Archived from groups: alt.games.unreal.tournament2003 (
More info?)
On Sat, 15 May 2004 04:54:03 GMT, Daniel Damouth <damouth@san.rr.com>
wrote:
>Steven L Cox <stevencox56@hotmail.com> wrote in
>news:r6uaa0dleaptaus0g7s5gn8p63tja1icq9@4ax.com:
>
>> Saying "it was that or nothing" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement
>> though, is it?
>
>Nope. But I suspect the game designers experimented with different
>strenghs of the shield, and concluded that it was better to make it
>weak. I think that a strong, ubiquitous personal shield would vastly
>alter game play and game balance. I believe the kind of game they were
>going for, for better or worse, has lots of swift death.
Oh, I'm sure they tested up and down the utility scale (or at least I
hope so), but sometimes game developers don't make the best game
designers. And "ubiquitous" doesn't hafta come into play with a
decreasing-strength shield, the weapon could be made more useful
without a serious impact on gamespeed IMO.
>> Most of the usage I see is from folks who use it to cushion falling
>> damage. Thats an ok option, but personally my keyboard/mouse config
>> allows me about 4 weapon quickswap buttons and those are set aside
>> for Link Gun, Avril, Lightning Gun, and Chain Gun (both of the last
>> for anti-Raptor fire in case no Avrils are available). The Shield
>> Gun probably wouldn't make my list if I had a coupla more quickswap
>> options.
>
>I have 10 quick weapon keys, ranging from 0 to 9 on my keyboard, and I
>use them all, including alternate fires.
That isn't quite what I was speaking of, I don't consider 9 a
"quickkey" when I'm controlling my movement with WASD and the mouse as
its too disruptive to go for that key during gameplay. My quickkeys
are Q and E which can be tagged without serious interference, and my
MS mouse has a coupla extra buttons on the side for two more
quickkeys. The rest of the weapons get scrollwheel-accessed.
>> I'd not saying its hideous, but I do think that some fairly minor
>> tweaks would take it from mediocre to a staple choice.
>
>I think so too, but I don't have the foresight to tell whether a game
>with a strong personal shield would be better or worse than the game we
>have today.
>
>You might be right.
In both our favors, I don't think much foresight is necessary to see
the weapon being generally under-used in much the same way the Link
Gun is too useful. We'd all still use it even if all it could do is
heal nodes/vehicles, but it happens to be a rather potent offensive
weapon as well - good damage against infantry, vehicles, and
nodes/cores.
-s-
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