the floor, they'll likely never get triggered. This also gives a single marine a means to cause some significant damage to a structure. Another option is to place them just around a corner, then bait enemy players into them, boom. Long story short, NS2 mines as is are border line useless in the MvM context. They had to be changed. So, I decided to make the nature of said change give players more control and tactical options. If they end up not being used, then I'll remove them outright.
twilitebluebug stalkerJoin Date: 2003-02-04Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited May 2014
Perhaps mines could work primarily as surveillance devices? (Like Motion Sensors in Tribes.) They could have large triggering zones, but deal minimal damage, while providing info about enemy movement.
Floating seeker mines, which marines need to shoot down quickly to avoid taking damage could be interesting too.
I'd like to see a marine cloaking device that stays on while you move. It'd have to be a bit weaker than aliens cloak though, more refracty and obvious, like halo. Maybe you can only activate it temporarily, then it has to recharge (think the arbiter missions from halo 2). If more nerfing is needed, maybe it reduces your armor's effectiveness while cloaked.
twilitebluebug stalkerJoin Date: 2003-02-04Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited May 2014
I'll share another mine idea, hope it... sticks.
NanoTracker mine: A throwable trap that sticks to walls and ceilings, which explodes and coats enemy personnel in nano tracking markers (parasite) when approached. (Could this potentially become a counter to personal cloaking?)
Update: I'm sorting out a final bug, then it's release time.
You should make it so only mines can be placed on the enemy as i would hate some random person putting a mine on me without my consent.
What would be a hilarious use of the mines would be if you can also lob them across the room like frisbees / sticky grenades, lol
That would be hilarious, as long as mines were relatively expensive it shouldn't harm the game play too much.
Why? No friendly fire! Wow that would be OP though! Every player buys a pack of mines, puts it on one guy, guy runs into enemy base... BOOOOOOM... ... ... guy walks out of base... lol
My only concern i have about putting mines on friendlies is trolling (put a mine on someone and then shoot it and kill them etc), but i suppose if the mines are designed so they can't be detonated by friendly fire (unless friendly fire was enabled by server admin), it would be fine
NanoTracker mine: A throwable trap that sticks to walls and ceilings, which explodes and coats enemy personnel in nano tracking markers (parasite) when approached. (Could this potentially become a counter to personal cloaking?)
That kinda reminds me on the old Starsiege Tribes mechanics. Optical and radar camouflage that needed two different sensor types to counter. I like it, but that could easily be too powerful?
McGlaspiewww.team156.comJoin Date: 2010-07-26Member: 73044Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Gold, Subnautica Playtester
edited June 2014
Beta v3.3 Update - The Holy-shit that's a huge changelog update, update.
This update is primarily about resolving a lot of the bugs in MvM. Not much in the way of significant changes or new gameplay elements were added.
However, there are two new gameplay items I'd like to highlight:
Quick-Dodge:
A new movement mechanic for all Marines (including Jetpack marines) is now available. No tech unlocks are required to use it. A dodge can be done by simply holding down the movement-modifier key (same as Fade shadow step) and strafing left or right. You cannot dodge in any other direction. It can be used immediately after sprinting or landing from a jump. Using it immediately after a jump will not be as effective. See Video.
DemoMines:
All purchased mines (after tech-unlock via research) now come in sets of 4. The cost hasn't changed, but there is a new feature to them. Mines can now be manually detonated. This opens up the oppurtunity for ambush tactics and gives mines much for usefullness. Importantly, Mine explosive damage is now Structural-Type. This means they can do significant damage to structures. Their damage is also no longer falloff (further away less damage), resulting in anything within their damage radius takes full damage. The explosive range was also increased. Tip: Don't use mines like you do in vanilla NS2 and don't place them in plain sight. See Video.
This build will still have issues with stalemate problems, because this gameplay issues requires significant changes to the tech-tree(s) to resolve. Also, playing on high-player servers WILL make the stalemate problems MUCH more pronounced. Give the changelog a read-over, it will likely answer most of your questions. I spend the time typing these things up for a reason. Enjoy!
Known Issues
Script message on Server startup or map-change: "Network variable 'techId' of class 'DeathTrigger' has value 0.000000 which is outside the range 0.000000 to 0.000000"
Mines 3rd Person model is the dropped world model and doesn't change when switching from mines to detonation trigger. Yes, this build does have Mine Bucklers!
Exos are more viable but still don't quite feel right (yes, vauge and ambigious but accurate)
In rare conditions on map-load or round-reset, power nodes may cause script error or not properly reset
Beta v3.3 - Change Log
Bug-fixes
Fixed known B265 compatibility problems
Fixed voting config settings not being read correctly. Admins can now correctly setup which voting options are allowed
Fixed Flame script error when applying damage to a "dead" entity
Fixed TeamJoin script error on map load or round end
Fixed Distress Beacon sounds not canceling and creating script errors
Fixed boat-load of stuff broken by upgrade tech level changes
Spectator Mode now works
Fixed vanilla Bots to work with MvM (still kind of bad, and Gold Team commander doesn't do anything) New console commands to add remove bots, work same as NS2: maddbot and mremovebot
Fixed Bot Commanders being kicked for AFK
Fixed Spec UI not showing Power % for Team 2 techpoints
Fixed Spec UI not showing Power Nodes in Overhead mode
Fixed Spec UI showing Gold Team units as aliens
Fixed PowerNode visibility wrong for spectators
Fixed script error when Nerve Gas kills an entity after the Gas Grenade was destroyed
Fixed some Units/Structures losing their coloring on-death
Fixed T-pose players ( I hope, this bug is a bastard! )
Fixed players phasing FX through PGs not team themed
Fixed players spawning FX from IP not themed
Fixed player spawned FX from bacon not themed
Fixed Flamethrower showing as Advanced-Weapons upgrade on TechMap
Fixed script error when Rifle fires with Wep4 upgrade
Fixed no notification for Flamethrowers unlocked
Fixed SentryBattery emissive(glow) being affected by power
Fixed Commander dropped Mines wrong model, orientated incorrectly, and not colored per team themes
Fixed Commander's unable to manually socket PowerNodes when friendly players in location (does not work with AI Units by design)
Fixed issue with DemoMines when viewing a player that has them deployed caused script error
Changes / Additions
Mines now received increased damage from Weapon Upgrades
Armory & ProtoLab Buy menus now grey-out items a player already owns
Changed Mines to now act like both Proximity-Mines & Triggered Explosives (by owning player, see video)
Added Quick-Dodge! Marines can now use Movement-Modifier key + strafe left/right to perform a dodge (see video)
Add small push when spawning from an Infrantry Portal (only occurs when player is AFK)
Update so B265 features working (player minimap names, customizer, kodiak skins) Note: this is a bit glitchy (Ex: shows aliens in Customizer instead of Team2), but more changes planned with it.
All Drop-Packs (Meds, Ammo, Cat) can now only be picked up by Friendly units
All Drop-packs will now be highlighted/outlined and have pickup icons when they can be used
Colorized Buy Menus per team themes
Colorized Waypoints for Gold Team
Updated Tech-Map to reflect additional upgrade level
Added Team Supply to Spectator UI
Increased minimum space required for building placement by small amount Note: Space required increases with the size of the structure
Condensed all Armor & Weapon upgrades into single buttons on ArmsLab
Commanders are no longer Pres blocked while commanding
Commanders now earn P-res while commanding, but only at 50% income rate
Decreased Command Station Tres cost to 15 (was 20)
Decreased Shotgun Pres cost to 15 (was 20)
Decreased Shotgun Commander-Drop cost to 15 Tres (was 20)
Decreased Mines Commnader-Drop cost to 10 (was 15)
Increased Hand Grenade cost to 5 Pres (was 4)
Increased Exo Dual-Weapon upgrade to 30 Pres (was 25)
Increased Jetpack Pres cost to 20 (was 15)
Decreased Jetpack Commnader-Drop cost to 20 (was 15)
Increased Grenade Launcher Pres cost to 35 (was 30)
Decreased ARC Team Supply cost to 10 (was 20)
Decreased Welder Pres cost to 3 (was 5)
Added Team Supply cost for ARC Factory upgrade, 5 TeamSupply
Balance - Times, Health, and Damage
Increased NanoShield damage reduction to 40% (was 35%)
Mines no longer set off other Mines
Increased Med-pack pickup delay to 0.7 seconds (was 0.65)
Changed Armor & Weapons upgrades to four tiers, instead of three. Final boosts are the same as before (+60 AR & +30% Wep). All Upgrade Tiers follow Cost Tres: 15,25,35,45 and Research Times: 60,80,100,120 seconds
Increased Exo base armor to 600
Decreased Exo Armor per level to 100. Maximum Exo Armor now 1000 (2000 effective HP)
Increased Exo Railgun single-shot damage to 32 (was 30)
Decreased Shotgun spread by 8 degrees
Decreased Shotgun damage to 16 per bullet (was 17)
Increased Shotgun range to 80 (was 60)
Increased Flamethrower range to 10 (was 9)
Decreased burn duration to 4 seconds (was 6)
Decreased burn damage to 10 (was 12)
Increased EM-Vulnerable damage multiplier to 3 (was 2.5)
Increased Cluster Grenade initial explosive damage to 85 (was 75)
Comments
And if you do go down the route of making mines invisible / cloaked, i would certainly bump up the price!
Does my PG Flak Cannon (Shotgun and GL in one) not count?? I made that first :P haha
Floating seeker mines, which marines need to shoot down quickly to avoid taking damage could be interesting too.
Had a good close-playtest earlier today. Only came across two bugs. Once I've got those smashed (and smashing is confirmed) I'll probably release v3.3
Like factions?
For those that might have missed it:
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/134843/announcing-the-community-development-team-build-266-and-possibly-beyond
This means my "NS2 time" will be split on Official stuff and MvM from here on. It's a good thing though.
NanoTracker mine: A throwable trap that sticks to walls and ceilings, which explodes and coats enemy personnel in nano tracking markers (parasite) when approached. (Could this potentially become a counter to personal cloaking?)
Mine Buckler anyone?
Update: I'm sorting out a final bug, then it's release time.
Nonononononono keep it in! Marine suicide vests, only 5 rez!!!
What would be a hilarious use of the mines would be if you can also lob them across the room like frisbees / sticky grenades, lol
That would be hilarious, as long as mines were relatively expensive it shouldn't harm the game play too much.
The Personal Anti-Personel Vest™. Gotta Keep it.
Why? No friendly fire! Wow that would be OP though! Every player buys a pack of mines, puts it on one guy, guy runs into enemy base... BOOOOOOM... ... ... guy walks out of base... lol
That kinda reminds me on the old Starsiege Tribes mechanics. Optical and radar camouflage that needed two different sensor types to counter. I like it, but that could easily be too powerful?
I'm not going to make a Mine-Vest, or Mine-helmet, or Mine-hat, etc... Just posted the shot because it was funny.
This update is primarily about resolving a lot of the bugs in MvM. Not much in the way of significant changes or new gameplay elements were added.
However, there are two new gameplay items I'd like to highlight:
Quick-Dodge:
A new movement mechanic for all Marines (including Jetpack marines) is now available. No tech unlocks are required to use it. A dodge can be done by simply holding down the movement-modifier key (same as Fade shadow step) and strafing left or right. You cannot dodge in any other direction. It can be used immediately after sprinting or landing from a jump. Using it immediately after a jump will not be as effective. See Video.
DemoMines:
All purchased mines (after tech-unlock via research) now come in sets of 4. The cost hasn't changed, but there is a new feature to them. Mines can now be manually detonated. This opens up the oppurtunity for ambush tactics and gives mines much for usefullness. Importantly, Mine explosive damage is now Structural-Type. This means they can do significant damage to structures. Their damage is also no longer falloff (further away less damage), resulting in anything within their damage radius takes full damage. The explosive range was also increased. Tip: Don't use mines like you do in vanilla NS2 and don't place them in plain sight. See Video.
This build will still have issues with stalemate problems, because this gameplay issues requires significant changes to the tech-tree(s) to resolve. Also, playing on high-player servers WILL make the stalemate problems MUCH more pronounced. Give the changelog a read-over, it will likely answer most of your questions. I spend the time typing these things up for a reason. Enjoy!
Known Issues
Beta v3.3 - Change Log
Bug-fixes
- Fixed known B265 compatibility problems
- Fixed voting config settings not being read correctly. Admins can now correctly setup which voting options are allowed
- Fixed Flame script error when applying damage to a "dead" entity
- Fixed TeamJoin script error on map load or round end
- Fixed Distress Beacon sounds not canceling and creating script errors
- Fixed boat-load of stuff broken by upgrade tech level changes
- Spectator Mode now works
- Fixed vanilla Bots to work with MvM (still kind of bad, and Gold Team commander doesn't do anything)
- Fixed Bot Commanders being kicked for AFK
- Fixed Spec UI not showing Power % for Team 2 techpoints
- Fixed Spec UI not showing Power Nodes in Overhead mode
- Fixed Spec UI showing Gold Team units as aliens
- Fixed PowerNode visibility wrong for spectators
- Fixed script error when Nerve Gas kills an entity after the Gas Grenade was destroyed
- Fixed some Units/Structures losing their coloring on-death
- Fixed T-pose players ( I hope, this bug is a bastard! )
- Fixed players phasing FX through PGs not team themed
- Fixed players spawning FX from IP not themed
- Fixed player spawned FX from bacon not themed
- Fixed Flamethrower showing as Advanced-Weapons upgrade on TechMap
- Fixed script error when Rifle fires with Wep4 upgrade
- Fixed no notification for Flamethrowers unlocked
- Fixed SentryBattery emissive(glow) being affected by power
- Fixed Commander dropped Mines wrong model, orientated incorrectly, and not colored per team themes
- Fixed Commander's unable to manually socket PowerNodes when friendly players in location (does not work with AI Units by design)
- Fixed issue with DemoMines when viewing a player that has them deployed caused script error
Changes / AdditionsNew console commands to add remove bots, work same as NS2: maddbot and mremovebot
- Mines now received increased damage from Weapon Upgrades
- Armory & ProtoLab Buy menus now grey-out items a player already owns
- Changed Mines to now act like both Proximity-Mines & Triggered Explosives (by owning player, see video)
- Added Quick-Dodge! Marines can now use Movement-Modifier key + strafe left/right to perform a dodge (see video)
- Add small push when spawning from an Infrantry Portal (only occurs when player is AFK)
- Added respawn queue size to Commander UI (just above minimap frame)
- Update so B265 features working (player minimap names, customizer, kodiak skins)
- All Drop-Packs (Meds, Ammo, Cat) can now only be picked up by Friendly units
- All Drop-packs will now be highlighted/outlined and have pickup icons when they can be used
- Colorized Buy Menus per team themes
- Colorized Waypoints for Gold Team
- Updated Tech-Map to reflect additional upgrade level
- Added Team Supply to Spectator UI
- Increased minimum space required for building placement by small amount
- Condensed all Armor & Weapon upgrades into single buttons on ArmsLab
- Commanders are no longer Pres blocked while commanding
- Commanders now earn P-res while commanding, but only at 50% income rate
- Improved PowerConsumerMixin, DissovleMixin, & ColoredSkinsMixin OnUpdateRender (slight performance gains)
Balance - Tres / Pres / TeamSupplyNote: this is a bit glitchy (Ex: shows aliens in Customizer instead of Team2), but more changes planned with it.
Note: Space required increases with the size of the structure
- Decreased Command Station Tres cost to 15 (was 20)
- Decreased Shotgun Pres cost to 15 (was 20)
- Decreased Shotgun Commander-Drop cost to 15 Tres (was 20)
- Decreased Mines Commnader-Drop cost to 10 (was 15)
- Increased Hand Grenade cost to 5 Pres (was 4)
- Increased Exo Dual-Weapon upgrade to 30 Pres (was 25)
- Increased Jetpack Pres cost to 20 (was 15)
- Decreased Jetpack Commnader-Drop cost to 20 (was 15)
- Increased Grenade Launcher Pres cost to 35 (was 30)
- Decreased ARC Team Supply cost to 10 (was 20)
- Decreased Welder Pres cost to 3 (was 5)
- Added Team Supply cost for ARC Factory upgrade, 5 TeamSupply
Balance - Times, Health, and DamageAll Upgrade Tiers follow Cost Tres: 15,25,35,45 and Research Times: 60,80,100,120 seconds