Re: Manhack Productions *Update (8-18-09) Manhack Nest
MaximDude wrote:
I have an idea that might be interesting.
Make a scanner (The little hovering bastard that flashes you in HL2) and have it hover about 80px over the ground (Some fancy lua to always keep it at the same altitude) and have it scan for enemy units.
When a unit is found, have it decend about 30px and flash the actor, then after a short delay have some (5 to 10) manhacks spawned at the top of the scene (At the same X position of the scanner) and have them decend upon the enemy.
Once the enemy is dead, have them go back to the top of the scene and dissapear.
It can be a pretty cool automated defence system.
Staying at a fixed height is easy, Staying at a fixed height
in relation to terrain is nigh impossible. scanning for enemy units would either require it be an actor, otherwise it will generate an ungodly amount of lag. the flash, and spawning of manhacks would be easy to do as a HDevice, as for making the manhacks spawned, only attack the pre-targeted unit, and nothing else, would also both lag, and be a pain.
The solution. the scanner is an actor of some kind with an HDevice. the HDevice causes the flash, and fires an invisible lua bullet. that lua bullet would use lua to create a manhack pod above and to the left.
The result is the manhack pod is right there, nearly on top of the target, spewing out manhacks.
ON THAT NOTE! BUG-REPORT!
Manhack pods do not always release the manhacks and scuttle first.
Manhack pods do not settle as terrain but blink out of existence.
manhack pods take entirely to long to release manhacks, upwards of 30 seconds, thats crazy.
Manhack pods sometimes fall on there side, and then try to release INTO THE GROUND.
If a manhack pod is ordered to scuttle, the manhacks themselves get assigned to team 2, IE blue, and will attack both the player and AI.
Manhack Hives need to be made of something that the manhacks can't destroy, it just makes no logical sense, that if a box of spinning blades, touches a spinning blade it gets hurt.
I suggest you do this by making the manhack weaker, so that it wont be as deadly to browncoats and dreadnoughts. this might also solve the next bug/feature as well...
IS THIS A BUG OR A FEATURE?
If you are above an enemy base, within the range for a manhack to spot an enemy, but there is terrain in the way, the manhack will fly streight at it, and DIG THROUGH THE TERRAIN UNTILL IT GETS THERE!. It will dig through megametal, it will destroy doors. I beat every mission i have except zombie cave and that crab mission, using NOTHING but the manhack gun. the manhacks wouldn't target any of the non actor objects in zombie cave, and i didn't buy a digger on the crab mission.
I usually did so by standing above where it said the enemy brain was, and just started firing blind untill I had an ant collony shaped hole going down into the brain. Is that supposed to happen? i dont remember the manhacks being able to burrow, in fact, they had a hard time getting past wooden crates.