Then to be safe only use special NS version of roaches. They are 5 polygons (i think) and have extremely simple AI with pauses. That is about as low on system resources as you can go.

The Heart of Evil chumtoad isn't much either.

Like 4 roaches per hive and one chumtoad if you have three? They spawn only when there is a hive and if that hive goes down they disappear. Like that?

/me grins.

Make them client side.


It does not really matter if marine A steps on different roaches to marine B, so synchronisation is not an issue. It would use Client CPU time only, (and very little at that, as it would not need to put roaches all over the map, just in the vicinity).

Thumbs up.

(No hive mind alterations though, and remove them from the Kharaa side of things.)

Logic from NS universe standpoint: the AENC and mycelium can't be everwhere and the shear ammount of nutrients and matter that needs transportation some times needs little carriers

And besides every time you guys say it bogs down performance that is such an insignifigant argument. Really. If you can't spare a few kilobytes or two of memory you have more serious problems to deal with.

That would be nifty, everyone would see different roaches in different locations

for chumtoads:
*Points to Heart of Evil mod.* They didn't steal because Valve for one never produced the critter and for two we are all under the property rights of Valve. We just can't rip things directly off of other games.
for roaches:
Similar points as the chumtoads, but there's no reason the roaches can't be customized into something unique.

Besides Zunni said he wanted to put the new artist to work.

~edit~

Ooh cool idea:

either:

the roaches show up on motion tracking, which causes confusion. (is that the onos or just another roach)

-or-

they dont, in which case you won't know when the hive is up but if they can "see" you you will show up on hivesight. "Omg h4x!"


PS: my # suggestion are certainly subject to change, maybe somethign you can control though a server or client .cfg file varible?

Shouldn't be hard. Even I know enough to code a roaches AI. Modelling isn't hard because I don't think it has any "bones" either.

I really like this idea. When I first started playing AvP2 I freaked out every time I opened a door - I though two aliens were about to pounce on me. It took me a mission or two (or four... XD) to learn that doors and such also showed up on MT.

it contributes atmosphere to the gameplay
but i guess your the type of gamer, raising gama to max and turning all details off for a better frag rate

and THAT gives me an idea

Atmosphere and immersion are not attributes that improve gameplay. I remember playing back in the days, where graphics sucked but the gameplay was good enough to cause immersion and atmosphere.

No, I'm not the kind of gamer who turns all details off and raises gamma to the max. However, I do realize what happens when you add dozens (and it would have to be dozens or you would rarely see them) of entities to the game. Sure, the AI is simple. However, would they die when you step on them? Shoot them? Would they respawn, or stay dead? Those are all things that would tax a computer while not making gameplay any better. That is why they should be client side (after all, NS servers can take 60-80% of a 3ghz machine with a few plugins) and optional. That way, people with good computers can turn them on, and people with bad computers or people who like to "raise gama[sic] to max and [turn] all details off for a better frag rate" can turn them off. I don't see any reason to force them to use them. It's like forcing people to use models with a minimum poly count, because low poly count models make the game have less atmosphere.