The StarDM (*DM) branch
#1
I've opened a new branch after some ideas had bubbled up for variations on the deathmatch gamemode theme. The *DM branch (actual name "stardm").

In this branch are currently four basic new modes, three of which exist in FFA/teamplay variants. These are RageDM, PackDM and eXtremeDM. The teamplay-only mode is called BattleDM. The names and specifics of how they work may undergo any number of changes, this is just experimental.

The ideas at the core of the modes are as follows:
  • RageDM (rage): you carry all weapons, ammo boxes pickups replenish your current weapon
  • PackDM (pack): you carry all weapons, all ammo pickups replenish all weapons (clip/box=small/large)
  • eXtremeDM (xdm): you start with a pistol and a primary, dead players drop their primary
  • BattleDM (battle): your primary selection is limited per team; one A-ARD/10:SMG, one AD-81:Sniper Rifle, two V-19:Shotguns, two MTP-57:Assault Rifles

The BattleDM is still purely conceptual at this point - no code was written for it yet.

In the time it took me to have lunch and post this I've already gotten some feedback. 
For instance the pistol clips in PackDM were initially implemented as half-size ammo boxes which has already been deemed confusing .. understandably so; we could keep them as simple clip pickups as always or lose the pistol in that mode entirely .. either ignoring all clip pickups or converting them to some different pickup.

There were some voices that said the whole multi-weapon arsenal modes would devolve into SMG battles - which the BattleDM mode is conceptualy targeted against. Both Lynx234 and driAn were of the opinion that the limit in BattleDM should be one weapon of each type per team. So only one SMG and so forth.

The question raised for XDM (eXtremeDM) was wether ammo was dropped besides the primary and the way that would unbalance the game; at this point you only get the starter ammo alongside the new weapon added to your arsenal. Currently the weapons stay until somebody picks them up - a timer has been suggested after which they would dissapear unused. Another idea from driAn was to place random primary weapons at the playerstarts to begin with, so you would really start with just a knife and a pistol and your primary would be a lottery. Or one could start with the regular primary you've selected and get a secondary primary (if that isn't a logical fallacy) by the weapon-at-spawn lottery.

Other questions of balance and teamsizes were raised by Lynx234 to which I haven't got any real answers yet - they can only be found by experimenting and finetuning, reinventing and scrapping, whatever it takes.

Thoughts, questions, comments!??!
Thanks given by: