Of the few problems I had with Prey, one of the largest ones was that the hunter positioning was so scripted out. Think about it: you're on the Sphere, which is a living, organic, and very networked ship. If a hunter encountered you and got a chance to fire off a distress message, don't you think the Sphere could spare one measly backup unit? And furthermore, wouldn't it make sense to portal that unit in?

Aha, so I went to work. Here's what I came up with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thItXYkAjgc


Now, I'm not going to post anything other than this video, because I still want to fine-tune a few things for campaign gameplay (it works, but it's not anywhere near ideal). I just figured I'd post it, get some feedback on how you think this would work in-game, and to maybe get some suggestions on fine-tweaking.

So...

● Hunters portal in 125-150 units away from the player. I'm considering pushing this down to improve the amount of backup called in the tight corridors of the single player campaign.
● The delay between tests for calling backup is 7 seconds. Also considering lowering this.
● Before spawning in, the distance between the soon-to-be portal and the ground is tested. I have this set to 100, but I'm not sure how much distance a hunter can fall (or should fall).
● The requirements for calling backup are a health below 60, and a 80% random chance. I think these are fairly reasonable, but the health might get pushed up a little, so that backup is called sooner, before death.
● The possible arc for the new portal is 100 degrees, 50 to the right of the player, 50 to the left. I think this is fairly reasonable, so I can't really see any problem with it.
● Unless the mapper specifies otherwise, there is a limit of 10 backup units for every given level. I'm not sure if this is enough for the levels in the singleplayer game, given that hunters are the most predominant enemy.

After Christmas, I'll come back and fix up what I have left to do (non-standard gravity doesn't really work with this, which is obviously a problem) and release this. Just wanted to get some opinions.

That's pretty cool. It would be better if you could have more than just one come in as back up through each portal. Maybe 2-4 enemies just to make it a little bit more hectic.

Of the few problems I had with Prey, one of the largest ones was that the hunter positioning was so scripted out. Think about it: you're on the Sphere, which is a living, organic, and very networked ship. If a hunter encountered you and got a chance to fire off a distress message, don't you think the Sphere could spare one measly backup unit? And furthermore, wouldn't it make sense to portal that unit in?

Aha, so I went to work. Here's what I came up with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thItXYkAjgc


Now, I'm not going to post anything other than this video, because I still want to fine-tune a few things for campaign gameplay (it works, but it's not anywhere near ideal). I just figured I'd post it, get some feedback on how you think this would work in-game, and to maybe get some suggestions on fine-tweaking.

So...

● Hunters portal in 125-150 units away from the player. I'm considering pushing this down to improve the amount of backup called in the tight corridors of the single player campaign.
● The delay between tests for calling backup is 7 seconds. Also considering lowering this.
● Before spawning in, the distance between the soon-to-be portal and the ground is tested. I have this set to 100, but I'm not sure how much distance a hunter can fall (or should fall).
● The requirements for calling backup are a health below 60, and a 80% random chance. I think these are fairly reasonable, but the health might get pushed up a little, so that backup is called sooner, before death.
● The possible arc for the new portal is 100 degrees, 50 to the right of the player, 50 to the left. I think this is fairly reasonable, so I can't really see any problem with it.
● Unless the mapper specifies otherwise, there is a limit of 10 backup units for every given level. I'm not sure if this is enough for the levels in the singleplayer game, given that hunters are the most predominant enemy.

After Christmas, I'll come back and fix up what I have left to do (non-standard gravity doesn't really work with this, which is obviously a problem) and release this. Just wanted to get some opinions.

That's pretty cool. It would be better if you could have more than just one come in as back up through each portal. Maybe 2-4 enemies just to make it a little bit more hectic.

Of the few problems I had with Prey, one of the largest ones was that the hunter positioning was so scripted out. Think about it: you're on the Sphere, which is a living, organic, and very networked ship. If a hunter encountered you and got a chance to fire off a distress message, don't you think the Sphere could spare one measly backup unit? And furthermore, wouldn't it make sense to portal that unit in?

Aha, so I went to work. Here's what I came up with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thItXYkAjgc


Now, I'm not going to post anything other than this video, because I still want to fine-tune a few things for campaign gameplay (it works, but it's not anywhere near ideal). I just figured I'd post it, get some feedback on how you think this would work in-game, and to maybe get some suggestions on fine-tweaking.

So...

● Hunters portal in 125-150 units away from the player. I'm considering pushing this down to improve the amount of backup called in the tight corridors of the single player campaign.
● The delay between tests for calling backup is 7 seconds. Also considering lowering this.
● Before spawning in, the distance between the soon-to-be portal and the ground is tested. I have this set to 100, but I'm not sure how much distance a hunter can fall (or should fall).
● The requirements for calling backup are a health below 60, and a 80% random chance. I think these are fairly reasonable, but the health might get pushed up a little, so that backup is called sooner, before death.
● The possible arc for the new portal is 100 degrees, 50 to the right of the player, 50 to the left. I think this is fairly reasonable, so I can't really see any problem with it.
● Unless the mapper specifies otherwise, there is a limit of 10 backup units for every given level. I'm not sure if this is enough for the levels in the singleplayer game, given that hunters are the most predominant enemy.

After Christmas, I'll come back and fix up what I have left to do (non-standard gravity doesn't really work with this, which is obviously a problem) and release this. Just wanted to get some opinions.

That's pretty cool. It would be better if you could have more than just one come in as back up through each portal. Maybe 2-4 enemies just to make it a little bit more hectic.

Of the few problems I had with Prey, one of the largest ones was that the hunter positioning was so scripted out. Think about it: you're on the Sphere, which is a living, organic, and very networked ship. If a hunter encountered you and got a chance to fire off a distress message, don't you think the Sphere could spare one measly backup unit? And furthermore, wouldn't it make sense to portal that unit in?

Aha, so I went to work. Here's what I came up with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thItXYkAjgc


Now, I'm not going to post anything other than this video, because I still want to fine-tune a few things for campaign gameplay (it works, but it's not anywhere near ideal). I just figured I'd post it, get some feedback on how you think this would work in-game, and to maybe get some suggestions on fine-tweaking.

So...

● Hunters portal in 125-150 units away from the player. I'm considering pushing this down to improve the amount of backup called in the tight corridors of the single player campaign.
● The delay between tests for calling backup is 7 seconds. Also considering lowering this.
● Before spawning in, the distance between the soon-to-be portal and the ground is tested. I have this set to 100, but I'm not sure how much distance a hunter can fall (or should fall).
● The requirements for calling backup are a health below 60, and a 80% random chance. I think these are fairly reasonable, but the health might get pushed up a little, so that backup is called sooner, before death.
● The possible arc for the new portal is 100 degrees, 50 to the right of the player, 50 to the left. I think this is fairly reasonable, so I can't really see any problem with it.
● Unless the mapper specifies otherwise, there is a limit of 10 backup units for every given level. I'm not sure if this is enough for the levels in the singleplayer game, given that hunters are the most predominant enemy.

After Christmas, I'll come back and fix up what I have left to do (non-standard gravity doesn't really work with this, which is obviously a problem) and release this. Just wanted to get some opinions.

That's pretty cool. It would be better if you could have more than just one come in as back up through each portal. Maybe 2-4 enemies just to make it a little bit more hectic.