Rework Flares

[Karmac]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): I played Aliens vs Predator today after I bought it a couple weeks ago and I was going through the Marine Campaign, during the tutorial of this you're introduced to flares, these flares are hooked to your armor (presumably) and are infinite, however they last for roughly 10 seconds each, whilst providing a respectable amount of light. The utility of this is never lost as throughout the rest of the game, you're rarely in well lit areas, and as I thought about how useful and interesting that mechanic is I compared it to CM's flares. As you may or may not know flares in CM come from a box, are lit, and then thrown, they can be stored in more or less anything and last for maybe 30 minutes or more, I've yet to accurately determine the time length. The major differences between CM's flares and AvP's flares are the motivation to use them, in CM you put flares down because they're a light source that lasts a while and you can store multiples of them in a small box, in AvP however you put down flares because you never stop being in the dark, and because they don't last very long you have a very good reason to consistently be throwing them down. Due to the fact that in CM you'll get maybe 10 people per round that pack flare boxes due to them taking up a spot you could be storing delicious Xenomorph killing ammunition, I thought it would be a good idea to rework flares into becoming more like their AvP version.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): A shorter time length on more readily accessible flares would promote more active gameplay and need for marines to do something outside of the normal 'run & gun' that you do backed up by nothing more than your flash/rail/suit light and POSSIBLY a flare box. As well as the constant need for more flares to be placed inducing a better atmosphere in areas where you would NEED to be actively putting down flares, such as on scouting runs, power outs and hive assaults.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc): This feature would do two things, A. It would incorporate the normal flare as an item stored in the standard marine armor, like how the B18 armor has injectors it can create for you. Each suit of armor would only have four flares stocked in it and these would be restock-able by getting flares from the boxes in the vendors and dragging the flares onto the armor sprite, like how medicine is now restocked. You would right click on the suit of armor, click on the 'Light Flare' verb, and voila! A lit flare would appear in the empty hand you used to pull it off your armor. B. The flares active time would be thoroughly reduced, I'd say each flare would only last 4 minutes each, or even less than that. This is the function that promotes the need to actually USE flares, compared to the current CM, where they're either used in specific areas, or completely forgotten as a feature due to no one bothering to pack them.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): I understand this would require extensive modification of code to do with flares, verbs and regular marine armor suits, and that possibilities of all of these things breaking, bugging out or failing to work completely is possible, but I feel this would really benefit CM as a whole.

[Obscurify]

+1 because i never pack flares, i literally ALWAYS have buckshot in the pockets that the flare pouches fit in. besides that, i see flares used constantly all over the map, and shortening the duration would merely minimize their already great usefulness

[Jeser]

Well, I didn't like the sound of idea, but after reading it to the end, I changed my opinion. Well-thought suggestion, can be interesting. +1.

[Crab_Spider]

+1 I love the sound of the idea. Interesting mechanic that builds off of the B18, a much newer model in the lore, and it reduces the amount of space that's taken up.

[Eenkogneeto]

I feel I should point out you can currently fit 8 flares in your armor by putting the boxes in it.
That said, if This is possible to do easily and without lag/etc I would be for it. Neat feature and not really a buff in any way, Just make it so that the flares it spawns are different from the standard issue ones. Mini-flare or something?

[Karmac]

I'd rather replace all the flares with short timed ones, give more of an incentive to take them than just falling back to regular flares, if you want persistant light bring flashslights.

[NescauComToddy]

I Don't think we will Need a full-rework on th Flares to "Fix" them. We can start by taking down the Expiring Timer, that Is, "strange".


The Flares Are extremely efficient To hive assaults or simply battles over Naturally dark places, Decreasing the timer won't enforce It Is Uselessness, It Will lower It. If you think Flares are something to be forgotten, Learn that they aren't when the moment of Need comes In.

Mini-Flares could also work well as a Suggestion, like Een said.

In My point of view, This could be Marked In the dev's List, even If It takes More time to be Implemented.

[Karmac]

I Don't think we will Need a full-rework on th Flares to "Fix" them. We can start by taking down the Expiring Timer, that Is, "strange". It Is extremely efficient To hive assaults or simply battles over Naturally dark places, Decreasing the timer won't enforce It Is Uselessness, It Will lower It. If you think Flares are something to be forgotten, Learn that they aren't when the moment of Need comes In.

Mini-Flares could also work well as a Suggestion, like Een said.

In My point of view, This could be Marked In the dev's List, even If It takes More time to be Implemented.

I really didn't understand that first part sorry.

[NescauComToddy]

What I tried to Meant Is, It Isn't necessary to realize a full Rework On them, like you previously said In the Post.

We could simply Fix things like the Timer before expiration, the Light radius and etc, Instead of having to Work/Code a entire new system.

[Karmac]

I know it isn't necessary, that's the purpose of a suggestion, adding in things you want to see, if it was necessary, the devs would already be working on it. I just think this would be a really neat way of going about it if they do choose to change how flares work.

[Swagile]

The meta would change to getting a autolathe planetside ASAP and printing flashlights en mass instead.

What im trying to say is veterans already pack flares in empty oxy medkits (fit 7 boxes in a oxymedkit) and then another oxymedkit for their general meds or ammo, depending on what job you are (standard, combat engi, combat medic, SL). While newbies don't tend to do this and have no space left over for flares / have full flares but no space for anything else.

Reworking flares to work like this would make them switch to flashlights (which are almost as good as flares and are infinite) and you can make as many as you want as long as you have metal.

[Karmac]

The meta would change to getting a autolathe planetside ASAP and printing flashlights en mass instead.

What im trying to say is veterans already pack flares in empty oxy medkits (fit 7 boxes in a oxymedkit) and then another oxymedkit for their general meds or ammo, depending on what job you are (standard, combat engi, combat medic, SL). While newbies don't tend to do this and have no space left over for flares / have full flares but no space for anything else.

Reworking flares to work like this would make them switch to flashlights (which are almost as good as flares and are infinite) and you can make as many as you want as long as you have metal.

either way this forces marines to actually do stuff if they want a better light source, which is still desirable and promotes active gameplay. also I've never seen people pack more than 2 flare boxes, like ever.

[Swagile]

either way this forces marines to actually do stuff if they want a better light source, which is still desirable and promotes active gameplay. also I've never seen people pack more than 2 flare boxes, like ever.

After one too many times of being jumped in the dark, I make it a mission to pack entire vendors worth of them in a oxy medkit pronto, but im just weird like that.

[Obscurify]

either way this forces marines to actually do stuff if they want a better light source, which is still desirable and promotes active gameplay. also I've never seen people pack more than 2 flare boxes, like ever.

Why would you need more than two boxes in the first place?

[Karmac]

Why would you need more than two boxes in the first place?

This is part of the problem, bring a couple boxes and they'll last half the round, there's no incentive to pack more oe constantly be flaring it up because you don't need that many flares to get some serious lighting up. It's a feature you forget about quickly as the round goes on.