So awhile back I was playing through Blue Shift and I noticed several instances in the expansion where they show doors being welded through in knocked down. Though because of their reliance on hl1 only assets for the hgrunts they didn't use the Opfor engineer. Which got me wondering, since gearbox did hint around to the existence of the Opfor unit types during Blue Shift does that mean for guard duty we could go up against them? Such as the saw gunner, engineer, and medic? It could help play into the team dynamics they could use against you. such as a wounded trooper maybe calling over for the medic to heal him while the saw gunner provides covering fire in the meantime. That kind of combat could really spice up some of the action sequences of Blue Shift such as in the train yard when fighting the various HECU squads.
While it does raise the concern of that breaking the balance in flow the original campaign had i think the payoff could work well since you are already going to be using most of the assets and have both campaigns in the same mod. You could always have it that Barney cannot pick up the opfor type weapons such as the saw and deagle.
Now another thing in relation to above is the power combat vest. Since we know it functions more or less the same as the hev suit. And since all HECU troopers have PCV's could we have it that in obm you could order a squadmate to recharge at the nearest functioning charger? Perhaps in Guard Duty a wounded trooper could retreat to a nearby charging station to heal.
Now I know these things would probably be more difficult to design than describe but it would be nice to have world lore play a bigger role into the combat situations and gameplay than gearbox's own mild hinting of it in Blue Shift.
While it does raise the concern of that breaking the balance in flow the original campaign had i think the payoff could work well since you are already going to be using most of the assets and have both campaigns in the same mod. You could always have it that Barney cannot pick up the opfor type weapons such as the saw and deagle.
Now another thing in relation to above is the power combat vest. Since we know it functions more or less the same as the hev suit. And since all HECU troopers have PCV's could we have it that in obm you could order a squadmate to recharge at the nearest functioning charger? Perhaps in Guard Duty a wounded trooper could retreat to a nearby charging station to heal.
Now I know these things would probably be more difficult to design than describe but it would be nice to have world lore play a bigger role into the combat situations and gameplay than gearbox's own mild hinting of it in Blue Shift.
You could even make it a bit of a survival strategy element in OBM such, as trying to decide who in the squad should get the charge, including yourself, weighing the pros and cons of who would benefit the most. (Should you charge yourself since you are the player? should you have the engineer fully charge so he can take care of more doors? How about the medic so he can in turn heal others longer? or perhaps you like to keep your saw gunner alive longer? and so forth.) A squadmate could announce to the player (or squad leader in GD) if their PCV is compromised or close to depletion. (which is almost F.E.A.R. like in a way come to think of it.)