Other Roguelikes > AliensRL

How to make AliensRL fun

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skarczew:
AliensRL is not like DoomRL. The area is much bigger, strategy is a bit different, and the game itself has a great area of improvement.

Few more thoughts:
- Redistribution of Aliens should be done - but this may come with the creation of real vents;
- Using heat detector ...is a wrong idea; Aliens do not emit heat; it can be clearly seen in the games like AvP where the Predator is using Thermal Vision mode to kill Humans, but against Aliens it needs to switch to totally different Electromagnetic Spectrum vision mode;
  http://youtu.be/ldV0IpYS7Rk?hd=1
  Marines were limited to Motion Scanner/Tracker and Image Intensifier, with some Flares here and there; Motion Scanner should detect all kind of movement - not only Aliens, and Image Intensifier was always working as a fuzzy nightvision;
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=0qcKXXocbDg
- Vision as a cone won't work - the player will just move forward and back every few steps; Additionally, everyone need to remember that Aliens do NOT need light or anything; Even more, as an Alien player in AvP I was always destroying sources of light to make it even more intimate for Human players :P ; Aliens sense everything, and there is no exception; Aside from "sense" mode they got "navigation" mode, which can be used in the total darkness to see objects (different than walking-marine-healing-packs);
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afx8X7ro4kU
  I am not sure how "worker" type can be done, but allowing every hunter / warrior class alien to see almost everything is logical; they should regroup outside human sight range, try to encircle, try to ambush; this would be especially deadly when few of them jump on a player in low light areas;
- An example of "self-fix" equipment:
  http://youtu.be/5ESeaHfTwb4?t=50s
  http://youtu.be/g8BYYlsNvZw?t=3m10s

Kornel Kisielewicz:
Vision as a cone is the dreaded "lighthouse syndrome" :>

On a more serious note -- this topic has reality changing powers (tm) -- a 0.8.5 version is in the works.

skarczew:

--- Quote from: Kornel Kisielewicz on October 07, 2011, 18:16 ---Vision as a cone is the dreaded "lighthouse syndrome" :>

On a more serious note -- this topic has reality changing powers (tm) -- a 0.8.5 version is in the works.

--- End quote ---
I agree about vision cone.

Regarding the topic - a lot of ideas have been put into other topics, I guess you can look into them as well ;) .

And maybe one question:
Kornel, how do you see AliensRL: as a simple and fast paced game, or maybe something longer and more complicated?

Kornel Kisielewicz:
I think it won't get popular as a simple and fast paced game. I always intended it to be more complex, but not necessarily longer. The possibilities, situations, missions may change from playthrough to the other, but a full run should still be doable in one sitting.

Game Hunter:

--- Quote from: Kornel Kisielewicz on October 08, 2011, 15:40 ---I think it won't get popular as a simple and fast paced game. I always intended it to be more complex, but not necessarily longer. The possibilities, situations, missions may change from playthrough to the other, but a full run should still be doable in one sitting.
--- End quote ---
In a way, this implies that the pace can be slow so long as the necessary requirements for completion remain simple and relatively accessable. This can be difficult to balance, especially from the perspective of a new player: knowing "what to do" can mean the difference between playing for thirty minutes and playing for several hours. The pace of a game can often skew this kind of result, so the addition of things like missions and plot must be added with care if we want playtime to remain fairly consistent.


--- Quote from: skarczew on October 06, 2011, 19:27 ---AliensRL is not like DoomRL. The area is much bigger, strategy is a bit different, and the game itself has a great area of improvement.
--- End quote ---
The map size is very different, but this only has an affect on pace; the developmental direction can be very different, and should; the strategy, specifically the combat tactics, are very similar to DoomRL's, and since combat is a large part of a game where there is little else to do, we should seriously consider changing the style of combat. There are lots of ways to do this: change of enemy distribution (as mentioned before), position-based lighting that affects accuracy, AI that seeks to ambush the player, literal tactical options (like in DoomRL but more towards the cautious/coward version), and the list can go on.

In particular:

--- Quote from: skarczew on October 06, 2011, 19:27 ---Using heat detector ...is a wrong idea; Aliens do not emit heat; (...) Marines were limited to Motion Scanner/Tracker and Image Intensifier, with some Flares here and there; Motion Scanner should detect all kind of movement - not only Aliens, and Image Intensifier was always working as a fuzzy nightvision;
--- End quote ---
I don't mind staying consistent with the Aliens universe, and it's good that you bring it up. However, if I'm not mistaken, this game is set at a time when the "Alien species" was virtually unknown. If this is the case, we need to be careful in introducing certain equipment or, at the very least, keep such equipment rare, since there's no reason for it to be all over the place. Motion scanners would probably be limited to the Security Tower, and image intensifier headsets would likely only be issued in the Military Tower, though perhaps certain classes could start with one or the other based on what you'd expect them to think is necessary equipment. We can also think up some antiquated equivalents that would appear in other towers (surely the Engineering Tower would have something like a motion scanner or image intensifier).

A thermal detector as a means to find other humans could still be an option. This is assuming that NPCs will be added, of course.


--- Quote from: skarczew on October 06, 2011, 19:27 ---Vision as a cone won't work - the player will just move forward and back every few steps; Additionally, everyone need to remember that Aliens do NOT need light or anything; Even more, as an Alien player in AvP I was always destroying sources of light to make it even more intimate for Human players :P ; Aliens sense everything, and there is no exception; Aside from "sense" mode they got "navigation" mode, which can be used in the total darkness to see objects (different than walking-marine-healing-packs);
--- End quote ---
What I get from this is that aliens should basically have full vision (distance can be figured out case-by-case) regardless of the light sources present. Thus it is the player's job to make sure they're around light sources as often as possible, which alone remarkably affects the combat mechanics in a positive, horror-like way. Regarding aliens that seek to destroy light sources, I would limit this to the more intelligent aliens and, to some extent, worker-type aliens who may have been assigned with the task of removing or relocating them.

Although it's a bit redundant, you may want to start collecting your ideas from older threads and adding them here, such that they are more easily findable.

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