I have recently shooting of an campaign amongst the people I meet everyday (at the design university I study at the moment) to get ”UnrealTournament”-playing people to start playing INF.
To make it easy for them (it's not very easy now as you all know! Especially not for mac...) I have made a "easy-copy-and-play" installation CD (two Cd's really, including about 70 maps!) and also a pdf-based inspiration and instruction shortcut manual to INF. Why? I want people to discover a great (and smarter than most FPS) game, but I also want people to play with on other maps than those on the ordinary servers.
The campaign has only just begin but I see already some reactions that have lead me to some conclusions: First, I think we that love INF have to understand that we must be some kind of freaks! I mean; is it REALLY healthy to get attracted to as accurate realism as possible in things as weapon simulation (design, behaviour, aiming, putting together tactical loadouts etc), real body simulation (stamina system, ”rolling” walk field of vision, leaning around corners)???
Personally I cant stand UT, but I can understand what who like it get attracted of. Of course it's much less complex to learn, but more important is the fact that you can get hit SEVERAL times before you're die is a quite good solution for well balanced fights where you don't have to be super skilled to have fun. INF more or less DEMANDS some level of skill to be fun... INF is thrilled fear to get hit, UT (and Quake, CS, HalfLife and more) is messy "simple party" fun, you have a new life after you been killed... So, INF lovers want to simulate, other people just want have fun and don't care about "tactical load-outs" and so on...
BUT I will below point in a direction how to make the changeover for ”UT-players” to INF easier! Things can be done! What I have in mind is NOT to make INF more simple to learn, and NOT to make the weapons less lethal since those realistic things is the fundamental that's unique about INF. Instead: ADD MORE ”FUN” AND ACTION-EVOLVING STUFF THAT ARE EXISTING FOR REAL LIFE SOLDIERS! Don't be so ”afraid” of adding ”extreme” and things that are in the outer regions of what could be realistic. Here are some ideas... (Number of * shows how important I think the idea is; 1-5)
***** TRACE FIRE: The bullets travelling in the air in INF are invisible and that diminish the entertainment value in the game A LOT! Trace fire look really cool and are at least quite realistic. People used to the plasma guns get at least something "for the eyes". DON'T ARGUE DOWN THIS IDEA BY DEFAULT! PLEASE THINK OF IT!!!!
***** MINES: Mines are very realistic. Different types that are used in real life should be possible to buy; remote trigged, motion trigged, mounted on walls, placed on the ground, This will ad MUCH fun.
****ARMOR VESTS: Buy a power-up in the load-out-shop! This is realistic! Of course this will add more tactical decisions when putting together your load-out . A armor vest will of course will cost money and bulk and you have to strategically choose between heavier weapon load and no protection or less wepons load and more protection. Or ALL but really slow speed... Here is a link with armor vest examples
***NON LETHAL (EVOLUTION) WEAPONS: Non lethal weapons (for example paralysing by electric shock, pain but no damage weapons and more) are getting more common, since peace preserve missions getting more frequent. Perhaps "killings" with non lethal weapons should give higher score? Would guaranteed add fun! (And morally values!)
**SPY (EVOLUTION?) STUFF: Today's soldiers getting more and more high-tech supported. I'm no expert on the exact designs that are evolving out there but it would be fun to be able to send out small (model sized) spy planes in huge outdoor maps as EP...
Another category of idea on how to increase the team feeling:
Before the game start, you have to ”tell the team” what role you are planning to have in the team; for example aggressive assault attacker (runner), heavy gunner, sniper, mine placer, canon food (to fool enemy into traps!)... Better names and more categories must be evolved that reflect the roles you have in a real military unit. The roles you choose will NOT influence at all on anything more than the way the score is set, in some way a balanced scoring can be done. But the most important thing is that people know what they can expect of each other.
Ok.. Some ideas... More to come... feedback please!
To make it easy for them (it's not very easy now as you all know! Especially not for mac...) I have made a "easy-copy-and-play" installation CD (two Cd's really, including about 70 maps!) and also a pdf-based inspiration and instruction shortcut manual to INF. Why? I want people to discover a great (and smarter than most FPS) game, but I also want people to play with on other maps than those on the ordinary servers.
The campaign has only just begin but I see already some reactions that have lead me to some conclusions: First, I think we that love INF have to understand that we must be some kind of freaks! I mean; is it REALLY healthy to get attracted to as accurate realism as possible in things as weapon simulation (design, behaviour, aiming, putting together tactical loadouts etc), real body simulation (stamina system, ”rolling” walk field of vision, leaning around corners)???
Personally I cant stand UT, but I can understand what who like it get attracted of. Of course it's much less complex to learn, but more important is the fact that you can get hit SEVERAL times before you're die is a quite good solution for well balanced fights where you don't have to be super skilled to have fun. INF more or less DEMANDS some level of skill to be fun... INF is thrilled fear to get hit, UT (and Quake, CS, HalfLife and more) is messy "simple party" fun, you have a new life after you been killed... So, INF lovers want to simulate, other people just want have fun and don't care about "tactical load-outs" and so on...
BUT I will below point in a direction how to make the changeover for ”UT-players” to INF easier! Things can be done! What I have in mind is NOT to make INF more simple to learn, and NOT to make the weapons less lethal since those realistic things is the fundamental that's unique about INF. Instead: ADD MORE ”FUN” AND ACTION-EVOLVING STUFF THAT ARE EXISTING FOR REAL LIFE SOLDIERS! Don't be so ”afraid” of adding ”extreme” and things that are in the outer regions of what could be realistic. Here are some ideas... (Number of * shows how important I think the idea is; 1-5)
***** TRACE FIRE: The bullets travelling in the air in INF are invisible and that diminish the entertainment value in the game A LOT! Trace fire look really cool and are at least quite realistic. People used to the plasma guns get at least something "for the eyes". DON'T ARGUE DOWN THIS IDEA BY DEFAULT! PLEASE THINK OF IT!!!!
***** MINES: Mines are very realistic. Different types that are used in real life should be possible to buy; remote trigged, motion trigged, mounted on walls, placed on the ground, This will ad MUCH fun.
****ARMOR VESTS: Buy a power-up in the load-out-shop! This is realistic! Of course this will add more tactical decisions when putting together your load-out . A armor vest will of course will cost money and bulk and you have to strategically choose between heavier weapon load and no protection or less wepons load and more protection. Or ALL but really slow speed... Here is a link with armor vest examples
***NON LETHAL (EVOLUTION) WEAPONS: Non lethal weapons (for example paralysing by electric shock, pain but no damage weapons and more) are getting more common, since peace preserve missions getting more frequent. Perhaps "killings" with non lethal weapons should give higher score? Would guaranteed add fun! (And morally values!)
**SPY (EVOLUTION?) STUFF: Today's soldiers getting more and more high-tech supported. I'm no expert on the exact designs that are evolving out there but it would be fun to be able to send out small (model sized) spy planes in huge outdoor maps as EP...
Another category of idea on how to increase the team feeling:
Before the game start, you have to ”tell the team” what role you are planning to have in the team; for example aggressive assault attacker (runner), heavy gunner, sniper, mine placer, canon food (to fool enemy into traps!)... Better names and more categories must be evolved that reflect the roles you have in a real military unit. The roles you choose will NOT influence at all on anything more than the way the score is set, in some way a balanced scoring can be done. But the most important thing is that people know what they can expect of each other.
Ok.. Some ideas... More to come... feedback please!
