Foliage design change for better hiding and sniping

[2pikachuno]

Will the foliage work differently in RS2 compared to the other RO games?
Because these are my suggestions to better the hiding in the foliage and really make players want to camp in bushes a lot more in the jungles of Vietnam.

If a player is camping in a bush or something the bush should become mildly transparent just to the player in it. I always hated how in RS1 when I wanted to camp deep in a bush and do some sniping it wasn't that effective with all the leaves and stuff blocking my vision completely. I think just making the bushes a player is in lightly transparent would be a huge game changer in how effective bush/foliage sniping could be. and if Im right to assume that RS2 will be a game that has a lot more fully automatic weapons then being able to have effective bush cover could be an interesting thing that players would try spamming some shots into the bushes to get rid of snipers and such.

Also another issue I see a lot in RS1 is how bad hiding in bushes actually was for players, not in an offensive sense but in a defensive sense. Whenever I was in bushes and would move players could see me even if they were over 100 meters away. Sometimes I would be still be easy to notice even when I didn't move at that distance. My suggestion for that would be to find a way to turn the bushes into some kind of billboard effect (UE4 term) that pretty much completely blocks the players hiding in them. or maybe find some way for the visual of the bush and the player to somehow morph together their color schemes that makes it hard to see if there is a person in the bush or foliage. Maybe even somehow figure out a way to slightly blur the vision of player from far off distances that muddle the diffrence between players and foliage.

Its probably not possible to do but its just an idea and a request I guess that hiding in bushes and be able to crawl around in them and not be spotted so easily would be a dream come true. I think it would really be interesting for gameplay in helping to keep that slow action pace that RO was known for if players felt that they should approach slowly in foliage cover.

 

[LugNut]

So, you want anyone inside a bush to be invisible, yet not have any restrictions looking out? Sorry, that sounds horrible.

I hope to see more highlands and woodlands maps myself, Vietnam is a lot more than just jungles.

 

[2pikachuno]

So, you want anyone inside a bush to be invisible, yet not have any restrictions looking out? Sorry, that sounds horrible.

I hope to see more highlands and woodlands maps myself, Vietnam is a lot more than just jungles.

My thought was that the player would not be PERFECTLY invisible at every distance to opposing players hiding in a bush and the bush wouldn't go COMPLETELY transparent, just mildly like in this pic.

Or if you really want to get into it you could design it so that players in the bushes the foliage right in front of the player camera is completely transparent and depending on the distance from the player camera foliage is determines the transparency value by its distance. So players would have to be closer to the edge of bushes to see more clearly out of them like in this pic.

Those distance values would have to be experimented with a LOT though to find the perfect value.

I mean if your 20 meters away then yeah you should be able to see someone hiding in the bush because being closer to the bush could make the render show an obvious difference between the player material and the bush material as opposed to being 70 meters away where maybe theres a way to blend the material of the player and the bushes together in someway to make it harder to make out enemies and such. Although Im not sure if something like this is actually possible in the first place with the unreal engine.

I just think this idea could be pretty cool for teams playing on the offensive and it might help to contribute to that slow pace that RO and RS games are known for. Being able to crawl through the bushes (without being seen as easily or obviously like in RS1) and slowly get closer to the capture zones while sniping down enemies would be pretty cool offensively. The defensive team would be shooting fully automatic weapons into those bushes trying to get some kills as well as using those RPG's we saw in the trailer to hopefully flush and kill enemy soldiers, Plus players might try to save grenades for the bushes to get some kills. Hiding in bushes would also be a great tactic against those enemy choppers like we saw in the trailers. Instead of standing up and making yourself obvious it would be cool if when enemies called in a chopper that players would take cover in the bushes. If the choppers are player controlled then players would definitely try shooting into the foliage to kill and flush out enemies who are trying to hide.

But its just an idea to think about, it sounds interesting to me in theory but it might turn out to not actually work in gameplay or because of the engine. I just felt it was an interesting idea worth sharing.

 

[IndustrialPlastics]

I agree with 2pikachuno's points. When laying in a bush and looking out, it is difficult to aim because the leaves or grass in the way remain in hard focus and do not react when in contact with the player model. In real life, the bush would separate and not impede the player's line of sight to the extent that it does in game. Also, when aiming, the effect of brush in one's line of sight would be decreased.

Obviously, the engine will not support the technical requirements necessary to make the foliage separate around the player model but I think 2pikachuno's suggestions are a good half-way point. The effectiveness of foliage is very important when the two factions are of unequal power.

 

[aboveplebs]

Obviously, the engine will not support the technical requirements necessary to make the foliage separate around the player model

It was done even in Source Engine.

 

[NorthDumpling]

It was done even in Source Engine.

Any proof? Also it took a lot of work in UE3 to make every model under physics.