Battlezone Forums

Imagine a blink suppression mine or building.

Turning off blink would be like turning off the Scions. Just sayin

I don't think it'd be easy, or possible, to make any anti blink things in the game. Closest thing would be a shieldtower, if they blink into it, it immediately pushes them out. (Or freezes them in place, hehehe)

Anyway, According to some posts I've seen here, it's possible to make the multiplayer code think the player blinked, when they didn't? So to other clients the blink explosion goes off and their ship disappears, but a second later it re-appears there because the game realizes they didn't blink? If so, then it needs to be tested/fixed.

Turning off blink would be like turning off the Scions. Just sayin

Actually I think a rec variant that just didn't have blink would be quite popular. Blink is just too useful and forces the game into one specific strategic path. Bring back the arc mine in its place!

Zax wrote:Turning off blink would be like turning off the Scions. Just sayin

I agree. Blink is as much a part of the Scions as the Chain Scout is a part of the ISDF.

Blink is essential to the Scions' lategame strategy. Lategame Scions are all about mobility, disruption, and line-breaking. In VSR, I made some adjustments for a few Prereleases that experimented with moderately decreasing the power of Blink while simultaneously increasing the Scions seiging capabilities (via the Lancer and Archers). The further I delved into that line, the more boring and static late-game had become. It provided some valuable data about how to properly refine scion midgame units so that they fit in with the mid to lategame scion doctrine of mobility, but I do know that scions would need to go all the way in that direction (the static, heavy hitting, combined-arms approach to seiging) if blink was to be removed -- and there's a very high probability that it would not work out for the best if it was done like that.

That said, the ability to suppress blink is an interesting idea -- but most implementations of it would be too far fetched (ie: like a flaremine/spraybomb that distributed emp stream that had a decently long weapons lockdown capability) to be put into stock balance. APCs are Evil sent me a modified version of Resin that did AOE Slow effects, and while I personally thought it was a fantastic idea, it was not accepted by the community who played VSR (strat players are a conservative bunch). Ideas like these, however, would work well for a recy variant that's meant to do new things (and I might try this, after VSR is complete). Stock strategy, however, should not get too experimental -- lest it have unforseen effects that impact gameplay in a negative way.

Clavin12 wrote:Imagine a blink suppression mine or building.

i considered a building, but that would be too static; need something that dogfighters could spring on an unsuspecting rival at the opportune moment. might even have to make it available for scion vs scion, too.

using lockdown would kill all their weapons, which would kinda defeat the purpose.

i modified blink awhile back to have a charge-up time, which reduced distance if used frequently (it's used by the bots in G66 DM), then shotDelay was added for it. might be the way to go in a future variant.

Nothing is essential, people would develop other strategies, static, for example, is actually an excellent dog fight winner, but very rarely used as it is less of an advantage than blink.
Strat players hone their playing styles until they become habitual and can freak out if they have to do something different. Or somebody else does. Everyone, I guess, loves/hates blink, depending on wether they a blinking or being blinked.

Hmm, jammers to jam blink too?

more like a TAG Gun that suppresses blink during its stickTime or a field-effect weapon. basically, something that comes and goes with the ship that uses it.

now that i think about it, i could have the dll replace the enemy's blink with a dummy blink if they are within range of a ship equipped with the blink suppressor.

edit: then give him back the real blink when he moves out of range of the equipped ship

Yeah, but i doubt GSH would add that to stock dlls.

MrTwosheds wrote:Nothing is essential, people would develop other strategies

True, but with the Scions' mobility removed, they begin looking more like the ISDF. The only difference would be the models and the weapon effects.

Red Devil wrote:now that i think about it, i could have the dll replace the enemy's blink with a dummy blink if they are within range of a ship equipped with the blink suppressor.

Dunno anything about DLLs, but I do know that there's no practical way to stop Blink from firing with just ODFs unless GSH decides to do some coding.

The only way to stop Blink from firing is with an EMP Stream style weapon, which can only stop all weapons from firing, not just one.

Sandbags/EMP Lockdown continue to slow a unit after it Blinks, though.

*Does some pondering*

Actually, I think a rec variant that has no Blink at all would be a good thing. It would give Blink haters a refuge and with any luck it would stop these constant Blink balance threads. *Sagenod*

The only difference would be the models and the weapon effects.

You should be the last person to underestimate the power of a sonic/emp/static warrior.

Stopping all the weapons might not be such a bad thing. Can MITS mine stop blink?

Red Devil wrote:now that i think about it, i could have the dll replace the enemy's blink with a dummy blink if they are within range of a ship equipped with the blink suppressor.

edit: then give him back the real blink when he moves out of range of the equipped ship

Resyncs and warp

What you would want is a new class in the same hierarchy as VIR and RED. When on, an area of 10 or more meters becomes a bad target for blink and will not highlight, maybe use a modified line of code from the ammo field (make it cost more ammo than a ship has to blink there while on) since I don't believe the blink code has location/spot checks.