Some Mercenary Ideas

[Vega]

I wrote down lots of ideas last night, some good and some bad.  Remember, I'm just brainstorming so it's not that I feel all these ideas are full-proof and balanced/completely useful.  BTW, one thing that does relate to my ideas is a new "gadget option" idea.  I'm not exactly sure if this would be needed but I would like one of two things;  More available gadgets or more default gadgets on a merc (like how a merc has a flashlight as default), make another gadget slot that has special gadgets that define your merc in a certain way (such as giving him special ammunition).  This special gadget slot would be pretty important because all the gadgets allowed in this box would really be helpful.  Just a thought.

Anyways, here goes;

Alternate Tazer - To make the tazer more useful I thought of a couple of things.  One is a drastic change.  Make it the type of tazer in the modern world that uses two hooks that are connected to wires and upon contact with a human body, the wires deliver the shock.  Doing this for SvM means the range of the tazer would be increased but slower rate of fire.  It would still be as deadly as ever just a little slower to fire and longer range (not PT long).  The wires are quickly recoiled back to the gun for additional use when it misses it's target. Of course the tazer would still be built into the gun.

Oh yeah the other idea is to use the normal tazer but make it a tad longe range  ;D

Handgun - People have mentioned this before, don't know if it's really needed nor do I really care but it's something to spark conversation.

Allowance of Guns - A merc can carry more than one gun such as a rifle and a dumbed-down shotgun possibly.  This would severley change gameplay, again just something to talk about.

Attachments - Zedblade mentioned this a while ago on SC Lamers and it got me thinking.  We could solve the variety of guns problem (uzi lag and all that shit) by putting that stuff as attachments on the standard gun.  I thought of a couple of things; launcher for all your grenades (if you don't have the launcher attachment, you throw the grenades instead but it's not as fast or far range), shotgun, Foregrip (better accuracy), and anything else you can think of.  Attachments would change gameplay quite a lot for a merc.

Gun Properties - Allows a merc to change the properties of his gun in-game.  He can change the gun from an assault rifle to more sniper oriented (or other options).  Each change takes 5-10 seconds to complete.  Would be interesting.

Strap/Harness - Steadies accuracy, would be a passive gadget.

Bayonet - Increases close combat damage.

Special Ammunition - Merc has a limited amount of special ammunition such as Incendiary and depleted uranium.

Bandolier - More ammo for EACH clip, not TOTAL ammo (to make it useful). 

Flash Resistant Goggles - Merc's goggles are more resistant to flash effects.

Incendiary Grenade - Grenade that once fired, explodes in the area and leaves a fire (like the one in steelsquat with the petrol gas bomb) for 5-10 seconds.  This would be good to clear objectives.

Remember, not all these ideas I think should be in the game.  Just ideas to talk about.  More on spy later.

[USAHOLIO]

wow some great ideas for these i especially like the different attachments so that the merc has more options. The tazer however i dont understand. How would making it slower be easier to fight off aggro spies?

[Overstatement]

I just can't see a bayonet armed mercenary.

[goodkebab]

thanx Vega...please keep in mind that our priority is a clone first....additions later.  Once the engine and animations and all the gonads are built...adding on features will be a lot easier.

[scope2005]

Some intresting idea's, some I agree may be usefull.. some not so usefull.

I like the sound of Gun attachments though, would vary merc play a little.

[Overstatement]

Really? You guys like the gun attachments? Whenever I play a game (as spy) with 2 mercs of different guns, I always try to plan knowing that they can't switch guns mid-game and that they each have a role they must fill. It's especally fun if 2 mercs have shotguns, thats our plan of attack REALLY changes from the norm.

[Vega]

Yup, I know cloning is first just wanted to throw out ideas since it's fun to discuss. 

A bayonet-armed merc is kinda odd but at the same time you could make the bayonet look modern.  Besides that, I was thinking that the bayonet would literally just increase combat damage.   No visual stabbing or anything of that sort (no silly bayonet charge like they did in WW1).  I was thinking of Gears of War and how they did the chainsaw (since that is completely badass).

Again, I know these ideas aren't balanced or anything of the sort, especially when it comes to attachments.  I fully agree that it really changes the playstyle with the allowance of different attachments.  But, it's an idea that can be tossed around and changed in many ways.

Anyways, good to see people are responding, it's always fun ^_^  If any of you have any ideas I would love to hear/discuss them.

About the tazer; good point on it not scaring off aggro spies, I thought of it a little differently in my head originally.  What I was going with was trying to get the idea that getting relatively close (not neck distance, but running around the merc in circles) is a bad idea.  So I increased the range of the tazer but lowered the rate of fire.  The reason I wanted to change it was because a lot of people complained about the tazer in CT even though it was certainly useful against aggro spies (some cases it was a waste of a gadget slot, depended on the skill level of the spies).

[USAHOLIO]

...[about tazer](some cases it was a waste of a gadget slot, depended on the skill level of the spies).

that is a good point. I never take the tazer in story because there are more important things(i.e. mask, mines etc.) if it was simply another attachment that one might use instead of a scope or something, i would use it all the time.

[Meathead]

Wow cool nice thinking :D

[Jordan]

It would be pretty cool for the Merc to be able to go back to his base and change his weapon from Sniper to Automatic to another mode. It could be made to take around 5 seconds to change.

It might sound odd, but it could help balance the teams.

[Overstatement]

Here is another merc idea. It was inspired by Farcry. In Farcry, when you shot someone, you would see cool blood craters on their bodies that tells you where they were shot. I'm not saying we should make the decals blood craters, maybe just holes in their suit with some blood on the fatal kill. Maybe a merc shoots a spy off of a higher place, spy falls to the floor and merc wants to take a close look at the body to see where the fatal shot fell (FOOT KILL!) then BAM! neck grab while merc is distracted and life is good. Not sure how effective this would be since the inaccuracies of CT guns mean its more random luck than skill if a spy gets hit in the head but still very cool nevertheless.

Edit: Just had a thought. Spy suit is bulletproof and the holes would be bullets stopped by the suit and the fatal shot would be the one that bleeds.

[Vega]

ahhhh yes, a very cool thing to see.  Wouldn't mind it at all!

[MacBryce]

It would be pretty cool for the Merc to be able to go back to his base and change his weapon from Sniper to Automatic to another mode. It could be made to take around 5 seconds to change.

It might sound odd, but it could help balance the teams.

Changing weapons is definitely something we need to do. Don't know if it'll make the clone but that's an important addition. First it'll take some balancing, of course. Maybe we should just make it like in other FPS games; where you change your weapons in a menu and you'll get them after you respawn.

Since we're talking about mercenary ideas... How about unlimited lives for the mercs, but increasing the spawn time for every time you get your neck grabbed and getting grabbed 4 times means "game over"?

[Vega]

Since we're talking about mercenary ideas... How about unlimited lives for the mercs, but increasing the spawn time for every time you get your neck grabbed and getting grabbed 4 times means "game over"?

Not a bad idea but I like the idea of nading your partner can mean bad news for the both of you.

[Lurch]

or what about 1 life each? Hardcore!