I sent this message to the Alien Trap developers, like more than a month ago, but no response. Send this message to them if you like the idea, or whatever. Either way, I thought people might want to discuss the idea.

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I think the Port-O-Launch gun should be more like the Portal gun on Half Life and the game "Portal." Do you think the developers would be able to make such a change?

I think if it were more like the Portal gun on Half Life, you would have a lot of Half Life gamers playing Nexuiz. More people gaming, the better.

Thanks for your time,
-Jake

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If you mean the model, I'm completely fine with the curent one.
If you think for the behaviour, then no.
The port-o is made like this because a lot CTF maps have this item post-added. If it'd work like in HL2, you could easily abuse it.
I like the current behaviour, it needs some brainwork how to use it correctly.

Also, i believe there would be copyright issues if it where exactly the same.

C.Brutail wrote:If you mean the model, I'm completely fine with the current one.
If you think for the behavior, then no.
The port-o is made like this because a lot CTF maps have this item post-added. If it'd work like in HL2, you could easily abuse it.
I like the current behavior, it needs some brain-work how to use it correctly.

Not the model. The behavior. E.g. Left-click=Tele-port, Right-click=Tele-destination. The Port-O-Launch gun should work for quick "get-aways" and surprise attacks.

JakeDTH wrote:The Port-O-Launch gun should work for quick "get-aways" and surprise attacks.

Then you're going to make it far too easy to use and some games would be dominated by it which wouldn't be so much fun. Moderation is good. Yes, we could make all of the weapons 100 times more powerful 'because then there would be more killing', but would it be more fun? No, you need balance.

Like I've already said above:

vno.

As Rad Ished said, this would cause legal issues.

This is not even possible with DP. I bet it requires huge changes.

morfar wrote:This is not even possible with DP. I bet it requires huge changes.

If you mean visually, yes, it does.

But I think he rather wanted to have the primary fire exclusively shoot the red portal, and secondary exclusively the blue one, instead of having one projectile bouncing and spawning two portals.

Mr. Bougo wrote:But I think he rather wanted to have the primary fire exclusively shoot the red portal, and secondary exclusively the blue one, instead of having one projectile bouncing and spawning two portals.

Yes this is the behaviour of the portal gun in Portals.

I'd like the idea of putting in-portal and out-portal wherever u want. This would make the game more interesting and also, as JakeDTH said, it'd attract many players that would want to play the opensource version of Portals.

I don't know if there are copyright issues copying the behaviour of a gun of a game.... Assuming there aren't troubles, since it's a long time the current port-o-gun is already in Nexuiz, the only thing that could be done is a new item, to collect, that changes its behaviour.

The function of the portal gun isn't software patented!

It has been in prior art circa the 2004 UT portal gun mod, which is before Narbacular Drop was even released.

Yes, but it requires huge changes.

Alien wrote:Yes, but it requires huge changes.

Maybe I'm not understanding well... what does require huge changes? Left-click to shot an in-portal, right-click to shot an out-portal? Is it so different from the port-o we have?

can't we have both?

I have voted yes, because there seems to be nothing wrong with the idea of it, in fact it is probably an improvement from the 'bounce' porto-launch.

If anyone ever tried implementing this though, I'd definitely recommend attaching it to the fuel system/limitation and/or significantly reducing the travel speed of the portopods for balancing purposes.

It cannot be changed.

If portal placement were unrestricted, the porto couldn't be placed on any maps because it'd totally dominate the game. Put one portal at your base, put other portal at enemy base, win. The result would be that the porto could not be available AT ALL in regular games, and would be ONLY in race - but I wanted it to be in all game modes, this it can't be in a way that breaks them.

And no speed etc. balancing can prevent the game breakage, as you could simply WALK to the enemy base and place the second portal there.

By the current hard and restricted placement, the portal gun can be used in regular games like DM and CTF.

Also, this way, it can do easy telefragging: http://141.2.16.23/~polzer/temp/porto-and-rifle.avi

JakeDTH wrote:I sent this message to the Alien Trap developers, like more than a month ago, but no response. Send this message to them if you like the idea, or whatever. Either way, I thought people might want to discuss the idea.

*********************************************************************************
I think the Port-O-Launch gun should be more like the Portal gun on Half Life and the game "Portal." Do you think the developers would be able to make such a change?

I think if it were more like the Portal gun on Half Life, you would have a lot of Half Life gamers playing Nexuiz. More people gaming, the better.

Thanks for your time,
-Jake

*********************************************************************************

You want to have real portals (which can be seen through), rather than teleporters. Yes that was the aim, however portals are not supported by DP. Lordhavok, if he has time, would have to code that in if he wanted it.

If, however, you can code in C and have some knowlege of quake like 3d engines your help would be appreciated.

It's not that no one wants this feature (infact the portal gun tries to replecate the feature), it's just that it's not possible right now in the engine. Ofcourse it could be done, there just isn't anyone to do it right now (and won't be unless you or someone you know can implement the needed portals).

The other request (change in behavior) would make the porto gun a skillless weapon and unfun.

divVerent wrote:It cannot be changed.

If portal placement were unrestricted, the porto couldn't be placed on any maps because it'd totally dominate the game. Put one portal at your base, put other portal at enemy base, win. The result would be that the porto could not be available AT ALL in regular games, and would be ONLY in race - but I wanted it to be in all game modes, this it can't be in a way that breaks them.

And no speed etc. balancing can prevent the game breakage, as you could simply WALK to the enemy base and place the second portal there.

By the current hard and restricted placement, the portal gun can be used in regular games like DM and CTF.

Also, this way, it can do easy telefragging: http://141.2.16.23/~polzer/temp/porto-and-rifle.avi

Not necessarily if those portals could be destroyed (e.g. they had 10hp only) They would make assault much better (like it was in UT) allowing coordinated attacks. Telefragging would be nice strategy addition.

TerenceHill wrote:Maybe I'm not understanding well... what does require huge changes? Left-click to shot an in-portal, right-click to shot an out-portal? Is it so different from the port-o we have?

I think it is hard because you need to perform calculations whether portal can be placed somewhere or no (e.g. what happens when you shoot in the corner). Current portal, as you know can't be shot anywhere you like.

No, that alone does not suffice. E.g. place in-portal at your base, have players wait around it. Enter enemy base, place out-portal, win.

It'd really make the game too easy.

Also, you don't need to perform calculations - the game does that for you. It's what the red and blue line are for.

I voted no.. Too hard to implement for what you get; A ripped off cheap and easy way to escape. Honestly it's just not appealing, I like the challenge of using the current one. And most of the race maps that use this gun would be worthless if changed.

divVerent wrote:No, that alone does not suffice. E.g. place in-portal at your base, have players wait around it. Enter enemy base, place out-portal, win.

It'd really make the game too easy.

Also, you don't need to perform calculations - the game does that for you. It's what the red and blue line are for.

The lines exist because you can't shoot anywhere you want like you could in hl2. Correct, if I'm wrong.

No, please remember UT assault. The maps were made that you couldn't enter enemy base directly, but portals allowed closer respawns. This could be made the same: someone brakes through the enemy defenses and places portal inside. Enemy has to retreat behind second walls because all your team teleports in (yet, they can try to destroy the portal). Furthermore, you need communication because teleporting in with no way out would get you telefragged.

Another thing is that current teleport gun isn't as fast and not rewarding as UT was.

divVerent wrote:It cannot be changed.

If portal placement were unrestricted, the porto couldn't be placed on any maps because it'd totally dominate the game. Put one portal at your base, put other portal at enemy base, win. The result would be that the porto could not be available AT ALL in regular games, and would be ONLY in race - but I wanted it to be in all game modes, this it can't be in a way that breaks them.

And no speed etc. balancing can prevent the game breakage, as you could simply WALK to the enemy base and place the second portal there.

Good point, I hadn't considered that.

The only way to get around those issues would be to create some 'bandwidth' issues for the teleportation process (takes time to teleport player, cool down time between teleports of players, etc.) to give the other team time to destroy the teleporter, and that'd be even more work and for not so much gain.

I guessed various ways to limit the power of the Portals-like weapon:

#1 The out-portal can be created only some seconds (5? 3? even less?) after the in-portal has been created.
#2 When entering in the portal the player freezes (he can't move at all!) for some seconds (3? 5?) (cool with a transparency effect like the quad, even better if progressive). During that time the enemies can easily kill him
#3 The portal weapon can be used only for X seconds (10? 15?)
#4 The portal weapon can be used only X times (1? 2?)

Obviously some of these ways may be combined.
My favorite is #2 + #4

What happened to my second post?

terencehill wrote:I guessed various ways to limit the power of the Portals-like weapon:

#1 The out-portal can be created only some seconds (5? 3? even less?) after the in-portal has been created.
#2 When entering in the portal the player freezes (he can't move at all!) for some seconds (3? 5?) (cool with a transparency effect like the quad, even better if progressive). During that time the enemies can easily kill him
#3 The portal weapon can be used only for X seconds (10? 15?)
#4 The portal weapon can be used only X times (1? 2?)

Obviously some of these ways may be combined.
My favorite is #2 + #4

#4 alone does not suffice, really, as portal guns respawn.

#1 would work, but would in the end be even more restricted than the current way. Forget it.

#2 would make the portal gun unusable for the race game mode. Thus, an absolute veto against this.

#3 would be exceptionally weird, as it'd then be no longer a gun but a powerup.

divVerent wrote:

terencehill wrote:#2 When entering in the portal the player freezes (he can't move at all!) for some seconds (3? 5?) (cool with a transparency effect like the quad, even better if progressive). During that time the enemies can easily kill him

#2 would make the portal gun unusable for the race game mode. Thus, an absolute veto against this.

We can correct #2 so that in race game mode the delay is 0, in the other game modes > 0. It make sense, doesn't it?

Anyway, as I said before, I'm thinking to a new weapon or, much better, an item that changes the behaviour of the port-o-launch.
I just guessed to an item that once u collect it, it is placed over/in/on a side of the port-o-launch. In theory it is a new weapon, but actually it's the port-o-launch enhanced.