Japanese snipers + trees?

[Stungray]

I think the Japanese marksmen should have the option to climb and snipe from trees, possibly implemented by modifying the cover system?

This could be countered by american flamethrowers (as suggested by jdam5).

My apologies if someone already had this idea and I missed it.

 

[bovine]

Thats a brilliant idea in my opinion too, but dont you think it could be simply done by making the tree work like a ladder and have the branches work as a platform?

 

[Spacehogking]

Decent idea, but it's kind of obtuse. Both forces should remain using the same mechanics. Americans can climb trees too, can't they?

 

[ro_sauce]

could make tree's as destroyable static meshes that can only be damaged by flametendril (or however they are goin to do flamethrower projectiles) then just apply a ladder volume to the parts u want climbable.
maybe can be destructible by grenades too.
maybe make destructible from gernades/explosivesw, and if it is hit by flamethrower projectiles, the it iwll switch to a "burned" material, leaves can disappear too easy for material switch (alpha channeled dds),

 

[i8pptu]

What if the snipers would just spawn at the tops of the trees.(They would also have the option of spawning normally, that way people dont have to climb trees in the heat of battle.)

But, they could only spawn in certain trees corresponding to what points where already captured. That way they wont spawn in trees behind units.

Also, if there was something like this I think the snipers should not choose what trees, the game should.

 

[Ghosx]

How about an unlockable kit that gives access to the equipment needed to climb a tree?

 

[Landrik]

@i8pptu: Just as long as they can get down without dying, haha.

 

[Grabbed_by_the_Spetsnaz]

Did Japanese snipers really climb trees?

Or have you been playing too much WaW?

 

[Homuth]

The American's portrayed the Japs as monkeys.

Monkeys can climb trees.

 

[i8pptu]

The only thing with people wanting to climb trees is..do you really want to climb trees(palm trees) in the middle of fighting.

I just think it would be obvious if you were climbing a tree.

(A thread I found that seems to have a lot of interesting information)http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=92180

and if climbing the trees is anywhere near as hard as that picture looks, climbing trees should not even be in the game.

 

[ro_sauce]

well, hopefully rising storm does away with this level-up bull****, and keeps to the core of ro1.

i'm sure there would be plenty of time to climb up a tree to get the drop on incoming americans.

it's not like there's going to be just a whole team of snipers, the one or two that get the class (depending on map settings) will take the time to find a good hiding place.

the best thing to do would just make all big trees climbable, that way you can be indiscriminate about wiping out the forest with arty or flamethrowers.

cause if u make only certain trees climbable, then after about 4-6 times on a map you'll know which ones to look in for jap snipers.

plus it would give them an edge with their bolt-actions vs american semi-autos (garand and johnson rifles)

 

[Landrik]

I agree with making many trees available as sniper positions as it will not become as science as to which trees are sniper spots and which ones aren't.

As for the implementation, this is a very good idea and could help balance the playing field. I'm just curious on how it would be added in.

 

[ro_sauce]

it can be done VERY easily using destructible meshes, material switches, ladder volumes, and ummm, that's all i think would be necessary.
maybe special pathnodes for bots, considering the amount of human players these days.

 

[Xendance]

it can be done VERY easily using destructible meshes, material switches, ladder volumes, and ummm, that's all i think would be necessary.
maybe special pathnodes for bots, considering the amount of human players these days.

So how would you do this when your whole tree is swaying in the wind with the help of vertex shaders?
Of course due to the nature of shaders it's not possible to tell the player to move with the tree.

 

[Nestor Makhno]

To be honest with you all, this question of snipers in trees is largely academic because most of the maps we are developing are based on larger battles in which there had been a great deal of pre-assault bombardment.

Any foliage from trees is mostly on the ground after that. There may be one or two trees with foliage left but if a sniper up the only intact tree on Betio, for example, starts firing it's going to be pretty clear where he is. For such battles the Japanese tended to rely on being dug in rather than stuck up a tree.

I'm sorry, because I understand the motivation... to find ways that it won't suck to play Japanese... but we are exploring other avenues to achieve that.

 

[Landrik]

Well, kudos for killing the idea before people became hopeful.

 

[Xendance]

Well, kudos for killing the idea before people became hopeful.

Well to be honest, I found the idea kinda gimmicky
Plus it would've been really hard to do from a level design standpoint, as from the top of the tree you'd most likely see the whole map (think of small islands like Betio as seen in the screens). That would be an optimization nightmare because you'd have to check if cull distances work for the people on the ground plus for the people up in the trees. Worst case scenario would be that the people in the trees would just see people behind static meshes that are culled from rendering because they're so far away

 

[ro_sauce]

yeah most of my experience for level design is from kf/ut2k4... i wasnt thinking about making the trees sway using vertex animation, i was thinking static tree bases with texosc/pan leaves, so it wouldnt be too hard to spot snipers, but hard enough for them to have an edge at least.
plus i dont have too much experience with udk's auto-cull thing where it switches dist meshes to statics, again i was thinking of texture based obscurity.

edit-
once RS comes out (hoefully with sdk integration) i was thinking of making semi-contained maps, where you cant wander too far off paths into dense jungle, but i'll just wait for the release to see what i can do towards this idea, i'm just trying to think of how to make players immerse themselves in the environment, to be wary of the trees, in order for them to combine efforts when trudging through dense brush.
i have yet to be competent in udk, so i'm still not sure how culling works, versus in ut2k4 using antiportals/zone portals/bsp culling.

 

[Xendance]

yeah most of my experience for level design is from kf/ut2k4... i wasnt thinking about making the trees sway using vertex animation, i was thinking static tree bases with texosc/pan leaves, so it wouldnt be too hard to spot snipers, but hard enough for them to have an edge at least.
plus i dont have too much experience with udk's auto-cull thing where it switches dist meshes to statics, again i was thinking of texture based obscurity.

edit-
once RS comes out (hoefully with sdk integration) i was thinking of making semi-contained maps, where you cant wander too far off paths into dense jungle, but i'll just wait for the release to see what i can do towards this idea, i'm just trying to think of how to make players immerse themselves in the environment, to be wary of the trees, in order for them to combine efforts when trudging through dense brush.
i have yet to be competent in udk, so i'm still not sure how culling works, versus in ut2k4 using antiportals/zone portals/bsp culling.

Everything culls in UE 3. But you can still assign specific cull distances, or use cull distance volumes which assign cull distances to actors based on how large they are and what settings you typed into the volume.

 

[Grabbed_by_the_Spetsnaz]

Damm not getting this feature in! I always wanted to bring out my inner Farley

chris farley beverly hills ninja @ palm tree - YouTube