The only thing that could maybe even take down the USAS12 bear cavalry would be SPAS12 goat cavalry.

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Click.

It all dies to AA-12 dragon cavalry.

We should really end this offtopic, though.

So, online. It's when you connect two computers together by whacking the monkey inside your tower and telling them to play with you, right? ...Right?

I'd say a small amount of players per team, maybe 4-6, and then the rest are just AI, so the game goes just like normal. Only now, you potentially have 4-6 lone wolves completely wrecking the other teams crap up. Nights would have to be shorter, and the AI would have to be more aware to balance this possible disaster.


Hmm, I'd say that's a suggestion about online and nothing to do with shotguns or bear/goat/dragon/hippopotamus cavalry. Thoughts?

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There's some things you just can't control in life...that's what telekinesis is for.

I think the AI should just treat a player as a squad for balance

Nights should be shorter to curtail lone wolves, right.

I keep thinking about the chat. That to me is more important than balancing ATM

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I say just let the players decide how much AI soldiers they want. Dueling of 3vs3 players could be very fun, too.

Do you have some ideas for the chat?

Currently what I'm implementing for chatting, is that you just hit e.g. enter key to start typing, the text comes out in one of those chat bubbles near your soldier, and when you finish it by hitting enter, the bubble becomes visible to others nearby, for both teams.

This naturally makes it difficult to chat with your friends who are far away, so, maybe the chat messages could also turn into one of those radio messages for those players in your team who can't "hear you speak".

Ideas?

You should have two options. One like you said for local chat but then i think a great addition would be an option for players to spawn as a radio man who can only carry an SMG but has the optiopn of sending and receiving global messages. He should have to crouch down for a couple seconds before you can start typing and then also cant shoot until the message is sent.

If you make global chat really easy for everyone then people dont have as many stealth options for large pvp and it forces commanders and officers to relay messages and to keep a radioman around so they can stay in touch. I think this would be a really unique feature for the game and add a lot to multiplayer. You can always leave a server option for it too so people can have more relaxed games too.

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Hmm, I can see the possibilities, especially if something like Battlefield's commander was implemented. Being able to direct the AI and give "suggestions" to the players would turn it into a hybrid third-person shooter/RTS for that one person. Kind of like a top-down Natural Selection.

But then it'd be a completely different game, wouldn't it? Hmm...

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There's some things you just can't control in life...that's what telekinesis is for.

Yeah, stuff like that could come into question in large pvp cases, I agree with that.

Pvp, and especially the large case, is still miles away, frankly it's so far that I'm not seriously thinking about how to achieve it. It's very much doable I'm sure, it's just not my main goal at this point. I'd be more than happy if 16 players could play simultaneously, meanwhile my current goal is around 4 for cooperative stuff.

How about instead of a dedicated radioman, you make voice chat (if you do that) just local, like anyone (including the enemy) who can see your character can hear you talking, but for global chat (The radio), you have to use text chat?

This makes it a whole lot easier and quicker to local chat, but keeps it kind of messy. But, if you wanna global chat, you have to type it out, it would only take a second or two for short messages like "Defend Airport" "Invade TownW" but that second or two could still kill you if you're in a firefight, so you'd have to get your cover, make sure no ones flanking you and set it up.

And if you're righting an essay on the geopolitical climate that lead to whatever is causing this battle, you still can, and your entire team can read it, you just have to find a safe place first.