Mod Ideas/DinerSaur

Description

Back in the mists of time, when Dinosaurs roamed the earth the Cavemen were hungry. The only thing they could find to barbequeue were the Dinosaurs on the grounds that the Tigers liked eatnig Caveman too much and everything else could out-run them (except plants but they just made the BBQ go smokey). So placing food out for the Dinosaurs to eat was a major pre-occupation. This was the earliest form of farming (before electric fences and cattleprods were discovered a few years later).

At the start of the level, dinosaur food (large numbers of fruit and leaves) are spawned randomly throughout the level. The Dinosaur team must eat all of the food on the level before they are eaten by the hungry cavemen to win. For every X pieces of food a Dinosaur eats it gains the ability to change into a big scary Caveman eating lizard for a short while. The ability to perform this change can be stored until needed but the count starts from zero once the change has worn off. The count is also reset when the Dinosaur gets killed. (NOTE: I believe this is similar to the way Adrenaline works). The big scary Dinosaur moves 25% faster than normal and is invulnerable to all forms of attack - but not environmental damage. Each Dinosaur has 3 lives, and once all three have been lost, must sit out the rest of the level.

The Cavemen must eat the Dinosaurs before they eat all of the food to win. Each caveman starts with a simple club and three lives. Once all three lives are lost there is one less Caveman in the world to harass the Dinosaurs. All weapons and items a Caveman can use to kill or stun a Dinosaur are listed below.

• Club - This is the Caveman's default weapon. A single blow will kill a Dinosaur outright.
• Rock - This is a short range weapon that is fired in an arc. When hit the Dinosaur is stunned for a few seconds.
• Wheel - This is a medium to long range weapon. The wheel rolls along the ground until it hits something. If it hits another caveman, then that caveman is stunned for a short time. If it hits a Dinosaur then the dinosaur is stunned for a short while.
• Springs - The Springs attach themselves to the Caveman's feet. With the springs a Caveman can stun a Dinosaur by landing on it's head. The Dinosaur must still be killed. When wearing the springs the Caveman has very little air control or ground control (but can jump quite high).
• Bow and Arrow - This is a medium to long range weapon. When a Dinosaur is hit with an arrow it is slowed down very slightly. The arrow will fall out after a while but the Dinosaur is slightly more vulnerable because it's no longer moving at the same speed as the Caveman. A Caveman can be hit by three arrows before keeling over dead.
• Spear - This is a close to medium range weapon. When a Dinosaur is hit with a spear it gets slowed down quite a lot. Spears are thrown - and cannot be used as "jabbing" weapons. If another Caveman is hit by a spear then they are killed out-right.
• Poisoned Fruit - A Caveman can leave some poisoned fruit lying around the level and wait nearby ready to rush in for the kill. When a Dinosaur eats some poisoned fruit their movement speed is massively reduced for a short time. Each piece of poisoned fruit eaten will further reduce the speed of movement.

The amount of time a Dinosaur is stunned for cannot be increased by additional weapon hits. They have to be re-stunned once they are up and moving again. Stunned cavemen can be squashed (and therefore killed) by passing Dinosaurs jumping on them.

Question: Is it worth making the amount of time a Dinosaur is in caveman eating mode reduced by damage from certain weapon types (like the club and spear?).

The game would probably be most effective from a third person perspective - but would work reasonably well from the first person.

Interested Scripters

If you are interested in developing this mod for UT2003 then add your name to the list. Once you start development you should indicate that below (and hopefully include a link to a journal page). Before you start development you should also check this section to see if anyone else has started.

Discussion

EntropicLqd: There is nothing original in this game (sigh) - it's based on an arcade game called Trogg - although it's undergone much tweakage. There's a whole heap of weapon and gameplay balancing to be done on this one - could be really interesting.

Icedude: Has also been done in Conker's Bad Fur Day in the "Raptor" mini-game

EntroicLqd: What, may I ask, is "Conker's Bad Fur Day"? Sounds pretty wild.

Icedude: Its the most swearing filled game on the Nintendo 64 evar