I don't think it's possible to remove the need for trichording without drastically changing the way the game is played. There's hardly such a thing as a dogfight without an open space, and there's no FPS in the world that is comprised *entirely* of cramped spaces. And you can't use run-and-hide tactics all the time, nor always trying to do the switching of roles in a tunnel fight. Those are things newbies would enjoy, and they wouldn't be very good at it. Tactics like that will just get boring, it's just the same old thing over and over, and you can hardly ever actually shoot at the guy you're trying to kill. Unless you pick up a railgun equivalent, in which case people who don't have one become angry when they get hit while trying to duck behind something (it's much easier to hit people in tunnels than open spaces). I do like the idea of being able to do those things though, it would make multiplayer much more interesting to be able to suddenly go from a big dogfight to a tactical run down some complex tunnels, trying to figure out which way he went. So, if anything, leave the gameplay wholly map-dependant, and make the weapons and ships suited to any environment. Mappers will include whatever weapons they feel are appropriate to their particular level. I assume this is all very obvious to you guys, but I don't think it's been given enough mention. Which is another reason why it's bad to talk about trichording now. Just make sure that it is toggleable as soon as it gets implemented.Hexetic:
People have said they need tri-chording to evade missiles. I can see that in Descent, but I don't see it in our mod. I picture a deep mining shaft brimming with equipment, steel girders, pipes and conduits, all of them close at hand to serve as things behind which to dodge homing missiles. I see players zooming nimbly through masses of pipes with only inches to spare on all sides, darting up and down like in the Death Star scene in Return of the Jedi. I see pursuits in open tunnels, with the pursued player rounding a corner, firing a missile the same way he was heading before blasting up to the ceiling, while the player in pursuit rounds the corner and mistakenly follows after the smoke trail of the missile just long enough for the roles to be reversed. I see a dogfight in an open room and stray shots hitting a stockpile of explosive barrels that rocket off into space, turning the area into a dead zone as debris, smoke, and flame fills the room. I see a hesitant player poke the nose of their Pyro out of a dark tunnel and half-into the light of a room where a weapon or powerup waits, and them deciding to risk it all by flooring the afterburner straight for it, heedless of any other watchers in the darkness...
Aiming while trichording is far from difficult. It's basically a more complicated circle strafe. In an open area, it's quite easy to score hits while trichording to keep yourself more difficult to hit (bichording is also useful; there are times when you don't want to go forward, since moving on a forward axis would throw off your aim on a player who is across a room and in front of you, and you get nearly the same angular speed in their view by bichording the sliding directions only as any other non-suicidal manuever). A skillful trichorder can keep track of their targets, shoot at their targets, and change directions as needed at a moment's notice in a completely controlled manner. When you can do all of this, a 1.7x speed increase is no joke. And instead of having to change your viewing direction to be able to afterburn away from a homing weapon, you can just trichord to get nearly the same speed boost while keeping your reticle fairly close to your target. Yes, I know you can change the weapons to be dodgeable without trichording, but then they become less effective, since in that case anyone can dodge them with relative ease... Which is all fine and well, but the thing about is that requiring less skill translates into more perpetual n00bness. Evolution really works, for the same reasons capitalism does. If the weak lived more often, nobody would be strong. Of course, people will strive to become good in other ways than just trichording; who knows how it will end up. And obviously trichording isn't the only thing that makes a pilot strong, but it is a significant component in the Descent series. Please carefully consider what you're doing to change Descent's gameplay in this mod. I personally agree that it would not be a Descent-like mod without trichording.
I see Lothar's point about dividing the community... I think he exaggerated it quite a bit, but it is an inevitable situation. Such divisions will always exist (this level, that technique, or some weapon), but because trichording is at such a low level of the game (when it's there, it is always there, regardless of map, weapon, or tactic), the split it *could* create would be wide and unbridgeable, and worst of all is that it would be right between the newbies and the long-time experts. Seperating the two is a horrible idea. It all depends on how server admins handle it, and how new and returning players respond to it. I don't think it will be very bad, but that response is pretty unpredictable at this point. As it has been said, though, no one whined about it before; by exposing it as an option, elite tards might complain (*hopefully* there aren't any such people in the Descent/Doom communities...), and newbies will prefer servers with motion vectors capped, since the better oldskool players won't. By leaving it always on, it is comparatively very subtle, less seperation in the community will occur, and there will be one less thing for people to argue about. It would just be a matter of mastering the technique. (haha, the phrase "seperate but equal" in the context of segregation just came to mind...) Basically, though, having it as an option wouldn't have any negative impact *as long as it doesn't become the dominant mode of play*. Which is why it should most definitely be on by default. It'd give new players a midpoint bewteen Subway Dancer and Abend-like levels and Descent leetness, since it could be used to somewhat "noobify" any map. It'd be a good way to reduce the number of experts playing on those servers and let people learn a map and how to fight in it before moving on to servers with trichording. OR the difference could also be very small, not significantly affecting gameplay, but having just enough differences to be a nuisance to players who get used to the faster way.
hmm, short note: if by disabling trichording you mean to change the focus of the gameplay, remember that movement is everything, and in a game where you can die in an instant, even the milliseconds count.
Please know that these are just my views... I'm definitely open to new ideas (it very well may be that the mod you guys concoct makes any speed gained in trichording unnecessary), I just don't want to see this mod turn into something I won't enjoy as much as I enjoy Descent. I'm interested to know what you guys will be doing with all of it. Best of luck! And hopefully this all helps... The reverb on the topic of trichording has been really bad, and maybe this will give you a better perspective on it. And besides, it took me a really long time to type
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