A while ago, it was suggested by Irrational that T:V would be like "tony hawk with spinfusors" This is what got me thinking;
what if we were to expand the movement options in T:V? How would we do such a thing, and is it really a good idea in the first place?
Naturally, skiing is the granddaddy of this idea. No one really intended it to happen, but nevertheless, it has become a major part of all three Tribes games.
Skiing is a trick, a skill, and a strategy all wrapped up in one. What if we were to add various tricks of a similar nature to tribes with the goal of expanding one of the greatest strengths of tribes: movement?
Obviously, this is not a new idea. I have seen it discussed in many threads before in varying degrees of depth, and in varying degrees of coherence. The purpose of this thread is to sort of consolidate everything into one place so it can be properly discussed in depth.
So let's begin with what I consider to be important elements to consider when proposing a maneuver or trick in tribes game play.
(for those of you who are bored already, skip down to the examples for more interesting reading. I wont be offended. I just feel I have to lay the ground rules before i proceed.)
Interface
Discussing movement is impossible without first examining what movement options are available using the devices available (i.e. keyboard and mouse)
This is especially problematic in the case of Tribes because we already have a control scheme that rivals many flight simulators in sheer complexity. There is just not all that much room left on the keyboard for more stuff.
So what do we have? At this point, we can not be 100% sure other than the obvious keyboard/mouse combo and the history of the control scheme in the other tribes games.
I'm going to make an assumption here for the purpose of simplicity, which is:
1-T:V will include a 'crouch' key
and
2-T:V may include an 'action key' that is carried over from the single player game.
Both of which may be totally wrong, but for the time being, it makes it easier to illustrate my point.
Terrain/environment
It may be necessary to allow a certain trick to be only performable on certain types of terrain (for example: ice, water, snow, rocky surfaces)
The environment must always be taken into account when describing how the trick is to be done. incidentally, ramps, accelerator pads, walls etc. etc. can be considered parts of the play environment, so feel free to allow them as preconditions for the trick.
Skill level/difficulty
Because skiing is rather routine in tribes, it cannot be considered to be a "trick" really. Sure it takes skill and planning, but what is important is that it's a expansion from the base "run,jump & jet" movement in Tribes that exists on the surface. This is what I'm shooting for when i suggest adding tricks into tribes. An expansion of the movement possibilities available to the player.
Tricks/maneuvers have the potential to totally unbalance game play if they are too powerful or too easy to perform.
For this reason, I think that most tricks should be situated way up there on the upper part of the learning curve depending on how difficult they are to do, and how much they can effect game play.
It also may be desirable to have an element of risk involved in doing the trick. A botched maneuver could result in loss of health or energy, for example.
On the other hand, if the trick bestows minimal actual advantages to the player, there may be no reason to make it impossibly hard. Feel free to discuss and expand this point.
Another thing to take into account is the desired difficulty for each armor type. There are things that you may not want a heavy to be able to perform the same way as a light does, and vise versa.
Physics
Well duh. We are talking about movement after all.
Weapons
Think of disk jumping here. Since we don't really know how T:V weapons are going to work, it's really hard to come up with ideas. But feel free to try.
Now to the good stuff!
Examples
The Skipping Stone
Description:
The player is able to skip across the water like a flattened skipping stone. Each skip increases the difficulty of the next.
Environment:
bodies of Water
Preconditions:
1- The player must approach the surface of the water at an extremely shallow angle and at a above average speed.
2- The player must be in either medium or light class armour in order to perform this trick.
Mechanics:
In this case, the the crouch key or action key would be used at the moment when the player makes contact with the surface of the water.
The player must also be in the "skiing" state in order to perform this trick.
After the first skip, the period between the player being in the air and contacting with the water would decrease, making it difficult to carry out multiple skips. Think of how a stone skips across the water. This is what I'm shooting for.
Failure to hit the water at the correct angle or at insufficient speed would result in the player dropping below the surface or impacting the surface and receiving damage due to the high speeds involved. Timing is of the essence if the player misses the tiny window in which he must press the action/crouch key when hitting the water, then he drops below the surface.
Messing up the surface of the water with explosives would have the same effect.
The Ricochet
Description:
The player, using a series of movements, is able to rebound off of vertical surfaces by pushing away at the last second.
Environment:
Any vertical surface
Preconditions:
1-The player must not be moving toward the surface at too high a speed, or hitting it at too shallow an angle.
2-Possibly only Light or Medium class armors.
Mechanics:
This maneuver could be performed once again by using an action or crouch key in combination with the jump, jet, and movement keys to push off from the surface at just the right moment.
Again, the timing of this move is critical, and the window of opportunity in which it must be performed should very short.
Failure would result in you smacking into the surface and comically sliding spread eagled down it.
The heavy bounce
Description:
This is exactly like the Ricochet only it is performed on horizontal surfaces instead of vertical ones.
The Heavy hits the ground, and instead of just stopping dead, he springs back into the air using the energy from the impact with the ground to his advantage.
Environment
Horizontal surfaces
Preconditions
1- The heavy must be falling from the height that would normally cause falling damage.
2- The Heavy must be falling straight down at a 90 degree angle with only a small deviation allowed.
Mechanics
Same as the Ricochet, only on horizontal surfaces.
The difference being that the heavy will only pop up to 1/2 to 2/3 of the hight that he originally fell from.
The timing must be exact or the player will fail, receive falling damage, and come to a dead stop.
Death from above
Description:
Somewhat like the heavy bounce above, the difference being that you land on top of some poor sap. Falling damage would be transferred from the player into his unwitting victim, driving his head into his pelvis. Damage is scaled depending of the class of armor, the hight, and speed of the player's plummet to the ground.
This would be harder to pull off then it would initially seem. Think about it.
These are just a few examples to give you an idea of what I am driving at. Please be my guest and add your own or critique the ones i have posted here.
what if we were to expand the movement options in T:V? How would we do such a thing, and is it really a good idea in the first place?
Naturally, skiing is the granddaddy of this idea. No one really intended it to happen, but nevertheless, it has become a major part of all three Tribes games.
Skiing is a trick, a skill, and a strategy all wrapped up in one. What if we were to add various tricks of a similar nature to tribes with the goal of expanding one of the greatest strengths of tribes: movement?
Obviously, this is not a new idea. I have seen it discussed in many threads before in varying degrees of depth, and in varying degrees of coherence. The purpose of this thread is to sort of consolidate everything into one place so it can be properly discussed in depth.
So let's begin with what I consider to be important elements to consider when proposing a maneuver or trick in tribes game play.
(for those of you who are bored already, skip down to the examples for more interesting reading. I wont be offended. I just feel I have to lay the ground rules before i proceed.)
Interface
Discussing movement is impossible without first examining what movement options are available using the devices available (i.e. keyboard and mouse)
This is especially problematic in the case of Tribes because we already have a control scheme that rivals many flight simulators in sheer complexity. There is just not all that much room left on the keyboard for more stuff.
So what do we have? At this point, we can not be 100% sure other than the obvious keyboard/mouse combo and the history of the control scheme in the other tribes games.
I'm going to make an assumption here for the purpose of simplicity, which is:
1-T:V will include a 'crouch' key
and
2-T:V may include an 'action key' that is carried over from the single player game.
Both of which may be totally wrong, but for the time being, it makes it easier to illustrate my point.
Terrain/environment
It may be necessary to allow a certain trick to be only performable on certain types of terrain (for example: ice, water, snow, rocky surfaces)
The environment must always be taken into account when describing how the trick is to be done. incidentally, ramps, accelerator pads, walls etc. etc. can be considered parts of the play environment, so feel free to allow them as preconditions for the trick.
Skill level/difficulty
Because skiing is rather routine in tribes, it cannot be considered to be a "trick" really. Sure it takes skill and planning, but what is important is that it's a expansion from the base "run,jump & jet" movement in Tribes that exists on the surface. This is what I'm shooting for when i suggest adding tricks into tribes. An expansion of the movement possibilities available to the player.
Tricks/maneuvers have the potential to totally unbalance game play if they are too powerful or too easy to perform.
For this reason, I think that most tricks should be situated way up there on the upper part of the learning curve depending on how difficult they are to do, and how much they can effect game play.
It also may be desirable to have an element of risk involved in doing the trick. A botched maneuver could result in loss of health or energy, for example.
On the other hand, if the trick bestows minimal actual advantages to the player, there may be no reason to make it impossibly hard. Feel free to discuss and expand this point.
Another thing to take into account is the desired difficulty for each armor type. There are things that you may not want a heavy to be able to perform the same way as a light does, and vise versa.
Physics
Well duh. We are talking about movement after all.
Weapons
Think of disk jumping here. Since we don't really know how T:V weapons are going to work, it's really hard to come up with ideas. But feel free to try.
Now to the good stuff!
Examples
The Skipping Stone
Description:
The player is able to skip across the water like a flattened skipping stone. Each skip increases the difficulty of the next.
Environment:
bodies of Water
Preconditions:
1- The player must approach the surface of the water at an extremely shallow angle and at a above average speed.
2- The player must be in either medium or light class armour in order to perform this trick.
Mechanics:
In this case, the the crouch key or action key would be used at the moment when the player makes contact with the surface of the water.
The player must also be in the "skiing" state in order to perform this trick.
After the first skip, the period between the player being in the air and contacting with the water would decrease, making it difficult to carry out multiple skips. Think of how a stone skips across the water. This is what I'm shooting for.
Failure to hit the water at the correct angle or at insufficient speed would result in the player dropping below the surface or impacting the surface and receiving damage due to the high speeds involved. Timing is of the essence if the player misses the tiny window in which he must press the action/crouch key when hitting the water, then he drops below the surface.
Messing up the surface of the water with explosives would have the same effect.
The Ricochet
Description:
The player, using a series of movements, is able to rebound off of vertical surfaces by pushing away at the last second.
Environment:
Any vertical surface
Preconditions:
1-The player must not be moving toward the surface at too high a speed, or hitting it at too shallow an angle.
2-Possibly only Light or Medium class armors.
Mechanics:
This maneuver could be performed once again by using an action or crouch key in combination with the jump, jet, and movement keys to push off from the surface at just the right moment.
Again, the timing of this move is critical, and the window of opportunity in which it must be performed should very short.
Failure would result in you smacking into the surface and comically sliding spread eagled down it.
The heavy bounce
Description:
This is exactly like the Ricochet only it is performed on horizontal surfaces instead of vertical ones.
The Heavy hits the ground, and instead of just stopping dead, he springs back into the air using the energy from the impact with the ground to his advantage.
Environment
Horizontal surfaces
Preconditions
1- The heavy must be falling from the height that would normally cause falling damage.
2- The Heavy must be falling straight down at a 90 degree angle with only a small deviation allowed.
Mechanics
Same as the Ricochet, only on horizontal surfaces.
The difference being that the heavy will only pop up to 1/2 to 2/3 of the hight that he originally fell from.
The timing must be exact or the player will fail, receive falling damage, and come to a dead stop.
Death from above
Description:
Somewhat like the heavy bounce above, the difference being that you land on top of some poor sap. Falling damage would be transferred from the player into his unwitting victim, driving his head into his pelvis. Damage is scaled depending of the class of armor, the hight, and speed of the player's plummet to the ground.
This would be harder to pull off then it would initially seem. Think about it.
These are just a few examples to give you an idea of what I am driving at. Please be my guest and add your own or critique the ones i have posted here.
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