Crates and Barrels!

[st0lve]

Oh snap, a page full of crates and barrels in the gaming history (ala toilet thingy)

http://medien.akbild.ac.at/armin/crates_and_barrels/

[Minos]

woah thats such a waste of time, why would anyone make a site like that well, yeah nevermind, cool site.

[csharp]

Is toilets, barrels and crates so intresting that you would like to see every toilet/barrel/crate from games history?

[Kosmo]

Actually it IS very interesting, there are not that many inanimate objects like crates and barrels that have served various purposes but not actually having a real impact on gameplay comparing to, oh lets say, doors or guns, both things that we have seen plenty and people just don't seem to get enough of them.

Who invented the crates and barrels? Who was the first person to say "you know what, we are going to put a barrel in that corner and block that passage with a crate so our hero has to find and alternative way". And another thing that is so amazing is, they both are very simple geometric shapes, they could very well be cubes and cylinders.

[user]

Actually it IS very interesting, there are not that many inanimate objects like crates and barrels that have served various purposes but not actually having a real impact on gameplay comparing to, oh lets say, doors or guns, both things that we have seen plenty and people just don't seem to get enough of them.

CS, where most mappers can't think outside the box (pun intended) and can only provide crates for cover.

In my opinion, that's gameplay related (being your source of cover) opposed to if it the boxes were to the side on shelves and had no use other than decoration.

[Kosmo]

Actually it IS very interesting, there are not that many inanimate objects like crates and barrels that have served various purposes but not actually having a real impact on gameplay comparing to, oh lets say, doors or guns, both things that we have seen plenty and people just don't seem to get enough of them.

CS, where most mappers can't think outside the box (pun intended) and can only provide crates for cover.

In my opinion, that's gameplay related (being your source of cover) opposed to if it the boxes were to the side on shelves and had no use other than decoration.

But CS is a bad example, let's take NS maps instead, very little crates and barrels, maybe few to cover the ventilation shaft for aliens to sneak in and so on, but even if they provide cover, their impact on the gameplay itself is very minimal, it's not like you can't use walls for cover.

[user]

but how is cs a bad example of over using crates as structures to use as cover, something that effects gameplay?

[Kosmo]

I didn't mean that CS is a bad example of overusing crates, I meant that CS is a bad example of the lack of innovation from mappers side, that is why I gave you the NS example. Besides I don't think that crates give TAHT much of an impact to gameplay, without them, I could still run, gun and have fun, I would just use the walls as cover, the crates are nothing but extensions of the walls, they could have been skinned as Gandalf for all I care, and we'd be camping behind Gandalfs right about now.

[user]

Meh, a lot of ns maps have crates*, just hardly as much as most cs maps.

*Gameplay altering, too.

[Kosmo]

Meh, a lot of ns maps have crates*, just hardly as much as most cs maps.

*Gameplay altering, too.

See, now that is a thing I'm not really that sure, I have played NS for several years, in several clans, and I can't actually put my mind on a map that has extensive amounts of crates and that they would alter the gameplay in to a way or another, we have had clan matches almost every map ever built on NS and I have never tought that someone had an upperhand because of crates or any other map element.

Don't get me wrong, there are alot of crates and barrels and such in the maps, but they are not "unnaturally" in anyplace like in the middle of nowhere without apparent reason (like they are in CS, where they are used purely to alter the map layout), and aliens can walk on walls, fly and blink so crates don't create obstacles like they do in CS.

[KoKo5oVaR]

What in the world, instead of crates, is cubic and be found outside ?

a giant piece of cheese ? . __. mh..

[Fullauto]

One of many.

[KoKo5oVaR]

oh yes, there s that too

and sandbags

[RD]

One of many.

try stacking a few of those on top of each other

[user]

Meh, a lot of ns maps have crates*, just hardly as much as most cs maps.

*Gameplay altering, too.

See, now that is a thing I'm not really that sure, I have played NS for several years, in several clans, and I can't actually put my mind on a map that has extensive amounts of crates and that they would alter the gameplay in to a way or another, we have had clan matches almost every map ever built on NS and I have never tought that someone had an upperhand because of crates or any other map element.

Don't get me wrong, there are alot of crates and barrels and such in the maps, but they are not "unnaturally" in anyplace like in the middle of nowhere without apparent reason (like they are in CS, where they are used purely to alter the map layout), and aliens can walk on walls, fly and blink so crates don't create obstacles like they do in CS.

Think about the poor little skulks. Some crates are positioned to conceal a skulk so that a marine will pass by the crate, unaware of the skulk hiding behind it, and then the marine gets bit. Same can almost be applied to marines. In faceoff, the upper doorway to the alien hive, if I have no marines to go into the hive with me and I don't have high level, theres a crate right next to the doorway that I hide behind for cover. If that crate wasn't there, I could have been skulk food more often, resulting in different game results.

Also in ns_lost, there's a hallway that marines almost always used to relocate to, near alpha hive, there used to be a res node next to this hallway. In the end of this hallway are a few crates. Some comms drop specific structures cornered between the wall and the crate so the structure has less surface visible for skulks to bite.

As for "for no apparent reason", many crates in ns maps seem to just be there, rarely do these maps show signs of a crane to lift the crates (SOME do, but rarely) or conveyor belts. And the doorways are too small to indicate any heavy machinery (ie forklift of the future) to move the crates. Hell, you can have a room with only 2 tiny doorways, and the crate inside is way bigger than the doorways.