Alright guise, real talk here. I have a spare button left in the control scheme of my current project along the lines of X for Equipment in Halo 3. Right now I have Vision Modes tied to it, and there are four.
-A default 25M motion tracker that only detects teammates, vehicles, enemies shooting and people with active powerups.
-A night vision-style mode that can blind distant snipers if you look at them and also shows the remaining battery/ammo on all existing weapons wielded by allies and enemies.
-Anti-camping vision. No wallhacks. Essentially, it doesn't show player models, but "tracks brain activity" by displaying players as glowy orbs at head-level and displays a mild glow on the floor trailing where they went. This glow does NOT disappear over time but instead over distance, meaning you can tell if someone's waiting behind a corner for you. It'll also display a brighter orb in places where a person's lost their shields.
-Finally, a vision mode that'll show you how allies and enemies are pressing their right trigger. While it may seem useless, seeing how they're using their trigger is essential to winning in Fisticuffs (another gameplay element that replaces traditional Melee). Fisticuff animations have pretty visible cues, but this mode is mostly to help beginners who haven't memorized them yet. As a bonus, this mode also detects "soul residue" and will display the insignia of the class over freshly-dropped weapons, which can aid in map control.
Everyone has every vision mode at any given time and can switch them on the fly using A and the DPad. You can also rig certain scenarios to short out enemy vision modes which depend on the specific mode, and two classes have an EMP bonus that let you jam their ability to switch vision mode on headshots. The sandbox itself is being built with the vision modes in mind; they aren't just tacked on.
Thing is, Over's got me worried that people hate this kind of shit, so I want more opinions. If you don't like the idea of vision modes, what would you recommend replace them as a gameplay element? Keep in mind custom loadouts, equipment and armor abilities do not exist.
I worded that badly. I blame the crazy heat we've been getting lately.
