Build and Shoot

Hi there, I'm new here in the forums, I just had an idea and I wanted to post it somewhere even if it's just a stupid thing.
Also I hope this is not the wrong section. And I'm sorry if sometimes I write like an idiot, but I'm not a native english speaker.

Ok, so, the idea in this topic is: how could AoS 0.x become if only updates could continue? Obviously there are a lot of mistakes in AoS 1.x and everyone here knows that perfectly. However knowing that the game will not have any kind of addition after time is a bit boring. So let's just dream a bit, or if someone has any way of making updates and I don't know, this may be even useful. What kind of thing can be added to a game like this without destroying the main concept and the gameplay?

That's my idea:
Ace of Spades has a nice World War 1 style, which is kind of rare, and adds more to the odd toy soldier flavour. World War 1 had a good variety of weapons that were good for a war of positioning, a lot of heavy weapons and artillery.
The idea of continuing to have "classes" without the need of the whole skin changed, but only through different functions of weapons is also very important to keep the game simple.

I think there can easily be at least three more weapons:
Flamethrower - these were invented in WW1 and pretty neat for the way they can work in the gameplay, being about setting the enemy on fire and then run away and hide. Normally considering the low range a player has to hide around corners or find a group of players in a narrow room (and here we can even create the room as a bait)
Mortar - widely used specially in WW1, perfect weapon in a game like this, so that it is even more about "the positioning and costruction is everything". It may be very hard to add in a game as realistic, but it can be decently simplified as: can't shoot while bringing it around, it has to be set down with a left click and various seconds, then the players can't move but can shoot until they decide to take it up, needing a few seconds for that too.
Infantry Support Gun - very similar to the mortar, less powerful but a bit more precise and the player can move while it's set down, but extremely slowly and only forward or backwards. I think having 2 weapons of 6 as positioning weapons gives the game a bit more of focus on constructing and then positioning.

But also, I think that something can be done about the kinda boring grenades. I think it would be fun if someone could choose the secondary weapon and make a kind of hybrid character. In this case the secondary weapons (other than the grenade) may be:
Dynamite - destroys a lot of blocks in a big area, the player has to place it, walk away and wait for it to explode after 5 to 10 seconds. Only 1 ammo, mostly to destroy buildings and useless to directly attack players that can notice it and walk away easily.
Poison Gas - this was used mostly in WW1 and I think AoS should definetely have it because of this. It can be something that does a very slow damage, but kills for sure after a while, so that a poisoned player knows they're going to die in a minute or more. Affecting then the behaviour in an interesting way, the poisoned player will probably try suicidal attacks a bit more.
Smoke Grenade - well, these weren't used too much in WW1 compared to the poison gas, but still they were used a bit and they can be really interesting for the gameplay. If the smoke lasts enough and in a decently wide area, maybe if the one that threw it can see a bit more, this can be a way to have kind of "stealth" class, even if more about throwing a smoke grenade before entering a building, killing one or two enemies and then run away.
Handgun - when ammo for the primary weapon ends, and specially important to have when your primary weapon is a mortar or a support gun.
Sword - in WW1 swords were still widely used, well specially bayonets. If the damage from the shovel gets decreased, the sword can be the choice for players that like to meelee kill someone that gets too near, and a good choice to be sure of never ending ammo.

Also, secondarily, something that I would do after adding these weapons is: blocks can be destroyed only by explosions (grenade, mortar, support gun, dynamite). So that there are weapons mostly useful to destroy buildings. I think it doesn't make sense that a projectile can actually destroy a block (and that I can destroy a bridge if I shoot at it with a rifle), you have to either make it explode or mine it away. Another thing necessary is changing the submachinegun to a machinegun that can be shoot only while standing still (or maybe that needs a fast set down similar to mortars), this is mostly for two reasons: finding a way to nerf the smg is always good, the smgs were a little less used in WW1 than heavier machineguns. Also the WW1 smgs looked a bit more like a normal rifle than how the smg looks in AoS.

And that's it, I mostly dream, but I hope you liked all these ideas.

But the game updates itself

jdrew wrote:

But the game updates itself

Oh well, this is kinda true. But not enough

If you are interested Greasemonkey is working on a "powerthirst edition" of .75 which could be considered an update (it's more of a mod) in the software section. Includes stuff like 64 player servers and no limit on characters in your name, I believe weapon balance is on the list of future stuff as well.

No "real" progress will happen unless we can legally obtain the source code however.

Powerthirst seems very interesting, thank you. Well if the mod gets famous enough it can be a substitute to normal updates. Well, it's unlikely to happen, but not impossible.

I still say the best way to move forward is to work backwards. If you want a hardcore pro shooter go play COD. AOS should be left as a digging, sneaking, and sniping CTF/tower defense game. When it was like that it was way more unique and fun. Now it's just a cheaper version of something I could buy at Gamestop.

Imma put some serious effort into a new version over the summer.

Sasquatch wrote:

I still say the best way to move forward is to work backwards. If you want a hardcore pro shooter go play COD. AOS should be left as a digging, sneaking, and sniping CTF/tower defense game. When it was like that it was way more unique and fun. Now it's just a cheaper version of something I could buy at Gamestop.

I don't like cod and the kind of weapons that I would like to see added are not for the classic "hardcore pro shooter". Specially with mortars and dynamite I want the game to be more about digging and constructing than it is about sneaking and sniping that I can do in any other game. A game like this needs weapons with differences specially focusing on the blocks and on the shape of the map, so that the players have to continuously play with the blocks and change the shape of the map.
When you say "now it's just a cheaper version etc" do you mean AoS 1.x or even 0.75?

Sonarpulse wrote:

Imma put some serious effort into a new version over the summer.

Cool!

Articsledder wrote:

If you are interested Greasemonkey is working on a "powerthirst edition" of .75 which could be considered an update (it's more of a mod) in the software section. Includes stuff like 64 player servers and no limit on characters in your name, I believe weapon balance is on the list of future stuff as well.

No "real" progress will happen unless we can legally obtain the source code however.

Wouldn't it be better to use .76, as the weapons are more balanced on that version?

TB_ wrote:

Wouldn't it be better to use .76, as the weapons are more balanced on that version?

Changing weapon attributes is very, very, very easy so it doesn't really matter which version is used in that respect.

TB_ wrote:

Articsledder wrote:

If you are interested Greasemonkey is working on a "powerthirst edition" of .75 which could be considered an update (it's more of a mod) in the software section. Includes stuff like 64 player servers and no limit on characters in your name, I believe weapon balance is on the list of future stuff as well.

No "real" progress will happen unless we can legally obtain the source code however.

Wouldn't it be better to use .76, as the weapons are more balanced on that version?

As topo said it would probably take like 5 minutes to bring any noticeable gameplay changes that were in .76 to powerthirst.

As far as I can tell/remember from changelogs a lot of .76 was graphical changes and polishing.

Articsledder wrote:

As topo said it would probably take like 5 minutes to bring any noticeable gameplay changes that were in .76 to powerthirst.

As far as I can tell/remember from changelogs a lot of .76 was graphical changes and polishing.

Wouldn't it still be better to use 0.76 for the graphical changes and polishing then?


Anyone has other ideas for things that may be added to the game (maybe with powerthirst, who knows) that don't mess up with the WW1 flavour and the importance of building/digging?

Tanks. yup.

Space Inspader wrote:

Tanks. yup.

Tanks would be awesome, but extremely hard to add/program and balance.
What would be perfect about tanks in AoS is that they would probably need a plain large path to move around, so they would probably need a player or two around them to build/dig streets and bridges before them so that they can move on them. Tanks would be perfect to make players focus on building. Also it's interesting how players already build towers, bases, walls, narrow bridges and tunnels, what I still didn't see are streets and large tunnels, because they don't need them. Tanks would bring a new type of construction in the game (and the touch of players in maps would become even a bit more "realistic" and fashionable).
The problem (if we just don't consider how hard can be just programming them) is that tanks could be destroyed only by mortars, infantry support guns and other tanks. Having a team to drive the tank in a realistic way seems a bit too much considering the number of players and the type of game, so it would probably be someone driving the tank instead of having a primary weapon, obviously with the chance of going out of it and leaving it around to build and dig, with the secondary weapon as the only defence. I wonder how slow they should go to balance the fact that they can shoot missiles around, can squash enemies that get too near and can be destroyed only by some types of weapon. Or maybe needing a very precise terrain to move may balance them enough.

Oh wow, I'm seriously dreaming too much here.

How about we have people with anti-tank launchers which only have 1 shot of ammo? There's always the tent you can return to. Could encourage teamwork.

Actually, this gives me an idea...
How about we add a 2 shot bazooka primary, and a pistol as a secondary? We'd need to make sure that you can't grief your team with it, somehow.

Antigrief ideas for a potential bazooka:
- You cannot damage your team's quarter of the map. This requirement could be dropped for trusted players and clan matches.
- If you are repeatedly trying to break your team's quarter (say, 5 times in 10 minutes), you get banned from the server for an hour.
- You cannot camp in your tent and get rockets fed through your ass. Remember the SMG when it first came out? Yeah, we don't want a repeat of that bullshit.
- You have to stay crouched for about a second to use it. Not only would this help with balancing, but it would also mean that kids who don't have ADHD but still don't pay any fucking attention will not be able to use it.