Annex Mode:

All subject to change.

Annex is the lovechild of Combat and Classic to produce a simple yet fun strategy/first-person hybrid where classic lovers can take a break and combat lovers can learn to play classic. Annex (which means take control) is all about resource towers, which provide resources for your team in a marine vs. alien fashion.

A team wins by taking control of all the Resource Towers. Instead of micromanaging what to build and upgrade, the upgrade system is combat-like but each side has a unique way of doing things which tributes classic.

Marines:
The marines start with a Comm Chair (Invulnerable) and a RTS to their name. The commander can drop weapons, supplies and can use the resources to activate various objects throughout the map from doors to traps (such as turrets). The marines themselves gain levels for upgrades such as motion tracking, armor, damage, etc (no equipment is buyable and there is no resupply). The Resource Towers provide resources and act as armories and Ips for the marines.

Aliens:
The aliens start with a RTS and nothing else. The aliens gain upgrades such as focus, regeneration and focus combat style but evolving into life forms costs resources gain from the RTS. The Resource Towers provide resources and act as movement/defense chambers and as Ips for the aliens.

Map Design:
A map will be designed in a tug of war fashion with RTS spaced evenly.

Comments? Suggestions?

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Idea is nice..But needs some refiniment on alien side of things..

Interesting. I say this has potential with some more refinement.

Good idea!

Like Onslaught from UT2k4, but with this.

Not bad. Could be refined though to be like that one TFC map where your spawnpoint moves...and with rines, they can have their entire thingymabob...

it could work.

That would be a suitable replacement for Combat , imho.

So whats the point of RTs again? To have the commander build RTs and drop weapons?

A little update which adds details, which are all subject to change and most are just examples which would require testing to get a solid number.

EDITS:
-Spelling

Annex:

Overview
-The team to take control of all the resource nodes first, wins.
-There is no RFK.
-Resource Towers take a **** load of time to build.

Marines:
-The Marines start with a command console (Invulnerable) and a Rts.
-The Commander can drop weapons, supplies and can spend resource to activate sealed doors or traps (Based on the mapper).
-The Commander can only drop a RTS if there is a marine in the nodes area.
-Marines can choose Armor, Damage, Motion Tracking and Scan upgrades in a combat style via leveling.
-The Resource Towers provide resources and act as armories and IPs for the marines.

Aliens:
-The aliens start with a RTS and nothing else.
-The gorge is the only one who is able to drop RTS towers, they cost nothing but require some time to get up.
-The aliens gain upgrades such as focus, regeneration and focus combat style but evolving into life forms costs resources gain from the RTS.
-The Resource Towers provide resources and act as movement/defense chambers and as IPs for the aliens.

Map Design:
-Annex battlefields are supply frigates that have an unstable energy grid (no building and bad doors) and just carry nano-sludge (the RTS race).
-A map will be designed in a tug of war fashion with RTS spaced evenly.
-The maps give an advantage for the aliens with vents and such things.

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Marines:
-All resources go to the commander.
The Commander:
-He needs to keep the marines supplied with health packs and ammo packs when they are too far without an RTS.
-The commander can drop weapons and equipment near RTS.
>Wielder: 10 resources
>Mines: 15 resources
>Shotgun: 15 resources (Level 3+ marines only)
>HMG: 20 resources (Level 5+ marines only)
>GL: 25 resources (Level 6+ marines only)
>JP: 30 resources (Level 7+ marines only)
>HA: 30 resources (Level 7+ marines only)
-Any weapon around a resource tower not used, will be recycled for 75% of the cost instead of being lost.
-The commander can drop Resource Towers for the cost of 20 resources and having a marine near it.
-The commander can activate turrets, doors, armories or anything the mapper includes by spending resources on them, but once active they will drain resources so you must manage it.
-Your main job is to keep the marines outfitted and conserve resources.
The Marines:
-Your main job is take control of resource towers which the commander drops and build them
-You gain levels like in combat for things like:
>Damage from 1 to 3 costing 1 point each.
>Armor from 1 to 3 costing 1 point each.
>Motion tracking costing 2 points.
>Scanning costing 2 points.
>Grenades for 1 point.
>Leadership for 2 points (gives you a small range aura which increases the speed and reload time of allies, does not effect self and does not stack.)

Aliens:
-All resources are split evenly.
-You gain combat levels for things such as:
>Chamber upgrades.
>Hive ability upgrades
-You can spend your resources to become a life form such as.
>Skulk: (free)
>Gorge: 15 resources
>Lerk: 35 resources
>Fade: 55 resources
>Onos 75 resources
-Gorges can build resource towers for free.

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Comments?

Hmm...

Good idea... replace Combat with it as far as I'm considered.


As long as I can accomplish what my goals for ns_ are then I'll be happy.

This sounds good!

Do you even need the commander? Can you just have the RTs drop automaticaly when a person gets in range of a nozzle?


Then only allow weapon upgrades when you are near a RT or marine base.

With marine RTs, you can make the areas similar to DoD flags; different ones take different amount of time and people to cap.

Just a suggestion; I see the benefit of the commander in this mode seeing as it would be more of a bridge between the action side of NS and more tactical side of NS.

I want the role of the commander to be a trainer for classic, so I want to avoid complicated tasks. Any suggestions to give the commander role more depth will be helpful.

Bump.

All buildings but the RTS (aside from the comm chair, which is immortal) when are brought to 0 health will be shot down until a welder fixes them.

I was thinking of also that the Comm may drop limited number of turrets to keep the bile bomb useful.

I like the idea. Anything that encourages more people to play in the topdpwn RTS-style screen without being whined as gets a thumbs up from me. But I do think that a more basic version of ns_map commanding would be better to teach newbies.

An idea for the items would be that they each have different 'respawn' times. When you want a weapon the Com must drop you one, but instead of it being dependant on how well he's handling the res, he would have them more-or-less whenever the team needs them. Welders, mines, HMG/GL take longer. So if you really want to kit your team out in full HA/HMG/GL they would have to wait around wasting valuable time that should be spent getting at the mission objectives. This has the added benefit of a newbie Commander not having to worry about spamming down everything as quickly as possible, as an HA would only come every x seconds. I also think that this would teach new players the value of each gun in it's specific role, as they would be handed out one at a time.

Health shouldn't be Commander dependant, and could be regenerated at specific locations of the map (Res/MS/Armouries which only give out health)

To clarify each item box has a timer which progresses to a "Welder Available" image (or to save space just "Ready/Available"), similar to RTS build/research indicators. You could give out multiple weapons, but onyl 1 of each time at once. For example, if all were showing "Ready" you could theoretically give out a Shotgun/HMG/GL/Welder/HA all at once. I also think that it should be played with smaller teams, both to complement the slow weapon regen and emphasise each item's usefullness. If, however larger teams were preferred, to support this there should be a limit to the total number of items you can 'stack' to give out. So maybe 3 HAs could be stacked having waited 3 HA regeneration periods to do so.

For the Matrines 'R'FK or 'Res' For Objectives (or both) could shorten an equal ratio of the regen time for each item. Encouraging players to take objectives, res etc.
The Aliens would get similar RFK/RFO bonuses and use the combat menu (if slightly modified for a gamemode with larger levels) to evolve to higher lifeforms.

This could really help newbies learn the basics and give the Commander more to do, but maybe it's too far from your original idea and doesn't belong in this thread (if this is the case I'll repsectfully remove/repost it).

P.S. Just thought that another way to do it would be that Marines 'cash in' their experience to pickup items dropped by the Commander. Those who haven't opted for HA from the Combat-style skills menu won't be able to pick up those items. Or alernatively only Marines with a full bar can pick up HA, half a bar Shotgun etc.

P.P.S. I re-iterate what I said before about hijacking the post

I like your idea alot -[Kobayashi]- teaching new players the importance of weapons is always a bonus, and i think that way is better than gaining res to be spent on weapons and such.

Question is does it belong in this thread

I think so as it elaborates on the already talked about game type, and how you think it could work better, and surely thats the idea of each of these threads, to comment and suggest improvments.

This would be a nice way to teach people that classic is about Res control.
But I think RTs as armory AND spawn is not that good.
To keep the classic style i would suggest to make PGs available to activate for commander or let him build them if rines capture a certain amount of RTs.
Same goes for aliens by giving them three hives that spawn if aliens capture a certain amount of RTs.
With the hives aliens get second and third hive ability
and on the other hand rines shotgun and hmg/gl

Weldable doors to PG's make sense to you?

Hmm what would be aliens counter on that?
In my opinion having pg and Hives related to RTs sounds more balanced to me as both teams have three areas to spawn or spread out.
Weldopen is an option too but has a good and a bad side
either noone does it or ramborines welding both pgs open early

But im asking myself if HA and Jetpack should be handed out by comm
And if aliens need more hives for higher lifeforms

Well I dunno what you were thinking, but I pictured it as a progressive cap-the-flag type thing and when the terminal has been hacked the counter begins (or the game ends I can't remember what the original idea was).

The gameplay would be to get somewhere towards the end of the map with all the Alien Hives. I'm guessing the rough layout would not be square as in ns_maps (MS/Hives at corners) but kite shaped, with the 3 Hives bunched down at one end.

The ultimate goal (or goals, I'm guessing a terminal to hack systems or similar to what has been said previously) would be nearish the Alien Hives.

There would be a huge amount of gameplay options to this mode, some examples:

- Take your whole squad down one side of the map, capping the RTs and unwelding PGs as you go.

- Work out from MS capping RTs and welding PGs with smaller squads, à la ns_map

- Go straight for a Hive to hinder Aliens abilities.

- JP to the PGs and get a superfast communications (as in travel) system going


Unfortunately I haven't completely thought out the Alien options. At the moment it seems like they just get to play defenders. I suppose gorges could still build, but Aliens would only start with one Hive (maybe being able to build a Hive with a full XP bar?). I really need to think about that side of the game...

I think that overall the maps would be a bit more linear, with maybe few vent routes and some really Alien-friendly corridors for the Marines to push through. If it could be balanced well then it would take me right back to the days of Dustbowl where every players effort counted for something and you were always trying new tricks and routes. Ah the nostalgia...