VaultBot
I'm Vintage's pet bot, I can't reply to PMs/posts.
Howdy partners, I've been some time relatively silent about development things but there wasn't much to talk about anyway. The largest part of my work has gone towards Teamplay mode, and I'm still dedicating it lot of time.
It has been more than 2 months since release and player count is lowering, it was a bit crazy that the mod had so many concurrent players in first place but I know it's disappointing. However the biggest issue for me is the lack of 3rd party maps. Perhaps making maps these days isn't as popular as it used to be a few years ago, but still feels like there could be more interest. I know that a workshop could help, but given the lack of resources that's a luxury right now. In any case, if you want to make a map, take a look at our mapping forum and ask any help you may need.
Now I'd like to discuss with all of you some upcoming features and plans, feedback is very welcomed. I'm sorry for the long text. I don't like to write frequently, so when I do it...
DM/TDM improvements or variants?
I'm pretty happy with our Shootout modes, they were created as mindless, pure and simple action. There are lot of multiplayer FPSs that focus on teamplay, so I'm glad most of you understand what I tried to do here. I don't see much further development in this area, Shootout modes work as intended. Perhaps some end map screen, I promise it'll get added some day...
However some of you have requested some alternative deathmatch mode, as it wouldn't required new maps and would be a quick way to add more diversity. There also were some requests to use cash based weapon selection in deathmatch. I believe both things could work, let's say, a bounty hunter mode that takes advantage of cash as a way to win the game but also as the basic mechanic to get your guns. I'm considering it and eventually something will come out of this. What do you think?
Teamplay mode.
Regarding Teamplay maps, there's still lot of work ahead. I'm not really happy how it plays right now but it's slowly getting into the direction I want.
My main concern is finding a compromise between players keeping guns after surviving a round and forced weapon removal after round end. First stance decided matches early, and second feels like having no reward at all for playing better than rivals. Keeping guns in Counter-Strike works because the rounds are much longer, there are no respawns. So players hiding or avoiding teamplay not only lose the round but also get killed so they lose the gun anyway. Since our rounds take less time, keeping guns simply can't work. The compromise I'm going to test is this: players surviving a round get some extra cash, proportional to weapons carried and how much they helped to their team.
Another aspect I don't like too much is how current maps aren't as fun as they could be, or they are a bit broken as tp_eliminator (dynamite spam). The elimination mode used in tp_loothill and imported to tp_riobravo is probably too harsh and not ideal for symmetric maps. Speaking of what. I decided king of the hill mode wasn't working in tp_riobravo, but I'm sure it will work great in a map made for it. If only we had some more mappers!
There also will be a new game mode for Teamplay: escape. Think as defending team plays elimination mode and attackers play zone capture. It's just there exist 2 zones available so defenders can't just camp a single place. The capture is blazing fast and they 'escape' by capturing just 1 zone. Escape mode is meant for asymmetric maps, and a round is comprised of several sub-rounds (or minimaps) that involve different escape missions, each new one a bit harder than previous.
“Top of the West” ranking.
This is a feature some of you, the competitive-minded players, gonna like.
I wanted a ranking and stats system since the Steam version project started, however there was a major obstacle: Steam leaderboards cannot be trusted since they can be cheated easily. The idea of creating some sort of custom back-end to track all these stats wasn't very appealing either, so I tried to figure out some alternative. Now I finally found a way to do what I want. Here are some details:
1) There will be ranked servers, those will be the only ones tracking stats towards this ranking. Only those servers that can be trusted will be allowed. This is necessary because stats could be cheated if a server owner allows it. Obviously, fake stats defeats the whole purpose of rankings.
2) Teamplay will be the only game mode that can track ranked stats, however the ranking and its 'consequences' will be visible in any game mode and any server you play.
3) There won't be a global ranking but specific server based rankings on all dedicated servers. This means your personal stats will be matched against other players in whatever server you play, and each server will create its own ranking. Think as each server was a 'town', same player could be top in a town, and 50th in another town.
4) Player rank will age, per server. Let's say you join a server and get ranked in 3rd position, but you do not play in that server anymore. Your rank will age for this specific server. Just note that your actual player stats stored in Steam are only updated for each respective server when you play in it.
5) A global ranking may exist some day? Well, the most played servers will act as some sort of global ranking, however only top 50 players will be taken into account. I may consider to create a real global ranking at some point, however the idea here is to create some sort of local based rankings.
6) The top players for each server will get some cosmetics, as scoreboard highlighting, weapon skins or some hats. Just note that player rank may vary a lot from server to server, as it's all about how their stats match against other players. The ranked stats will also probably be used for more accurate team balancing and such.
7) And finally, what parameters will decide a player rank, or how important will be pure skill vs playing time. Obviously it can't be about pure skill only or a ranking like this would encourage to play for a bit and get some great stats. A compromise could be 70% skill (let's say K
ratio), and 30% some stat that can be increased over the time, perhaps total notoriety acquired since this one is also skill related (it increases faster the better player is). However I'd not like the ranking system to create unfairness, let's say players joining the winning team because it increases the chances to get a better rank. Rank stats will be tied to how a player performs along their teammates, so playing along less skilled teammates won't be a burden but the opposite, rank wise.
Well, that's it. Imagine getting some of those top ranked players priviledges and losing them the next day because someone with better stats than yours joined the same server. I don't think this has been done before, probably because it was too dumb ^^ We'll know soon.
Continue reading...
It has been more than 2 months since release and player count is lowering, it was a bit crazy that the mod had so many concurrent players in first place but I know it's disappointing. However the biggest issue for me is the lack of 3rd party maps. Perhaps making maps these days isn't as popular as it used to be a few years ago, but still feels like there could be more interest. I know that a workshop could help, but given the lack of resources that's a luxury right now. In any case, if you want to make a map, take a look at our mapping forum and ask any help you may need.
Now I'd like to discuss with all of you some upcoming features and plans, feedback is very welcomed. I'm sorry for the long text. I don't like to write frequently, so when I do it...
DM/TDM improvements or variants?
I'm pretty happy with our Shootout modes, they were created as mindless, pure and simple action. There are lot of multiplayer FPSs that focus on teamplay, so I'm glad most of you understand what I tried to do here. I don't see much further development in this area, Shootout modes work as intended. Perhaps some end map screen, I promise it'll get added some day...
However some of you have requested some alternative deathmatch mode, as it wouldn't required new maps and would be a quick way to add more diversity. There also were some requests to use cash based weapon selection in deathmatch. I believe both things could work, let's say, a bounty hunter mode that takes advantage of cash as a way to win the game but also as the basic mechanic to get your guns. I'm considering it and eventually something will come out of this. What do you think?
Teamplay mode.
Regarding Teamplay maps, there's still lot of work ahead. I'm not really happy how it plays right now but it's slowly getting into the direction I want.
My main concern is finding a compromise between players keeping guns after surviving a round and forced weapon removal after round end. First stance decided matches early, and second feels like having no reward at all for playing better than rivals. Keeping guns in Counter-Strike works because the rounds are much longer, there are no respawns. So players hiding or avoiding teamplay not only lose the round but also get killed so they lose the gun anyway. Since our rounds take less time, keeping guns simply can't work. The compromise I'm going to test is this: players surviving a round get some extra cash, proportional to weapons carried and how much they helped to their team.
Another aspect I don't like too much is how current maps aren't as fun as they could be, or they are a bit broken as tp_eliminator (dynamite spam). The elimination mode used in tp_loothill and imported to tp_riobravo is probably too harsh and not ideal for symmetric maps. Speaking of what. I decided king of the hill mode wasn't working in tp_riobravo, but I'm sure it will work great in a map made for it. If only we had some more mappers!
There also will be a new game mode for Teamplay: escape. Think as defending team plays elimination mode and attackers play zone capture. It's just there exist 2 zones available so defenders can't just camp a single place. The capture is blazing fast and they 'escape' by capturing just 1 zone. Escape mode is meant for asymmetric maps, and a round is comprised of several sub-rounds (or minimaps) that involve different escape missions, each new one a bit harder than previous.
“Top of the West” ranking.
This is a feature some of you, the competitive-minded players, gonna like.
I wanted a ranking and stats system since the Steam version project started, however there was a major obstacle: Steam leaderboards cannot be trusted since they can be cheated easily. The idea of creating some sort of custom back-end to track all these stats wasn't very appealing either, so I tried to figure out some alternative. Now I finally found a way to do what I want. Here are some details:
1) There will be ranked servers, those will be the only ones tracking stats towards this ranking. Only those servers that can be trusted will be allowed. This is necessary because stats could be cheated if a server owner allows it. Obviously, fake stats defeats the whole purpose of rankings.
2) Teamplay will be the only game mode that can track ranked stats, however the ranking and its 'consequences' will be visible in any game mode and any server you play.
3) There won't be a global ranking but specific server based rankings on all dedicated servers. This means your personal stats will be matched against other players in whatever server you play, and each server will create its own ranking. Think as each server was a 'town', same player could be top in a town, and 50th in another town.
4) Player rank will age, per server. Let's say you join a server and get ranked in 3rd position, but you do not play in that server anymore. Your rank will age for this specific server. Just note that your actual player stats stored in Steam are only updated for each respective server when you play in it.
5) A global ranking may exist some day? Well, the most played servers will act as some sort of global ranking, however only top 50 players will be taken into account. I may consider to create a real global ranking at some point, however the idea here is to create some sort of local based rankings.
6) The top players for each server will get some cosmetics, as scoreboard highlighting, weapon skins or some hats. Just note that player rank may vary a lot from server to server, as it's all about how their stats match against other players. The ranked stats will also probably be used for more accurate team balancing and such.
7) And finally, what parameters will decide a player rank, or how important will be pure skill vs playing time. Obviously it can't be about pure skill only or a ranking like this would encourage to play for a bit and get some great stats. A compromise could be 70% skill (let's say K
ratio), and 30% some stat that can be increased over the time, perhaps total notoriety acquired since this one is also skill related (it increases faster the better player is). However I'd not like the ranking system to create unfairness, let's say players joining the winning team because it increases the chances to get a better rank. Rank stats will be tied to how a player performs along their teammates, so playing along less skilled teammates won't be a burden but the opposite, rank wise. Well, that's it. Imagine getting some of those top ranked players priviledges and losing them the next day because someone with better stats than yours joined the same server. I don't think this has been done before, probably because it was too dumb ^^ We'll know soon.
Continue reading...
