I suggest a system that automatically begins to cull the final few specimens in a wave after a certain time period has passed while playing in multiplayer mode. I believe out-of-view specimens do get culled in solo mode, but multiplayer requires every single specimen to be killed no matter what. That has the tendency to lead to this unfortunate result:
The survivors can't see the last specimen. The last specimen can't see the survivors. Neither party has any possible avenue of reaching or damaging each other, thus the wave is indefinitely prolonged. In effect, the game is quite over and the only options the players have are to vote for another map or to leave. That is all because of one stuck specimen.
Yes, this is technically the fault of the mapper. However, it is incredibly unfair and cruel to the map author and the players (if not poor game design) to allow such a minor and unreproducible oversight to ruin an entire game. More often than not, these incidents are one in a million, hence why thousands of specimens can have gone through the exact same scenario before and never trapped themselves. In this particular case, that hapless Scrake only managed to get stuck there due to a combination of an amazingly small gap in the blocking brush, a barrage of grenades, a nearby Fleshpound, and a peculiar but unfortunately timed jump on his part.
Basically, the problem is that a few specimens at the end of a wave can literally halt the entire game and there's no system, preferably a time limit, that can cull them out. I've pointed out an extreme example where the game cannot possibly continue. However, this problem can have lesser occurrences that don't necessarily require a custom map or a stuck specimen. It could be the last Crawler who decides to take on a 100% welded door by itself on the other side of West London. It could be the last Bloat hobbling along somewhere in Farm. It could be the last Clot just aimlessly wandering around in Foundry like a lost child. All of these instances require quite a bit of time to assess and resolve. This destroys the game's momentum and essentially coerces the players into a game of hide and seek that's guaranteed to be dull (Unless the last couple of specimens happen to be angry Fleshpounds ready to fly down from the sky, but more likely it's just a Clot/Crawler). Also, it's no fun going on these searches when there's the nagging thought that the final specimen may be permanently stuck out of reach, thus forcing you to end your game right there. This has happened to my team more than once on several different levels, and I can tell you it's a fairly unpleasant experience watching everyone's hope slowly wane away as everyone slowly begins to realize there's nothing we can do.
As I said before, I believe solo mode already has a system that culls specimens, but in my experience it has proven to be a bit too stringent for multiplayer. I would suggest using a similar culling method in multiplayer only once there are fewer than ten specimens left and after 30 seconds have passed. If it takes longer than half a minute to kill the final ten specimens, either the problem I described has occurred or someone is taking far too much time kiting. This isn't a perfect solution, so I'll leave the specifics up to discussion. Nonetheless, I believe this to be a considerable issue in the game that needs to be addressed.
The survivors can't see the last specimen. The last specimen can't see the survivors. Neither party has any possible avenue of reaching or damaging each other, thus the wave is indefinitely prolonged. In effect, the game is quite over and the only options the players have are to vote for another map or to leave. That is all because of one stuck specimen.
Yes, this is technically the fault of the mapper. However, it is incredibly unfair and cruel to the map author and the players (if not poor game design) to allow such a minor and unreproducible oversight to ruin an entire game. More often than not, these incidents are one in a million, hence why thousands of specimens can have gone through the exact same scenario before and never trapped themselves. In this particular case, that hapless Scrake only managed to get stuck there due to a combination of an amazingly small gap in the blocking brush, a barrage of grenades, a nearby Fleshpound, and a peculiar but unfortunately timed jump on his part.
Basically, the problem is that a few specimens at the end of a wave can literally halt the entire game and there's no system, preferably a time limit, that can cull them out. I've pointed out an extreme example where the game cannot possibly continue. However, this problem can have lesser occurrences that don't necessarily require a custom map or a stuck specimen. It could be the last Crawler who decides to take on a 100% welded door by itself on the other side of West London. It could be the last Bloat hobbling along somewhere in Farm. It could be the last Clot just aimlessly wandering around in Foundry like a lost child. All of these instances require quite a bit of time to assess and resolve. This destroys the game's momentum and essentially coerces the players into a game of hide and seek that's guaranteed to be dull (Unless the last couple of specimens happen to be angry Fleshpounds ready to fly down from the sky, but more likely it's just a Clot/Crawler). Also, it's no fun going on these searches when there's the nagging thought that the final specimen may be permanently stuck out of reach, thus forcing you to end your game right there. This has happened to my team more than once on several different levels, and I can tell you it's a fairly unpleasant experience watching everyone's hope slowly wane away as everyone slowly begins to realize there's nothing we can do.
As I said before, I believe solo mode already has a system that culls specimens, but in my experience it has proven to be a bit too stringent for multiplayer. I would suggest using a similar culling method in multiplayer only once there are fewer than ten specimens left and after 30 seconds have passed. If it takes longer than half a minute to kill the final ten specimens, either the problem I described has occurred or someone is taking far too much time kiting. This isn't a perfect solution, so I'll leave the specifics up to discussion. Nonetheless, I believe this to be a considerable issue in the game that needs to be addressed.
