Reactor/overmind attacks

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kharnov
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Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by kharnov »

An idea we discussed some time ago on IRC was to rework the way that the reactor and the overmind attacked enemy players inside of the base. For the most part, they don't really do a lot of damage unless you're an unarmored human or a small alien. The idea would be to change it so that the structures have very powerful attacks, but that these attacks get split up if multiple opponents are nearby. For instance, one opponent could be fried for up to 80 damage, two opponents would receive 40 damage, four would receive 20 damage, and so on and so forth. The exact numbers don't matter as much as the idea that bases would have an easier time fending off lone wolf attackers while at the same time encouraging team rushes into bases.

Beyond that, I'm interested in some small secondary things as well. If the reactor attacks via bolts of lightning, why not have it arc across aliens like the mara zap? As for the overmind, how about having it distort your vision and disrupt your audio? Not enough to have a game-changing effect, but instead something that makes it much more scary to new players than it actually is.

Other ideas are also welcome here, of course.

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illwieckz
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by illwieckz »

For the Overmind, why not an effect like the one the basilisk had on tremulous, with visual perception distortion and hallucinations and other weird effect like if you feel very bad or drunk or on drug (don't how it feels but like in some movies :p ).

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kharnov
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by kharnov »

Yes, that's definitely what I had in mind. Heat haze could go off in a ring around the overmind to simulate a mental attack, and color grading could be used to provide distorted colors.

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illwieckz
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by illwieckz »

Is know the renderer allows to display on some surfaces picture from a kind of camera in an arbitrary point in the map (for example the pulse map has two screens in a room to monitor doors). Is there a way to do a strange effect like the player have a part of his field of vision obstructed by a distorted view of somewhere in the map. We can use the point of view of a random player, so it ensures you always have a good point of view, and it's ok for an effect you have when you are too close to the overmind. The visions must be distorted, very fugacious and disturbing.

See the visions in the « Edge of tomorrow » movie as an example.

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Tom
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by Tom »

kharnov wrote:

The idea would be to change it so that the structures have very powerful attacks, but that these attacks get split up if multiple opponents are nearby.
[...]
If the reactor attacks via bolts of lightning, why not have it arc across aliens like the mara zap?

Yes and yes.

kharnov wrote:

As for the overmind, how about having it distort your vision and disrupt your audio?

Like if someone inhalated some psychedelic or dissociative drug? Yes definitely!

illwieckz wrote:

For the Overmind, why not an effect like the one the basilisk had on tremulous, with visual perception distortion and hallucinations and other weird effect like if you feel very bad or drunk or on drug (don't how it feels but like in some movies :p ).

This!

kharnov wrote:

[...] color grading could be used to provide distorted colors.

Yes.

illwieckz wrote:

Is know the renderer allows to display on some surfaces picture from a kind of camera in an arbitrary point in the map (for example the pulse map has two screens in a room to monitor doors). Is there a way to do a strange effect like the player have a part of his field of vision obstructed by a distorted view of somewhere in the map. We can use the point of view of a random player, so it ensures you always have a good point of view, and it's ok for an effect you have when you are too close to the overmind. The visions must be distorted, very fugacious and disturbing.

See the visions in the « Edge of tomorrow » movie as an example.

Would it not be too annoying in the long run? :bugeyes: :dazed: :smile:

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illwieckz
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by illwieckz »

Tom wrote:

Would it not be too annoying in the long run? :bugeyes: :dazed: :smile:

Yes, probably, but it can be faded to just add random parasite things in your fov. :smile:

I'm thinking about something like that:

Image

Last edited by illwieckz on Thu Aug 13, 2015 7:53 pm UTC, edited 1 time in total.

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Tom
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by Tom »

It's not bad. Like if the Overmind was able to mentally send to the human visions of what others aliens see.

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kharnov
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by kharnov »

That actually looks fantastic! I wonder if it can be done with GLSL.

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illwieckz
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by illwieckz »

The picture was done this way (using Gimp)

  1. render current frame, named A, copy it as frame named B
  2. distort the frame B (can be variable from a predefined grid)
  3. apply a colorgrade to frame B (you get the psychedelic colors) (can be variable from a predefined colorgrade)
  4. addition the modified frame B to the original frame A (25% opacity)
  5. render a frame from elsewhere in the map (like through an alien player eyes), named C
  6. optional: apply a mask to get only some parts
  7. addition the modified frame C to the original frame A (15% opacity)
  8. optional, redo 5. 7. 8. from another alien player eyes with a frame D
  9. display the resulting frame A

Edit: the red vignetting in the picture is the one already in game when you get hurt, and there also is some in-game green gaz effect from acid tube.

Last edited by illwieckz on Tue Feb 07, 2017 2:54 am UTC, edited 2 times in total.

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illwieckz
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Re: Reactor/overmind attacks

Post by illwieckz »

This is the colorgrade applied: colorgrading.png
And the gimp curves: colorgrading.curves

I don't know if it looks like that on other maps than parpax.

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