Use more immersive teleport markers

[astruyk]

From release page ( http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=27286#c59653 ):

This looks great! Here is an idea. personally I don't like flags as teleport because they are not really imersive! I suggest to take either cars or helicopters as teleport. You could make it so that if you do the "teleport" that you would call "Drive me to" or "Fly me to" .. the player gets into the car than the screen gets black and plays some car driving sounds and a few seconds later you spawn in a coresponding vehicle (2nd Spawn) ..sounds are turned off and you get out. ..would be so much better.

Neat idea. I'm not sure if getting into the vehicle without marking it as 'enemy' would be possible if there was AI around (or maybe not a big deal?) ... But at least we could use a vic as the marker and lock/enabledamage it to keep players from driving it all over the place. My only worry is that it might not be unique enough looking to allow players to recognize it...

Maybe when you create the teleporter it asks you what kind you want in a drop-down (i.e. one per side, and then some generic things like 'flagpoles').... Or, you could drop it on an existing object to make that object the teleporter...

[TheOtherTaylor]

While that is a cool idea I don't know (and maybe it's just bias in the way I like to GM) that a lot of immersion needs to be retained in teleporting. It's really a kind of hack fix to get people somewhere when it's unreasonable to spend the time to fly them out there. In zeus it's perfectly possible to just throw an AI helicopter down and just give it an LZ at the destination and actually make it fly them out there.

On the other hand, I really like the idea of putting it on any object or perhaps locked/invincible vehicles so that you can make it more terrain-specific (e.g. overturned boat on a beach) and the teleporter itself doesn't stick out in a jarring way.

[alexcroox]

I definitely like the idea of having something like a troop transport vehicle as the teleporter or similar. Does give a little more immersion than the flag poles we typically see.

Dropping on any object as you have done for Arsenal is also a great idea to cater to all tastes. That way you could make a troop transport one teleporter and an ammo crate the other (so it seems like you've been dropped off by the truck with some supplies at the other end).

Also for that particular use case, is there a way you can make an object a teleport "exit" only object. Meaning you can be teleported there, but you can't teleport back using it.

[TheOtherTaylor]

Ooh, that's a really really good idea. You could have "Teleporter Hub" and "Teleporter Destination" The 2 way would include the action-menu that allows you to choose where you go, a destination would only add to the list at the hubs, but not have an action menu of it's own.

[TheOtherTaylor]

Additional Thought: If the teleporter destinations were just a module that you place on the ground and acts as a destination with no object, you could just use normal zeus to spawn in any destination object you want (or none).

That way, you could use a locked helicopter at base as your hub, but the destination could be whatever without needing to link it specifically to an object.

[astruyk]

I think for this to work you'd need at least 3 'teleport behaviours:

• Teleport Hub
  • The existing teleport functionality. Can be both teleported TO and FROM.
  • Would show up as 'Teleport to Alpha', 'Teleport to Bravo', 'Teleport to Charlie', etc..
• Teleport Source (or entry, or some other term)
  • A location that the user can only teleport AWAY from (there would never be a way to teleport BACK)
  • Would not show up in any other lists so doesn't need a reference name in lists.
• Teleport Destination
  • A location that can only be teleported TO (does not allow teleporting back again).
  • Would show up as 'Teleport to Alpha (one way)', 'Teleport to Bravo (one way)', etc...

In a perfect world I think you would drop down a teleporter (similar to the one you have now) and, if you double-clicked it, you would get options to switch it between the different types. So if you wanted a one-way teleporter you would do something like this:

• Drop teleporter Alpha at base
• Drop teleporter Bravo in the field
• Double-click teleporter Bravo and choose 'Destination only' from a 'Teleporter Type' drop-down Then when the user walks up to Alpha they see the 'Teleport to Bravo (one way)' or something similar, if they teleport through they are aware there's no coming back.

[alexcroox]

Sounds good to me!

[astruyk]

Please move discussion related to one-way teleporters to #162. Discusson on teleporter appearance can stay here. :)