What features do you want to see?

[crab]

Talking less "I want to play as a rat" "I want to see flails" "I want more moves" and fluff, and more to the mechanics side of things:
There's a handful of things I'd like:
1) Ability to load missions without messing around replacing main.
2) Branching storylines
3) Ability to grip slanted rocks
4) Fixing the flying weapons bugs
5) Water, although as Jeff has said, only if it can be done well

Any other things you'd like to see?

[Derakon]

More complex weapon fighting (knife-fighting is pretty complex in Lugaru, but staff and sword are both very straightforward and limited).

A "clean", modular implementation that allows just about anything in-game to be changed or added to.

Triggers that change the level layout (e.g. closing gates, knocking down trees) or signal the AI (e.g. alarms). Ideally the AI should be smart enough to signal the alarm and then go close the gates if the player is noticed. Things like that. Of course, modders would take things like this and build huge shifting mazes...nothing wrong with that.

Recordings and replays. The game records your starting state (including RNG seed) and your inputs on each frame, and then you can "play back" the inputs later to watch your playthrough. Done well this is a great way to show other people how you play, prove that you earned that 3s time on a challenge, and so on, without the overhead of having to record an AVI. This is done in many console game emulators, and there's an entire community built around making videos using this kind of format. The only problem is that OG would have to figure out a clean way to deal with lag frames, which will show up at different points on different computers.

Some ability to tweak the physics, both on a personal and global scale. For example modifying your protagonist's jump height and run speed or changing the global gravity. Or 1-hit KOs. Hit up the mutator list for Unreal Tournament and implement anything that looks interesting.

Edit: more additions below.

This is minor but bugs me in Lugaru: when you're dueling with an enemy and they're slowly circling you, Turner doesn't turn (hah!) to face them. This means that you have to make a series of rather finicky movements to make certain that when the enemy does attack, you can reverse them (since you have to be facing them to do a reverse, on Insane difficulty anyway). So I'd say that Turner should automatically turn to face his opponent when he's only fighting one. With two nearby opponents it's probably best to leave control to the user, though.

An arena mode, where you can select opponents (a rabbit, two rabbits and a wolf, a herd of cats, etc.), weapons (yours, theirs, some starting on the ground, etc.), and terrain (open field, enclosed box, floating platform, etc.), and then fight it out, no stealth involved. In fact, a Devil May Cry-style "Bloody Palace", where you just face off against an endless series of continually escalating fights would be neat. You start off fighting one rabbit, then he starts with a knife, and so on until after eighty fights or so there's six wolves in full plate armor, armed with machineguns.

While we're at it, the ability to have weapons in the level that don't start in the possession of one of the animals would be nice. You could find weapons on dead bodies, or break into the armory, that kind of thing.

Edit, again.

I'd really, really love to see dynamically-generated levels, since I'm a huge roguelike fan. I'd settle for OG invoking a script that outputs a level definition file, if necessary. You could create all kinds of escalating challenges this way. For example, the aforementioned Bloody Palace would be very straightforward: the script would output a fixed arena, and then a variable selection of opponents and starting equipment depending on the current level. The only problem I see is that the script would have to be able to maintain some state (current level, Turner's health, any equipment he has, et cetera).

I'm envisioning dynamically-generated mazes with randomly-placed enemies and equipment -- a challenge level that's different every time!

[Viking Zippy]

Aha, I was on the verge of starting a thread like this. Excellent first post, Crab

Here's what I've compiled in the past few days for Overgrowth:

— Multiplayer debug.
— Replay feature (as Derakon mentioned).
— Extensive multiplayer modes with editable scenarios.
— Control over how many FPS the game runs at; I know a fellow gamer who hates variable framerates but has a powerful computer which can handle much higher FPS, but his only choice is to lock it at 30.
— Slider bar for the 1 to 100 volume in which it can be adjusted down to one point; as it's being adjusted, the number can be seen somewhere near, as in Energy Saver in OS X's System Preferences.

And a fair few suggestions left over from the beta testing of Lugaru a few years back that were never implemented:

— Window or full-screen. Also, have the window size draggable, though dimensions would be fixed to the ratio of the screen.
— While holding the knife (or whatever small weapon will be in Overgrowth) running animal-style, have it so while you're tackling on an enemy you can hit the mouse button a second time and stab them, make an almost-instant kill.
— In the 'death from above' move, have the points awarded and damage dealt be higher the greater the fall.
— Option to retry a singleplayer level at the end of the game.
— After a level is cleared, say 'New High Score!' below 'Level Cleared' if one is attained.
— Option for modders / level designers to set multiple elements in one level; for example, it could be snowing at one point in the map, but when another point is reached or an objective is cleared, it would change from a sunny day to rain or snow; this was executed pretty well for its time in Donkey Kong Country in one of the snow levels where it started out peaceful, but about 1/4 into it, a blizzard started. Also concerning the elements, have the option for modders to adjust the intensity of them.
— Show the menu bar when the mouse is at the top of the screen when running Overgrowth fullscreen.
— Ability to aim with the finishing move; as the player is kicking the unconscious opponent up in preparation for the punch, the view / aiming can be be moved in the short period of time between the kicking up and launching.

Also, I was wondering, will Overgrowth have a 2560x1600 resolution? I use a 30" monitor, and it would be amazing to have a native resolution at that size.

[zamzx zik]

I'd normally treat these topics with disdane, but damn, multiplayer debug sounds awesome.

[mphasis]

@Viking Zippy:
-Having different resolutions shouldn't be a problem in 3d(So there probably won't be a problem with supporting your screen's native res)
-Your friend is silly, why would you want a framerate any faster than 60fps? You really don't notice the difference, what is important is that the framerate is constant.
Players should NOT be able to screw around with the min/max fps(as you can't really set the fps as such), because as seen in the COD series this leads to people with faster computers being able to jump higher, move faster, and shoot more bullets.
You will hate the moving the mouse to the top of the screen thing, every time you look up, you'll loose control of your character and die. What's wrong with esc?
For all the windowy stuff/ menu stuff, that won't be a problem either, if it's not included in the game as standard, then you can make a mod that adds that functionality.
For all the rest of the gameplay stuff, you know the gameplay will rule, and you have a good idea or two there to play with.

I just want it to be as mod-able as possible so that anything anyone doesn't like, they can change and anything they wish the game had could be added. I think that's way up there with multiplayer.

[Derakon]

I believe the point about framerates was that his friend could either have a variable framerate that was always higher than 30FPS, or a fixed framerate of 30FPS, where what he wanted was, say, a fixed framerate of 45FPS.

[Ltp0wer]

Players should NOT be able to screw around with the min/max fps(as you can't really set the fps as such), because as seen in the COD series this leads to people with faster computers being able to jump higher, move faster, and shoot more bullets.

Bullshit, that is an easy fix. You just multiply the speed values with the time passed between every loop. That is basic 2d programming knowledge.

Why else do you think all source engine games, all unreal tournament games, and many others let you set max FPS?

Also, the one feature that stands out to me that hasn't been confirmed is Dismemberment.

That is what I want.

[Vrav]

This is, so I hear, why games are run with a time delta; beyond the necessity of that, I don't really know why you'd want more/less framerate than your monitor's refresh rate.

[VerdantPlanes]

Dismemberment.

That is what I want.

I second that completely. It's a lot more satisfying to lop off someone's head than to scratch them.

I don't know if this fits in with the mods feature, but it would be neat if there was some easy, in-game system for sharing player-made maps. I feel like that would really help extend the life of the game.

[Jendraz]

Dismemberment.

That is what I want.

I second that completely. It's a lot more satisfying to lop off someone's head than to scratch them.

I don't know if this fits in with the mods feature, but it would be neat if there was some easy, in-game system for sharing player-made maps. I feel like that would really help extend the life of the game.

From what Jeff has been showing us that will be a reality

[Kalexon]

Feature I'd like to see is purely cosmetic, and that is support with your iTunes library. The Overgrowth songs from what I've seen so far are very good, but at some point I'm going to want to get into a huge fight with 'Fight The Good Fight' playing.

[Count Roland]

joystick support might be nice.

[meelisk]

A game mode where you can:
select your char. from various ones...
select a map
select what enemys you want to encounter
their weapons/outfit
and the enemys will respawn in some time... so you can get some nonstop action...

SANDBOX MODE!!!!

OR

a gamemode where you run down an infinite path where there are enemys everywhere... and as further you get the more difficult it gets...

[Kalexon]

a gamemode where you run down an infinite path where there are enemys everywhere... and as further you get the more difficult it gets...

They already have that, it's called the Campaign.

[meelisk]

a gamemode where you run down an infinite path where there are enemys everywhere... and as further you get the more difficult it gets...

They already have that, it's called the Campaign.

no no... the campaingn ends... and consists of many different levels...

what i meant was that one long level... that never ends... only when you die...

something like tekken 3 had... cant remember the name of the mode... but was sidescrolling... you ran along a fixed path... and enemys came along... something like that... but not sidescrolling!
Survival mode!?