Visual Gas Mask Indicator

[goodkebab]

The basic idea is create an easy keyboard layout for the noobs,  and let the pros modify to their own liking.

I hacked ini files for CT just to get what i wanted,  and will certainly want to do the same.

Players should be able to  do what i did and map multiple commands to a single key:

toggle vision: 1 button

coop/hack objective: 1 button

On top of that,  mapping the keys to conform to priority of use is an individual decision.

i prefer

shift: jump
space:  break neck
alt: grenade  (easy reach for thumb)

etc etc.

with gas mask,  it is a game design that you cannot shoot grenades with mask on  while in a cloud of smoke.

[Gawain]

i don't think the ct devs did this on purpose.

[frvge]

I do. Else the winning chances of the Merc go up exponentially.

[Gawain]

if the whole balance shifts around crap like this they definitely did something wrong big time...

[Farley4Fan]

How have you not noticed that the little things in this game control the balance?  Imagine a merc being able to charge through smoke without a mask on, or the tazer having a shorter shot timer, etc.  The "little things" lead to balanced or unbalanced.  I think Ubi did alright with such a complex game to balance for the things they were trying to achieve.  Mercs didn't win 80% of the time even though they have guns.  Plenty of the details matter.

[Roberto1223]

I hacked ini files for CT just to get what i wanted,  and will certainly want to do the same.

Players should be able to  do what i did and map multiple commands to a single key:

toggle vision: 1 button

Fail, next time just read the controls menu and find out that TAB was already the default for the function of "toggle visions". lol.
and it could be mapped to any single key. no haxing necessary.

[Roberto1223]

i don't think the ct devs did this on purpose.

I agree.

[VaNilla]

How have you not noticed that the little things in this game control the balance?  Imagine a merc being able to charge through smoke without a mask on, or the tazer having a shorter shot timer, etc.  The "little things" lead to balanced or unbalanced.  I think Ubi did alright with such a complex game to balance for the things they were trying to achieve.  Mercs didn't win 80% of the time even though they have guns.  Plenty of the details matter.

This sums it up nicely, although the mercs not winning is more down to the fact that people practice more as spies. Being a merc is usually seen as getting the short end of the stick, that can hopefully be addressed in some way.

[Spekkio]

if the whole balance shifts around crap like this they definitely did something wrong big time...

Huh? Being able to use two gadgets at once would surely shift game balance no matter how good of a job the devs did.

Mercs didn't win 80% of the time even though they have guns.

Ya, it was probably closer to 90.

[Farley4Fan]

So, the solution would be to take their guns away.   :D

[ShadowX]

I like the idea of having the gas mask with you as default. But i was also thinking that it should have a slight delay in a way. The way it worked in CT made basicly all of the smoke grenades redundant if the merc had even the slightest amount of 'power' in the gas mask left. You could switch to it and enable it in less than half a seconds, right as your at the edge of the smoke, and then switch off it even faster when your about to go out of the smoke.

So this got me thinking, why not apply an animation that takes about 1 second, so that the merc applies the gas mask onto his face, and then a really short blurr (half a second or so) while the mercs eyes fixate to look thro the lenses of the gas mask. So there would be some sort of an animation of the merc putting the mask on, and you could enable it instantly, even before the blur ends. But you can't go rushing into smoke just as carelessly as you could in CT.

I haven't given much thinking to the balance side of this and how it would affect quick-caming and such, so i'm kinda throwing the ball to the others.

[Gawain]

crap idea.

if the whole balance shifts around crap like this they definitely did something wrong big time...

Huh? Being able to use two gadgets at once would surely shift game balance no matter how good of a job the devs did.

before we think what a little reasonable change like this does to balance, we should figure out what destroyed balance in the first place. it's not like being able to use mask while placing a mine or shooting a frag would be totally unbalanced, afterall you use up your mask capacity faster, too. besides, in my experience getting gased in those actions/prohibited from those actions on purpose by smoke statistically happens once in every third game.

[frvge]

Once in every third game is a big enough of a change. A Merc dying from a sticky + shot out mine is usually deciding for the game.

[Westfall]

I think having to select and turn on/off your gasmask was just fine. Making it turn on automatically is unbalanced. Also there should be something in the field of view.

To add to this, you should not be able to trigger gasmask and continue to shoot naxes or plant mines. This too would be significant balance issue.

[Gawain]

well, it would only nerf smoke and sticky which are kinda the most powerful gadgets anyways. with the other gadgets getting more attractive, i certainly wouldn't mind aggro-smoke-tactics stepping a little aside for more variety in tactics.