I don't really like the current system for obtaining weapons/ammo. My ideas for it are:


1) A weapon "buying" system like in PE. Based on weapon skill points, players buy their weapons right before they spawn. Or, at the very least, make it harder to find the better weapons on the map (like the break-barrel shotty)

2) New system for obtaining more ammunition. The current one isn't that great, its too easy to get more ammo. Maybe instead of clips, make a few ammo crates on the map, and players have to stay at them pressing "+use" to slowly fill their ammo? It'd be interesting to see players have to cover each other while they reload so they aren't clawed in the back while they are picking up more ammo.

3) The weapon stay for the current system isn't great. Its annoying to have to hunt down in the level to where you threw a certain gun if you want it again.

4) New weapons that I'd like to see:
- Chainsaw
- A bolt-action rifle, not neccesarily a scoped one
- Throwables, such as grenades and molotovs
- A mine or satchel charge
- A deloyable machine gun. Either have it so you right click to put out bipod (like DoD) or click ounce to permanently place it, and acts like a stationary turret. This would be time-consuming to make into the game, not sure if it'd be worth it, especially considering there already is a minigun. Probably better if something like this is just added into the map by the mapper.
- And of course it'd be nice to see more new SMGs, pistols and such.

QUOTE

4) New weapons that I'd like to see: - Chainsaw

AHA! WE KNEW IT!

I don't really like the idea of "buying weapons" but I really do like your ammo suggestion, but you would have to put the ammo in places like the trunk of the police car, and in front of a garage or something to make it harder to get ammo... And I totally agree with the spreading weapons out (also, they've reached the model limit, so to add new weapons we're going to have to take some out).

i'd say for a new model system, gunstores. have few guns at militairy baricades (ever seen a grunt walking with a sawed off?) but have a few gun stores throughout the level, like 2-3, where alot of weapons are. or have like 2 standard and 1 heavy weapons store.

in dawn of the dead, they have standard revolvers at first, but the fun starts when they find a gun store. in DOTD remake, they also go to a gun store (that andy's gunstore).

what would be a nice improvement tho, is documentation on how much stat points each gun needs. i mean after how many points in my weapon skill can i pick up that gattling? or that flame thrower?

Gunstores sounds cool

I like your ammunition box suggestions a lot! and we have somethin fun in mind for a throwing weapon

The gunstores part is just up to the mapper. I'd like to see some creative placement of weapons, like hidden or hard to reach spots.

QUOTE (HangFire @ Nov 29 2004, 07:59 PM)

The gunstores part is just up to the mapper.  I'd like to see some creative placement of weapons, like hidden or hard to reach spots.

Yes... at first the map had difficult weapons spawns, but that could cause problems. You've to think of the ergonomy... most ppl complained about not finding any weapons. I'm also not able (although i would!) to include more stores or other indoor building into the map because of the damn hl_brush limit...

Well if it was how I was originally told BB was going to be it would be better forfnding weapons. You start out in your house with just an axe and you have to go out side to find the rest of the survivers. Weapons whoule be in reasonable places.

Pistols should be found in houses and maybe a shot gun or two along with a katana blade and molitovs.

Gun stores should have more rifles and pistols but nothing too heavy, maybe a grenade or two.

CP (Control Points) where the Marines are should have all the heavier weapons like M16s and such.

And I would like to see it more HALO style where you can only carry two weapons at a time. That would prevent too much hogging and also make it more team oriented with every one needing every one else to survive.

If the mounted machine gun was there for playersto use you should nto get xp of any kind since you will be mowing down the zombie hoard quicker than any one else it will always be a mad dash to that one weapon and then just stay there.

A bite would be good for zombies where you actually hold onto that person as you chew on their neck for a short time. The infection should spread faster that way. Also zombies if they can not now should be able to climb or jump onto boxes to get that one guy just out of reach. I am not saying have the hand and eye coordination to climb a ladder, but not being able to climb on top of a car or box with other zombies pushing you up theoreticly is bad.

My suggestion for weapons and ammo is: Random spawns at random points.

You still start with only your garden axe within the marine spawn (I also like the idea of seperated spawning places, so people have to fight to reach each other). All marine barricades have some pistols and an unlimited pistol-only ammo supply (just like the current ones, but just for pistols). The main weapons are not spawned within the marine areas, but on random places all over the map, so players will have to leave the military safety zones with only their pistols and fight off zombies to reach better weapons. An universal ammo box is spawned at the same places which will act like the current clips (but one use only) and will also recharge the minigun/flamethrower by 1/4 (it's rather frustrating that you have to die to get another clip for the minigun/flamethrower).

Instead of creating new entities for random spawn points you could use the zombie spawn points. They are perfect for this for several reasons:
-they are all reachable by players
-they are plenty and well spread around the map (and are never located inside marine bases)
-it's always dangerous to get a weapon and you get a reward for fighting the zombies on their own ground (also note that areas where more zombie spawns are located will give more equipment but will also be more dangerous ->balance!)
-you won't have to sacrifice other entities for this (because of HL1 limitations)

You could also make some weapon powerups to be randomly spawned, which will give a random upgrade for your currently selected weapon. The upgrades will give permanent boni to the weapon until it's destroyed. Possible upgrades are:
-increase clipsize by 10% (rounded up)
-increase damage by 5% (or by a fixed number)
-increase rate of fire
-increase accuracy
-decrease reloading time
-decrease recoil
There should be a max of 5 upgrades of each kind (if an upgrade is chosen that is already maxed, another one will be chosen).

This system would provide the mod with a certain treasure hunt mentality (which is something that has kept Diablo II alive for ages). Paired with the randomness and improved ingame rewards it would increase the replayability of the mod.

I also have worked out a system that should make this work (although I have no idea about modding and only very limited mapping experience):
Every zombie spawn entity is given an additional variable. This variable will be a number unique to each spawn point (the first is number 1, the next 2, then 3, 4, 5...[important! no holes, like jumping from 2 to 4, otherwise it won't drop or even cause a crash], while 0 will make the zombie spawn unable to spawn any item and can be used at multiple spawns). Then a map.txt is created for each map in which is listed what can be dropped, how much can exist at the same time and what is the number of the last zombie spawn. For example:
M16 "3"
Ammobox "12"
Health "4"
Spawn# "54"

At the beginning of each round the server will check the map.txt, pick the first item on the list, generate a random number between 1 and the Spawn# listed in the map.txt, create the corresponding item (which will be given a variable with the spawn#) at the randomly chosen spawn (unless the number is listed in a "Spawn already in use list", which will result in a reroll), add the spawn# to the "Spawn already in use list" and repeat this the number of times stated in the map.txt, then move to the next item.
Now whenever an item gets picked up the server will check the spawn# associated with the item, remove it from the "spawn already in use list" and another item of the same kind is spawned using the same method stated above.

This system would also allow server admins to change the number of items in a map (pistol only for example) without the clients downloading any extra stuff by changing the values in the map.txt

Feel free to point out all the flaws!