Alternative to cover-based combat?

[BoredDragon]

I really don't think cover based shooting applies to Halo (at least the way I play it ).

OT:
You could use stealth and then run and gun when you're caught.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

High Speed, Low Drag. Bang Bang, slaying bodies, all the time. Goodtago.

In all seriousness, there isn't much else. So far I think BC2 did it best with destructible cover. It's really awe-inspiring how much you can change a map just by blowing up some houses.

 

[Frotality]

mobility. simple as that. there could be cover, but to survive, you had to keep running from cover to cover; the game should have fluid locomotion, and hiding behind the same wall playing peek-a-boo would get you killed. the simplest and oldest form of this is basic circle strafing, which is often more exiting than cover-based games today. a game like rainbow 6 rewarded you for either setting up an intelligent position to take all the enemies quick and efficiently, and/or moving from vantage point to vantage point to keep your enemies on their toes and avoid being flanked; thats what i think we should be developing.

cover-based combat isnt bad, its just that modern games dont do anything with it; its just a game of peek-a-boo with the guys on the other side of the chest-high wall field. it isnt dynamic.

 

[Alexxerth]

Ugh, damn my young lack of intelligence on the older games of the early 1990s. There was one though that I saw in which everyone moved impossible fast, had super high health, and not a bit of cover. It was for the PC I belive....

 

[droid]

If a modern mecha game were made, its cities would be composed of indestructible 60 foot high buildings.

 

[oplinger]

I don't think the real problem is about using a cover system

The problem, at least for me, is the poor implementation of cover based mechanics. They usually have these major flaws for me.

1) Lack of suppression. You can shoot all you want at your enemy, but he will still poke his head out and certain intervals. With the exception of the Brothers in Arms series, which when suppressed they just...poke their head out less and not as far. This ruins tactics when it really does just become like Yahtzee says, a shooting gallery. If they made enemies take cover...I dunno, from bullets that'd be great. You could then pin them, and move around them. Which I think would by itself make cover based shooting much more fun.

2) The cover is obviously placed. You will always have it. You'll always know combat is coming because you can only take cover on certain walls, that are about chest high. Levels end up looking more like cement bank queues than an actual place. I don't think cover should be designed into the level like that. What they should do it design a level that's believable, throw in some furniture or something, and make the player decide where to take cover. Or...maybe just not have cover in a room, so you have to hang out by the door and clear it out for a bit. It would change up tactics per room almost, rather than say...you need to run to that wall, shoot Steve the rent-a-cop, then move up to the next wall to trigger the next wave of security, shoot them all, move up to the next wall. You could make the flow so much better.

3) The lack of the ability to blind fire. Most games with cover tend to lack this feature. I don't think it's because they hate it, or they didn't have time. I believe it's not here because of the AI like in point 1. If you can't suppress enemies, there's really no need to blind fire. I think it could add a lot to a game having both of these.

4) Cover is absolutely necessary. If you come out of cover, the enemy has super accurate weapons, they don't breathe, and they have no heartbeat. They have bionic eyes, and super reflexes. You stop being in cover, ever bullet on this half of the planet is going right for you. I think when you sprint, you should be pretty hard to actually hit. You could use that to your adventage tactically too. (Sometimes it works in games...sometimes it doesn't. For me, more often it doesn't.) The ability to slide and such could be implemented too. (which seems to be coming in some games) Or bring diving back. Strangely getting to cover is pretty well done in the newer James Bond games (Quantum of Solace and Blood Stone)

...Giant wall of text, but that's really how I feel about it. I'd rather not have an alternative (because there aren't many really) I just think the current state of things need to be changed. The only games I think should kinda get noted for doing it properly (not perfect, but passably so) is Brothers in Arms, and Killswitch. Oddly both of them came before Gears of War...

 

[mireko]

You pretty much have to have it in "realistic" shooters, since people will generally use some kind of cover in a firefight.

I suppose the only real alternative is to change the genre itself: Add melee, stealth, increase the player's speed to the point where enemies can't hit, anything. Vanquish did it well, but I digress.

 

[emeraldrafael]

You could go EXTREMELY old school and have everyone stand in lines and take single shot volleys at each other.

 

[Cranyx]

People have brought up that cover based shooting can be good, if done right. One of my favorite games is the Mass Effect series,in your opinion, is this an example of cover used properly to enhance gameplay, or a shooting gallery?

 

[oplinger]

People have brought up that cover based shooting can be good, if done right. One of my favorite games is the Mass Effect series,in your opinion, is this an example of cover used properly to enhance gameplay, or a shooting gallery?

A shooting gallery. >> In my last post, Mass Effect suffers from my first point. (and 2 and 3)

 

[Technicolor]

The Battlefield sub series, Bad Company, both the first and the second, have a fun way of maintaining cover in battle. There is no cover system, but there is a large amount of cover. At the same time, the environment is 90% destructible, allowing to shape your cover however you wish. Or kill a shit load of campers, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Elamdri]

Often people complain of an over-abundance of cover-based combat in video games today, and these complaints are legitimate, but what exactly are the pther options for shooters aside from the Halo/GoW wall of bullet-absorbing meat?

I am not trying to defend cover-based combat, and it may just be that I haven't played any of the games that have created a different system, but I myself cannot think of any.

...Counter-Strike?

 

[Smooth Operator]

It wouldn't be so much of an issue if it wasn't so overdone, but they just ramped it up to the point where everyone that comes into the map finds a chest high wall to hug and you end up playing modern "realistic" gritty brown super ultra mega high def whack a mole, and that is one nasty evolutionary step.

Just dial it down, it's not like chest high walls grow out of every crevice of every surface.

 

[iblis666]

ok how about we take the fallout style of having each body part assigned its own hp based on body type, anatomy, and clothing, then we have the character react to the wounded areas such as if you are shot in the arm you cant use that arm or if you are shot in the leg you drag your leg or if you are shot in the dead you are dead.

After that to simulate near hits we add a bit of dnd stats by having save percents that based on what you wear and what wounds you have add or subtract from those saves such as wearing a bullet proof vest increases the save from getting shot in the chest while having an incapacitated leg reduces your save.

then we take concepts such as cover and instead of getting glued to the wall you just crouch to the correct height by adjusting it your self with either a few preset key bound heights or you can adjust it on the fly.

 

[Netrigan]

Best solution to prevent cover-based combat fatigue is a wide variety of enemy types, so cover-based combat doesn't become the entirity of gameplay. It's only when nearly every enemy hides behind cover that it becomes whack-a-mole. There's nothing inherently wrong with cover-based mechanics that you need to get rid of them. It's simply an easier to use system to what players naturally do. Halo players are hiding behind walls too.

 

[Palademon]

How about shooters that use health packs again?

 

[octafish]

One shot. One Kill.

putt putt putt "Tango down".

I miss the old Rainbow Six games, although I loved the dynamic flexibility of the Ghost Recon squad controls.

 

[Custard_Angel]

Alternative?

You never played Painkiller/Serious Sam did you?