New thoughts about combat flow and strategy

[sylphaen]

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

When I'm playing alone, I want to fly. That generally means pulling the same vehicle over and over again, which means using the same resource and potentially standing around waiting for a timer to finish depending on how committed I am to not having to do something else.

In theory, not allowing people to spam a given vehicle is a good limiting factor that requires some thought ahead of time and forces teamwork etc. Problem is, it doesn't succeed in doing anything but getting half a team to stand around doing nothing for five minutes waiting to play how they want to play.

I feel the same. It's the frustrating aspect of the current iteration of the resource system.

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

When I envisioned an MMOFPS, I always figured the limiting factor to spamming stuff would be that you could only launch vehicles from certain facilities and not resources. That way you'd start making "airports" and "factories" incredibly strategic bases to cap/destroy/defend.

I'd like to seem them try tossing the resources and the timers in favor of that form of limitation. Take a power station, and you shut down the power to the nearby bases. Take a radar tower, and you can see all enemy movements in an area. Etc.

It would also help with variety of things to cap. It seems like there are three, maybe four, actual structures with minor differences in appearance and virtually zero differences in game play.

That's also how I feel PS2 could have better control over combat flow. The lattice was similar to such a system. Enemy Territory had such an objectives system. You mentionned Unreal Tournament having those (I haven't played it.).

Of course, all of this does not exclude a resource layer applied above the core gameplay if they work well together.

[Babyfark McGeez]

Totally agreeing here with CrankyTRex. Different facilities giving different "perks" would be awesome and would make the bases actually valuable, aside from the associated resources.
As of now, aside from the resources the only difference i noticed was that you can't spawn every vehicle/aircraft at every base (though i may have missed something).

[CrankyTRex]

Anybody know what the story is on having actual working doors? Because that would help some too. They don't have to be complicated, just a straight sliding up/down door would be sufficient.

[Toppopia]

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

Anybody know what the story is on having actual working doors? Because that would help some too. They don't have to be complicated, just a straight sliding up/down door would be sufficient.

I would love to sit in a room with 1-2 door entrances and everyone pointing at the door, all you can hear is lots of footsteps and some talking. Then you see a red glow start radiating from the door, looks like they are going to burn it open. (Or could maybe need an infiltrator to open the door and it slowly opens as the hacker hacks it, so 50% hack complete means the door is open halfway so people can shoot through it.)

That could add a whole new depth, maybe even being able to jam doors so they can only be blown open or something.

[Whiteagle]

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

Anybody know what the story is on having actual working doors? Because that would help some too. They don't have to be complicated, just a straight sliding up/down door would be sufficient.

If I had to guess, I would assume it would be to keep the netcode simple and streamlined...
They don't want to risk clegging it up with thousands of dynamic entities reacting to players presence...

It's just a guess though, I'm no computing expert to say the least... I've only got experience with how easy such things can be screwed up from Second Life...

[CrankyTRex]

Originally Posted by Toppopia

I would love to sit in a room with 1-2 door entrances and everyone pointing at the door, all you can hear is lots of footsteps and some talking. Then you see a red glow start radiating from the door, looks like they are going to burn it open. (Or could maybe need an infiltrator to open the door and it slowly opens as the hacker hacks it, so 50% hack complete means the door is open halfway so people can shoot through it.)

That could add a whole new depth, maybe even being able to jam doors so they can only be blown open or something.

I agree. Doors lead to all manner of strategic possibilities inside and outside. Does anyone really think they'd put these capture terminals in an open room?

Plus for bases, it solves the problem of needing open entry ways to let vehicles in and out but not end up making it too easy to assault them. Make a big gate that the owning team controls. If it can be hacked, all the better, since then you'll need to get people inside to let your forces in.

Originally Posted by Whiteagle

If I had to guess, I would assume it would be to keep the netcode simple and streamlined...
They don't want to risk clegging it up with thousands of dynamic entities reacting to players presence...

It's just a guess though, I'm no computing expert to say the least... I've only got experience with how easy such things can be screwed up from Second Life...

I imagine that is probably the case, but it's frustrating to say the least. It seems like we're going downhill in that regard, considering even the original Doom had working doors. Surely if you can build a game that is as vast and full of stuff as PS2 is, you can figure out how to have some strategically placed functioning doors.

[Whiteagle]

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

I imagine that is probably the case, but it's frustrating to say the least. It seems like we're going downhill in that regard, considering even the original Doom had working doors. Surely if you can build a game that is as vast and full of stuff as PS2 is, you can figure out how to have some strategically placed functioning doors.

The original Doom didn't have a couple thousand players on a server though, did it?

I think the easiest way to do it would be to simply have "doors" as opaque textured shields (the kind that let Infantry pass through them but not bullets or Vehicles) and then have them play an animated "re-rezzing" textured (Like when you pass through a teleporter) when ever someone passes through them.

Explanation: Nanites are deconstructing and reconstructing those barriers as you pass through them!

...Still don't understand the lack of Windows though...

[CrankyTRex]

Originally Posted by Whiteagle

The original Doom didn't have a couple thousand players on a server though, did it?

I think the easiest way to do it would be to simply have "doors" as opaque textured shields (the kind that let Infantry pass through them but not bullets or Vehicles) and then have them play an animated "re-rezzing" textured (Like when you pass through a teleporter) when ever someone passes through them.

Explanation: Nanites are deconstructing and reconstructing those barriers as you pass through them!

...Still don't understand the lack of Windows though...

No, it didn't, but it didn't have vehicles or terminals or capture points or turrets either. We interact with that stuff as players just as much as we would with your average sliding door.

It just seems rather silly to not have them anywhere.

[Whiteagle]

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

No, it didn't, but it didn't have vehicles or terminals or capture points or turrets either. We interact with that stuff as players just as much as we would with your average sliding door.

It just seems rather silly to not have them anywhere.

Well there's also the fact that their Prefab, Forge-style base constructs have no where for the "door" to slide to...

But that just makes one further question why everything on Auraxis is constructed like it's some kind of paintball obstacle course...

...Are these suppose to be stand-ins for the final product?

[Toppopia]

Originally Posted by Whiteagle

Well there's also the fact that their Prefab, Forge-style base constructs have no where for the "door" to slide to...

But that just makes one further question why everything on Auraxis is constructed like it's some kind of paintball obstacle course...

...Are these suppose to be stand-ins for the final product?

Maybe the inhabitants played Paintball alot

But some buildings have door like shapes on the outside, which i keep running up to thinking they will open silly me