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November Progress Report
MMO-BP
Member Posts: 21
Not posted yet that I can see. November patch notes are out: http://therepopulation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=286:end-of-november-2012-update&catid=61:new-frontpage-news&Itemid=428
Abilities and Effects
- Added "Cooties" support to effects. This name of course comes from the children's game where kids will tap one another to spread the cooties, and then quickly try to get rid of it. How it works in Repop is certain abilities can be marked to be transferred to other players either through you killing them or them killing you. Not all effects are spread in the same way. This allows us to create a variety of new abilities or effects which were not previously possible. For example we can have NPCs who spread a virus (think 28 Days Later) to their victims, or it could be used for Capture the Flag type or King of the Hill type effects, where you can kill a player or NPC to take control of the effect.
- Added the tier 1 Trap Knowledge ability: Disarm Trap. There is a new tutorial in each of the Training Facilities which will reward the ability. Disarm Trap allows you to disable traps. If you fail to disarm the trap, you may set it off, however. So be careful.
- Added a new Entertainment skill line and many abilities which are associated with it. These are documented in the Entertainment section however, to make it easier to read.
- The Set Up Camp ability will now create a social/resting location near the camp, in addition to its regeneration bonuses. This allows Entertainment abilities to be used when inside of the camp.
- The following abilities and/or combat effects have new icons: Catch Breath, Turn the Tide, Air Strike, Setlang Trap, Defend Yourself, Guard, Make Peace, Set Bone in Place, Vaccinate Area, Advanced Nano-Vaccine, Nano-Vaccine, Nano-Regen, Nano-Stitch, Medical Scan, Med Scan Area, Ranged Medical Scan, Advanced Medical Scan, Rapid Scan, Teleport: Freedomtown, and Teleport: Plymouth City.
- New energy shield FX (Energy Shield Mod 1)
- Optimized the combat effect (buff/debuff) code.
- Some abilities can now be marked to not produce Training Cards.
Combat
- Weapon and Armor Penetration values are now percentage based, and NPCs have also been adjusted to bring them in line with these changes.
- Integrated an improved muzzle system for ranged weapons. This system allows us to present more accurate firing FX.
- Added a new impact animation for Rifles.
- The client side Action Mode weapon FX now respect your weapon's speed.
- Tab targeting should no longer target corpses.
- Character energy shield effects are now properly displayed to nearby players.
- Fixed a bug where weapon accuracy was not set on login for new characters.
- Improved Unarmed combat support in Action Mode.
- Parry, Dodge and Block animations should no longer hold you still in place.
- Fixed a bug where weapon accuracy values were not being set if you swapped items.
- Fixed the action mode bug where you could not hit enemies at all under some circumstances.
- Corrected an issue with the animations when walking backwards while firing a rifle.
- Fixed an issue where the combat method type (rifle, handgun, etc) wasn't being pushed unless going into combat mode on the npc/pc.
- Fixed a bug related to disengaging from combat.
Crafting and Harvesting
- Harvestable Props will now only be highlightable if you have sufficient harvesting skill to use them. Otherwise they will appear as non-interactive decorations.
- Abandoned Bundles can now be found in the revamped Plymouth areas.
- Yellow Poxies are now available near Plymouth City.
- Harvestable Regions should no longer try to spawn resources if the Harvestable Region is marked as deleted.
- Lesapen Fruit can now be harvested near of Fort Hudson.
- The area near Ammann now supports Kosha resources.
- Added a new Calibrite region just outside of the Tikt Tunnels.
- You can now receive generated crafting missions even when in the Training Facilities.
- New Fish nodes are available near the water basin in Plymouth.
- Added new Coal, Fish and Yellow Poxy nodes near Koleyna.
- Corrected an issue with Blue Poxy harvested resources.
- Numerous recipes have seen adjustments. .
Dens
- Introduced support for spawning additional waves based on players clearing the previous wave. This is the opposite of the default functionality of Dens, where waves are spawned based on time, and stop spawning if you can trim the numbers. This functionality an be used for events similar to the ring events in EQ 1 where each wave becomes more challenging than the last.
- Dens now support Day and Night spawns. In the future we will also be adding seasonal support.
- Added a dozen new den types and scattered them across the world. Most den types can support multiple types of mobs, and the types themselves are generally a reflection of the spawning rules (Day/Night, Number of Waves, Mobs Required, Spawn Style, etc).
- Fixed a bug that was causing Dens to only work until the Den had already ticked once. This meant that first player to enter into a den region would never be able to spawn a Den previously, but it has now been resolved.
Engagements
- Nation-specific engagements are now fully supported. This includes support for three way engagements (FPR, OWON, Rogue) with each of them being able to affect the outcome of the others (optionally).
- Added support for "Cooties" effects. See the Abilities and Effects section for details on what this is. Engagements can mark certain effects as being engagement specific so that they can remove their effects when they are over, and can have goals which are completed or influenced by them.
- Engagements now support PvP goals and bonus goals.
- Added a new Recovering the Wreckage engagement. This engagement is faction specific and PvP oriented. An experimental OWON aircraft has been downed in the area and the factions are scrambling to retrieve the parts. OWON is seeking to keep them out of the FPR hands, and FPR wants to reverse engineer them. Players must find these parts and then drag them to a faction specific drop ship at a Landing Zone in the area. This is easier than it sounds, because the parts are very heavy and your movement and defenses will suffer greatly while dragging them. If you should be killed, the players who killed you will gain control of the part.
- Engagement Auto-grouping is now faction specific, meaning OWON players won't be auto-grouped with FPR players.
- Added voice font support to the following engagements: Ambushed by Bandits, Simulated Warfare (OWON and FPR), and Are Those Commandos?
- Added the first wave of FPR based engagements.
- Fixed a bug that was causing engagement counters to not properly advance in some rare cases. This would bug out the engagement and make it incompletable until it timed out.
Entertainment
- Added a new skill: Entertainment. Like with most skills, this is available to all characters and reflects your ability to entertain other players through acting, dancing, playing music, manipulating crowds or other means.The mechanics for this line are described below.
- Entertainment abilities need to be used in social or resting areas in order to grant their buffs. If used outside of those areas you will simply play the FX and nothing positive will happen. Pubs, bars, and other places such as town squares can be marked as social areas.
- Player created camps will create their own social/resting area and allow players to use these abilities when outside of the cities.
- Entertainment abilities work through a combination system. There are some baseline recurring abilities, as well as special moves. Special moves work using the Openings system, and allow players to work together to chain together a wide array of buffs for fellow players in the area. Some of these buffs are stackable, and others are not. The system is designed so that multiple entertainers will give better results, especially if they work together in forming the more advanced move chains. Entertainment buffs are not overpowering, but are long lasting and can provide a small advantage in combat for those who take time out for some rest and relaxation.
- Added the tier 1 Entertainment Ability: Dance Step. This is a toggleable dance step that can be left on for long durations. While active it will increase the health and endurance regeneration of nearby players. More importantly though it is an opener that will enhance other special entertainment moves.
- Added the tier 1 Entertainment ability: Tale. This ability starts a story. For the next 15 seconds either the player or other players can continue the tell by splitting it down a branch with a new twist.
- Added the tier 1 Entertainment ability: Playful Step. This ability grants a small but long lasting bonus to endurance recovery. It can stack with other abilities in this line and with other players version of this ability to increase its duration.
- Added the tier 1 Entertainment ability: Humorous Twist. A tale must be being told for this to work, but it will grant a small boost to nearby allies health recovery.
- Added the tier 2 Entertainment ability: Suggestive Move. This dance maneuver increases the duration of other effects on your character for its duration.
- Added the tier 2 Entertainment ability: Spooky Twist. This adds a spooky twist on a story. Spooking players will cause them to be more focused on caution, enhancing their stealth skills.
- Added the tier 2 Entertainment ability: Marching Chant, which increases movement speed. This has a much longer range, but much shorter duration than most other Entertainment abilities. You can triple that duration by having several players play at a time, however. It is a toggled ability.
- Added the tier 3 Entertainment ability: Tale of Battle. This grants nearby allies a combat bonus.
- Added the tier 3 Entertainment ability: Amusing Step. This stacks with Playful Step and increases its duration.
- Added the tier 3 Entertainment ability: Reassuring Twist. This tale extension will decrease the rate at which Momentum is lost from nearby allies.
- Added the tier 4 Entertainment ability: Battle Song. Similar to Marching Chant this song has a longer range, but shorter duration than most other Entertainment abilities, and you can triple the duration by having multiple players toggling it on. It increases the Attack Speed of affected allies.
- Added the tier 4 Entertainment ability: Funny Twist. This goes into the same effect slot as Humorous Twist but increases the duration of the effect. It has a higher chance of success than Humorous Twist, as well.
- Added the tier 4 Entertainment ability: Enticing Wiggle. This dance move uses the same effect slot as Suggestive Move but they can be used to enhance the effects. It also has a higher chance of success.
- Added the Tier 4 Entertainment ability: Frightening Twist. This enhances and extends the Spooky Twists effect, and also has a higher chance of succeeding.
- Added the Tier 5 Entertainment ability: Show Off. Unlike most other Entertainment abilities, this does not affect allies, but rejuvenates you personally.
- Added the Tier 5 Entertainment ability: Rile Up. This is used to rile up onlookers, restoring a small amount of endurance instantly.
- Added the tier 6 Entertainment ability: Tale of War. This uses the same effect slot as Tale of Battle, but enhances its effects, and also has a higher rate of success.
- Added the tier 6 Entertainment ability: Scary Twist. This enhances and extends the Spooky Twists effect, and also has a higher chance of succeeding then either Spooky or Frightening Twist.
- Added the tier 7 Entertainment ability: Soothing Twist. This ability uses the same effect slot as Reassuring Twist, but has a higher rate of success and will enhance its effects.
- Added the tier 7 Entertainment ability: Dirty Dance. This dance move uses the same effect slot as Suggestive Move but is used to enhance the effects. It also has a higher chance of success than either Suggestive Move or Enticing Wiggle.
- Added the tier 7 Entertainment ability: Hilarious Twist. This goes into the same slots as Humorous and Funny Twist, but enhances the effect. It has the highest chance of success of the three.
- Added the tier 8 Entertainment ability: Tale of Heroism. This uses the same effect slot as Tale of Battle, but enhances the effects. It has the higher rate of success than Tale of Battle and Tale of War, as well.
- Added the tier 9 Entertainment ability: Relaxing Twist. This ability uses the same effect slot as Reassuring Twist, but has a higher rate of success than it or Soothing Twist. It will enhance the effects of both of those abilities.
- Added the tier 10 Entertainment ability: Blow Roof Off Place. This ability gives a small burst of Momentum and increasing the endurance pool of all allies in the area.
- Added the tier 11 Entertainment ability: Open Mind. If allies within the area already have all of the buffs from the Story line of entertainment, this will grant them a +5% skill gain buff. The duration of this buff can be increased with multiple players cycling this ability.
General
- New PvP related Achievements have been added.
- Improved spatial awareness support on the backend.
- You can no longer walk on water while strafing.
- Fixed a bug where PCs where not pushing their weapon visualizations to other players when the player first logged in.
- Corrected an issue that was causing dead NPCs or players to appear to be alive if they were already dead when they entered into your spatial awareness range.
- Made a number of improvements to the server side systems which allow us to easily batch modify and balance data.
- Fixed a rare death-related bug that prevented players from respawning until they relogged.
- Weapon visualizations are now properly transferring across seamless borders.
- Fixed a bug related to custom prop scripts. This was affecting two missions and an engagement.
GM Functionality
- The GM Framework has been improved to allow for more standardized input, as well as being more flexible to incorporate new functionality.
- GMs now have the capability to use powers on a single player, group of players or an entire area, and all powers are using a standardized input format. This will allow us to build a visual interface to access all of this functionality in the future.
- Implemented a new GM Rank system. We feature a number of levels for GMs, allowing for different access restrictions for each GM. It should be noted that all GM functionality is monitored, logged and will be carefully scrutinized.
- Improved auditing support for GM issued commands.
- GMs now have the ability to examine a players Abilities, Achievements, Credits, Imprints, Items, Recipes or Skills.
- Added the ability for GMs to cause an NPC to speak text to certain players, where only the specified player(s) can see it.
- GMs now have the ability to broadcast messages to players, area's or world.
- GMs now have the ability to send a nag-screen to player(s) .. a minor one, or one that absolutely you can't ignore.
- It is now possible for GMs to spawn NPCs on the fly.
- Improved support for possessing NPCs.
- GMs can now override nation join time restrictions and flip nations at will.
- Added the ability for GMs to display special FX based around the target(s) of their choosing.
- GMs now have the ability to mark waypoints and then teleport themselves or players to them.
- GMs now have the ability to teleport players to Points of Interest.
- Some GMs now have the ability to create items if necessary.
- GMs now have the ability to reward achievements to players, or groups of players.
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GMs now have access to display recent log entries which have yet to be written to file. These logs can also be filtered.
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GM Resurrection will no longer cause death effects.
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Added logging system for automatic detection of suspicious transactions. Thresholds can be changed on the fly.
Items
- Fittings now support the following energy based attributes: Energy Recovery, Energy Pool Split, Energy Time Until Recharge and Max Energy.
- Items now support clicking to comple specific mission goals, where previously they could only initiate missions.
- Added new Intoxicating items. These have both visual and statistical effects to simulate being highly intoxicated.
- Increased the energy recharge rate on heavy armor.
- Fixed a bug where you could remove a fitting that wasn't equipped and it would try to remove itself from the tracker.
- Fixed the energy recharge times on Assault Vests.
Missions
- PvP Missions are now supported and several have been introduced. They can either send the player out to kill a specific faction, or they can give credit for any enemy killed. As with all missions these can be made to be area specific.
- Trap Interaction is now supported as a Mission Goal. There are options to update missions if a player sets off a trap, or also if they disable them. There are new missions which take advantage of this.
- Training Card rewards are now distributed by the type of mission. For example if you want to earn the shadier abilities, you will need to do shadier missions. If your looking for medical abilities, you'll have the best results from medical missions.
- Missions can now be nation specific.
- Goals can now be completed by click activating certain items from inventory/equipment.
- Added numerous collection missions to the FPR side to bring them in line with OWON.
- FPR Bounty Collectors are now available. Bounty Collectors allow players to turn in bounty items obtained from NPCs or other players for a bounty that includes Military Experience.
- You can now receive generated crafting missions even when in the Training Facilities.
- You can now see Sergeant Jameson in Freedomtown to start an FPR Epic mission series.
- There are new Trap Removal tutorials in each of the Training Facilities.
- Many new mission templates were added.
Nations and Housing
- Added a slew of new furniture models including 37 tables, 32 outdoor and garden props, 32 sofas, and 38 chairs.
- When viewing other players their faction's logo will appear beside their name and health bars above their head if nameplates are enabled.
- Corrected an issue where it was not changing a players faction based on the nation they belong to.
NPCs
- Improved Day/Night support for NPCs. We now have two distinct methods for handing time of day based spawns.
- Added voice font support for a number of new NPC phrases.
- Military NPCs now have a wider range of banter in the form of both voice and text.
- Babbles and chat bubbles will no longer appear for NPCs who are not in nearby. This was sometimes occurring or NPC gossip when players were well out of range of the NPC.
- Tikt Drones now have armor settings on par with other Faugea.
- Fixed a bug with NPCs going into unarmed combat instead of rifle mode erroneously in some cases.
- Fixed a bug where PCs were not pushing their weapon visualizations to other players when entering their spatial awareness.
Social
- Integrated a new Entertainment skill. This is documented in the Entertainment section.
- Added /accuse, /backhand, /blame, /bonk, /cheek, /comfort, /congratulate, /flirt, /greet, /handshake, /hug, /introduce, /pinch, /pointat, /poke, /scold, /summon, /thank, /faint, /pointup, /pointdown, /pointleft, /pointright and /welcome emotes.
User Interface
- When viewing other players their faction's logo will appear beside their name and health bars above their head if nameplates are enabled.
- You may now use the Numberpad 8 and 2 keys (by default) to raise or lower the camera.
- You can no longer right click to bring up player information if the player is of an opposing faction.
Vehicles
- Characters now have a list of vehicles that they own. They can add or remove from this list and recall vehicles which they own from it. This prevents players from needing spawning items.
- Vehicles will now despawn after a brief period of time if a player logs out or is disconnected. If a player relogs in before this time period expires, they will abort despawning.
- Improved world-wide support and scalability for vehicles.
- Vehicles should no longer shift or unset when crossing seamless borders.
- A new vehicle model was added.
World
- The world-based trap system has been improved in many ways. Traps can now be disabled by players, specify optional respawn times, spawn NPCs and create a large array of combat effects and visualizations. They are also now tied into the mission system.
- The Doma Highlands (OWON) and Fal Sept (Contested) have added to the world.
- Freedomtown is now populated with NPCs, vendors, missions and engagements. Players will receive a permanent boost to their Survival skill the first time they visit Freedomtown.
- The Sewers underneath the Aemar Hydro Plant have been expanded, and the Investigate the Sewers mission has been updated to support the larger sewer area.
- The area near Freedomtown now supports sandstorms as a dynamic weather effect. They are rare, however.
- New snow and northern lighting style effects have been added to Kaavo.
- The Ammann area has a number of traps, so watch your step.
- Added 18 new billboard ads/sign models. These are being strewn around the cities to liven up areas.
- Players will now receive a permanent increase to their Genetic Engineering skill the first time they visit Plymouth City.
- Plymouth City has new seatable benches, stools and beds.
- New decorations added to Plymouth City's medical center.
- Loch Aza has had its tier and difficulty increased.
- Timbertol has had its tier and difficulty decreased slightly.
- Fixed some spots in Plymouth City where you were walking on concrete but it was switching to a grass sound due to a mismatched footstep trigger location.
- Prowling Lesoo Lurkers near Plymouth should be considerably more rare.
- There should no longer be multiple copies of Private Elroy running around Plymouth.
- The FPR Cloning Facility is now properly instanced allowing multiple instances at a time.
- Fixed some floating trees and rocks near Plymouth City.
Comments
I assume your biggest concern is abuse?
Let me explain the measures we take to keep GM's in check.
- We take a zero-tolerance stand on abuse.
- GM's will play on a seperate account, which is fully monitored. Fully as in every move, transaction, gm command and even the chat will be logged.
- Players can report GM abuse, which will be taken very seriously.
- There are several ranks of GM's. Stafmembers will be the seniors with 3 main focus areas .. manage GM teams, monitor for abuse and handle large cases.
- New GM's will get a " low" level GM account with limited powers ... if they prove worthy and trustfull, after a few months they might get promoted to a next level.
- And then there is me ..... :P
By giving these powers to GM's, you can create a much more lively and dynamic, challening and fun game.
Eventhough abuse from a GM might possibly occur, we think the positive influence will outweigh it by large.
I'ld be happy to hear your ideas, unless it's "No GM powers"
that does help ease my concerns. good to know that you guys have already thought about abuse. thanks for response.
This is a good stance on how to manage GMs. One thing I really liked about WoW was their GM system. I never ran into a GM in the game world. However, if I ever needed one, they were always there to help.
If an AAA subscription game goes F2P ... i'm worried too.
If a game is designed from scratch to be F2P, you might have to give it a chance
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
GMs will need these powers in Repop as there is a very real possibility of live events occuring. If they leave it up to me we'll have bi weekly events pre-planned for three or four months post launch before open beta lol. We'll need to be able to mix it up and keep things random and interesting
As far as the concern of the cash shop, I personally hate cash shops, but the way we are setting up to do a cash shop isn't going to be your standard "F2P but if you don't buy from the cash shop you must grind 20 horus a day to keep up". Our cash shop is going to be convience and cosmetic based with the membership option that will give you the convience style features and possibly some of the cosmetic. Exact details haven't been decided, but the devs are wholly against a pay2win style cash shop.
I'm really excited to see these features in game. I'm also looking forward to seeing what GM's can do and glad to see that there's already a lot of consideration on how to keep GM's from abusing their abilities.
It's all in the details and these guys seem to be on top of them.
"I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist
I can see my long lost SWG pre cu shining through in this game. Finally a game I'm excited about.
Same here!
Things are looking good!