Can't say that getting only 5 responses during the 2 weeks we've sought community input on the Bitchslap bugs fixing issue is a particularly encouraging sign, but in the interest of spurring on the discussion so that we might reach some useful and playerbase-supported conclusion soon, perhaps a recent comments round-up might do the trick. Let's see then...
-FuNkY-MoNk-UK wrote:I have never had a problem with this 'bug'. When it's locked open it doesn't have a massive effect on game flow, it's easy to counter players shooting at the node from a distance outside the room. It's a little bit easier to defend though as you can see players before they come in. It's also easier for a player with the redeemer to take out the node when it is open, but that paired with the fact it's easier to defend are the only problems, and are minor if that.
Well, those
are fair points, and it's also true that the extended lines of sight that jammed open doors offer are probably equally useful to the node's attackers as they are to its defenders in terms of targeting one another. OTOH, the fact that the node's base is significantly wider than a player, which affords attackers ample positioning/firing options - either from nearby or across the central area and some of which much more safe than others - from which to pinch the node, and which necessitate a lone, previously covered defender step into the line of fire to protect that objective at the risk of getting fragged, I feel, still tip the balance in the attackers' favour and place the onus of maintaining the status quo squarely on the defender(s)' shoulders.
That's why I still believe jammed doors to be a biased bug in terms of holding the bunker nodes and, through it, transitioning to the end-game stage within regulation time for the average BitchSlap match. Game flow, i.e. progression as regards individual players' immediate goals and movement, indeed isn't hindered by the bug (if anything, it's likely beefed up a notch), but in terms of the wider picture -
match pacing, if you will - it seems more of an obstruction than a boon to me, and that's why I think we should be working with a mind of eventually fixing it. And that "eventually" is creeping ever closer, it seems.
GLoups! wrote:On the slap, I think that this will be a big loss of time for little results to try to code anything that would relate to a single map, although it is, I've playing several years without knowing who commanded slaps nor how, And finally give the points to the slapper will be an error in my direction: the aim of the gameplay being eminently more sense than to give the hunting to them.
First off, do keep in mind that most of the improvements we now take for granted and encounter across many maps in ONS came from the mind of one industrious tinkerer seeking to make gameplay a bit better in the specific map they were editing, whether by way of a single customized class or an entire .u package. If it wasn't for that "big loss of time" coding something for a single map (at first), we'd still be playing without numerous helpful modifications, such as Wulff's custom lockers that properly give players max ammo without having to throw away a gun, vehicle teleporters (GritNights) and elevators/movers (All-Fall-Down), healing volumes and chargers (Hustle, MasterBath), net-synced karma objects (think rubber duckies in MasterShower), the standalone invisibility pickup, the portable Ion Cannon (both from BasementHomeTheater) and many more. Humble beginnings is rarely a reliable indicator of future growth and scale of adaption on its own. That's why I think it
always pays to encourage people to experiment with Uscript and try to come up with their own solutions to whatever problems/limitations they encounter, even if they seem minor at first
.
As for the benefit of identifying the slapper to all their victims, regardless of their team, it's based on the simple premise I laid out in the
previous BitchSlap thread regarding promoting team coordination and cooperation over playing recklessly and without consequence. If your teammates are trying to control both sides of the central area and/or are carrying some useful item, it pays to give 'em a 5-sec heads-up via teamchat before initiating a slap instead of just doing it whenever you feel like it for the lulz to the detriment of the team's goals. Identifying the slapper would serve to impress that point even to the more selfish players by way of negative reinforcement: trolling your teammates more than a couple o' times in a row becomes a pretty unwise proposition when you know there'll likely be social consequences.
Overall, I doubt the custom coding part would be particularly time consuming or complex (it's just that putting together the necessary custom class currently lies a notch above my skill level), and I think it would improve gameplay around the map's central area, where most of the matches' fighting takes place.
Droopy_Bollocks wrote:[...]I'm no fan of the slap, it's lazy - maybe using it reduces health each time?[...]
Don't you think it adds an interesting mechanic that's unique to this variant of the *Slap concept?
Zon3r wrote:The slap should be one time use, meaning, once you activate it, it kills you, that would stop those annoying campers. but it also destroys the unlocked nodes(dunno if that can be pulled off), also the slap sometimes bugs out, having a rapidfire, more or less. it can be used like every 30 seconds(no idea what the time delay is tho
)
The slap has indeed always been on a 30sec cool-off timer (
Edit: just checked, it's actually 40secs), and I promise you it'll stay that way for as long as I can help it; no point pushing it past any point of sensibility just for one person's sadistic satisfaction. Funnily enough, the thought has been mulled over in the past (although I think it was in an internal discussion) about how the slapping hands could be made to kill the slapper too in order to prevent excessive camping, but the verdict never pointed towards it ultimately making too much of a difference ("dedicated" slappers would no doubt just return there, much like turret careerists alternating posts in TripleSlap/GunShop/etc.). Making the slap damage or outright destroy the central nodes, I think, would be a pretty egregious and unhelpful measure in terms of gameplay, especially considering how many ppl fight to secure 'em in order to advance their team's
proper objective. With a tool as potent as that, instead of pausing overall match progression with each triggering , the slapper would be actively setting things back for everyone until hunted down and fragged; and then only for another 30ish seconds. I'd make little sense for the slap to have a more severe impact than just inconveniencing 3-4 ppl by forcing 'em to respawn and re-approach the central area; feels like that'd be an overreach.
Okay, I think I finally squeezed everything in, so that's about all. Once again, if you're interested in seeing this issue finally resolved, one way or another, please take some time to share your thoughts on it with us. Oh, and thanks to Karma for being the first to offer a straight answer to the poll too
.
