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Mar 31

Hardline Additions: New Game Mode Ideas And Improvements

Hardline shipped with an adequate number of game modes to play and enjoy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want or deserve more.  The variety of choices helps keep the game interesting, and offers new challenges for players.

The majority of my proposals are adaptations of existing game modes from other Battlefield games.  There is no reason to invent the wheel (or wheels) when there are good ideas to use.  But we don’t have to simply copy and paste.  We can try to fit them into the game concept and make changes to help the feel of the game.

 

The proposal list:

Domination

Rush (The Cover Up)

Capture The Flag (Grab The Loot)

One Flag Random Placement CTF (Lost Stash)

Six Flags CTF (Shut Down)

Need More Speed (Hot Race):  Hotwire with Rally locations for bonus points.  The faster you hit the rally spots, the more you make.

Gun Game

The no respawn modes could use a couple companions:

Bomb Defuse (Bomb Squad)

Evidence (CTF with no respawns and only need to get “briefcase” to base to win).  Inspired by Video Game High School, and its Field Of Fire live action FPS.

And just because of the date: http://newmediarockstars.com/2013/04/video-game-high-school-creators-developing-field-of-fire-modern-warfare-game/

I think there is always room for new game mode ideas, but let’s go over these.  Many are classics of the genre and would fit in perfectly with Hardline’s game play.

Domination

Team Death Match type maps with three control locations, spawn on squad but not on those locations.  A smaller ticket count and faster action than conquest, but with objectives unlike TDM.  It offers a good alternative for players who want death match action but want more strategy.

Rush (The Cover Up)

Criminals must hit and totally destroy crime scene locations to eliminate the evidence and thus get away.  Police must stop them.

Capture The Flag (Grab The Loot)

Classic two flag CTF game.  Each side has a package of evidence/loot, and must try to get it to their base and then let it escape, similar to heist.  The side which gets three packages first (or the count set by the server rules) wins.

The Lost Stash – One Flag Random Placement CTF

Each team will have a base.  At a random location somewhere in the middle zone of the map, a hidden package will spawn.  The teams must first search to find it, and when spotted (or perhaps simply just close enough to it), its tracer will activate and both teams will know its location.  Get it back to your base and away to score.  Again, first to three wins.

Six Flags CTF (Shut Down)

This is a big map version of Capture The Flag.  Each side has three packages, in three separate safe locations on their side of the map.  The objective is to capture all three enemy packages and get them to the safe locations on your side, while retaining your own packages.  First team to get all six in their side’s location wins.  The packages remain in play and capturable until this is achieved.  Points are scored by holding enemy packages in the safe locations.  If the time runs out, the higher score wins.

Need More Speed (Hot Race)

Hotwire with Rally locations for bonus points.  The faster you hit the rally spots, the more you make.  There will be five to seven scoring locations plus the usual cars to capture.  This scores more like domination than Hotwire’s conquest, as the score is earned by driving from spot to spot (you can’t get points for hitting the same spot twice).  A variant of the Hotwire concept, using same maps but different rules.

 

Gun Game

A classic Team Death Match variant.  Each player starts with a basic weapon, and has the weapon upgraded by scoring kills.  The objective is to reach the final weapon upgrade and score a kill.  That is usually a knife.   Various weapon chains can be supported as game variations.

 

The no respawn modes, to add to Crosshair and Rescue.  Good for competition and tactical challenge.

Bomb Defuse (Bomb Squad)

Battlefield 4 has a Bomb Defuse mode, but it would fit in better with the criminals vs cops scheme in Hardline.  The criminals must try to plant a bomb on one of two critical objective locations.  The police win if they can defuse the bomb once planted, or prevents them from placing it.  As with the other no respawn modes, eliminating the entire enemy team also counts as a win.

Evidence (CTF)

A two flag CTF game, but with no respawns and only one capture needed to win.  Each team has a key package containing evidence.  The police risk leaving it in the field in order to lure the criminals in, and secure the other package.  If either team gets the enemy package back to its base and holds until the pickup (escape), they win.  If they also have their own package, they get a bonus.   The package locations are not revealed to the enemy — this is a stealth style of capture and recovery game.

This is directly inspired by the game play used in Video Game High School.

Better Rewards

Objective scoring needs to be higher for certain game modes in order to make them worth playing from a money earned standpoint.   I think this needs to be applied to the Heist and Blood Money modes, but are even more necessary for the no-respawn mission modes.

First, elimination of an enemy team member should count as an objective and give extra points.  Eliminating the last enemy or any kills scored while being the last of your team should give bonus points.   The number of kills scored in these modes are quite small, and this will help make them more valuable.

Second, the objectives should pay extremely well.  Like 500-1000 points, maybe more.  Hitting or protecting the VIP should give a big score, escaping and helping the escape (as in a close escort) should give even more.   The rescued hostages should give a big bonus just for releasing them, and a very high bonus for a successful rescue.  With a really cool bonus for a double rescue.,

My proposed modes would need the same sort of thing, very high payoffs for actually achieving the objectives, not just scoring kills.

 

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