Brink Q&A

(Voxie) #1001

Got a couple o’ questions (to steer this thread back to its focus):

Will there be two modes for voice chatting on the PC, one for team chat and one for global chat?

A nifty feature TF2 has is that you can specify the minimum and maximum pitch for your hitsound, making high-damaging hits sound high, and low damaging hits sound low or vice-versa – very handy when using the shotgun. Could this feature make it to Brink?

The leaning in the Container City preview seems a little off (looks like you’re tilting your head 60 degrees or so towards your shoulder rather than leaning your whole body to the side), has this changed?

This might have been answered before: how does the intro on the maps work when there’s 16 players on a server? If everybody just run around jumping all over the place, how will the dialogue and choreography work? Is it non-interactive or non-existent, et cetera?

Will there be an option for us PC players to store accounts to the SD/Bethesda backend (like in ETQW, the Battlefield series, et cetera) – as well as online account-only servers? The huge benefit is of course that you won’t play against people who has used external program to unlock everything in the game, but on the flip side it won’t allow you to bring your singleplayer character online.

(tokamak) #1002

I think it’s when you skip the intro, you jump right into a warm up with morons juggling grenades etc, however, if you stay in the intro you maintain the ‘illusion’ of all the player models acting out their story.

(Voxie) #1003

Ah, I see. So the second the warmup ends all the player models will warp to their “real” positions, or will everyone spawn in the default spawnpoints?

(maggol) #1004

Does BRINK story will have a controversial element?

(tokamak) #1005

They intend to make the whole story controversial, both sides only see pieces of the puzzle which most of the time should be completely warped through misinformation.

Besides, with global warming being the main antagonist, you’re already set.

(maggol) #1006

[QUOTE=tokamak;213448]They intend to make the whole story controversial, both sides only see pieces of the puzzle which most of the time should be completely warped through misinformation.

Besides, with global warming being the main antagonist, you’re already set.[/QUOTE]

I mean controversial like the Airport scene of COD:MW2

(Shiv) #1007

that scene was cheap trash designed to propogate media attention.
It was also part of the story… but it wasnt needed and didnt do anything for the game or gaming scene.

Why would you want something like that?

(tokamak) #1008

I must say that I found it one of the most intense singleplayer experiences ever. But whether that was controversial or not plays no part in it.

(H0RSE) #1009

I mean controversial like the Airport scene of COD:MW2
I felt bad playing that mission. All my friends were like, “wasn’t it awesome!” and I was like, “No, I felt bad. I didn’t even want to play that mission.”

(maggol) #1010

True, first time i played it. It’s give me a cold feel and something. Can SD replicate that scene but for multiplayer thing?

(signofzeta) #1011

I think if you aren’t going to feel bad playing as the bad guy, then the airport scene in MW2 isn’t going to be a problem to those same people.

Hey, it happens in grand theft auto all the time.

At least here, no one is dubbed as the bad guy, only to the opposing faction that they are the bad guy.

(SockDog) #1012

I found GTA IV’s moral sub-plots far more emotionally involving that MW2’s Airport scene which just feels forced like a kid screaming swear words for attention.

Not sure you can translate that into MP gaming though, those tricks only work once or twice (if at all). I guess the closest I’ve come is playing L4D on a finale when someone goes down and you have to make a decision to cower like a coward in the corner or risk everything and probably die trying to save your team mate.

These are all events with finality though. You make a decision and there is no going back. With an objective and respawning gametype I’m not sure what you could hook into that story/gameplay wise which wouldn’t then just break the game or get you shouted at for doing it.

(3Suns) #1013

Major OT
I have never played a game more spontaneously and realistically intense or emotion-evoking than Left4Dead. There is nothing contrived or scripted about the dilemma of rescuing your friends at the risk of your own life. In all other games that I know of, the designer “sets” the stage to force you to make “good” or “evil” decisions (e.g., saving the little sisters, sparing the NPCs life), but we always know that our choices will eventually raise our “honor” or “notoriety” and so we can see the end from the beginning. In L4D the choice is real. We don’t know what will happen if we stop to revive our teammate. We may all make it to the safe house, or it may cost all of us our lives.

(Nail) #1014

that’s what I like about online, no scripted storyline to follow. That MW2 airport thing was just guaranteed advertising, put something really controversial, but skippable in the game and even News programs will give you free advertising.

(SockDog) #1015

[quote=3Suns;213531]Major OT
I have never played a game more spontaneously and realistically intense or emotion-evoking than Left4Dead. There is nothing contrived or scripted about the dilemma of rescuing your friends at the risk of your own life. In all other games that I know of, the designer “sets” the stage to force you to make “good” or “evil” decisions (e.g., saving the little sisters, sparing the NPCs life), but we always know that our choices will eventually raise our “honor” or “notoriety” and so we can see the end from the beginning. In L4D the choice is real. We don’t know what will happen if we stop to revive our teammate. We may all make it to the safe house, or it may cost all of us our lives.[/quote]

This is exactly it, and it makes me a little sad when people go off on L4D like its a bore because I know they don’t see the game in that way. They see it as a challenge, “Get from A to B”, instead the fun and immersion comes from the journey from A to B. Sounds a bit queer but its really like a game of cops and robbers as a kid, you can make it fun with your imagination or you can make it boring if you just pew pew.

For Brink, well there just has to be a certain finality about your actions. I guess they could include a coop mode through the maps with no respawn just medics etc. Would need lots of balancing though I’d guess. I think on the surface it would be fun though, more so that a straight one sided coop mode against bots.

(Nail) #1016

I think most PC online FPshooter aficionados want to play pew pew, not get immersed in a life drama. For me both gore and storyline are important in Single Player shooter, makes you feel part of the story. In Multi the drama is different, now it’s you against real people, not scripted bots (predictable/learnable), there’s a more urgent sense of reality to me when I’m thinking of the opposing team as actual people. I can’t do that with AI

(3Suns) #1017

That is a really cool idea - they could even make it just an optional mode, “Realism”. lol It isn’t the game on “Insane” being just more difficult, but rather a qualitative change. You start with 8. No respawn, just revive. Can you do it? No outside help. Those who think it “slows” the game down too much, can just avoid the mode altogether. Those who want to heighten the RPG element, can storm the game on Realism.

(And yes, to what you said about L4D.)

(Nail) #1018

ok, now you got 16 medics

(SockDog) #1019

Well 8 (8 humans vs 8 bots). Yes some balancing would be needed. In L4D you don’t have classes to worry about but you have limited resources. In Brink maybe you’d have limited class changes so it would make sense to stay with your class (all medic team can’t win). Or simply make it part of the challenge that each team has only so many of each class available. Or another idea but a bit more extreme, remove the medic class and give everyone “medkits”. I think it could be done but I admit it’s not a simple click & finish suggestion.

re your post on L4D. I agree single and multi are two different beasts however L4D does stand out at bringing both experiences together very well.

(3Suns) #1020

Ha ha Actually, I don’t think so, and I don’t think you would need to go to the lengths that SockDog proposed (i.e., taking out the medic).

Really, I think it would be the ultimate test of the game’s design - are all of the classes really needed? Limit lives and find out. If the medics (or any other class) alone could do everything, then the game is very poorly designed.

I am not saying that it is practical or even possible - I don’t know enough about the game. However, I think it is a very cool idea (even just as a throwaway game mode). And indeed, what if SD just provided this “8 Lives” mode where everything was the same, except there was no respawn - and when all lives were lost, the amount of cumulated XP etc were your score.

It would be kind of like a Brink flavored “Horde/Firefight” mode. Immediate foreseeable problems would be waiting the round out after you had died, but your teammates were still fighting on - that problem, however, didn’t stop the Gears players from playing a lot of Horde (its most popular MP mode). Perhaps upon completion of certain objectives, then the team is filled out again. etc.