Unvanquished Forum

Hello,
I'm new on this forum and I played Unvanquished for few months now. And I'd like to share an idea with you.
I am french, so sorry for my writing.

In lot's of games, I've been shocked by the sudden disappearance of dead bodies after a certain amount of time.
We should make it more realistic. I thought that they could disappear not an automatic way, and I found a solution for the humans.

Dead human bodies could be "eaten" by the aliens. This could be a way for aliens to gain some life after a fight that they won against humans . Or maybe to feed the overmind, the eggs (to give birth faster)...etc.
This is more realistic than just disappear, but does alien like eating battlesuits or weapons ? I don't think so...

I had an other idea that could resolve the problem for weapons.
When the human is completely eaten, his weapon could stay on the floor (with the same amount of ammunition). Humans could drop or take any weapon on the floor, so that the player could go finding his weapon instead of buying an other one.

A weapon on the floor could be destroyed easily by marauders or more evolved aliens. This is the only way to make it disappear. It could explode like turret does.
If a basilisk find a weapon, he could grab it and take it to a place that humans can't reach, waiting to by destroyed by a stronger alien.
It may not be possible for dretchs to interact with it.

It doesn't resolve the dead aliens disappearance problem. Maybe they could be transformed into some kind of humus that slow down humans ?

I don't now if these ideas already exists in other games. Do you like them ? How do you think we could do something more realistic otherwise ?

PS: could you tell me if I did some writing mistakes please ? Or I will repeat them over and over...

The reason the dead bodies disappear after certain amount of time is that they are absorbed by the surrounding structures (walls, floors, ceilings, etc). They also absorb remains of destroyed buildings as well. They are made with bio-metallic substance that absorbs and converts any bio-matters and metallic compounds into a form of energy and stores it within itself. The alien leeches and the human drills extract these energy from the surroundings which are then used as a resource to build and expand respective team's bases. The bio-metallic substances that make up the structures are incredibly strong and self healing. That's why they can withstand blasts from the Lucifer cannon or any other weapons without sustaining any damage.

Nice explanation.

I think it's a bad idea to bend gameplay in order to achieve more realism. Having bodys and guns disappear is also important to keep the poly count of the scene on a low level. One reason why we shouldn't let guns and equipment stay on the floor is that it would be impossible to balance the personal resources of the teams, since humans get the ability to retrieve spent credits after they die.

JOURNEYMAN wrote:

The reason the dead bodies disappear after certain amount of time is that they are absorbed by the surrounding structures (walls, floors, ceilings, etc). They also absorb remains of destroyed buildings as well. They are made with bio-metallic substance that absorbs and converts any bio-matters and metallic compounds into a form of energy and stores it within itself. The alien leeches and the human drills extract these energy from the surroundings which are then used as a resource to build and expand respective team's bases. The bio-metallic substances that make up the structures are incredibly strong and self healing. That's why they can withstand blasts from the Lucifer cannon or any other weapons without sustaining any damage.

Good explanation, like ViruS said. Does it mean that the resources mod will be the default gameplay ? If no, the energy could go directly to the reactor or the overmind.
I think players should know this kind of stories and explanations of the game. How will be added stories in the game ?

To show the fact humans are absorbed, a animation of energy going from the human through the ground can be maid ? A 2D circle that grows on the ground and then fades, for exemple. And an other animation of circle of energy that shrink from the ground into leeches and drills.

Viech wrote:

I think it's a bad idea to bend gameplay in order to achieve more realism. Having bodys and guns disappear is also important to keep the poly count of the scene on a low level. One reason why we shouldn't let guns and equipment stay on the floor is that it would be impossible to balance the personal resources of the teams, since humans get the ability to retrieve spent credits after they die.

Ok, I agree.

If I have other suggestions, it's better to put them in the forum or in the "Game design proposals" wiki page ?

Vincnet wrote:

If I have other suggestions, it's better to put them in the forum or in the "Game design proposals" wiki page ?

No, the forum is fine.

We could make the bodies vapourise...
insert particle cloud with a clatter of low-res particles while fading body

That would be possible but still unrealistic for human bodys.

Viech wrote:

That would be possible but still unrealistic for human bodys.

That's how the environment absorbs things. It converts them to ure energy (vaporizes them) so that it can absorb them.

Doesn't necessarily have to be vaporized to be absorbed by the environment. The dead bodies could be liquified.