Tarvin

Thanks. I'm glad that my ideas are finding some interest. I am/was a huge fan of the Command and Conquer franchise of anything made pre-Red Alert 3 and would love to do anything I can to help this game thrive.

The design of the match finding system would be to improve the number of people playing RenegadeX. In the age where most every multiplayer game of any kind has a simple Find Random Match function people are not used to waiting long periods of time for a single opening to appear in the server they want. You would be likely to find people that would love playing the game but don't have patience for the wait. They simply leave and play games that will populate them quickly into matches even though, in my opinion, RenegadeX is superior to many of the AAA alternatives that people have paid money for. It's that impatience that is the limiting factor on server populations building up. That's why the focus of these ideas are to remove the barriers and remove the waiting game involved with finding a server. The reason why the Match Finder would fill servers only to a certain point before moving on to populate them is because many seem to agree with the sentiment that about 10 people in a match is when it becomes fun and worth joining. In a game where no one is being paid to upkeep servers if a server is never used it may be taken offline and the community as a whole will suffer. The rotation of players joining through the Match Finder would be ongoing to prevent this neglect and to help ensure a healthy server population. An important distinction to make is that the Match Finder will NOT be the only method to join matches. The current server view would still be available and will allow people to choose whatever server they want to join which are all more likely to be at a players minimum 'join' population. This would not only decrease the time it takes for a desired server to populate but will allow people to more easily jump into servers running the maps they want to play. I will concede, these ideas are not for the current population. They are for the population these ideas can help attract and are a means to an end rather than the end goal itself. As for Bots, they are stupid but do launch occasional somewhat cohesive attacks that could act as cover for human attackers to rush enemy structures. Also, as an important note they are also somewhat competent base defenders. Are they perfect? No. Do they repair structures? No. Do they provide a screen of semi-useful meat shields in front of the enemy base? Yes. The AI is just at the minimum threshold to be tolerable/somewhat useful at covering players' actions. The ideal setup would allow server administrators to turn Bot participation on and off, set the number of bots, and set the number at which bots will be eliminated entirely as players join the match.

There is always one solution to prevent cheating. Any intelligence gathered through an observation mode would be useless if a time delay was placed on it. In effect, observers would only be able to watch matches as they were a few minutes in the past. I think other games use a delay of 5 minutes for things like this which would open the door for people to roam freely whereever they want. A live observation mode still may be very useful for anyone wanting to record the action from a different viewpoint and moderators looking to catch cheaters in the act. Think of invisible police just waiting for someone to attempt a beacon-in-the-wall plant. The person may be successful with doing it but they wouldn't be coming back to the server after.

I came up with this idea after reading TheOlsenTwins's topic. viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74406 It is an alternative to Twin's suggestion as well as an alternative/addition my idea for a Match Finder/Builder System found here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74642 An alternative to the Lobby period while a server is being populated I noticed that the AI in RenegadeX is much improved over the AI from Renegade. Would it be possible to partially populate servers with Bots and replace them with people as more join the server? The system would work like this: A server starts with mostly Bots but because there are more things to fight the match will be kept more interesting and will be more likely to retain players. As people join they replace the bots according to the usual balance system. The only restrictions would be that players would only be able to replace bots when the Bots have either died or are currently in their own bases and are NOT in possession of a vehicle. This restriction would be critical to avoid people trying to abuse the system in order to get free tanks and to avoid Bots vanishing from the match when they are in the field or a part of a base attack. When waiting in the que they would be in an observation mode that would allow them to switch between the views of the players on the team they are about to join. Ideally players could switch between who they want to watch by clicking on the names of who they want to observe. The names of Bot characters the player is in line to replace would be highlighted. People in this observation mode would be able to participate in Team Chat freely. They may be banned from open chat until they enter the match to prevent potential abuse. Overall, I think the idea system for starting matches would be a combination of the Match Finder system grouping people together to start the game. The AI population would help to ensure matches can begin more quickly and the Match Finding/Building system would continue to populate games as they progress. For this to work maps would be populated to about 8-10 people or more for larger maps before moving to auto-populate the next server. Players jumping into already populated maps would take things from there until all available servers have received their initial population and the Match Finding/Building system would go on to fill server populations evenly from there. ============================================= Addendum after comments ============================================= Server populations in servers would not be automatic. Server administrators would have the ability to turn AI Combatants on or off. They would also be able to set the maximum number of AIs that would be present in a match, and the player population at which AI combatants would be phased out of the match or if the administrator wants, the minimum population of AI players even when the server is populated. An administrator may choose to keep a certain number of AI players present for whatever reason and should be left with the option in my opinion.

Observation Mode is something relatively simple. If a player chooses to enter observation mode they will be able to watch the match but not participate in it. People will watch the match through eyes of the different players and will be able to switch through them at will. Players in Observation mode will NOT be able to participate in chat except with other people in observation mode. People will be able to switch between either team freely. This mode would be a nice touch for any tournament matches that are going on. A free roam cinema mode may also be added to allow for more effective recording of matches. The free roam option could also be used by moderators who could sneak around the map and look for things like players planting beacons inside walls. NOTE: This would be different than the observation mode for players waiting for bot characters to die in my AI Populated + Match Finder/Builder Topic found here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74666 In that observation mode players can only switch between the views of players on the team they are to join and can only utilize that teams Team Only Chat.

Going to and from aiming is sluggish after a reload. I found myself having to hit aim multiple times after reloading before I could aim or look down sights again. Aim needs to be tweaked to where if a person hits reload and then holds down the aim key then it will cause an immediate transition to aiming once the reload animation is complete.

There needs to be some kind of audio feedback that indicates when vehicle weapons have fully cycled and are ready to fire again. The type of sound would depend on the type of weapon that is ready to fire again to prevent confusion in vehicles equipped with more than one weapon like Mammoth Tanks and Orcas.

I came up with this suggestion after reading someone else's topic about making engineers and such less tedious, which was making secondary fire for repair guns a toggle on/off. I don't want to take away from his idea, which is good in it's own right, so I made a separate topic for this one. The other idea for the repair gun is here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=74246 A different way that the repair gun could be improved is by giving them an overcharge ability. Overcharge would briefly increase the power of the repair gun and give people on repair duty something else to focus on besides the wall. While overcharge is active the repair gun would start overheating. If a repair gun does overheat it will be unusable until it fully cools. To prevent overheating players would have to stop using Overcharge long enough to let the repair gun cool. The heat level of the repair gun would be shown in the place of the ammo clip indicator and would turn red to indicate heat level. The Overcharge function would be more potent for Technicians and Hotwires to avoid decreasing the value of purchasable characters.

The same thing happened to me on Walls just now. The Ref, WF, and the PP side were lost due to some cheat placing beacons inside building walls. We had the highest score and were winning until that started happening. Just a tad bit annoying that good matches can be ruined like this.

I just drove onto the end of the Nod Airstrip while turning and the base of the tank continued to rotate on its own until after I drove off of the airstrip.

I was referring to large scale animations that would have to be rendered as buildings fall apart which is why I joked about what it would be like if the crumbling of a building reversed if rebuilt in some way. As far as pieces, I was thinking more along the lines of girders and smaller pieces so the building would shift from being in tact to piles of rubble. Otherwise it would look odd with large chunks being shifted to odd angles.

I think the idea is great. The only alternative secondary fire I can think of is Technicians and Hotwires being given an Overcharge ability that lets them repair more quickly in short bursts. The balance to this would be that using Overcharge too much could temporarily short out the repair gun entirely. This would make repairing for the expensive character units more engaging while toggle repair for basic engineers would make them less tedious. The only downside is that people may purchase engineers and just camp control terminals while they go AFK.

The idea of a lounge map sounds interesting but I can think of one issue that might annoy people unless I misunderstand the concept. If people are placed in a map and are actively fighting each other, wouldn't it be annoying if the match suddenly ended in the middle of a battle? What about if AI Bots could be used as stand-ins while a server populates? The AI isn't the best in the game but it's good enough to purchase vehicles and launch somewhat coherent attacks on the enemy. As players join the match they would spawn in place of Bots when bots either die or are present in their own base. That restriction would have to be made otherwise you might suddenly have empty tanks or players jumping into tanks when they have no idea what is going on. Also, if people could spawn into Bots vehicle then some would abuse the hell out of it by leaving and rejoining maps until they get a free vehicle to start with.

Don't get me wrong. I think the idea has merit and would make a more engaging experience. As a game designer I have to look at the possible hardware issues when considering ideas. If something could potentially bog down a game and decrease FPS then I drop it no matter how awesome it may look. Unless the section of the map containing a building could be reloaded to place the new mesh, collisions, and such in the place of a destroyed structure I don't think it would be doable. Even then you have the issue of what would happen to players currently in the building when it is destroyed. After giving it some more thought if the buildings were entirely remodeled as individual pieces that could later fall apart when the building is destroyed which still raises the server demand issue for running the effects. If there are any game programmers here they may be able to provide additional insight. If this is doable it would be interesting to see if it could tie into my Rebuilding Structures suggestion, although it would look odd if pieces of a building started floating back together while it was being rebuilt.

Has there ever been any consideration about making RenegadeX independent from the Command and Conquer franchise to get to Steam or crowdfund to purchase rights from EA to put it on Steam?

The idea is that it would add a bit more depth to the game. More importantly if you are fighting someone in corridors do you really want to be stuck reloading your pistol or just slash at them with a knife. I imagine knives and similar weapons would deal more damage in general as head and body attacks would be more likely. Also, Stealth Black Hand with knives? For some reason it seems like something they would have.

That was the focus of the idea. Since progress toward rebuilding could be wiped out easily people would have to first defend the base. Progress being slow would force people to make rebuilding a team effort or at least make a single person rebuilding effort take a long time. If a building could be rebuilt too quickly there would be no motivation to defend them and it would be too difficult for an attacking team to win a match by destroying enemy structures. So in effect, rebuilds would have to take a lot of effort or would destroy the balance of the entire game. The only hitch is that a coordinated team effort could rebuild a main structure more quickly but then the rest of their base may be undefended while more of the team is using engineers and technicians. It would force a team to strategically balance their focus between base defense and rebuilding efforts if they don't want to get plowed under.

One thing that could be implemented to lesson the blow of loosing a building is to allow for destroyed buildings to be slowly 'rebuilt'. Engineers would repair the terminal which would show a small progress bar. The bar can be decreased by the enemy attacking it to prevent a rebuild and just a single person rebuilding a structure would yield very slow progress. This would incentive teams to rally around destroyed buildings and make rebuilding them a full team effort. Here is a possible progression. Enemy launches successful APC rush on a defense structure --> Enemies are eliminated --> Team rallies around the destroyed building and key buildings --> multiple players shift to engineer or technician to rebuild the structure --> the structure becomes active at low health before the next attack wave hits At most, a destroyed building would have 20-25% of its health when it it Rebuilt and would still need to be repaired fully the normal way. This allows for buildings to be reclaimed but the time required to 'rebuild' a structure doesn't remove the impact of a building being lost. Also, progress toward rebuilding a structure is much more susceptible to being lost than regular building health. This would force a team to drive enemies out before buildings can be rebuilt otherwise just an occasional rocket or artillery shell could erase all rebuilding progress. For primary buildings all repairs must be done at the Control Terminal. Secondary buildings like Nod Turrets and GDI guard towers could be rebuilt so long as they are not receiving damage and have no special location restrictions.

Melee is a standard feature in most FPS games and allows for more close-quarters combat variety. Melee attacks could use the butts of larger weapons like rifles, use the largest like clubs or rams like with the Rocket Launcher, or switch to a combat knife. Hitting the default shoot button or reload would automatically switch back to the last standard weapon used. This would in effect create a hidden weapon that doesn't appear in the weapon selection but is accessible to all classes. Additional variety could be added by allowing for different types of melee weapons to be purchased such as a bayonet that would appear on certain weapons and eliminate the need to switch back and forth between weapons that hold two separate inventory slots. (Other suggestions were moved to individual topics due to being overshadowed.)

I have some suggestions that may make it easier to pick up and play RenegadeX. 1. Key binding conflict indicator 2. Change the radio command to tab and allow key binding to be customized 3. Change default duck (and change name to crouch) to LftCtrl. This will allow players to control their full altitude when flying, both going up and down, without taking their fingers off the movement keys. 4. Change default team status from Tab to ~. 5. Change Tab from Team Status to default radio commands. 6. Allow players to save custom control configurations. 7. XBox 360 controller support. The Unity3D game engine has inexpensive plugins for controller support. Something like this may exist for Unreal as well. I found this on a quick search. Not sure if it's legit but it may be a start. http://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/pc-cont ... tournament Possible Controller Configuration: Thumbs-On (this configuration is designed to keep thumbs on control sticks at most times.) D-Pad up and down - Weapons select. D-Pad Left - Voice Commands D-Pad Right - Night Vision (is this used?) Right Trigger - Primary Fire Left Trigger - Secondary Fire L-Stick - Movement R-Stick - Look A - Interact with Object/Enter and Exit Vehicle L-Stick Click - Run R-Stick Click - Crouch Left Bumper - Jump Right Bumper - Reload Y - Weapon Wheel X - Spotting B - Toggle Score Traditional (Closer to the default control scheme for most games) D-Pad up and down - Weapons select. D-Pad Left - Voice Commands D-Pad Right - Night Vision (is this used?) Right Trigger - Primary Fire Left Trigger - Secondary Fire L-Stick - Movement R-Stick - Look A - Jump L-Stick Click - Run R-Stick Click - Crouch Left Bumper - Spot Right Bumper - Reload Y - Weapon Wheel X - Interact with Object/ Enter and Exit Vehicle B - Toggle Score

This seems like an effective way to catch when someone cheats. The topic did remind me of something. When cheating became a problem in Renegade the community responded by developing Renguard to block the scripts or whatever it was that allowed people to cheat. If someone was suspected of cheating a command could be entered to check if the suspected cheater was using RenGuard. If they were then chat would verify. If not, the person the check was done against could be booted from the map or be reported to server mods. Could something like that be implemented for RenegadeX as well?

One thing that could be implemented to lesson the blow of loosing a building is to allow for destroyed buildings to be slowly 'rebuilt'. Engineers would repair the terminal which would show a small progress bar. The bar can be decreased by the enemy attacking it to prevent a rebuild and just a single person rebuilding a structure would yield very slow progress. This would incentive teams to rally around destroyed buildings and make rebuilding them a full team effort. Here is a possible progression. Enemy launches successful APC rush on a defense structure --> Enemies are eliminated --> Team rallies around the destroyed building and key buildings --> multiple players shift to engineer or technician to rebuild the structure --> the structure becomes active before the next attack wave hits At most, a destroyed building would have 20-25% of its health when it it Rebuilt and would still need to be repaired fully the normal way.

I can think of issues with logging who places mines and how many. When I have played on teams that actually coordinate one or two people would be designated base defenders who would have the sole responsibility of mining the base to prevent mines from being depopulated in other areas when the mine limit was hit. This would mean one or two people would have vastly more mine placements logged than anyone else even though they are fulfilling a vital and planned role for their team. This type of team play would make it impossible for mine placements to be limited by player especially when mine concentrations are being shifted to prepare for an incoming rush. If someone was later reviewing logs, if they are saved, it would look like one or two players were constantly C4 spamming for entire matches and may be subject to restrictions. Also, that report wouldn't be public would it Goku or does it only show for the team placing mines? Sorry if I'm nitpicking but I like to try to root out any potential issues in games before they can be an actual issue later.

There's one issue with buildings collapsing. Besides the demand of rendering such large effects which could bog down a server it would ruin the balance of matches. If one building outright collapses that means that many fewer spawn points or places to reload or change, order vehicles, or change load outs. People could find themselves being stuck to spawning in a besieged building with no way out rather than in an already destroyed building that allows them to flank the enemy and have a fighting chance. I've been in tight matches before where my team mates spawning in destroyed buildings behind enemy forces was the only reason we were able to win.

The idea of match making is to move people through to playing on servers more quickly. Chat room or not people prefer to jump into games that are already populated which causes others to be neglected like the current situation. Give people the ability to hop on waiting lists while they participate in chats to pass the time and the game becomes more attractive. Chat rooms were already present in Renegade multiplayer and the issue was still happening that's going on with RenegadeX.