drop pods

[theVAULTdweller]

I was thinking as well as having the drop ships it might be a good additions to include drop pods, it would free up the maps because the drop ships really restrict were you can have spawn point. were as if it was just drop pods falling from the sky a spawn point could go pretty much anywhere.  you could even have it with the ships for the first spawn, and then when it moves you could have drop pods, like reinforcements are coming in from the sky.

[ChromeAngel]

We have discussed this several times on IRC.  The trouble I have with drop pods is how to get rid of the pods after the players have disembarked.  I see I am not alone in being unhappy with the mapping restrictions that the drop ship system creates either.

However one of the goals we set ourselves when we were designing EX was a seamless "cinematic" experience , where people and things don't just appear and disappear out of thin air.  An average EX spawn lasts about a minute, in an average 45 minute gaming session that would be an awful lot of drop pods, even spawning several players per pod. Drop pods and mysitic spores were just not re-usable enough, so we opted for drop
ships and invented the Harpy to fill that role for the nids.

I would have preferred a way in which we could have our cinematic game flow, make high performance maps and stick to the 40k background.  but we haven't yet been able to find a way to make that all work together yet.    I don't really want to loose the drop ships after that the work that has gone into them, but I am prepared to if it's taking to big bite out of our ability to map for EX.

 :idea: Suggestions welcome.

[Typheron]

Only thing we managed to come up with in IRC was an actual arrival building like in DoW, it would allow the drop pods to "dissapear" into the building thus leaving the pad clean for later.

However it is a very imperfect solution and makes us look a bit too much like DoW.

[theVAULTdweller]

or what if you had the drop ships fly around the map and when a spawn was going to happen you could have it hover over the spawn area and have the player parachute down to the ground, it would eliminate the need for big drop zones.

[ChromeAngel]

The drop zone entities themselves have to be that big to leave room for players like the carnifex and their broods. Even without have the dropships land, were still going to need room for each player being fex with a brood of gaunts.

[theVAULTdweller]

ahhh ok then. would having them parashoot in still save some space? because atm you have to leave a big runway upto the spawn to have the ship land properly.

[Typheron]

although it would reduce the need for the runway, it would take away the cinematic feel, as space marines dont parashoot (several tons of power armour tend to fall like a very heavy brick).

What im doing is putting all spawns on roofs or in squares, but mainly roofs. This allows a lot of space for the dropship to fly about in.

However the spoawn point and the drop ship dont need to actually be near each other, so in theory you could have it "hover" over a point and just spawn everyone under it.

[theVAULTdweller]

cool, see i thought the ship had to be write under it, so for instance i could have it hove a good bit over the spawn and just say the player jumped the rest.

[Typheron]

yes, the spawn point itself is that big pink block which is (to my understanding) triggered by the dropship being on the 2 points that relate to the spawn.

chrome coded it, so he could probably explain it better and correct me if im wrong.

[zenarion]

Why cannot AI terminators/dreadnoughts/tyrant guard be dropped in with pods? Afterwards, the pods just stay there. Nid pod can look like some kind of spiky plant, I am happy to design it.
The ammount of work is huge, but maybe for latter versions  :roll:

[ChromeAngel]

Why cannot AI terminators/dreadnoughts/tyrant guard be dropped in with pods? Afterwards, the pods just stay there. Nid pod can look like some kind of spiky plant, I am happy to design it.
The ammount of work is huge, but maybe for latter versions  :roll:

Because the objectives can be taken and re-taken, leaving anything lying around is undesirable.

[theVAULTdweller]

what if they took off again or burrowed into the ground?

[Typheron]

there both one shot pods, the SM one has to be recovered by thunderhawk and the nid one is re-absorbed later.

both tend to be classed as dispoable, we try to keep to the fluff as best as possable

[Doombringer]

although it would reduce the need for the runway, it would take away the cinematic feel, as space marines dont parashoot (several tons of power armour tend to fall like a very heavy brick).

What im doing is putting all spawns on roofs or in squares, but mainly roofs. This allows a lot of space for the dropship to fly about in.

However the spoawn point and the drop ship dont need to actually be near each other, so in theory you could have it "hover" over a point and just spawn everyone under it.

Assault Marines get the jump packs that act like parachutes in dropping from Thunderhawks, and there is always the possibility of Grav-chutes.

[Typheron]

A moot point since we removed thunderhawks.