Fog Mechanics *Discussion*

[CrimsonAerospace]

Post your opinions and thoughts about the new fog mechanics the servers been testing, I'd like to see what others think.


Incase of Ignorance to the *Fog Update*

► Show Spoiler

The "Fog Update", or test I suppose, is a current on-going experiment by the Dev team on LV, the original map. The update runs a border of unbreachable fog near the river/barrens that you can not see through, and drops 45-ish minutes into the round. It runs from West, to East, and from what I gather is meant to stop meta gaming on the Aliens, and Marines side.

Personally I like the idea, but I think lately it's just been inspiring more meta-tactics. Every round almost, the fog falls and within seconds marines and aliens are at the river kicking shit off.

[elantzb]

I haven't actually seen the fog myself yet, mind posting how it works in the OP?

[Karmac]

Can I just say right now, the behaviour listed in this post is extremely unnacceptable, expect to see admin intervention of either side gathers around the fog in anticipation of it dropping. I've had to deal with a couple situations like this already, including one where a squad thought it would be acceptable to start making a girder wall along the line of the fog.

[CrimsonAerospace]

I haven't actually seen the fog myself yet, mind posting how it works in the OP?

Updated to the OP for ignorance of the update, welcome.

[CrimsonAerospace]

Can I just say right now, the behaviour listed in this post is extremely unnacceptable, expect to see admin intervention of either side gathers around the fog in anticipation of it dropping. I've had to deal with a couple situations like this already, including one where a squad thought it would be acceptable to start making a girder wall along the line of the fog.

I remember a few of those rounds. I can't remember if it was you on this round, but I remember standing around in Engineering and watching one of the admins piss on Marines and Aliens alike for grouping up near the fog wall in anticipation of it dropping.

This is clear and blatant meta, and the player base is not even TRYING to hide it. Again, I love the idea, and would be thrilled if we could use it, but unless we update the rules or some such. I think it will only cause WORSE Meta than before.

[Karmac]

Current process of punishment is sleep small groups of marines that do it and tell xenos where they are after warning the marine group. For larger groups? Expect real admins to come in and spawn copious amounts of poisonous snakes to 'deter metagaming'.

[CrimsonAerospace]

Current process of punishment is sleep small groups of marines that do it and tell xenos where they are after warning the marine group. For larger groups? Expect real admins to come in and spawn copious amounts of poisonous snakes to 'deter metagaming'.

That's...actually pretty funny.

Got any idea how deter meta? I have a slight one:

I was thinking if we moved the fog back slightly, away from the buildings more, and made the fob emit *acidic vapor*, it would stop marines/xenos from getting near.

So if anyone stands near it, the planets hostile vapor fog would begin melting through them. Just an idea.

[elantzb]

The tunnels still work though, right?

[Karmac]

I mean if things get serious we can just bug /n to make it so the fog explodes things on contact.

Yes Buck they still work.

[CrimsonAerospace]

I mean if things get serious we can just bug /n to make it so the fog explodes things on contact.

Yes Buck they still work.

My idea is realistic and good for the atmosphere of the game, yours' is practical and pretty fucking funny, I gib +1

[elantzb]

I almost feel like the Fog can't solve the meta issue on its own, and that it needs to go hand-in-hand with a wider understanding of how the RP involved with investigating a distress beacon goes.

EDIT: (And an analogous RP understanding for the xenos)

[Telegnats]

I think the main problem the fog exacerbates is the complete lack of shit to fuckin do when you aren't an engineer. Making the fog hazardous or telling xenos and marines to wait somewhere else is hardly a good solution.

I mean I could RP but it gets pretty boring after the 500th conversation about shit I already know or don't care about.

[CrimsonAerospace]

I almost feel like the Fog can't solve the meta issue on its own, and that it needs to go hand-in-hand with a wider understanding of how the RP involved with investigating a distress beacon goes.

EDIT: (And an analogous RP understanding for the xenos)

I mean, I don't think it can, not really. The idea is good for keeping us separate in a sort of "grace period", but it only seems to cause a massive conflict when both teams sit along the border waiting for it to fall.

[Karmac]

Y'all forget that there's a deck of cards in cryo when you spawn, bring that shit planetside and you're golden.

[elantzb]

I mean, I don't think it can, not really. The idea is good for keeping us separate in a sort of "grace period", but it only seems to cause a massive conflict when both teams sit along the border waiting for it to fall.

Bear with me and lemme lay out my line-of-thinking.

Say a bunch of us get together and scan the forums (and maybe external lore sites) and start putting together an updated RP guide for distress call contingencies (make it read like an excerpt from the USCM database or something).

Now say that that guide comes up with something like, "Since you don't know what's going on, you need to sweep the affected area for clues..."

And then BAM, there's an idea. Maybe add some randomly-placed switches/triggers inside various domes on the colony, all of which need to be found/activated before the Fog will lift. Marines who decide to camp the Fog rather than follow these orders are *clearly* meta-gaming and should be dealt with by their superiors.

Now, this particular example only applies to marines, but I think that it illustrates my point that reasonable game mechanics can come about as a result of thinking with one's RP hat on.

[caleeb101]

Current process of punishment is sleep small groups of marines that do it and tell xenos where they are after warning the marine group. For larger groups? Expect real admins to come in and spawn copious amounts of poisonous snakes to 'deter metagaming'.

What about the Xeno punishment? *obvious marine bias intensifies*

[4thsurviver]

I was thinking the only way to remove the river camping is to remove the river. If you had just a lot of empty space with no real clear divide there would be nothing to really claim as defenses. The marines would stick to the buildings and xenos to the table fort and the ground in the middle would become a no mans land. To prevent a rush have command claim its a mine field or free fire artillery zone.

[elantzb]

I was thinking the only way to remove the river camping is to remove the river. If you had just a lot of empty space with no real clear divide there would be nothing to really claim as defenses. The marines would stick to the buildings and xenos to the table fort and the ground in the middle would become a no mans land. To prevent a rush have command claim its a mine field or free fire artillery zone.

I like the idea of randomly-placed, invisible mines that are just random enough that no one can really be sure where the edge of the field is (just maybe some warning signs throughout the area). And of course, these mines would disappear/deactivate after a set time.

EDIT: I wonder what sort of impact it would have if you *kept* the river, but made flares thrown into it burn out instantly?

[CrimsonAerospace]

Bear with me and lemme lay out my line-of-thinking.

► Show Spoiler

Say a bunch of us get together and scan the forums (and maybe external lore sites) and start putting together an updated RP guide for distress call contingencies (make it read like an excerpt from the USCM database or something).

Now say that that guide comes up with something like, "Since you don't know what's going on, you need to sweep the affected area for clues..."

And then BAM, there's an idea. Maybe add some randomly-placed switches/triggers inside various domes on the colony, all of which need to be found/activated before the Fog will lift. Marines who decide to camp the Fog rather than follow these orders are *clearly* meta-gaming and should be dealt with by their superiors.

Now, this particular example only applies to marines, but I think that it illustrates my point that reasonable game mechanics can come about as a result of thinking with one's RP hat on.

I actually quite enjoy this idea. We have lots of amazingly talented writers and lore-masters in our community, and I think this could go places if we truly put some effort into it. If you want to take it up with a Staff memeber, /N or another dev, I'd be on board too man.

[CrimsonAerospace]

I was thinking the only way to remove the river camping is to remove the river. If you had just a lot of empty space with no real clear divide there would be nothing to really claim as defenses. The marines would stick to the buildings and xenos to the table fort and the ground in the middle would become a no mans land. To prevent a rush have command claim its a mine field or free fire artillery zone.

The Colony had contingency defenses in place, just in the event of finding anything in their expedition, and to prevent corporate espionage to their research, so they put up turrets hidden in the dirt that would pop up and gat anyone who came into their firing radius, and after a certain amount of time their internal batteries die.

[elantzb]

The Colony had contingency defenses in place, just in the event of finding anything in their expedition, and to prevent corporate espionage to their research, so they put up turrets hidden in the dirt that would pop up and gat anyone who came into their firing radius, and after a certain amount of time their internal batteries die.

This is another great RP-hat idea that would apply to both sides of the conflict. +1

[Katsukai]

The Colony had contingency defenses in place, just in the event of finding anything in their expedition, and to prevent corporate espionage to their research, so they put up turrets hidden in the dirt that would pop up and gat anyone who came into their firing radius, and after a certain amount of time their internal batteries die.

Would make more sense if the colony didn't hire Colonial Marshals to guard their colony and had instead like an private contractor for security like PMC.

[CrimsonAerospace]

Now, all these ideas for alleviating the meta are great, but, the real question...How do we STOP the meta rush? This stuff just sort of distracts, but we need something that will keep both Aliens and Marines from just up and dashing across whatever border area we put in place the moment it deactivates.

What I was thinking with my turret idea, is that the battery timer is random, and they may run down in 45 minutes, may run down in 80 minutes. Or maybe the Fog cloud doesn't pass on a set time.

No matter how you look at we still have the fundamental problem...Marines and their Boredom. Aliens, can go to the other side, attack marines, and try and bring hosts back through the tunnels. But the Marines, don't have much. There are only so MANY buildings to scout, only so advanced a FoB can get, and most marines are not going to want to wait. So either our Command structure, or CL, has to get more creative with orders and gimmicks, our staff need to come up with some mechanical means of keeping us entertained, whether it's some kind of LV-specific antag or event, or with the Devs and Community assistance, writing up LORE, the big missing piece in the puzzle of our maps, the fact that we don't have any lore is sad seeing how lore-centered we can and tend to be. Or, we as a player base need to change

No tl;dr, go back and read it schmuck.

[elantzb]

Now, all these ideas for alleviating the meta are great, but, the real question...How do we STOP the meta rush? This stuff just sort of distracts, but we need something that will keep both Aliens and Marines from just up and dashing across whatever border area we put in place the moment it deactivates.

What I was thinking with my turret idea, is that the battery timer is random, and they may run down in 45 minutes, may run down in 80 minutes. Or maybe the Fog cloud doesn't pass on a set time.

No matter how you look at we still have the fundamental problem...Marines and their Boredom. Aliens, can go to the other side, attack marines, and try and bring hosts back through the tunnels. But the Marines, don't have much. There are only so MANY buildings to scout, only so advanced a FoB can get, and most marines are not going to want to wait. So either our Command structure, or CL, has to get more creative with orders and gimmicks, our staff need to come up with some mechanical means of keeping us entertained, whether it's some kind of LV-specific antag or event, or with the Devs and Community assistance, writing up LORE, the big missing piece in the puzzle of our maps, the fact that we don't have any lore is sad seeing how lore-centered we can and tend to be. Or, we as a player base need to change

No tl;dr, go back and read it schmuck.

There we go, thread complete.

[CrimsonAerospace]

There we go, thread complete.

Basically.