Just another idea...

[mryuck]

so I posted this a little while ago on the mod thread, but thought I'd bring it up again.

Basically, I was wondering if senses other then sight could be incorporated into the game. Specifically I was wondering about Smell and Hearing, but I guess Touch and Taste might be cool too.

Here is how I imagined it: You're playing as Turner the Rabbit. You find yourself at a corner, and because you've been sneaking around, you know that there are some assortment of enemies ahead. So, you press Tab (or whatever key) and the world suddenly goes green, with you outlined, kinda like how night-vision goggles and things are traditionally done. Then you (the player) see pulses of white moving across the landscape. These are the sounds created by your ememy's footsteps. The pulses would originate from your ememy's feet, or whatever event is making a sound, and diminish as they spread, eventually disappearing altogether. As Turner, crouched next to the corner, you could then see that your ememy's footsteps were receding, sneak around the corner, and kill him from behind.

Smells could be similar, maybe looking like Thermal Imaging. That is, the more intense (and therefore, recent) a smell, the brighter its color. Different smells could be represented with different colors, Wolves shades of red, or Rabbits shades of yellow for example. Creatures could leave "trails" of smell behind them that would dissipate quickly. Players could roll in the grass, or jump in water in order to temporarily "disguise" their smell, and sneak up on someone.

Lastly, I imagined that since OG now officially has at least 4 races, sensitivity in terms of Sight, Smell, and Hearing could change between races. This could help balance other inequalities. Or not.

Anyways, this is my idea. Tell me what'cha think.

[Skofo]

Pretty noice!

Although I think it'd be better to somehow integrate smell/hearing into the default view, because animals don't have a separate see mode and a smell/hear mode.

Perhaps a minimap would work nicely.

[nutcracker]

Ya, to minimap that would be awesome!!!

[Ozymandias]

you holding the button down lets you see the smell trails as if you were sniffing for them...

[Chainsaw man]

I could belive holding R or X would make a good sniffer button. It makes coulored partical smoke rise. If you do it too close to sewerage you get the rabbit to throw up!

[nutcracker]

I could belive holding R or X would make a good sniffer button. It makes coulored partical smoke rise. If you do it too close to sewerage you get the rabbit to throw up!

cool idea

[Skofo]

Meh. You don't need to press a button when you're looking for something. Mammals pick up scents without trying, similar to seeing.

[Johannes]

Meh. You don't need to press a button when you're looking for something. Mammals pick up scents without trying, similar to seeing.

Yes, but many animals stop and take a moment to take in one scent or another effectively: Cats freeze and swivel their ears at sounds, dogs pause by a pole to take in the smells and process them, owls and other birds move their heads side to side to better focus on prey, etc.

I agree that they always get some kind of sensory input, but the act of having to concentrate, crouch down, and focus on a sense more than normally is not unheard of, so I think it having a seperate 'mode', if you will, would make sense and work very well in OG.

[Skofo]

Meh. You don't need to press a button when you're looking for something. Mammals pick up scents without trying, similar to seeing.

Yes, but many animals stop and take a moment to take in one scent or another effectively: Cats freeze and swivel their ears at sounds, dogs pause by a pole to take in the smells and process them, owls and other birds move their heads side to side to better focus on prey, etc.

I agree that they always get some kind of sensory input, but the act of having to concentrate, crouch down, and focus on a sense more than normally is not unheard of, so I think it having a seperate 'mode', if you will, would make sense and work very well in OG.

Unnecessary buttons should be avoided, in any and every situation. It'd be more immersive to integrate all of the senses together in one view. Perhaps for smell, trails could be highlighted within a fixed spherical radius of the player character, within the default view. Crouching would extend the radius, naturally. Adding in a seperate mode/s not only adds a redundant button/s, but if you or anyone else was thinking of having the smell/hear mode be similar to Metal Gear Solid's night-vision or Twilight Princess's wolf-vision, it'd also obstruct regular vision, which is less realistic and more troublesome. And if it'd be just like regular vision plus the extra senses, why would anyone not just keep the thing pressed down forever?

[Count Roland]

I like the idea a ton, my only problem with it is, it somehow doesn't seem to quite fit in with what my fevered mind imagines to be overgrowths playing style.

[Johannes]

Meh. You don't need to press a button when you're looking for something. Mammals pick up scents without trying, similar to seeing.

Yes, but many animals stop and take a moment to take in one scent or another effectively: Cats freeze and swivel their ears at sounds, dogs pause by a pole to take in the smells and process them, owls and other birds move their heads side to side to better focus on prey, etc.

I agree that they always get some kind of sensory input, but the act of having to concentrate, crouch down, and focus on a sense more than normally is not unheard of, so I think it having a seperate 'mode', if you will, would make sense and work very well in OG.

Unnecessary buttons should be avoided, in any and every situation. It'd be more immersive to integrate all of the senses together in one view. Perhaps for smell, trails could be highlighted within a fixed spherical radius of the player character, within the default view. Crouching would extend the radius, naturally. Adding in a seperate mode/s not only adds a redundant button/s, but if you or anyone else was thinking of having the smell/hear mode be similar to Metal Gear Solid's night-vision or Twilight Princess's wolf-vision, it'd also obstruct regular vision, which is less realistic and more troublesome. And if it'd be just like regular vision plus the extra senses, why would anyone not just keep the thing pressed down forever?

Hmm... I think you've convinced me... I can't help but think that it could be annoying to always have it in your view, but I like that crouching might increases the visibility of extra senses. I feel that these senses would be almost exclusively used in stealth-like gameplay, and since you always do stealth crouching anyway, having it only show then would be the best of both worlds I think. Maybe it would only really fade in if you sit still for a second, fade out slightly when you move crouching and be gone completely when you are running.

[Ekevoo]

Implementation details aside (like pressing or not pressing a button - I believe this is best answered by playtesting), I love this idea!

[VerdantPlanes]

I think the problem with an ever-present mode like that, as has already been pointed out, is that it would interfere with the aesthetics of the game. I feel like having glowing trails all the time would make the player less immersed in the game. In my opinion it would look too corny.

[Chainsaw man]

Agreed. The button pressing idea is for the player to 'focus' on sniffing for a moment like the begal and how it sniffs around. If you find 'the sent' a stink trail would "light up" or apear as you would. Its basicly a Navigatonal and in a way, a short ranged signature reading of whats been though the place. Its not like its in your face always. If you press the button down the reading is better, some smells take more time to detect than others.

[Skofo]

Perhaps Wolfire should pack the game along with a USB odor-maker for this.

Also, I think that headphones/speakers can handle the hearing part well enough. =P