Improvement: Bridge Destruction

Dalorian · 2012-11-21, 04:23 AM

Hello all,

I would like to suggest that it be possible to blow up bridges in the game. To repair a bridge would take longer then repairing a turret or anything else...

This would allow for more tactics and large scale strategies to be orchestrated by cutting off the enemies Heavy vehicles from being able to come into the fray from other areas for a while. At least until they can repair the bridge. If they can...

The Faction that currently owns the area would have an increase natural ability to repair their bridges faster, and also the influence of the factions on that area could also effect the expediency of repair times...

I think this would be a Very welcomed addition to this game and would create a whole new level of strategy and tactics to the game...

For example: You and your platoon could rig the bridge with C4, and wait till a tank column passes over it... When the time is right, you blow the bridge and all the tanks plummet to their destruction or get blown up with the bridge...

Another Example: Your army is assaulting a major facility, and there is one major route that has been feeding them with support vehicles which is causing a stalemate... You arrange for a platoon to rig and destroy the bridge to cut off their re-reinforcements temporarily. Giving you enough time to capture the Facility...

One more example: You want to focus on attacking in one area but the enemy keeps raiding bases that are to far away for any of you to re-deploy quickly enough to the troubled areas... You plan to destroy your own connecting bridges around those areas in order to buy you time so you can launch attacks in other sectors and keep your rear safe for a while...

It would probably make sense to make bridges Highly Durable. So it would take a large co-ordinated attack in order to destroy them. Depending on their sizes and the influences on them...

In saying all this, You would then have wars starting over bridges. Trying to keep them repaired, or trying to keep them from being repaired. On some of the bigger bridges, you might even consider adding some anti air or stationary bunkers on either side, or even on them, to help defend the bridges...

You might also consider an order of repair for the bridges... First, the underlying structure of the bridge would re-appear when complete.. Second stage would be walk ways and foot soldier paths completion on their sides. Third stage would be The main road being repaired... And the final stage would be the Repairing of all the AA guns and Bunkers. In order to destroy the bridge, the most effective route would be to blow the underlying structure of it which would cause all the rest of the bridge components to follow suit...

One Con that I can think of for this idea is, there will probably be players who will simply enjoy blowing up bridges way to much. This would leave a lot of bridges inaccessible until repaired. Here are some possible solutions to this.
-Special skills or devices that need to be purchased to destroy bridges. Probably consumable...
-Make bridges so durable that 1 person would never be able to blow it. It would take him longer then most people would care to attempt alone...

Another Con I can think of is FF incidents. If the bridge is blown by a group of people who are being Grievers and killing their own people by destroying the bridges regardless of who is on it...
-You could punish the people involved in the bridge destruction by limiting the time until they can blow another bridge by 1 hour for each friendly that was killed in the explosion...
- You could make it impossible to completely destroy a bridge if there are friendlies still on it...

Please feel free to leave your feedback about this idea, or any additional suggestions relating to it which would improve upon what I have started here. I will take the best Suggestions, in my opinion, and Quote them below this section of this post over time. Please feel free to contact me about this via PM if you are shy. We can work on them in private, then I will quote your ideas from those posts if they are any good.

Thank You

EDIT: Added Suggestions and Idea Improvements:

-Aircraft could eventually research a few expensive skills that would allow them to blow a bridge up after a few fly bys. You could create a special skill that costs like 1000-5000 research in order to give aircraft the ability to increase their damage significantly when targeting bridges. Possibly also requiring a special weapon for it and Expensive Consumable ammo. Something like 200-500 Aircraft points per missile and to destroy a bridge, you might require something like 4-8 missiles... THis Idea was Come to thanks to the video that Figment Posted below.

-Since Bridge explosions might cause a lot of lag for some or all players, It is highly recommended that Bridge explosions be given their own Graphics setting. You could turn them off completely, or simply adjust the detail of bridge explosions... This suggestion was thought of thanks to the thoughts of my friend, Deathmax.

-Bridges should have an auto repair function. When a bridge is destroyed, after 15 min, its possible to cross on foot, after 30 you can travel by tank/etc. The turrets and bunkers would have to be repaired by hand though still i think. Engineers could speed this process up more or less, depending on their skill in repair... This idea was arrived at thanks to the help of GLaDOS and Vakarian.

-Give engineers a special skill that allows them to construct temporary bridges. Perhaps they could become permanent if they are used a lot over a period of time? Or perhaps they could simply dissapear after a few minutes to an hour? They would also be destructible and repairable as long as they aren't completely destroyed? This Idea is thanks to Tycho.

-Do you know the ANT system from PlanetSide 1? This was there to restore energy to bases after they were drained due to repairing the base facilities automatically. The ANTs would have to fill up with NTU at an active warpgate, then drive to the base and unload at a NTU silo. This process could be interrupted by killing the ANT. About 10% NTU unloaded every 10 seconds. This idea was suggested by Figment as a possible solution to the bridge repair problem.

-As a Side note, to be discussed in a different thread if this idea turns out well. I can Imagine one day buildings becoming destructible and repairable. Barriers and bunkers, Terrain and whole mountains being destructible... But that is few and far between, and to be discussed at a later time...

berzerkerking · 2012-11-21, 08:30 AM

well thought out. This could work

Figment · 2012-11-21, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by Dalorian

One Con that I can think of for this idea is, there will probably be players who will simply enjoy blowing up bridges way to much.

Hmm...

Dalorian · 2012-11-21, 04:48 PM

LOL, that is awesome... The first 2 bridges that were blown in that vid were the scenes I was thinking of when I was writing this

That Video gave me another Idea. Ill add it above in the EDIT Section at the bottom...

Dalorian · 2012-11-22, 02:02 AM

I was recently given a New problem that bridge explosions might cause, by a friend of mine who cant currently play because of the graphics demand...

He said that it would probably cause a lot of lag for those players who can barely play the game as it is now...

In saying that, I have added another Improvement in my first Post at the bottom of it in the EDIT section...

GLaDOS · 2012-11-26, 08:37 PM

That would be pretty awesome if implemented properly. One problem I can think of, though, is that it would have to take a while to repair, and that would be boring as hell. Most Engineers wouldn't really want to do it.

Dalorian · 2012-11-27, 12:56 AM

Well, to compensate for that, perhaps a special upgradable bridge repair skill could be implemented also. It would have to be expensive though so that not everyone could afford it without being determined to get it, or spending real money to purchase the skill perhaps and/or skill upgrades...

Also, perhaps repairing bridges could be more rewarding for exp rewards then repairing anything else...

How about a mountable repair turret for sunders and/or helicopters? that way they would have some sort of protection while trying to repair it?

Vakarian · 2012-11-27, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by GLaDOS

That would be pretty awesome if implemented properly. One problem I can think of, though, is that it would have to take a while to repair, and that would be boring as hell. Most Engineers wouldn't really want to do it.

Well, we already know that the denizens of Auraxis use nanobots to build vehicles and weapons. Why not have it so that those same nanobots eventually repair the bridge automatically after about 15 minutes? Just have it so that engineers can repair the bridge to speed up the process and we're good.

Dalorian · 2012-11-27, 03:16 PM

That is a Very interesting idea.... hmmm

Perhaps the bridge can constantly be in a state of automatic repair.

After 15 min, its possible to cross on foot, after 30 you can travel by tank/etc. The turrets and bunkers would have to be repaired by hand though still i think...

Like you said, engineers could speed this process up more or less, depending on their skill in repair...

SGOniell · 2012-11-27, 05:03 PM

+1 Seems like a solid idea, my suggestion is to make it so attacking the supports causes more damage than just the decking.

Dalorian · 2012-11-27, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by SGOniell

+1 Seems like a solid idea, my suggestion is to make it so attacking the supports causes more damage than just the decking.

Yeah, I had already thought of that one... Its posted above...

Tycho · 2012-11-28, 12:36 AM

This idea could also lay the framework for a bridge laying version of the heavy tanks. A bridge layer could temporarily place a bridge. I would put a five minute timer on it. Roll some support across and secure the area. Then the engineers could permanently fix the bridge.

Dalorian · 2012-11-28, 01:32 AM

Originally Posted by Tycho

This idea could also lay the framework for a bridge laying version of the heavy tanks. A bridge layer could temporarily place a bridge. I would put a five minute timer on it. Roll some support across and secure the area. Then the engineers could permanently fix the bridge.

That is a neat idea... Give players the ability to actually construct new bridges... You would need some sort of material for construction. A consumable material.

Dalorian · 2012-11-28, 01:37 AM

I was also thinking, that the bunkers I mentioned before, could be used to protect engineers while repairing the bridge. Im not certain how this would work yet since if the bunker is on the bridge, and the bridge is destroyed, how could it protect the engineers while rebuilding it? Also, if the bunker is not on the bridge, but on the land next to it, how could an engineer repair the bridge while inside the bunker?

SGOniell · 2012-11-28, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by Dalorian

Yeah, I had already thought of that one... Its posted above...

Ah, I see it now, you were less specific as to the parts and only stated the underlying structure. In bridge construction there are a lot of parts to the underlying structure rather than just supports depending on what travels across it, and if there need to be power/phone/water lines. Destroying the physical supports or footings is much more damaging than say, knocking out a few redundant beams. So I think it needs to be very specific areas, not just the whole underlying structure. Still a great idea though.
*Side note: Perhaps be able to destroy it in just sections, rather than the entire bridge, so you would have the option of destroying the whole thing, but could do a quick job to delay enemy forces by taking out a section, coming back to finish the job later.