1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

Foil · 2013-09-23 00:17:40

When fighting with Tweety just now, we found an interesting mechanic emerge, involving cloak/uncloak timing.

When one or the other of us got to critical damage, we would cloak to escape, at which point the other player immediately cloaked to follow. Then, there was some interesting cat-and-mouse of one player trying to escape, while the other followed, waiting for the cloaked player to find a pad where they would try to reload/repair.

It's really really difficult to hit a cloaked player who has any skill (by the time you uncloak and fire, they've changed directions and you've lost them), but in many cases we ended up uncloaking nearly at the same time after circling each other for a bit.

I'm enjoying it.

Last edited by Foil (2013-09-23 00:18:33)

Scott · 2013-09-23 22:29:35

Cool. I designed the cloak system way, way back, hoping to get some more interesting cat-and-mouse type gameplay in open space. Back then it was going to be a 6DoF space combat game, because the collision physics in Torque were, frankly, terrible. Ships popped through walls at certain speeds/angles and got stuck on hidden seams in the geometry, it was pretty bad and seriously hurt gameplay in any indoor setting. At the time I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to fix that. But I did. I still kept the cloak mechanics, though, because I thought they worked well regardless.

Foil · 2013-09-23 23:51:12

The one reservation I have about cloaks is that it was pretty darn easy to learn to use it strategically in battle. I'm guessing that with time, you may find that players get really deadly with it, popping in/out of cloak and moving around quickly enough not to ever get hit.

The time delay in cloaking/decloaking helps a bit, but you may need to implement some longer delays if cloaked-play gets too powerful.

Scott · 2013-09-24 04:05:23

That is definitely something I want to keep an eye on. Even just upping the decloak time from 1 to 2 seconds might be enough. I have also toyed with the idea of adding anti-cloak weapons that are attracted to cloaked ships.

Enzo03 · 2013-09-24 19:46:49

The gameplay described in the OP is probably the first thing that has ever made me like Talon's cloaking mechanic.

Other times it really just annoys me. I found it much more interesting when flying around with Blarget in the space map and we would hide behind asteroids and shut down to get rid of our radar signature. Occasionally one of us would fly past the other without realizing and the other would power up and immediately start shooting.

I felt it provides a more thoughtful, strategic way of maintaining stealth and doing surprise attacks than "lol cloak and fly away."

Though I somewhat feel the power-up time should be increased a bit because I've found it's easy to spam the shutdown/powerup button to get faster repairs while shooting and having limited dodge ability at the same time. I'm no good at it, but someone, somewhere will learn to abuse it, especially if this game gets popular at all.

Scott · 2013-09-24 22:48:20

Enzo03 wrote:

I felt it provides a more thoughtful, strategic way of maintaining stealth and doing surprise attacks than "lol cloak and fly away."

Although I like the cloak mechanics, I do agree with you on this point. I am going to try increasing the uncloaking time to 2 seconds (instead of 1), and we'll see how that works.

Though I somewhat feel the power-up time should be increased a bit because I've found it's easy to spam the shutdown/powerup button to get faster repairs while shooting and having limited dodge ability at the same time. I'm no good at it, but someone, somewhere will learn to abuse it, especially if this game gets popular at all.

Another good point, although there is a cost to doing that: you lose your shield when you power down, and it does not recharge quickly, leaving you much more vulnerable to damage. Of course the technique you describe still offers an advantage over staying powered down.

I'm not sure whether that will really be a problem, or what would be the best way to fix it. Open to suggestions.

Grendel · 2013-09-25 05:06:31

I think the cloaks PU time is just fine. Esp. during fights cloaking isn't exactly easy since hits will render you visible. As for the cloak PD time, MAYBE increasing it to 1.5s I could agree too. 2s is too long IMHO.

Scott · 2013-09-25 05:15:55

Now that I think about it, increasing the decloak time is probably a bad idea, since it will spoil the type of gameplay that Foil was talking about by making it even harder to decloak and hit a cloaked ship. I guess I'll leave it as it is for now.. I think further testing is required before I start screwing with things.

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#1 2013-09-23 00:17:40

1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

#2 2013-09-23 22:29:35

Re: 1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

#3 2013-09-23 23:51:12

Re: 1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

#4 2013-09-24 04:05:23

Re: 1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

#5 2013-09-24 19:46:49

Re: 1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

#6 2013-09-24 22:48:20

Re: 1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

#7 2013-09-25 05:06:31

Re: 1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

#8 2013-09-25 05:15:55

Re: 1v1 cloak-and-dagger gameplay

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