Tarvin

Place Holder Post for Additional Listings

Place Holder Post for Additional Listings

Place Holder Post for Additional Listings

This is not going to be a small task but in this topic I am going to attempt to make a running list of all noteworthy suggestion topics that I can find. I will start with my own because they are the ones I'm most familiar with and then I will branch off to other peoples. The main reason I'm doing this is because HaTe's Ideas Revisited topic made me realize that it's very likely good suggestions have been buried and overlooked entirely. I never realized he even contributed any of his own ideas before so this should make it easier to track things for both us as gamers and the development team. How I'm going to do this is list the name of the suggestion thread or describe what it is in title form, provide the link to the topic, summarize what the suggestion is, and summarize what the reception was to the idea. This is going to take a lot of posts I expect as I will also try to keep a running list as new suggestions come about. I'll refrain from suggesting the order any ideas should be implemented as naturally I may be biased toward some of the ideas I came up with. I'll consider supporting my ideas fair game though if someone else says one of them would be good implemented first because I don't want to shut myself out of discussions entirely. What I'm going to do in this topic is put several empty or place holder posts in so I can fill them in as I go through suggestions. After that should be considered open for people to post comments in about what ideas they would like to see implemented first. Please keep specific discussion about ideas in each ideas own topic. I know some of mine don't have comments yet and I'm certain there are others so I hope this will get noteworthy suggestions that have been overlooked more attention. And I have never asked this before but, sticky please? The next update will move on to suggestions made by other people. If there is some way I could be given permissions to edit threat titles to track which I have already covered I would appreciate it. The system I would use is: (L) before thread titles for listed and (U) before thread titles for unlisted. Unlisted wouldn't mean that an idea isn't good or lacks merit. The list is meant to only contain what I consider to be the most noteworthy ideas and even some of my own didn't meet the standard of what I'm looking for. If people would please refrain from posting their opinions on which ideas should be implemented or which they like more I would appreciated it. I want the opportunity to post more ideas made by other people before this topic is opened up for discussion. Also, I would appreciate it if no one attempts to help complete this thread as two or more people working on it would make it a disorganized mess. ================================================================================== (For the first suggestion I'll break my own rule for building this topic because despite my initial misgivings I love the idea and don't want it to ever get overlooked.) Veteran System by HaTe viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74772 Summary: A system in which points are awarded for contributing to the team that may provide the means for a stalemate breaker in marathon matches and provide skilled teams the chance to stage comebacks even after a building loss. Reception: Good Repair Station by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74744 Summary: A base or tech structure that will repair friendly vehicles. Reception: Mixed. Good if considered as a captureable tech building in the field. Poor if considered as a structure within bases. Notes: Overlaps some with the idea to bring back the repair pad found in My idea for additional structures by Riou Insuiko viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74711 Primary difference is that it would be harder to block the Repair Station than it would be to hog a Repair Pad. Audio Feedback for Vehicle Weapon Cycling by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74662 Summary: Adding reloading sounds for vehicle weapons to inform players when weapons are ready to fire again removing the need to watch the reloading progress instead of targets. Reception: Good yet somewhat mixed. Notes: The volume of certain vehicle sounds like the Orca flight sound would need to be decreased from ear-splitting levels for this to be practical. Melee by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74656 Summary: Introducing Melee into the game as a means of close quarters combat. SBH would have nerfed knives compared to other characters but would deal more damage with the first strike after being fully cloaked to balance. Reception: Mixed. Strong opinions were posed both for and against. Notes: Would require play testing to determine if this is a fit for RenegadeX in light of opinions against the idea. Repair Gun Overcharge by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74661 Summary: Repair guns would be given the ability to repair more quickly in short spurts to give repair duty a more interactive nature nature instead of only holding a single mouse button. Reception: Good AI Populated Servers + Match Finder/Builder by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74666 Summary: An automated system for joining matches intended to increase the overall player population by making it easier to join active servers. This would not replace the current system but be available in addition to it. Reception: Mixed Rebuildable Structures by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74657 Summary: The ability to slowly rebuild structures after they are destroyed. This would prevent early building loss from being an instant loss and would make it easier to break stalemates on Marathon servers by repairing structures like the WF and AF. Response: Limited. Mixed but more positive. Notes: Repair times may need to be increased further on Marathon servers requiring dedicated team efforts to defend a building being repaired to prevent further stalemates due to buildings being rebuilt. Field Hospital by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74775 Summary: A capturable tech building in the field capable of healing infantry and replenishing their ammo supplies. May include windows to fire out of for defense of the structure. Response: None yet. Notes: May be made an entirely neutral structure that heals and reequips regardless of team. The only way to prevent an enemy from using it is active defense of the structure. It would be a gradual process rather than immediate resupply and heal. Buildable Defense Structures by Tarvin viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74725 Summary: Defense structures that can be purchased and deployed to aid in base defense. Response: Positive Notes: There only potential issue is what turrets would be best. Current opinions seem to be: Gun Turret (using minigun) for infantry defense for both Nod and GDI Flame Turret - Nod Anti-vehicle defense Grenade Turret - GDI anti-vehicle defense Rocket Turret - Anti-air defense for both GDI and Nod and/or Anti-Vehicle defense Stealth Detection Unit - Interment pulses to detect cloaked units but can be bypassed with proper timing.

Just thought of another buildable defense structure that could be GDI specific but would have it's own limit set at one. Meaning regardless of the turret limit only one of this could be used and would have it's own entirely independent limit. Cloak Disruptor - Disrupts the cloaking of any stealthed unites within its effective radius. Operates in pulses rather than constantly resulting in moderate detection that can still be bypassed with proper timing. I believe this would fit in nicely and is cannon given how much GDI invests in detection technology as the franchise progressed.

Not sure if this issue was brought up but it's one I just now thought of. If multiple people are damaging a vehicle or character who gets credit for the kill or would everyone that participated get SP for the kill?

One thing I do as a designer to hone my own skill is to tear into every aspect of games that I love to learn from them. Find little things here or there to look for in my own games that I design for the purpose of shaping a flawless experience for gamers, if such a thing is possible. This also extends to games that I hate and can't stand playing but do anyways. This isn't one of those. All the observations I've made are because I love Renegade X and want to help make it that flawless experience that I strive for in my own designs. My studying the game so closely is an indication that I am impressed with it enough to where I would be proud to have any connection to it even as loose as just making suggestions in a forum. Mostly, I'm just sharing things that I've found because I find them curious and wanted to know what interesting things others have noticed.

Could it be related to the glitch where an AI seemed to be controlling the SAM site?

I wasn't doing anything to pick on anything. I was just curious to see what the AI does without people being involved. I happen to think what happened with the Hotwires was particularly awesome and is a huge plus. Nothing is more terrifying than the thought of a bunch of Hotwires running toward you with the knowledge that all of them may be bent on attaching C4 to your face. I think it would be epic if that were intentionally tweaked and made a feature of the Hotwire and Technician AIs rather than done away with. I was just putting down minor and for me at least, entertaining random things that happen. It's only a minor issue that the AI doesn't recognize the manned emplacements and doesn't get into already occupied vehicles. Fixing those issues would take a good deal of work and aren't important because it is a multiplayer game where the AI performance comes second to the player experience. The AI ignoring the tunnel at most is a patching issue or at worse is a fault inherent in the Unreal engine which is nothing that could be fixed by developers. As for the running into eachother... The AI still more competently drive vehicles than some people I've seen. Once I saw someone spend 10 minutes of a marathon match alternating between trying to drive a humvee or APC on top of the barracks. The not recognizing emplacements is understandable because the AI would have to be programmed to only man them when enemies are or may be within range of the emplacements and then leave them afterward. Not a small task. A threat recognition zone would have to be created around the entrance and if an enemy enters that zone any free units in the area would be called to the turrets and kicked out of the turrets when the threat zone has no enemies in it again. Besides, if I didn't love the game I wouldn't play it nearly every day. That's the only reason I've noticed these things because I tear into every aspect of the game finding ways to improve something I already love. That's what I do as a game designer. If I didn't love the game and didn't care about it I wouldn't bother looking for minor issues that could one day be solved to make, one day, every aspect of it near perfect. It is a wonderful piece of work and as one who tried to get people to work on games with the anticipation of getting payment after the product starts making money... It's a fantastic achievement that a team of volunteers have crafted a game better and more well thought out than many AAA titles I've played and without any real hope of getting payment.

Yup. That's it. It was just standing by the SAM site. Out of curiosity I ran it over to see what would happen. It did the dying animation and then just laid there.

I did another round of just observing how the AI does things and noticed a few different things. On Whiteout the AI does not go into the tunnels. I had my character stand in a tunnel while I was doing other things and nothing happened. No AI ever showed up but preferred to go up and over. AI also do not recognize the mannable turrets. Apparently, the AI can get bored as well. I went into the AF tower and stood in the part where the elevator once was (please bring this back by the way) and a marksman came around the corner and understandably started shooting and dancing around me as I was on GDI. I noticed and started shooting back with a pistol but after a bit the marksman ran off. Maybe it realized I was using God Mode and it was futile but if that was the case, it was the first time this has happened. GDI likes to play bumper cars. I grabbed an Orca and just loitered in the air after donating a huge amount of money to the AI team just to see what would happen. It took a little while but they all realized they had money and a rush of Humvees and APCs start popping out. A bit later I noticed an MRL and an APC just driving into eachother inching back and forth as they tested who could out push who. The MRL got bored, turned away, paused, and then drove off after where the APC went. The final observation of AI behavior is that the AI never get into an occupied transport vehicle defeating the entire purpose. At the back of the NOD base on Whiteout I spotted something strange. A small, not much taller than a regular infantry unit, mech armor suit. Unfortunately the match ended before I got around to taking a screenshot of it. Has anyone else seen this?

I managed to snag a Stealth Tank so I could observe what the Nod AI is like in the same way I observed what the GDI AI is like. When I did I realized that even though I was in a ground vehicle the SAM site at the back of the NOD base in Whiteout started tracking my vehicle and opened fire on me. I doubt the SAM is meant to have a ground defense role like that. On a related note the turret had TiberiumEvolution above it which was one of the BOT players. Could an AI unit have manned the turret somehow or spawned as the turret? At the end of the match TiberiumEvolution was credited with 2 kills making the thing even more confusing.

Are there any method that will help keep cheaters from just jumping back into the game under a different name right after getting banned like leaving a mark in the offenders registry or something?

I honestly don't see the appeal of cheat programs like Aimbots. Joy. You killed someone with an auto headshot. Joy hurrah. Big whup. There's not an ounce of skill in it and you just tick everyone off. Just a thought, and I'm not a coder mind you, only a designer, but would it be possible to block those sudden jumps if it's something that doesn't happen in the course of normal gameplay?

Hm. I can't help but wonder how much would be involved in putting everything into the Unity Engine and if it would alleviate the problems I've heard the developers are encountering in Unreal.

Touche

So nothing comparable for RenegadeX at the moment. Any idea if something like it is in the works for B4?

I see your point there. If you are actively repairing buildings being destroyed then it would make defense better. Also, if your main function is patrolling for SBH infiltrators and such you won't be dying as much and loosing credits. Valid points there. Honestly, I missed the part about repairing buildings. As for worrying about cheaters exploiting it... I had a few bad experiences where the only explanation for how someone was doing is cheating. That might have caused me to be a bit jaded toward the idea. After thinking about it further I'm hard pressed to find any specific issues I have problems with.

How does it work exactly because aimbots seem all to common sometimes.

To guard against cheaters Renegade had a third party mod that checked for and prevented script editing that would be done by things like AimBots. If someone was suspected of cheating people could do a command to check if the suspect is using RenGuard or not. If not and there were enough people in a certain amount of time demanding the check then the accused would be auto-kicked/temp banned from the server until logs could be reviewed. If a person was using RenGuard an announcement would be made in the chat window to protect players from accusations if they are just that good at what they do. If the perpetrator was found to be cheating then they were perma-banned from the server. Is there a way something like this could be implemented to deal with the rampant aim-bots? It seems like something like this would be a nice addition to the RecordDemo command for rooting out the cheaters as it would give players in game a more immediate way to kick cheaters out. I think the real strength of this is that there was a server component that it recorded scripts and such as well as searching out patterns used by cheat bots to make it easier to find out who is doing it and verify. I think it would automatically mark in logs when RenGuard checks were requested and who they were aimed at. In all, I think it would make Renegade X a much more enjoyable experience. For example, on the original Fields I was running into a tunnel entrance to put some remote C4 presents down for the people that kept taking pot shots at the base. I came face to face with two people that I managed to head shot with the pistol and kill. Even while I was still blinking and trying to take in whether I actually did what I just did two messages appeared in chat as the people I killed were running RenGuard checks on me. That was followed by the announcement that I was indeed using RenGuard and that was the end of it. No open accusations of cheating or frustration about it like are all too common in Renegade X right now.

I remember that map. It was always fun to use the towers near each base as vantage points to defend against vehicle rushes. I would love to see that back in the game. I also seem to remember someone managing to get an arty a good ways up the ramp in the Nod base for some reason. Makes more sense to me as someone trying to drive a vehicle on top of the Bar in the Fields map which I encountered last night.

I know it's a simple idea and I usually fly back to base if I do dare getting out of my Orca to repair it myself. It just becomes frustrating at times how some people take on repair duty at the start and then when you come back and expect to find them there they changed characters and left the base entirely. The idea was centered around giving an alternative to MIA vehicle repair/base defense people when you just want a quick repair so you can get back to the action again.

I think I remember one server where the match was entirely players vs. AI in a campaign mission. It started on a beach head and respawn checkpoints were activated as the team moved in further. That's all I really remember with it and was never part of a team that was able to beat the mission before time ran out. Could this be what you are thinking of?

So the EMPs themselves have no affect on buildings themselves? As you're on the beta team and have more insight on the upcoming changes, what do you think it would be like if Proxy C4s were only temporarily disabled rather than disarmed? As in the mines could be disabled, the rushers go in, and then after 30 seconds or so the mines become active again? Not really arguing for the idea so much as just throwing things out.

It sounds interesting but it sounds like it could also penalize someone for staying behind out of the action to protect their base, which can be an entirely necessary but boring job. It also seems like it could encourage people to go out as individuals rather than as part of a coordinated team effort with everyone trying to up their own stats. Stats wise the base defenders would be sub-par players even though what they do is vital but if the rest of the team does their work the defenders may never see action or the opportunity to gain veterancy. I've never played a mode like this myself but am just voicing concerns based on the ideas stated and not personal experience. Another issue is that it might be exploited by those that already use things like aim-bots to increase their kills. I was part of a Mobius raid on the Nod base in Field and EMPs were thrown down to cover us with the only issue being that we couldn't see what we were shooting at. Despite this we started dying one by one with headshots. I'd hate to think that cheaters like that could be rewarded through a system like this.