Arbiter [alpha] Suggestions?

[legacy-UT2004Addict]

Download: http://www.arclength.net/ut2004/arbiter.zip

Okay, so most people know the Arbiter from StarCraft. It cloaked nearby allies, had some gnarly special abilities (Stasis Field and Recall), but had almost no hitting power.


I've been playing with this puppy off and on for MONTHS -- so it's FINALLY in semi-working order. Note that this vehicle is in its ALPHA stage, so it's totally imbalanced for real play.

Here's what's finished so far:

* Cloak field hides nearby allies; bots can't see 'em either

* If you get hit in the Arbiter, one of your cloaked bot allies will get mad and go attack your assailant.

* Stasis field freezes all enemies AND enemy projectiles. This lasts for 5 seconds.

* Its main attack (Warp Spheres) only explode on contact with the ground; they travel right through Pawns, causing minor damage to anyone that gets near.




Generally speaking, I want to keep the Arbiter slow (this test version is way too fast), and keep its offensive damage low with slow-traveling shots.

Now, here are some questions:



* RECALL vs. BANISH

I don't want to do recall for 2 reasons:
- That ability is already in development for a few other vehicles
- Bratty kids can recall the team to the far end of the map (or over empty space / lava), making life generally unpleasant.

So, I figured I'd try something like "Banish", where you teleport enemies /away/ to the next closest power node. Does this sound too powerful?



* POWER DRAIN

When I impliment the power system, I want cloaking to drain the Arbiter's power meter significantly. Any thoughts / objections?



* WARP SPHERES

The Warp Spheres are too similar to Xyx & T-Shinzon's "Ball Lightning" from the Lightning Tank (Man, I LOVE that thing! ); I want to do something different. I was toying with the idea to make them teleport enemies around to a random spot when the Sphere exploded, but that seemed a little too strong. Any ideas?




Okay, back to other things...

UT2004Addict

[legacy-WinkyBoy]

I figured I'd try something like "Banish", where you teleport enemies /away/ to the next closest power node. Does this sound too powerful?

You can always figure out ways to make things NOT too powerful; for example, you might do this, and in return it drains all the power from the arbiter, uncloaking its allies, etc.

If that's not enough (and it doesn't really sound like enough), you could make it only available after an obvious warm-up time (i.e. you hold the "banish" key down for a few seconds, the opposing team gets to see the arbiter making these flashy "I'm gonna banish you!" special effects, and THEN it happens. Something like that.

When I impliment the power system, I want cloaking to drain the Arbiter's power meter significantly. Any thoughts / objections?

Hmm.. I believe the original had no penalty for cloaking allies, didn't it? Are you planning this to be press-a-key-activated, or automatic for any ally within range? If it's automatic, I should think it SHOULDn't be too draining, otherwise you're going to have to fly out-of-range of your allies until it matters. (Example; if you start a new map & immediately hop into an Arbiter, if the power drain is significant you're going to start the map with a pretty-drained meter, since your allies are all around you.

I was toying with the idea to make them teleport enemies around to a random spot when the Sphere exploded, but that seemed a little too strong. Any ideas?

... slow-travelling Warp Spheres that can be shot down by energy bolts (like the shock rifle?)

[Xyx]

* Stasis field freezes all enemies AND enemy projectiles. This lasts for 5 seconds.

Wow, for that alone I'd grab it! Gotta see that in action!

- Bratty kids can recall the team to the far end of the map (or over empty space / lava), making life generally unpleasant.

My general theory is that bratty kids should be banished by admins. You can slow bratty kids down, but you can never stop them.

I'd try something like "Banish", where you teleport enemies /away/ to the next closest power node.

That sounds very cool and relatively powerful at the same time. Setting someone back to their own node is like killing them and forcing them to respawn. Then again, a big vehicle destroying a tiny person in one shot isn't exactly uber.

Depends on how easy it is to target people with this.

I want cloaking to drain the Arbiter's power meter significantly.

If cloaking cannot be sustained, it wouldn't do much good. You have to be able to traverse the entire map while cloaked or the element of surprise is lost.

How about draining just as much as is replenished, so the Arbiter has (almost) no power to spare for offense?

... slow-travelling Warp Spheres that can be shot down by energy bolts (like the shock rifle?)

Just don't make 'em slower than the Arbiter itself, or it'll bump into its own warp spheres...

[legacy-WinkyBoy]

Another thought: You ABSOLUTELY need some kind of method to show teammates that they're next to an invisible teammate. I'd started a botmatch and forgotten that I still had the Arbiter mutator in there. The bots & vehicles around me started disappearing (and because a BOT was jumping in & out of the Arbiter...) again and again. I thought there was some strange glitch going on until I remembered.

I have doubts that it would be easy for cloaked characters to be shown to teammates (other than the driver of the Arbiter), so I understand if it's not possible... but that would help so much.

[Xyx]

If turning stuff invisible is a client-side effect, it could relatively easily be made dependant on the client's team.

[legacy-tortisetank]

Hey UT2004Addict long time no hear. I love the Idea and bet this thing will be a pain if you are at the wrong end of it. I'll get you the updated files for H.A.V. tonight when my folks are sleeping and I can use my desktop. My labtop messed up UnrealEd on my computer so I can't make any new files right now. This craft rocks dude i give it a :up: :up: :up: :up: thumbs up......that includes toes.

[legacy-UT2004Addict]

Hi all

WinkyBoy: Yeah, I figured I'd take a big bite out of the Arbiter power bank for that one. I'll probably start the power reserve out as empty, so people can't just get in and use it right away.

Oh, the cloak field will be user-controlled eventually. You're absolutely right about the visual indicator for the cloak -- I'm working on how to pull that off. Ideally, I'd like an overlay that only allied players can see. I need to learn how pre-activated power nodes make that gold shimmer ONLY visible for the team that can activate them. Similar observer-state-dependent conditions exist for that blinky green light on Weapons Lockers.

Destructable warp spheres doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'll toy with that one. Thanks!




Xyx:
You bring up an excellent point: teleporting someone back to a node is ALMOST identical to killing them -- just no "victory point" for the frag, and they don't lose their weapon assortment. Hmmm... may have to scratch the Banish idea then...

I agree, being able to cloak AND continuously attack is too strong. I'll probably freeze the energy meter so it can't recharge while the cloak is on.

BTW, sounds like you have experience with team-dependent views / rendering. Any suggested websites / files to look at?




TortiseTank:
"Long time no hear"? I sent you an email yesterday. ??

Computer crashes always suck. Good luck recovering from that one.

Thanks for the design compliments -- although I really gotta hand it to the Starcraft team for coming up with such a unique vehicle.




Laters all!

UT2004Addict

[Xyx]

teleporting someone back to a node is ALMOST identical to killing them -- just no "victory point" for the frag, and they don't lose their weapon assortment.

Which is still inferior to striking them with charged twinbeams...

If you allow it to work on vehicles (as well, or only), interesting things could happen. Then a banishment would not be similar to a kill, since you retain the vehicle. It could even be used on friendly units in a pinch, to get them places faster.

sounds like you have experience with team-dependent views / rendering. Any suggested websites / files to look at?

I wish... All I know is you'll have to check if the local player (GetLocalPlayerController or something) is a teammate. If so, spawn the visuals, if not, don't.

[legacy-UT2004Addict]

Yo

New version of the Arbiter uploaded. Changes:

* Starting to limit the Stasis Field (probably needs longer delay).

* Warp Spheres now set up a little Warp Field when they hit the ground. This hurts stuff in the area only mildly (40 dam / sec for 4 seconds). So, these are only effective against stationary targets on the ground (turrets and power nodes), since they still don't explode on contact with people. They're still slow as hell, so the only way to die is to purposefully just stand there. Still thinkin' about making them destroyable or not.



Xyx
Yeah, I was thinking about keeping the vehicles intact. So, for some, it would actually HELP to be Banished, since they could heal themselves and their vehicles back at a node. The only sacrifice would be whatever battle was lost at the point of the Banish. On a related note, though, this investigation will force me to learn some new stuff about the Power Node structure, so I might be able to produce some code you'd find valuable on your own projects.

I'll be lookin' more into the rendering stuff as time permits -- I'll letcha know if I find anything.




Laters!

UT2004Addict

[legacy-[WGS]Gatlin]

Bump?

[rest-in-pieces]

wel i played sc {starcraft} alot so i would like the see your 3-d model of the 2d sc arbitor (protos rocks![dark archon mind control!!!]) by the way you could simply use the cloaking thing this way: use adrinale combo inviseble = endles til outa range, but then again vehicles = ons = no adrenaline

please make cloaking/decloaking like in the part one cutcenes (no idea wich one)

[ION3]

The original Arbite didn't cloak the units completely. There was still the distortion effect left.

[rest-in-pieces]

like with al the sc cloaced units. you know they are there but you can do nothin (unles you have a detector unit nearby that can move and therby spot it) if adict can do THAT it would rock

[Lorin-Slasher]

Okay, i know this mod is from last year, but I'd like to know if there's been any progress.