Rat ideas and Rat objectives.

[-=V12US=-]

Rat Ideas:

The following idea's are needed for another idea below this one, please read all of the post before commenting.
rats should be able to pickup cheese rations by attacking it, it then goes to the rats inventory and can be used whenever they rightclick it. The rations would then function like a speed potion and give the rats 10 seconds of 150% speed.

Also, pieces of cheese rations (only visible and retrievable by rats) should randomly spawn on the map, sort of as rat-speed generators.

Dead clawed/squashed rats should drop rations, but only the ones that have been picked up from dead guard/thief bodies.


Now comes the true meaning of this post.
Rat Objectives
Ratmode should be enhanced with rat objectives... these would vary per map offcourse and are added by the mapper. This would be a welcome addition to the rat-deathmach we have now.

Here's some idea's.

Rat Race:

There are goals/locations on the map that the rats have to get to as quickly as possile... the fastest rat wins.

For instance, people are playing on Flats, the rats objective would be:
"Get to the shop as fast as possible!"
The rats would rush the shop, and the first rat there would get a goal/point/frag.
Immediately after that a new goal would be added, for instance:
"Get to the treasury as fast as possible!"
Then the rats would have to rush the treasury, etc. etc.
The winner of this little game will get a title at the end of the round, like Race Rat (but it will not affect his score).


Find the Hidden cheese!
Same as RatRace, but instead the location wouldn't be mentioned... For obvious reasons, this cheese will only be retrievable by rats and will have a different a color to make sure the rats don't confuse them with other rations.
The winner of this little game will get a title at the end of the round, like Sherlock rat (but it will not affect his score).

Rat of the hill!
The first player to become a rat will be the Rat of the Hill, and will be darkbrown in color (to help distinct from normal rats). The Rat of the Hill can't be squashed by guards or thieves.
The other rats will have to hunt down the Rat of the Hill and try to succesfully kill him. The rat that kills the Rat of the Hill becomes the rat of the Hill himself... the player that has been rat of the hill for he longest at the end of the round wins and get's the title Rat of the Hill, this will not affect his score.

I have numerous other ideas, but I would like to see what people think of this first.

[Machine]

HAHAH! I love rat race!! each map could have courses or "points" on the map that the rats would race between!

Not too sure about find the cheese.

King Rat sounds good! a map could have a specific area (like the large flat roof on flats) where rats would get points if they were there alone.

The rat race is the best idea in my opinion, maybe make rat bites paralyse for a second or two to enhance the competative area. The rats would gain points for reaching a specific point on the map first (maybe symbolised by your cheese idea?)

Once that point is reached a new point is defined, the rats will all change direction and run to the new point, this would give people whom did not get to the first point a chance to have a head start on the others.

The map points would be random so no solid course is defined.

this way rats would be racing around the map randomly to the people playing the game!

AND you could still be squished by people still alive!

C-O-O-L idea.

[Lurox]

Yes! Rat race! First to die with no lives left wins!

[SuperNoob]

heck just make rats a whole other team..........you would join a server there would be the option... join thieves:0 lifes join guards:0 lifes join rats:8 lifes
then some cool mappers out there could make special rat maps made specifically for rat gametypes

[LaughingRat]

No rat should ever be unstompable or invulnerable to the ACTUAL PLAYERS in the game.

I think too much attention is being given to rats. It's just a spectator mode. How about we focus on the ACTUAL game issues?

[Microwave Oven]

Aw, c'mon LR, for many people, spectating is the longest portion of their game!

I always thought it would be a neat idea if that all of the guards are ko'd, the victory screen says "Rats Win" with a picture of a rat.

Rats should also be able to steal cheese.

[LaughingRat]

I always thought it would be a neat idea if that all of the guards are ko'd, the victory screen says "Rats Win" with a picture of a rat.

I really like the double entendre in that suggestion....

[-=V12US=-]

No rat should ever be unstompable or invulnerable to the ACTUAL PLAYERS in the game.

I think too much attention is being given to rats. It's just a spectator mode. How about we focus on the ACTUAL game issues?

If this were a fast-round game, like counterstrike, I would agree... but on some maps, rounds can last as long as over 30 minutes! Sometimes even 40! That's a whole lot a time to spectate, and due to that reason players often leave when they get killed/dmed early in the game.

That's why I want to provide a little entertainment for those who have to wait so long.

[LaughingRat]

If this were a fast-round game, like counterstrike, I would agree... but on some maps, rounds can last as long as over 30 minutes! Sometimes even 40! That's a whole lot a time to spectate, and due to that reason players often leave when they get killed/dmed early in the game.

That's why I want to provide a little entertainment for those who have to wait so long.

When I get eliminated from a round that soon, I take it as a sign that I really need to improve my game, and spend the rest of the round spectating better players to leanr how to improve. Result: No boredom on my part, and no frustration from players ingame at rats running around underfoot, giving away locations and pushing boxes.

[-=V12US=-]

If this were a fast-round game, like counterstrike, I would agree... but on some maps, rounds can last as long as over 30 minutes! Sometimes even 40! That's a whole lot a time to spectate, and due to that reason players often leave when they get killed/dmed early in the game.

That's why I want to provide a little entertainment for those who have to wait so long.

When I get eliminated from a round that soon, I take it as a sign that I really need to improve my game, and spend the rest of the round spectating better players to leanr how to improve. Result: No boredom on my part, and no frustration from players ingame at rats running around underfoot, giving away locations and pushing boxes.

You forgot to factor in bad luck.

Seriously, I also spectate other people a lot, but after a while there's just the thing when spectating becomes predictable, and you can plot out their whole pattern, even when they're attacked. Then things get boring fast.

[LaughingRat]

You forgot to factor in bad luck.

Seriously, I also spectate other people a lot, but after a while there's just the thing when spectating becomes predictable, and you can plot out their whole pattern, even when they're attacked. Then things get boring fast.

I must not have gotten to that point yet. I can almost always find something to learn from watching people play, even newer players.

[Bloody-Reaper]

Bling Bling Scramble!

(I want rat race!)

[DeepQantas]

OMG!

Imagine the guards camping the gem in the top floor of rectory...

Guard1: "Mwahhahhah! No one will get past these crates, caltrops, mines and kitchen accessories!"
Guard2: "Not to mention, there's only two of them left now after Sir Percyvelle bolted that one!"
Guard1: "Hey... What's that sound?"


Meanwhile, in a dark musky cellar:

...

*bling bling* Get to the Rectory Guestroom as soon as possible!

...


Guard2: "It's coming closer... I can hear it!"
Guard1: "Oh no! IT'S THE RLF!!! RUN!"

- Rat assault ensues, during which rats fly left and right trying to find the cheese some of the evil guards had secreted away, no crate is left unturned, guards have spent half their bolts futilely trying to chase off the rats and a crafty thief managed to sneak past some of the trops.

*bling bling* Objective complete: Steal the Cheese of Fire. Get to the top of the tower as fast as possible!


I love it. Guards hate it...

Look, they're after them rodents the very minute I speak!

[-=V12US=-]

If possible, there should be a large red arrow designed that allways points to the goal in rat-race (GTA style). This arrow would be where normally the compass is for human players.

This way, newbies who don't know the maps so well will also be able to participate in Rat-races too, and simultaniously learn the map in a newbie friendly manner.

There, I finally thought of a feature to make this game easier for newbies.



offcourse Rat-Race would be a server side option, so people who like regular rat deathmatch still can Ratmatch

[Entropy]

I think these ideas are awesome - make spectating more fun, but still in the spirit of the game and not affecting actual gameplay (except incidentally when hordes of rats descend on a camped location, what fun!).