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Sauerbaten multiplayer gameplay

by Aardappel_ on 01/31/2006 00:28, 117 messages, last message: 03/02/2006 15:01, 83920 views, last view: 05/18/2024 22:39

This thread is meant for discussion of recent sauerbaten multiplayer gameplay enhancements.. there will be a new release today, and should be suitable for extensive multiplayer testing.

Some of the highlights sofar (read history.html for details):

- sauer masterserver
- "mastermode" cheat prevention / server privacy
- gameplay balance and feedback changes (additional graphics)

After testing, please comment on the multiplayer experience on this thread. Also, suggestions for further improvements are welcome, though I'd prefer to hear about improvement to existing features, or how we can improve the feedback/feel, as opposed to the usual "I want weapon X and game mode Y from game Z"

Board Index

#1: Persistent Powerups

by Aardappel_ on 01/31/2006 00:44

Also... I have a crazy gameplay idea that I could use feedback on.

Basically, one thing that is always kinda repetitive about DM gameplay is that after getting killed you completely start from scratch again in terms of weapons/armour etc, which makes it there is nothing to really work for rather than just kills and items.

I think something that could spice up DM play is persistent powerups. These are items much like quad, but once picked up they are valid till the end of the game, as opposed to time limited or until you die. The powerups would give small gains (such as +10 or +20 max health) which are almost insignificant, but given that a number of them spawn during a game, collecting significantly more of them than your opponent could make you a lot stronger towards the end of the game.

So it provides a focal point, as collecting these powerups becomes important to your chances later in the game. Also, it provides for different flavours of gameplay, as players are more powerful towards the end of the game, meaning they can't be killed as easily, meaning strategies and battles change, giving more variety to the otherwise "the same every spawn" gameplay of DM.

There are dangers in balance, of course. The items should be powerful enough that people want to go for them, but not so powerful that having one or two of them already makes you significantly stronger. It is fine that if one player collects all and the other none, that towards the end you have to put in a lot of effort to get a kill, this is part of the game. And with games lasting only 10 minutes or so, this is fine.

If needed, there can be caps set on the number of powerups carried at once (powerups collected when the cap is reached replace earlier powerups).

Icons above a players head could indicate what powerups the player currently possesses.

Also, to help the casual gamer, and the fact that with a large variety of powerups it would become rather random knowing when which one spawns, I would suggest adding a sound/voice 5 second before spawn that announces its arrival. Rather than being random, this focusses the battle of all players on the powerup area, which has proven to be interesting tactically in other games. Pro players use timers to know these things, but I don't feel our community is at the level where that kind of level of play is common.