New weapon - Timebomb

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asciimonster
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New weapon - Timebomb

Post by asciimonster »

I was just replaying Command&Conquer Red alert. It features this abosulutely coold device called "the Chronosphere" and I was thinking about a weapon that transported you to the position the bulllit hit, but then I got a better idea.

Here it is: The timebomb.
Basically, when you pick up the timbomb-flag and press "fire" it warps time around your position. All tanks in your vicinity move half as fast (preferably you want this effect to be location specific, because it allows you to run from the warp effect, but I know this is really hard to implement. So let's stick to all tanks nearby). Also shooting and reloading is slower. The instegator is only slowed 25%. You can show this by dimming the abient light by the appropriate amount and playing a "shwoosh" kinda sound, making it really cool.

As you are further away from the origin, the effect is exponentially less strong; tanks far away are not affected. Also the effect decays exponentially for all tanks. And of course, the effects a two tanks using it at the same time multiply, i.e. if you are initiate and are (closeby) hit by a timebomb your speed is 75%x50%=37.5% of normal.

Of course, this weapon needs a complemetary bad flag, a bomb that speeds up time. However, ideally, I would like the timebomb to be unprdictable. That the direction and size of the time warp effect is chosen randomly when fired.

Muffin, let's hear you words of disapprovement now. :wink:
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A Vicious Muffin
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Post by A Vicious Muffin »

Your* words.

When I disapprove, I don't mean to be mean or anything, it's just that some of these ideas a little...interesting. :wink:

It would be too powerful, in my opinion. Something that slows people's bullets and speed could almost make it impossible for them to kill you. Even if it slows you down a bit, people might get bored by sitting around going very slowly. I sure don't like chgging around in a slow burrow tank. You may be invulnerable to shots, but you can get squitshed very easily.

Good idea. And I don't always disapprove ideas.
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Post by dango »

umm... yeah... Cool idea but..... it's almost impossible, if not impossible, with the current code. The current code does not tell tank positions, so you could not tell where a tank is in the field. and the decaying effect would be complex, but just one field of slowing down would be much less complex. I don't think bzflag uses ray tracing, so the light bending effect is a no-go. In 2.2.0 this might work, because that code (i think) knows the tanks' exact locations. But the flag sounds more like an annoyance than anything else.
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L4m3r
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Post by L4m3r »

This is not even remotely possible in any half-decent network game.

You can't just slow down the game- there are others playing too. Either you force everyone else to sit through slow-mo, or you throw the gamestate totally out of sync. Either way, it sucks.
Optimism is just a milder alternative to denial.
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biggeruniverse
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Post by biggeruniverse »

Well, it is possible, and no, it doesn't throw the gamestate out of whack to do it. You're not actually slowing down time, your slowing down the tank speed, shot speed, reload speed, etc. Also, it certainly is possible in the current code, since it's essentially SW.

All that said, I don't like it. Sounds like it would be little more than frustrating.
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blast
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Post by blast »

biggeruniverse wrote:Well, it is possible, and no, it doesn't throw the gamestate out of whack to do it. You're not actually slowing down time, your slowing down the tank speed, shot speed, reload speed, etc. Also, it certainly is possible in the current code, since it's essentially SW.

All that said, I don't like it. Sounds like it would be little more than frustrating.
Essentially shockwave? huh? Last I checked, shockwave just kills people. It doesn't affect their perception of time. This is not something that would be possible with "current code", because it's not as simple are you are making it sound. The way you are describing it would be a cheap hack.
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Albino Blacksheep
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Post by Albino Blacksheep »

A Vicious Muffin wrote: It would be too powerful, in my opinion. Something that slows people's bullets and speed could almost make it impossible for them to kill you.
I agree with muffin in that it is a very powerful flag. I dont think i would play on servers i knew had that flag
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whispershadow
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Post by whispershadow »

What biggeruniverse is saying, i think, is that sw is essentially an area of action that effects tanks. It just so happens that the effect is death. It would seem to me that it would be quite possible to set the effect to be something like having the "a" key down. I do not know enough about the way the shots work to know if it would be possible to slow the shots down.

another thought: What about your teammates, would it affect them? If my teammate slowed me down, i know I would be mega pissed
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biggeruniverse
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Post by biggeruniverse »

blast wrote:
biggeruniverse wrote:Well, it is possible, and no, it doesn't throw the gamestate out of whack to do it. You're not actually slowing down time, your slowing down the tank speed, shot speed, reload speed, etc. Also, it certainly is possible in the current code, since it's essentially SW.

All that said, I don't like it. Sounds like it would be little more than frustrating.
Essentially shockwave? huh? Last I checked, shockwave just kills people. It doesn't affect their perception of time. This is not something that would be possible with "current code", because it's not as simple are you are making it sound. The way you are describing it would be a cheap hack.
Last time I checked, large portions of bzflag are a cheap hack.
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blast
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Post by blast »

biggeruniverse wrote:
blast wrote:
biggeruniverse wrote:Well, it is possible, and no, it doesn't throw the gamestate out of whack to do it. You're not actually slowing down time, your slowing down the tank speed, shot speed, reload speed, etc. Also, it certainly is possible in the current code, since it's essentially SW.

All that said, I don't like it. Sounds like it would be little more than frustrating.
Essentially shockwave? huh? Last I checked, shockwave just kills people. It doesn't affect their perception of time. This is not something that would be possible with "current code", because it's not as simple are you are making it sound. The way you are describing it would be a cheap hack.
Last time I checked, large portions of bzflag are a cheap hack.
Doesn't mean we have to add any more. If you want this kind of gameplay, go play FEAR: Combat.
"In addition to knowing the secrets of the Universe, I can assure you that I am also quite potty trained." -Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho)

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