Helmet and iron sights in MP...

[Deth Metal]

Alrighty, we all love our devs to death and trust them implicitly to do everything we ask them to do as soon as we ask, to the letter.[/sarcasm]

Now, while I'm not a dev hater, I just know that expecting them to put any additional stuff in and not just fix any overly reported bugs is a bit naive.

Some of you have noticed odd glitches in MP where parts of the screen towards the top and bottom areas of the screen waver oddly whenever you minimize the game and pull it back up (this is due to something completely different, but it proves my point). I'm dead sure that this is the helmet and all that the devs did to it was run some kind of script to render it transparent.

So, I propose that we do what we aren't expecting the devs to do ourselves and put the helmet and iron sights BACK (yes, I'm convinced they were in there originally) into multiplayer. This will not be easy as it would require ALOT of gleaning through reams of code (any UE file can be opened in Notepad for easy viewing and searching, but there's a ton of code to go through), but it could potentially be VERY rewarding as it would allow us to fix one of the biggest non-technical flaws in the MP part of the game.

What I need to pull this off however are a couple people who are skilled at C++ (the language the whole engine was written in. I know a little, but I'm no pro) and are willing to spend at least a fair amount of time working on this project (we're not talking huge amounts of time, but it might put a crimp on our gaming time ). We would also need a number of people willing to test this and later possibly hosting so as to distribute the files.

The other thing is iron sights: they are sorely lacking in MP and many would agree that we need them back (yes, I said back again intentionally). I'm pretty sure they were just commented out or something but as I've already stated it will take alot of going through code to find it.

Now for the legal stuff: EDIT: I've read through and it pretty much says that as long as I e-mail LA what I plan to do I'm in the clear. But this isn't taking lawyers into account so you never know...

Finally, the fact that the ironsights might be taken as a hack: I say if you're not involved enough to find this kind of mod then you didn't really need it in the first place now did you?

So feel free to post comments/questions/suggestions/offers to help/etc...

[Kurgan]

Did you post something similar to this on the LucasArts forums too?

If so I already replied to it, but I'll summurize what I said over there:

As far as the devs are concerned, I can see why they did this (removed Iron Sight aiming and the full helmet hud from MP).

The Trandoshans wouldn't be using Republic Commando helmets so their HUD wouldn't look the same.

A modder or a proper patch could (or ought to) add an option to turn the Helmet on or off in MP, and give the Trandos an appropriate "alien looking" HUD. Maybe with Alien symbols, a different color and shape, etc. They wear those eye pieces or masks, so you know they have some mechanism for viewing it.

As to the Iron Sights, well we have the pistol and the DC-17M Blaster Attachment. The Trandoshans start with the ACP Repeater instead of the DC-17M Blaster. In SP the repeater didn't have iron sights aiming, so you'd be giving the Troopers an advantage in team games, unless you made an iron sights option that was identical for the Repeater. If you did this, then it would be no problem. The pistol is already no problem.

Having not played a lot of SP, I wonder though, what does the Iron Sights aiming really do?

I figured it just makes the gun "drift" less when you're firing, because the aiming is really visual anyway (you either aim with the crosshair or by lining up the model of the gun). Is that correct? Is there any limitation on it? Because if there isn't, why not just use that mode all the time?

The key for MP is balance.

[TK-8252]

I'm not familiar with the term "iron sights," but I'm guessing it's the zoom on the DC-15s Side Arm Blaster and DC-17m Blaster Attachment? I don't like those zooms because all it does is zoom in a little bit, line up the gun with your view, and remove the crosshair. It still drifts quite a bit. I just like having the crosshair there, even though the blaster attachment's giant circle doesn't help much.

In MP, the Clone Commandos should get the visor, and the Trando Mercs should get goggles. They are wearing goggles, after all (zee goggles, zey do nothing!) This way you could have the nightvision mode from SP in MP which is something I missed. But then, if you want realism, any new classes would have to have some sort of digital vision. Droids and more Clone Troopers would be fine, and maybe some non-human species could have some sort of "alienish" view (I'm thinking Aliens vs. Predator here) that can be "morphed" to low-light seeing.

[Kurgan]

Okay just double checked and you're right, the Pistol & DC-17M Blaster attachment do "zoom in" a tiny bit when you use them.

The term "iron sights" just refers to the sights built into a gun, rather than some kind of scope attachment in order to have better aim. Technically you're using the guns "iron sights" in those modes, if it were real life. But yeah, it's a poor man's zoom with an animation change.

But what difference does it make in terms of gameplay? Is it actually easier to aim?

In MP they also removed the animations of the Trooper dismantling and re-assembling each attachment, simply because it was superfulous eye candy that would slow down the action. This is similar to how the JA team removed a lot of the showy eye candy that was in SP for the Force Powers in MP.

As far as the goggles thing, you're right. Compare the Trando Mercs to the Trando slavers (the latter aren't wearing the glowy goggles). The eye pieces and masks are not worn by all of the Mercs, so they probably don't have much to do with the HUD (though we never learned what those gas tanks on their backs are for either!).

Sure it would be cool, but I can see why they removed it, to make the game run faster and have tighter action.

[TK-8252]

I find the iron sights harder to aim with. You don't get a crosshair, and it's harder to see where your shots are going because the gun is right up in your face.

[Kurgan]

So you trade a tiny zoom for less field of view, in a sense...