One of the oddities I've noted with the addition of mines is that holding the fire button does not trigger any remarkable action, something inconsistent with the many other weapons of RE. I believe we allow someone to throw mines greater distances via holding the mouse button. This would provide a sense of unity to the game that both the players and developers yearn for. In comparison to even the rapid-fire clicking of the pistol or constant holding of M2 for the rifle, mines seem comparatively bland. I don't think an addition like this has any possibility to detract from gameplay. It would help those who have that compulsive muscle memory to have explosives be launched when they release the mouse button. than have them be instantly be launched out from their hands.
Likewise I feel that the scoring of the gauntlet game mode could be markedly improved via the implementation of different scoring methods. Following the teams switch, many players have noted, that once blue exceeds them in points or has beaten their time, there is nothing they can do to win. I feel both these issues have many plausible ways they could potentially be solved.
Regular mode could introduce a broader scoring mode, probably as a mutator. If we allowed each run through the Gauntlet to award 10(or more, this variable should be balanced later) points, but allow other methods of scoring it would improve red teams outlook past half-time. Since we want to discourage an unruly brawl, allowing only red team to be awarded these kill points would be beneficial. This would force blue players to play for the goal. Granted that only solves the problem for non-timed modes, so onward that issue.
Nevertheless, Timed mode becomes bothersome as soon as one teams record is beaten, as there is nothing that red team can do about it. I propose that we switch the teams as soon as any record is beat, having a constant back and forth pattern. This may cause problems in some situations, such as when someone is coming in on their way to beating a record. I request that we set the game to wait for the duration of the time the record took(and possibly more) to allow anyone in-run to complete theirs and beat their team-mates record. Anyone who is not mid-run (and thus spawns after the current record holder) will not be able to utilize any more time than that anyway. This will also I solicit of you any opinions or critiques you have of these ideas? Possibly a thirty-second buffer would be easier to implement and should easily be enough time to complete a run.
Edit : I have a much simpler idea for gauntlet mode. Rather than modifying or using the scoring system to alter the game, allow the use of a the survival mutator. If we let the Survival mutator be selected as normal, and make teams switch whenever all of blue dies (Red can keep respawning possible, or be gone for good). Either way Blue team members either make it to the goal or die trying. making it perma-death(except maybe hard-mode) would encourage Blue members to kill as many Reds as possible.
I'll probably add more ideas to this post as time goes on, for know I give you only these two.
Edit 2: After playing forced-arena for a while, I have noticed some situations become infuriating when you can not switch weapons on the field. During Classic-Mode, upon reaching a sniping location you can easily pick up the rifle and take some pot shots at enemies and the like. You could do this without constantly hauling around the rifle. The ability to constantly swap weapons provides another dimension of play. When the number of players on a server is very low, many weapons are never used in arena mode. Introducing a method wear by we allow weapons to be chosen pre-round per the way Arena mode works together with the weapon pick-up system used in classic mode.
I think this mode would encourage the usage of some of the more situational weapons, keep people on their toes, and make the game more fun. I think it will be a very happy middle ground between the two modes that will improve upon them both. If you can think of any optimizations for this mutator or other comments, feel free to reply with them.
