Light's Out - but not co-op!
Odhranos
Member
in Suggestions
A little minor suggestion I was thinking about - upon looking through the multiplayer options, it seems that the Light's Out preset (difficulty? option? setting? Preset will do.) is only available to be used in co-op, so co-op Invasion or Co-op Conquest. Personally, I think single player games played with Light's Out are fantastic, the atmosphere is great and the added feeling of carving out your territory from the darkness, one lantern at a time just adds to the fun.
However! Woe of woes, I discovered it isn't available in PVP! The joys of scheming in the shadows, stealthy Bricktrons bursting from the veils of black in daring raids, raiding parties being counter-ambushed in the heart of the darkness, bombardment raining down from the.... and so on, dastardly plans to be unfulfilled!
At first it seemed like a simple fix; we have Lights Out Co-op already, why not just allow it to be used as a preset for PVP? But then the issue of lighting comes up - the big focal point of Light's Out. If two opposing teams are to be eking out a living strung from one lantern to another, what is the policy with what the "other team" sees? (Option 1)Can Player 2 see Player 1's lights, but the Fog of War hides Player 1's 'trons and structures, resulting in a bizarre uninhabited cloud of luminescence on the far side of the map? And where is the fun in being able to see what we'd normally see, all the while being inconvenienced by this big blob of black hiding all those lovely resources? Heck, lets go play normal PVP! Or (Option 2), the light cast by your lanterns is only visible to you, and not your opponent, thereby preserving the darkness and forcing risky scouting out into the dark beyond to find your enemy and strike him down. (Much more fun!) .
Now, Option 2 seems the more logical of these options - this preserves the whole "skulking in the darkness" aspect of the gamemode; you can't find your enemy until you cast light upon their grimacing yellow faces, just like with Corruptrons in normal Light's Out (Minus those creepy glowing eyes 0.0). You see what your lanterns see and the rest is all down to educated guesswork and scouting. However, the problem with this is when you eventually reach your enemies base - it's completely dark. This not only gives a bit of a weird non-immersion, but secondly (and more importantly) it gives an extraordinary home advantage to defenders. Your knights come under fire from an unseen position (and bear in mind the natural aura of light of a Bricktron in Lights Out is very very small, they need to practically stand on top of something to make it visible for you), but on the far side of the computer screen, your knights are nicely lit by the lantern sitting a few feet away, painting a glorious shiny yellow target for Player 2's arbalists. Ouch. That doesn't seem very fair.
So, we need to strike a happy medium. Option 1 falls a little flat due to taking the whole spirit out of the gamemode, while Option 2 makes for a rather immense bias in defending, and imbalance does not a fun game make (prepare for hour-long standoffs as you take pot-shots into the dark with catapults, because normal sieges are just doomed to fail). So, my friends, we need an Option 3! (or Option 2.1 if you will) - a happy medium. Option 1 is largely a dud, so lets put that aside. Option 2 is heading in the right direction, but needs some tweaking. This option works up until we get within range of enemy lanterns.
So, the fix is this, we have Option 3 - enemy lantern light is visible to you, but only when you have Area of Sight over the lantern itself. (Just to clarify, while the light aura around a Bricktron is small, their Area of Sight through the Fog of War remains roughly the same as it does in a normal game of PVP). Once the lantern comes within your area of sight, its model will display for you, like structures normally do in PVP, and at this moment, its light should display for you as well. Therefore, when your bricktron could see the light of a lantern, it is displayed to you, but otherwise, your opponent's lantern lights are dark to you. We preserve the overall darkness while removing the large defender bias. Fantastique!
And so endeth this rather lengthy essay. Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day of Castle Building and Corruptron Smashing. I hope to see you all in game soon
Bon nuit!
-Odhranos
However! Woe of woes, I discovered it isn't available in PVP! The joys of scheming in the shadows, stealthy Bricktrons bursting from the veils of black in daring raids, raiding parties being counter-ambushed in the heart of the darkness, bombardment raining down from the.... and so on, dastardly plans to be unfulfilled!
At first it seemed like a simple fix; we have Lights Out Co-op already, why not just allow it to be used as a preset for PVP? But then the issue of lighting comes up - the big focal point of Light's Out. If two opposing teams are to be eking out a living strung from one lantern to another, what is the policy with what the "other team" sees? (Option 1)Can Player 2 see Player 1's lights, but the Fog of War hides Player 1's 'trons and structures, resulting in a bizarre uninhabited cloud of luminescence on the far side of the map? And where is the fun in being able to see what we'd normally see, all the while being inconvenienced by this big blob of black hiding all those lovely resources? Heck, lets go play normal PVP! Or (Option 2), the light cast by your lanterns is only visible to you, and not your opponent, thereby preserving the darkness and forcing risky scouting out into the dark beyond to find your enemy and strike him down. (Much more fun!) .
Now, Option 2 seems the more logical of these options - this preserves the whole "skulking in the darkness" aspect of the gamemode; you can't find your enemy until you cast light upon their grimacing yellow faces, just like with Corruptrons in normal Light's Out (Minus those creepy glowing eyes 0.0). You see what your lanterns see and the rest is all down to educated guesswork and scouting. However, the problem with this is when you eventually reach your enemies base - it's completely dark. This not only gives a bit of a weird non-immersion, but secondly (and more importantly) it gives an extraordinary home advantage to defenders. Your knights come under fire from an unseen position (and bear in mind the natural aura of light of a Bricktron in Lights Out is very very small, they need to practically stand on top of something to make it visible for you), but on the far side of the computer screen, your knights are nicely lit by the lantern sitting a few feet away, painting a glorious shiny yellow target for Player 2's arbalists. Ouch. That doesn't seem very fair.
So, we need to strike a happy medium. Option 1 falls a little flat due to taking the whole spirit out of the gamemode, while Option 2 makes for a rather immense bias in defending, and imbalance does not a fun game make (prepare for hour-long standoffs as you take pot-shots into the dark with catapults, because normal sieges are just doomed to fail). So, my friends, we need an Option 3! (or Option 2.1 if you will) - a happy medium. Option 1 is largely a dud, so lets put that aside. Option 2 is heading in the right direction, but needs some tweaking. This option works up until we get within range of enemy lanterns.
So, the fix is this, we have Option 3 - enemy lantern light is visible to you, but only when you have Area of Sight over the lantern itself. (Just to clarify, while the light aura around a Bricktron is small, their Area of Sight through the Fog of War remains roughly the same as it does in a normal game of PVP). Once the lantern comes within your area of sight, its model will display for you, like structures normally do in PVP, and at this moment, its light should display for you as well. Therefore, when your bricktron could see the light of a lantern, it is displayed to you, but otherwise, your opponent's lantern lights are dark to you. We preserve the overall darkness while removing the large defender bias. Fantastique!
And so endeth this rather lengthy essay. Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day of Castle Building and Corruptron Smashing. I hope to see you all in game soon
Bon nuit!
-Odhranos