So, I don't know if anything like this was in original Team Fortress, but ETF (Enemy Territory Fortress, Team Fortress port on Enemy Territory), had an interesting feature.
As an technician (predecessor of engineer), you could build sentries almost same as TF2 Engineer can.
The interesting feature was, that you got ability to activate small screen inside of your HUD (in upper left corner), that gave you realtime first person camera output from sentry. It looked very well, and it had cool effects, as when sentry got damaged, the picture stuttered and was harder to catch. I am still trying to find a picture but still didn't find anything.
Now, you can say it's useless, and you are partially true, but are hats useful? Achievements? Taunts?
I can see this pretty well working. Everybody who wouldn't like it would turn it off. I would find it useful, as sometimes you build sentry just round the corner to cover yourself and be still able to repair it. This would give you possibility to check the situation better. Also if you went away for metal, it would give you better picture about what's going on around sentry. I have to add that it was highly entertaining to watch the world from sentries perspective, mainly as it shot rockets at enemies.
Maybe it could have slight spy-stealth detection, which would not be trustworthy enough to let sentry shoot at spies, buy it would give you chance to spot them in time (like they would be partially visible on small screen in corner of window, that wouldn't be too much of an advantage, but still interesting feature).
I think it shouldn't be hard to implement for Valve, as render target is already present in Source.
What do you think about that?
That sounds pretty awesome, would be useful if you're away from your sentry.
And when it gets sapped a picture of a grinning Spy is in its place. :smug:
What about a engineer can control his sentry?
Making him unable to repair it while he does and some other drawbacks.
[QUOTE=TheForeigner;16979111]What about a engineer can control his sentry?[/QUOTE]
You mean like he controls where it aims?
[QUOTE=Mark£d_OÑ£;16979122]You mean like he controls where it aims?[/QUOTE]
Yes, and in all other Engineer threads it's been established that it's useless as it already has perfect aim.
[QUOTE=Mister Royzo;16979207]Yes, and in all other Engineer threads it's been established that it's useless as it already has perfect aim.[/QUOTE]
Maybe you could hit people out of sentry's autoaim effective range, but WITH damage falloff?
But this is major game balance change. Lets stay at the camera idea only in this thread please
Its fine, as long as a I get a sapper that makes the a text on the camera saying: "Let me annoy you today"
[QUOTE=Mister Royzo;16979207]Yes, and in all other Engineer threads it's been established that it's useless as it already has perfect aim.[/QUOTE]
In theory, there would be some advantages to a manual Sentry- the Sentry may have perfect aim, but it also has limited range, no target prioritizing, and no memory of people after they leave its sight.
However, these are all intentional balances against the Sentry. It's true that it's a very binary weapon, but that's more because of its lack of mobility than all of the things I just mentioned. I mean, they're [i]part[/i] of the reason, but they're not the main thing.
If you were away from your sentry, you would suddenly start receiving double the usual traffic. Which is not really useful.
[QUOTE=Murkrow;16979300]If you were away from your sentry, you would suddenly start receiving double the usual traffic. Which is not really useful.[/QUOTE]
I am pretty sure modern servers and infrastructure could take that load if ETF did it at 2005 with modified quake engine
Perhaps a manually aimable sentry will be an Engineer unlockable. Who knows?
[QUOTE=Tentacle;16980961]Perhaps a manually aimable sentry will be an Engineer unlockable. Who knows?[/QUOTE]
04'er in my thread. Awesome.
Source has some problems with this actually. If you have a TV screen that's showing a live feed of something, you can only have one of them being rendered at a time. So if Valve implemented this, it would mean that maps couldn't do TV monitors. Also cameras don't show 3D skybox (IIRC).
Would be cool though.
I wager that wouldn't be too hard to fix. An interesting proposition, sir, I like it.
i think that should go into the engineer update, sounds useful
[QUOTE=Sh33p;16981570]I wager that wouldn't be too hard to fix. An interesting proposition, sir, I like it.[/QUOTE]
Yeah even Garry can fix it he posted about it years ago
I really like this idea. Like the OP said, it's not very useful but it would be really cool. The source engine of course already has the technology to do this too. It's less of a useful feature and more of an immersion thing.
[QUOTE=smurfy;16981186]Source has some problems with this actually. If you have a TV screen that's showing a live feed of something, you can only have one of them being rendered at a time. So if Valve implemented this, it would mean that maps couldn't do TV monitors. Also cameras don't show 3D skybox (IIRC).
Would be cool though.[/QUOTE]
Expanding on what this fine gentleman said, there can only be one active rt_camera entity at a time. Valve would have to rework their camera and display system if they wanted to implement something like this.
[QUOTE=Foogooman;16981744]I really like this idea. Like the OP said, it's not very useful but it would be really cool. The source engine of course already has the technology to do this too. It's less of a useful feature and more of an immersion thing.[/QUOTE]
I think it's a bit too futuristic in a way, back then I think cameras were really low res and black and white, right?
[QUOTE=DementNeo;16982795]I think it's a bit too futuristic in a way, back then I think cameras were really low res and black and white, right?[/QUOTE]
Not quite.
You know those pictures taken of the classes in a recent blog update by the Soldier? They were taken by a photographer, but they were in colour. Valve have kind of screwed around with time a bit.
[QUOTE=smurfy;16981186]Source has some problems with this actually. If you have a TV screen that's showing a live feed of something, you can only have one of them being rendered at a time. So if Valve implemented this, it would mean that maps couldn't do TV monitors. Also cameras don't show 3D skybox (IIRC).[/QUOTE]
This is completely wrong and it would work fine. There is no reason at all for them to use the rather limited RT camera system instead of simply rendering the scene from a different perspective in a small box.
I would fucking love this. It COULD be used very usefully, too. I'd always build a small sentry behind me while I'm focused on getting a base up, and if its aiming down a long hallway, I'd know when to check behind me.
[QUOTE=DementNeo;16982795]I think it's a bit too futuristic in a way, back then I think cameras were really low res and black and white, right?[/QUOTE]
There are already cameras in the game and they display crystal clear color images at high resolutions. Several of the spectator camera positions are from actual cameras in the map. You may not have noticed, but they're there. One easy one to find is in 2fort: go to the hay room on either team and look up into the corner between the spawn room door and the path to the battlements to see a security camera with a red light on. Go into spectator and you'll find that this camera is one of the default spectator positions.
That's pretty cool, didn't know that.
They should just have the Sentry as a choosable class altogether :D
[QUOTE=Shugo;16983021]There are already cameras in the game and they display crystal clear color images at high resolutions. Several of the spectator camera positions are from actual cameras in the map. You may not have noticed, but they're there. One easy one to find is in 2fort: go to the hay room on either team and look up into the corner between the spawn room door and the path to the battlements to see a security camera with a red light on. Go into spectator and you'll find that this camera is one of the default spectator positions.[/QUOTE]
Someone told me once that if someone's spectating through it, the light turns green. Anyone know if that's true or not?
[QUOTE=DuncanFrost;16983128]Someone told me once that if someone's spectating through it, the light turns green. Anyone know if that's true or not?[/QUOTE]
Unlikely
[QUOTE=DuncanFrost;16983128]Someone told me once that if someone's spectating through it, the light turns green. Anyone know if that's true or not?[/QUOTE]
Little things like this are the sort of things I'd like to see a lot more of in TF2.
[QUOTE=Mister Royzo;16979207]Yes, and in all other Engineer threads it's been established that it's useless as it already has perfect aim.[/QUOTE]
1: Shoot someone hiding behind a corner
2: If you are far away, and someone is attacking your sentry, you can use the thing to kill him from afar
3: Be smart: Go for more hurtful classes first
The list can go on, thus a downside to this would be losing your sentries perfect aim, but has it's pro's
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