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While E3 and Spaceworld have gone without any mention of a sequel to Perfect Dark, a single render of Joanna from Rare ensures us that the game is at least in production. Instead of relying on various rumours and hearsay concerning the sequel (or prequel, if you believe some rumours), I've decided that a better idea would be to think up my own opinions on how I would like the game to be, in the hope that Rare might consider some of my ideas plausible. The following ideas are rather long, and as such rather difficult to arrange in any particular order, but related topics are somewhat close to each other. I hope you enjoy reading them a damn lot more than I did having to type out all 6000 words of them.
My first idea is one regarding a level creator. I think one of the functions that everyone wants to see in PD2 is a multiplayer level creator. But the problem is that console level creators are always simplistic compared to their PC counterparts. So, what Rare does is puts a highly detailed level creator for your PC onto the internet available for download. Then you can make the levels on your PC, upload them onto your SD card and you're ready for battle. You could also download levels off the hundreds of fan sites that are sure to spring up. And, not only could you make multiplayer levels, but singleplayer ones as well, which could vastly increase the replayability of the game. Rare themselves most probably make their levels using a custom made PC level creator, so it wouldn't be that hard to share the technology with the world. A useful addition to the single player level creator is the ability to import characters from your SD card into the level to allow for a much wider variety of enemies and for the ability to create specific characters based around levels you are making. The main character could even be chosen from the SD card, or you could use one of the regular Joanna models.
For those who are not PC enthusiasts, or who simply don't want to spend too much time making levels, a more simplistic, Timesplitters style level editor could be included for use on the Gamecube. It should be a bit more detailed than that of Timesplitters, but simplistic enough to allow you to quickly make a working multiplayer level.
Personally I think there are lots of advantages for releasing a PC level editor. Console ones are either too simplistic, or they get too complex for the console's game controller and resolution. And there definatley wouldn't be a shortage of levels that you could download. A good example is the level editor Westwood just released for Red Alert 2. Although I hadn't played the game for quite a while, I've just gotten back into it quite a bit because I can now make and tinker around with my own singleplayer and multiplayer levels, and there are literally hundreds that I can download off various fansites. I would certainly dab my hand into making a few PD2 levels, singleplayer or multiplayer and I think a lot of people have great ideas for levels but they stay just as ideas. With a good level editor, they can realise these ideas and share them with the world.
I also think that Rare should opt for a distribution method similar to what Westwood are doing. Not only are Westwood regualrily releasing more official multiplayer maps, but they now accept fan made maps to be submitted to their site, with a map of the week accolade too. This means that you would not only get lots of extra levels made by Rare, but you would get hundreds of extra levels approved by Rare too.
Also, this gamer would not have to be endorsed by Nintendo, as it is not packaged with the game, and the game itself does not need it, it is just a little free extra from the PD team to us gamers.
I would like to see a lot of the levels from PD and GE make a comeback. I think nearly all of the multiplayer levels are a bit obvious, so I won't bother listing them, but there are a few singleplayer levels that would make for great multiplayer games. Here's a general list I can think of:
Dam
Cradle
Train (Possibly adding access to the roof, and the train must be moving)
Depot
DataDyne Building (just the top three levels and the roof, we don't want it too big)
AirForce One
I'd mainly like them to stay as they are, with only graphical changes, plus what I've already mentioned. Any other single player level conversions would also be appreciated.
What I'd really like Train for is Capture the Case. With one base at each end of the train, four players each, it'd be really fun to try to advance your way up, or down, the train without being killed, using both the regular carriges and climbing over the roof. Depot would also make a great Capture the Case level, with more than two bases interspersed within the warehouses. Cradle is what I'd really like, though, with one-hit-kills and only sniper rifles. It would certainly be more strategic than regular, unless you were playing against the current sims, in which case they would charge randomly. But a bit of an AI upgrade would fix that. Or an online mode. Hell, we need both.
There were some suggestions that levels in PD2 should be bigger, to accommodate online games, more like those in Tribes. I, personally, don't think that Tribes style levels would suit PD at all. One thing that is in common with all PD and GE levels is that there is never a big, pointless open space. When there is a space, there is always a point, and a reason to all of the areas. For instance, the big area in Area 52 isn't just a big, flat, open plain. It has sniper towers, a pit, and a whole load of other stuff going on. But the levels in Tribes are big, with structures interspersed which hold most of the action. The levels, however, in Tribes are suited to the style of play, the weaponry and the access to vehicles and jump-packs. Personally, I think that PD levels should stay in the same style they are, but possibly have more variations to that style, rather than completely different levels.
On the subject of level sizes, I've come up with a solution. You would have the entire level available for you, but you have the options to close off individual areas. This way, you could play the entire Facility, or the multi-player variety, or you could even corner the battle off to just the two bottling rooms and hallway between. Hell, you could even play with everything but the multiplayer section. You could also select between different versions of Bunker, ranging from the entire of the Bunker and the whole of Surface to a small section of Bunker or a small section of Surface. This function could be used on any level, and would offer an even greater degree of customisability than before, but there would, of course, be default level sizes to avoid the need for too much pre-battle configuring.
One slight problem I've had in multiplayer regards the placement of bases in Capture the Case. I've gone through dozens of games having to quit straight away, just so that we can have the base in the bottling room. My solution is that you can choose where your bases are before the game starts, and if you didn't the game would just find a random place for you. I would also like to see more multiplayer levels designed with Capture the Case in mind. Fortress was a great start, but I need more variety.
In capture the case games, you should be able set the amount of points given for a capture, and you should be able to toggle on and off whether or not you get points for kills. While points for kills are off, your only way of winning is getting the case, with killing only being defensive, and to save the case.
It should be possible to allocate a weapon which each player will start off with, and an amount of ammo for that weapon which the player would start off with. The default weapon would be unarmed, but you could choose from any weapon, or gadget such as IR Goggles, which each player would be given each time they spawned. You could also set specific starting weapons to specific players or teams. This weapon wouldn't even have to be one of the weapons chosen in one of the 6 weapon slots.
It is important that you are given the ability to set a number of lives as a limit. You should also be able to change these lives among different people or teams, in order to give them some sort of handicap other than the standard health handicap, which does not work on one-hit-kills. As well as lives, score and team scores should also be able to be set per person or team, but be set universally as default.
Not only scores, but you should also have the option to set individual time limits to individual players or teams, after which they are automatically kicked out of the game and lose. For example, you could set a game of capture the case with two teams, one with unlimited for each of the limits, and the other with 15 minutes and 15 score set as the limits. Points for kills should be set to off, with each capture being worth 1 point. The first team's objective would be to save the case and defend their base as much as possible, surviving until the 15 minutes are up. The second team's objective would be to grab the opponent's case 15 times before the time is up, without worrying about how many times they died, or how much they killed, and no need to defend their own base. You could also set a gun as the starting weapon for the attacking team, so they don't have to wait before attacking. I think that it would be fairly enjoyable, although the time and score limits might have to be altered to make it fairer. The same thing could also be done with either two or three attacking teams, each trying to fight it out for the case.
Another use of the SD cards is that PD can make use of the files on the card. If you have any MP3s (or AACs) on the SD card then they appear below the standard list of music selectable for multiplayer and you can use them as you would the other music. In one of the levels, there should be picture frames hanging on the walls, either displaying the standard pictures or any pictures you have stored on your SD card which were taken by a digital camera (or indeed any other pictures you had placed on your SD card). Another possibility is that there is a security room in one of the levels, in which one of the screens displays any movie files you have on your SD card.
On the Mario 128 demo shown at Spaceworld 2000, the Cel Rendering was turned on and off with little change to how much system resources were being used. I have thought that, if it will still run at a smooth framerate, one of the cheat modes should be Cartoon Mode, where Cel Rendering would be applied to everything, or, if that isn't possible, then only the people.
I think that nearly all of the multiplayer levels should have vehicles in them, but that vehicles can be turned off. For example, Area 52 should have one or two hoverbikes, just like in the sinlgeplayer mission. But you don't have to just turn on and off vehicles altogether, as you can turn on and off individual vehicles. For instance, a level has two hoverbikes and one hovertank, which is more powerful than the hoverbikes, but slower. If you don't want this hovertank you can turn off hovertanks, but not hoverbikes, leaving them in.
There should be about three different vehicles, hoverbikes, hovertanks and mech suits. The hoverbikes are just like in PD, have no guns but let you use your own and are very fast. Hovertanks should be bigger, but slower and more armoured. They have dual machine guns but you can use other weapons if you like. The mechs are the slowest, have armour a bit less than the tanks, but have dual missile launchers. These are the only weapons you can use while on it and reload slowly. Each individual missile launcher can be shot off (there's one on each of the mech's arms), therefore disabling it, or you can shoot the legs to immobilise it, hurting the player forcing the player to get out. If you want, however, you can just try shooting straight at the player to kill them while they're inside. I think that, as default, all vehicles should be set to off. This would prevent the gameplay style from being changed too much.
The actual multiplayer options are something that concerns everyone. We'd all be happy with it just as customisable as it is, but if Rare wants to add stuff, then they're definatley welcome to. One addition that is needed is being able to have a certain number of lives. I would also like it if lives could be set individually to each player, so that I could finally take up on the various stupidly unfair challenges of others, plus it would offer an alternative for the regular handicapping, which doesn't work in one-hit-kills.
I've got another idea on a possible multiplayer option. In addition to the regualar health handicaps, you should be able to vary the auto-aim of each person. This would range from 0%(no auto-aim) to 100%(regular auto-aim) and the whole way up to 500% (CMP150 lock-on amount of auto-aim). While you may be able to give "challenged" players more health, they still won't be able to get rid of yours if they can't hit you, and this helps that problem.
One of the features missing from Perfect Dark was the ability to blow open holes in the walls, which has recently been adopted and put to use by Red Faction on the PS2. There have been a few suggestions that a similar technology should be used in Perfect Dark 2, and I think it would make a great option. A problem, however, with the Red Faction was that, after a certain amount of holes were put into walls, floors, etc., the feature would turn itself off, which would be rather annoying.
My easy solution to that problem is that only walls are destroyable. The problem with GeoMod is that it allows anything to be destroyed, which allows for craploads of possibilities, incresing the memory usage, which is one thing the PS2 was slightly short on. If only the walls are destroyable, not only does it keep from changing the entire way you play the game, but by limiting the possible usage it limits the amount of memory needed. I also think that it definitely should be optional, as the game would be too different if it were constantly on.
Another idea that was scrapped from PDs multiplayer was the ability to turn off doors, so you could run through the entire level without having to stop while waiting for the door to open. It'd be damn useful while being tracked by a Farsight, that's for sure. I'm not exactly sure why they got rid of it from the final release, but I would love to see it in PD2.
One great, yet woefully undersupported, idea from Perfect Dark was the co-operative and counter-operative modes, particularily co-op. I'd like to see both of these make a return with four players and a good framerate and, in the case of co-operative, I'd like to see a set of levels specifically designed for co-operative play. These could be a sort of SWAT team affair, where there would be mission objectives revolving around more than one player and more strategic planning of how you're going to attempt the mission.
I, as I think everyone interested in the game does, would absolutely love to see online capabilities. I personally would be willing to wait however long it takes to add online multiplayer to the game. There are a few things I would like to see, however. First, I don't really want to see more than 16 players. I know some people may disagree with me, and I perfectly respect their opinion, but I believe that PD and GE are the most fun when being played with small amounts of people, apart, of course from team games, which is why 16 seems appropriate. Next thing, four people should be able to play in the same online game, from the same Gamecube, at the same time, without massive slowdown (I'm mainly reffering to broadband here). Capture the Case would just be so much more fun if me and my friends were playing against real opponenets.
On another related topic, I would like to see the ability to link up more than one Gamecube for multiplayer battles. If Nintendo has no plans for linking machines at the moment, the least Rare can do is reccomend it to them, after all, there is a nice high-speed port at the bottom not being used.
I would definately like to see some more realistic animations in multiplayer. When someone punches someone else, I want to see them punch each other, with a kick or two, and altogether looking more like an action movie that the "slapping" that goes on in GE and PD. Another animation area that needs desperate improving is the crouching. I don't know what Rare was thinking with that spider walk from PD. I want to see people crawl around like they do in real-life, and you should be flat on your stomach when double-crouched, crawling commando style.
When you look down, you should be able to see your body. I realise that it would take up a bit of extra processing power, but the Gamecube should be able to handle it easily and it adds immensly to the realism of the game.
I, along with some help (from TheBladeRoden of IGNBoards), have thought up a control scheme which I think would make good use of the Gamecube's controller:
Analog stick: Move/turn
C Stick: Look/strafe
A button: Action (open door, etc.)/reload both weapons
B button: Secondary function
X button: Scroll weapon bwd
Y button: Scroll weapon fwd
X or Y button (Hold): Weapon wheel (sends to default hand)
X or Y button (Hold) + anolog L or R: Weapon wheel (sends weapon to chosen hand)
X or Y button + anolog L or R: Weapon fwd/bwd (only affects chosen hand)
L button analog press + A button: reloads just left weapon
L button digital click: Fire left weapon
R button analog press + A button: reloads just right weapon
R button digital click: Fire right weapon
Z button: Aim
Z button + D-Pad up: Zoom
D-Pad down: Duck
D-Pad up: Get back up
D-Pad right: Dodge right
D-Pad left: Dodge left
Start: Pause
Obviously, some weapons would take up both hands, and therefore would be selected using X or Y without either L or R held down, and could be fired using either L click or R click.
In single player, the X and Y buttons would, while held down, display different weapons wheels, X showing the weapons earlier in the list, and Y showing the weapons later in the list. In multiplayer, since there are only 6 weapons, both X and Y would show the same weapons wheel, showing each weapon you have.
The Sniper Rifle would use a slightly different method of zooming/aiming. While holding the Z-Button to aim, you would use your right middle finger on the R button to control zoom. The further you push, the further it zooms, and when you let it out, it zooms out. The L-click would then be used for firing. This would, after a bit of practice, allow for far faster aiming with the Sniper Rifle, and make it much easier to hit people (a problem the PD Sniper Rifle had). Also, the aimer for the Sniper Rifle should stay exactly in the center of your view, with the whole screen wobbling slightly if you aren't crouched. When aiming, the Analog stick should move the screen around accurately in speed as to how hard you are pushing in any direction, unlike in PD, where you controlled the aimer and not the screen, which meant it was rather difficult to move the screen around accurately.
While on the subject of the Sniper Rifle, I believe that the Sniper Rifle should be a lot more powerful, and allow one-hit kills if head-shots, but be exceedingly difficult to aim with at close quarters, to avoid use pistol-style and encourage the snipering aspect of the gun.
Regarding the guns, why not just include them all in multiplayer and let us choose our own, whether it be RC-P90 or RC-P120. All GE and PD guns should be included for multiplayer, along with all the new ones from Perfect Dark 2. Also, on the topic of guns, seeing as the L/R buttons will most probably be used as the gun's triggers, the actual firing of the gun won't happen until you get to the click at the end of the buttons, just like with real triggers.
This should be true for all guns, except one. A special gun should be made which has a variable rate firing mechanism. This, of course, would be available later on in the single player missions. The basic idea is that if you merely tap slightly on the trigger button, the gun will fire about the speed of a magnum, quite slowly. But, the harder you push, the faster it fires and eventually going so fast that the entire clip is gone in half a second.
A great idea thought up by someone on SR was to have the option to turn on and off individual functions on weapons. For example, you could switch off the cloak on the RC-P120, or turn off the lock-on on the Farsight. A popular use of this function would be to be able to get rid of the most evil of weapons, the disarm. This would be achieved by two little checkboxes beside each of the weapons in the weapon selecter (including punch, but punch would be permenantly selected). The first of these checkboxes would represent the primary function of the weapon, while the second would represent the secondary function. They would all be selected by default, but deselecting any checkbox would prevent the use of that function on that particular weapon.
A thought of some people concerning PD2 is that there should be a weapon editor. While a massively complicated weapon editor allowing you to do whatever you want would be unreasonable, but a fairly simplistic one, allowing you to make basic weapons, would be quite useful.
Use of the weapon editor would be quite simplistic. First, you would choose which type of gun you want to make, between pistols, automatics, etc. There would not be too many types of gun, just the basic ones. Depending on the type of gun you have chosen, there are different options afterwards. You have points which you can allot into different specifications of the gun, such as accuracy, power, rate of fire, clip size, reload speed, and then a choice of secondary functions, each of which would cost an appropriate amount of points, but all would be generic, without any of the special features of some of the better weapons. The attributes and secondary functions would vary between the different types of weapon, and would be suited to that particular type of weapon. After choosing the specs of the weapon, you choose what it looks like, by piecing together bits of weapons of the chosen type, with specific items such as a scope (if you have chosen to have one) being mandatory.
This weapon editor would not allow for super-weapons, combining the rate of fire of the Reaper, with the accuracy of the Sniper Rifle, the power of the DY-357LX, the cloak function of the RC-P120 and the lock-on railgun effect of the Farsight, due to it's point based system, which means you have to compromise some aspects in order to improve in others. It would, however, give players a far greater degree of choice if they wanted matches with purely one type of weapon, and would allow weapons to be specifically tailored for a certain type of play. When built, weapons should be able to be saved onto a memory card.
One incredibly useful option that should be included in multiplayer is that drunkeness after being punched should be able to be turned off, as it can get really annoying. Plus, it should never continue on after you die. The blurriness definitley needs to be downgraded anyway, and N-Bombs should be banished to the firey depths of hell, never to return. They are the most annoying part of any videogame I have ever played. I realise that you don't have to select them, but I often like playing with unseen random weapons. And I'm not happy to find that 4 out of these 6 random weapons are N-Bombs.
I would also like some defensive, rather than offensive, weapons in multiplayer. Some such ideas could be smokescreen grenades, making use of the Gamecube's volumetric fogging capabilities. Or you could spread a layer of oil on the ground, to make people slip.
I think that some good GBA connectivity wouldn't really do PD2 any harm, and I've got an idea or two regarding it. First off, Rare should make a PD2 FPS for the GBA. Linking this up to the Gamecube edition would have a variety of effects. One such effect is that you can earn cheats for the Gamecube edition in the GBA game. No free cheats here, they have to be earned. And these cheats wouldn't be regularily accessible either, you would need a GBA and PD GBA to get them. Another possible use is to have the GBA as a radar screen, plus providing you with stats for various types of ammo, gun, health, etc. My main thought, although I'm not sure if it would be possible to do, is to have the GBA as a Slayer-Cam, which you could use to guide Slayer missiles.
You're probably wondering how the hell you can produce a game with such graphical splendour on the GBA. Well, here is an idea I have had that would be able to solve that problem. I'm sure a lot of you know that the GBA is able to play FMVs and anyone who has seen the Basketball demo will know how well this could work. Now, what if, instead of the GBA computing it's graphics itself, it let the Gamecube do them for it, then send it to the GBA as an FMV. This means that you would be able to see graphics on your GBA identical to that of your Gamecube, but only when they are connected together. Which means that, using this technique, you would be able to see the full 6-12 million polygons per second brilliance of Perfect Dark 2 on your Slayer-cam.
Quote from Jon (my mate):
"I think a cool addition to a multiplayer level would be to have a gun emplacement, with a code pad beside it. In the level somewhere there is a decoder. If you get it, you can break into the gun and use it for nefarious purposes. Alternately, if you cant find the decoder you can have a go at manually entering the 4 digit code, randomly generated per game. You could have say three chances per life. Decoding would take around 20 or so seconds, where the person is vulnerable, so that would help to balance the advantage of gaining the gun."
I've got another idea in a similar vein to that. Basically, there would be a security room in one of the multiplayer levels. In this room there would be about 10 TVs, each having a view from the various security cameras around the level, along with some static ones if any security cameras have been shot out. From this room you could get a good idea of what's happening in other areas of the level, plus it'd just be pretty cool to see. I suppose it could also be done in a single player level too.
On the subject of communicating in games, I would personally prefer to have a microphone for communication, as having to hide in a little hole while typing up a message is not my idea of fun, especially seeing as it'd cause quite a few deaths.
One of the nice things that was included in PD was the ability to create your own character, complete with name, stats, and a large choice of bodiesheads. In PD2 I'd like that to go a few steps further. I want to be able to completely construct my character from the ground up, choosing height, weight, build, gender and clothes. For the heads I would like to see the return of the face-mapping feature, except using digital cameras and SD cards instead of the GameBoy Camera. You would input three photos of your head, one from the front, and one from each side. This would allow, with a few inputs, the game to make a accurately modelled/textured version of your own head and, with mouth co-ordinates inputted, it would even allow rudimentary lip-synching. After inputting your head, you can choose to edit your hair-style (for those of us who've always wondered what they look like with a huge 'fro) and hair colour (for those of us who've always wondered what they look like with a huge lime-green 'fro).
There should be a wide range of available clothes, including all those used in the game, some comical ones for fun, and a whole load of realistci ones to boot. All of these options together would allow you to create a character which looks exactly like you in every way, and is an accurate videogame representation of you.
The statistics should also be more detailed than before. As well as those that are already in the game, it should keep a record of accuracy, etc. with certain types of gun, your favourite gun overall, your proper overall accuracy (none of that crazy accuracy method from PD) and your stats from the last game you played. The statistics should also be able to be seperated into online and offline games, or seen together. It should also keep record of how many awards of each type you have got (I'm talking about the "Most Cowardly "Where's The Ammo" type awards.)
On the subject of the story, and single player levels, I'd like if it stays about the same as in PD/GE, but with less aliens, and I want the singleplayer levels to stay with purely human opponenets. I'd like to see the stealthyness of it go a little more to the Goldeneye side of things. I just preffered Goldeneye in that respect. It seemed more..... realistic.
I've thought of an interesting gameplay mode. Basically, there is a single vehicle in the level, probably a hoverbike. The game is not regularily played with teams, but you can if you want. What each person has to do is run to get to the vehicle. When they get the vehicle, they have to get it into a specified place, such as a hangar. Once you get it to the hangar and get off, you get points and it teleports back to a random point (these points would be quite far away from the hangar, so that it's not too easy). If you don't have the hoverbike, you either have to run to the place it appeared, or find whoever's riding it, kill them and take it off them. Doing this with 4-8 people would be manic, and should be great fun. The mode could be called "The Chase", or something like that. One thing I would definately like to see more of is game modes, and I would really like to see this one.
Anyways, another idea has just popped into my head, this one regarding another possible multiplayer option. This mode is slightly akin to Perfect Darkness, except multiplayer oriented. At the start of the game, everyone is given a pair of night vision goggles. You can keep these even if you die. At random points in the game, the lights in various parts of the level will turn off or on. Whenever this happens, you either have to whip out your night vision goggles to continue battling, or, if the lights were off and turned on, you have to take your goggles off before being blinded. There could also be light switches in various parts of the level, which could be used to turn on or off the lights in that particular room, potentially blinding opponents for brief periods of time.
Anolther game mode I would like to see is a 2 team "Hostage" game. This would be very similar to Counter-Strike, where one team is the Terrorists, with control of a number of NPC hostages. The other team are the Counter-Terrorists, whose job it is to save the hostages. This would play almost identically to Counter-Strike, so I don't need to explain it all here.
I would really like to see sims make every use of every gun. I want them to place mines, place Laptop Guns, sniper people with Sniper Rifles, camp with the Farsight, and do just about everything humans do. More types would be great too. And, as I would expect from the Gamecube hardware, they need to be smarter. Don't get me wrong, PD's sims were freakishly intelligent, but when I think what could be done with them on the Gamecube.......
I think that the option to give sims names would be a useful one. One of the slightly annoying things about PD was that the sims in the challenges were individually named, but you had no choice of naming them yourself. Another addition I'd like is the ability to give sims handicaps. If, for example, I wanted "realistic" health, but not one-hit-kills, I could lower the handicaps of each of the players to about 15%, but I wouldn't be able to include any sims as they would have a huge advantage. The ability to control sim handicaps would solve this problem.
On the subject of sims, I'd like them to be more customisable. As well as the standard "difficulties" attributed to sims, you should be able to tinker around with how good they are which would change how they performed. For instance, you would have sliding bars representing handicap, accuracy, intelligence, cowardice and various other attributes. You could also choose favourite weapons, how likely they are to camp, if they command other sims around while on the same team, what sort of position they usually hold in capture the case scenarios, etc. This would enable far, far more different possible styles of sims, and offer people who think DarkSims are too easy something to pit themselves against. You could also save individual sims onto memory cards, and save up their statistics.
I've also thought up of another sim. I call it the MirrorSim. What happens when you play this sim is that it pays attention to how you play, and how good you are, and it will play as closely to your style and ability as possible. I think I can remember an ability tracking method being used in Rogue Leader for the wingmen, so there's a good chance that the Gamecube could handle this.
Quote from my mate Jon again:
"i like your [me] idea of a "mirrorsim" i would go one further and create not only a "mirrorsim" but also a "reversim" which attempts a new strategy against you everytime. Everytime it wins it marks down the strategy as a successful approach and integrates part of the strategy into its controlling codes. Everytime it finds a successful method it would therefore become more powerful. If you kept it for a long time on a digicard and played against it hundreds of times it would eventually match up to you're skills no matter how good you are. The learning curve against it would be perfect and eventually everyones personal "darkmirrorsim" would be incredibly intelligent and programmed specifically to beat the person who is its partner and no one else. This would be very interesting and force a constant change in tactics."
I think the idea of sims that realistically change in a reflective manner to how you play could be a great idea. One thing, though, would have to be set for these sims. While creating them, you would have to specify who they are going to target to take the style of. For instance, If I set up a MirrorSim (who would mirror only my character) and, after he had attuned himself to my style of play, one of my friends could face him as if they were facing me, without the MirrorSim accidentally taking input from fights against the friend.
The use of MirrorSims and ReverSims could be extended to larger scale multiplayer games as well. An example would be if I was playing a two-vs-two game, each with one human and one sim. The sim on each team could be the ReverSim of the opposing player, specifically there to give the opposing player as hard a time as possible. This would also make team games a lot fairer, as each side would have comparitives of each other.
These sims would have to take input from every type of battle, possibly even ones that they aren't playing in, to see how you play in every type of scenario. Some players would play very different in team games than on their own, and the sims would need to recognise that while playing in team games, or on their own. These sims would also have to note what weapons you like to use, and in what situations, and how you use these weapons.
These sims would be automatically saved on the same file on your memory card as your character, and would be updated as your character is updated, so you don't have to keep track of three different files.
While the ideas that you have read (or skipped past, as most people have probably done) range between small and large changes to the game, but I believe that all would make the game more enjoyable for us players. I just hope that they don't have to delay the game too much to get them in. If anyone has any thoughts on any of the ideas here, then you can post them in this thread or on the forums.
Thanks for Reading,
Bourneo.
My first idea is one regarding a level creator. I think one of the functions that everyone wants to see in PD2 is a multiplayer level creator. But the problem is that console level creators are always simplistic compared to their PC counterparts. So, what Rare does is puts a highly detailed level creator for your PC onto the internet available for download. Then you can make the levels on your PC, upload them onto your SD card and you're ready for battle. You could also download levels off the hundreds of fan sites that are sure to spring up. And, not only could you make multiplayer levels, but singleplayer ones as well, which could vastly increase the replayability of the game. Rare themselves most probably make their levels using a custom made PC level creator, so it wouldn't be that hard to share the technology with the world. A useful addition to the single player level creator is the ability to import characters from your SD card into the level to allow for a much wider variety of enemies and for the ability to create specific characters based around levels you are making. The main character could even be chosen from the SD card, or you could use one of the regular Joanna models.
For those who are not PC enthusiasts, or who simply don't want to spend too much time making levels, a more simplistic, Timesplitters style level editor could be included for use on the Gamecube. It should be a bit more detailed than that of Timesplitters, but simplistic enough to allow you to quickly make a working multiplayer level.
Personally I think there are lots of advantages for releasing a PC level editor. Console ones are either too simplistic, or they get too complex for the console's game controller and resolution. And there definatley wouldn't be a shortage of levels that you could download. A good example is the level editor Westwood just released for Red Alert 2. Although I hadn't played the game for quite a while, I've just gotten back into it quite a bit because I can now make and tinker around with my own singleplayer and multiplayer levels, and there are literally hundreds that I can download off various fansites. I would certainly dab my hand into making a few PD2 levels, singleplayer or multiplayer and I think a lot of people have great ideas for levels but they stay just as ideas. With a good level editor, they can realise these ideas and share them with the world.
I also think that Rare should opt for a distribution method similar to what Westwood are doing. Not only are Westwood regualrily releasing more official multiplayer maps, but they now accept fan made maps to be submitted to their site, with a map of the week accolade too. This means that you would not only get lots of extra levels made by Rare, but you would get hundreds of extra levels approved by Rare too.
Also, this gamer would not have to be endorsed by Nintendo, as it is not packaged with the game, and the game itself does not need it, it is just a little free extra from the PD team to us gamers.
I would like to see a lot of the levels from PD and GE make a comeback. I think nearly all of the multiplayer levels are a bit obvious, so I won't bother listing them, but there are a few singleplayer levels that would make for great multiplayer games. Here's a general list I can think of:
Dam
Cradle
Train (Possibly adding access to the roof, and the train must be moving)
Depot
DataDyne Building (just the top three levels and the roof, we don't want it too big)
AirForce One
I'd mainly like them to stay as they are, with only graphical changes, plus what I've already mentioned. Any other single player level conversions would also be appreciated.
What I'd really like Train for is Capture the Case. With one base at each end of the train, four players each, it'd be really fun to try to advance your way up, or down, the train without being killed, using both the regular carriges and climbing over the roof. Depot would also make a great Capture the Case level, with more than two bases interspersed within the warehouses. Cradle is what I'd really like, though, with one-hit-kills and only sniper rifles. It would certainly be more strategic than regular, unless you were playing against the current sims, in which case they would charge randomly. But a bit of an AI upgrade would fix that. Or an online mode. Hell, we need both.
There were some suggestions that levels in PD2 should be bigger, to accommodate online games, more like those in Tribes. I, personally, don't think that Tribes style levels would suit PD at all. One thing that is in common with all PD and GE levels is that there is never a big, pointless open space. When there is a space, there is always a point, and a reason to all of the areas. For instance, the big area in Area 52 isn't just a big, flat, open plain. It has sniper towers, a pit, and a whole load of other stuff going on. But the levels in Tribes are big, with structures interspersed which hold most of the action. The levels, however, in Tribes are suited to the style of play, the weaponry and the access to vehicles and jump-packs. Personally, I think that PD levels should stay in the same style they are, but possibly have more variations to that style, rather than completely different levels.
On the subject of level sizes, I've come up with a solution. You would have the entire level available for you, but you have the options to close off individual areas. This way, you could play the entire Facility, or the multi-player variety, or you could even corner the battle off to just the two bottling rooms and hallway between. Hell, you could even play with everything but the multiplayer section. You could also select between different versions of Bunker, ranging from the entire of the Bunker and the whole of Surface to a small section of Bunker or a small section of Surface. This function could be used on any level, and would offer an even greater degree of customisability than before, but there would, of course, be default level sizes to avoid the need for too much pre-battle configuring.
One slight problem I've had in multiplayer regards the placement of bases in Capture the Case. I've gone through dozens of games having to quit straight away, just so that we can have the base in the bottling room. My solution is that you can choose where your bases are before the game starts, and if you didn't the game would just find a random place for you. I would also like to see more multiplayer levels designed with Capture the Case in mind. Fortress was a great start, but I need more variety.
In capture the case games, you should be able set the amount of points given for a capture, and you should be able to toggle on and off whether or not you get points for kills. While points for kills are off, your only way of winning is getting the case, with killing only being defensive, and to save the case.
It should be possible to allocate a weapon which each player will start off with, and an amount of ammo for that weapon which the player would start off with. The default weapon would be unarmed, but you could choose from any weapon, or gadget such as IR Goggles, which each player would be given each time they spawned. You could also set specific starting weapons to specific players or teams. This weapon wouldn't even have to be one of the weapons chosen in one of the 6 weapon slots.
It is important that you are given the ability to set a number of lives as a limit. You should also be able to change these lives among different people or teams, in order to give them some sort of handicap other than the standard health handicap, which does not work on one-hit-kills. As well as lives, score and team scores should also be able to be set per person or team, but be set universally as default.
Not only scores, but you should also have the option to set individual time limits to individual players or teams, after which they are automatically kicked out of the game and lose. For example, you could set a game of capture the case with two teams, one with unlimited for each of the limits, and the other with 15 minutes and 15 score set as the limits. Points for kills should be set to off, with each capture being worth 1 point. The first team's objective would be to save the case and defend their base as much as possible, surviving until the 15 minutes are up. The second team's objective would be to grab the opponent's case 15 times before the time is up, without worrying about how many times they died, or how much they killed, and no need to defend their own base. You could also set a gun as the starting weapon for the attacking team, so they don't have to wait before attacking. I think that it would be fairly enjoyable, although the time and score limits might have to be altered to make it fairer. The same thing could also be done with either two or three attacking teams, each trying to fight it out for the case.
Another use of the SD cards is that PD can make use of the files on the card. If you have any MP3s (or AACs) on the SD card then they appear below the standard list of music selectable for multiplayer and you can use them as you would the other music. In one of the levels, there should be picture frames hanging on the walls, either displaying the standard pictures or any pictures you have stored on your SD card which were taken by a digital camera (or indeed any other pictures you had placed on your SD card). Another possibility is that there is a security room in one of the levels, in which one of the screens displays any movie files you have on your SD card.
On the Mario 128 demo shown at Spaceworld 2000, the Cel Rendering was turned on and off with little change to how much system resources were being used. I have thought that, if it will still run at a smooth framerate, one of the cheat modes should be Cartoon Mode, where Cel Rendering would be applied to everything, or, if that isn't possible, then only the people.
I think that nearly all of the multiplayer levels should have vehicles in them, but that vehicles can be turned off. For example, Area 52 should have one or two hoverbikes, just like in the sinlgeplayer mission. But you don't have to just turn on and off vehicles altogether, as you can turn on and off individual vehicles. For instance, a level has two hoverbikes and one hovertank, which is more powerful than the hoverbikes, but slower. If you don't want this hovertank you can turn off hovertanks, but not hoverbikes, leaving them in.
There should be about three different vehicles, hoverbikes, hovertanks and mech suits. The hoverbikes are just like in PD, have no guns but let you use your own and are very fast. Hovertanks should be bigger, but slower and more armoured. They have dual machine guns but you can use other weapons if you like. The mechs are the slowest, have armour a bit less than the tanks, but have dual missile launchers. These are the only weapons you can use while on it and reload slowly. Each individual missile launcher can be shot off (there's one on each of the mech's arms), therefore disabling it, or you can shoot the legs to immobilise it, hurting the player forcing the player to get out. If you want, however, you can just try shooting straight at the player to kill them while they're inside. I think that, as default, all vehicles should be set to off. This would prevent the gameplay style from being changed too much.
The actual multiplayer options are something that concerns everyone. We'd all be happy with it just as customisable as it is, but if Rare wants to add stuff, then they're definatley welcome to. One addition that is needed is being able to have a certain number of lives. I would also like it if lives could be set individually to each player, so that I could finally take up on the various stupidly unfair challenges of others, plus it would offer an alternative for the regular handicapping, which doesn't work in one-hit-kills.
I've got another idea on a possible multiplayer option. In addition to the regualar health handicaps, you should be able to vary the auto-aim of each person. This would range from 0%(no auto-aim) to 100%(regular auto-aim) and the whole way up to 500% (CMP150 lock-on amount of auto-aim). While you may be able to give "challenged" players more health, they still won't be able to get rid of yours if they can't hit you, and this helps that problem.
One of the features missing from Perfect Dark was the ability to blow open holes in the walls, which has recently been adopted and put to use by Red Faction on the PS2. There have been a few suggestions that a similar technology should be used in Perfect Dark 2, and I think it would make a great option. A problem, however, with the Red Faction was that, after a certain amount of holes were put into walls, floors, etc., the feature would turn itself off, which would be rather annoying.
My easy solution to that problem is that only walls are destroyable. The problem with GeoMod is that it allows anything to be destroyed, which allows for craploads of possibilities, incresing the memory usage, which is one thing the PS2 was slightly short on. If only the walls are destroyable, not only does it keep from changing the entire way you play the game, but by limiting the possible usage it limits the amount of memory needed. I also think that it definitely should be optional, as the game would be too different if it were constantly on.
Another idea that was scrapped from PDs multiplayer was the ability to turn off doors, so you could run through the entire level without having to stop while waiting for the door to open. It'd be damn useful while being tracked by a Farsight, that's for sure. I'm not exactly sure why they got rid of it from the final release, but I would love to see it in PD2.
One great, yet woefully undersupported, idea from Perfect Dark was the co-operative and counter-operative modes, particularily co-op. I'd like to see both of these make a return with four players and a good framerate and, in the case of co-operative, I'd like to see a set of levels specifically designed for co-operative play. These could be a sort of SWAT team affair, where there would be mission objectives revolving around more than one player and more strategic planning of how you're going to attempt the mission.
I, as I think everyone interested in the game does, would absolutely love to see online capabilities. I personally would be willing to wait however long it takes to add online multiplayer to the game. There are a few things I would like to see, however. First, I don't really want to see more than 16 players. I know some people may disagree with me, and I perfectly respect their opinion, but I believe that PD and GE are the most fun when being played with small amounts of people, apart, of course from team games, which is why 16 seems appropriate. Next thing, four people should be able to play in the same online game, from the same Gamecube, at the same time, without massive slowdown (I'm mainly reffering to broadband here). Capture the Case would just be so much more fun if me and my friends were playing against real opponenets.
On another related topic, I would like to see the ability to link up more than one Gamecube for multiplayer battles. If Nintendo has no plans for linking machines at the moment, the least Rare can do is reccomend it to them, after all, there is a nice high-speed port at the bottom not being used.
I would definately like to see some more realistic animations in multiplayer. When someone punches someone else, I want to see them punch each other, with a kick or two, and altogether looking more like an action movie that the "slapping" that goes on in GE and PD. Another animation area that needs desperate improving is the crouching. I don't know what Rare was thinking with that spider walk from PD. I want to see people crawl around like they do in real-life, and you should be flat on your stomach when double-crouched, crawling commando style.
When you look down, you should be able to see your body. I realise that it would take up a bit of extra processing power, but the Gamecube should be able to handle it easily and it adds immensly to the realism of the game.
I, along with some help (from TheBladeRoden of IGNBoards), have thought up a control scheme which I think would make good use of the Gamecube's controller:
Analog stick: Move/turn
C Stick: Look/strafe
A button: Action (open door, etc.)/reload both weapons
B button: Secondary function
X button: Scroll weapon bwd
Y button: Scroll weapon fwd
X or Y button (Hold): Weapon wheel (sends to default hand)
X or Y button (Hold) + anolog L or R: Weapon wheel (sends weapon to chosen hand)
X or Y button + anolog L or R: Weapon fwd/bwd (only affects chosen hand)
L button analog press + A button: reloads just left weapon
L button digital click: Fire left weapon
R button analog press + A button: reloads just right weapon
R button digital click: Fire right weapon
Z button: Aim
Z button + D-Pad up: Zoom
D-Pad down: Duck
D-Pad up: Get back up
D-Pad right: Dodge right
D-Pad left: Dodge left
Start: Pause
Obviously, some weapons would take up both hands, and therefore would be selected using X or Y without either L or R held down, and could be fired using either L click or R click.
In single player, the X and Y buttons would, while held down, display different weapons wheels, X showing the weapons earlier in the list, and Y showing the weapons later in the list. In multiplayer, since there are only 6 weapons, both X and Y would show the same weapons wheel, showing each weapon you have.
The Sniper Rifle would use a slightly different method of zooming/aiming. While holding the Z-Button to aim, you would use your right middle finger on the R button to control zoom. The further you push, the further it zooms, and when you let it out, it zooms out. The L-click would then be used for firing. This would, after a bit of practice, allow for far faster aiming with the Sniper Rifle, and make it much easier to hit people (a problem the PD Sniper Rifle had). Also, the aimer for the Sniper Rifle should stay exactly in the center of your view, with the whole screen wobbling slightly if you aren't crouched. When aiming, the Analog stick should move the screen around accurately in speed as to how hard you are pushing in any direction, unlike in PD, where you controlled the aimer and not the screen, which meant it was rather difficult to move the screen around accurately.
While on the subject of the Sniper Rifle, I believe that the Sniper Rifle should be a lot more powerful, and allow one-hit kills if head-shots, but be exceedingly difficult to aim with at close quarters, to avoid use pistol-style and encourage the snipering aspect of the gun.
Regarding the guns, why not just include them all in multiplayer and let us choose our own, whether it be RC-P90 or RC-P120. All GE and PD guns should be included for multiplayer, along with all the new ones from Perfect Dark 2. Also, on the topic of guns, seeing as the L/R buttons will most probably be used as the gun's triggers, the actual firing of the gun won't happen until you get to the click at the end of the buttons, just like with real triggers.
This should be true for all guns, except one. A special gun should be made which has a variable rate firing mechanism. This, of course, would be available later on in the single player missions. The basic idea is that if you merely tap slightly on the trigger button, the gun will fire about the speed of a magnum, quite slowly. But, the harder you push, the faster it fires and eventually going so fast that the entire clip is gone in half a second.
A great idea thought up by someone on SR was to have the option to turn on and off individual functions on weapons. For example, you could switch off the cloak on the RC-P120, or turn off the lock-on on the Farsight. A popular use of this function would be to be able to get rid of the most evil of weapons, the disarm. This would be achieved by two little checkboxes beside each of the weapons in the weapon selecter (including punch, but punch would be permenantly selected). The first of these checkboxes would represent the primary function of the weapon, while the second would represent the secondary function. They would all be selected by default, but deselecting any checkbox would prevent the use of that function on that particular weapon.
A thought of some people concerning PD2 is that there should be a weapon editor. While a massively complicated weapon editor allowing you to do whatever you want would be unreasonable, but a fairly simplistic one, allowing you to make basic weapons, would be quite useful.
Use of the weapon editor would be quite simplistic. First, you would choose which type of gun you want to make, between pistols, automatics, etc. There would not be too many types of gun, just the basic ones. Depending on the type of gun you have chosen, there are different options afterwards. You have points which you can allot into different specifications of the gun, such as accuracy, power, rate of fire, clip size, reload speed, and then a choice of secondary functions, each of which would cost an appropriate amount of points, but all would be generic, without any of the special features of some of the better weapons. The attributes and secondary functions would vary between the different types of weapon, and would be suited to that particular type of weapon. After choosing the specs of the weapon, you choose what it looks like, by piecing together bits of weapons of the chosen type, with specific items such as a scope (if you have chosen to have one) being mandatory.
This weapon editor would not allow for super-weapons, combining the rate of fire of the Reaper, with the accuracy of the Sniper Rifle, the power of the DY-357LX, the cloak function of the RC-P120 and the lock-on railgun effect of the Farsight, due to it's point based system, which means you have to compromise some aspects in order to improve in others. It would, however, give players a far greater degree of choice if they wanted matches with purely one type of weapon, and would allow weapons to be specifically tailored for a certain type of play. When built, weapons should be able to be saved onto a memory card.
One incredibly useful option that should be included in multiplayer is that drunkeness after being punched should be able to be turned off, as it can get really annoying. Plus, it should never continue on after you die. The blurriness definitley needs to be downgraded anyway, and N-Bombs should be banished to the firey depths of hell, never to return. They are the most annoying part of any videogame I have ever played. I realise that you don't have to select them, but I often like playing with unseen random weapons. And I'm not happy to find that 4 out of these 6 random weapons are N-Bombs.
I would also like some defensive, rather than offensive, weapons in multiplayer. Some such ideas could be smokescreen grenades, making use of the Gamecube's volumetric fogging capabilities. Or you could spread a layer of oil on the ground, to make people slip.
I think that some good GBA connectivity wouldn't really do PD2 any harm, and I've got an idea or two regarding it. First off, Rare should make a PD2 FPS for the GBA. Linking this up to the Gamecube edition would have a variety of effects. One such effect is that you can earn cheats for the Gamecube edition in the GBA game. No free cheats here, they have to be earned. And these cheats wouldn't be regularily accessible either, you would need a GBA and PD GBA to get them. Another possible use is to have the GBA as a radar screen, plus providing you with stats for various types of ammo, gun, health, etc. My main thought, although I'm not sure if it would be possible to do, is to have the GBA as a Slayer-Cam, which you could use to guide Slayer missiles.
You're probably wondering how the hell you can produce a game with such graphical splendour on the GBA. Well, here is an idea I have had that would be able to solve that problem. I'm sure a lot of you know that the GBA is able to play FMVs and anyone who has seen the Basketball demo will know how well this could work. Now, what if, instead of the GBA computing it's graphics itself, it let the Gamecube do them for it, then send it to the GBA as an FMV. This means that you would be able to see graphics on your GBA identical to that of your Gamecube, but only when they are connected together. Which means that, using this technique, you would be able to see the full 6-12 million polygons per second brilliance of Perfect Dark 2 on your Slayer-cam.
Quote from Jon (my mate):
"I think a cool addition to a multiplayer level would be to have a gun emplacement, with a code pad beside it. In the level somewhere there is a decoder. If you get it, you can break into the gun and use it for nefarious purposes. Alternately, if you cant find the decoder you can have a go at manually entering the 4 digit code, randomly generated per game. You could have say three chances per life. Decoding would take around 20 or so seconds, where the person is vulnerable, so that would help to balance the advantage of gaining the gun."
I've got another idea in a similar vein to that. Basically, there would be a security room in one of the multiplayer levels. In this room there would be about 10 TVs, each having a view from the various security cameras around the level, along with some static ones if any security cameras have been shot out. From this room you could get a good idea of what's happening in other areas of the level, plus it'd just be pretty cool to see. I suppose it could also be done in a single player level too.
On the subject of communicating in games, I would personally prefer to have a microphone for communication, as having to hide in a little hole while typing up a message is not my idea of fun, especially seeing as it'd cause quite a few deaths.
One of the nice things that was included in PD was the ability to create your own character, complete with name, stats, and a large choice of bodiesheads. In PD2 I'd like that to go a few steps further. I want to be able to completely construct my character from the ground up, choosing height, weight, build, gender and clothes. For the heads I would like to see the return of the face-mapping feature, except using digital cameras and SD cards instead of the GameBoy Camera. You would input three photos of your head, one from the front, and one from each side. This would allow, with a few inputs, the game to make a accurately modelled/textured version of your own head and, with mouth co-ordinates inputted, it would even allow rudimentary lip-synching. After inputting your head, you can choose to edit your hair-style (for those of us who've always wondered what they look like with a huge 'fro) and hair colour (for those of us who've always wondered what they look like with a huge lime-green 'fro).
There should be a wide range of available clothes, including all those used in the game, some comical ones for fun, and a whole load of realistci ones to boot. All of these options together would allow you to create a character which looks exactly like you in every way, and is an accurate videogame representation of you.
The statistics should also be more detailed than before. As well as those that are already in the game, it should keep a record of accuracy, etc. with certain types of gun, your favourite gun overall, your proper overall accuracy (none of that crazy accuracy method from PD) and your stats from the last game you played. The statistics should also be able to be seperated into online and offline games, or seen together. It should also keep record of how many awards of each type you have got (I'm talking about the "Most Cowardly "Where's The Ammo" type awards.)
On the subject of the story, and single player levels, I'd like if it stays about the same as in PD/GE, but with less aliens, and I want the singleplayer levels to stay with purely human opponenets. I'd like to see the stealthyness of it go a little more to the Goldeneye side of things. I just preffered Goldeneye in that respect. It seemed more..... realistic.
I've thought of an interesting gameplay mode. Basically, there is a single vehicle in the level, probably a hoverbike. The game is not regularily played with teams, but you can if you want. What each person has to do is run to get to the vehicle. When they get the vehicle, they have to get it into a specified place, such as a hangar. Once you get it to the hangar and get off, you get points and it teleports back to a random point (these points would be quite far away from the hangar, so that it's not too easy). If you don't have the hoverbike, you either have to run to the place it appeared, or find whoever's riding it, kill them and take it off them. Doing this with 4-8 people would be manic, and should be great fun. The mode could be called "The Chase", or something like that. One thing I would definately like to see more of is game modes, and I would really like to see this one.
Anyways, another idea has just popped into my head, this one regarding another possible multiplayer option. This mode is slightly akin to Perfect Darkness, except multiplayer oriented. At the start of the game, everyone is given a pair of night vision goggles. You can keep these even if you die. At random points in the game, the lights in various parts of the level will turn off or on. Whenever this happens, you either have to whip out your night vision goggles to continue battling, or, if the lights were off and turned on, you have to take your goggles off before being blinded. There could also be light switches in various parts of the level, which could be used to turn on or off the lights in that particular room, potentially blinding opponents for brief periods of time.
Anolther game mode I would like to see is a 2 team "Hostage" game. This would be very similar to Counter-Strike, where one team is the Terrorists, with control of a number of NPC hostages. The other team are the Counter-Terrorists, whose job it is to save the hostages. This would play almost identically to Counter-Strike, so I don't need to explain it all here.
I would really like to see sims make every use of every gun. I want them to place mines, place Laptop Guns, sniper people with Sniper Rifles, camp with the Farsight, and do just about everything humans do. More types would be great too. And, as I would expect from the Gamecube hardware, they need to be smarter. Don't get me wrong, PD's sims were freakishly intelligent, but when I think what could be done with them on the Gamecube.......
I think that the option to give sims names would be a useful one. One of the slightly annoying things about PD was that the sims in the challenges were individually named, but you had no choice of naming them yourself. Another addition I'd like is the ability to give sims handicaps. If, for example, I wanted "realistic" health, but not one-hit-kills, I could lower the handicaps of each of the players to about 15%, but I wouldn't be able to include any sims as they would have a huge advantage. The ability to control sim handicaps would solve this problem.
On the subject of sims, I'd like them to be more customisable. As well as the standard "difficulties" attributed to sims, you should be able to tinker around with how good they are which would change how they performed. For instance, you would have sliding bars representing handicap, accuracy, intelligence, cowardice and various other attributes. You could also choose favourite weapons, how likely they are to camp, if they command other sims around while on the same team, what sort of position they usually hold in capture the case scenarios, etc. This would enable far, far more different possible styles of sims, and offer people who think DarkSims are too easy something to pit themselves against. You could also save individual sims onto memory cards, and save up their statistics.
I've also thought up of another sim. I call it the MirrorSim. What happens when you play this sim is that it pays attention to how you play, and how good you are, and it will play as closely to your style and ability as possible. I think I can remember an ability tracking method being used in Rogue Leader for the wingmen, so there's a good chance that the Gamecube could handle this.
Quote from my mate Jon again:
"i like your [me] idea of a "mirrorsim" i would go one further and create not only a "mirrorsim" but also a "reversim" which attempts a new strategy against you everytime. Everytime it wins it marks down the strategy as a successful approach and integrates part of the strategy into its controlling codes. Everytime it finds a successful method it would therefore become more powerful. If you kept it for a long time on a digicard and played against it hundreds of times it would eventually match up to you're skills no matter how good you are. The learning curve against it would be perfect and eventually everyones personal "darkmirrorsim" would be incredibly intelligent and programmed specifically to beat the person who is its partner and no one else. This would be very interesting and force a constant change in tactics."
I think the idea of sims that realistically change in a reflective manner to how you play could be a great idea. One thing, though, would have to be set for these sims. While creating them, you would have to specify who they are going to target to take the style of. For instance, If I set up a MirrorSim (who would mirror only my character) and, after he had attuned himself to my style of play, one of my friends could face him as if they were facing me, without the MirrorSim accidentally taking input from fights against the friend.
The use of MirrorSims and ReverSims could be extended to larger scale multiplayer games as well. An example would be if I was playing a two-vs-two game, each with one human and one sim. The sim on each team could be the ReverSim of the opposing player, specifically there to give the opposing player as hard a time as possible. This would also make team games a lot fairer, as each side would have comparitives of each other.
These sims would have to take input from every type of battle, possibly even ones that they aren't playing in, to see how you play in every type of scenario. Some players would play very different in team games than on their own, and the sims would need to recognise that while playing in team games, or on their own. These sims would also have to note what weapons you like to use, and in what situations, and how you use these weapons.
These sims would be automatically saved on the same file on your memory card as your character, and would be updated as your character is updated, so you don't have to keep track of three different files.
While the ideas that you have read (or skipped past, as most people have probably done) range between small and large changes to the game, but I believe that all would make the game more enjoyable for us players. I just hope that they don't have to delay the game too much to get them in. If anyone has any thoughts on any of the ideas here, then you can post them in this thread or on the forums.
Thanks for Reading,
Bourneo.
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:) maybe the topic creator should have the hounors :)
anyone else got any PD sequel ideas...?
Maybe we should send our ideas to Rare...
I remember when they were making Dungeon Keeper 2 they let you send ideas for the sequel to them...
I sent cr@p loads of stuff to them... I loved Dungeon Keeper!
Maybe we should send our ideas to Rare...
I remember when they were making Dungeon Keeper 2 they let you send ideas for the sequel to them...
I sent cr@p loads of stuff to them... I loved Dungeon Keeper!
I printed it last night and read it, it took me 25 mins. It was a really good read with good ideas like a security room showing the cameras and your videos on the memory card.
I haven't read it all, but skimmed through main points. Anyways, heres some stuff I think.
The level editor is a good idea, but one which I doubt will be implemented (along with the weapon editor) simply because consoles are designed to be easily accessible and all that, and relatively few people will use a level editor for a complex genre like FPS. Tony Hawks etc. are relatively simple, as all they need is the basic level, and lots of objects. for PD levels you need to create textures, lighting effects, entities (like enemies, doors which will open, guns and ammo placement), and even if it was just Multiplay maps, it is still pretty complex stuff (as anyone who made Half-Life or HL mods maps will testify!)
Also gun creator, and all the multiplay options. The gun creator I doubt would be included because it would be something which could upset the game balance, and the new PD will probably have easily enough guns to get you through. All the custom multiplay stuff, here's what I think:
They should include levels (like those in Team Fortress Classic, the Half-Life mod) that have two identical bases, to protect the flag (or case) from. These could be used as capture the case levels, or simply as deathmatch, or any other of the game types. Since the bases would be indentical (and facing each other) this would be perfect for Sniper wars.
In regards to other stuff you have said, some sounds very good, like each player having their own guns to start each life with. This could start as a not so good weapon, and as you increase in rank, you can access new (and better) starting guns. This would reward people who played it a lot with better stuff to start with. The thing about being able to cordon off specific areas of the one player levels and play them in multiplayer could work, but you would probably get players just thinking they'll play with the whole (huge) level, and then wondering why there is slowdown.
Slowdown is another problem with custom maps and weapons. If they have to read em off the memory card, then it could take too long to load them. And there is no saving to the disc, cos (unlike the carts on N64) discs can't be written to... And if someone starts making maps, they could do them too big, complex, whatever, and end up with lots of slowdown.
I like the idea of having turrets in multiplayer maps that you can take over, but maybe the objective of one level could be to gain control of the turret thingy, (by getting a pick up somewhere else) and then last for as long as possible in the gun!
And another thing. King of the hill mode. I think that should be (like your suggestions about cap the flag) selectable. You can select the area of the 'base' you need to capture, or you can have it random, or you can have it in a random placed position, but it stays in only one position (not moving around every time it is captured). This would give a better feel, as there would be one central killing ground around the one 'base' area, that must be held at all costs.
I also think Rare should have more one player levels, and they could have downloadable levels (assuming NintyNet or whatever it will be called is up by its release) made by Rare. they could even allow people to download a map maker to the PC, but putting new maps onto memory card would take up a lot of space, and creating maps would take a lot of time. I think Rare would be more likely to allow their own new maps to be downloaded.
Oh, and although your control system DOES look good on paper, I doubt it will be like that. First the digital click is designed as an extra button, so it probably won't be used as a primary trigger, as it takes quite a lot of push to click it. Also, I doubt we will see the two weapons system, purely because it will be hard (and potentially confusing) to implement successfully, and it could cause much glitching when a two handed weapon is used.
I think the controls will be as follows:
3D stick- Movement
C stick- Left/Right is strafe, up/down is look up or down
A- select weapon (hold for wheel menu)
B- Reload/ open door (action button)
R or L- One will probably be aiming, the other will be fire. maybe the digital click will activate the second function. I think it's more likely that the harder you push the faster the rate of fire, and the digital click will activate the fastest rate of fire.
Dpad- could be the same as Cstick, or could be like a quick button with the same effect as the cstick when aim is held down. (eg. down ducks, up gets up, and left or right pops out in that direction as long as you hold the button)
X or Y- extra buttons. One could be used to change weapon function, and the other could be used for something in Multiplay (ordering Sims, etc)
That's what I think, but I dunno. I left out the Z button. Although I think your control system was pretty well thought out, the digital click for primary fire I doubt would work, and it seems a bit advanced for new players. Anyway, I'm sure Rare will include a wide variety of good control set-ups. Also, I doubt they would have two seperate fire buttons (left and right guns) as it would get too complex for some players, and could cause slowdown in multiplay.
Also, I think if the 'counter operative' mode could be included (without the slowdown) it would be much better. You could also have a co-op where your mate gets dropped off somewhere else in the level to add a bit of replay value to it.
Oh, and maybe one of those extra 'leftover' buttons on GCs control could be a dedicated Combat Boost (or you sould just select one special weapon/item for each level, again adding some tactics) so you could easily access it. This way you could enter a room full of bad guys, and immediatly activate your special item (combat boost for example) allowing you to take aim and fire with increased accuracy, your IR goggles activated, or whatever.
That is all I can think of at the moment. If I come up with anything more I will post again, but I will try to keep it shorter than this mammoth (but not as big as the original) post!
The level editor is a good idea, but one which I doubt will be implemented (along with the weapon editor) simply because consoles are designed to be easily accessible and all that, and relatively few people will use a level editor for a complex genre like FPS. Tony Hawks etc. are relatively simple, as all they need is the basic level, and lots of objects. for PD levels you need to create textures, lighting effects, entities (like enemies, doors which will open, guns and ammo placement), and even if it was just Multiplay maps, it is still pretty complex stuff (as anyone who made Half-Life or HL mods maps will testify!)
Also gun creator, and all the multiplay options. The gun creator I doubt would be included because it would be something which could upset the game balance, and the new PD will probably have easily enough guns to get you through. All the custom multiplay stuff, here's what I think:
They should include levels (like those in Team Fortress Classic, the Half-Life mod) that have two identical bases, to protect the flag (or case) from. These could be used as capture the case levels, or simply as deathmatch, or any other of the game types. Since the bases would be indentical (and facing each other) this would be perfect for Sniper wars.
In regards to other stuff you have said, some sounds very good, like each player having their own guns to start each life with. This could start as a not so good weapon, and as you increase in rank, you can access new (and better) starting guns. This would reward people who played it a lot with better stuff to start with. The thing about being able to cordon off specific areas of the one player levels and play them in multiplayer could work, but you would probably get players just thinking they'll play with the whole (huge) level, and then wondering why there is slowdown.
Slowdown is another problem with custom maps and weapons. If they have to read em off the memory card, then it could take too long to load them. And there is no saving to the disc, cos (unlike the carts on N64) discs can't be written to... And if someone starts making maps, they could do them too big, complex, whatever, and end up with lots of slowdown.
I like the idea of having turrets in multiplayer maps that you can take over, but maybe the objective of one level could be to gain control of the turret thingy, (by getting a pick up somewhere else) and then last for as long as possible in the gun!
And another thing. King of the hill mode. I think that should be (like your suggestions about cap the flag) selectable. You can select the area of the 'base' you need to capture, or you can have it random, or you can have it in a random placed position, but it stays in only one position (not moving around every time it is captured). This would give a better feel, as there would be one central killing ground around the one 'base' area, that must be held at all costs.
I also think Rare should have more one player levels, and they could have downloadable levels (assuming NintyNet or whatever it will be called is up by its release) made by Rare. they could even allow people to download a map maker to the PC, but putting new maps onto memory card would take up a lot of space, and creating maps would take a lot of time. I think Rare would be more likely to allow their own new maps to be downloaded.
Oh, and although your control system DOES look good on paper, I doubt it will be like that. First the digital click is designed as an extra button, so it probably won't be used as a primary trigger, as it takes quite a lot of push to click it. Also, I doubt we will see the two weapons system, purely because it will be hard (and potentially confusing) to implement successfully, and it could cause much glitching when a two handed weapon is used.
I think the controls will be as follows:
3D stick- Movement
C stick- Left/Right is strafe, up/down is look up or down
A- select weapon (hold for wheel menu)
B- Reload/ open door (action button)
R or L- One will probably be aiming, the other will be fire. maybe the digital click will activate the second function. I think it's more likely that the harder you push the faster the rate of fire, and the digital click will activate the fastest rate of fire.
Dpad- could be the same as Cstick, or could be like a quick button with the same effect as the cstick when aim is held down. (eg. down ducks, up gets up, and left or right pops out in that direction as long as you hold the button)
X or Y- extra buttons. One could be used to change weapon function, and the other could be used for something in Multiplay (ordering Sims, etc)
That's what I think, but I dunno. I left out the Z button. Although I think your control system was pretty well thought out, the digital click for primary fire I doubt would work, and it seems a bit advanced for new players. Anyway, I'm sure Rare will include a wide variety of good control set-ups. Also, I doubt they would have two seperate fire buttons (left and right guns) as it would get too complex for some players, and could cause slowdown in multiplay.
Also, I think if the 'counter operative' mode could be included (without the slowdown) it would be much better. You could also have a co-op where your mate gets dropped off somewhere else in the level to add a bit of replay value to it.
Oh, and maybe one of those extra 'leftover' buttons on GCs control could be a dedicated Combat Boost (or you sould just select one special weapon/item for each level, again adding some tactics) so you could easily access it. This way you could enter a room full of bad guys, and immediatly activate your special item (combat boost for example) allowing you to take aim and fire with increased accuracy, your IR goggles activated, or whatever.
That is all I can think of at the moment. If I come up with anything more I will post again, but I will try to keep it shorter than this mammoth (but not as big as the original) post!
It did take me a little while, bordering on 2 hours in MS Word.
I'm gonna read that block of text later. It's 9 page son word, 6561 words, 29,540 characters (no spaces), 36,271 characters (inc. spaces) and 517 lines. That's a hell of a lot, I may print it out and read it.
Not sure I've made one THAT long!
(except for when I posted ALL parts of my Pokemon story, but that was originally in about 12 different parts!!!)
(except for when I posted ALL parts of my Pokemon story, but that was originally in about 12 different parts!!!)
How many brains you been through then Sibs? :D
You make posts like that. LONG!! Very long!! :D
You make posts like that. LONG!! Very long!! :D
Too much writing...
Brain expanding...
About to explode...
*BOOM*
Brain expanding...
About to explode...
*BOOM*
AfroJoe wrote:
> What was that about that Ninendo sucks forum then? Anyway if you have decided
> where you will post then fine by me as long as you shut up and don't insult
> forums again. A vital part of this site.
Soz about that, I had drunk too much coffee for my tender age. I know that Ninty is a cool company and the best producer in the world, blah de blah.
> What was that about that Ninendo sucks forum then? Anyway if you have decided
> where you will post then fine by me as long as you shut up and don't insult
> forums again. A vital part of this site.
Soz about that, I had drunk too much coffee for my tender age. I know that Ninty is a cool company and the best producer in the world, blah de blah.
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