Changing a first person game into a third person game and doing a quality job is hardly a “minor” thing, let alone an improvement.
Excuse me, but when I run side to side in real life I don’t tilt forty-five degrees.
It’s never explained in-game, but I’m pretty sure it was confirmed else where by Valve. And BTW, that type of technology actually exists (Or is in development rather).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_armour#Electric_reactive_armor
This is getting ridiculous. I didn’t say make it 3rd person. Free-Aiming is a minor tweak in the flowgraph that lets the player aim freely without the camera moving. No, I dont mean controlling the crosshair alone and taking out enemies with a click-- but rather the players’ arms move from left to right (slightly) creating a realistic effect when shooting. Also, when you run the camera should shake a little but not too much. Its the same when a bomb goes off. The camera should shake a little. Mostly every FPS game has this except for the free-aimng system which is only in some of the newer games. This maybe impossible to do in the Source engine but at the end of the day its a bloody suggestion.
Note: when I say its a “minor” tweak, I dont mean minor from a technical sense but from a gameplay perspective. Like I said before, I’m not the one to judge wether this is easy to pull off or not but to me its well worth the effort even if it a feature which can be turned on or off in the game. For the guys who don’t like it can pay the game happily and for those who like it-- well a great game/mod becomes even better.
[this is the second time i’m editing this. I just have to say one last thing…]
Whoever dissagrees with me, fine… but dont misquote me. dont post saying “you cant make Black Mesa 3rd person!” etc. I didnt say that and I never will. ok now, lets just forget about this
Could you give an example of a free-aiming game? You’re still not explaining it very well. Someone mentioned Red Orchestra and Red Steel but I don’t remember if you replied.
I’m having trouble even picturing what you are suggesting. So basically, the crosshair would move but the screen would stay static unless you move the crosshair to the edge of the screen?
Edit: Noticed the “Red Steel” example above. If that’s what you mean, than no I don’t want it.
Personally, I would argue that something like present in Red Steel is less releastic. When you turn to shoot something, I would imagine you are turning with the weapon and looking straight at whomever your target is. Maybe if you are running down a tight hall mowing down 10 or 20 enemies you wouldn’t move your head between guys, but in a more open area full of enemies, I think you are going to turn your head with the weapon for more efficient shooting and better accuracy. That is, unless you think Gordon Freeman, a scientist who’s probably never fired a fire-arm in his life, can actually shoot fully automatic and army grade weaponry out of his peripherals and not miss horribly.
Also, it’s much harder to aim. If the screen spins, I see my target before my weapon gets even with my target, allowing me to have the needed amount of reaction time to aim perfectly at the enemy. If the screen doesn’t spin until the weapon is pushed to the side, not only is that incredibly unreleastic as I’ve already said, but your weapon is past the enemy by the time you can react to his/her presence.
In short, I don’t think it’s a good idea. It’s unreleastic, inconvenient, and does not stick true to what the mod is aiming for. I won’t prove that 3rd one since that’s pretty much what everyone else has been doing for the last page or two.
If that’s what he’s suggesting that’s even worse… Why the hell would you put anything like that in a game like Half-Life? That’s for arcade and Wii games -.-
And it wouldn’t be minor in either senses. Or an improvement.
It sounds like he means having the players arms drift a little to catch up with the crosshair, or something. Which Half-Life 2 does already. But that definition doesn’t sound like it matches with a title like “Free-aiming”
I’m fairly certain he’s suggesting a play-style, not a visual effect. DinoThrasher’s definition seems to fit better.
If my definition is correct, here’s some gameplay footage of “Red Steel” that clearly shows what I picture as “free-aiming”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZTt75uTtkY
Notice how the screen stays static while the weapon jerks spastically around on the screen. Also notice how uncoordinated and clunky it looks. I’ve played this game and while it was a lot of fun, aiming is difficult to get use to.
I’ve never actually seen it done on a computer game or console games using conventional controllers.
And with a good goddamn reason.
Not sure it’s even possible with the Source Engine without some very hefty editing that would set Black Mesa back years.
Agreed. If you were to even consider implementing this, I think it needs a few more years of testing to make work in such a way that it doesn’t feel clunky and weird. It would also probably work a lot better with something like the Novint Falcon than with a standard mouse and keyboard.
But he said this:
Which discounts your Red Steel-esque idea and makes mine sound more likely. I think.
You’d be wrong there: you can enable it in SMod. It’s just the movement of the crosshairs, it’s hardly a complex game mechanic (although it is indeed shit and not worth even that meagre effort).
I had a look at both games and while Red Steel is definately not what I’m talking about, Red Orchestra demonstrates what I’m saying to a cetain degree. Its a little overdone though. In Red Orchestra there is no crosshair and the arms move too much in my opinion. My suggestion is only for the aiming and I’m in no way saying they should re-design the entire movement system in the game. Keep it the way it is, but by adding the free-aim option, shooting becomes realistically fun.
And in these times not every can afford to waste a hundred dollars on something like that. Plus who wants to put Black Mesa back another couple of years for some crappy aiming style that almost no one would use?
Red Steel and Red Orchestra have the exact same style of aiming.
Would you find a goddamn video showing what the hell you’re talking about then?
And you obviously have never fired a real gun, firing from the hip is hardly used due to inaccuracy, and you would never aim that way unless you’re an idiot or in very close combat. 90% of the time you move your body with the gun and fire from the sights or shoulder like you’re supposed to. Pistols you wouldn’t shoot from your shoulder obviously, but you would still generally move the upper half of your body along with aiming your weapon the handle the recoil properly.
ok. I’ll look for one that best describes what I’m saying
Anyways getting off that bandwagon, Maybe the Garg’s stomp attack should follow you around somewhat, it was way to easy to avoid in HL1. Or maybe Garg’s will only use it when you’re blocked in a corner. Or just make it a hell of a lot faster.
thanks to my friend on MSN, i’ve just found some videos…
firstly, these are from the game Crysis which apparently has many mods, free-aim being one of them. I’ve gathered 3 videos of it in action. I still think the aiming is slightly overdone at times. Igonore the pathetic head tilting in the last video. Just watch the first minute of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtkArH842oA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vMXjIvNSUU&NR=1
https://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=34251&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&page=11
I just re-watched the third video and the movement is 100% pathetic. Completely exaggerated. Concentrate on the aiming only and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
I took that line to mean “Not a rail-shooter”.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.