dsm
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Why don't I have a custom title by now?!
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I'm bored, so I guess I'd just kick around a few of my ideas on what a new Wolfenstein game should be like (Id stated a while ago that there would be yet a return to the Wolfenstein universe - after RtCW that is).
*Warning: this post is ridiculously long*
Interface:
Let's face it (heh), RtCW's interface is horribly bloated and complex which is completely the opposite of Wolf3d.
- You only need two movement speeds: sneaking (silent but slow) and running (fast but noisy), toggled by *one* key.
I am, however, partial to the stamina bar and I'd like to go the "Doom 3 way" of slowing the pace a little (I'll return to that later).
- Scrap the option to lean around corners. I admit that I kinda liked it, but again, it clogs up the interface and it really doesn't add to the basic fun of shooting Nazis.
I'd suggest instead that enemies won't notice you immediately when you stay partially hidden behind corners, so that you can briefly "peek" around corners that way, then duck back before the enemy realizes that you're not German. If that's possible, it'd be much simpler and seem more realistic.
- Keep the 'use' key, but change its functions. Replace most of its original functions with Doom 3's GUI system.
The GUI system is used primarily to operate switches, machines and most devices that don't get in your way while battles are raging. I'm considering whether the GUI system could be used to open doors with as in: you walk up to the door, face the door handle and your gun is lowered so you can "operate" the door handle. Clicking on the handle will make you turn the handle and the door will open a slight notch. Once the doorhandle is turned and the door opened a few inches, you raise you gun again and all you need to do is move against the door to push it open (silently of course, unless you run against it).
The 'use' key is more of an 'action' key which is context sensitive. If you face a breakable object, you can press the 'use' key to kick the object, breaking it (including enemies!). If you face an item you can use as a weapon (such as a chair), you can pick it up by pressing the 'use' key. Using certain weapons (such as a rifle), facing an enemy and pressing the 'use' key will make you wack them with the butt of the gun.
- Picking up chairs was ridiculously difficult in RtCW. This time it should just be necessary to face the chair, and press the 'use' key. When this happens, you will lower you gun (you can 'cancel' the procedure while this happens by backing away) and grab the chair. While holding the chair, you cannot select any other weapons until you drop the chair again (by pressing 'use'), but the chair can be used to smack enemies by pressing the 'fire' key.
The same applies for other possible "alternate melee weapons" such as pipes, torches and assorted objects.
Nostalgia:
RtCW had a number of "nods towards Wolf3d", but sadly, it failed to incorporate what a large number of Wolfenstein 3d fans used to think of when they thought of Wolfenstein 3d.
- We need heavy steel doors that slide open with a metallic, rumbling noise and slam shut with an ominous, clanking racket, echoing throughout the hallways. The game doesn't need to be crammed with them, but a few here and there would do. These doors are noisy and often attract attention.
- We need freaking DOGS! And I'm not talking shitty robot dogs either. The Germans used trained dogs to track and attack intruders during WW2, so it makes perfect sense to include them. Plus, we need them to make it feel Wolfenstein'ish! Dogs should be kept weak, but they should move faster than the player (hence the slower player speed).
- Castle Wolfenstein itself needs to have a lot of intermingling, confusing hallways - this is how I always imagine a Castle of Evil and this was what Wolf3d did for me.
- Maybe it's just me, but as much as the Lopers and zombies in RtCW rocked, I still missed Wolf3d's zombie mutants. I'd like a fairly faithful re-interpretation of these guys as in: thin, grey-skinned zombie-like creatures with a gun sticking out of their torso (either their stomach or their chest - I don't care which). Should move as fast as normal humans.
Weapons:
I have to admit that I love RtCW's selection of weapons. The guns are well-chosen and most of them are fun, but a few of the guns were made redundant/useless either because of the amount of ammo you got (too much ammo for e.g. the MP40 and nowhere near enough for the Thompson) or because they were ridiculously under-powered (the pistols). So I'd like a few changes here.
- The knife's "rate of stabs" should be slower. It's simply too unrealistic so fast BJ can stab repeatedly.
- The pistols' damage rating is ok, but the enemies need to FLINCH when they take hits - I'm tired of enemies that seem incapable of feeling pain, you're supposed to be shooting them with a freaking gun, not a pea-shooter! Most importantly, a successful hit should render them briefly incapable of returning fire - remember that the pistols are horribly inaccurate. For nostalgia's sake, I'd prefer the Lüger to be wielded with both hands (BJ holds onto the gun with both hands).
- The Mauser rifle should be as powerful as its "sniper mode" in RtCW at all times - not just when you get the scope; it should be able to kill most basic enemies with one shot. That gun is too underpowered otherwise. Also, it should be better animated - it should give a cruel kickback when it fires (the screen even shakes briefly) and we should be able to see BJ pull the bolt back after each shot. Hell, the Mauser rifle should be Wolfenstein's answer to Doom's shotgun.
- The Snooper rifle should work a little more like a real M1 Garand (play MoH: AA to get an idea). That is: Twice as fast as the Mauser, but only half the firepower (that's right, I want it weaker than the Mauser).
It should also be upgradable - you start out with no silencer or scope, but you gradually pick up first the scope, then the silencer or vice versa.
- Hand grenades should be better animated (both priming and throwing), you should be able to carry more pineapples.
- Pick a more interesting rocket launcher than the Panzerfaust - one that has a neat, but slow reloading animation after each shot. My money's on the Allied Bazooka. Oh and make it so that you can carry a little more than 5-6 rockets - ten would do.
- The flame thrower should work differently. I'd prefer that the game introduces "flame specific damage" which, when accumulating a certain value, puts enemies (or the player for that matter) on fire. The flame thrower should not be the only weapon which can 'torch' enemies - fiery environments should be able to do it too.
- Better distribution of ammo. Fewer enemies should carry MP40s (more should carry Mausers which yield very little ammo), you should get more ammo for Allied weaponry (like, have a mission set in a warzone with recently killed Allied soldiers that have dropped their weapons and ammo).
Sounds:
While RtCW had some nice background environment sounds, lots of other sounds sucked. I'd go as far as to say that even the screams emitted by Wolf3d's brown guards were far superior to that weak 'moan' that enemy soldiers would emit in RtCW.
- Enemies should let out varied screams when they die and these had better be cool and loud.
- Human enemies should shout a variety of German phrases LOUD and CLEAR whenever they spot you - I don't care if it's flawless German or not as long as it doesn't sound strangely muffled. I'm ok with the Nazis speaking English when they idle-talk, but as soon as they don't, they had better talk German and not shout those clichéed sentences at you in English.
Also, different enemies would shout different things (the officer should certainly reprise his old line: "SPION!" and SS soldiers should shout "Shutzstaffel!").
- Inhuman creatures should sound more monstrous instead of letting out fake hisses. They don't need to sound as scary as Doom 3's monsters, but they should sound a bit more interesting.
- Some of the weapons could do with improved sounds. Examples are:
1. The mauser should sound a tad beefier and the bolt-action should sound more metallic and pronounced.
2. there should be a sound of spent bullet casings being ejected - not just the sound of the casings hitting the floor.
3. The rocket launcher needs to sound more powerful when it fires. Like a huge roar, followed by a sizzling noise as the rocket propelled grenade streaks at its target.
4. The venom gun's firing sound needs to be louder - it's firing armour-piercing rounds goddammit! There also needs to be a pronounced sound of several bullet casings hitting the floor.
- It'd totally rock if you can hear bullets whiz past you.
I better stop now, or the post will become too long. Might add other ideas later in this thread if it lives that long.- Show previous comments 7 more
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Responses:
Captain Red said:people suck, dogs do not.
Ok then, but to be frank with you, I don't think that's relevant because you're not shooting real dogs in a game.
And no, I'm not a dog-hater in case you thought that.I really wished I could've used the Colt .45 and the Thompson machine gun more but the only ammo I could find, short of secrets, was whatever I started with at the beginning of a new chapter.
I'm with you on that one and it's a mistake that I haven't covered that one yet, but I'll cover it below.
Oh yeah, and if anyone have any ideas you feel like sharing, well, be my guest.
More ideas again:
Gameplay (part II)
- Make it so that you start the majority of your missions in the game with only Allied weaponry at the start (and plenty of ammo for them too) - then, as you gradually run out of ammo for the Allied guns, you pick up German guns and ammo so that the German weaponry slowly takes over.
Also, you might get additional ammo for the Allied guns in the following cases:
1. You encounter friendly NPCs, whether resistance members or Allied Soldiers, they'll often give you some ammo - typically for Allied guns.
2. Your mission is set in a place where Allied forces have recently been fighting so you come across dead Allies which have dropped ammo.
3. The enemy has captured/confiscated Allied weapons and store them somewhere - very rare occurance.
- Inhuman enemies (yes! I want unrealistic monsters!) such as e.g. zombies (including man-made zombies like those I mentioned earlier) don't feel pain like normal, living beings. So when you shoot them, their bodies might jerk from the impact, but they won't stop but continue straight towards you, still attacking with whatever they have. Only way to interrupt their progress is if you hit them with a powerful shot (such as a well-aimed shot from the Mauser) that will cause them to fall down before they crawl to their feet and advance on you again.
- Once you wear an enemy uniform, you automatically holster your weapon but you can bring out one of your guns if you select it by pressing one of the number keys. However, bringing up a gun is instantly suspicious to the enemy, unless you're wearing a regular soldier's uniform (wearing an officer's uniform means less trouble in many other instances, but don't wave your guns about while wearing it!). When wearing a uniform, a "uniform" icon appears at one of the top corners of your screen - it changes colour depending on how suspicious you are. If you draw a gun while "in uniform", the uniform icon turns red, if you keep your gun holstered, the icon is green, unless you attrect unpleasant attention (it turns orange if someone gets slightly suspicious). The icon gets transparent if your cover is blown.
To holster a gun again after having drawn it while "in uniform", press its number key until you don't pull out a weapon in the same weapon class (i.e. "submachineguns"). To Remove the uniform, reselect and "re-use" the uniform in the inventory.
- If an alarm is sounded, it's usually a smart thing to put on an enemy uniform (if you're the sneaky type) and pull out a gun (this is regardless of uniform type). When alarms are wailing, NOT looking alert and ready to shoot first and ask questions later is instantly suspicious - the exact opposite of when all is quiet and calm.
- When wearing a uniform, human enemies get a sort of "NPC status". You can still kill them if you pull out a weapon and attack them with it, but while wearing a uniform and keeping your gun holstered, you can approach an enemy "NPC", use him (the 'use' key again) and either gain interesting info from him or even trade with him if he's got something he's willing to sell (keeping my "treasures are worth money" idea in mind).
Weapons (again)
- The dual colts could be made even more inaccurate than in RtCW, making them worthless for anything but fighting in very close quarters. They should, however, be extremely effective at gunning down enemies that turn around corners right in front of you - namely, because enemies flinch with each hit they take and because the shot pattern is so random that even if your aim is a bit off, there's a good chance that you hit them with a stray shot anyway.
- When priming a grenade, BJ's left arm appears to serve as a sort guide to how far you'll throw the grenade. Assuming grenades function identically to RtCW's, aiming far above the horizon will make BJ stretch his arm out far as to show "I'm gonna toss this grenade all the way to Atlantis!" :-P, whereas aiming directly at your feet, will make the arm retract out of sight to show that no effort is gonna be laid in throwing this grenade whatsoever.
- The tesla gun's attack (both fire modes) should be capable of knocking physics objects off shelves etc (for basic coolness factor). Given that it would be really effective against human enemies (keeping my ideas on it above in mind), it's now less efficient against zombies as they are more indifferent to pain (it'll still make their bodies jiggle in funny ways though, but not enough to really stop their advance) - it does slow them down a little.
The secondary attack, however, would be awesome to push pesky zombies away from you.
Enemies
- People will probably disagree with this one, but I'd prefer that basic "Nazi soldiers" are split up into categories with specific traits for each type rather than just have a generic "Nazi Soldier" label with completely different skill attributes applied (like in RtCW where a green-uniformed grunt would be a sucky fighter early in the game, but totally lethal with his aim and reactions later in the game). But there should still be small variations in marksmanship and basic reactions within each category.
Like:
1. Regular: Weak, green-uniformed grunt - takes 4 9-millimeter bullets at the max to kill, but can be killed with one bullet if you hit him square in the chest (or in the face where the helmet isn't protecting). Has generally slow reactions, always slow to fire and a mediocre aim (which varies slightly). Low pain tolerance. Prefers Mauser rifle.
2. Security guard: Takes 5 9-millimeter bullets at the max to kill, 1 bullet at the minimum. Wears tan uniform (same uniform as the guards in the Rocket base in RtCW). Decent reactions, decent respond time (time it takes them to shoot back), good aim (slight variations again). Low pain tolerance, uses either Mauser or MP40.
3. SS-soldier: Wears black SS uniform. Takes 6 9-millimeter bullets at the max, 2 at minium (but very difficult to pull off) unless shot in the face. Fast reaction time (with variations), fast respond time (but only as fast as possessed soldiers in classic Doom - nothing totally unrealistic), superb aim (but not so they can hit you in the face with an MP40 from miles away!). High pain tolerance. Prefers MP40 but may use FG42 as well.
- Keep the venom soldiers and the paratroopers, but make paratroopers parachute in more often! Make a variation of the Venom soldier which uses the tesla gun for the last few levels of the game. Both Venom soldiers and Paratroopers are basically SS-soldiers with armour and better weapons (paratroopers wear flak jackets underneath their leather uniforms and Venom soldiers wear made-up heavy armour underneath their trench coats) - meaning that they share skill and pain tolerance with the SS soldier category.
- I want Lopers back (screw those lame proto soldiers), but this time they should be a little varied - like, have Lopers without any armour that aren't quite as tough as those in RtCW (but indifference to pain still applies and they're still pretty tough) for the early introduction of them and Lopers with varying amounts of armour protection that are either as tough as the RtCW ones or slightly tougher. Their appearance should perhaps be a bit different this time (but basics still the same: legless hulks, sizzling electrical 'engine', skin sewn together with rough stings in many places).
Oh and they should let out a monstrous growl when they see you and an inhuman roar of agony when they die (together with the same heavy clanking noise it made in RtCW) - not those weak, barely audible snarls.
Maybe make them a bit slower this time (like, they delay before each jump - jumps are still long and fast) to remidy that the player moves slower now.
- Yeah, I like the RtCW "ancient" zombies back - more because I've got some cool ideas for them than anything. These guys still call in evil ghost skulls (Shaviro would hate that but tough shit for him), but they do it two ways:
1. Call in a slew of skulls that merge into a single skull which then turns yellow and bright (so you can't mistake it) before it flies at you - basically the same attack as in RtCW, but this time, it knocks you back when hit.
2. Call in a slew of skulls which swarm at you, lift you off the ground and enables the zombie to direct you wherever it pleases - it can slam you repeatedly into walls or it can draw you closer so it can maul you. All the while, you can still aim and turn, but no run away - so you better shoot that zombie asap.
The skulls die with an etheral scream once you dive out of the zombie's sight (as long as you're in the zombie's own sight, the skulls will pursue you through solid objects and shit).
- The RtCW style zombies can only be killed by reducing them to dust - to do so, shoot them repeatedly until they become so ruined that they simply fall apart - they may go down a number of times after you shoot them, but unless they smolder into dust (with a really cool effect - think Doom 3's disintegrating effect described in a D3 MP mode preview), they just get back up after a small hiatus. Like D3's Alpha zombies, you can prevent them from getting up by standing on them.
- Based on the "zombie knights" from RtCW, I'd like to see "Skeleton Knights" (or just call 'em "Skeletons") wearing rusty armour (or no armour for that matter). These buggers carry magic shields that reflect bullets (but rarely directly back at you - a good physics engine would be useful here) and prevent harm to it. Thanks to per-poly hit detection, you can still harm the skeleton even with its shield raised if you aim at its unprotected spots (and hit them!), but likewise, the skeleton will still be partially protected even if it doesn't cover behind its shield because every bullet that hits the shield will ricochet off it.
- Skeletons should be weaker than the RtCW zombie knights (but are arguably harder to hit), but when they DO die, they fall apart in a sweet animation and end up as bone piles.
- Fire zombies should also be back, but are just regular zombies with a flame-spewing attack instead of the ghost skulls. Also, fire zombies can turn regular zombies into fire zombies (uh-oh!) and even turn skeletons into fiery skeletons that do fire damage added onto their regular melee damage (ripoff of Painkiller, yes I know!). -
you need to add a nazi chapter. You are Heinreich Von Frankfurter. You are a german spy with a moustache. You must Invade castle Upperlip and battle the allied dogs. Press H to give a quick 'Heil Hitler!' and increase your stamina.
End boss would be winston churchill in some sort of battle mech. He farts brandy. -
I just want a game for sadists. Or Hellsing fans (that's the anime, not the castlevania-wannabe movie). No, seriously. I want a game where, when you shoot someone, they really act like you shot them. Screaming, bleeding, falling over, cries for help. You know. A game for all us sick fucks out there.