Undine Assassin: PvP Scenario idea

bluegeek · April 2014

Okay, I was reading a post about the Undine infiltrator scenario and it inspired me to rip this idea from murder mystery/assassin party games.

Obviously, I have no expectation that anyone will like the idea, let alone that Cryptic would create it. But I like it, and the potential for merry chaos. I'd play this. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Undine Assassin PvP Scenario (6 man, 10m)

Each player is teleported alone to one of six spawn points at the start of the scenario. No teams are allowed.

At the start of the scenario, three of the six players are chosen at random and informed that they are an Undine assassin and they are assigned one of the other three players as a target. They are not informed who the other assassins are. Targets are informed that they are a target, but they are not given any other information.

The map consists of six separate areas which are only accessible via transporter. Using a transporter will teleport the player to a random area. Each area of the map will have lots of cover. Variations of any of the following maps could work well for this: Bajor (Hathor), Colony Invasion, Old ESD.

Free-For-All

All of the players are able to shoot each other, if they choose to do so, but they are scored according to the following criteria:

Assassin - Kills assigned target: 10 points
Assassin - Kills someone else's target: 5 points
Assassin - Kills another assassin: -10 points
Assassin - Kills in an area where targets outnumber assassins: -5 points
Assassin - Gets killed without killing a target: -5 points

Target - Kills their assassin: 10 points
Target - Kills someone else's assassin: 5 points
Target - Kills another target: -10 points
Target - Kills in an area where assassins outnumber targets: -5 points
Target - Survives the match without being killed: 20 points

During play, all players' current scores are visible to everyone. The number of Assassins/Targets in any given zone could also be visible or discoverable via some interact.

Killed players will respawn at a random spawn point. They may respawn as either an Assassin or as a Target. Newly spawned Assassins are assigned a random target, making it possible that more than one Assassin has the same assigned target.

Every Assassin gets a one-use Undine Concealment power once per match that makes them invisible and untargetable. This power can be activated at any time and lasts until it is turned off. Once turned off, it is gone and the assassin gets an ambush damage/crit buff for 10s. The assassin must turn Undine Concealment off in order to attack. Using a transporter will also turn off Undine Concealment. All other stealth powers will be disabled for the duration of the scenario. Normal stealth debuffs do not affect Undine Concealment.

Every Target gets a one-use Experimental Bio-Scanner power once per match. It will turn off active Undine Concealment of any assassin in range. Once used, it is gone.

Players are rewarded according to their score. Players may choose to cooperate, or not.

starfleetownsall · April 2014

I actually quite like the idea, a free for all with a twist

xalexkx · April 2014

played garry's mod murder, eh?
anyway, i like this idea , why not

capnmanx · April 2014

That could be a lot of fun.

I can see people throwing themselves onto mines just to louse up someone else's score though.

lucho80 · April 2014

#1- UCONN beat all the naysayers!. #1 basketball team in the US!

Having said that, and after a lot of local CT beer (I have 2 breweries closeby), this idea seems pretty good, but I doubt the engine allows for implementing it. Seems a bit like playing assassins creed.

bluegeek · April 2014

lucho80 wrote: »

this idea seems pretty good, but I doubt the engine allows for implementing it. Seems a bit like playing assassins creed.

I've never played Assassins' Creed. I read up on the basic rules for a live-action game of Assassin and tried to adapt for online PvP.

I wouldn't be too sure the engine couldn't be modified. Whether or not the necessary changes meet the bang/buck criteria is much more in doubt. Just because I think it's doable doesn't mean it is, or that it's worth it to Cryptic.

My reasoning behind this is, you never know who might be an Undine impostor. And why should the computer have all the fun?

My suggestions are an attempt to boil this down to the fastest-paced, most dynamic scenario I can think of where a player role-plays the part of an Undine impostor and people are left guessing long enough to make it a match.

Part of it is giving players reasons to shoot each other.

The harder part, in a scenario like this, is giving them reasons not to shoot each other.

And the concept is somewhat reusable. There are two major races of shapeshifters just in STO. Add in shapeshifters for Champs and Neverwinter, and then other kinds of imposters and double agents... well. I only picked Undine because it's the current thing.

I agree up front that it's not really a realistic scenario. It's a very contrived situation. I just haven't come up with another way to do it that seemed playable.

bluegeek · April 2014

I thought of something else...

Seems like each of the six areas needs two transporters/portals, so that Targets can run and Assassins can pursue.

thay8472 · April 2014

Yeah! Sutherland approves.

In the unlikely event this does make it into the game... Sutherland is not an Undine!

bluegeek · April 2014

The really sticky part of this concept, I think, is whether the code can be adapted to apply an arbitrary 'tag' to a player so the engine knows at any given time whether that player is an "Assassin" or a "Target" and which targets belong to which assassins.

The next sticky part is whether the game engine can easily handle the concept of a "free for all" map where everybody can shoot at everybody regardless of faction/alignment. If you have to separate Assassins and Targets into Red vs. Blue it spoils the whole fun of not knowing who's who.

I have no way to answer either of these questions about how the engine works under the hood.

thay8472 · April 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

The really sticky part of this concept, I think, is whether the code can be adapted to apply an arbitrary 'tag' to a player so the engine knows at any given time whether that player is an "Assassin" or a "Target" and which targets belong to which assassins.

The next sticky part is whether the game engine can easily handle the concept of a "free for all" map where everybody can shoot at everybody regardless of faction/alignment. If you have to separate Assassins and Targets into Red vs. Blue it spoils the whole fun of not knowing who's who.

I have no way to answer either of these questions about how the engine works under the hood.

beam down to an arena thats full of the placate gas?