- It shows 500 hit points, but you need to deliver 1000 damage to break it. - Instead of starting with 1000/1000 hit points and decrease when you shoot at it, it start at 0/500 hit point, and it increase when you shoot at it. - Your character don't change position when you shoot the door. If you are looking on the left when shooting a door on the right, your character keep looking on the left and appears to be shooting on the left. Although, the door on the right still get damaged. - The only condition to be able to shoot a door is that said door is located within your range (or close to it). It doesn't take obstacle into account. If there is one or several walls between you and the door, you will still be able to shoot that door.
Didn't check if the doors had some kind of healing rate (much needed), or if the doors do respawn after a reasonable amount of time. (needed too)
I kill some animals, let's say a brahmin. I click on them to access their inventory and pick what i want. For instance, i want the brahmin hide, but not the meat. When i click on the brahmin, the whole body disapear. Then, when i check my inventory, i end up having the hide and the meat.
So, there is two issues : - First, the body totally disapear, which leaves no clue to anyone coming after that a brahmin just died. - I am unable to choose what i want to loot from the brahmin.
As a minor side note, i can't plant stuff in or over the body to trap any potential looter.
As already stated, i don't think equal numbers can be reached or is even needed. My complains are about huge gap (when faction B has twice or more the number of faction A), like there is currently between V-Tec and BBoys, like before that between V-Tec/Family and Lawyers/BBoys or before that V-TEC/Lawyers vs Family/BBoys. At some point, the difference is so big that it not challenging for those who outnumber and hopeless to those who are outnumbered. There is no point in figting, no game to be played, no reason for staying on the server. It leads to people leaving, and maybe discourage others from coming if those who left complained about balance. When you are in the outnumbered faction, you can't afford to change faction as there would be even less people and even bigger gap. When you outnumber, you can switch faction, or make an alt in another one and solve the problem. It was done in the past by lawyers, it is still done by some family/lawyers. Dunno if it'll change, but currently, BBoys seemed to have lost some faith in playing within their faction as there is not much hope to counter bigger group. I also lost some faith in V-TEC trying it. Arguments became pretty heated over the years between a few of us and V-Tec lead, which could make things harder.
I don't think all players ought to have alts in all factions. Newcomers & casual might have trouble dealing with more than one characters, more than one faction. They should probably better stick to one char and improve it. On the other hand, some players spend much more time into it, several hours a day, every days, for months. Considering how the reward work, they would have much less troubles sustaining an additionnal character, if needed. Also, there is the pattern to take into account. Other that a few significant exceptions, V-TEC was the overwhelming faction for a lot of months, with a good number of player showing up almost all the time. I get that at the beginning, they would be reluctant to try out solution to improve balance. But after so much time, i find hard to believe they didn't considered a simple solution to a problem they share a part of responsability, and would have an easier time solving. Just moving a char or making a new one is much more easier than making appear a new player out of nowhere to increase a smaller number. But, as stated above, time is an important issue. The longer they wait to do it, the harder it is to accept their excuses for not doing it, considering the little trouble it would bring them to only try it. They might consider the result disapointing if they try (which i don't think so), but not trying at all seems a bigger failure/disapointment than trying an not succeed.
But, IMO, i spent too much time arguing about it. I don't think i'll have the will to rephrase stuff all the time. If they don't do it, they don't do it, but they cannot say they weren't explained why they should.
Features to help balance :
I might be wrong about it, but i recall that early on, even before the server became open, balance was already something in mind, for dev and the people interested in AOP (the would-be players). Dunno if it was expected for the players to handle it themselves, or if it was expected that features would do the job. IMO, i don't see the point in making all these differents weapons, leadership options, characters builds, supports tools, if sheer number was to decide the outcome of all battles, which happens in case of huge gap. No player skill involved, no choice of gear/build would matter. You play knowing the result.
On the other hand, if it is perfectly acceptable than one faction should have no chance of winning, like BBoys at that point, i don't see the point of the faction still existing. People that register in it might not know that they are doomed from the start. If the rare veteran of this faction decide to give up agains't those odds, there would be no one to tell those newcomers that they should keep playing, but not there.
I do think that balancing is an important issue, also in the hand of develloppers, and that AOP, won't be actually finished, IMO, as long as balance issues are ignored. But i am also well aware that i am playing an unfinished game, an early access game. If it follow the trends of others server, it will always be unfinished, but it is not the point. I don't know which is your current priority in the develloppement team, but i assume that as long as you are around (or new blood), there will be some changelog appearing in the future, with fixes, additions, new features. So i am not much worried, and think it is a bit early to consider that you are failed. You would have failed if you finished the game (which might not happen) and sold it (which will never happen) while pretending there are features in which aren't really there.
While i don't know exactly how to mod a fonline game, i assume almost all editing takes some time, a much longer time that it would take us for alting/switching faction. Alting/switching faction has also the benefit in allowing us to keep playing, which you don't do while you are coding/scripting etc... Which lead me to be more disapointed toward regular players that could do it and don't even try.
All that said, if it come to features leaning toward reducing or countering the huge gaps (not making numbers equals) while not forbidding players to play, there could be several. (by huge gap, i mean faction B having twice or more the number of Faction A for an extended period of time, more than two weeks for instance)
- Better individual score if you are in the team in lower number. Lower if you are swarming. (ZC) - Lower condition on things you loot if you are swarming. Better condition if you are swarmed. (ZC) - Short term alliance during ZC. Faction A & B team up for a specific ZC. They share benefits of that zone and it shows no contest while they are together. - Medium term alliance. Faction A & B are officially allied for one week or one months. Every members of both faction should be aware of this (ingame message displayed) and would lose rep if they shoot each other. If faction A make a temporary alliance with team C, it should include team B. - On the other hand, some event should only benefit one faction and screw others, so alliances couldn't work for every fight. - No sworn enemy faction. I am not sure it is the most logical thing to do to destroy someone at the other end of the city, while your closest neighbours constantly threaten your territory. - On the other hand, you cannot form a short term alliance with any team, if it represent more than half of the active playerbase (characters that showed up in ZC during the week), or a medium term alliance if it represent more than a quarter of the playerbase. (if there is 6-8 teams) - Having simultaneous treats, randoms events, weak-spot to deal with, the more active players you got logged at the same time, encouraging you to split to seek those events. - Overall, having much more things to do, several for each kind of activity. Even if your faction has 3 players vs 50 you would still have things to do instead of just log off. (would only come over time) - More mechanics to make even easier faction switching & alting, by moving storage from room/platoon to another, or free XP for making a new character in overwhelmed faction, ONLY if your faction is overwhelming. So not only regular could alt/switch, but also casuals. - Salary & rewards becoming frozen if the gap is too high. - More items/money generated by zones, in core/HQ traders inventory and salary, if there is more factions involved in contesting those zones. The interest of all those faction increase the value of the location. Everyone best interest being in having more kind of people coming. (alliance count as one faction) - Risk of being permanently expelled from a faction if you do team killing while being in an overwhelming faction. - You are more sneaky if part of an overwhelmed faction during a ZC. (overwhelmed faction according to a pattern, not this specific battle) - Having some ressources depending of faction trading system. People from faction B having to buy some stuff from faction A, which would be possible with consent of both sides. - Worst case scenario, but if a faction is judged doomed, just transfer people in the second lowest faction and close registrations. There is no point in allowing people to discover the game in a faction that can't do a thing.
I don't think it is a good idea, to force people to automatically move to another faction. They would try to move back if they didn't consent to it.
First i would say that i am glad the team is still implementing new maps, new contents. I missed that.
It tried exploring those three maps and noticed a few things.
In the Nuka Cola first floor : - There is no npc, nothing alive, nothing dead. - When i am on the first floor and try to go down through the northern stairs, i end up in the middle of the street, not in the position of these stairs on the surface.
In the polymer first floor : - I got into in more than 30 minutes after it was cleaned by another team. Npc were still dead. Dunno what is their respawn time, but it is weird to explore that empty map and take all the loot.
In the robco first floor : - Don't know much about it for now. Tried it alone and with three others guys, and we were focused by a bunch of robots, right at entrance, including deadly melee robots that deliver around 200 damage. When i first tried it alone, i was unconcious before even the map finished to load. When i tried with people, some of them didn't last 10 seconds. It might be on purpose, but i am not fond of npc abusing the loading time of players entering new areas. I would prefer to have the first npc a bit further or in another room, so it will leave players the time to enter together, and have the map loaded before the fight starts. No need to nerf npc. Strong npc is great.
In all : - When you enter those map, you don't appear to be at Polymer/Nuka Cola/Robco, when you look on the squad screen. It is supposed to be those maps first floor, they should be considered as part of these maps.
After a few weeks of gathering, the sewer rats crew managed to overcome many obstacles.
Beating the two dungeons, acquiring a lot of level, being well geared, beating almost all kind of npc, etc... We got pretty effective and succeeded in all PVE challenges we could think off.
A few of us became very interested in PVP, wishing to attack other players when they saw timers. Some actually attacked some people in ZC, which brought a sense on uncertainty from faction players not knowing if they should trust us or not. There is already one faction who declared war on us.
I know why i and a few others joined the factionless and made a sewer rats squad. Not only play with the constraints of not having a base, but also ignore ZC altogether.
Anyway, there is no reason the goal of a few should rule over the whole goup. That's why i think we should all express our view on this, and try to enforce it.
On one hand, if we all start to attack faction players, we will make ourselves a lot of enemies, and will have hard time to get support from faction players. (also, those enemies might also attack sewer rats in other timezone, or those outside squad) On the other hand, we overcame all the PVE challenge we could face, so we have to move on in another direction.
First, about PVP, there are different options : - No PVP at all: We see a faction player, we talk or run, but don't engage. - Only defense: We see a faction player, we try to team up with them, or talk, but we shoot back if they attack. - No rules: If some sewers rats want to attack, we let them. If other don't want to attack, we let them run, heal, or even defend the faction players that was attacked. No one would blame any for his actions. - Mercenaries: We don't hunt faction players we see, but we could provide support to a faction that do ZC. We defend them and attack their enemies during that ZC, but we ignore both groups after the battle. - We hunt for blood: Every time we see a faction player, we shoot them. No diplomacy, no RP, no peacefullness, no depth. - We have a global diplomacy: If faction X attack us, we will alway attack players from that faction, no matter if the players aren't those who attacked first. (for instance, if Ramon attack us today, we will also attack Teela tomorow. Same faction, same fate) - We engage enemies only according to our RP: IMO, it could be an interesting option. Sure, we will need to agree on which kind of RP, but it would bring more depth to the project. After all, most players that joined factionless wanted a different experience. Having new set of values would help to enhance the experience and maybe give some ideas to others. (all of this was started in the RP section after all)
For instance, we could ask players to provide us something or act a certain way if they don't want to be shot. They could just holster their weapons, give us their weapons, give us money, randoms items. Or we could decide to be collectors of some items, and only spare those willing to give us those. We could be anti-drugs and confiscate all drugs. We could react to how they are dressed. But this behavior wouldn't come out of the blue. We would have to create an RP that justify those actions.
Of course, if most sewer rats want to avoid any rules/principles/self-imposed behavior, it is up to us to decide, but i think we are at a turning point in which we should decide our future, before it is imposed upon us by the actions of a few.
Also, we should probably also decide about when to meet. We started the thing with scheduled meeting in which our number kept increasing. As soon as we started to stop scheduling the meetings, our number decreased a lot, including the loss of some of our founding members. Do you think we should keep scheduling the meetings again ? Which are the times in the week that fit you the most ?
Of course, regardless what we decide, they will always be some wild card doing other stuff, but at least we would have a common voice for the main group.
This thread is mainly for current sewer rats and how they want their project to evolve. But it is also open to players that aren't currently sewer rats, but that are interested in the project and might want to join us in the future. If you aren't interested at all, don't bother.
I assume it would require a lot of work to implement those, so those might never be implemented or very late in develloppements.
But, after playing Fonline 2 during AOP break, i was amazed by the system of random events they implemented. After reading Razor's thread about battles always happening at the same locations, i guess those events might be a good way to attract people in various different locations.
For those who don't know well Fo2 system, those events are randoms and can happen almost anywhere. Everyone knows when they happen, and there is generally a timer for the limited duration of the mini-event that could attract a lot of people.
Here are those Fo2 random events.
Spoiler for Hiden:
Random Global Event System
Town events:
- Wright's family event. Wright's family is arming. Chriss Wright is offering to buy all quantities of weapons. Event lasts 10 minutes, caps are refreshed every minute. The best place to sell your loot.
- Gang war in New Reno. Bishop family is attacking Desperado club. Kill all Mordino soldiers and Lil' Jesus Mordino will pay you for help. You will get drugs, caps and something special. Event lasts 10 minutes.
- BoS transport to San Fracisco event. BoS transport arrived to SF bunker. Mutants are trying to take it over. Scribe Matthew is calling for help. Kill all attackers and Scribe Matthew will pay you for help. Every BoS solidier killed in action decrease your reward. Event lasts 20 minutes.
- Broken Hills invasion event. Broken Hills is being invaded. Help the deffenders and drive out the invaders. Event lasts 30 minutes.
- Klamath invasion event. Klamath is being invaded. Help the deffenders and drive out the invaders. Event lasts 30 minutes.
- Global event appearing in Cathedral.Some suspicious meeting happening in Cathedral, better don't go there if you don't want to get to into troubles.
- Buyout events.Shopkeepers are spreading the word about materials needed in big quantities by thier shops. He is announcing buyout. Event lasts 15 minutes. There is one buyout event.
Fire Gecko Pelts buyout in Modoc's Tannery shop.
- Sale events. Big transport arrives to shopkeeper. He is announcing sale. Event lasts 10 minutes, loot is refreshed every minute. There are four sales events
Big drug sale in Renesco's drug store. Big ammo sale in New Reno Arms. Big book sale in San Francisco. Big drug sale in Dr. Fung's drug store.
Caravan events : Caravan owner signs urgent delivery contract. He needs more manpower, so every caravan finished during event is paid 50% extra cash and experience. There are four caravan events:
Worldmap events. Sometimes you will find event location during travenling (temporary event location on
worldmap). Enter it and have fun:
- Resource transport events. Convoy transporting resources is under attack. Kill guards, loot convoy cars and escape. Be careful, attackers want loot too. Event lasts 10 minutes. There are two event maps and three event versions:
-> Convoy transporting Kevlar Polymer to Gecko. -> Convoy transporting High Grade Steel to Redding. -> Convoy transporting Refined Uranium Ore to Broken Hills.
- Broken car events. Bandits car broken down. Kill bandits, loot car and escape. Event lasts 10 minutes. There are four event maps and seven event versions: bandits, robbers, highwaymens, raiders, rouges, khans and regulators.
- Minefield events. Bandits car explode in a center of minefield. Bandits are dead. Loot car and escape. Be careful mines are deadly. Event lasts 10 minutes. There are two event maps and four event versions: sierra minefield, glow minefield, ares minefield and desert minefield.
- Hunter's camp event. Bandits attacked hunter's camp. Hunters are dead. Kill hunters, loot everything and escape. Event lasts 10 minutes. There are four event maps and five event versions: bandits, robbers, highwaymens, raiders and gang.
- Raider's cave event. Two hunters died during exploring suspicious cave. You should check it out. Event lasts 10 minutes. There are three event maps and five event versions: bandits, robbers, highwaymens, raiders and gang.
- Strange locker event. Two scavengers died during exploring city ruins. People says about strange locker. Event lasts 10 minutes. There are three event maps.
- Suspicious basement event. Two scavengers died during exploring city ruins. You heard gossips about strange and hidden factory. Event lasts 15 minutes. There are three event versions: punk, gang, and raiders.
- Raiders camp event. Hostages tried to escape from raiders camp. They were killed, however they managed to fire a flare. Kill bandits, loot everything and escape. Event lasts 15 minutes. There are two event maps and five event versions: highwayman, gang, raiders, rogues, khans.
- Crashed Vertibird event. Enclave Vertibird has crashed in the wasteland. BoS and Enclave are already sending their forces to the crashsite.Event lasts 20 minutes.
- BoS broken Hummer event. BoS Hummer has broke down in the desert. BoS and Enclave are already sending their forces to the place. Event lasts 20 minutes.
- Battlefield event. BoS platoon fighting with heavy Enclave forces. BoS and Enclave reinforcements are incoming. Event lasts 20 minutes.
Miniquest events. Random critters starts giving bring item quests. Event critter has exclamation mark over its had. First player gets 100% extra reward, second 50%, third 25%. Event last 10 minutes or is finished when ~12(random value) players complete quest:
- Farmer needs showel / axe / water bag ... Reward 1500 exp, 50 caps. - Guard needs low-tech gun. Reward 2000 exp, 300 caps. - Guard needs mid-tech gun. Reward 3000 exp, 500 caps. - Alcoholic needs booze / beer ... Reward 1500 exp. - Child needs something to eat. Reward 1500 exp. - Prostitute will make you fell better. Bring her 500 caps. Reward 5000 exp.
Minisale events. Random critters starts selling items. Event critter has exclamation mark over its had. Event last 10 minutes, loot is spawned every minute (very low quantity):
- Citizens are selling books. - Drug dealers are selling drugs. - Citizens in San Francisco are selling energy transformers and chemical components. - Miners in Redding are selling high grade steel. - Ghouls in Gecko are selling high kevlar. - Citizens in Broken Hills are selling energy uranium ore.
Opportunity events. Big amount of caps is spawned in random critter inventory. Listen to gossips (eg. "One girl from New Reno meet a rich client."), find critter and steal treasure. There are two versions of opportunity event: gambler opportunity event and prostitute opportunity event.
Gossip system. All events are announced via gossip system. Critters start gossiping about events after event starts. When you hear guard/citizen saying "Girls from New Reno know how to make a good blow job" or "People say about suspicious cave near Den." you may be sure that something interesting is happening in the wasteland. Of course town events, caravan events and resource transport events are announced via server message too.
If the concept is implemented in AOP, it could bring many people in locations randomly chosen by the server. Those might be...
- Faction X HQ claim ownership of zone X. All the player from faction X that participate in the battle will be supported by an NPC of that faction.
- NPC Faction X (let's say the Enclave) try to take zone X. If their succeed, the zone be owned by NPC. (that should be killed before new ZC there) If they are defeated, the winner might get the zone and a lot of valuable loot. (some of them might carry PA parts, for instance)
- Zone X is overrun by some kind of nasty critters. (deathclaws, for instance). They don't take the zone, but are numerous in the areas, until they got rid of, and usually carry some usefull loot. (usually just hides/chittin. But the XP reward for clearing it could be high)
- The owner of Zone X will receive a huge shipment of X material in xx minutes. If you take that zone before the timer ends, the shipment will arrive in your HQ instead.
- Zone X will suffer an hearthquake in X minutes. That areas should be avoided for the duration of the hearthquake that last X minutes. Everyone that enter it will die instantly. At the end of the hearthquake, anyone can collect the loot of dead players/NPC. NPC will start to come back 5 minutes after the end of the hearthquake.
- Some radiation cloud is passing through zone X. Those who enter will suffer high level of radiation (unless they protect themselves agains't it). A gang of elite ghouls decided to travel in this areas. They carries high-tier items. (modules like those in dungeons, for instance)
- Zone X population feels unsecure with faction X. There should be people from the owning faction before the end of the timer or the zone will become unowned. They just have to show up once to disable the timer, but this timer is quite short. Enemies might try to ambush them on their way. (most likely to happen if you have many zones. but could happen anyway if you don't)
- Zone X population feels safe with faction X. It won't be possible to start a new timer in that zone, for x minutes, as the population will still be loyal to faction X. (most likely to happen if you own at least two zones linked to it. But could happen anyway if you don't)
- A legendary boss decided to wander in zone X. He can makes short work of any group lower than six, but carries a lot of loot. (good weapon/armor/ammos/drugs, but there is only one boss)
- The leader of faction X decided to pay a visit in the zone X (already owned by faction X). The members of faction X must protect him, and his guards during the visit duration for a big reward. The members of the other factions must kill him for another reward. (XP/Reputation/Caps)
- Some valuable item is hidden in zone X. If no one find it, it will disapear after X minutes. (could be anything, but worthy. They tell you it is a gauss or a PA)
- A shipment of item Y on its way to zone Z was lost in zone X. You have to grab the items Y, move them from zone X to zone Z, to get a reward. Items Y are heavy, (characters with only 1 strenght need to be fully naked to carry one) and worthless beyond the quest itself. You will get the reward as soon you set a foot on zone Z, to avoid zone Z camping. (XP/Reputation/Caps in room)
- A vehicle was broken in zone X. You should protect the vehicles while it is being repaired. The reward will be shared amongs those within the vehicle radius. The more you are the less each of you will receive. Some specific tough critters could try to attack the NPC that repair the vehicles, while some other players might try to kill the defenders to take their place. (Part of the reward in your room, part in your inventory)
It is rather a collection of various small suggestions than a whole cohesive thing.
But IMO, militia/patrol need a bit of tweaking to become more relevant. Currently, it seems more like flavor, with little to no effect, outside the gates.
It might be intended, of course. But if not, allow me to highlight some possibilities.
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Overall number of NPC by patrol. 3-9 not matter which zone.
Patrols chances to appear There could be 3 patrol at most in every zone, although those would have lower chance to appear in central zones. Within the chances of the patrol to appear, we can have different factions that those patrol could come from. (each patrol only has one faction)
- In the gate, 100% of the patrols would be from the faction of the gate. - In the zone linked to that gate, 20% of the patrols would be from the same faction as the gate. - In the zones linked to the zone mentioned above, 10% of the patrols would be from the same faction as the gate. - In each zone, 20% of the patrols would be members to the faction that own the zones that are linked with it. 5% from the faction that own the northern zone, for instance. If there is no link on one side (north of Gunnrunner for instance), those related 5% will be members of the faction that own the zone itself. - The rest of the patrols would be from the faction that own the zone.
For instance : - Adams schools is owned by lawyers, Junk Canyon is owned by V-TEC, Gamma Gulp is owned by Family, and Police is owned by Lawyers The patrol that would appear in adams would have 5% to be family (Gamma), 5% to be V-TEC (from Junk), 5% to be lawyers from Police, another 5% from the lawyer owned lawyer gate (as always), 20% lawyers for the gate proximity and 60% again (the rest) to be lawyers, for a total of 90%. - Eastern Square, Whorehouse, Verde Water Treatment Plant are all owned by the Family 100% of the Eastern Square patrols would be Family. - Now V-TEC takes Eastern 20% (the 4 linked zones) + 20% (the link to the gate) of the Eastern Square patrols would be Family, while the remaining 60% patrols would be V-TEC. - PV Bio Lab is owned by the V-TEC, Central City Village is owned by the family and Paradise Valley is owned by the lawyers. In PV Bio Lab, there would be 10% of BBoys patrols, due to the gate proximity, 5% Lawyers, 5% Family, and the remaining 80% will be V-TEC. - The V-TEC own All the north half of the map, including the zone between Adams and Eastern Square, while the south map are owned by other factions. All the zones north of Hospital will have 100% V-TEC, except Junk Canyon, that will have 10% lawyers, and Verde, that will have 10% family. All the zones south of Robco will have 5% from another faction, and the 10% to 20% of gate related patrols for those that are close enough.
If two patrols from different faction meet each other in a zone, they would fight each other. The idea is too enforce the concept of frontiers and overall territory, not only immersion-wise, but also tactically-wise. If you have secured the surrounding a zone, that zone will be safer for your scavengers as most, or even all, the patrol would be from your faction. On the other hand, as you move forward the frontiers of your own overall territory, the zones become less safe, as you are your neighbours makes you feel they would want to claim those territories, if given the opportunity.
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The patrol strenght
Currently, patrol might be usefull to chase off lone intruders (if they are around) but they usually die VERY quick agains't group of players, which tends to nullify their usefullness. Sure, they doesn't have to be OP, like in some 2238 cessions, but they could use a little buff. As a whole, i wouldn't mind if they all get an health/resistance buff. Their offensive capacity shouldn't be too high, as they should allow those who want to escape, but they shouldn't die so quickly agains't those who fight them. It usually doesn't leave enough time to their player allies to support them.
Also, it might be interesting to make them similar to player squad in a few things.
- Those patrol could be led by a squad leader, able to beat a lvl24 players 1 vs 1 and randomly provide their buddies with 1-2 leadership bonus. A bonus they wont be able to keep if that leader dies. There could also be 10% for a squad lieutenant to also appear, who could beat a player 1 vs 1, but without leadership bonus to provide. - Killing them could also give score during ZC. After all, they are supporting a side.
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Rules of engagement
They are fine as defending the members of their own factions agains't enemies. But without their players counterpart, they could also take a few initiative toward members of other factions. - If they have between 0 and -10 000 reputation, they would just inform them to not cause trouble in faction X territory. - If they have between -10 000 and - 25 000 reputation, they could ask them to holster their weapon, and shoot them if they don't complie during the next 30 sec. - If they have between - 25 000 and - 50 000 reputation, they could ask them to leave the zone, and shoot them if they don't complie during the next 30 sec. - If they have less than - 50 000 reputation, they could just shoot them on sight.
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Control of the patrol
Without providing direct control of those patrols, it might be interesting to provide a partial one, by pointing them some areas of interest.
It could be nice to allow players with 50 000 reputation within their faction to buy some colored flares to from an HQ merchant. (definitely not cheap, but not too expensive) Each faction member could only buy flares in the color of their faction.
If someone in the core, activate then throw/drop that colored flags, all of the patrol of the same color within that zone, will be attracted to the radius of that flare, will run to it (after they dealt with their current fight), and patrol around the radius of that flare for around 1 minute. They will stay here unless there is a fight, and will come back here, until the end of the minute. After that minute, they will resume their activities, unless another flare of the same color is activated. If two are active at the same time, only the older one will be taken into account by the patrols. If the flare of each color could only be bought in each HQ, by high reputation members (to avoid alt-abuse), those flares could still be lost in battle and looted by the enemies. Those enemies could use them agains't you in the next battle, by tricking your patrol to look somewhere else, or fight them at the beginning of the battle, so they won't help you afterward.
So there would be some kind of control, without being too much reliable.
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Defense of the zone
This might be abusable, as they would pinpoint the location of the attackers, but it would be neat to have one patrol attack them at 50% of the timer. After all, you are treatening a faction territory. An automatic reaction doesn't seem far stretched. But, on the other hand, it might be better if that patrol appearenc would be more random, like at some point between 20% and 80%, and not necessary only arriving from the side grids. So the player that would come to defend wouldn't necessary know when and where to follow them.
I know that our current number doesn't reflect the number of expected players in the server.
But, it has been many weeks already that lawyers and brahmin boys usually have a very low number of people.
On the other hand, dungeon can only be entered if there is at least 4 lvl6+ characters being part of the group. The problem is that, most of the time, lawyers (and probably BBoys) can't even gather that number of people. On the other hand, those players usually have enough experience to survive that trip. As a consequence, they miss a good part of that loot, including the famous leadership modules.
Another option would be to lower those requirements. Let's say that the dungeon could be entered if : - There is one guy at lvl24+ - There are two guys, lvl18+ - There are three guys, lvl12+ - There are between four and six guys, lvl6+
Those requirements should be the same before entering the boss arena. If you lost too much people on the way, you wouldn't be authorized to face that challenge.
I am totally sure of being accurate on this, but i feel that when you are in "contested" situation, the timer is totally blocked.
IMO, that timer should keep going. Not necessary by showing a timer (it can still show "contested" instead of it) but having all the faction actually keep getting points when the zone is contested. But no one would take the zone as long as the area is contested.
Takes situations : - Faction A is taking zone. They need 10 minutes. After only 2 minutes, player X from faction B come up and hide. Faction A would still have to hunt him down and kill him/make sure he leaves. They shouldn't have the zone if there are still enemies around. But, let's say faction A takes 12 minutes to make him disapear, they shouldn't have have to wait another 8 minutes to have the zone. They stayed 10 minutes or more, and got rid of the competition. They did enough to earn the zone.
- Faction A is taking the zone. Faction B, C and D are all coming full force to fight them. It is a pretty tough battle that last one hour. At the end of the battle, only 2 members of faction D are still alive. They should get that zone, instead of having to wait 30 minutes with their inventory full of loot. They stayed enough to grab the points and they are the only ones left. They earned it.
First, i think the CTF is a nice idea, but it currently have flaw in the execution.
The rewards are randoms, too randoms. You can have shitload of reward, like 40K XP, which is close to abuse, and also 3K XP, which isn't worth risking your life, exploring 5 dangerous areas, full of critters, enemies squads and PK, while you could get 2K-5K XP from the very safe assignements.
On the other hand, you are also rewarded in case the enemy manage to gather those flags, and also rewarded if no one has gathered them (Stalemate). Which lead in some quite weird situation in which you can gain more XP by doing nothing at your base, than actually risking your life to gather those flags.
IMO, those rewards should be reworked.
- If you managed to gather all the flags, you should get an higher reward, but not gamebreaking. Something like 12K-24K (still random, but within limits) - If you reach stalemate point, you should get 1K-3K XP for each flag your team owns. The maximum reward (9K XP) would still be lower than the minimum reward of gathering all the flags. So you would actually want to get that fourth flags for additionnal reward. - If you aren't in Phoenix (if you are in HQ or WM) at the time the reward is given, you should only get 50% of that reward. If you are in dungeon/sewers or dead, but still in Phoenix, you could get 75% of it. If you are in the surface zones, you should get 100%. If you actually grabbed one or several of those flags, (no matter how many you grabbed) you should get 125% of that reward, no matter where you are, when the reward is given. (as long as your are still online) - If there is a stalemate, but you don't have any flag, or if it is another team that wins the CTF, you shouldn't get any reward, not even a single experience point.
Also, it could be nice to have a way to know how many flags your team own at the moment. Let's say that some of your team mates managed to gather two flags, but left afterward. You log in, aknowledge that information, check when the next stalemate will happen and decide to gather or not the remaining flags.
If you are wearing a camouflage, your enemies only see the rank, at first, but can get your name under it, by hovering their mouse on you (if they have awareness). Those are why there are so many primus, gangster, caporégime, etc...
As opposed to those wearing the camouflage (which i still don't believe was actually included), the players that don't have it, would have their rank added under their name, while the other people (friend or foe) could see their rank hovering them with their mouse (if they have awareness).
Instead of adding rank and moving name, the camouflage would inverse the position of name and rank, that would already be shown all the time. The camouflage would just change the priority.
Currently, the rank have no way to be displayed, unless through camouflage abuse (that don't work for team members). Other people should be able to see those. It can give intel about the overall experience of those characters and can also be used for RP purpose.
I believe this was mentioned a billion time each week by other players, but i didn't see any progress in that area.
Currently and since the beginning area, you could see troll characters that were able to instant kill other player with just knives.
Those sneak-melee are the only one that regularly instant-kill others, and they don't even have to use ammo/costly weapons. I won't remind what everyone has said that the sneak should be nerfed/removed.
I would bring some additions to the mix that could make things more fair.
- Instant-kill counter measures. There is no reasons only one character (the cheapest) should be allowed to instant kill. On the other hand, one of the most intestersting aspect of AOP is that there is almost no instant kill. Contrary to Fonline and other crappy servers, here fights lenght longers and it should stay that way. You are now able to adapt, use tactics instead of just shoot first. This fit well with the AOP big map. You don't want to go through 5-6 maps to comeback on the battlefield. You should have chances to fight back. It would be fair to be unable to make more than 80% of the player maximum health (after all other calculation) on a single attack). Even if you hurt him, you should need at least two attack to kill him.
- Melee weapons should deteriorate much faster. Contrary to other weapons, you need to make the weapon in contact with the organic matter in order to make it usefull. It shouldn't take too much attack before the weapon show sign of being weakened, not sharp enough, or maybe heavy, adding more chance of failures & critical faillures. It wouldn't break, but might hurt the owner or be dropped.
- Sneak should use a more layered system of enemies awareness. Let's say you used sneak to kill a guy. You have to wait two minutes before sneaking again, as enemies are in alert mode, then you will have a 50% malus in sneaking for three minutes, as enemies are in aware mode. Then, after five minutes, you would have no more sneaking malus. If there isn't any player of opposing faction, or red (hostiles) critters, in the current map, you would be able to skip alert/aware mode and re-sneak immediately.
That way, those chars would still be powerfull, but with enought flaws to balance it a bit. Otherwise, let's just all create melee sneak and play easy mode...
Currently, you see all the members of your squad in your cheap boy, including those who are dead, disconnected, or outside Phoenix.
It would be nice to have the option to hide people that are disconnected. If more options were also available, we could also hide those who are dead or outside Phoenix.
If you are in small squad, it is less needed, but when you are in a faction-wide squad, (which most people should do) it could become a real pain in the arse to scroll the entire list to know how many players are logged and where they are.
Those suggestions in the title might appear not that much related, and they might not be, but they convey a general feeling of what i think would make the server greater.
My take on the current server is that you rethought the Fonline general rules for the better, with a nice playground, with missions, dungeons, factions gates, factions sides, areas controls, npc patrols roaming in the street etc... It really make us wanting to wander in the cities and interact with that new world.
An issue that i have, although, and it doesn't mean everyone share it, is that i don't feel i am given reasons to actually STAY in the town or in specific areas. I have good reasons to come, scavenge/fight and leave once i did what i had to. I don't have much reason to patrol in a zone or guard specific areas of the zone. In the same time, i don't have much interactions beside fighting/running/scavenging.
It might be a good start, IMO, if some npc patrols weren't just there to attack/defend you, but to interact by other means. For instance, there could be : - Traders : Low inventory, but chances to get any kind of item, and they buy all kind. You can kill them to get their inventory, but you will lose some reputations with the 4 factions, as you hurt the local trade market. - Scout : Might provide you maps of Phoenix or tips to helps you find the dungeons, the sewers or specific items. - Survivalist : Might provide you temporary stats boost after you talked with them. - Wounded soldier : A faction soldier that won't attack you, and is unable to run. If you talk to him, then allow him to leave the map alive, you will gain a medium amount of reputation with his faction and lose a low amount with the three other. If you choose to shoot/kill him (regardless if you talked to him or not), you will lose a medium amount of reputation with his faction and gain a small amount of reputation with the three other factions. - Legendary creatures: Lone creatures that have hight stats, are a real challenge to kill, but provide REAL XP, not a small amount.
On the other hand, if you stay in the zones you control, you could get : - Fixed Traders that have almost the same items than in faction HQ, but also accept all kind of items, not just caps. They can only deal with the faction owning the town, but can provide items that are related with other factions. (Lawyer/Family combat armors, for instance) If you kill them, you have no access to their inventory and lose a small amount of reputation with the 4 factions. - Rebuilding protection. Considering your faction is interested in taking over Phoenix, they might want to secure the city's assets. They could send 10-20 workers to try to make the zone installations working again. Let's say that the V-TEC control RobCo. You will find at the end of the timer, 10-20 civilians npc will start roaming in the map, occasionally using their hand on computers, lockers or various spots. (only to make looks like they are actually working). You can talk to an NPC and start protecting them for any threat they might face. For instance, you might gain 10 caps/reputation for every ingame minutes you spend protecting them. If some of them die during your watch, you will lose 50 reputation, and don't gain anything for 5 minutes, until a new npc is coming. On the other hand, if ennemies come and kill one of these workers, they will gain 50 reputation/XP. The workers don't defend themselves but flee enemies, which might help you to see that they are in danger. If one of them die, another one come in the map five minutes later. If another faction start a ZC timer in that zone, all workers would flee, while 5-10 guards would show up to attack. - If there is enough faction members are protecting the workers, a significant amount of raw materials (electronics parts, junk etc) should appear in a locker near the flag, every 10 minutes, that could only be accessed by those in protection duty since 10 minutes or more. That raw material should be different for each zone. - Those rewards shouldn't be gamebreaking, not punishing those who don't try it or not make those who use it night-invincible, but provide enough reward for giving people new motivation to actually stay in town, if they wish. - During those protection duty, trader/scout/survivalist are more likely to appear. Wounded soldiers/legendary creatures wouldn't appear at all. - There might be some npc guards to help you, but they won't be the bulk of the protection duty. - If there is no one to protect them, there would be no workers, to avoid some abuse. - You might need a level/reputation requirement before trying protection duty, in order for you to be prepared in case of reputation loss, and not suffer it too early in the game.
It might not be related, but i think it would be nice if the patrol of npc would be stronger/more numerous during ZC. When there are 50-100 players on the same maps, those poor npcs stand no chance. It hurts the balance a bit.
I dunno if the same thing happen in other faction, but i am in a platoon of the Lawyer base. When i talk to the guy in grey armor and ask him about the list of member, i can only access the first page of the list. There is a dialog option for turning the pages, but it doesn't seem to work when i choose it. (it clearly says that there are two pages)
But the default colors (fortunately we can change those) of the players' factions are sometimes confusing.
Notably, the Lawyers, being clear grey, are often mistaken with those who don't have factions, being white.
On the other hand, the family & the brahmins boys are both kind of orange, so it isn't much clear to know which factions those guys are members of.
I don't have much issues with the colors used on the worldmap, but some tweaks could be welcomed for their names and their contours.
I am sure there are more colors available to make those four factions (five if you count not having one) more recognizable. (no need to change the colors of those combat armor NPCs)