A Few Ideas

[RoflChoppa]

I've been playing a lot of TTT during the last week, and throughout this time I've been thinking quite a bit about things that could make the gameplay a bit more interesting and easy to pick up. Many of these ideas have probably been posted and rejected by now, but I ask you to hear me out.



1. Change the way the DNA scanner works

Now I know many of you detectives have grown quite attached to your DNA scanners, but you can't deny the system can be a bit confusing to new players. I know for a fact that when it was introduced as standard equipment, it took me a while to figure out how to use it properly. In addition, the whole system seems a bit flawed. I can't count the number of times I've been mistaken for the traitor by a bad detective due to the DNA scanner.

What I propose is a complete overhaul, in which DNA is collected from bodies, weapons, and buttons in the map (if possible) and compared with other evidence. I understand a system like this was proposed before the current DNA scanner was implemented, but it was limited to comparing DNA from a player and another source. With this system, links could be made with other evidence. Imaging a situation where the traitor snipes a person, and then drops his rifle. Later on, he's seen dropping a Mac10 by another player. The detective comes along and compares the DNA on the two weapons, finds a match, and the traitor is caught. To me that sounds much more reasonable than the current system, as it involves the other players in the ordeal to a higher degree.

In addition, to augment this, a DNA eraser would be a good piece of traitor equipment. It could erase all DNA evidence from an object, but would be very limited in use.


2. Chargeable knife throw

I love the knife and I love getting throw kills, but sometimes I wish I could stealth kill someone (i.e. the detective) from across a room during a period of confusion. This is where a chargable knife would be good. I'm not suggesting that the charge increase throwing speed, of course, as there was just a considerable speed boost in the last update; it should increase distance and nothing else. You could charge for up to around 1.5 seconds, giving your throw around double the default distance. The downside to the charge ability would be that you'd have to have the knife out to charge it, and unless you're exceptionally good at being stealthy in a crowded room chances are you'd get killed rather quickly. In addition, travel time would be increased, so traitors would have to time their throws well for distant hits.


3. Detective "call" button on body search window

When playing a new map, I have to take some time to get used to the names for each area. Understandably, I may refer to certain areas in different ways than the conventions before getting used to them. The same is true when the detective is unfamiliar with a map, in which case it becomes even worse. This can lead to quite a bit of confusion when leading detectives to bodies. To fix this, I suggest a "call" button on the dialogue window that pops up when you search a body. This button would trigger a beacon (radar blip) lasting 10-20 seconds (or perhaps settable by a convar), letting the detective know there's a body to be searched in an area. The downside would be that the button has only one use, so it cannot be abused to make things hard for the traitor team.


4. Scorch marks left by flare gun

Perhaps this is already there, but if it is I have not noticed. The flare gun is a pretty one-sided weapon at the moment; although it is limited in use, it is just about impossible to tell that it has been used at all once the job is done. By making it leave a scorch decal under the position of a disintegrated body, it could have a small downside. Of course, this could present a few problems in which someone walking away from a scorch mark is wrongfully accused of being traitor. Perhaps it could be an optional feature set by a convar on the server.




Anyway, these are my ideas. Feedback would be appreciated, as well as constructive criticism. Please note that I'd like to see more "This could use some work" than "OMG this sucks go kill urself OP" in this thread, and I'm sure most of the community would think along the same lines.

Thanks for your time, and I appreciate your eventual responses.

[Bad King Urgrain]

1. The DNA scanner used to work in a similar way. People were completely dumbfounded on how to use it, so no one did. Hence, I made it as simple as possible. The current scanner is pretty easy to figure out, and/or explain to someone in the chat. I get very few complaints that it is hard to use, compared to the old scanner.

What I don't see is why you take a system you consider flawed because bad detectives don't understand it or use it properly, and suggest to replace it with something much more complex and difficult to use.


2. v19 has a knife that will kill when thrown and can travel plenty far if you know how to arc it.

3. Not a bad idea.

4. It already leaves scorch marks. The Source engine is just very unreliable about rendering decals.

[EpicBox]

1. I think the actual DNA scanner is easier to use.

2. The knife has WAY more range now, I made some sweet kills from the ground of Richland to the attic with a knife.

3. A Bacon? Why some kind of radar (the color of the body on the radar would be yellow/orange).

4. (This is for BKU) I actually can't see the decals, and I have no idea when someone flared a body.

[Bad King Urgrain]

When I said unreliable I meant the decals would refuse to work 90% of the time. This should be much improved for TTT v20 though.

[RoflChoppa]

3. A Bacon? Why some kind of radar (the color of the body on the radar would be yellow/orange).

BEACON, as in a radar-style blip like you are saying. Maybe instead of my idea, the detective's radar could be expanded to show the location of found bodies along with the dead player's name. This could make the radar much more useful as a piece of equipment to the detective, as right now it really has no use except for counting players.

1. The DNA scanner used to work in a similar way. People were completely dumbfounded on how to use it, so no one did. Hence, I made it as simple as possible. The current scanner is pretty easy to figure out, and/or explain to someone in the chat. I get very few complaints that it is hard to use, compared to the old scanner.

What I don't see is why you take a system you consider flawed because bad detectives don't understand it or use it properly, and suggest to replace it with something much more complex and difficult to use.


2. v19 has a knife that will kill when thrown and can travel plenty far if you know how to arc it.

3. Not a bad idea.

4. It already leaves scorch marks. The Source engine is just very unreliable about rendering decals.

1. I see your point, such a system would be quite a bit more complicated and require more experience to use properly. However, to me it seems the current system is a bit too infallible. Once a detective has gotten evidence from a body, the traitor is as good as dead unless they've bought a decoy. In-fact, I have never seen an instance in which evidence from a weapon or health station has been used to find a traitor. Perhaps there's a middle ground, a discussion thread would be good for this topic.

2. I did not realize that the knife's throw speed increase would increase its distance so significantly, as I haven't had much time to play around with it. Ignore this idea. Maybe a crosshair similar to the grenade launcher in Call of Duty (like this) would be a good substitute, to help the traitor judge the arc of a throw more accurately.

3. See my reply to EpicBox.

4. Good to hear that this will be made more reliable. Have you ever considered using a temporary smoke particle effect instead of a decal? Maybe that would be a good solution.

[EpicBox]

Lol Yeah. I ment Beacon, sorry; I was typing too fast.

Your idea's good, but the radar may turn out to be a chaos with all the player names.

Also, the idea of the beacon was a "Call" for the detective, so in the radar it should be just a circle (orange one maybe).

If all the dead bodies appeared in the Detective radar, it would confuse the players a lot IMO.