Vehicle lock after initial spawn

[Canucck]

Can this be reduced to like 5s? If people want to buy a tank from the PP on Walls and get sniped 6 times trying to run to the WF, the game shouldn't protect their vehicle the whole time. 5s is more than long enough to get to your vehicle before an enemy steals it.

I'd rather it be 0s because if an enemy can chill by the WF/strip without being noticed and get to your vehicle before you, you deserve to lose it imo whether they were invisible or not, but I think too many people would whine about that.

[RoundShades]

Reduction? A small one, but that really is a newbie-tax if I ever heard one.

Elimination? You do realize GDI get spies, and that there is no PT on most maps apart from Field that allow for a Nod player to get to their vehicle immediately upon spawn? A rare occurrence, but technically means a vehicle steal without constant patrol is guranteeable.

[Canucck]

Do you go on a coffee run after you buy your tanks or something?

[LavaDr4gon]

If you are planning to defend the base with a Humvee/buggy, you're most likely going to put some c4 on your vehicle. Having it stolen in front of you will not be a pleasing experience.

[Agent]

I'm actually perfectly fine with the countdown timer as it is. It's not only an exceptionally noob friendly mechanic, but it also means GDI doesn't have to fear the omnipresent Stealth Black Hands (especially on non-defense maps). Removing the timer would be an absolutely terrible idea. Reducing the timer to something as drastically short as 5 seconds would also be an absolutely terrible idea, not only because the already steep learning curb would become steeper for new players, but because this would become just another source of frustration for existing players (thus reducing the "fun" aspect).

[RoundShades]

Do you go on a coffee run after you buy your tanks or something?

In Complex, it would mean you cannot reliably buy tanks, once GDI has fielded tanks. Yes, I know the answer is "gitgud", but if Nod fields tanks first, GDI have a much easier angle to retrieve tanks they are purchasing. Might as well allow GDI to shoot down the C130 while you are at it.

In Islands, the space to the strip as well as the angle of the door is questionable, depending on if you have an LCG or a Mendoza, but even for an engi, to make it to the tank fresh off of landing. Same with Goldrush.

Furthermore, with a literally 0 timer, if an SBH is standing there when you buy a tank, you make it in time to watch the tank delivered, and even notice the SBH, you cannot kill it in time, and you literally cannot guarantee that you get it 100% of the time. It would be a 50/50 chance between who's latency registered to the server as "pressed E" first, and the SBH would get way more tanks than it "earned".

So besides being a n00b-tax, it would also be a detriment more for the already low-win-rate faction of GDI, as they would practically lose 1/2 their vehicles to Nod in PUBs, and even with a good team that is manpower you subtract from the rest of the base by having to camp on the buildpad with a humvee spraying and driving alongside to prevent SBH from being near a vehicle in production.

[Canucck]

You act like it's giving away tanks... this was a complete non-issue in ren, people didn't run into the enemy base to form a nice british queue next to the strip. Not sure what game you're fantasizing about

[RoundShades]

You act like it's giving away tanks... this was a complete non-issue in ren, people didn't run into the enemy base to form a nice british queue next to the strip. Not sure what game you're fantasizing about

A lot of things are different in Ren that are not coming back. This and sniper-damage, are probably top of the list.

You claim this isn't a big issue, so if it rarely happens, then why do you WANT it to be able to happen?

[Canucck]

So that there is at least some possibility of being punished for making stupid decisions. People complain about snipers/etc "playing cod", yet this kind of hand-holding is the exact same thing, worse even. Locking it so friendlies can't steal your vehicle when it spawns is a good idea, that actually was a problem in ren.

If you buy a med tank on Walls from the Ref, then decide to go mine the PP while your vehicle sits infront of the WF, that is stupid. You should feel stupid for doing that, especially if you die at the PP or on your way from the PP to WF. Getting your vehicle stolen is a great way to go about that. If that happened to you, would you honestly make the same mistake again, or next time would you do things differently?

In Complex, it would mean you cannot reliably buy tanks, once GDI has fielded tanks.

Vehicles probably shouldn't park on the GDI side of the strip to begin with, that's a map design issue.

If GDI has tanks sitting on your strip, your vehicle is going to die before you can get to it anyway, and you shouldn't have wasted money on that tank

[RoundShades]

So yeah, basically, if you wanted tanks, you should have had tanks, because if you don't have tanks, then you don't get tanks. So basically, GDI SHOULD be able to shoot down the C130 if it comes to that point. So yeah... this conversation didn't bloom much fruit.

[djlaptop]

Very often I'll get a tech/hotwire, then buy a vehicle, but there are several vehicles in line ahead of mine. But in the meantime a building will be under threat so I'll rush to repair it while I wait rather than sitting around like an idiot.

The delay lets me do that. But I do think it's a little long.

[yosh56]

Likelihood of this changing is based on how long it takes Canucck to write the mutator for it. Then how long it takes for anyone to adopt it.

[DoctorB0NG]

Likelihood of this changing is based on how long it takes Canucck to write the mutator for it. Then how long it takes for anyone to adopt it.

I like dis.

[RoundShades]

Likelihood of this changing is based on how long it takes Canucck to write the mutator for it. Then how long it takes for anyone to adopt it.

This is really crummy copy-pasting code, from SmarterHarvester Mutator as well as Ren-X code, so this honestly probably doesn't work but it does theorize how it'd look.

To remove it completely, you can't set the time to 0, because the VehicleRolloff AI would not have time to drive it away from being destroyed by the next vehicle. You'd have to find what locks the VehicleRolloff AI to not being hijacked by anyone other than the buyer.

Of course, this is just a jest anyway, because this is really a terrible idea, but I am just showing that a mutator is entirely possible to make out of this. It is, essentially, just like the harvester mutator, as both derive from AIController.

class Rx_Mutator_VehRolloutSmarter extends UTMutator;

function bool CheckReplacement(Actor Other)
{

if (Other.IsA('Rx_VehRolloutController') && !Other.IsA('Rx_VehRolloutControllerSmarter'))
{
	ReplaceWith(Other, "RxRolloutSmarter.Rx_Vehicle_VehRolloutControllerSmarter"); 
	return false; // return false to not keep the old Controller
}	
return true;
}

defaultproperties
{

}

class Rx_VehRolloutControllerSmarter extends Rx_VehRolloutController;

state RolloutMove
{
Begin:
if (rolloutPendingNode == none)
{
	GetRolloutNodes();
	if (rolloutPendingNode == none) // fix where server crashes if no park nodes in map
		GotoState('leaveVehicle');
}

UTVehicle(Pawn).bAllowedExit = false; // prevent dummy drivers from walking
UTVehicle(Pawn).bBlocksNavigation = true;
while (Pawn != None && !Pawn.ReachedDestination(rolloutPendingNode)) {
	MoveToward(rolloutPendingNode, rolloutPendingNode);
}
ScriptedMoveTarget = none;
while (Pawn != None) {
	if(ScriptedMoveTarget == none) {

		// pick a random parkingspot among the not-blocked spots
		// The number below changes how long the vehiclerollout AI controls
        // the vehicle for? Changed 40.0 -> 5.0
		while(rolloutNodes.Length > 0) {
			i = Round(RandRange(0,rolloutNodes.Length-1));
			if (ActorReachable(rolloutNodes[i]))
			{
				bParkingNodeReachable = true;
				ForEach OverlappingActors(class'Vehicle', vehicleTemp, 5.0, rolloutNodes[i].Location) {
					bParkingNodeReachable = false;
					break;
				}
				if(bParkingNodeReachable) {
					ScriptedMoveTarget = rolloutNodes[i];				
					break;
				}
			}
			rolloutNodes.Remove(i,1);
		}

	}
	if(ScriptedMoveTarget != none) {
		if(!Pawn.ReachedDestination(ScriptedMoveTarget)) {
			MoveToward(ScriptedMoveTarget,ScriptedMoveTarget);
		} else {
			GotoState('leaveVehicle');
		}
	} else {
		GotoState('leaveVehicle');
	}
}
}

[XD_ERROR_XD]

Can this be reduced to like 5s? If people want to buy a tank from the PP on Walls and get sniped 6 times trying to run to the WF, the game shouldn't protect their vehicle the whole time. 5s is more than long enough to get to your vehicle before an enemy steals it.

I'd rather it be 0s because if an enemy can chill by the WF/strip without being noticed and get to your vehicle before you, you deserve to lose it imo whether they were invisible or not, but I think too many people would whine about that.

Eh? So you think this is a good idea? So the already omnipresent SBH's in any non-basedefence map will now have an actual use while sleeping in the enemy base? You know what, i'll just go to the enemy base with a friend while GDI has the field, i will sit next to the WF door to see if anyone is inside at the time of vehicle purchase, if there is not, i'll relay this information to my friend, he nukes and i steal the Mammy that just got bought.

No. just NO. 20 seconds minimum, if i just bought a vehicle and straight after i'm the only one to see 2 arties pounding the refinery, i'm sure as all hell going to the refinery first by foot. You can't leave it unoccupied next to the refinery door after all, that would be much worse! Oh wait, my vehicle got stolen because an SBH saw i ran off to the Refinery. 800 credits lost because of this mechanic.

Do not fix what is not broken. There currently are no downsides to the 30 second protection which is provided, why reduce it to 5? It may sound like a good idea to you, UNTIL someone uses it against you. Then sure as all hell you're going to get mad.

[Demigan]

Can this be reduced to like 5s? If people want to buy a tank from the PP on Walls and get sniped 6 times trying to run to the WF, the game shouldn't protect their vehicle the whole time. 5s is more than long enough to get to your vehicle before an enemy steals it.

I'd rather it be 0s because if an enemy can chill by the WF/strip without being noticed and get to your vehicle before you, you deserve to lose it imo whether they were invisible or not, but I think too many people would whine about that.

Eh? So you think this is a good idea? So the already omnipresent SBH's in any non-basedefence map will now have an actual use while sleeping in the enemy base? You know what, i'll just go to the enemy base with a friend while GDI has the field, i will sit next to the WF door to see if anyone is inside at the time of vehicle purchase, if there is not, i'll relay this information to my friend, he nukes and i steal the Mammy that just got bought.

No. just NO. 20 seconds minimum, if i just bought a vehicle and straight after i'm the only one to see 2 arties pounding the refinery, i'm sure as all hell going to the refinery first by foot. You can't leave it unoccupied next to the refinery door after all, that would be much worse! Oh wait, my vehicle got stolen because an SBH saw i ran off to the Refinery. 800 credits lost because of this mechanic.

Do not fix what is not broken. There currently are no downsides to the 30 second protection which is provided, why reduce it to 5? It may sound like a good idea to you, UNTIL someone uses it against you. Then sure as all hell you're going to get mad.

What he said

[MrSeriousOak]

This is a BAD idea!

Not only are the SBHs a threat, but your own team mates!

(Imagine this on walls) You finally hit the 800 credit mark - Awesome, you buy a med from the PP and then run to the WF. You tank spawns, and then it gets stolen by a troll camping inside the WF.

Getting sniped by someone is already frustrating enough, and we deserve to lose a vehicle that we bought because our character can't run from the PP to the WF/strip in 5 seconds?