Non-violent ideas

[fromhell]

There are times when I am pretty bored and feeling bad with the brutality in the game and also realize there's a lack of options for such a game in the fps scene overall. So......


The only ideas on my mind

1. All weapons become foam darts, balls, etc, but this crosses into trademark territory and makes no sense for the explosions and lightning

2. Paintball mode where everything just marks paint of the player's railcolor. Explosions also splash paint, but this could be looked as a splatoon knockoff or something. This is the most trivial to implement (just an if on misslehit to make everything use the same mark/flash model/shaders and repurposing gib splat sounds for all the impacts)

3. Water guns where no one really 'dies' (slows down according to health) but this restricts maps to hazard-free water-replenishing settings and has a bit of art overhead to sensibly work (read: swimsuits).

All 3 of these are thought of as server settings (1 and 2 allowed, 3 enforced/map dependent)


Note that com_blood 0 already causes sparks to fly and disables gibbing. (though there's a bit of an inconsistency with that between client and server, if server sets this to 0 then no corpses gib and become obstacles)  

[Gig]

Maybe... instead of killing people, turning them into some harmless animal (e.g. a chicken) when health reaches 0, maybe even still free to move. Respawn would then mean to return human and being teleported to a spawning point. But no idea about how to explain why an animal may survive in lava or in a crusher trap or in the space void at the bottom of a space map...

[cheb]

1. All players are shadow clones that go poof into smoke a second after they are killed (or instantly when gibbed)

2. My idea for when I get to making an OA clone on my engine (argh!): all players are daemons with elemental bodies that dissolve a secopnd after they are fragged and gib into something that is decidedly NOT blood. Also "blood splashes" when hit are similarly not-blood.

Quoting my sort-of-design-document:

- Brimstone (aka red): bleed red-hot ashes that dull to black and disperse. Explode into dry red-hot coals that explode on impact into ashes and leave glowing, quickly fading scorch-marks on the walls.

- Hoar (aka blue): bleed snowflakes that fade into pinpoints, explode into shards of ice that explode into snowflakes on impact leaving patches of frost on the walls.

- Vitriol (aka lime-green): bleed standard blood particles, just acid-green. Explode into wobbly acid-green globs that explode into blood particles, splattering the walls with blood splats the way the current OA does but quickly fading while smoking translucent particles and leaving etched marks.

- Cuddle (aka pink): bleed little pink stars. Explode into pinkish rainbow-y smilies that stain walls with disgustingly cute pictures of hearts, bunnies and so on.

- Chaos (aka black): use a shader similar to early 2000s environment mapping to shimmer a disgusting magenta over black team colors (darkened considerably compared to other elements). Bleed fractal-like particles that shimmer between black and magenta, fading in a weird fractal-y way. Explode into clusters looking like sea urchins of tentacle-like lighting that simply stick to the walls slowly fading into purple/black marks.

One of the chunks will always be the head trailing blood particles.

3. Fragged players turn into a tombstone (AoS from Jagex).

4. Something inane like the non-violent mode in the first Serious Sam: blood smear textures are replaced with white flowers and gib models are replaced with fruits. Pretty funny to play.

[Gig]

Note that com_blood 0 already causes sparks to fly and disables gibbing. (though there's a bit of an inconsistency with that between client and server, if server sets this to 0 then no corpses gib and become obstacles)  

I just noticed that years ago I did write about differences between how "com_blood" works if set client-side or server-side, here: (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Graphic_options#Blood_and_gibs
But I didn't write anything about corpses impossible to gib becoming "obstacles"... do you mean that they block other players movement? In that case, I should do some more testing and then update that paragraph...

By the way, just for completeness, in theory there is also "cg_gibs" <0 or 1> which -if set to 0- should show some less gibs than usual, when someone is gibbed.

[ELR1C_C150utcast]

If i were to throw my hat in the ring, maybe lazertag would also be a nice non-lethal alternative? We can kinda get creative and dress up the main cast in comfy or laid back casual clothing? Maybe replace the gauntlet with either a holographic sword or make the gauntlet blades holographic?

We can say that the special effects are like augmented reality or something, part of the lasertag experience the characters are participating in (i guess they can have either traditional Augmented reality goggles or glasses, or maybe state they were given a hightech eyecontact eyepiece thing that allows them to see the unique special effects stuff?)

I do love the watergun fight idea but the only immediate problem i think  would be trying to make the stuff they shoot interesting... maybe have the lightning gun be a literal garden hose or something? Or like a big waterpump like thing connected to a backpack where the water is stored like those super soaker like watergun thingys. I guess that means more maps with water to go along with the theme well?

[Suicizer]

If i were to throw my hat in the ring, maybe lazertag would also be a nice non-lethal alternative? We can kinda get creative and dress up the main cast in comfy or laid back casual clothing? Maybe replace the gauntlet with either a holographic sword or make the gauntlet blades holographic?

I do love the watergun fight idea but the only immediate problem i think  would be trying to make the stuff they shoot interesting... maybe have the lightning gun be a literal garden hose or something? Or like a big waterpump like thing connected to a backpack where the water is stored like those super soaker like watergun thingys. I guess that means more maps with water to go along with the theme well?

Replace the gauntlet for a fairytale stick which sprinkles stars when used.

To be a bit more serious.
An option instead of gibs is that characters are going to sit down (cross-legged) until respawn.

[Mapsking]

On this same vein, what about using an alternate .pk3 file for "non-violent" gibs?  Not sure if we are allowed to post links, but on the models section of ioquake3, (h t t p s://ioquake3.org/files/models2/q3mdl-legoman.zip), there is a legoman.zip file, which includes many skins for LEGO piece models, as well as an alternate .pk3 file for LEGO gibs.  Just an example, but why not incorporate something that allows exploding bodies, but turns them into LEGO pieces, flowers, OA logos, what have you.  Both the original and the alternate gib files could be included by default, and a "violent" toggle switch could be set to force the game to use one or the other?  This way, the engine does not seem like it would need to be entirely written, just maybe modified a bit?  I'm not a programmer, I don't know about the validity of that last statement.  However, I would also like to add a vote for some method to have a less violent game, while still maintaining the same fast, fun gameplay that is OA.

I'm also not sure if this is the right place, but while we are talking about a less violent game, it might also be a good option to include botchat files (rchat.c and such) that are modified, to remove "adult content".  I would be happy to contribute to helping provide a modified version if desired, but I feel it could be included with the aforementioned toggle.  I.E., the toggle or cvar or command (still get the two confused) would set both the alternate visuals and chat simultaneously.  In addition, (not sure how practical it would be), there could be a file included somewhere, that automatically filters out a bunch of words, based on a blacklist, for the "family mode", or whatever the "less-violent" mode is called.

[fromhell]

Alternate PK3s are not an option because they are server-enforced.

[Mapsking]

Alternate PK3s are not an option because they are server-enforced.

I'm confused by what this means, but in the official binaries, couldn't they just be added to an existing .pk3?  That way, in the official files, there could be two .pk3s, or even two folders in the same one, one for violent, and one for non-violent, the game would just choose whichever is set?

[fromhell]

with sv_pure, that can't be a client's preference.  Alternate base pk3s will break checksums and not allow the player to connect at all and fragment the player base.

[Gig]

The alternate stuff doesn't need to be a pk3 trick, I can guess they may be something like "gibs_safe.md3" even in the same pk3 as standard stuff. I mean, something like you are doing for the "less suggestive player models option" for OA3.

Note: it's just a thought. Personally I don't need the non-violent stuff, I'm quite neutral about this topic.

[Mapsking]

I just personally turn off blood and gibs, ensure bot chat is clean, and make sure player models are modest and appropriate.  If I can't fix them, I delete them, and that is good enough for our family.     Once I learn how to make my own models, it will be a lot easier.  :-D

[Gig]

If I can't fix them, I delete them, and that is good enough for our family.

You can only use this trick playing within your LAN -you acting as the server-, but to play on internet, you need the official pk3 files unmodified.
If you need to do not see the suggestive models used by other players on internet, you can set a modest model for yourself, and enable "force player model" (cg_forcemodel 1): this way, you will see all other players using the same model as you in non-team-based matches, and using sarge/grism model in team-based modes. (This feature was initially created for saving RAM. I never understood the reason why in team-based games it always uses sarge/grism instead of your chosen model. However with sarge/grism model it's easy to distinguish red and blue team colors, so it's not a real problem.).
Of course, this does not make your model selection screen "family safe".

[Neon_Knight]

tl;dr, your best bet is to create a pk3 with the non-violent stuff. Don't expect it to work when connecting to online servers, though.

[TDRR]

I actually really like the idea of a non violent version of Open Arena!

As for my thoughts, well, we could do Chex Quest-style teleporting when someone "dies" and have the death messages say "(killer) sent (victim) back to home"

Or just go overboard and do like that "No Ultra-Violence" mod for Doom that literally makes enemies poof off existence when killed or explode in confetti when gibbed, really funny!

Maybe do like my serious modification of the same mod that makes hitmarkers appear instead of blood and enemies just fall down when killed or explode (in the case of robotic enemies) when gibbed.