Symptoms - Read This

[frvge]

The distance is better. Not great. Still not a fan of it.

[Digital-Maniac]

The distance can be done but then the next problem would be... besides the health draining faster, there should be an indicator of the amount of poison... can the screen get blurry?

[frvge]

Yes.

[neth]

Im against slow-down effect cause it would almost always mean that spy is dead if theres no mate nearby. You should have a chance to heal yourself alone.

[Digital-Maniac]

^^That's perfect!
Poison should distort your vision, maybe the strength of the poison could determine how blurry it gets...

So now I have three suggestions
1 - Depending on the location of the poison mine (Head, shoulders, knees n toes) the spies health drains faster or slower.
2 - The distance of the Poison mine from the place where it strikes a spy would determin how much poison is left and how much is injected into the spy.
3 - Giving the merc the option of selecting the strength of a poison mine which would effect the range its funtions at

ie -
       A strong poison mine would inject a highly concentrated dosage poison into the spy but would only work at 30% of the distance if the spy cuts the laser after that
       A Medium poison mine would inject a moderate amount of poison and would effect the spy in a certain way
       A weak poison mine would be the weakest dosage

or from the image you can picture... 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% effectivness

and instead of the health draining faster or slower, your screen would just become blurrier and blurrier, maybe some kind of screeching sound effect?  Maybe as your health drains, your screen gets bluurier and blurrier, maybe blood shot?
You better know the maps well if your screen starts to blur because if you dont you may miss a door or even a health box near you...

What type of blur effects are available? 
If you guys are serious about adding such an effect lets see what can be done
maybe a few cheap samples.
Or instead of a screeching sound, maybe we can get sounds of nades exploding or machine guns from the spies past wars/batles. 
Has anyone ever played "Eternal Darkness" on the Gamecube?
Think of the Sanity effects, those were some of the most WICKED effects I have ever seen in gaming.  Here is a list of the effects just to give you a general idea:
[edit] Sanity effects
The game's standout concept, patented by Nintendo,[2] is the "sanity meter", a green bar on screen which is depleted under various conditions, generally when the character is seen by an enemy. It can be restored under various conditions, such as performing a "finishing move" on an enemy. As the bar becomes low, various effects occur, reflecting the character's slackening grip on reality. If the bar remains empty, further damage to sanity decreases the player character's health.

One effect which is consistently used is a skewed camera angle accompanied by whispers, cries, and other noises. The lower the sanity meter, the more skewed the camera angle and the louder the sound effects. Fourth wall breaking effects include simulated displays with messages apparently produced by the TV or the GameCube; this does not affect gameplay unless the player misconstrues them as actual technical malfunctions and turns off or resets his or her system, thereby losing all progress made since his or her last save.

There are many different sanity effects, the amount they last depends on each effect, and not all effects will necessarily be encountered during a given run through the game. A few more commonplace examples include:

- Sounds, such as footsteps, women and children screaming, doors slamming, and the sound of a blade being sharpened. Imagine hearing a Merc charging at you or his gun going off, maybe you hear his gas mask nearby, this could effect which direction you run in
- Paintings in the environment transforming to depict different images (such as an idyllic mountaintop scene changing into a raging inferno). Though this would be cool in an art gallery it's prob too much, maybe the sharks in a stage like aqua could all go belly up n die
- Walls and ceilings bleeding. Attacking them causes more effusion. (this could be cool, if its easy to implement)
- When casting a spell, the player character's body above the waist violently explodes. (LOL)
- Appearance of large numbers of monsters that are not really there, and disappear when attacked. (Imagine seeing 5 mercs coming at you)
- The player character's head falling off. When picked up, the head begins to recite Shakespeare (specifically, Act III, Scene I of Hamlet). (LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL)
- Character or monsters shrinking or growing. (Maybe the spy could have an effect where the walls are shrinking in on him?)
- A version of the blue screen of death. (lol)
- Statues and busts turning to look at the character. They turn back to original position when the character faces them. (Sharks in aqua or any statues?)
- Character whimpering and babbling to him or herself. (would be cool)
- A "to-be-continued" message and promising continuation in a sequel game: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Redemption.
- Body parts systematically falling off one by one. imagine this?
- Character walking into a room from a previous or future chapter that uses the same location. Perhaps the spy runs out of a room and BAM he thins he's back in it then a flash takes him back outside
- Character accidentally shooting him or herself while reloading. This would be awesome
- Alex walks into a room and sees a dead body. Upon inspection, the body becomes seemingly animate, or turns out - to be her own, then everything returns to normal and a woman's loud scream is heard or a man's voice whispering, "The Darkness is coming." scary as hell
- Character entering a room on the ceiling; after a while the player finds him- or herself back outside the door used to enter the room. This was SWEET!
- Character sinking into the floor. Some may call this a glitch
- Entering a room as a zombie, forced to wander the environment in this form until destroyed (and thereafter reappearing at the room's entrance as though nothing had happened).
- When trying to save, instead of the usual "Do you wish to overwrite saved data" screen, there is a "Do you wish to delete all save files" with the options "Yes" and "Continue without saving." No matter what you do, all files appear to be deleted.
- A volume bar appearing (much like that on some televisions) that shows the volume increasing, decreasing, or being muted. cool on a TV not sure about a PC
- The word "VIDEO" appearing in the top-right corner in green text on an otherwise black screen, mimicking the "video" channel setting on most televisions when the game system is turned off.
- Insects swarming all over the lens of the camera. this was fun
- Game suddenly stops responding to player's commands just as the player-character enters a room full of zombies. -heh
- The screen displays an error message claiming that the controller has been disconnected. Meanwhile, the zombies attack and kill the helpless character. maybe a 'fake' merc can knock out a spy then the screen flashes and the spy is back up... and running again, though the health draining has to be paused for a second
- Upon entering the inventory screen, all boxes will appear empty and player will be unable to flip through the different pages, simulating a lock up.

I know some of these are wayyyy too ambitious, but to get an idea of what can be done, some of these things may be cool.  What do you guys think?

[Daybreak]

I think that amount of detail would be hard to program and as seefoo said, be buggy.
I'm not sure how my idea would be buggy to implement because, if tied in the speed of which you lose life to the speed of the spy, it wouldn't be. If it did, then that would mean that changing speeds and such would be buggy and that would be bad for the game. Maybe it's not as simple as i think it is.

In anycase, the sanity affects are cool, but during a multiplayer game would be quite annoying. It seems that we all agree that when random things occur in an mulitplayer game of any kind. It sucks.

[Digital-Maniac]

Yes I imagine how some could be annoying/buggy

Lets see which I would like the most

From my favorite to the least favorite

*****Poison me and my screen gets blurry, blurring more as my health deteriorates
*****hearing a Merc charging at you or his gun going off, maybe you hear his gas mask nearby, this could effect which direction you run in
*****- Character shrinking or growing. (Maybe the spy could have an effect where the walls are shrinking in on him?)
****Character whimpering and babbling to him or herself. (would be cool)
**** Character accidentally shooting him or herself while reloading. This would be awesome
****- Character sinking into the floor. Some may call this a glitch

[Gawain]

wtf now you're suggesting to make poison mines even more complex oO
the main problem with poison mines and spy traps is that their use heavily depends on the map design. there are some lame spots (like storage on orph), but in most positions poison mines aren't strong against reasonable careful players. imo poison mines need a huge change to make it impossible to jump right over them and seperate them more from traps.

[LennardF1989]

No offense but, making options like how strong the poision would be wont help the game's pace.

You should be able to pop out the mine in no-time, without having to make decisions. I could already imagine myself trying to figure what the best option would be and being necked.

[Digital-Maniac]

yes, i considered the time it would take to Arm a mine and imagine selecting through menus could take a few seconds which could result in getting knecked or knocked out.

Maybe keep it simple?
Poison mine = draining health = screen gets blurrier & blurrier as your health level sinks

[neth]

I like the idea that spy keeps hearing things that dont happen.

[Digital-Maniac]

I like the idea that spy keeps hearing things that dont happen.

Yes, it's not too over the top but wouldn't you agree that hearing gunshots from your left would be awesome combined with the blurred vision?  so u cant really tell 100% if a merc is nearby?

The sounds need to be random gun shots & explosions different each time it happens, this way it doesnt become repetitive. 


Isn't it amazing how in one thread everyone can flame you and in another they can co-exist?
I love the internet! :-*

[Westfall]

I like the idea that spy keeps hearing things that dont happen.

Yes, it's not too over the top but wouldn't you agree that hearing gunshots from your left would be awesome combined with the blurred vision?  so u cant really tell 100% if a merc is nearby?

The sounds need to be random gun shots & explosions different each time it happens, this way it doesnt become repetitive. 


Isn't it amazing how in one thread everyone can flame you and in another they can co-exist?
I love the internet! :-*

Why would the spy need to have his vision blurred while poisoned? It will only cause video lag. Both the sound and vision crippling aren't necessary if the spy is about to die. The screen blurring might be okay, but it doesn't really need to be implemented. The idea is the symptom of poison. Remember the spy is in 3rd person. 1st person would make more sense.

[neth]

Because graphical effects are cool.

[Digital-Maniac]

It is third person, but that doesnt mean you cant blur the screen... I think it happened to lara croft at some point, not too bad