What vision modes should the goggles have for the next game? | Forums

[BoBwUzHeRe1138]

Play Arkham City, its expansions and wait for ITS sequel....

[BeardedSomeone]

Two modes passive and active. Passive would be a combo of night and thermal vision active would be sonar. Passive mode can see in the dark through smoke fog and some thin materials active mode of course can see through walls. In later missions enemies might have detectors that can trace the ping or whatever it is the sonar goggles put out. This would allow them to locate Sam's position forcing him to use sonar sparingly. Because passive scans like night and thermal vision don't emit anything passive mode would be undetectable.

[The_5_Freedoms]

NV, Thermal, and Sonar.

I don't like sonar, but having all three means you can make SCC fanboys happy, as well as the legacy-titles fanboys, like me. That way neither group is limited to a playstyle they do not want.

End of discussion.

I really do think that is the best solution. It caters to everyone, well everyone except people who want EMF vision but I think that was incorporated into sonar vision anyway.

@ Jazz

I thought it was the opposite, something cool and unique that hadn't been done before. I just wish it was useful for more things than just marking enemies.

Also, not having it in sequels would be kind of silly because they established in Conviction that not only do Third Echelon Splinter Cells use sonar goggles but also Voron operatives, so in a way it's an internationally accepted piece of equipment. It would be like a Future Soldier sequel not having UAVs, technology going backwards and not forwards.

@ shobhit

Maybe if you change your avatar to Batman you won't have to remind us all the time.

@ All

We've had six people suggest ENVG, so I think it's safe to say that it is something that should be seriously considered.

Also, I was thinking, what if we had separate night and thermal modes -- and then we had the ability to combine them for ENVG?

Let me explain first.

On the controller layout you would have left on the D-Pad for night vision and right on the D-Pad for thermal vision. To activate night vision, you would press left on the D-Pad. To deactivate it, you would press the same button (left on the D-Pad) again.

But, if you wanted ENVG, you would press left on the D-Pad for night vision and then press right on the D-Pad to "add" the thermal vision "layer" which would give you ENVG. Pressing right again would remove the thermal vision layer and return you to regular night vision.

The opposite would also happen, press right on the D-Pad for thermal vision to activate it and press right again to deactivate it. While you have thermal vision equipped, you could press left on the D-Pad to add the night vision layer to give you ENVG. Pressing left again would remove the night vision layer and leave you with regular thermal vision.

Does that make sense? It's not necessarily realistic, but neither was sonar vision either. Just something to think about.

[SolidSage]

What about Magnetic Vision? Gosh you lot are behind the times.

Personally I feel like Sonar is a combo of NVG and Thermal anyway, as far as what it does basically, see in the dark and outline humans through walls. But giving players the ability to seperate the benefits and maybe enhance the individual vision modes by doing so, (no screen distortion when moving for example), seems reasonable to me.

Your controller layout, Freedoms, sounds like it would work. Where do we assign gadgets though? NVG left, Thermal Right, Sonar up, gun change down...? Cycling through gadgets was left and right before. You could do all three goggles on the UP and just have to cycle through them. Or make the player choose ONE set during mission brief?

[Knot3D]

Back to basics :NVG ONLY and ONLY NVG !

**** yeah

[Jazz117Volkov]

@ Jazz

I thought it was the opposite, something cool and unique that hadn't been done before. I just wish it was useful for more things than just marking enemies.

Also, not having it in sequels would be kind of silly because they established in Conviction that not only do Third Echelon Splinter Cells use sonar goggles but also Voron operatives, so in a way it's an internationally accepted piece of equipment. It would be like a Future Soldier sequel not having UAVs, technology going backwards and not forwards.

Yeah, very true.
But when I say boring, I refer to the black and white static look, and the uber plain ping wave that washes over everything...
Some falloff effects and a neat little human recognition outliner thingy scan line would really enhance the imagery.
It should pick up all intractable objects, like doors, lights, switches, computers etc. that would make it more useful.

And a quick fix for the motion problem:
All X-ray-ness fades (so you can't see through walls) and ONLY the scanned enemies go fuzzy--that way you still loose perception while moving (it would be like regular NV, but with fuzzy silhouettes floating around) but you can still SEE, I.E. navigate etc.

[Knot3D]

I think Sonar vision could be countered. Kind of like the principle of noise-cancelation ; active counter sonar frequencies.

[SolidSage]

Maybe Sonar should have a more limited range. I know when we were engaged in Anti Submarine Warfare (one of the Seahawks primary missions), a grid of SonoBuoys would be set up in the particular quadrant of ocean. Each buoy was pretty big. Those tiny goggles surely could only cover 25' or so?
I like your idea Jazz. Fuzzy intel but clear movement vision when mobile.
I thought the only counters for it were being REALLY quiet or destroying the ping generators and receiver.

[BoBwUzHeRe1138]

I honestly don't think it'd be a problem if we lost/gained tech. That's never been a problem before. I mean, it was established that Sam had access to a Laser Mic that was a separate piece of tech in the first 2 games. Then in CT, it was built into his EEV vision. Then, inexplicably, it was separate tech in DA(360) again, as opposed to being built into his EEV mode. All of a sudden, it's outright gone in SCC. Also according to SCC, the SC's for some reason lost all silencers for their weapons, and also lost all access to anything but smoke grenades, unsilenced SC3000s and any sense of stealth training. They LOST the SC-20k, perhaps one of the BIGGEST pieces of tech established for literally 4 games but also a few handhelds and the original Xbox version of DA as being standard for not only Sam but also other SC agents. So honestly, if theydid away with sonar, when you really think about it, it's not that big a deal.

It's never stopped them before. Why is everyone hung up on tech being thrown out...it'd make the gameplay a little less cheap imo.

[The_5_Freedoms]

@ SolidSage

Did you forget how we selected gadgets in previous games? You pressed a button (RB I think it was) and a little menu popped up and then you could use the D-Pad to scroll through gadgets and A to select one.

Having all three vision modes on one button would be terrible. If you were trying to cycle through them all to get to the last vision mode and you missed then you would have to cycle all the way through it again. It just creates too many problems.

@ Jazz

Sounds good.

@ Bob

I remember that... but it was justified because Sam had to use the laser mic in the JBA Headquarters and he couldn't walk around wearing his goggles without attracting attention.

Also, I think there was actually a laser mic built into the cameras on the Lincoln Memorial level in Conviction.

I agree the SC-20K being removed was a big mistake, but Reed's bio said he started changing Third Echelon policies so that kind of explains it and he's dead anyway so no problem bringing it back.