Brainstorm: Game Modes

by Quin on 08/30/2007 05:20, 188 messages, last message: 12/17/2007 01:10, 135841 views, last view: 05/18/2024 15:41

As fun as Sauerbraten is to play online, it gets a bit tedious after a while, the problem being that the number of unique and playable game modes are limited.

Some of the reason behind CTF being opposed is that it is far too common in FPS games these days. What we need is something fresh, new, and unique in some way.

So.. Any ideas for new game modes? What kind of game would you play? Maybe you've got some awesome game mode idea that you haven't voiced, or a killer idea that would work if only it had something else?

This is where it is up to *us* to come up with something *new*, that will make our online fragging that much more varied and enjoyable. Let's all bash out some ideas and come up with something that is both suitable, and have half a chance of actually getting added to Sauerbraten.

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#149: Very Simple Game Type

by tman_elite on 12/02/2007 04:23

This would only really work for levels that have two distinct bases, such as face-capture, or just large levels.

There are two teams (there would have to be something preventing people to make extra teams), and each team gets a base (or opposite sides of a large level. Either each time has say 50 lives, and the first team to run out of lives loses, or the first team to 50 kills wins. Of course the number can be changed. In either case, players would have to be automatically respawned so that they can't just sit there being dead to prevent the other team from getting kills. There would also be a time limit, so the team with either the most kills or the most lives would win when the time runs out.

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#150: Assassin Mode

by Cube2Noob on 12/03/2007 18:06

First, I've only discovered Sauerbraten (or Cube for that matter) in the past couple of days, so take that for what it's worth.

SOF had a mode called "Assassin". I loved it, and I've never seen it in any other game. (Granted, I may have missed it -- there's lots of stuff I haven't played.)

The beauty of Assassin is that it's self balancing, so it's fun even when you've got a large mix of skill levels playing on the same server.

At spawn, you are assigned a target -- a specific other player on the server that they have to frag.

Everyone else on the server is a "friendly" -- EXCEPT for those players who are targeting you.

The better you do, the more people are targeting you. If you are doing poorly, you may only have one person targeting you. OTOH, if you are on an unstoppable streak you may be the target of everyone else on the server.

IIRC, you got a number of points for fragging your target, and a smaller number of points for fragging the people who are targeting you. (I could be wrong on that detail.)

It made for very fast paced gameplay, was great fun, and the self-balancing aspect made it even better than it would otherwise be.

I think that your target and your hunters were differentiated from friendlies by an icon over their heads (I can't remember for sure), but I think this could be just as easily accomplished by having the crosshair change color.

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#151: ..

by Bibi on 12/03/2007 19:17

Assassin mode would be fun, especially in a map like urban_C I think.
________________
Adding game mode to sauer is a good idea, but I think the editing already offers an important potential in order to make more or less experimental gameplay.

E.G.
An (allmost)totally swallowed map, for example, could be interesting in capture, because it slows and it ables vertical moove. What about fighting in the ruin of Atlantid?
Maybe a map built up with asteroids (or some kind of flyong isles), reachable by (a lot of) jumpads and some teleport),with ammo floating in the air would force players too have a more airy gameplay.
Glass could be use in capture to let a player keep a watch on a base, or an important corridor, that would give information about where the enemy could be, but forbid the fight. Clip or noclip could be very interesting too: clip only block the sight, noclip only block the move. The map design must make this intuitive for a player (no matter with glass; a sort of a stargate on the wall could indicate a noclip passing, a thin harrow could be clipped...)

We can play the field with linesight, shooting, and moving. Maybe it is too experimental and not so fun...

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#152: ..

by Bibi on 12/03/2007 19:17

Assassin mode would be fun, especially in a map like urban_C I think.
________________
Adding game mode to sauer is a good idea, but I think the editing already offers an important potential in order to make more or less experimental gameplay.

E.G.
An (allmost)totally swallowed map, for example, could be interesting in capture, because it slows and it ables vertical moove. What about fighting in the ruin of Atlantid?
Maybe a map built up with asteroids (or some kind of flyong isles), reachable by (a lot of) jumpads and some teleport),with ammo floating in the air would force players too have a more airy gameplay.
Glass could be use in capture to let a player keep a watch on a base, or an important corridor, that would give information about where the enemy could be, but forbid the fight. Clip or noclip could be very interesting too: clip only block the sight, noclip only block the move. The map design must make this intuitive for a player (no matter with glass; a sort of a stargate on the wall could indicate a noclip passing, a thin harrow could be clipped...)

We can play the field with linesight, shooting, and moving. Maybe it is too experimental and not so fun...

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#153: ..

by Bibi on 12/03/2007 19:17

Assassin mode would be fun, especially in a map like urban_C I think.
________________
Adding game mode to sauer is a good idea, but I think the editing already offers an important potential in order to make more or less experimental gameplay.

E.G.
An (allmost)totally swallowed map, for example, could be interesting in capture, because it slows and it ables vertical moove. What about fighting in the ruin of Atlantid?
Maybe a map built up with asteroids (or some kind of flyong isles), reachable by (a lot of) jumpads and some teleport),with ammo floating in the air would force players too have a more airy gameplay.
Glass could be use in capture to let a player keep a watch on a base, or an important corridor, that would give information about where the enemy could be, but forbid the fight. Clip or noclip could be very interesting too: clip only block the sight, noclip only block the move. The map design must make this intuitive for a player (no matter with glass; a sort of a stargate on the wall could indicate a noclip passing, a thin harrow could be clipped...)

We can play the field with linesight, shooting, and moving. Maybe it is too experimental and not so fun...

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#154: ..

by Bibi on 12/03/2007 19:19

oups, triple post '~'
Sorry...

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#155: ..

by mucking_foron on 12/03/2007 22:13

Some ideas in general
Well, here are my original ideas I came up with at the time of writing:

Doubles, All players have to stay within 10 feet of another assigned player or they both die. You're not aloud within 10 feet of another set of doubles. Your goal is to work as a team to eliminate all other doubles

Team doubles, same as above though 2 seperate sets which battle against eachother

Map Control, You get points for picking up the items on the map. Fragging has no use other than to clear the way to get the objects. Every object (Ammo, health) can be collected for points. This game would ideally be for no more than 3 people.

Monkey see monkey do: The idol carries out an action then everyone must do that very action to him to gain points. Example: Leader frags someone with rocket launcher. Now you need to frag the leader with a rocketlauncher. Leader gets points until someone manages to carry out the action. After that someone else becomes the leader

Energy Posts: Each player has a portable energy post which he can pick up and drop. It has a radius of about 10 feet. If he leaves this, he dies. These shields can be moved, aslong as their new location is overlappint the current one partially. If someone destroys your post, you lose.

Whodunit: Similar to team deathmatch, but one person on each team is a traitor. These traitors are unknown to the team. They can kill team mates and the name will appear as if someone on the other team killed them. This gametype would probably be very fun as long as no one cheats over teamspeak!

Dodgeball: The game starts with a rocket launcher in the middle. One player grabs it. After that, if he hits someone with a rocket (Including splash) they're out. Whoever the rocket got closest to without hitting gets the next rocket launcher. You can pass it among teammates

-----------NONE ORIGINAL BUT WOULD BE FUN---------
How about some freezetag? (Sort of like the map object idea, but you get frozen). For a team to score they need everyone frozen.

How about some standard CTF or 1flag CTF? What you currently call capture is better known as king of the hill.

Clan Arena, you start the round with every weapon but there are no pickups in the level. It goes by rounds.

Jailbreak, Similar to freeze tag but you get teleported to a jail.

Coop, Is it already here? I think it'd be fun

Hide and Slay, Each round one player is invisible, and can only be heard. He can one hit other players, but it makes him visible for a few seconds.

Gods and Clods, One player is the god, everyone else is against him. Whoever kills him becomes the god. The god has regenerating HP and unlimited ammo

Objective/assault, Straight outta UT/Wolfenstein

Lastmanstanding, (Might already be in?)

Invasion, (Multiplayer DMSP)

VIP, Each team has a VIP. If he dies the game is over

Midair, Make the entire map revolved around using the rocket launcher and getting air rockets. Frags don't count if they're not with rocket/GL(Extra points)

Mortars, Only weapon is an extended range GL, does extra damage.

Line Defence, Each player gets a weapon. All the enemy monsters run along a set track. For each kill you get money, which lets you modify your damage and such. There's a leader board, and whoever kills the least each round is eliminated

Enemy Lines, A group of enemies from both teams run to the middle every 45 seconds. Players get weapons. Your goal is to push one of your enemy lines (Several depending on map) into the enemy fortress.

Community Server, I got this from another post. A server gives each player that enters a certain area of the map he's aloud to edit. each player can make their own arenas, mini towns and artmaps. All sections will light individually and only load sections when you get to them. This would probably work for a sauer/eisenstern hybrid?

(Eisenstern)Large Conquest, I was thinking of this while running around krpg1. You set several spawns throughout the map and you let 128 players go at it, and try to claim as many spawns as possible. As eisenstern is an rpg, you could make it melee base, leaving subquests up to players to go and collect weapons during the conquest

Minimods:
- Grapplehook
- Rockets only
- Speed servers (Increase runspeed)
- Sniperscope
- Sauerbots (Sauermod has these?)
- Walljump
- Vampire

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#156: Re: ..

by jbuk2k7s cookie has gone on 12/03/2007 22:28, refers to #155

We already have 'Clan Arena' - It's called tactics clan arena and it is efficiency, the most fun mode ever, but with teams.

We also have lastmanstanding. I don't know if there is a ffa version, but insta arena is the same principle.

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#157: Re: ..

by MovingTarget on 12/03/2007 22:39, refers to #156

There is an ffa version of last man standing, to my understanding.

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#158: Re: FFA last-man-standing

by MeatROme on 12/04/2007 13:52, refers to #157

Not to my knowledge:
http://cube.wikispaces.com/Multiplayer+Guide#tocMultiplayer%20Guide4

Last addition was "instacapture".

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#159: BattleFront Style Game

by tman_elite on 12/05/2007 02:19

A game style I think would be cool is similar to how Star Wars Battlefront is now. The game style would pretty much be a hybrid of sauer's capture (more like territories or king of the hill) and a score-limit team deathmatch.

You can try to capture all of the opponents bases. Players who are killed have to wait the normal 10 seconds as in regular capture, and can only respawn at bases they control. Once a team has no bases, that teams players can't respawn until their living teammates capture a base. If a team captures all bases, they win automatically.

Alternatively, you can simply kill of the enemy. You could keep score in two ways (count kills from 0, first to a certain numbers wins; or count down deaths from a certain number, first to 0 loses.)

Since it would essentially be capture mode with a kill-limit, it would be pretty easy for someone with knowledge of the code to implement.


3 plus 2 = [??] [ SUBMIT ]

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#160: Snipes vs. Swords

by DUDE_2000 on 12/08/2007 07:37

this was an idea I had for halo 3,
randomly half of the players in an online game get to be sniper, and the other half swordsmen. The swordsmen are extra fast, and the snipers are invisible, for some balance.
Of course, some sort of sword and a sniper scope would have to be made, but it could be fun.

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#161: Re: Assassin Mode

by Aardappel_ on 12/09/2007 21:07, refers to #150

Hmmm, this assassin mode sounds interesting... can you recall how it would work EXACTLY?

So I presume the target assignments start in cyclical fashion, i.e. if you have 3 players, A, B and C, where "->" means "targets":

A -> B
B -> C
C -> A

You'd need at least 4 players for there to be any friends (or neutrals), as with 3 players any other player is either your target, or your their target.

but anyway, lets say A kills B. What exactly happens?

first of all, A -> B has succeeded, so is removed. Then, life must become harder for the killer, so presumably, B -> A must be added. Then, A needs a new target. Presumably that is picked random from all people that are not B (don't want the same target again), so in this case, that HAS to be C. So you get:

B -> C
B -> A
C -> A
A -> C

So now B can kill everyone, and A has everyone as their enemy. Lets assume A is badass and kills C next. We then get:

B -> C
B -> A
C -> A
A -> B

If A kept flipping back and forth between killing B and C, the situation would stay assymetrical like this, with B having more targets than C (even though both suck equally). but if B finally kills C, then the situation reverses.

So seems like this would work decently for 3 players. With 4 or more, I wonder if there is a better rule for picking a new target by the killer than random?

This mode would need 2 kinds of icons above players heads, one for target, and one for enemy (someone that targets you). Friends would have no icon.

It would probably make the gameplay more sneaky, as theres a big advantage to be able to see players without them seeing you first.. but that might be refreshing.

Also, I guess it means that enemies and friends must be invulnerable to your fire.

Best new gameplay idea I have heard in a while... thoughts?

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#162: Re: Assassin Mode

by shadow,516 on 12/09/2007 21:25, refers to #161

I like lots of these game modes actually, the ones in #156 sound REALLY cool (especially whodunnit)

any new gameplay is always refreshing ;)

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#163: Re: Assassin Mode

by Aardappel_ on 12/09/2007 21:44, refers to #162

well, new gameplay modes have to be thought through, many "ideas" sound fun, but they fall apart if you consider all possible gameplay interactions.

I have played all 101 quake gameplay mods there have been through the years too, and most are not that fun after a while. Current sauer already has quite a lot of em in some form or other.

If people want to see new gameplay modes in sauer, it helps to discuss the strongest ideas in detail, and verifying that it would work well in all circumstances. It must not be a gimmick. It must offer something fundamentally, repetitively fun. It must be simple to understand.

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#164: Re: Assassin Mode

by Aardappel_ on 12/09/2007 21:51, refers to #161

as for the assasin picking a new target after killing, I think it should narrow down amongst the other players in this order of filtering:

1. not my last target
2. a friend (neutral)
3. someone targetting my last target
4. the target of my last target
5. random

1 and 5 are pretty much a given, the order of 2/3/4 is debatable.

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#165: Re: Assassin Mode

by JadeMatrix on 12/09/2007 22:34, refers to #161

IMHO, new color:

Red skin: enemy

Blue skin: friend

Green skin: target

Or it could be Red/Default/Blue, or any other order.

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#166: Vampire mode

by ATIRULE on 12/09/2007 23:29

How about Vampire mode you get hp by inflecting damage and slowly lose it if you don't do any If it hits zero u die

Hp power ups would need to be disabled

a variation on that would be vampire CFT

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#167: Re: Assassin Mode

by Quin on 12/10/2007 00:11, refers to #164

Awesome stuff, nice to see something piqued your curiosity enough to make this thread bear some fruit.

My input on the filtering; you could very well make use of the already existing stuff that autoteam does to select a target that is deemed to be "doing well", in conjunction with the leveled filters.

Another thought; the radar could be used to show a 'general direction' of both your target and attacker, so you could attack/defend a little better in the otherwise frantic Sauer environment.

I think solving the stalemate problem with less than 4 people is going to be the biggest issue. Any thoughts on making that work?

Also, maybe some of the work here could help alleviate the "shooting teammate" issue, with the whole "visual indicator" idea that goes with this.

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#168: Re: Assassin Mode

by MovingTarget on 12/10/2007 01:23, refers to #167

I think the assassin mode is a great idea. As to the 'shooting teammate' issue, I think a really good way of alleviating this is to have something like a red 'X' or something similar come over your crosshair when it passes over a teammate.

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