Why don't we pester our good friends over at the specialist, and see if they will kick down their flashlight code... in TS the flashlight illuminates stuff and doesn't light up the model like a Christmas tree, and the crappy flashlight is practically the last holdover from early ns... Practically everything else has been touched up or polished.

I need a dev comment on this as I can't speak for the code aspects

IMO, while it would be nice, you'd still want at least a fraction of the current flashlight effect to still occur.

id like to see something like the marine shoulder-lamp in AVP2

it has a nice bright lamp with a decent lighting radius, but it has a battery which drains after a minute or so of continued use and takes a minute or so to recharge itself

A battery ala hl on the flashlight would be okay, I just want more illumination where the flashlight is pointed, and less on the marine who is using it. I use the flashlight cause I don't feel like cranking my gamma... Sometimes I use it to clear dark corridors (ie hera unwelded)

Any dev, who does code work.... ?

Well I think it's a good idea if they will volunteer the code to NS.

Why on earth would you want that? I've never seen a single flashlight that works that way in real life. Who would design one?! Every time I play a game with this "feature" I cringe.

Additionally, making the flashlight harder to use just makes people turn up their gamma/brightness (on their monitor or in their graphics card settings).

It's a much better idea to make the flashlight interesting and good looking so that people WANT to use it.

...


Way to not read the first post... The gist of the idea is: The flashlight that lights up the marine model is pretty much the the only major thing I can think of left over from the 1.0X era. The TS flashlight code is pretty damn efficent at lighting up an area which is looked at, and not the model. Ask the nice folks at the specialist if they will play ball. Voila


Now I need like puzl, or jazx or tyr or flayra or someone who does code monkey work to tell me if this is even feasable

[edit]
I want the flashlight to work so I *don't* have to rape my gamma, which I choose not do despite the fact that some areas of NS are to dark for me
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thanks for your poorly thought out, incoherent post.

As noted above, the idea here is to change the flashlight so that it is actually useful to use- not to make it realistic. have you even played the game yet??? there is barely anything about the game that is realistic... as of right now the flashlight does nothing but heinously illuminate the user, and does virtually nothing in terms of visibility. i was using the lamp from AvP2 as an example because it is actually beneficial to use, not a hindrance.

-It is feasible
-Gamma is usually ramped so no one has complained about it yet, as the flashlight seldom sees usage
-If this is implemented (and I dearly hope it is), the area the flashlight illuminates needs to be larger. Right now its so small its not even helpful, for me, at least. Double its radius and I'd say you've got a damn good and worthwhile flashlight.

not only does the radius of the light need to be increased, the lighting distance needs to be improved as well. rigth now it appears that the current flashlight has a maximum lighting distance of about 3 inches, which would explain why the user appears to be aglow.

Of course a flashlight improvement is welcome. I was commenting on a specific part of the post -- which is why I quoted that part.

I figure the rest is obviously welcome, and would personally love to see it.

you quoted my whole post.. however note taken...

what im wondering is, much like my suggestion about secondary ammo being dropped with primary ammo, if this is a problem with the HL1 engine and not just the NS code. doesnt the flashlight do the same thing in cs, and other HL mods??

Since you drop all the ammo you carry in HLDM/TFC for others to pick up, it's not an engine problem; like puzl(?) says in that thread, it's a balance concern.

Yes, except the mod mentioned in the first post has a re-done flashlight. Apparently they're willing to share the code.

i see

i only played the specialist once, i didnt like it, i dont remember the flashlight though.

Well I don't see what's so horrible about the current flashlight's implementation. Sure, it lights you up like a Christmas tree, but aliens usually already have theirs up as well, in which case it doesn't change anything.

Of course, there's no way to see where your teammates are pointing with their flashlight, but I don't think that this is that much of an issue.

the problem is that you cant see anything with it on. a flashlight is supposed to light up an area so you can see. the current flashlight really does a horrible job, not to mention the whole "light you up" thing

But in "real life" - as if that was the concern, a flashlight does light you up more than it illuminates your surroundings. Of course, it doesn't make you a glowing figure in the way the current ns one does. It just presents a very large bright light source. When you use a flashlight people can see you using it from much further away that you can see them from its light. That'd be my guess at why it lights you up instead.

i agree with that for the most part, but like i said, it is useless to turn it on because it almost makes no difference in a dark room with it on than if it was off. a flashlight should be useful to use in a dark room. the current one is not.

The current one has only one use: to detect cloacked aliens/structures.

it helps detect cloaked structures/creatures?

Unless you have your gamma so far up that the game looks retarded, you still need the flashlight to see some dark corners. Depending on the map, I would call it indespesible. And also as far as I know, as long as an alien has been fully cloaked flashlight isn't going to help you see it.

my gamma is up but not too high, -- the only reason i turned it up is because its annoying not being able to see uncloaked aliens in a dark room, and like aforementioned, the flashlight is completely useless. if the flashlight was halfway decent i wouldnt have ever messed with the gamma because turning the gamma up takes away from the dark atmosphere of the game, but then it is ridiculously hard to stay alive.

i mean seriously, the marines have teleportation technology, jetpacks and exosuit armors, yet they have a dollar store flashlight not worth a damn... doesnt make sense to me lol

It is said somewhere deep and dark on this site that the TSA were tight on money... maybe they just though flashlights were useless and gave them flashlights they found in a dump?

On a more serious note:
Yeah, you do make a good point. Contradicting what Heavy D said, having an unrealistic flashlight isnt a bad thing. Until the day I find a hiding under my bed or get on an to get to school I say that this game is sci-fi, and we can explore some "unconventional" ideas.

PS: I might be thinking too far in the future to be implemented in NS1 and getting off topic, but why would we need to limit ourselves to flashlights anyway? You could just replace the flashlight with, say, a glowing torch like stick that... glows. It would make for an interesting flashlight idea, maybe not a good one, but certainly interesting. [I kinda stole that idea from a thread somewhere on the forums a while back]

Yes, if you light a clocked structures/creatures, the light is no longer centered.

this is oldschool S&I forums (lawl it's from the days when it was calle that instea of I&S)

but gameplay > realism.

I just want a working flashlight, so I can stop myself from rapping the gamma.

and I think it would add to the NS gritty feel.

sometimes, realism adds to gameplay

however i completely agree!

This is something I wanted in NS 1.0 as well; I'm happy the HL2 flashlight (or at least the CS:S flashlight I guess) works better... you actually see some sort of beam of light coming...

I actually always thought this could be an advantage/disadvantage as well; When you are an alien, you might see the flashlights coming through the darkness even before you can see/hear the marines, or if you can hear them and are hidden you can see how far away they are through their flashlights...

I think its a real cinematographic addition if you could implement this... Maybe even make some parts of the map so that you HAVE to use a flashlight (although I know the idea is to make maps 'feel' dark instead of 'be' dark, I think lightning has a lot to add to the suspence...) and as said, it makes you a better target so is scary to use...

Also, aliens can see what is scanned, and the marines scan the area... when you don't see anything until suddenly your beam falls upon an alien that readys itself to strike, I think that would be awesome.

Also, you could make alien spores or structures that inhibit electronic devices (or some explanation like that) so that flashlights don't work (or don't work around the hive)... This could add some strategy if used properly...


I would definatly like to see this in NS/NS2, however I think it's too much environment-sensitive/balance sensitive to implement.


But you can always hope (:

I agree, the flashlight (and laser pointer, but that's less critical) code in The Specialists is perfect...just what you'd expect, both as a user and as an observer...there's nothing like seeing a laser sight creep its way along the wall right next to you, or seeing people sweep their flashlights through a room...definitely adds functionality and ambiance, both of which are exactly what Natural Selection is about.