[Game Mode] TEAM Sneaking (Final Release)

[Max]

That's Tactical Espionage Action Mode Sneaking for all you acronym nerds

Screenshots:

(click to show/hide)

Instructions for hosting:
- Host in Team LMS
- Maximum teams should be 2
- Can be hosted with map packs, but not other game modes or classes
- Music is included and can't be changed
- Included maps are TSNECC, TSNEUU, TSNEGG

Instructions for the Dr. Light Team:
- Choose your weaponry at the start of the round, with a generous delay before the match begins.
- Play as if you would in a normal Team LMS game!
- Locate enemies by the sounds of their footsteps or weaponry, or by seeing the marks they leave behind when walking. Bear in mind that your team makes noises too!
- Co-ordinate with your team and chase located Wily members to keep the alert counter going. Enemies are revealed when the counter is up.
- Shoot Wily Team Stun Mines to disarm them.
- Dead Dr. Wily Team members will drop ammo.

Instructions for the Dr. Wily Team:
- Pick a support weapon at the start of the round, including Flashbangs, Smoke Grenades, Chaff Grenades, Stun Mines, Shield Units and Ninja Rope.
- Sneak up on the Dr. Light Team and use your knife to instantly murder them.
- Use your Stun Gun to temporarily stop the other team's movements on a hit. Ammo is limited, enemies drop more if you catch them.
- Flashbangs blind enemies but provide no obstruction to movement. They can explode on contact and have the largest range.
- Smoke Grenades will linger and cause a huge field of smoke to cover you. They won't explode on contact but they will slow any enemy touching the gas field.
- Chaff Grenades have a delayed explosion, but anyone in the blast will have their special weapons jammed for a few seconds, forcing them to use the buster.
- Stun Mines cannot be thrown or moved and are set in place. If an enemy walks into its radius, they will bounce out of the ground and stun with a blinding effect. Hide them, because if the enemy sees the three pressure prongs they can destroy the mine in a single shot.
- The Shield Unit will shield you from any damage while it is active, but makes a whirring noise so you can't use it to avoid detection, only escape an alert phase or approach an enemy. It's sensitive, so it'll be totally jammed if you're in an alert phase.
- The Ninja Rope acts like an aimable wire adaptor, clinging onto surfaces and sending you flying in the direction of the hit. It won't work if you don't give it time to unravel, though, so aim a little far away. Also it doesn't do anything to the Light Team.
- The Cardboard Box can be hidden under with item use and removed the same way. Using fire when the box is active allows you to place it down as a decoy, and you can pick it up again. Moving or turning to watch people pass will give away that you're under it, obviously.
- Work with your team to hide when the alert counter is up and avoid getting hit. If the alert counter is going, the entire team is revealed, so don't be the weakest link!

Currently in open beta. V0 was released over Best Ever and V0-5 / V0-8 is being released here. This wasn't tested too thoroughly and isn't a complete version, so just lower your expectations and have some fun.

Changelog

(click to show/hide)

--- V0-8 > V1 ---

Updated to MM8BDM-v4c / Zandronum 2.0 standard

-Bug Fixes-
*Fixed a bug where firing on a single tic could cancel the pain frame before an alert.
*During weapon selection people should be invincible.

-Visible Team Gameplay-
*When using the Thunder Beam it will have 14 shots rather than 28.
*When using the Spark Shock it will travel faster and split into 8 smaller shocks when hitting a surface, though these shocks are very range limited.
*Blizzard Attack will do slightly less damage per flake.
*Ice Wave will do slighty less damage.
*Bubble Lead will fire a tiny bit slower.
*When using the Flame Blast the flame pillars will last much longer on the floor or walls to be used as traps.

-Invisible Team Gameplay-
*Switching away from a charged grenade will stop the charge.
*Stun Gun has a lower rate of fire.
*Stun Gun's shots now come out completely centred.
*Chaff grenades will have a larger delay before exploding.

-Visual-
*The Dr. Wily team has a totally new HUD, an 8bit representation of the one found in Metal Gear Solid PSX / 2. This can be disabled by using a horizontal (smaller size) HUD.
*The Stun Gun is now the modified Beretta 92 / M9 from MGS2 / The Twin Snakes. It now has a laser target and slight muzzle smoke upon firing, but is otherwise identical.
*The Mod. M9 will fire real bullets (no hitscan though) and will shatter a little quietly when hitting a surface.
*The Knife is now Snake's tactical Stun Knife from MGS4. Again, functionally identical. No taser mode, though.

-Misc-
*Added Wireframe Warfare
*Added Team Training - A small arena to allow team and weapon switching and practicing on bots, accessed through the START option.
*Added a help screen, but it doesn't use Mega Man font because I didn't feel like endless copy and pasting of letters (sorry)
*Changed cl_identifytarget 0 to sv_noidentifytarget 1 (since I didn't know the latter existed) in order to stop messing with people's .cfgs
*Removed Herobrine Colonel

Grab it on Best Ever!!

Videos of the original mode and maps

(click to show/hide)

[SmashTheEchidna]

Ohhhhhhhh maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan this looks like so much fun. I've always liked being stealthy~

[Zard1084]

Yeeeeeeeeeeesss!!!! it's here!!!!

[BookofDobson]

Is this on BE yet

[Mendez]

Here is the best-ever link:
http://www.best-ever.org/download?file=teamsneakingv0-5.pk3
Edit: Server should be up now too
:: [BE] Montreal :: 8BDM Tactical Espionage Action
192.99.6.150:15011

[LlamaHombre]

I forgot this existed
Moved to Projects.

[MrL1193]

My initial thoughts after playing this:

- The invisible players really need some kind of mobility tool to ensure that the Light players can't just use Thunder Claw, Freeze Cracker, totem poling, or any other such means to climb out of reach and camp for all eternity. (In fact, in one round on MM2CRA, someone spawned in one of the cubbyholes and was able to sit there in complete safety for the entire round. I suppose the Wily Team could have totem poled to reach him, but we didn't know he was there until it was too late.)

- The stun guns make it a bit too easy to catch players with the insta-kill melee. You can even shoot them repeatedly as you approach to ensure that they don't get away.

- The smoke bomb and cardboard box don't seem very useful. The smoke bomb just doesn't do a whole lot compared to the other support tools, and the cardboard box is even worse. Even using it as a decoy almost never works.

- Some of the weapons available to the Light players are almost always more useful than others in the same group. For instance, you can expect the majority of the Light players to be using Thunder Beam in any given round.

- Footsteps are still made if you try to walk slowly, but you can jump around as much as you want without making them. In fact, if you only tap the jump button so you just barely get off the ground, you can even avoid making the landing sound as you inch your way around. I can't tell for certain whether or not this is intentional, but either way, I find it amusing and strange that bunny hopping is the stealthiest means of movement.

[BookofDobson]

Other than all this  the box has its use. The box can hide your foot prints slightly, charge at a person with box on> put the box down and get away from the box> stun gun> get kill.

[Ceridran]

- The stun guns make it a bit too easy to catch players with the insta-kill melee. You can even shoot them repeatedly as you approach to ensure that they don't get away.

I tried to make something to fix this, but I wasn't sure how to give someone a different item depending on what items they already have.
I was thinking that you could add something to Pain.StunGun that would make you immune to stunning/apply a much shorter stun effect, as well as some little effect to let the sneakers know the immunity/resistance has ended.

- The smoke bomb and cardboard box don't seem very useful. The smoke bomb just doesn't do a whole lot compared to the other support tools, and the cardboard box is even worse. Even using it as a decoy almost never works.

I'd love to see the cardboard box replaced with something that covers the entire player, like a totem pole. With the cardboard box, it's only useful off alert. It's useless on alert because your upper body pops through the box. With the totem pole, hiding in it and using it as a decoy will always be an option.
How could I be fooled by the box decoy on the alert phase? How could I be fooled by the guy in a box who broke the box and sticks his head out of it?

Kao na Gahna might fit this, but I don't know if one can make the sprite look good and have it cover the whole player.

but cardboard box is mgs

idontcare

I also want to see the sneakers appear as a Sniper Joe instead of Mega Man, but that's because like Joes.

[Max]

- The invisible players really need some kind of mobility tool to ensure that the Light players can't just use Thunder Claw, Freeze Cracker, totem poling, or any other such means to climb out of reach and camp for all eternity. (In fact, in one round on MM2CRA, someone spawned in one of the cubbyholes and was able to sit there in complete safety for the entire round. I suppose the Wily Team could have totem poled to reach him, but we didn't know he was there until it was too late.)

I would agree that this is an issue, but fixing it would be against the spirit of the mode. I'd rather leave it to be fixed through time limits and recommended maplists rather than a different aspect of the mode.

- The stun guns make it a bit too easy to catch players with the insta-kill melee. You can even shoot them repeatedly as you approach to ensure that they don't get away.

If unaware, yeah, that could be considered part of sneakiness. Usually jumping means its easy to avoid a second shot or a stab and you can always shoot back when you're stunned, but maybe it could be brought back to v0 levels or use Ceri's suggestion to only half-stun on second shots or something

- The smoke bomb and cardboard box don't seem very useful. The smoke bomb just doesn't do a whole lot compared to the other support tools, and the cardboard box is even worse. Even using it as a decoy almost never works.

Eh? Smoke Bombs are pretty good in any narrow passage because they won't be able to see if you're running or waiting for a stab. The slow makes them easy pickings and the gas sfx masks your footsteps, it just has issues being used anywhere open. Maybe it could have more ammo. PS. I love the box and next ver (if it doesn't already) you won't be visible inside it whether it's alert or not so that should be good. Decoys are actually really good, try placing one over a mine or in the other side of a corner to lure.

- Some of the weapons available to the Light players are almost always more useful than others in the same group. For instance, you can expect the majority of the Light players to be using Thunder Beam in any given round.

Personal preference. I MUCH prefer Blizzard Attack or Gyro Attack to Thunder Beam. While some weapons might get much less use (like Search Snake hue) the options are always there and I'd say no weapon sticks out way more than the rest, especially when fire rate / power / ammo are all important factors in TSNE.

[tsukiyomaru0]

There's a LOT of issues with it so far. It reminds of something done in the past and still FAR from fixed. I'd post my take on team sneaking idea, but I'll leave that in the ideas topic.

[Max]

cool thanks

[BookofDobson]

I have no idea why but ok. Anyway this is a decent mod which I find I few problems with:

-I wish the knifes range can have the v0 range. I think its just slightly shorter of S.Claw now, and that is kinda far.
-Flying boxes. No +Gravity why?
-Why do the spies (sorry but this is shorter to say) have to stop after slashing? Couldn't they have a very slow ROF?
-Why don't mines go away after use?
-Everyone said this but the stun on the stun gun is way too long. You said jump to avoid a second shot but its way to long for that too.
-Why is Bubble and Wave range and melee?
-Will spy teammates keep tripping on mines?

[Isaac940]

I'm still trying to get more experience before forming an opinion on things like stun time and blade length, but at this point there's two things I can think of.

1. Is it possible to re-stop the player if they get telefragged in the initial spawn? Currently if that happens the person who was telefragged gets free movement and can murder the other team while they are waiting for the round to officially start. At least I think it's telefragging that causes that.
2. Do short jumps fall under "sneaky" or is there a way to code something so that you make a footstep whenever you land or something? Short jumps make no landing noise and if done right, don't cause the system to pick up on ground movements either so no footsteps/prints are made and the player can move completely silently.

[Russel]

Hi I'm not a developer and I hope Maxine won't have my head for this but I'm responding to these anyway.

-I wish the knifes range can have the v0 range. I think its just slightly shorter of S.Claw now, and that is kinda far.

Don't make suggestions to change balance unless you can explain why it would fix a potential problem with the mod's balance. Thing about the knife is even if it went as far as Slash Claw, which it doesn't, it does not have an explosion radius multiplying its effective range.

-Flying boxes. No +Gravity why?

To fix this would be -NOGRAVITY. Do your research if you're going to try to sound like you know what you're talking about.
However, you are somewhat correct...

Code: [Select]

actor CardboardBoxDummy
{
scale 2.5
+SOLID
+SHOOTABLE
PROJECTILE
radius 24
height 32
health 20
mass 999999999If you employ the projectile combo and want something to fall, you must remove the NOGRAVITY flag. In this case, however, it would cause the box to hit the ground and die instantly, which is why I would also recommend employing +HEXENBOUNCE and bouncefactor 0.01 in the properties block because NOEXPLODEFLOOR breaks online in Zandronum at the moment.
While I'm at it, it is a necessity for these actors remove the NOBLOCKMAP flag, which is also given by the projectile property as it prevents SHOOTABLE from even mattering.

-Why do the spies (sorry but this is shorter to say) have to stop after slashing? Couldn't they have a very slow ROF?

Mechanics. This does two things:
1) Diversifies them from just being straight melee humans.
2) Forces at least some strategy when playing the point and click buggers by adding risk involved when using it.

-Why don't mines go away after use?

...You're gonna need to clarify...
If you mean how they stick to the ceiling after they've gone off, I can't figure it out, myself. The code looks fine to me.
If you mean the item isn't taken from you after use?
Well I haven't played the mod enough to know, so...

On the subject of this, it is quite strange that you're simply "forced off" the "trap" slot when you try and select it and it's empty rather than it just removing the weapon from your inventory outright.

-Everyone said this but the stun on the stun gun is way too long. You said jump to avoid a second shot but its way to long for that too.

It's just spark shock stun...you can jump.
:X

-Why is Bubble and Wave range and melee?

This question isn't even literate.
To go with that, Water Wave isn't even in the range category.
Bubble Lead is in melee because it's a strong weapon in close quarters.
Water Wave is in rapid because it's a fast weapon that covers a large area of ground.
The reason these aren't in ranged is because they can be jumped over and not aimed up, which severely limit how the weapons can be used.

-Will spy teammates keep tripping on mines?

This can be fixed with some simple jump states that check the target's inventory for the invisible team items.

Returning at the end of the post to say that I am not a developer for this mod and am only commenting on these suggestions.
I saw the first one and got mad because balance complaints this soon after a mod's release is unhealthy.