Replaying Red Faction this weekend, I ran across this dangerously frusterating phenomenan in its singe player: the Rail Gun. This weapon can see through, as well as shoot through walls. But thats not what makes it so unacceptable, in fact, lots of games have used weapons similar to this without major problem. The issue is, with one shit, in any hit zone, this weapon takes you down. Yeah sure, I don't care if I can take down enemies with one shot, but when coming around a corner in an area can being killed instantly without warning (seriously, without warning), I begin not to like the weapon. You can run as fast as you want, you can stand still, you can strafe, but most likely you'll be hit. On the normal setting, they only miss a small part of the time. So there's one dilemma, an unstoppable mega rifle that can take you out, even when you're ready for it. That wasn't enough, they had to give every enemy group on of these weapons in the later levels. So about every new area I was killed instantly, then forced to reload, and try to survive again. Some segments i would be killed 3 to 4 times in a row until I somehow managed to cheat the AI and take them out unconventionally. This incredibly unfair weapon was everywhere! I stuck to it and finished alright, but I can tell you the average gamer would have turned the game off in sheer frusterating a dozen times where I kept on. So here's my point, keep these kinds of weapons out of shooter, if they got to be there, like some kiknd of uber-powerful rocket launcher, make it possible for the player to evade its wrath somehow. Alright, I'm done complaining.

I think weaponry, such as this rail gun, should encourage stealth or quickness. In stead of trying to jump out with guns a-blazin', you have to find a way to dodge. If I remember correctly (from the original Red Faction), the gun takes a second to reload. That would be when you strike. The only problem is, if the game doesn't give you the ability to dodge or out-run, you're fubarred.

Right you are, it doesn't. Result: FUBAR.

And I'm all about stealth, if a game gives me it as an option, I'll take it. However, RF is that "guns-a-blazin" game. There are some brief instances where you catch an AI off guard, but they are usually scripted (hear a convo) or an AI glitch (too far away to notice you).

This would definitely be a "Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie!" condition. :D

I played RF, and the railgun mercs... no. Just no. Just flat out no. Never gunna run through that part of the game again for that reason.

I have a problem with the instant kill weapons to begin with. For me, the magic number is 3, as in, to kill any enemy at any difficulty, the math should all work together so that I only have to attack an enemy at most 3 times to kill him. For the reverse, me the player should have at least 3 hits before I'm killed.

With weapons that are supposed to insta-kill, these numbers should apply to how much ammo I should waste (at most), and how much ammo the enemy should waste (at least). This means, that in a good fight, I should have 100 Health, 100 Armor, the enemy should miss the first shot (provided that I'm moving decently), the second shot, if it has to be a hit, does 175 damage and no more (leaving 25 Health, right?) and the third one can be the killer.

From the design perspective, the enemies have to be capable of missing shots, and not just from a % chance, I mean hardcoded a AI system that will delibrately miss if its the first shot and the player is moving. Otherwise we have OMG THAT ENEMY FRAGGED ME NO FAIR situations.

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Original post by Inmate2993 I mean hardcoded a AI system that will delibrately miss if its the first shot and the player is moving. Otherwise we have OMG THAT ENEMY FRAGGED ME NO FAIR situations.

Forcing the AI to always miss its first shot sounds a tad unfair. Perhaps a better idea would be some kind of response/reaction time allowing the player to get a shot in first (or duck behind cover).

Suitable tweekage would then give you variety between those which shoot practically on sight but will spray the room before even comming close, or an opponent that may take its time lining up a much more accurate shot.

How about having an adapting AI that only makes battles as hard as this particular gamer can take? "Hard but doable" is at very different levels with different people.

-- ICN

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Forcing the AI to always miss its first shot sounds a tad unfair.

I agree.

If this happens all the time, you'll notice it, and then next time you'll run at the enemy because you know that he is going to miss you because you are moving.

Personally, I always preferred the one hit and you're almost dead as opposed to instant death. This gives the game the "Oh crap" factor, but doesn't completely suck because you live. The games where you get through by the skin of your teeth are usually the most fun IMO.

I have RF2. The railgun on that game requires skill to use. However, I don't think the railgun is a good weapon in the hands of the enemy. Maybe in easy mode, they'll miss you a few times. But in medium and hard, they're almost unbeatable. The developers of RF2 did a very good job on perfecting the Geo-Mod engine, and the extensive control sets it apart from many games in it's genre. However, the basic setup and the single-player missions leave much to be desired. What would have made the game more popular is a player customization feature. The user could change the weapons arsenal they'd carry, as well as the speed and other aspects of the player's abilities.

For example, whenever I play this game against my dad, we have to race to get the best weapons. It might be fun the first few times, but after a while, it's just annoying. Even more so is the uselessness of the jump action. You only jump a couple feet into the air. Sure, it's realistic. But in a world where a power-hungry dictator orders eradication of a supernatural and elite army, inspired by some Ultor scientist on Mars, we don't wan't realistic.

But 3*Xvirus is roit. The railgun is a weapon that could use some tweaking. Maybe they could use the jittery-hand idea found in the MGS games?

RF2 is one of the best fps games I know of. But, like any game, there's always room for improvement.