Which body type is your favourite? (part 1)

(Rahdo) #101

Yup, actually hitboxes for head, torso, and all four limbs. Not just one big monolithic one for the whole body anymore…

(tokamak) #102

Yeah I couldn’t remember where you said that. You could already see how well the hit detection worked by seeing blood splatters coming from some guy’s arm in the demo.

In UT there wasn’t an advantage to beinng big was there there will be in Brink. What the advantages will be isn’t really clear yet. And even if some class/body combinations aren’t ideal for certain situations, I’d still like to see the game encourage people to try it anyway and improvise than to load up another character.

(kilL_888) #103

i am wondering about if i can change my bodytype when playing a match.

im not sure anymore but i think i read something about, when you create your character you choose your bodytype and have to stick with it?!

do i have to create 3 characters for each body type?

i mean. im pretty sure sometimes i would like to play the agility guy, sometimes the big, tank (speaking mmo here) guy and sometimes even the medium balanced guy.

i voted medium btw, but i like all three equally though.

edit: on second thought i think its actually a good idea of having 3 characters. 1 for each bodytype but each one levels seperately.

(tokamak) #104

Yes, see creating your character as if you were playing a MMORPG, you pick the body size at the start and will have to stick with it for that character. If you want a different body type you create another character and start levelling that one.

My concern is players hopping in and out different characters as much as they would be changing characters. I really can’t see that improving the game in any way. Sure you might not always have the ideal body, but so does everyone else playing the game.

A nice compromise would be to only allow xp being build on the first character you join the server with. Any other characters you switch with after that will not receive anything until the match has ended (and then the xp only goes to the character you start your next match with).

This way a player can sacrifice his progress for an easy way out of emergencies, yet players remain encouraged to stick with what they have.

(Rahdo) #105

Yeah, we’re still working out the particulars on this topic, but i can say pretty definitively that you can change your body type between matches, but once you’re in, you’re that type for the match. as toka mentions, the big question is how do we deal with players completely changing characters mid match. jury’s still out on that one.

(tokamak) #106

Between matches is of course no problem. But changing or staying in a character shouldn’t be equally rewarded.

Maybe you could tie that endurance (xp gain factor builds up over time) feature to characters. So every-time you switch character your endurance resets.

Or better, reset endurance fully when switching in the middle of a map, and only set it back one level if switching in between maps.

(Diablo85) #107

Need to play it first before I really can say for sure, but it will be between light and medium. This kind of reminds of a game I played in the past, Unreal 2 XMP. It also let you choose between light medium and heavy classes. I usually was the light one for mobility reasons.

(Jamieson) #108

If the Grenade launcher is going to be classed as a heavy weapon then the Heavy looks quite appealing. In the videos shown the GL looks to be very powerful.

Still think speed is the key but can’t really decide between light and medium i keep changing my mind.

Just give me an Assualt Rifle :smiley:

(MLG X9) #109

I’ll most likely be Light

But, I’ll try medium

Heavy isn’t for me.

(stealth6) #110

I really can’t see what the big deal is, so they change size mid match so what?

you can just change too, so it’s not like they have some huge advantage all of a sudden.

I don’t see what sticking to you character adds to the game, people that want to of course can, but I think other people will just get frustrated and want to change.

Maybe another idea would be to have a training ground to test out your character before hand, get used to it (make changes if needed). Rather then having to wait a whole match to apply changes.

(tokamak) #111

If people can change mid match without any drawbacks, the picking your body size at the start of the game becomes trivial. It doesn’t matter what you chose, you don’t need to think about anything if you can adapt on the fly anyway.

(stealth6) #112

question remains so?
for me this is looking more and more like and rpg, xp systems to get unlocks, designing you character??

This is supossed to be and FPS, in my eyes having unlockables just means you are getting an ‘uncomplete’ game and I will probably just grind the achievements untill I can play the in my eyes ‘full game’
And looks are also just a cosmetic, sure it’s fun to have but at the end of the day if I’m wearing a blue t-shirt or a red t-shirt I just want to shoot people.

(tokamak) #113

Designing your character indeed. Having a character you can build on and let it specialise in your way of gaming adds so much more depth to a game than just toggling a few skills here and choosing a gun every time you respawn.

The rudimentary basics is what made ET stand out of the rest of the shooters and I definitely hope Brink will take this a whole leap further.

Picking a body type and sticking with it belongs to this. What’s more, if you make it possible to change your body on the fly, then this becomes the new norm, people who do want to stick with their character will be put at a disadvantage.

#114

The reason for the worry is that the objective based game play is directly affected by the type of character.

For instance, a section you need speed, be light, then the next objective requires a lot of time stationary pressing “use” so be a heavy, the next objective requires you to dash between wide open spaces taking heavy fire in between cover, so you take medium. Gaining an advantage for each objective in the process.

By “locking” body types you have to look at the whole map tactically or make sure your TEAM is tactically comprised of the right combination of types for each objective.

I like the xp/rewards being tied to the “character” swapping weapons and accessories is cool, but characters is a bit meh? Provide a “loyalty” bonus to xp and we will see a lot less. Especially if loyalty buffs are things like, extra accuracy, speed, clips, etc. And stuff that n00bs can get, as all they have to do is rack up time, not actually be any good. Then the “anti idle griefer system” can take care of idlers a long with server admins!

edit: or have it only benefit that round/campaign! Then idle stat padding does not matter, but the loyal guy in the last map has some nice buffs over the guy who swaps!

(tokamak) #115

Then there’s also that if you can change as you want, eventually specific body type/class combinations are ‘not done’ and you will only see people playing in the same combinations (just as happens in COD everyone plays on a few popular builds).

Let’s say being a heavy operative is slightly less effective than being a light operative. It would simply mean that you won’t ever see heavy operatives in the game, where as locked body types will cause players to take on whatever class regardless of their body-type just because the mission status calls for it. It means there will be far more variety in the game. You will have 12 basic builds (3 types x 4 classes) playing the game instead of four (only the perfect class/body combos)

(stealth6) #116

ok, I can see your point now, will wait for further updates to see how it progresses :slight_smile:

(Ragoo) #117

[QUOTE=tokamak;202784]Then there’s also that if you can change as you want, eventually specific body type/class combinations are ‘not done’ and you will only see people playing in the same combinations (just as happens in COD everyone plays on a few popular builds).

Let’s say being a heavy operative is slightly less effective than being a light operative. It would simply mean that you won’t ever see heavy operatives in the game, where as locked body types will cause players to take on whatever class regardless of their body-type just because the mission status calls for it. It means there will be far more variety in the game. You will have 12 basic builds (3 types x 4 classes) playing the game instead of four (only the perfect class/body combos)[/QUOTE]

I hope it’s not like heavy operative << light operative all the time. I hope for a game where in some situations the heavy is better in others the light. Even if the light is better 90% of the time, the heavy operative still has his right to be in the game.

And I don’t like your idea of this forced variety because if you are not playing in an organized team (pub) it could happen that one team has the perfect balancing of body types and the other has a totally wrong one (in extreme situations only heavies or only lights).
Now let’s say that the defenders are well balanced and can set up an effective tactic while the attackers are only big slow heavies. The attackers will probably get raped.

OR let’s say the defenders need the same balancing of body types throughout the whole map but the attackers could use a team with many many lights on the first objective but would need many heavies on the second. They will end up picking mostly medium sized characters and only have an average tactic on both objectives.

To sum it up, I would neither want to be on a pub server in a team with only lights/heavies nor would I want to play this game in an organized team if we can’t adapt to the objectives.
You can’t see a map as a whole because the different objectives might require completely different play from you and your team and therefore different classes/body types.

Oh and what just came to my mind: If you have a good tactic but the enemy team play the exact counter tactic and you can’t adapt because you can’t change your character you are just screwed. Now you would say then they will have to play innovatively but for me it just sucks knowing that a team that is worse than my team can beat me just because my team picked wrong characters at the beginning of the game. It’s just frustrating.

I talked about body types now but it’s even more important than that because depending on which character you chose you will not only have different body types but completely different abilities unlocked. So my arguments about body type are like 25123% more important seen from this angle :smiley:

(tokamak) #118

I’m not saying it should be forced, I’m saying that changing character in the middle of a match should come at a cost. Otherwise players will feel compelled to keep switching characters, it would be stupid not to do it.

And specific body types should never be needed. Classes are needed, not body types. They only offer specific advantages in specific situations. A heavy medic should not attempt to to do the same things a light medic does and vice versa. But even in the case where certain body/class combinations are disadvantageous people still should not feel tempted to switch characters.

And as for an organised team vs an unorganised team, being able to freely characters would be worse. A well organised team would be able to quickly adapt itself by all continuously changing characters. When they’re attacking they can turn into a lightening fast cordon of light lemmings and when defending they can turn into a wall of meat and guns protecting an objective. All that in a blink of an eye.

Oh and what just came to my mind: If you have a good tactic but the enemy team play the exact counter tactic and you can’t adapt because you can’t change your character you are just screwed. Now you would say then they will have to play innovatively but for me it just sucks knowing that a team that is worse than my team can beat me just because my team picked wrong characters at the beginning of the game. It’s just frustrating.

You forget that the the enemy team can do the same thing, which makes it a rock/paper/scissors game where you can constantly change your hand.

(Ragoo) #119

[QUOTE=tokamak;202797]
And as for an organised team vs an unorganised team, being able to freely characters would be worse. A well organised team would be able to quickly adapt itself by all continuously changing characters. When they’re attacking they can turn into a lightening fast cordon of light lemmings and when defending they can turn into a wall of meat and guns protecting an objective. All that in a blink of an eye.

[…]

You forget that the the enemy team can do the same thing, which makes it a rock/paper/scissors game where you can constantly change your hand.[/QUOTE]

And why is that a bad thing? That is what Enemy Territory games are all about. Having a tactic, getting countered, adapt to it and re-counter and so on. This is how tactically deep games should work and in the end the better team wins :slight_smile:

But I completely agree with this:

I’m not saying it should be forced, I’m saying that changing character in the middle of a match should come at a cost. Otherwise players will feel compelled to keep switching characters, it would be stupid not to do it.

If it is possible but comes at a cost I’m totally fine with it. But I would only like to see something like less XP but NOT something like you do less damage when you switch character :wink:

(tokamak) #120

There’s nothing tactical about being able to select body types on the fly though. I rather see body types as way of adding texture to a game, it’s a random variable that both teams need to adapt to accordingly.

I think there’s nothing wrong with making players relog from a server in order to change character. That way at least changing characters isn’t officially endorsed by the game. Then, if the game features endurance like in SH (an xp modifier that increases after you stay longer on a server), the penalty for changing characters will be losing your endurance. That way changing characters is free when you’re just new on the server, but expensive the longer you’re around in the matches.