Let me preface this thread by saying that no, the inclusion of this feature would not make or break Killing Floor 2. Perhaps this could apply to a number of other features already confirmed for Killing Floor 2 but regardless, I’m surprised I didn't see this suggested previously.
So, when it came to communication Killing Floor 1 had text/voice chat and a limited selection of squad responses. And it worked. The thing is, Tripwire is going all out with Killing Floor 2. The sequel is improving upon everything that came before but understandably we have heard little about many of the smaller details of the game. We can expect text chat, we can expect voice chat, and we can expect squad responses all with improvements having been made. But if Killing Floor 2 isn't already taking this a step further, why shouldn't it?
Part 1: Gestures
Squad responses were communicated via radio in Killing Floor 1 but we never saw them physically use it. I've mentioned in the past that I'm hoping Tripwire pays extra attention to the small details and having a game full of animations for everything is a part of that. Even if we don't get a radio animation in Killing Floor 2 (and I think we should), I feel that having gestures to go with the squad responses would make the game feel more alive. All the characters already call out when they're reloading and ask that others cover them, so let's add to this "tacticool" feeling, shall we?. My idea is that gestures would be linked to existing squad responses. The gestures could be similar to those used by military and police forces (http://ift.tt/1vIQ0yo), like waving your hand in a circle over your head meaning that everyone should regroup. Some of the characters are civilians so perhaps a slightly less official set of gestures would be used by everyone. On the other hand, these civilians are surprisingly adept with using weapons so maybe that's not too important.
If Killing Floor 2 doesn't have an expanded squad responses menu with a lot of these sorts of voice lines / orders already recorded, one possibility could be that gestures would instead be given their own section, either within squad responses or in a separate menu (bound to a different key), and wouldn't be individually voiced. That would be fine too though there would need to be some kind of way to draw attention to the gestures being made. Killing Floor 1 had the player's character portrait pop up when they use a squad response so maybe the same thing could occur (or however it is implemented in Killing Floor 2) except it has the player animated and making the gesture instead of just being static so everyone is aware of what they're signalling to do. Some generic voice lines could be used every time, like them saying "Listen up" or something. Whatever is available really, since it might not be reasonable to expect more lines to be recorded by all the VAs at this stage in development.
Example Gesture-Compatible Commands:
- Charge! / Fire!
- Fall back!
- Halt! / Hold fire!
- Move / Flank left
- Move / Flank right
- Regroup
As this is Killing Floor, they don't all have to be serious.
- Thumbs up
- Thumbs down
- Wave
- Beckon (Full hand or single finger)
- Clapping
- Fist pump
An even less serious extension that I can't reasonably expect to make it into the final game would be something like rude and obscene hand gestures. If linked to squad responses these could be paired with "Insult Players" and "Insult Specimens" lines though it would be better if they were given their own "Insults" sub-category where the player could pick which one they wanted to use. This game has an international cast so one possibility for this would be to have a shared pool of general ones like "The Finger" or shaking one's fist and then have exclusive nation/region specific ones like the Bras D'Honneur or the Two-Finger Salute depending on the character using it (the French punk girl and Mr. Foster, respectively). If nothing else this would make each character feel slightly more unique. But maybe it would be more fun to let people choose any of them at their leisure.
Example Rude Gestures:
- The Finger
- Fist wag
- Bras D'Honneur
- Two-Finger Salute
- Thumbs up ("Up yours")
- Dick head
- Le Camembert ("Shut up")
- Gallic Shrug
Part 2: Player-to-Player Interaction
This part might be more of a stretch than gestures - bear with me for now. I've noticed, to my disappointment, that not too many games seem to have this. I still remember playing the demo for one of the Army of Two games years ago. The game was also about Co-Op and I spent way more time on it than I probably should have not because of the gameplay (which was okay) but because of a detail as seemingly minor as player-to-player interaction. For Reference: (http://ift.tt/1vrtpkf) High-fiving, chest bumping, or playing air guitar was such a small detail but as you can see it left a big impression on me. There is a lot to consider from a designer's point of view. In Army of Two you can only interact when not in combat (so like between Killing Floor waves) and to perform it the two players have to face each other while one of them presses an interact button. The interaction is pretty quick but it locks the two of them in the animation so that it doesn't look weird. In Team Fortress 2 the interactions can be done at any time but after the first player starts doing an interactive taunt the second player only has so much time to react and also press the taunt button when nearby before it fails. I'm pretty sure TF2 also locks the player in taunt animations unless it's something like a Congo Line which could go on for as long as the player wishes.
The best system for Killing Floor 2 would be a mix between the two. Players need to be facing each other and any single person activating an interaction would trigger it. Interactions could be carried out at any point in time, even during a wave, with a caveat that pressing a movement key or shooting would cancel you out of it. Interactions could possibly be viewed in third person for the sake of visibility and ease of animating (so there doesn't need to be both first and third person animations). Servers would of course have the ability to tweak these settings to their liking. What excites me the most about this sort of stuff are the potential applications of it for players. "Bonding" with your Killing Floor partners is great and so is playing Rock-Paper-Scissors to pass the time between waves. What's even cooler is playing thee mini-games to make decisions or gamble. Just telling someone to do something via text/voice is so boring, and I wish more games embraced more unconventional mechanics like this even just for the sake of fun. I can also think of two ways to implement player interactions. The first would be to stick them in a separate menu from squad responses (sharing it with gestures if that's what is done). The second would be to make it context-sensitive, as in you activate it by mousing over a player and pushing a button / clicking a mouse button to bring up the interactions menu. The first option would be more open but the second could be more intuitive.
Examples Gameplay Uses:
- Deciding Who Goes Medic
- Deciding Who Gets The Ammo / Vest Pickup
- Deciding What Map To Play Next
- Getting Rid Of Duplicate Perk Users
- Games For Dosh / Weapon Giveaways
Example Positive Interactions:
- Pat On The Back
- High-Five
- Handshake (A la Predator)
- Fist Bump
- Chest Bump
- Rock-Paper-Scissors (With player choices)
- Thumb War? (With inputs or some other system to actually overpower the opponent)
- Guess The Number (Behind back or in head; with inputs for both players)
Only requiring one player to activate it also open up the possibility of negative interactions (also seen in Army of Two).
Example Negative Interactions:
- Punch in the Face
- Slap (Front and Back of head)
- Shoving (Coincidentally, this would be handy if someone is blocking an entrance or something)
- Kick
So what do you guys think? Do you like the idea itself? Do you only like one of the two parts? Do you have alternative gestures / interactions that you feel would be more appropriate for Killing Floor than the ones I suggested? This idea would be something to work on after the Early Access is out for sure if that's a concern since Tripwire is probably in crunch-mode right now.
So, when it came to communication Killing Floor 1 had text/voice chat and a limited selection of squad responses. And it worked. The thing is, Tripwire is going all out with Killing Floor 2. The sequel is improving upon everything that came before but understandably we have heard little about many of the smaller details of the game. We can expect text chat, we can expect voice chat, and we can expect squad responses all with improvements having been made. But if Killing Floor 2 isn't already taking this a step further, why shouldn't it?
Part 1: Gestures
Squad responses were communicated via radio in Killing Floor 1 but we never saw them physically use it. I've mentioned in the past that I'm hoping Tripwire pays extra attention to the small details and having a game full of animations for everything is a part of that. Even if we don't get a radio animation in Killing Floor 2 (and I think we should), I feel that having gestures to go with the squad responses would make the game feel more alive. All the characters already call out when they're reloading and ask that others cover them, so let's add to this "tacticool" feeling, shall we?. My idea is that gestures would be linked to existing squad responses. The gestures could be similar to those used by military and police forces (http://ift.tt/1vIQ0yo), like waving your hand in a circle over your head meaning that everyone should regroup. Some of the characters are civilians so perhaps a slightly less official set of gestures would be used by everyone. On the other hand, these civilians are surprisingly adept with using weapons so maybe that's not too important.
If Killing Floor 2 doesn't have an expanded squad responses menu with a lot of these sorts of voice lines / orders already recorded, one possibility could be that gestures would instead be given their own section, either within squad responses or in a separate menu (bound to a different key), and wouldn't be individually voiced. That would be fine too though there would need to be some kind of way to draw attention to the gestures being made. Killing Floor 1 had the player's character portrait pop up when they use a squad response so maybe the same thing could occur (or however it is implemented in Killing Floor 2) except it has the player animated and making the gesture instead of just being static so everyone is aware of what they're signalling to do. Some generic voice lines could be used every time, like them saying "Listen up" or something. Whatever is available really, since it might not be reasonable to expect more lines to be recorded by all the VAs at this stage in development.
Example Gesture-Compatible Commands:
- Charge! / Fire!
- Fall back!
- Halt! / Hold fire!
- Move / Flank left
- Move / Flank right
- Regroup
As this is Killing Floor, they don't all have to be serious.
- Thumbs up
- Thumbs down
- Wave
- Beckon (Full hand or single finger)
- Clapping
- Fist pump
An even less serious extension that I can't reasonably expect to make it into the final game would be something like rude and obscene hand gestures. If linked to squad responses these could be paired with "Insult Players" and "Insult Specimens" lines though it would be better if they were given their own "Insults" sub-category where the player could pick which one they wanted to use. This game has an international cast so one possibility for this would be to have a shared pool of general ones like "The Finger" or shaking one's fist and then have exclusive nation/region specific ones like the Bras D'Honneur or the Two-Finger Salute depending on the character using it (the French punk girl and Mr. Foster, respectively). If nothing else this would make each character feel slightly more unique. But maybe it would be more fun to let people choose any of them at their leisure.
Example Rude Gestures:
- The Finger
- Fist wag
- Bras D'Honneur
- Two-Finger Salute
- Thumbs up ("Up yours")
- Dick head
- Le Camembert ("Shut up")
- Gallic Shrug
Part 2: Player-to-Player Interaction
This part might be more of a stretch than gestures - bear with me for now. I've noticed, to my disappointment, that not too many games seem to have this. I still remember playing the demo for one of the Army of Two games years ago. The game was also about Co-Op and I spent way more time on it than I probably should have not because of the gameplay (which was okay) but because of a detail as seemingly minor as player-to-player interaction. For Reference: (http://ift.tt/1vrtpkf) High-fiving, chest bumping, or playing air guitar was such a small detail but as you can see it left a big impression on me. There is a lot to consider from a designer's point of view. In Army of Two you can only interact when not in combat (so like between Killing Floor waves) and to perform it the two players have to face each other while one of them presses an interact button. The interaction is pretty quick but it locks the two of them in the animation so that it doesn't look weird. In Team Fortress 2 the interactions can be done at any time but after the first player starts doing an interactive taunt the second player only has so much time to react and also press the taunt button when nearby before it fails. I'm pretty sure TF2 also locks the player in taunt animations unless it's something like a Congo Line which could go on for as long as the player wishes.
The best system for Killing Floor 2 would be a mix between the two. Players need to be facing each other and any single person activating an interaction would trigger it. Interactions could be carried out at any point in time, even during a wave, with a caveat that pressing a movement key or shooting would cancel you out of it. Interactions could possibly be viewed in third person for the sake of visibility and ease of animating (so there doesn't need to be both first and third person animations). Servers would of course have the ability to tweak these settings to their liking. What excites me the most about this sort of stuff are the potential applications of it for players. "Bonding" with your Killing Floor partners is great and so is playing Rock-Paper-Scissors to pass the time between waves. What's even cooler is playing thee mini-games to make decisions or gamble. Just telling someone to do something via text/voice is so boring, and I wish more games embraced more unconventional mechanics like this even just for the sake of fun. I can also think of two ways to implement player interactions. The first would be to stick them in a separate menu from squad responses (sharing it with gestures if that's what is done). The second would be to make it context-sensitive, as in you activate it by mousing over a player and pushing a button / clicking a mouse button to bring up the interactions menu. The first option would be more open but the second could be more intuitive.
Examples Gameplay Uses:
- Deciding Who Goes Medic
- Deciding Who Gets The Ammo / Vest Pickup
- Deciding What Map To Play Next
- Getting Rid Of Duplicate Perk Users
- Games For Dosh / Weapon Giveaways
Example Positive Interactions:
- Pat On The Back
- High-Five
- Handshake (A la Predator)
- Fist Bump
- Chest Bump
- Rock-Paper-Scissors (With player choices)
- Thumb War? (With inputs or some other system to actually overpower the opponent)
- Guess The Number (Behind back or in head; with inputs for both players)
Only requiring one player to activate it also open up the possibility of negative interactions (also seen in Army of Two).
Example Negative Interactions:
- Punch in the Face
- Slap (Front and Back of head)
- Shoving (Coincidentally, this would be handy if someone is blocking an entrance or something)
- Kick
So what do you guys think? Do you like the idea itself? Do you only like one of the two parts? Do you have alternative gestures / interactions that you feel would be more appropriate for Killing Floor than the ones I suggested? This idea would be something to work on after the Early Access is out for sure if that's a concern since Tripwire is probably in crunch-mode right now.
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