Preface: As the title suggests, my main interest is atmosphere. Having seen the trailers so far and read the articles of the journalists that attended the hands-off demonstration, I definitely see massive improvement in this department, though not enough to prevent me from throwing some of my own ideas and thoughts out there. They are above all meant to make the game more scary/intense, with little thought for gameplay. I am sure that shall be seen to by the other members of these forums.
Horde Composition: Personally, I have found that the specimens in KF1 were rather unthreatening on higher difficulties. Rather strange considering they were supposed to be more threatening then. I blame this on the fact that there were just too many enemies. They stopped being individuals and became a wall of flesh into which to unload. It is the smaller encounters that were threatening. Being able to see the specimen in all of its glory is intimidating. Two angry fleshpounds charging at me with a bunch of other specimens are less intense for me to face than a single yet to be enraged fleshpound closing in.
Now of course KF is not exactly about single encounters and I would not ask for that. Otherwise this section would be titled "Horde Size". Instead, I would suggest certain specimens to be paired with others to augment them. I shall take two examples from the first game. The clot/bloat combo most of us know from early waves is a good one. The bloat clearly stands out, towering over the clots and having vastly different proportions. Another common combo is stalker/crawler. This comes about because they shared spawns. Personally I find this combo unsatisfying. Both types are rather unremarkable physically. I would much rather have them bunched up with more impressive counterparts. Now to give the combos I would suggest, since I am sure that if I am not immediately shot down on this, people will want to know, if perhaps only to shoot me down for more precise reasons.
Cloat/Bloat is classic one might say and thus should stay in my opinion. Gorefast/Husk is based on their movement speed and method of attacking being opposites. Stalker/Scrake is for one the quiet sounds that announce both, but also again the combination of something imposing with something less noticeable. Siren/Crawler lends itself to a sort of twisted mother/child comparison while the amount of activity is also very different with the twitchy crawlers skittering along while the siren stumbles forward. Fleshpound is, in my opinion, no material for combinations. Instead I would see him as a disruption, with his rage overpowering everything else. Note that I have left out the new specimen types, since I do not know enough about them. If you want an opinion, both seem similar to the fleshpound in that their behaviour in the trailers hints at them disrupting the pattern instead of extending it.
Spawns: I am rather sure that I do not have to say that simply throwing the specimens on the map just like that would be a waste. This was especially noticeable on biotics lab in the original. Many will know what I speak of, with a horde simply appearing at the players own spawn if the team was positioned incorrectly while making a stand there. The clot appearing in the trailer looked very good in my opinion, with him climbing out of that vent. I would like to see more of that, meaning not just the simple acknowledgement of the fact specimens come from somewhere, but a full on animation. Also easily seen on biotics lab, though on other maps as well, are the long corridors with blockades in front of them which the specimens will approach and scale to enter the map proper, "scale" being used very loosely here.
Though I do not, of course, know if that kind of spawn will reappear in KF2, I shall use it as an example for what I would like. As already stated, before crossing the barricade, the specimens are not in the actual map itself. Thus, why stick to the usual moving animations? This short segment gives the ability to play around with the personality of the different specimens, give them special interactions with the enviroment, since the most interaction they will be doing with the players is getting hit by bullets. So perhaps make them break into a short run, have them clutch the wall to pull themselves forward or in the case of the gorefast, have him drag his blade along it. Of course it would be cool to have that in the game proper, but there a player can approach, forcing the animation to be interrupted and probably causing a rather ugly transition into an attack. But that cannot happen during that spawn corridor, as already pointed out, at most they can die and ragdolling should be smooth enough.
Player Models: I will not ask for the players to display active damage. With all the different damage types coming at them, trying to make it all show might actually be even worse than just leaving it. Clothing being torn by a husks flamethrower and the like. Instead I would like if the round number could show. The team looking more ragged round for round, though I should note that I mean ragged in a stamina sense. Sweat, a less heroic stance than at the beginning of the game and such. To bring up another game, I found Spec Ops: The Line did this very well, showing the exhausting nature of it all both with the appearance of the characters and their tone. Of course standing just as straight after the victory, chucking dosh about has its very own flair, but I personally would prefer this more dark version. Not that I am going to forbid the chucking of dosh, though it may in that context have more of a "money cannot buy happiness" vibe to it.
Enviromental Damage: I am of course familiar with the system that will allow for us to enjoy permanent gore and I quickly wondered if this could be extended to less wet a testimony to our battle. Bulletholes come to mind, so do scorches left by fire and claw marks left by crawlers. These small things can really make an impact, in two cases especially. The first being the beginning of the game, when the enviroment first gets its scars. Claw marks but no specimen came from this direction? That is something to make the player nervous. The second being the opposite, when all hell has been unleashed. After that, the absence of these marks will be a bit of a moodkiller to some.
Specimen Movement: I am going to specifically adress two specimens in this segment. Crawlers and Fleshpounds. Both had things about their movement in KF1 that bothered me. First up is the crawler. My complaint here is simple. They stuck to the floor far too often. I do feel hopeful that this will change, having seen the trailer. However I will still point it out since it peeved me so. Especially when hordes push down a corridor I found this bothersome. Often crawlers would run among the other specimens legs which I found, considering the temper of most, rather unwise. Would not a creature capable of it, in that case take to the walls and ceilings? Not only for its own safety but also to reach the tasty manflesh up ahead faster than the others? These specimens should be using the walls, perhaps even preferrably to the floor. I do not know about others, but personally the idea of a corridor's four surfaces being covered in a layer of advancing crawlers is highly appealing, with the players having to practically shave them off the walls with gunfire.
The fleshpound part of this section will probably draw quite a bit of fire, since it goes a bit more into gameplay than other parts of this entire post and as I have already said, my priorities in writing this lie with atmosphere. To put it simply, I want the fleshpounds charge to be more like an unstoppable force of nature. With this I am not complaining about the animation, which appeals to me, but rather to its impact on other specimens. They just get pushed aside by it in KF1. I would much rather if everything smaller than the fleshpound by a large margin to be turned into a spray of blood or tossed aside as he charges toward his chosen target. This of course means that he might clear out a large amount of minor specimens, saving the players a lot of bullets, but I personally feel the awesome effect of seeing this ragefilled abomination tear through friend and foe would more than make up for such a gameplay impact.
Larger Strategy: Forget what I said about the previous section drawing fire, this is the section that will. I previously talked about the image of an entire corridor being covered in a layer of crawlers. Naturally this would not happen through pure coincidence. That would require a shove from the game to happen. I believe Left 4 Dead (never played it so I cannot be sure) has some kind of AI director or something to coordinate the zombies in that game. I would not go that far, that would probably be in the way of the slaughter more than anything. Rather I would love some triggers of some kind to be installed. The crawler corridor could occur at the beginning of a wave when the vendor was in a fittingly long corridor. A fleshpound could tear down a wall if the players stay in a certain room for an extended amount of time/rounds. Not so often as to be predictable but moreso there just to be amazing and perhaps a bit of a wakeup call.
In Conclusion: I must admit, I would probably buy this game if it were just a graphics update for KF1, but it is looking more promising than that and I am all the more gleeful for it. These ideas are something I formulated since I saw the announcement trailer (at least consciously) and now decided to bring to the devs or at least as close as I can get without appearing all too presumptuous. Though I have repeatedly talked about "taking fire" for what I write, I do very much wish for feedback, negative perhaps even more so than positive as long as it is constructive. Blatant insults shall also be accepted though, I am not that new to the internet after all.
Horde Composition: Personally, I have found that the specimens in KF1 were rather unthreatening on higher difficulties. Rather strange considering they were supposed to be more threatening then. I blame this on the fact that there were just too many enemies. They stopped being individuals and became a wall of flesh into which to unload. It is the smaller encounters that were threatening. Being able to see the specimen in all of its glory is intimidating. Two angry fleshpounds charging at me with a bunch of other specimens are less intense for me to face than a single yet to be enraged fleshpound closing in.
Now of course KF is not exactly about single encounters and I would not ask for that. Otherwise this section would be titled "Horde Size". Instead, I would suggest certain specimens to be paired with others to augment them. I shall take two examples from the first game. The clot/bloat combo most of us know from early waves is a good one. The bloat clearly stands out, towering over the clots and having vastly different proportions. Another common combo is stalker/crawler. This comes about because they shared spawns. Personally I find this combo unsatisfying. Both types are rather unremarkable physically. I would much rather have them bunched up with more impressive counterparts. Now to give the combos I would suggest, since I am sure that if I am not immediately shot down on this, people will want to know, if perhaps only to shoot me down for more precise reasons.
Cloat/Bloat is classic one might say and thus should stay in my opinion. Gorefast/Husk is based on their movement speed and method of attacking being opposites. Stalker/Scrake is for one the quiet sounds that announce both, but also again the combination of something imposing with something less noticeable. Siren/Crawler lends itself to a sort of twisted mother/child comparison while the amount of activity is also very different with the twitchy crawlers skittering along while the siren stumbles forward. Fleshpound is, in my opinion, no material for combinations. Instead I would see him as a disruption, with his rage overpowering everything else. Note that I have left out the new specimen types, since I do not know enough about them. If you want an opinion, both seem similar to the fleshpound in that their behaviour in the trailers hints at them disrupting the pattern instead of extending it.
Spawns: I am rather sure that I do not have to say that simply throwing the specimens on the map just like that would be a waste. This was especially noticeable on biotics lab in the original. Many will know what I speak of, with a horde simply appearing at the players own spawn if the team was positioned incorrectly while making a stand there. The clot appearing in the trailer looked very good in my opinion, with him climbing out of that vent. I would like to see more of that, meaning not just the simple acknowledgement of the fact specimens come from somewhere, but a full on animation. Also easily seen on biotics lab, though on other maps as well, are the long corridors with blockades in front of them which the specimens will approach and scale to enter the map proper, "scale" being used very loosely here.
Though I do not, of course, know if that kind of spawn will reappear in KF2, I shall use it as an example for what I would like. As already stated, before crossing the barricade, the specimens are not in the actual map itself. Thus, why stick to the usual moving animations? This short segment gives the ability to play around with the personality of the different specimens, give them special interactions with the enviroment, since the most interaction they will be doing with the players is getting hit by bullets. So perhaps make them break into a short run, have them clutch the wall to pull themselves forward or in the case of the gorefast, have him drag his blade along it. Of course it would be cool to have that in the game proper, but there a player can approach, forcing the animation to be interrupted and probably causing a rather ugly transition into an attack. But that cannot happen during that spawn corridor, as already pointed out, at most they can die and ragdolling should be smooth enough.
Player Models: I will not ask for the players to display active damage. With all the different damage types coming at them, trying to make it all show might actually be even worse than just leaving it. Clothing being torn by a husks flamethrower and the like. Instead I would like if the round number could show. The team looking more ragged round for round, though I should note that I mean ragged in a stamina sense. Sweat, a less heroic stance than at the beginning of the game and such. To bring up another game, I found Spec Ops: The Line did this very well, showing the exhausting nature of it all both with the appearance of the characters and their tone. Of course standing just as straight after the victory, chucking dosh about has its very own flair, but I personally would prefer this more dark version. Not that I am going to forbid the chucking of dosh, though it may in that context have more of a "money cannot buy happiness" vibe to it.
Enviromental Damage: I am of course familiar with the system that will allow for us to enjoy permanent gore and I quickly wondered if this could be extended to less wet a testimony to our battle. Bulletholes come to mind, so do scorches left by fire and claw marks left by crawlers. These small things can really make an impact, in two cases especially. The first being the beginning of the game, when the enviroment first gets its scars. Claw marks but no specimen came from this direction? That is something to make the player nervous. The second being the opposite, when all hell has been unleashed. After that, the absence of these marks will be a bit of a moodkiller to some.
Specimen Movement: I am going to specifically adress two specimens in this segment. Crawlers and Fleshpounds. Both had things about their movement in KF1 that bothered me. First up is the crawler. My complaint here is simple. They stuck to the floor far too often. I do feel hopeful that this will change, having seen the trailer. However I will still point it out since it peeved me so. Especially when hordes push down a corridor I found this bothersome. Often crawlers would run among the other specimens legs which I found, considering the temper of most, rather unwise. Would not a creature capable of it, in that case take to the walls and ceilings? Not only for its own safety but also to reach the tasty manflesh up ahead faster than the others? These specimens should be using the walls, perhaps even preferrably to the floor. I do not know about others, but personally the idea of a corridor's four surfaces being covered in a layer of advancing crawlers is highly appealing, with the players having to practically shave them off the walls with gunfire.
The fleshpound part of this section will probably draw quite a bit of fire, since it goes a bit more into gameplay than other parts of this entire post and as I have already said, my priorities in writing this lie with atmosphere. To put it simply, I want the fleshpounds charge to be more like an unstoppable force of nature. With this I am not complaining about the animation, which appeals to me, but rather to its impact on other specimens. They just get pushed aside by it in KF1. I would much rather if everything smaller than the fleshpound by a large margin to be turned into a spray of blood or tossed aside as he charges toward his chosen target. This of course means that he might clear out a large amount of minor specimens, saving the players a lot of bullets, but I personally feel the awesome effect of seeing this ragefilled abomination tear through friend and foe would more than make up for such a gameplay impact.
Larger Strategy: Forget what I said about the previous section drawing fire, this is the section that will. I previously talked about the image of an entire corridor being covered in a layer of crawlers. Naturally this would not happen through pure coincidence. That would require a shove from the game to happen. I believe Left 4 Dead (never played it so I cannot be sure) has some kind of AI director or something to coordinate the zombies in that game. I would not go that far, that would probably be in the way of the slaughter more than anything. Rather I would love some triggers of some kind to be installed. The crawler corridor could occur at the beginning of a wave when the vendor was in a fittingly long corridor. A fleshpound could tear down a wall if the players stay in a certain room for an extended amount of time/rounds. Not so often as to be predictable but moreso there just to be amazing and perhaps a bit of a wakeup call.
In Conclusion: I must admit, I would probably buy this game if it were just a graphics update for KF1, but it is looking more promising than that and I am all the more gleeful for it. These ideas are something I formulated since I saw the announcement trailer (at least consciously) and now decided to bring to the devs or at least as close as I can get without appearing all too presumptuous. Though I have repeatedly talked about "taking fire" for what I write, I do very much wish for feedback, negative perhaps even more so than positive as long as it is constructive. Blatant insults shall also be accepted though, I am not that new to the internet after all.
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