Military Tower ----- Storage Tower ------------
| | \
| | \
| | |
Security Tower ----- Main Tower ------- Civilian Tower
| | |
\ | |
\ | |
------------ Engineering Tower ----- Medical Tower
The towers themselves are all of equal size and removing from one tower to the other takes no time at all. In addition, all corridors in the towers are built such that there are four equal partitions on each level of each tower, resulting in plenty of dead ends and some wasted space. We have a few possibilities for improvements here: ---------- Storage Tower ------------
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
Military Tower ----- Security Tower ----- Main Tower ----- Civilian Tower
\ | | /
\ | | /
\ | | /
---------- Engineering Tower ----- Medical Tower --------
This would require a heavy change in the storage tower's general structure and size, but it makes a lot of sense from a more plot-based perspective: civilian tower is mostly isolated from the rest of the complex, and the storage tower contains practically all of the supplies and is reachable by the highest-priority locations (separated by clearance, but we'll get to that later). Security Tower has access to many places at once, as does the Main Tower, because of their importance to the base as a whole. This is but one example, and there are a number of possibilities we can use if we don't limit ourselves to the circular format.Lack of distinction between classes.There is, believe it or not ;) . But should be more visible, yep.
aliens ALWAYS chargeNope. They will not if they don't see you. Also, some of aliens move even if they do not see the player.
excess heat signatures (aliens)Killing excessive heat sources is funny, as long as you do not realize that you are killing human beings :D . Good thriller idea, though.
(...)
detect heat (find aliens)
though Civilian should probably have pretty decent breakage chances anyway, since there will be almost no clearance for ascending on themRestricting it does not feel good. Civilian should be a walk in the park, not grind.
Medics can fire an aimed shot (surgical precision!)Now, that is wrong. More healing, less killing.
Flashlight"I will lit an area around / next to me and those stupid animals won't see me, for sure."
(...)
Light Clip
Technicians come with a crowbar and fixing deviceBetter make it 2 tools: all-around electronic devices' repairing tool; mini welding torch for all around fixes of mechanical equipment.
Medics will want to find people hurting and fix them up.Hahahaha...
Some sort of special ability or trait is in orderThere are already ...but more won't hurt.
Vision as a cone is the dreaded "lighthouse syndrome" :>I agree about vision cone.
On a more serious note -- this topic has reality changing powers (tm) -- a 0.8.5 version is in the works.
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.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.
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.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.
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;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).
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);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.
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).Nightvision exists nowadays, Motion Scanner was something developed before the people had knowledge about aliens. Equipment could work in a slot - you can use only one at a time.
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.The way it looks like in AvP series, the basic vision is similar to human one. The difference are: field of view - the cone is wider (can translate to bigger distances in roguelike), and the aura (even in total darkness, an alien is able to sense living organisms, but that doesn't mean it can see other objects; in recent version of AvP it went even further - an alien can sense targets through walls, and can sense how hostile is the given organism).
(well, except to ripley)Also creators of the better worlds, Weyland-Yutani Corp.
Also creators of the better worlds, Weyland-Yutani Corp.
I haven't watched the movies for a long time ...but from what I remember:
In Alien:
Ash has been ordered to return the Alien to the Nostromo's corporate employers even at the expense of the crew's lives. He did not decide to do it on his own.
Aliens:
Burke, who ordered the colonists to investigate the derelict spaceship where the Nostromo crew first encountered the Alien eggs, knew about alien and planned to get it to company laboratories where he can profit from their use as biological weapons.
It does not seem to me that he acted on his own.
Ripley's report about alien, events on Nostromo, its destruction, must have been known to high W-Y authorities and thats the way Burke learned about it and reason why he contacted her.
Ripley: Just tell me one thing, Burke. You're going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study. Not to bring back. But to wipe them out.
Burke: That's the plan. You have my word on it.
Ripley: All right, I'm in.
BTW, in case anyone wonders, work on the next version is seriously underway, so this topic is quite hot for me!
3. Expanded classes, which aren't designed to be balanced, there would be achievements just for completing the game as each class since each one would be a mode unto itself.Wrong way. Androids should act as a different race, as they could do different tasks (soldier, medic, etc) while still being an android.
(...)
Android = A synthetic robot that looks exactly like a human. Since their creation is, I imagine, expensive as Hell, it makes sense they'd be owned by a big corporation, making each one designed for their most obvious use, special operations and recon. They would be much more durable than a human, with a stealthy skill set, but wouldn't be over the top in power.
Worker = An all rounder, begins with some handy tool and decent body armour, all skill costs are average. Since they are native to the tower, they would likely have more fresh meat with them than the other classes, further, they might even be competent to a point.How is worker different from technician?
Prisoner = Begins with very little, but is an uncompromising badass that levels quicker than the other classes. Any fresh meat hanging around the Prisoner would be disloyal, if not outright violent. Choosing this class would obviously generate a prison area of which to escape from.This is some kind of "flavour" and not a real class, imo... A prisoner may have been a soldier, technician, civilian, etc in the past.
2. Escape in a ship. Requires others to help man it, a weak victory. May involve a time limit or combat against marines defending it as the place is on lock-down.First, you would need to contact someone to send a dropship to you, and that is almost the same as:
3. Rig up a communications station and contact some government body that will send marines to save you...or nuke you from orbit. Bad ending.Actually, they may send marines, but that may not end the game - you still would have to do some work there (kill marines and escape with a dropship - if you can fly; or end the game in another way).
4. Escape the towers. Travel beyond the tower in an astronaut suit in a buggy. A fade to black style ending, alluding that this is just a prolonged suicide. Plus it might mean you've let the aliens out into the wilder reaches of the planet.Too easy and available from the start. Sounds similar to committing suicide with grenades :P . Noooo ...
5. Destroy whatever makes the oxygen (and possibly gravity?) of the towers, killing everything. Another bad ending.For gravity, it would be needed to have Death Star, Mass Shadow Generator, Hyperspace tractor beam, Galaxy Gun, or sth similar :P . Gravity is a phenomenon created by object as big a planet, and not simply by some strange machinery.
For classes I was just thinking for ease of adding it to the game really, and it is a game, which is why I went for archetypes rather than race and background variants. An android may be able to do anything a person can, but as an archetype they're durable, intelligent and sneaky.Durable - yes. Intelligent - depends. I saw specialists / engineers in the movies and I saw regular hitmen in the games (AvP2, AvP3). Sneaky - depends. Bulky hitmen won't be sneaky - and I did not see any "sneaky assassin android" in the movies / games.
A prisoner can range from conman to tax avoider, but we picture them as bald, muscular guys, with serious anger management issues. Get it?Now, read the background story behind the game ...If I had to "solve problems in a colony on some remote planet", then I would not be sending a team of armed "prisoners with anger management issues".
Oh and the workers would be "ice road truckers" or "black lunged miners" rather than having anything to do with being technical. They'd be kitted out with industrial drills and chainsaws and cut through doors rather than hacking into their system.Those guys could be living in a colony, but they do not fit in "rescue team" too much (same as prisoners). And I am not sure about usefulness of chainsaws against metal doors :/ . Blowtorch is much more better =) .
2 working releases of Doom vs half/quarter release of Aliens ...thats not fair :'( .Psst... make bigger bounties for ARL. ;-)
0.8.5 version is in the works.
Still? Can we have 0.8.4 in the meantime, please?
Well, setting aside that KK made that post in 2011, this is a good question. The Beta version of 0.8.4 was released in April of 2013. If it isn't being worked on, I think it wouldn't hurt to release 0.8.4 publicly.Wait what? There's a beta? Is there any possibility of getting my grubby hands on that one somehow?