Category: Gears Of War

Danny Designs: Gears 4 VS Mode and Loot Crates

2/6/2017

Welcome to another edition fo Danny Designs! I spoke about Gears of War 4's campagin in a previous post. Today I am going to be talking about the other half of the game, the multiplayer! This includes the versus mode (Social, Ranked and Competitve) and the Horde mode.

Versus

Gameplay

For many people unfamiliar with the Gears of war series, the changes made to gameplay may go unnoticed. For a veteran of the franchise the subtle changes to gameplay are a welcomed addition. The games runs smooth and the action is hard hitting and competitive. Landing a headshot or winning a shotgun duel in the midst of a chaotic battlefield is a feeling no other 3rd person shooter can replicate.

Changes you may not have noticed

Ballet of Violence

- You can now Active reload any time during the match. Including when your weapon is full. Including power weapons

- There is no sound/audio cute for when you are severely injured as in previous game.

- You can now do a running vault over cover and leap onto raised surfaces.

- You can only set one grenade at a time as a proximity bomb.

- Melee speed has been reduced.

- Pressing LB( Tac-Com) will now highlight your allies and any spotted enemies will be temporarily highlighted in red. Weapons on the map will also be displayed.

- A player with a raised chainsaw will not be stunned if shot, only stunned if they are shot when attempting to rev the chainsaw.

Yank and Shank

GET OVER HERE!

The new addition of the "Yank and Shank", a new mechanic where a player in cover can yank over a player from the other side, leavint them stunned for a brief second. While stunned they are open to a knife execution.

I was skeptical about, and even during the beta I wasn't sure how to feel about it. After spending hours in the multiplayer I can say that it was a great addition to the cover based combat. It adds an offensive mechanic to taking cover and pairs very well with the mantle kick.

Plunging a knife into an opponent is satisfying. The Yank is a well balanced mechanic, miss the landing and you're left exposed, but land that kill and earn the bragging rights.

The one thing I will say about the Yank is that timing the counter is very tricky. I've only counterd another player once! Another small thing to note is that to execute the knife execution involves approaching the stunned opponent and pressing the "Y" button.

For those of you not familiar with the Gears of War Series, "B" is the melee button, naturally I would press "B" and I would simply melee at the target, only to be blown away by a shotgun. I tried "X", because that is the interact button, the button to open doors, press switches and pick up ammo. That doesn't work. It took me a little while to realize that it was actually "Y". Why is that a strange choice? B is the default melee button, therefore in my mind it automatically meant "Knife", a knife is a melee weapon. Y has be the "point of interest" button.

Leagues and Game Modes

Versus mode is divided between Social, Co-OP vs Ai, Core and Competitive. Core and Competitive modes are broken into tiers from Bronze to Diamond. These tiers are meant to help match players with similar skill against one another. The downside of this is that it isn't made clear how players are placed into these tiers and at times you can be paired with players that are leagues below or above you in skill.

Social is a rolling playlist that rotates through modes and maps. Players are allowed to join and leave mid game without penalty,offering a relaxed environment.

Co-Op vs Ai sets a team of players against an all computer controlled team. Players can select the difficulty of the bots to set the challenge. This is a welcomed addition and a great way for new and returning players to become familiarized with Gears.

Core Matchmaking is where you can find the standards Gears of War modes. Team Deathmatch, King of The Hill, Warzone and Guardian. New to this playlist are Dodge ball (a fast paced mode where players can bring back dead team mates by eliminating opposing players) and Arms race (a game mode where both teams compete to see who can get three kills with 12 weapons).

Execution has been moved to the competitive playlist alongside Escalation, a new game mode that is being touted as the MLG game type. Escalation pits two teams against each other, trying to either earn 210 points or capture and hold all 3 rings to win a round. Win 7 rounds and the match is yours. Escalation lives up to it's competitive namesake and I do see a lot of high level players continuing to invest their time and energy into this competitive mode.

One thing I felt that was a little odd is the fact that Dodge ball, another mode touted as an MLG friendly mode is found inside the Core matchmaking playlist. Why isn't Dodge ball in the Competitive playlist? Why is Arms Race in the "Core" playlist? Arms Race doesn't come to mind when I think of the core modes of Gears.

Credits, Scrap and Packs

New to Gears of War is credits and scrap. Unlike the previous installment of Gears 3, players do not unlock additional characters and skins through completing objectives but by buying booster packs with credits. Inside these packs are cards, some will get you the aforementioned skins/characters whereas others will get you bonus XP and Horde skills. Any duplicate cards can be scrapped. Scrap is a currency that can then be used to craft desired cards.

Operations pack - 800 credits/$1.99. Personally, I miss the days of unlocking skins and characters through in game achievements and skill.

Credit payout for most game modes is too low, which in turn makes buying packs infrequent. This leads to less duplicate cards being obtained, less duplicate cards means players wont be creating scrap as often. Scrap payout is low, your average player is not unlocking content at a steady rate.

Most cards when scrapped yield an abysmal amount of scrap. A common card can get you five measly pieces of scrap. If you want to buy a common emblem, you're looking at forty pieces of scrap to craft!

If a player would like to craft a legendary character, they are looking at spending 2,400 pieces of scrap! That means they would have to scrap 480 common, 120 Rare, 16 ultra rare or 4 Legendary cards.

Opening a pack with four Epic cards.

With a few tweaks, this system would be fantastic! First thing we can do to improve this system is to increase the payout across the board. Increase the amount of scrap players receive from scrapping cards. The second thing would be award players free versus/horde packs for meeting in game goals. Leveled up? Free pack. Win 3 games in a day? Free pack. Earn an achievement? Free pack! Overwatch is very generous with how they hand out their loot crates, it keeps players invested, gives them a reason to play one more match.

Restructuring Card Packs

As of right now every standard booster pack comes with five cards. An operations pack has five random cards (bounties, skills, skins, characters,emblems). Two of those cards are guaranteed to be customization cards. Something I know that really annoys me is unlocking an emblem as one of my customization items. Emblems serve no real purpose and oftentimes it feels as if you're losing a slot that might have been a character or weapon skin.

What I would recommend is adjusting the card packs so that they would always guarantee one emblem and then the 5 cards.

Adding credit/scrap boosters as random rewards for packs would be a great reward for players. It would help keep players playing the game. And they don't have to be too common, one out of 10 packs can contain a booster card. I feel that players will find more value from packs this way.

Daily Login Packs

Gears of War 4 does feature a login bonus. Unfortunately it is a little bit underwhelming. When a player logs on they will be randomly awarded a bounty card or have a small chance to receive a weapon skin.

I would suggest a daily login pack, similar to Halo 5. A daily login pack that awards the player a random emblem and a bounty for versus and horde modes. After a week of consecutive logins, the player could receive a booster card or guaranteed weapon/character skin instead of an emblem.

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,Twine, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Gears of War - Capture The Flag (REBLOG)

10/5/2016

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Originally posted on 8/24/2012

Capture the Flag? In Gears?

I have been wanting to talk about this topic for quite some time. I am an avid Gears of War player and a big fan of the franchise. You can safely assume I love Gears 3. I have spent hours playing and studying this game. In fact I love to look at the top downs for the mulitplayer levels and dissect them. As someone with a degree in level and game design I been itching to try my hand at designing levels and game modes for multiplayer.

As someone who visits the Gears forums on a regular basis one thread in particular caught my eye. It was a thread talking about adding a Capture the Flag (CTF) mode into Gears. I read this thread awhile back and I saw that my fellow Gears enthusiasts wanted a objective game mode that was familiar to them. Capture the flag is a very common game mode found in most popular First Person Shooters throughout time.

A CTF game in Halo 5.

If you're familiar with CTF you know that most games have certain mechanics and rules that are specifically for that mode. In the Halo series the player with the flag runs slower and can't use their primary weapon. Certain actions such as equipping a weapon will cause the player to drop the flag.

The player carrying the flag are often stripped of their weapons.

Gears 3 was the first time the community was introduced to Team Deathmatch (TDM), a very common mode found in almost every First Person Shooter. Why not introduce a CTF mode? After all Halo has one, Call of Duty has one. The question is "Would these mechanics work within Gears of War 3?" From the perspective of a designer and fan...not directly at least.

Maybe the flag carrier can only use the cleaver?

When played at a highly competitive level Gears can be surprisingly fast paced and acrobatic game. Skilled players often slide from cover to cover and wall-bounce to travel around the map quickly. If we add a mechanic where the player loses mobility it would affect the whole flow of the game.

In my opinion, we can't take away the player's mobility. We can't simply take the mechanics of Capture The Flag and apply them to Gears of War. That is just a boring design. We need to add the "Gears Twist".

Gears of War 2 - Submission

Now you might be saying that Gears 2 did in fact have a CTF mode called "Submission". It was what the developers called "CTF with a Gears twist".

In this game mode players attempted to capture an AI controlled "meat flag" and bring them to a designated zone in order to win the game. When the player is holding the meat flag their speed is decreased to a slow crawl and they can only use pistols.

A locust attempting to capture the "meat flag" in a game of submission.

Submission in my opinion was an underrated game mode. I loved it! I would play private matches with friends all the time. However, this isn't really a Capture the Flag mode now is it?

Gears of War 3 - Capture The Leader

An evolution of the Submission game type, Capture the Leader was introduced in Gears of War 3. In this game mode, one player is selected to be the leader of their team. Their team must defend the leader while also trying to capture the enemy leader.

Gears of War 3 implemented a Team Death match game type that remains popular to this da Gears TDM isn't the same as a TDM you would find in any popular shooter. It has the "Gears Twist" added to it. My point here is that if we were to force the traditional game mechanics of a CTF to Gears it wouldn't work. If we put too much of a Gears twist on the mode players might not identify it as the CTF they crave.

Loader Mech CTF

The mode I propose is a Capture the Objective game mode but with the use of the Loader Mech from the Gears 3 campaign. The game mode would be a capture the flag mode using the mech to pick up and return a crate (aka the flag) to the designated goal.

The loader mech.

My reasoning for this is simple. The loader is something the player is familiar with in terms of gameplay, controls and lore. It gives the player limited mobility but for a reason and context the player will instantly understand. The player in the mech will be a clear target and since the mech does not have any weapons the pilot would need to rely on their teammates for adequate protection.

The team with the Mech takes the offensive, trying to capture the crate and take it to the designated goal in order to win the round. The defending team will try to capture the mech, playing a very aggressive role of attempting to intercept the Mech.

The Flag aka The Crate.

The mech has no weapons unlike the Silver back Mech. The Loader Mech can only use melee attacks to defend itself. If the pilot attempts to use a melee attack while carrying the flag, they will drop the Flag. The Flag is a large crate which can be used as cover as long as the mech is not carrying it. The player piloting the mech would need team members to guard their rear flank and form a protective perimeter to ensure that the pilot is not simply shot out of the mech.

At the start of the match the LM would spawn in a ring in the center of the map similar to the red ring pictured.

List of Gears 3 Maps Best suited for CTF

- Academy
- Aftermath
- Anvil
- Artillery
- Azura
- Depths
- Trenches
- Rustlung

Loader Mech Capture The Flag - Rules

At the start of the match the Loader Mech would spawn in a ring in the center of the map. The match would begin with both teams making a push to try and capture the mech. Once a team has taken control of the mech, a timer counting down when the flag will appear on the map. Once the flag appears the mech pilot needs to retrieve it and take it to the designated capture zone aka the goal.

The basic rules of King of the Hill apply. If a mech pilot is hit with a smoke/ink grenade, they will be forced out of the mech temporarily. If the Flag has been dropped for thirty seconds, it will spawn at a new location and the goal will be reset.

CTF Playthrough

Here is a quick rundown of what a typical Loader CTF game would play.
Notes:
- COG (Blue Team) and The Locust (Red Ream).
- The Loader Mech is Yellow (neutral) until a team claims it.
- The Loader Mech icon is from the flim Aliens, because I couldn't find a good pic of the mech from Gears 3.
- The Flag is a large steel crate. The Flag can be used as cover as long as it is not being carried by the mech.

Phase 1 - Round one begins! Players spawn and the location of the mech is highlighted on the map. Both teams begin to head toward the mech.

Phase 2 - Players begin to make the push to capture the mech. Players meet at the center of the map aka the "Front" and begin to engage in a shootout.

Phase 3 - Blue team (Cog) is now in control of the mech. They must now hold the mech until the flag appears. During this time the COG team will have to defend the mech against the Locust.

Phase 4 - The location of the flag spawn appears on the map. Both teams have twenty seconds until the flag spawns in that location. Red team needs to prevent the Blue team from capturing the flag and attempt to take control of the mech. Blue team needs to play offense, keeping the attackers at bay and the Loader mech in their possession.

Phase 5 - Blue team pushes toward the flag as Red team scrambles to defend and possibly intercept the mech.

Phase 6 - Blue team now has control of the flag. After a short wait the location of the goal will appear. They will need to take the flag to this goal in order to win the round.

Phase 7 - The Blue team now make their way to the Flag capture point while holding off the Red team.

Phase 8 - Blue team is able to defend the mech until it makes the drop off and captures the flag to win round one.

Gears LMCTF

A mode like this will give the fans exactly what they want, a fast paced, dynamic mode that requires team work and coordination. This game mode brings all the excitement of a great CTF mode to Gears while adding that key "Gears Twist" that keeps people coming back.

I would love to hear what you think. Leave a comment or tweet at me. Thanks for reading!

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,Twine, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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COG HAMMERBURST: Gears of War 4 Weapon Idea

4/18/2016

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Up Your Arsenal

The Gears of War 4 beta is now upon us! And as an avid Gears of War fan I have been keeping up with all of the news. A screenshot from the Gears 4 caught my eye. In this screenshot we see one of the new enemies in the game holding a Hammerburst, the reliable Locust rifle from previous games. The strangest thing about this, it still bears the the Locust colors and even the Locust emblem!

Why is this strange? At the end of Gears of War 3, the COG were pretty much on the verge of being completely annihilated and their resources have been depleted! Luckily the Locust and the Lambent were destroyed! And they left behind a literal ton of weapons behind. So why do these new enemies have Locust Era Hammerbursts?

Why wouldn't the COG take these weapons and re-purpose them? Well, we probably won't know until the game comes out. I did however take it upon myself to come up with my own interpretation of what a COG re-purposed Hammerburst would look like and function.

Note: Hammerburst will be abbreviated as HB.

COG Hammerburst - Hammerburst Mk. III

Lore: "At the end of the Locust/Lambent conflict, the COG found themselves severely crippled and low on supplies. COG forces struggled to rebuild their supply of Lancer rifles, however resourceful COG engineers now had a surplus of Hammerburst rifles. They began to re-engineer the crude Locust design and streamline it. The Hammerburst Mk. III began to fill the gap the Lancer had left behind. It was quickly adopted by COG soldiers for scouting missions and made an excellent companion weapon for COG snipers."

The COG Hammerburst aka The Hammerburst Mark III, is a mid-long range battle rifle. It packs a powerful punch and kick to match. Equipped with a rugged optic scope, the Mark III makes a great weapon for dealing with distant targets with impeccable accuracy. It has a semi-auto and a three round burst fire mode that can quickly take down a man sized target.

The 3 round burst of the Mark III is much more manageable than the 6 round burst of the original Hammerburst and offers more stopping power then the HB II. In semi-auto, the Mark III offers the same power and accuracy of the HB II but has more recoil due to the Mark III's lighter weight.

Just like it's predecessor, The Mark III allows players to go into a first person mode where the player uses the rifle's optics in a first person view to take aim at enemies. However, the optic sight is made for durability, this means the optic's zoom leaves a bit to be desired as the magnification of the scope is minimal.

Breakdown

The weapon is designed to be visually similar to Longshot Sniper Rifle and Markza. This visually similarity with help players understand and read the rifle as a long range weapon. Instead of being the trademark locust red, it has a dark blue and gray color scheme that matches the current Lancer's colors.

The red lights of the HB III have been replaced with the traditional COG blue. The Mark III has been stripped down and built back up, removing excess weight, making lighter. A synthetic stock has been added, however if fired rapidly the recoil can cause the weapon to kick, resulting in a loss of accuracy.

Hammerburst MK.III

Production Informaion: Coalition of Ordered Governments
Model: Mark III
Type: Semi/Burst Fire Battle Rifle.
Damage Per Hit: Medium to High
Magazine Size: 20 (semi auto) 24 (3 round burst fire)
Maxium Ammuintion: 180 (semi auto) 192 (burst fire)
Fire mode: Semi Auto/Burst Fire
Accuracy: High
Range: Medium to Long

1. Optic Scope - A rugged optic scope with a slight zoom. This is used whenever the player engages the first person mode. *This functions just like the first person mode of the HB in Gears 3.
2. Front Sight - The front sight has been scaled down. Can be flipped up or down. If the scope is ever destroyed, the front sight can be used in a pinch.
3. Extended Barrel - The extended barrel makes this Hammerburst better at longer range and increases it's accuracy when compared to it's predecessors.
4. Fore-grip - Grip for the user to hold.
5. Optional Knife - The Mark III's lighter build makes it less reliable as a striking weapon. The Knife compensates for this design flaw and allows for an advantage in close quarters combat.
6. Straight Tactical Magazine - Tactical magazine features raised edges for enhanced grip when loading and reloading.
7. Extendable Synthetic Stock - They extendable stock helps reduce recoil and adjust to fit the shoulder of the user. The stock also features a face rest for comfort while shooting.

Battle Ready

What do you think? Do you think that I designed a convincing COG Hammerburst? Do you think the COG wouldn't change the Hammerburst from it's Gears 3 Interpretation? Do you have a few notes or suggestions? Leave a comment here orsend me a tweet.

Thanks for reading!

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

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Danny Designs: Gears 4 VS Mode and Loot Crates

Versus

Gameplay

Changes you may not have noticed

Yank and Shank

Leagues and Game Modes

Credits, Scrap and Packs

Restructuring Card Packs

Daily Login Packs

Gears of War - Capture The Flag (REBLOG)

Capture the Flag? In Gears?

Gears of War 2 - Submission

Gears of War 3 - Capture The Leader

Loader Mech CTF

List of Gears 3 Maps Best suited for CTF

Loader Mech Capture The Flag - Rules

CTF Playthrough

Gears LMCTF

COG HAMMERBURST: Gears of War 4 Weapon Idea

Up Your Arsenal

COG Hammerburst - Hammerburst Mk. III

Breakdown

Hammerburst MK.III

Battle Ready

Dannylv100

Categories

Monthly Blog Archive

Archives

Danny Designs: Gears 4 VS Mode and Loot Crates

Versus

Gameplay

Changes you may not have noticed

Yank and Shank

Leagues and Game Modes

Credits, Scrap and Packs

Restructuring Card Packs

Daily Login Packs

Gears of War - Capture The Flag (REBLOG)

Capture the Flag? In Gears?

​Gears of War 2 - Submission

​Gears of War 3 - Capture The Leader

Loader Mech CTF

​List of Gears 3 Maps Best suited for CTF

Loader Mech Capture The Flag - Rules

​CTF Playthrough

Gears LMCTF

COG HAMMERBURST: Gears of War 4 Weapon Idea

Up Your Arsenal

COG Hammerburst - Hammerburst Mk. III

​Breakdown

​Hammerburst MK.III

Battle Ready

Dannylv100

Categories

Monthly Blog Archive

Archives

Gears of War 2 - Submission

Gears of War 3 - Capture The Leader

List of Gears 3 Maps Best suited for CTF

CTF Playthrough

Breakdown

Hammerburst MK.III