How would you improve Shock? An exercise in armchair game design. - by The_Raven
The_Raven on 12/12/2007 at 20:48
Something that I've been toying with as of late, when I'm not procrastinating or doing school work, is how to improve the shock series' design. This is just basically an exercise in armchair game design, but I'm curious what some of the thoughts are of the community as a whole. There have been things mentioned here and there in other threads, and I want to attempt to continue that train of thought further.
Things that I've seen, or thought of, in the past that I think are good:
-Using something similar to Deus Ex's skill system.
-Making cyberspace into something more than Descent-lite.
-Having cyberspace have an affect on enemies like the cortex reaver.
-Corpse looting upon death.
-Lowering weapon degradation and have it just increase the probability of a jam, but not fixed like the weapon jams in Shock 2.
-Bring back the hardware extentions from Shock 1, once again probably something closer to the system used in Deus Ex.
-Weapons that are more modifiable, similar to Shock 1.
-QBRMs have a limit, consume more resources, or have the potential to decrement your stats with excessive usage.
-Making hacking a little more interactive, but still strongly tied to your skills.
-Making changes to shoot mode so that you can aim at things without repositioning the camera, a hybrid between the Shock 1 and 2 aiming styles. Probably a waste of time, but I'll put it here anyway.
That's pretty much the limit of my ideas for now.
I have a sneaking feeling that this thread won't turn out the way I originally intended. :p
RootbeerTapper on 13/12/2007 at 00:21
Corpse looting upon death... Hmm
Does that mean I could get the Nicky Sim card off the dead guy on the Sim Bed before the hybrids crash in assault him and steal his card?
Gwenaelle on 13/12/2007 at 14:47
Psi needs reduced? Yeah, maybe some of the powers that serve absolutely no purpose could be removed, sure. But having played from Cryo Recovery A all the way to Rec/Ops with NOTHING but psi and, from Hydro on, a relatively untouched laser pistol, I can tell you right now that if anything, Psi needs a BOOST. ...Cyborg Assassins and cryokinesis...
A really really big one.
Then again, maybe Gwenny's just a moron.
ZylonBane on 13/12/2007 at 17:12
Quote Posted by The_Raven
-Making cyberspace into something more than Descent-lite.
What are you talking about? Cyberspace in SS2 isn't even remotely similar to Descent.
Gwenaelle on 13/12/2007 at 17:54
Quote Posted by Alinestra Covelia
Sorry, my bad. Psi needs to be reduced in number so that what's left is genuinely useful.
It's unbalanced because it's too weak at the moment.
I realize it wasn't clear what I meant and it might have looked like I was saying Psi was TOO powerful, which is not really the case.
THAT I can agree with. But what's left needs a boost anyhow. If someone actually went and made a mod to balance and reduce psi (maybe condense it into 3 levels with more stark contrast in pricing for the "training" or whatever it is) I'd be happy.
catbarf on 13/12/2007 at 20:34
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
What are you talking about? Cyberspace in SS2 isn't even remotely similar to Descent.
I think he means 'Make it different, but not like SS1'. I liked the cyberspace in Dystopia, something like that would be interesting.
SalaciousCrumb on 13/12/2007 at 22:21
I would like to have more PSI powers which manipulate the environment. I would like to use telekinesis to push enemies down a stair or push a crate towards them. Just being able to pull objects towards me is a bit boring.
At least, there are not enough valuable objects to pull to make this PSI power interesting. Maybe some more items should be placed out of reach for a non-PSI character.
A storyteller mode would also be nice for multiplayer. One player gives out tasks/quests and Cybermodules and controls enemies (maybe he should be able to control enemy characters from first person view as well as from overhead view), the other players have to survive/solve the quests.
I actually stole this idea from Vampire: The Masquerade.
The alert should be harder to abort rather than just having to click the "security box".
Gwenaelle on 14/12/2007 at 00:50
The psi pull was poorly named anyhow. The name for it should be "Telekinesis" or "Psychokinesis", and that same name should ACTUALLY apply to all things that directly affect reality, including cryokinesis and both of the pyrokinetic psi powers.
I say this as a crackpot practitioner of psionics IRL.
Things that directly affect visible reality in a large way are strictly Psychokinesis.
Things that have to do with "thorns damage" (the local pyrokinesis would lose the fire, for example, have a much shorter duration, and have ANY ATTACK THAT DAMAGES YOU do a similar amount of damage to the attacker ad it would instantly fall into this category) are strictly Empathy. Also, anything where you take damage in order to damage an enemy would fall into this category; we could squeeze Soma-Redirection into this too.
Things that affect electronics are, silly as it may seem, Telepathy. This is for a simple reason involving electrons in the brain and electrons in computers that I really don't want to get out my thesis on. This would NOT apply to freezing of enemies and the like, that's in the next category. (EDIT: I realise I forgot to explain how this falls in to biokinesis. Fixd.)
Lastly, we have Biokinesis, which applies strictly to healing and damaging biological targets without extremely obvious physical affect. It also applies to the "Psi Shields" but not the Metacreative Barrier, that's Psychokinesis. Also, freezing organic targets is biokinesis, although in the real world it (loss of movement) would be permanent or do heavy damage.
You give me a list of the current ones (including effects and why the bad ones are bad) and a day and I can come up with (technically) feasible alternatives to the current crappy psi powers and sort them all by their "branch" of psionics. Now, if someone makes a mod out of them... I will emit squeals of unbounded joy, and my family will consider hauling me to my very own 5 by 5 alabaster cell.
You call me a crackpot and get a rant extending over several posts about how, yes, I AM a crackpot, and I'll be damned if I don't enjoy every last second of it.
Gwenaelle on 14/12/2007 at 01:01
Quote Posted by SalaciousCrumb
I would like to have more PSI powers which manipulate the environment. I would like to use telekinesis to push enemies down a stair or push a crate towards them. Just being able to pull objects towards me is a bit boring.
At least, there are not enough valuable objects to pull to make this PSI power interesting. Maybe some more items should be placed out of reach for a non-PSI character.
A storyteller mode would also be nice for multiplayer. One player gives out tasks/quests and Cybermodules and controls enemies (maybe he should be able to control enemy characters from first person view as well as from overhead view), the other players have to survive/solve the quests.
I actually stole this idea from Vampire: The Masquerade.
Gwen doesn't like this idea much. Not that it breaks a whole lot, but you just KNOW some retard will withhold CMs right after you get the keycard to the Boss Lair of Doom. It will be used to completely ruin the game experience for at LEAST one group of players and you know it. On the other hand, those of us who don't suckle on the teat of complete stupidity might have some fun with that. Well... No. That's a lie.
Those of us who don't suckle on the teat of complete stupidity foresee this being done, at least once. And they foresee the goon who thought it up giving a blowjob to a Remington, courtesy of one very ticked off stupid kid who got floored by a shitty ST.
Don't steal ideas from games that you have to be a bigger nerd than me to enjoy. Please.
Chuck on 14/12/2007 at 01:39
I think it's time for another visit from Crocker....
