I'm just throwing ideas out at this idea. What about this: The commander can build a war siren, however in order for it to be built there has to be at least 2 buildings within the radius of the war siren. The war siren would activate when the buildings within that radius are being attacked. However, the commander can activate the war siren by selecting it and clicking on the 'Sound Alarm' button, thus indicating to the team that there is a ninja present. At this point (when the alarm is sounded by the commander) there could be a radio message that tells the players, "The commander has activated the alarm!". The commander can then stop the alarm when he/she wishes.
How about the siren working in conjunction with some search lights, if you want the ninja to have a more warfilm type role? when the siren goes off, the searchlights pan around and lock onto any enemies near them (unless hidden at over #%), locking on should 1. give more indication of where the enemy is and 2. reduce the level of hide which works for the enemy (if scout). That way you have a benefit but wouldnt have it turned on all the time due to the bells, the bells (or some sort of cool down timer & time limit).
I like the searchlights idea, i bet that could be done with turret logic. I think the siren should ALWAYS be comm selected. nobody needs to hear the siren go off because I rocketsniped their VF with one rocket...
maybe if the siren was activated by enemies being spotted in the base instead of buildings taking damage.
or if enemy aircraft entered the range of your radar. It would do a siren and give the co-ordinates of the enemy incoming (maybe in a voice instead of an on-screen warning)
I like the idea of the siren being part of an object. That way, when it goes off you know in which direction the trouble is, without having to look at the minimap.
Searchlights on badlands would be cool, but any lights on badlands would be cool, lights on buildings, lights on tanks, lights on turrets, lights on cameras, a light as a special building - any would be really sweet. The map should be even darker, so You really need to use lights. About the siren. There are many ways this could be used, however in BF2 (and afair BF2142 too) there were horns in vehicles. Why don't we have horns in Empires? Commander horn could act like a very loud siren and the whole problem is solved. Cameras could have horns on them OR there could be a new kind of building called 'alarm'. It would have yelled the siren when it 1. is enabled (by commander) 2. it sees enemy vehicle/units (invisible units must stay unvisible until they sabotage it, or the alarm will activate). Commander should get a message "alarm activated". Cameras/alarms could be commander-buildable, or radar could have some little cameras on the edge, so it would detect (visible) enemies. That would make people use squad invisibility, or sabotage the radar (finally some real usage for the radar building and sabotaging it). Currently, many games end within first few minutes, because the comm gets ninja-ed and the moment someone realizes that the CV is in trouble is the same moment the CV goes boom. As one of the devs said in other topic recently, shorter games are not more fun. Making cameras/alarms will change the game enabling better detection, but I think the change will be for good. One more thing: whatever the horn/siren/alarm will be activated/mounted on, it should have diffrent sounds for BE and NF, so it's easily to tell what is yelling. NF could have the bomb alarm (EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...) - like on Youtube someone pasted. BF could have ship/submarine alarm (bEEEEp. bEEEEp. bEEEEp...). BTW this idea is neat and I think it's easy to code, sound events are simple... And it doesn't add any icons to the already overloaded HUD
I can't agree with everything having a horn and lights...I think a siren would be the best option. There isn't really a need for the vehicles to have horns, it's not like there is ever a need to beep at people :/ But if vehicles were to have a horn, it just has to be this http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ULkHSlXzz-Q :D
Exacly. It is implemented in BF2 & BF2142 and guess what, people use it from time to time and it's fun. + it is easy to implement. The feeling of using Yours tank horn on the enemy tank, when You both run out of ammo - priceless :D
Alarms are used when there is an unexpected attack. We are dealing with units and buildings deployed into an active battle field, the alarm should have been sounded before the map even has a chance to load... If we had bunks in the rax, with tables, and the whole team just sat around playing cards or doing routine maintenance, then all of a sudden the enemy tank rushes. Then yes, an alarm would be important. But we aren't sitting around in the base doing nothing, most the time the base is empty. So what is the point of having an alarm in your base, when 90% of the time there isn't more then 2 people in the base.
There have been multiple plausible reasons for the siren to be implemented: - The commander could activate it to inform the team that there is a ninja in the base. - The siren would signal to the team where the attack is taking place (not that it isn't already obvious). - The siren would create a more intense atmosphere when an attack is taking place. - If the siren was activated when a ninja was attacking a base it could be more stimulating for the ninja, knowing that people will be searching for him/her.
Could You find it? Maby I can get those sounds, but I need to know how many of them we will need and in what format and stuff...
Yesterday I sweeped the web for horns. The worst thing is the author's rights (dunno how it's called in english), however when we have multiple samples and we mix them and change them, it will be our product. PMing Angry for sound formats. LordDz: add me on steamfriends (nickname: reefiasty) so we can coordinate the work. I found lots of sounds that would fit to NF, but only a few good for BE. I think that NF should have air horns and BE should have electric horns (but the CV could have a 5-trumpet air horn). Maby BE horns could be like those on ships (I'll take airhorn and lower speed/pitch and see what happens).
