Community Question: Mines and Friendly Fire

(badman) #1

Community, all of our games thus far have featured a variety of explosives you can sneakily plant in the world, ranging from mines and satchel charges to outlandish contraptions like the Third Eye Camera in Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. Generally, you’d stick them down somewhere (preferably hidden from direct view) and wait for an unlucky enemy to meet their fate. What has varied over the years is the matter of friendly fire: Do these devices inflict their fiery pain on anyone nearby, or just enemies? That’s what we’re looking to find out in this week’s community question:

Should plantable explosives such as mines have friendly fire by default, or not?

Please cast your vote in this week’s poll and, if you have particular reasons for or against, share them in your replies. We look forward to reading your views!

(DarkangelUK) #2

Friendly fire but shouldn’t be triggerable by a friendly. If an enemy sets a mine off and a team mate is near by, then yes it should cause them damage too.

(UJERebel) #3

I chose for Deployable explosives can be triggered by anyone - including friendlies - and will inflict damage on anyone nearby.

I think it’s the most realistic, but the team should have intel about friendly mines and such (mineflags in W:ET). Otherwise a team can just barricade an important hallway with mines, and they can cross so it ruins the gameplay.

(Humate) #4

*mines - yes, triggered via the enemy
*third eye / flyer drone - yes
*he charge - yes

reasons:
*consistency - keeps everything clean and simple
*humour - its funny getting tk’d by a mine an enemy triggered.
*mitigates spam somewhat

(light_sh4v0r) #5

Voted enemy triggered but friendly damage as well. Makes mine placement something that you have to consider carefully for maximum efficiency and minimum friendly damage. No friendly damage is a bad idea, that makes mines very random.

I like the slight delay in ETQW on proximity mines, you could use that to dodge them carefully or to cause enemy teamkills.

(Dthy) #6

ETQW did it right again… :smiley: I agree though, mines should be triggered by everyone. As already stated can lead to some lol moments.

(ran93r) #7

Enemy triggered but friendly damage if they are staring it in the face.
Can you imagine the hilarity of friendly triggered mines? Sitting around at bases/spawn “yeah I’ll just pop a couple of these on your head fella”.

(TheSgtBilko) #8

Just make it server dvars and let server admins set whatever they feel suites their clans type of gameplay best.

But if these are the only options then #2.

(tangoliber) #9

This sort of thing should be customized. As much customization as possible is good. That goes for consoles too(match browsers with custom games)… not just PC. I would imagine that games which let players set everything from which weapons and abilities are enabled to bomb countdown times and respawn times end up having the longest life. Hell, add customization options that don’t even make sense, just to show off how much freedom you are giving the server owner or match creator.

(Humate) #10

badman: the first option should state how they are triggered via friendlies. eg nades rockets etc
Otherwise it reads as friendly players triggering by simply walking near them. cough

(Miki) #11

Depends on the way they are triggered. If it’s ET style and you have to walk over them, I’m fine with teammates getting damage. If you want the ET:QW style where it’s triggered by proximity, it’s harder to avoid and should not receive team damage.

(UJERebel) #12

Aha I totaly agree. I didn’t know it worked this way in ET:QW . So my post is about W:ET :smiley:

(stealth6) #13

Teammate spends 5 minutes planting mines in front of base. Sprint over them detonating them all and killing myself in the process.

(Humate) #14

Tactically the way it works in etqw is - you place mines in areas mainly as a replacement for someone with a gun.
So your team might opt to place mines on the entrances leading to an objective with your team-mates sitting on/around the objective.
Or you might have your team-mates out on the entrances, with the objective mined. Teams rarely have their own players standing where their mines are, because of the friendly fire damage but also because its poor area control.

In pubs that sort of thought process doesnt really happen, so they will guard a mined entrance and get owned by a lemming that tries to run past them.

(deems) #15

I didn’t vote for any options, because I think this is a good area where you can have variety. It’s an opportunity for asymmetrical teams and choice within your class. Pick a mine that has certain benefits but other disadvantages etc.

Deems

(.Chris.) #16

W:ET and ET:QW did it right for what each game was.

In W:ET it made sense that running over team landmines set them off and you would get injured as a result, it’s a believable approach aside from the flag business though can let that slide.

In ET:QW it wasn’t that too far fetched that the proximity mines could be set off by only the enemy, been a sci-fi game and all. If you’re standing near friendly landmines at chokepoints then you deserve the TK.

(Humate) #17

I thought etqw did it best cough

(DarkangelUK) #18

RtCW did it best, no mines! \o/

(Breo) #19

What about the first option but damage depends on who trigger it and which team the mines belongs.
E.g. if you trigger a friendly mine you will have more chance to survive (less damage) on full health or if you trigger a friendly mine it has a longer timer to find cover :eek:

For the poll I would go for 2

(Indloon) #20

Well said D: