Melee Duels

[NuclearWatermelon]

Some may or may not know, but I as of late (read also: yesterday and today) have been working on a mod to allow for instantaneous in-game melee duels.

What this plugin does is that if you and an enemy are in a melee duel, you will become invincible to everyone but the one you are dueling against, thus allowing an un-interrupted melee duel like men. Running away or changing weapons ends the duel, however, so be aware where you are dueling and where those sentries are!

No servers currently run this, but with the experimental stage CSn3 seems to be going through if people want to try it we can put it up there.

[Repoman]

Ill want to try this out obviously due to my infamy.

[rawkies]

Ill want to try this out obviously due to my infamy.

AND MY...knife.

[VoltySquirrel]

Me and Nuke are going at it first. We fitten to box each other to death, maybe even share a pan or two.

[NuclearWatermelon]

I need to make it more clear on when you are dueling, but still it is a lot of fun.

And you will hear your character mutter some funny line when you start a duel.

[Vivi Hill]

Sounds sweet. Always wanted an improvement on duels.

[Maringue]

I think a good idea would be to have both dueling players to turn purple or green so that they are identified and it would help people figure out when and whom they are dueling with.

Also, what initiates a duel? Does it kick in if two people pull out melee and get close to each other?

Lastly, I really like this idea, it sounds really fun.

[Smeemo]

First, thanks, Melon! I think you're on to something really good, here. Also, where did the characters' melee duel in-game comments originate? I don't recall ever hearing the ones I heard the other day.

Anyway, on to the Melee Duels brainstorming:

Run a text blurb every so often explaining the mod. Ex. How to initiate a duel. And so on.
Simple particle effect on those currently dueling. Maybe make it look like they have kritz'd melee weapons.
Some text across the middle of player's screen when duel begins. Maybe across everyone's screens, but to a less noticeable degree? Not sure how distracting this would be.
Similar to our "!mute player" commands, add a "!melee player" command to trigger a yes/no prompt for the targeted player. Make it so only donators could initiate a melee duel?

--

I think it's a great idea, but I noticed that no one ever realized they were in a melee duel when we tried this mod.

[NuclearWatermelon]

Well, thanks all.

Today I added use of some colors so it is more noticable in the chat box when a melee duel starts. I plan next to add a custom duel icon above persons' heads when they are in a duel with each other, so that you can see it. Might be a bit difficult if more than one pair is melee dueling, but that shall remain to be seen. That ought to help identify when one is in a duel. Also some center text (or maybe HUD text if Benny insists) for the two dueling would be good.

As for the conditions that initiate a duel: If two enemies are near each other, looking at each other, and have their melee weapons out, a duel is begun. (I probably need to add line of sight too, I think you can duel through walls). If either party removes their melee weapon or gets too far away, the duel ends. Not sure if a "!melee player" command would make sense, but maybe a "!melee_toggle" if you don't want to duel at all.

Benny, I'll have to get with you on what sort of short message could be used to accurately describe this. The idea was that people shouldn't have to know what begins a melee fight, but instead just go about one like the would normally, and have the mod kick in then.

[NuclearWatermelon]

Fixed up the colors and added in the textures above persons' heads.

It is on CSn3 now.

[VoltySquirrel]

I should be able try this out tomorrow.

[Smeemo]

Would it be possible to change the color of the icon of the person you're dueling with? Maybe have the red/yellow icon for anyone who's engaged in a duel with someone other than the player, and have a green? icon over the head of the one the player is dueling with.

Not sure how funky you want to get with this mod, Melon, but I'd love to see some sort of system that would offer 10 secs of crits when you kill 3 people in one life, or something like that. Or a speed boost or... some creative advantage for dominating in melee. You get the idea. My first thought was placing "powerups" around the map, but that would require editing a map and making everyone download the new version, right?

Also give a nice 50 hp slap to anyone who shoots at someone with their melee weapon out.
Also instakill sentry guns. Some trolls were getting quite the kick out of dropping sentries into the massive melee fights that everyone except them were participating in.

Anyway, I know this mod was intended as an addition to regular TF2 (i.e., it's not a "melee-only" mod). It's pretty fun, though, and almost everyone was really getting into it. Dissent was voiced loudly when someone started shooting, so I'd recommend pushing it towards a melee-only type of setup, but that's just my two cents, as they say.

Looking forward to playing this more. It was quite fun seeing 32 people beating the hell out of each other with that song from Rocky playing in the background.

[Maringue]

Hang on a second. I thought that if you were engaged in a melee duel, you couldn't be damaged by anyone else except for the other person in the duel. That's the way I'd like to see the mod setup otherwise it will just turn into another melee only server.

I'd like the people to be able to engage in the melee duel, but also let everyone else keep shooting without interrupting the duel in progress.

Here's how I think it would work best:
Two players who are close enough, with melee out, look at each other for 1 or two seconds.
Duel starts, something pops up on you HUD stating this.
Both players turn green or something to identify them.
Both players can only be damaged by each other, all other attacks do no damage.
Winner of the duel gets something fun like 5 seconds of kritz or 5 seconds of invincibility.

I have no idea of how the plugin works, but I think we want to keep it from becoming totally melee only since there are plenty of melee only servers out there and we want to make something new and fun.

[NuclearWatermelon]

Would it be possible to change the color of the icon of the person you're dueling with? Maybe have the red/yellow icon for anyone who's engaged in a duel with someone other than the player, and have a green? icon over the head of the one the player is dueling with.

I haven't figured out how to do this just yet, but as soon as I do they will have an additional layer behind the normal texture that will surround the normal icon to indicate who you are dueling against. I might also see about making the icon a wee bit smaller.

Not sure how funky you want to get with this mod, Melon, but I'd love to see some sort of system that would offer 10 secs of crits when you kill 3 people in one life, or something like that. Or a speed boost or... some creative advantage for dominating in melee. You get the idea. My first thought was placing "powerups" around the map, but that would require editing a map and making everyone download the new version, right?

Also give a nice 50 hp slap to anyone who shoots at someone with their melee weapon out.

Well, as you state later it was meant as an addition, but there is nothing to stop adding an option for 'funky mode'.

Also instakill sentry guns. Some trolls were getting quite the kick out of dropping sentries into the massive melee fights that everyone except them were participating in.

This is currently a bug I will be fixing later.

Anyway, I know this mod was intended as an addition to regular TF2 (i.e., it's not a "melee-only" mod). It's pretty fun, though, and almost everyone was really getting into it. Dissent was voiced loudly when someone started shooting, so I'd recommend pushing it towards a melee-only type of setup, but that's just my two cents, as they say.

Looking forward to playing this more. It was quite fun seeing 32 people beating the hell out of each other with that song from Rocky playing in the background.

Well, with a funky mode and a normal mode in one mod, it could be used for both, and that would be best.

---

Hang on a second. I thought that if you were engaged in a melee duel, you couldn't be damaged by anyone else except for the other person in the duel. That's the way I'd like to see the mod setup otherwise it will just turn into another melee only server.

That is how the mod works, and the mod isn't made for melee-only. I think right now people are playing around with the 'newness' of this mod and they're having fun with it and they are the ones calling for melee only. If the people in the server without an admin want melee only, why not?

I'd like the people to be able to engage in the melee duel, but also let everyone else keep shooting without interrupting the duel in progress.

That was the original idea, and how I hope it to be used most of the time. There is another server running this mod (albeit an orange_x3 server) that uses it like this.

Here's how I think it would work best:
Two players who are close enough, with melee out, look at each other for 1 or two seconds.
Duel starts, something pops up on you HUD stating this.
Both players turn green or something to identify them.
Both players can only be damaged by each other, all other attacks do no damage.
Winner of the duel gets something fun like 5 seconds of kritz or 5 seconds of invincibility.

Adding a timer delay to starting the duel wasn't in the plan because I thought people would get killed trying to start a duel. People still need to wait 5 seconds after a duel to start a new one. Right now the icon above them was all I could manage, I have plans to make it easier to ID who you are dueling with.

As for only damaging each other, and doing nothing to those they do not duel against, that is exactly how the mod works at the moment.

I have no idea of how the plugin works, but I think we want to keep it from becoming totally melee only since there are plenty of melee only servers out there and we want to make something new and fun.

You ought to give it a try, people seem to like it, you may or you may not.