Alternative to ERDW Scope

[Shadowstar]

Lots of people want a scope for the ERDW so they can use the shoot-thru-walls feature to rack up the frags, but the obvious problem is that it could make the ERDW too powerful. Ok, so we all know that, so I came up with an entirely different approach:

Instead of a scope, the ERDW has a radar screen. The radar is completely black except for dots (possibly team-colored) which show the locations of everyone around you, with you at the center of the display (typical radar display). There are several ways to implement it, with the simplest probably being a top-down display. A line can be drawn on the display going from the center up, which would basically be the direction your currently facing (and the path that an ERDW rail would take).

Now, if the radar is top-down, it could be tricky to figure out where to aim vertically. You may have the target lined up on the radar, but you may not know how high or low to aim, so there would be some guesswork there. However, if you were familiar with the level and could be reasonably sure about someone's location relative to you from thier position on the radar, you may be able to extrapolate this vertical offset from that knowledge, unless there were two pathways that ran vertically parallel, then you'd have to guess which one they are on.

Also, with a radar, we can limit its range. That would prevent people being able to use it to frag across the map.

The radar would give people a form of guidance which they could use to effectively shoot through walls, however, it would force them to use intelligence and knowledge to make use of that guidance, and would limit thier ability to use the ERDW to overpower everything else.

How does that sound?

[DemonHunter]

COOL!

[Isotope]

Swell. Just swell. Cant a heatscope sort of thing have a limited range too?

[Zachariah]

Although this option is a viable one , I have already tried this(in fact I just got out of an invasion game where I was trying to accomplish this very thing with the Inv radar) and It is practically impossible to kill someone using this method IMO... even on gael , the most I scored through a wall was 1 in 25 , and with the scarcity of erdw ammo , I feel that eyeballing it is far more effective means . . .

then again , This may work for others . . .

but radar plain and simple still has its benefits hehe...

...Perhaps you could do a 3 dimensional radar composed of a set of rings criscrossing eachother that points to your nearest opponent. and has a limited range.

[Shadowstar]

Well, a real l33t player might use the sniper scope to get an idea about an opponent's vertical position, and then use the ERDW radar to line up the target. This would be especially useful since most people tend to move around a lot. Lining them up in the sniper scope and then switching to ERDW isn't a guaranteed kill shot, especially if the target is running or dodging or xloc'ing around. Since people generally move horizontally more than they move vertically, once the sniper is aware of the target's vertical position, the ERDW could be used to guide the horizontal aim and award the kill-shot. But there is still skill and luck involved. And the limited range means people can nullify the advantage by staying out of range.

My idea for the radar would be that it would be much more accurate than the Invasion radar. The Invasion radar uses giant blips and covers a rather large range, so of course it's horribly inaccurate to use for aiming. The ideal ERDW radar would use small blips and be close range. Plus the Invasion Radar doesn't have an aiming line. The ERDW radar would. In the right hands, that radar could be exceptionally powerful. But obviously, if you can see the target, why would you want to use the radar? That's just a given. The radar would be primarily useful for detecting enemies through walls, and firing at enemies you can't quite see.

Plus, a radar has certain tactical advantages over the enhanced sniper scope. For instance, in CTF, you could use the ERDW and patrol your base, it would sniff out enemies that were sneaking into your base, but you'd have to patrol since the radar has limited range, unless your base was really small. Alternatively, an enemy could use the ERDW to scout your base, getting an idea of where the defenders are, and coordinate with the rest of his team to strike effectively. Suddenly the ERDW becomes more than just a simple railgun, it is also an effective scout tool.

Perhaps an additional feature could allow the ERDW to highlight active radar pulses, that is, other players who are using the ERDW. So, if you see someone who's blip is emitting an active pulse, you know they also have an ERDW and may even be lining up a shot at you. Then it becomes its own defensive tool. All you have to do is move out of thier range. Since thier radar range is the same as yours, once they dissapear from your radar, you know you're off thiers too. Talk about tactics!

The ultimate sniper would have both the ERDW and Sniper rifle and would be able to use the scope and the radar to tactically plan thier attacks and rule the field. But using both devices together would take some skill and intelligence. So IMO it's a good thing to add.

[Swift Viper]

A 3D rader might be hard to do and would kill the "up-down" guessing or skill in shooting. Limited yes, but even getting the "sure shot" on one person might be a bit much.

Shadowstar, really nice idea and good to see you back, you always seem to have some kind of idea for most stuff, I wonder how you do it . Maybe another thing that could be done is maybe you could hear footsteps better, but would be made hard because of everyone else moving around you making sounds too unless the match had low number of players.

[Shadowstar]

I don't know where the ideas come from, they just sorta occur and then I post them.

[Swift Viper]

Some thing happens to me, but not quite as often as your ideas seem to do, but I still feel happy when I can come up with something creative. You post your 2nd post while I was posting my 1st one, so I must say really great ideas there and it really could become much more then a weapon. On maps that are mostly flat, the rader would be more useful for planing your shot, where if a level had all kind of different height levels, it would be much harder. Sounds like your really doing what is best for Chaos (and so are the others).

[Zachariah]

what if the 2d radar was kept , but instead of corresponding to a horizontal axis , it correllated with your line of sight , you can still see player s location relative to your own , but the closer you get to them on the vertical axis , the brighter their blip appears on the radar(IE: their blip starts out as a hollow circle , but the closer you come to looking at their true position , the more shaded in their blip becomes.)

[DemonHunter]

I like the idea of a 2D radar, with limited range and a target line.
Maybe you should have different colors for Above levels, below levels and same level

[Frobozz]

All this is assuming the target is sitting there and camping. I have a hard enough time, hitting a dodging target even a mild distance away with the thing and have been restricting it's use to close range or better. Long range is chancy w/o a scope, and extreme range is impossible. The wall shooting I only use if I want to take a chance shot at someone who JUST ducked behind an object, or someone standing on a ledge (get under him, point up) or at the top of a wall (get right up along base of wall, point up).

I also think the model could use a little sprucing up. It's kinda plain-jane compared to the other models. I can just picture a Liandri tournament official at the pitch meeting: "Hmm... spruce it up, make it look meaner, keep the red paint, and we'll take 40,000 of them."

Still, it has the coolest effect, and most satisfying kill feeling seeing the fountain of blood and skeleton where they were.

[Isotope]

In armored core, 2 and 3 I know, at least, have the units change color in relation to their vertical distance to you. Red was close, blue was higher, and yellow was lower... Something like that might work nicely.

[Swift Viper]

Actually, that rader thing worked in the first Armored Core as well.

On topic: Putting the information on radar on how high or low someone is might ruin what Shardowstar was talking about in having to still "guess" how high or low someone is. It would be almost the same thing as having a heatscope outright if you had a radar that showed targets in 3D and not 2D.