Neck on stairs

[Blank Man]

will you be able to?

[AgentX_003]

its already been brought up =/ .

[Gawain]

i think we reached a point where we have discussed 99% of what can be reasonably discussed in this stage of ps...

[Wh1tE_Dw4rF]

Being able to grab on stairs doesn't seem logically to me, as you can't really have that great balance on a stairway. Perhaps instead of grabbing you could push down the merc down the stairs making him unconcious for a few seconds?

[Succubus Dryad Of The Undying Comet]

+1

And depending on the falling distance he would either die or sleep (LOL SLEEP)

[Wh1tE_Dw4rF]

Can spies then get an item called "teddybear" which makes sleeping mercs sleep like 5 seconds longer?!

[MR.Mic]

I think you should still be rewarded for being able to surprise someone.

Perhaps, if you are behind him and above him on the stairs, you can maybe push him down to the bottom.
If you happen to be on a lower step, you can do something similar, like pull his legs out from under him.

They should each cause a merc to fall unconscious.

[Neverdown]

I think you should still be rewarded for being able to surprise someone.

Perhaps, if you are behind him and above him on the stairs, you can maybe push him down to the bottom.
If you happen to be on a lower step, you can do something similar, like pull his legs out from under him.

They should each cause a merc to fall unconscious.

This, plus from a high stairs it should knock somebody out as if he were jumped and lose half health and from low it should be as long as he were jumped but without the health loss

[VaNilla]

I think in interests of balance it should do the same damage. One cool thing would be if your actually on the side of stairs and being able to do this, take the back of Hospital for example by the health kit. There are stairs there where a spy could grab the mercs feet and pull him down the gap, resulting in the same health loss and sleep effect as before, would be cool I think.

[Snakebit.]

I think you should still be rewarded for being able to surprise someone.

Perhaps, if you are behind him and above him on the stairs, you can maybe push him down to the bottom.
If you happen to be on a lower step, you can do something similar, like pull his legs out from under him.

They should each cause a merc to fall unconscious.

Won't this couse a lot of bugs in the game ? For example if you are not on a stair but on some other object which is a bit higher than the ground , you will still be pulled down and knocked unconscious ?( In sc there was always a lot of ways to get a bit higher like some simple boards scatered on the floor or some tables and stuff like that. )  Or if you are just standing on a rail ( It was said in a thread somewhere that you would be able to do it for a few seconds ) and a spy just runs and knocks you unconscious ?

Wouldn't all of this make aggro a bit more powerful. Something like punch on a higher place then just knock him out . Wouldn't this be almost the same as the shock + cam + smoke trick at start of Pt ?


And won't this make stairs almost unusable for merks ? How are you supposed to go up a stair if the enemy can just run to you and knock you out ?  Ofcourse you might say that only a 'dumb' merk will be knocked by strait charge but you must also take in account that there are a lot of gadjets thats confuse the merk like flash / smoke / chaff / snairs / even taz or taz + headshot which will all make stairs  'Areas of high risk' and , well , almost all Sc levels have stairs  so how will merks be able to get up all the time ?

[Gawain]

just allow grabbing on stairs and everything is fine.

[VaNilla]

There's a thing called Geometrics which would allow this to work only on stairs, at least I think it's called that in the Unreal Engine :P.

It would make spies a bit more powerful of course, why else would the feature be suggested? As for the stairs becoming 'unusable' as you say, I disagree. You argue that you never know what will happen, what about corners? Mercs can run past those and get necked by a spy, but it's all about scoping out your environment. One interesting point is though about how a spy could just run up to you, push you down and have you knocked out, that is a genuine point you have there.

Way to tackle this, if the merc is facing you as he comes down stairs and you catch him off guard, obviously you are going to react to it a lot better because you see them, thus the knock out and health loss would not happen, only the merc would instead just fall over, disabling them for a second or two. If you do this as they come up stairs then they can grab the railing as again, they will react a lot better as they seen you, resulting in a second or two delay. If however, they don't see you in either situation as you are behind them or to their side, obviously you have approached them using stealth, thus I think the knock-out and health loss should occur.

As for grabbing on the stairs, you would probably both slide down from the struggle, it's not realistic.

[Westfall]

I think you should still be rewarded for being able to surprise someone.

Perhaps, if you are behind him and above him on the stairs, you can maybe push him down to the bottom.
If you happen to be on a lower step, you can do something similar, like pull his legs out from under him.

They should each cause a merc to fall unconscious.

Won't this couse a lot of bugs in the game ? For example if you are not on a stair but on some other object which is a bit higher than the ground , you will still be pulled down and knocked unconscious ?( In sc there was always a lot of ways to get a bit higher like some simple boards scatered on the floor or some tables and stuff like that. )  Or if you are just standing on a rail ( It was said in a thread somewhere that you would be able to do it for a few seconds ) and a spy just runs and knocks you unconscious ?

Wouldn't all of this make aggro a bit more powerful. Something like punch on a higher place then just knock him out . Wouldn't this be almost the same as the shock + cam + smoke trick at start of Pt ?


And won't this make stairs almost unusable for merks ? How are you supposed to go up a stair if the enemy can just run to you and knock you out ?  Ofcourse you might say that only a 'dumb' merk will be knocked by strait charge but you must also take in account that there are a lot of gadjets thats confuse the merk like flash / smoke / chaff / snairs / even taz or taz + headshot which will all make stairs  'Areas of high risk' and , well , almost all Sc levels have stairs  so how will merks be able to get up all the time ?

Good thoughts Snakebit. The idea of different animations on the stairs pending where either character is/how close to the stairs/not on the stairs anymore/charging up the stairs/etc might not be as smooth as I would think the unreal engine can produce. I do think a merc should suffer damage if he/she gets booted down the stairs. However, I don't think the merc should get KO-ed on stairs. Realistically, the merc might break his own neck falling down some stairs. The reason for no KO is for balance. It should work the same as if the merc were tazzed or just woke up that they cannot be interfered with for a certain period of time (seconds obviously).

How many different animations would you come up with for stair moves? Are they really necessary? Should you be able to grab someone on the stairs? If so, should the merc have a counter move?

If a merc is running up the stairs and a spy trips him, he should stumble down, lose some health, and get right back up. If a merc is near the top of the stairs going down and get pushed by a spy, he should either fall down a certain amount of stairs or fall down the entire flight, lose some health, and get back up. There is no need for an extra KO. I'm in favor of the animations if they aren't going to be bug-o-riffic. I am not in favor of necking a merc on a flight of stairs. While its perfectly reasonable to, it balances the game out nicely. "BUT THEN YOU CAN CAMP THE STAIRS!!!!" No....no they can't. Not if they know whats good for them. Sitting merc=sitting duck. Mercs are always on the move and not just looking for spots to sit around.  If they wanted to, they could put their back to a wall.