A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

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Second Illiteration
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A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by Second Illiteration »

Well I've had some level ideas circling around in my head for a while, and slowly the bare bones of a story and how it would related to game play have been falling together, so I wanted to share a couple of the ideas I had the last day or so (one this morning while I was still half asleep). I'm going to try not to give away too much story details, the questions/ideas will just, for now, focus on gameplay.

First question is a simple one. While playing Skyrim yesterday, I noticed grass blowing in the wind and thought "Why not in Trespasser?" Now this seems like it would be fairly easily doable, simply with animated textures. Am I right? I'm not too clear on animated textures or their limits, but if somebody has some input on this working (or if it's been done already) let me know.

Now my next questions, and this is for people with level building knowledge, but also I'd like some input from players. I had and idea this morning for something that I think potentially adds a different dimension to Trespasser gameplay. My level starts off with the player being dropped off on a pier by boat. Now my idea is to start the player off with a pistol, one that does low damage, but still better than nothing. Then the player would have the second option of what to take out of (so far) three option. One would be an ammo pack, one would be a walkie talkie, and the third would be some kind of hacking computer device.

The ammo pack would allow you to reload the pistol when it runs out, but only the pistol.
The walkie talkie would allow you contact with intel from someone off the island at certain points in the game, possibly offering alternate routes or hidden areas.
The hacking device would allow easy access to running keycard locks and certain electronic devices. Regular key locks wouldn't be affected by it.

The player wouldn't have to keep any of these things throughout the level, still having the choice to carry different guns/objects they find.

So my questions are: Are these things possible (I think they should be, from what I've picked up over the years of t scripts and certain actions that exist.

Second question is to players: Does this seem like a cool gameplay element?
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Re: A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by Dragonlord »

Should be doable with some trigger magic if you don't need the items to be with the player. SetVariable should do the trick with teleporting the other items away once you touched one of them. That would be how I would approach it. What goes for the idea I like it as it can potentially alter how the player can find a way through the map later on.
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Re: A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by machf »

Second Illiteration wrote:Well I've had some level ideas circling around in my head for a while, and slowly the bare bones of a story and how it would related to game play have been falling together, so I wanted to share a couple of the ideas I had the last day or so (one this morning while I was still half asleep). I'm going to try not to give away too much story details, the questions/ideas will just, for now, focus on gameplay.

First question is a simple one. While playing Skyrim yesterday, I noticed grass blowing in the wind and thought "Why not in Trespasser?" Now this seems like it would be fairly easily doable, simply with animated textures. Am I right? I'm not too clear on animated textures or their limits, but if somebody has some input on this working (or if it's been done already) let me know.
Yes, I've done that sort of thing. Maybe it should be released already... need to talk to Slugger and Rebel about that.
Now my next questions, and this is for people with level building knowledge, but also I'd like some input from players. I had and idea this morning for something that I think potentially adds a different dimension to Trespasser gameplay. My level starts off with the player being dropped off on a pier by boat. Now my idea is to start the player off with a pistol, one that does low damage, but still better than nothing. Then the player would have the second option of what to take out of (so far) three option. One would be an ammo pack, one would be a walkie talkie, and the third would be some kind of hacking computer device.

The ammo pack would allow you to reload the pistol when it runs out, but only the pistol.
Probably done already in that level Drac released with a flintlock pistol or something... and I wanted to do something like that for my arena level too.
The walkie talkie would allow you contact with intel from someone off the island at certain points in the game, possibly offering alternate routes or hidden areas.
What, like getting access to new hints?
The hacking device would allow easy access to running keycard locks and certain electronic devices. Regular key locks wouldn't be affected by it.

The player wouldn't have to keep any of these things throughout the level, still having the choice to carry different guns/objects they find.

So my questions are: Are these things possible (I think they should be, from what I've picked up over the years of t scripts and certain actions that exist.

Second question is to players: Does this seem like a cool gameplay element?
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Re: A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by Second Illiteration »

machf wrote:
The walkie talkie would allow you contact with intel from someone off the island at certain points in the game, possibly offering alternate routes or hidden areas.
What, like getting access to new hints?

Well, basically there would be triggers at certain locations, when the player uses the walkie in one of these location, a voice over would play (the voice over would be someone from the boat or something that feeds intel). But if the player tried to use the walkie outside of one of these locations, they would just get static. Basically they would just have to keep checking the walkie, because they wouldn't know exactly when they would get intel
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Re: A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by Dragonlord »

Second Illiteration wrote:
machf wrote:
The walkie talkie would allow you contact with intel from someone off the island at certain points in the game, possibly offering alternate routes or hidden areas.
What, like getting access to new hints?

Well, basically there would be triggers at certain locations, when the player uses the walkie in one of these location, a voice over would play (the voice over would be someone from the boat or something that feeds intel). But if the player tried to use the walkie outside of one of these locations, they would just get static. Basically they would just have to keep checking the walkie, because they wouldn't know exactly when they would get intel
Would it not be better to have just a trigger zone so when the player walks in the walkie gives an incoming-noise so the player knows he could get some info if he answers the walkie? This would avoid having to frob the walkie all the time figuring out when you can get info. Maybe though it would be too simple but I would certainly prefer this solution than having to guess all the time... unless it is quite obvious when it is the right time to use the walkie.
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Re: A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by Hilwo »

Nice idea :) Kinda like perks or traits, right?
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Re: A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by Second Illiteration »

Yeah it would be like that. It would give different players the option of tackling things in a different way
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Re: A Couple Interesting (possibly new) Gameplay Ideas

Post by Hilwo »

I'm a sneaky bastard, I'd go with the hacking device.
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