Would you be interested in this?

Would you be interested in this Multiplayer Mod?

  • No

    Votes: 2 5.9%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 5 14.7%
  • Yes

    Votes: 27 79.4%

  • Total voters
    34

Kon

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Name: Surface Reflex

Description: A first person shooter with a twist. Players are geared up in a "gravity point suit" which allows your suit to syncronize it's gravitational pull with the targeted surface plane(the face's normal), in other words: The player hovers his crosshair over the surface they wish to make their new ground plane, and when pressing a button their gravity direction is adjusted accordingly. If a player's suit takes a critical hit(their backpack), their gravity is restored to the map's default direction.
sr_concept01.jpg

5 minute conceptual shot.

Equipment:
  • Gravity Point Suit: Allows the ability to walk on any surface. All players are equiped with this. It converts zero point energy into useable power, but uses it faster than it can make it when the suit is activated(undecided).
  • Safety Cable(Hook): This can shoot a cable into a surface, allowing you to be connected to a targeted point. Useing this along with the suit can open up different ways of traverseing a map.
  • Gravity Gun: The generic weapon from HL2. Pick up objects and shoot them, object's gravity is the map's default direction.
  • Scrambler: This is a sort of tazer, which when shot into a suit's backpack, causes it to malfunction and go in random directions.
  • Motion Detector Mines: Can attach these to any surface.
  • Railgun: Standard railgun.
 
Looks very interesting.
I'd be interested.
 
But only if M. C. Escher was a mapper for it.

haha yeah email him :D but yeah id certainly be interested especialy if some of the maps were similar to some of the etchings by escher especially the one with the caterpiller type things
 
Most certainly interested. In fact I can see a whole bunch of spin-off styles arising from this. Very good idea that should be used.

I also see a number of people becoming sick from playing or watching something like that though, the brains of a lot of people might really have difficulty coping with watching such a unique take on physics. Kind of like motion sickness I guess.
 
Thanks, MC Escher seems like a good source for references/inspiration for maps..
At the moment I am trying to organize what would need to be done, required.

I don't think the suit would be too difficult to implement, a coder could probably implement some sort of wind tunnel effect for each player which would accelerate them towards their current surface plane, and rotate their character so they stand upright. It can probably be done so that there isn't too much disturbance in their aiming while they rotate.

As for the safety cable/hook, it would just be some method of connecting one of the hl2 wires to the player and a surface.

The gravity gun would function as it normally does.

The scrambler would apply similar effects as to the upgraded gravity gun, but more violently by changeing the direction of the player as well(so they fly around aimlessly).

The motion detector mines would act much like the Hoppers in hl2, but capable of attaching to all surfaces.

The railgun would act like the Strider's railgun, but without the powering up.


As you can see, there's alot of stuff which is already implemented in hl2 which would get reincorporated and transformed into a new playful form.
 
Thanks, that would be much appreciated.

As for content, to start off there would be just one player model with a backpack built into his suit(it is the part which generates and stores the energy for the suit). It would have its own bounding box since it can be shot.

1 shot to a backpack from a railgun causes it to short circuit and drain the energy from the suit. A second shot causes it to explode. So a player's task would be to guard their backs from being exposed to enemy shots(similar to a lasertag type of thing, but more deadly).

The player can also take physical damage if shot directly by the railgun(maybe 3-4 times at the most without recieving any health starting from 100%). Players can take damage by falling long distances or being hit by a fast object too.

As for the Safety Cable/Hook, it probably won't need any weapon model because it can be built into the suit and connect to the waist area(like a belt). It would be used like the flashlight in hl2.

The gravity gun could stay the same as in hl2.

The Scrambler weapon I'm thinking could be better if it was a grenade type of weapon which maybe emits a disruptive frequency into a nearby player's suit. Simple to model/skin.

The motion detecting mines would also be simple to model and skin.

And the railgun would eventually need a model and skin, but could use a hl2 weapon for temporary purposes.

All that would be left would be maps, which could be anything probably(most likely enclosed areas)..
 
Reminds me of Ratchet & Clank

They implement that kind of gameplay in single player.
 
you said the gravity gun should stay the same. i dont think it should. if you want a gravity gun then have a new weapon model. have you thought about different gametypes? imagien capture the flag liek that. itd be awesome.
 
It's the alien from AVP2 with the wallwalk toggle - slightly different, but sure to be fun for similar reasons.
 
Sure, it would be fairly simple to change the gravity guns model to something else I'd assume, although this task wouldn't have a high priority, but would probably need to be done before the mod is complete.

As for other modes of gameplay, I have thought about this.
I'd want to keep it to just one at first, so that the team could focus and get something made quickly(such as regular deathmatch), but I could forsee other modes being introduced, such as:
team deathmatch: self explanitory.
capture the flag/tug-o-war: as you mentioned(but perhaps a little different where you have to hook your cable to the flag or whatever it is and drag it back(others can hook it as well and have a tug-o-war)).
I'd also be interested in different map aspects, such as a control room in one that may perhaps control the default gravity direction, or a control that causes the gravity to become zero, or both.
Those things would be the extra/bonus things once the preliminary stuff is complete.
 
houndeye said:
Heck yes!

But only if M. C. Escher was a mapper for it.
ahahahah!

I love the mod idea btw, sounds Ender's Game inspired.
 
**** yes. I love the idea of it and the tactical possibilties it creates, as long as it isn't overdone/overcompliximafied (at least not to start with).
 
* Angry Lawyer slaps it with the big stick of unfeasibility

I'm not sure how, code-wise you'd manage to get players to hook onto the normals of the surfaces. It seems really, REALLY difficult to code, but if you had someone with a lot of coding experience, it'd make a fun twist on things.

-Angry Lawyer
 
ill make a gravity gun model for you an ill get evan to texture it :D. i really think any mod should have custom models for everything. angry lawyer any tips on where to look for the wall walking?
 
I don't hit things with the stick of unfeasibility without meaning it. I have NO idea where you'd look to do it.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Finding the normal of a 3d plane involves some 3d calculations which can be found online, but I wouldn't be surprised if the variables involved are already calculated since its required to render any scene I believe.

My idea is to limit the gravity force to only 6 possible directions(the basic axis of x/y/z. any 90 degree change which aligns you with an axis.)
If you can't check the alignment of a surface plane, then we'd just check the direction the player is looking, and find the closest match. This way the player just looks towards 1 of 6 directions(a little polygon on the hud could change to show which alignment you can toggle) and then presses a button.

or we can even include a simpler version which involves a key for each direction, such as the numpad(4 is the place on the left side of you, 6 is the right, 8 is forward, 2 is back, and 5 is above. you dont need a key for the plane below since thats what the current plane is.) or something.

or another idea would involve a slightly different approach as above and include the movement of the player to help choose the plane. For example: the player can move left and press the gravity key and itll change to the closest matching plane to the left of the player, the same with right, forward, and backwards. You can jump and press the key and it'll check for a plane above the player since the player is moveing upwards at that moment. So you can for instance jump forward at a wall and press the gravity key and itll change accordingly and you will now be able to stand on that wall.

as you can see, there is more than one way to do this, and probably can provide more than just one for the best ease of use.
 
You stole this from my idea! In the General Games Chat forum! BLAST YOU!
 
I'm sure loads of people have had varying flavours of "alternate gravity" ideas, only like Angry Lawyer most of them decided it was too complicated to pull off. :)

I've had it too, only my version had the same gravity for everyone, controlled by switches around the level... you're happily running along, when suddenly the ceiling becomes the floor and anyone with too much space above them falls to their death. :)
 
Kon said:
as you can see, there is more than one way to do this, and probably can provide more than just one for the best ease of use.

There's many ways of theorising how to do it, but it's the actual implementation that's a bitch to do.

-Angry Lawyer
 
One question thought..the Prop physics...which surface should the Props stick to? And when you use the gravity gun, which way should the stuff you shot Gravitate to?

If you stand on a wall and shot someone on the floor with the gravity gun, would the, lets say a Barrel, would the barrel hit him, then roll on the floor and onto the wall, or would it lay down on the floor?
 
I think I already mentioned a little how that would work, but I'll try to clear that up:

Props would fall how they usually do, with the default gravity direction of the map. (The props aren't wearing the gravity point suit which the players are wearing).

Though perhaps it could be implemented on some maps so you can change the default direction of the gravity through the use of some specific device, which in turn would effect the props.

Additionally, it should be noted that players can connect their safety cable to props, which should produce interesting gameplay.
 
Fluffy Kitten said:
Worst case scenario, you could always do it like a skulk in Natural Selection...
That is pretty much the worse case scenario, since the ladder code cannot be implemented to do the same thing in Source as in GldSrc. This is one of the reasons NS:S is, well let's just say 'considerably set back'.
 
It's a cool idea, but not really workable, what if you had something that stuck the person to the floor, like the boots attach to metal?

but good luck with it
 
Angry Lawyer said:
I'm not sure how, code-wise you'd manage to get players to hook onto the normals of the surfaces. It seems really, REALLY difficult to code, but if you had someone with a lot of coding experience, it'd make a fun twist on things.

-Angry Lawyer
Have a look at CyberSpace in Dystopia to see how it can be done. You can easily get the surface normal via the ClipVelocity function in the gamemovement code. The 3d maths is a bit tricky, but the hardest part is finding and removing all the checks the hl2 engine has to stop you moving freely in the z axis while you've got a ground entity.
 
sounds great, it'll be cool if you could have a botton to turn on-off the suit, hell yeah!
 
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