Welder Cool Down, A welder warms the marines hands Options

[Testosteron]

I see a problem with the new freedom of welding mentioned in the ninth podcast [German version]. With so much freedom it could be worth sending a noob player to weld all the doors and vents on one side of the map so that the marines can control a hive and three or four RTs by holding just one position (which would be the reloc).

When the four other players (I assume its 6vs6 but the bigger the teams are, the easier it is to take one player out of the fighting force) can defend the base and make pressure on the aliens the welder-guy would never see an alien and could weld doors and vents for ages (I think you will not be able to weld a door shut within a few seconds that would be imbalanced).

So this player would weld and weld and that’s boring. So I came up with the idea of a welder cool down.

The welder is very hot and if you weld to long your gloves will melt.

So every second you weld your glove armour will warm by three degree Celsius and when it reaches a 100 degree (after 33 seconds) you have to stop welding. Your armor will cool down by one degree every second so after 99 seconds (=1 minute and 33 seconds) you can weld again for 33 seconds.

Or you weld for 33 seconds, let the gloves cool for three seconds and can then weld again for one second.

This way a comm would have to change his welder-guy every couple of minutes and no one would have to keep up with this boring job for a whole game.

What I forgot in this example is the ambient temperature (which could vary form location to location, e.g. very hot near lava.

Note:
This is not about the possibility of imbalanced welding spots, just about the cool down for every player!

PS
I’m sorry for using Celsius as an example but I guess even American people know that 0°C is when water freezes to ice and 100°C is when water boils. Where as we Europeans don’t have a clue about Fahrenheit.

[yoda]

I would think that a material required for welding would be better, so as long as the marine who welded is alive the material stays there or alternatively there is a set amount of material available on the map and you can de-weld areas and then re-weld new areas, there-by transferring the material which would stop the "weld spam" all over the map.

Then again assuming that repair will be its primary function (the way it is now) and its alternative click function would be the fusion weld (where heat is applied until two or more pieces of metal melt and fuse together) or material weld (cant remember the name for when you need that stick to join two pieces of metal together) that could have a cooldown imposed on it.

I also don't think that welding would be boring sealing off entrances and doorways before aliens can attack while watching them approach on motion tracking makes me think of alien (movie), and if you can weld onto a wall you could make a ladder for a vantage point and so on. Welding adds a new world of possibilities to a map and how it could be played.

[MilesTeg198]

I think this balance suggestion errs on the same side as Charley's aversion to a running "Cool down". They aren't adding entertainment to the game, just limitations.

This is not to say that your balance issue isn't a concern, its a very real concern. Rather than just critique, something so common on forums, lets work out some other balance solutions.

1) Make dynamic weld points good or bad, given a particular game context. Simply put, welding certain areas only add benefits to the marines when, say the aliens have a hive near the weld point, but is a negative when when they don't. Expanding this concept past my one example, noob weld spamming would then hurt marines.
2) Make welding times long and make the weld brightness much larger so the actual welder has to weld for a length of time and cannot see an alien coming unless a teammate warns them. This also makes welders more like real life, rather than the Post-It note method in the first game: slap and stick...

My two cents,

Miles Teg

[Domining]

Or you can simply add a reset timer to all of the weld points, so if you want something welded, it has to be important enough to warrant it.

[NEX9]

I would like to see, welders flash involved, and I would like to see the weldie get burnt after X time with out exsplitation, see flash light in HL2 "the drain time while spammed is less than the recharge time while not spamed". In turn haveing two people swap rolls part way thru, or if you have enough men and really need a door welded, have two people weld the door quiker than one and a swap with out burn.

Also I asume exsessive damage to doors will crack the welds and produce a manual override effect sort of security function. were lots of sulks pounding forces the welds to crack enough that the door can auto open its self to prevent it from being bent to much out of shape that it will never open. I would think two sulks so team work and they would need to chomp it as much as it takes two sulks to kill a res node, cos even then its getting boring.

I am sure they will do something swish o.

[wankalot]

I just wanna see the cosmetic side of welding drastically improved

i dunno if any of you have seen welding in the flesh but its REALLY bright, and sparks fly everywhere. I think it would really add to the atmosphere if a dark room flickered as someone welds.. then suddenly the silhouettes of aliens pop up all over the place. It think theres a scene in aliens a bit like that... u know when they r trying to save newt by welding through the floor?

[2aimless]

everyone would weld his name in the dark xD

this weld thing would be funny omg a lerk in the vent!!! lets weld both sides fast so he has to suicide!!!

OHEMGI! ONOS GAHHH need something to weld a barricade!! ahh fast GIEF ME YOUR WEAPONZZZZ!!! :O

HAnr1: hi!
HAnr2: ho!
HAnr1: OMG THE WELDER GUY RUUN HE WILL WELD IS TOGETHER!!!
HAnr2: OMGWTFROFL WTH not again <.<
Welderguy: ahaha siamtwins whuhahaha ^^


ohh i forgot

Afkguy just coming back to pc...
"Huh?! why my screen is black?! WTF?! HAXX!!11"

"i said if you go afk i will weld a desk in your face! not my fault ;O"



another scenario:

"awww its getting cold in here"
"yeah"
- build target at waypoint!
"jaja rt building with frozen fingers"
"wait ff is on?"
"uhm yeah"
"destroy the rt i will burn the gases from the node and it will be warm"
"uhh fine someone got marshmellows?"



i think god made the world in six days with that welder ^^

This post has been edited by 2aimless: Nov 5 2007, 01:16 AM

[NEX9]

good comical spin

[Wyattx3]

No cooldown. If the commander decides to have someone take a welder and start locking up doors and vents, well the marine could just ignore the commander, but I don't see why welding doors would be any less fun than building resource towers, it wouldn't take too long and its not like theres no threat of an alien coming up behind you. If you add a cooldown to the welder, and your having to constantly be switching up players doing different things, it could cause problems.

And also, why would the welder itself get so hot it would melt the marines gloves? This is the future!

[2aimless]

what about a gas kit you need to get at armory and fill it up everytime you welded a weldingpoint o.o?

- so maybe you have "ammo" that stacks up to a specific amount and you can refill it at armory but not with ammopacks!
- if you weld a door you need one bottle with gas but you dont need it for welding marines or ha (only warm flame)
- and to prohibit to many welded things in an area you could just do it like with the sporemines

- in sporemine plugin you can set 2 mines in an area so you could weld a special amount of items in an specific area

(well yeah problematic with the hightech marines who can only weld 3 things in an area xD but still a good idea i think)

[locallyunscene]

I think the idea of having to use material to weld is good. It could be like metal in TF2.

[N_3]

you can't run around welding by yourself, you need cover, and then its more interesting - doing an important job for the group of marines. "big welds" in ns1 are pretty exciting moves if done, namely the ones on caged (vent hive), lost (alpha hive), tanith (sat hive)

[Moving_Target0]

I think you kinda contradicted yourself. By adding cool down to welders, that would make it longer and more boring to weld.

In any case, I think that you should be able to weld stuff together, kinda like in Garry's Mod, and use it as a barricade, etc.

For instance, a pile of metal rubble is nearby. You know that a few skulks will be where you are soon, as you just killed them and they will be returning to get revenge. By welding a quick barrier from the debris, you could stop them from going in from the ankle bite, and perhaps even have spikes made from shards of the rubble that harm them if they ram into it. A makeshift bunker, if you will.

On the flip side, aliens could tear those defenses apart fairly easily, as they aren't connected to the nano grid, and perhaps forms such as an onos could send the pieces flying at the marines, making the defenses backfire. It would make having such fortifications a gamble.

On the topic of welding doors / vents, I think enough has been said; the marines can temporarily close them off, but the aliens can break back through. The only thing I'd like to see, however, is marines frantically trying to keep a door welded shut that an onos is using gore on, causing a large dent in the door each time until the thing breaks apart into shards.

[locallyunscene]

On the flip side, aliens could tear those defenses apart fairly easily, as they aren't connected to the nano grid, and perhaps forms such as an onos could send the pieces flying at the marines, making the defenses backfire. It would make having such fortifications a gamble.

I really like this idea.