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[cirn0]

Tech Progression and why did we decide to suffer the pains of doing all this.
The Technology Progression will be a series of of different trees that are what we classify as a progressive list of items per sub-genre.

Items will have a tech tier assigned to it between 1 and 10.
Factions will have technology value between 1 and 10. This will be the sum of the faction's highest tier
There will be a global technology value between 1 and 10. This will be the sum of all live faction's tech progress.

Example:
Faction A:
Pistol Tech Level 1
SMG Tech Level 2
Assault Rifle Tech Level 1
Faction Tech Level = 1.33

Faciton B:
Pistol Tech Level 2
SMG Tech Level 2
Assault Rifle Tech Level 1
Faction Tech Level = 1.66

World Tech Level = 1.5

Faction members can donate faction currency to progress the technology for their faction.
Faction can research different branches concurrently.
Each technology requires a set amount of points to finish.
Each Faction have a capacity of research per hour.

However the rate of research is determined by the following factors:

World Technology Level relative to the specific technology level.
Technology Funds from faction member donation.

We can add interesting modifiers:
Controlling Research facility in WM location increases faction research cap by 10%.
Controlling Global Electrics in Core increases faction research cap by 10%.

Example:
World Tech Level is 1.0

Faction A :
Does not own any bonus from WM.
Does not own any bonus from Core.
Research Capacity of 1000 / hour.
Researching Sniper Rifle Tech 2. Total cost is 20000
Research is funded from Faction donation at 10000.
World Tech Modifier = 1 / 2.

Effective Research Capacity = 500 / hour.  After 20 Hours, the funds will run out and the total amount researched will be 10000 out of 20000 (50% done).

Same example with world Tech Level at 1.5 would mean 750 pts / hour. And after 13.33 hours the funds will run out.

So catching up in technology is not as hard, faction with most caps will not steam roll.

After Finishing the technology research will make the item available to spawn in the Faction quartermaster.
The pricing of items will also be modified by the World Tech modifier.

Items spawned in the game will be strictly restricted to -1 / +1 World Tech range under normal operations.

The transition of tiers will be through a weighted spawn chance.
Example: ( Lidae please help me here. )
World Tech level = 1.0
0% Chance Item Tech Level 2
40% Chance Item Tech Level 1
60% Chance Item Tech Level 0

World Tech Level = 1.5
10% Chance Item Tech Level 2
80% Chance Item Tech Level 1
10% Chance Item Tech Level 0

World Tech Level = 2.0
40% Chance Item Tech Level 2
60% Chance Item Tech Level 1
0% Chance Item Tech Level 0

We've also opted to add a hard-cap to Technology Progression until player completes critical world events such as destruction of a faction. Our goal with the technology progression is to keep the game-play-fresh as the end-game and main activity of the game is PvP centric, there is no tread mill to run on, instead it is hopefully a constant competition. As the same competitive setting can get stale, we've elected that changing the variables every now and then will keep things interesting.

Armour technology will be separate and will be available to all factions based on World Tech level without research. A new block of armour will be added on World Technology Levels 3.0 , 6.0 and 9.0. This means you can enjoy a differences in the time to kill and try out different tactics while you may feel like superman with the brand new armours until dying in 2 bursts nearing the end of the armours effective life.

As a baseline for understanding, the current weapons and armours systems would be tier 9~10.

[Shangalar]

Sounds awesome!

[Lidae]

Really good stuff!

Just to summarize our results from IRC this evening, here's how I would formalize our simplistic approach to assigning the probabilities:


currentTechLevel = floor(WorldTechLevel)
oldTechLevel = MAX(1,currentTechLevel-1)
futureTechLevel = MIN(10,currentTechLevel+1)

progress = WorldTechLevel-currentTechLevel

currentTechProb = 0.5
oldTechProb = (1-progress)*0.5
futureTechProb = progress*0.5

[antohha]

Faction members can donate faction currency to progress the technology for their faction.

Would be cool if players could donate not just currency but also normal/rare materials,higher level equipment(got from enemy for exmple), "odities"/"relics" - some of the stuff that is junk in current session but will have increased rarity.

[SnowCrash]

I really like how this may be going, but i have some concerns:

What will happen with rare items  (current tier 3 items: SPA, pulse rifle, etc)? they will be only available when max tech lvl its enabled?
If those are enable on every tech lvl, their power will be proportionally inverse to the current tech lvl (much better at low tech lvls)

One possible solution its to make them available at every tech lvl. But make power of those items scale with the global tech lvl, so a SPA when the global tech lvl its 3-4 will have certain resistances and when the tech increases, all SPA armor will become stronger (15% 20% per lvl)

Also, weapons that offer different styles should be upgradable or have a similar replacement as the tech progress. Let's say desert eagle its tier 5, ext capacity tier 7. at tier 9/10 should be another upgrade or pistol that behaves similar to the Deagle.
What im saying it that it wont be good that a play style its only available at certain tech lvl, and when the tech progress that style become obsolete

[John Porno]

The current ext.cap kinda upgrades will be part of the dynamic weapon mod system

Always having the same fighting style and then just adding 5% more dmg per tier is boring, each tier brings changes

The current tier 3's pretty much make up next seasons tier 10s, however theyre not really part of the normal progression. In a sense the normal tec prog stops at 9 and then gauss and APA and vindicator will be made available in a similar fashion like the current tier 3's. What I mean by that is that gausses would not really be standard issue like any tier before it, but tier 9 would still be the baseline and as the final battles progress, more and more tier 10 will get in.

Another thing to mention is that the difference in tiers is not always as big and it's not really the case that often that a next tier is just better in every single aspect. I can see certain guns staying in the meta longer than others, especially when those guns are made legendary

Another thing is that very special, unique weapons that are too fancy to have a place in the normal tec tree, will also be available through other means. They wont necessarily be better, but offer more varied and niche playstyles.

To adress your last sentence, I think that one weapons class is still the most important factor, for example you probably wouldnt see a random SMG that could fulfill an AR role better than some funky AR. Borderlands is a good example of a game where that happens sometimes where you can end up with a scoped pistol for long range and an automatic sniper rifle for crow control. This kinda stuff would be relegated to the special weapons I just mentioned above

[Teela]

The current ext.cap kinda upgrades will be part of the dynamic weapon mod system

Always having the same fighting style and then just adding 5% more dmg per tier is boring, each tier brings changes

The current tier 3's pretty much make up next seasons tier 10s, however theyre not really part of the normal progression. In a sense the normal tec prog stops at 9 and then gauss and APA and vindicator will be made available in a similar fashion like the current tier 3's. What I mean by that is that gausses would not really be standard issue like any tier before it, but tier 9 would still be the baseline and as the final battles progress, more and more tier 10 will get in.

Another thing to mention is that the difference in tiers is not always as big and it's not really the case that often that a next tier is just better in every single aspect. I can see certain guns staying in the meta longer than others, especially when those guns are made legendary

Another thing is that very special, unique weapons that are too fancy to have a place in the normal tec tree, will also be available through other means. They wont necessarily be better, but offer more varied and niche playstyles.

To adress your last sentence, I think that one weapons class is still the most important factor, for example you probably wouldnt see a random SMG that could fulfill an AR role better than some funky AR. Borderlands is a good example of a game where that happens sometimes where you can end up with a scoped pistol for long range and an automatic sniper rifle for crow control. This kinda stuff would be relegated to the special weapons I just mentioned above

Wow. Quality post John. This is how it should be working in any game. Good to see you guys got a clue after all

[Komrade]

Nah I bet Johns account was hacked.

[S.T.A.L.K.E.R]

John > Cirn0

But the Tech Progression sounds awesome

Nah I bet Johns account was hacked.

Recently Couriers account has been hacked too...he's writing and looks like a booger now

[Kurwier]

my account is fine and i dont like tec progression , ima oldschool head ...

Spoiler for Hiden:

[SnowCrash]

The current tier 3's pretty much make up next seasons tier 10s, however theyre not really part of the normal progression. In a sense the normal tec prog stops at 9 and then gauss and APA and vindicator will be made available in a similar fashion like the current tier 3's. What I mean by that is that gausses would not really be standard issue like any tier before it, but tier 9 would still be the baseline and as the final battles progress, more and more tier 10 will get in.

Another thing to mention is that the difference in tiers is not always as big and it's not really the case that often that a next tier is just better in every single aspect. I can see certain guns staying in the meta longer than others, especially when those guns are made legendary

Great, things will be more or less what i have in mind after reading cirn post
Thanks for the extra details

dynamic weapon mod system <3