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hehe... can't sneak around here huh?

Thank you everyone for the kind words! And the froggy agent, I'm saving that in my bookmarks SMILEY

As has been stated, I've been transferred onto a new project, which is
unfortunately top secret so I can't tell you anything about it without
having to, well, you know. I'm actually pretty excited about it and
already doing some fun, interesting stuff.

But I'm gonna miss y'all. *sniff* You guys are the best game family a
froggy could hope for. I fully expect that I won't find another player
base quite the same. It's a really tight community, and some of you
have some great insight into the game. Definitely the best dev sig
makers, and absolutely the best for making me feel right at home. SMILEY

Thank you all for making this a great game to be a part of!

Before y'all talk too much about the whole balancing aspect, I should
say that the whole population balancing shmeal deal isn't going to be
included in the initial release. I can't say if it will be added at a
later date or not, but it will most certainly not be included in this
release, as cool (or not) as it might be.

I really liked Spectral Field but unfortunately I was unable to
implement it without breaking the entire sneak/invisibility system. So,
the ability has become "Retribution"; every time you take damage, 5%
chance of doing some damage to all enemies within 5 meters.

The Mervs' 4th ability (Extortion) is now an interlock-only move, which
damages the enemy and gives you IS, and uses the blood drinker
animation. Their third ability translates damage taken into a DPS boost
- the more damage you take, the more your damage goes up by.

Zion no longer has an IS-shield type ability; instead, they have an AOE
DPS booster that affects team-mates only. Their fourth ability boosts
IS regen for a short time. Their final ability has a 5% chance each
time you're hit to heal and restore IS to all allies within 5m.

Machines have one ability to boost their own DPS, and another that
translates any damage taken into IS. Their final ability has a chance
to stun all nearby enemies for a short time (5 seconds).

*ribbit*

This tool is not intended for PvP use. If you can use it in PvP, kudos
to you, especially with the new use requirements I've set up on it:

Range: 1 meter

Use Time: 2 seconds

User cannot be stealthed

Target must be sitting

The primary use of this tool is to make it easier to verify duels and
tournaments, particularly with the Org Abilities that are coming out.
Someone could have up to two passive Org abilities running on them,
which can't be verified as cleared by the suicide/rez technique, and
wouldn't be apparent from any sort of special effects. And even if it
weren't for the new abilities, it's kind of annoying to have to use
that technique to prove you don't have any buffs going, IMO.

All of the servers can have as many tournaments and duels as they want
to - in fact one of the biggest tournaments I've ever seen was the one
organized on Vector a while back, I think by ManatikLuniak?

Anyhow, bottom line: if you want a tool that's usable in PvP, then this is not the droid you are looking for.

r3spon5e has a really good point: it is not within the design of this tool to use it for PvP.

The tricky part really is how do you see if someone wants to be scanned
by the tool, without using a dialog confirmation box (which as I said
earlier is open to abuse). You can't check the player's PvP status
because of Vector; the tool wouldn't work there and would clearly not
meet the design intended.

So, what I'm trying to get now are use conditions that make it harder
to use in PvP. And the range issue seems like a fantastic idea.

10 second use time, range of 1 meter, user must be visible... those
three things would combine to make it really hard to use in PvP, I
would imagine, because even if you're in interlock you'd typically be
moving more than 1 meter away within 10 seconds. It will have some sort
of little animation on using the tool as well, so if someone walked up
really close to you and played the little animation, you'd know what
they were up to... that might be an ideal solution.

Okay I'll bite SMILEY

I had a story character meeting with someone on a rooftop, just a one
on one. It all went great until the end of the meeting, when I went to
hyperjump away... OH NOES no hyperjump loaded. So I just did a normal
jump, and went nowhere. That looked kinda dumb. So then I figured I'd
just do a normal jump over the edge of the building. OH NOES I got
blocked by the edge of the roof and did another jump in place. Okay,
that looked idiotic.

At that point I just went invis and prayed that the player hadn't noticed :smileyindifferent:

And then I logged off and swore a bunch SMILEY

I haven't had them showing so far, but I could certainly add them if people generally want to know that info.

Oh, yeah, good point. I didn't include any abilities that you could
only cast on yourself. Do y'all think I should I go ahead and include
those under the "misc. Patchers upgrades" section?

Cool idea, but it would take a really long time to implement, in fact I wouldn't know how to implement that myself SMILEY

Here's what I've got the tool doing so far:

It takes 10 seconds to use it, so it would be tough in PvP, but possible.

It just has four possible responses it can give you - either that the
player has no detected upgrades going, or that they have Org Abilities,
Consumable Buffs, or Patcher Buffs going, or a mix of those.

The stuff it looks for are the following:

Consumables: any tactics boosters or health boosters (the other ones
would be done by the time you scanned two people with the tool, so I
didn't look for any of those).

Org Abilities: any org ability.

Patcher Buffs: it looks for any of the following:

Bolster Health 1, 2, or 3

Combat Enhancement 1

Efficiency

EnhancedDodge

Fast Healing 1 or 2

Improved Hacking

Movement Accelerator 1 2 or 3

Negative Condition Sweep 1 or 2

Network Firewall 1

Personal Firewall 1 or 2

Resist Combat

Sweep Party 1 or 2

Upgrade Health

Upgrade Master Buff

If it sounds like I'm missing any there please let me know!

I'd like to get this issue perfectly clear: this won't affect any gun that you can equip with your current loadout.

It only affects if (for example) you had duellist loaded, equipped some dual pistols, then unloaded duellist and loaded up MA.

Now you have a weapon equipped without the required ability, so you'll get a big penalty.

jeffers wrote:
Is the way Rep is given out going
to be drastically altered Frog or is it going to stay the same (with
regards to missions and what not) cos 127 is bloody hard to reach now.

Jeffers

Yeah 127 is kinda brutal nowadays :smileysurprised:
I'd like to link it to CQ points - every time you get one, you get a
chance to gain a rep point - however that might not be in the initial
implementation of this.

KaitouHayashi wrote:

That's sweet HCFrog, but what about attack abilities?
Passive buffs are sweet, but we can't go wrong with close combat
attacks too .

It's also the touchiest to
balance, since not all classes want to be in close combat (or at least
they shouldn't, heh). That's why there's only one in there, and it can
be used outside of close combat also.

I like your idea of abilities for different disciplines, but it would
either take much longer to complete, or else you get less abilities
that are usable to any one class.

Renesis13B wrote:
If Im reading this
correctly Initiative is useless unless your using the desperation
ability? So if desperation isnt running you dont get any bonuses
from initiative?

That's correct.

Like all of the influences, it needs an active upgrade to apply its
bonus to. Desperation is the only ability that applies any Initiative.

Noooo I just wrote a huge post and I took so long it logged me out SMILEY

Anyhow I wanted to give an update on what I've got for these so far.

First off, ETA = not sure. Hopefully within a couple of months.

The part where they balance for org population may or may not get in there. At this point I'd say no, at least not at first.

There are going to be 5 abilities for each org, available at reputation 16, 51, 81, 116, and 127.

Zion:

Zion Interface (small bonus to all accuracies, passive)

Strength of Will (bonus to all resistances, passive)

Righteous Shield (burn IS to negate damage taken, activated)

Generous Spirit (boost IS regen rate, activated)

Champion of Zion (small % chance, when hit, to fire off an AOE heal/IS restore)

Machine:

Machine Interface (small bonus to accuracies, passive)

System Patch (boosted health regen rate, passive)

Dynamic Reallocation (boost all DPS, activated)

Data Conversion (convert damage taken into IS restored - not sure passive or activated)

System Control (small % chance, when hit, to fire off an AOE stun)

Merovingian:

Merovingian Interface (small bonus to accuracies, passive)

Sophistry (bonus to all defences, passive)

Extortion (drain IS from enemy in or out of interlock, activated)

Artifice (launch an IS virus, activated)

Spectral Field (small % chance, when hit, to go into a mode like Master Shadow for a few seconds, except you can still attack)

The fifth abilities are still the most up in the air, particularly the
Spectral Field one which stands some chance of breaking Master Shadow
and possibly all the stealth abilities if it's implemented wrong SMILEY

Fatmop wrote:

HCFrog wrote:
Correct; Cypherites will use Machine abilities, and EPN will use Zion abilities.

I was really just trying to be funny with those....

Aww, dammit! I already implemented those. Back to the drawing board...

I think the artists who worked on Pandora's Box stuff had a lot of fun
with those. With that first box, we actually had animatrix going here
at the office to match up the art style of the box with that one scene.

Renesis13B wrote:
Not entirely true ..proof > Blue outfit
HCFrog wrote:
The only actual blue in the Matrix is the blue pill

That's only blue because... uh... Klinara is TEH ONE

Normal vs. Normal: both roll accuracy vs. defense

Special vs. Normal: both roll accuracy vs. defense, but if the special move wins, the normal move doesn't go through

Special vs. Special: accuracy + initiative vs. accuracy + initiative.

little known fact: You only get initiative from using the
Desperation ability. If neither person is using Desperation, then it's
just accuracy vs. accuracy, much like the old combat system (except
that it's the appropriate kind of accuracy for your attack, rather than
just MCT)

I didn't find that little known fact until last friday :smileysurprised:

The only actual blue in the Matrix is the blue pill SMILEY

Correct; Cypherites will use Machine abilities, and EPN will use Zion abilities.

ByteCrawler wrote:

PS: Everytime I look at your sig HCF I'm reminded of George Costanza and the Frogger episode. lol

So do you look like George?

Not yet, but give it time and who knows SMILEY

I don't think I saw that episode though

Warboy090 wrote:
Read my past post...

/russdance....

/neo

Whoa!

/endneo

Very cool idea but definitely not within the scope of what I'm planning
to do SMILEY

This is going to be target someone, click the button, get some
spam in your system window SMILEY

There will be some sort of animation.

Actually now that I think of it, yes there will definitely be a usage
timer on it, just like other abilities. Maybe even a fairly long usage
timer; that way the person has to stand still for a while to use it,
making it a lot harder to use in a hostile situation. It could even
possibly disable a bunch of your own abilities and remove all your
buffs or something like that... hmmm

[ heh tytanya and I had the same idea at the same time it looks like SMILEY

]

Message Edited by HCFrog on 04-20-2006 12:30 PM

Warboy090 wrote:

Glimps of the source

when I read that I thought it said "Gimps of the source"... :smileysurprised:

There would not be an ability required to use it, anyone could use it. (unless you want a new fight referee tree SMILEY

)

Probably no usage timer.

I think it definitely should show hostile info, as that's the only way
you could have an impartial ref or second opinions from opposing orgs
on Vector.

There would definitely be a re-use timer, maybe along the lines of 5
seconds or so, to avoid lagging up the game with a bunch of diagnostic
spam.

Out of designing the Org Abilities, we've decided to make some sort of
diagnostic tool for y'all, for the purposes of duels, tournaments, etc.
You could use this tool on another player to find out some info about
what they're running.

Now up front, the first thing is: this tool would give you NO INFO
about their loadout, except for whether or not they had any Org
abilities running. I know people have their personal loadouts they've
developed through a lot of trial and error, they don't necessarily want
to share this with other people, and by no means am I suggesting that
you could see any of that info.

Here are the things I figure it might report on:

Org Abilities (just whether you had any loaded, not which ones)

Tactics Boosters

Are there any other things you'd want to know - health boosters?

Would it be okay for someone to have one of these tools, usable at any
time including during PvP, so they could tell if you had TBs or Org abs
going? It could use a confirmation dialog, but that opens up a whole
area for griefing (people spamming the confirmation at you during PvP
or something) that I'd greatly prefer to avoid. So the ideal situation
is that it reports information that can be public at any time.

My assumption is that TBs would be okay to report since they have a
visible activation FX already, and other players can see you start
doing them... but I could be wrong SMILEY

Viral: 19

Ballistic: 25

Melee: 24

Thrown: 19

My character's only up to level 11 though SMILEY

Indeed, the Meson Rifles are supposed to decay super-fast for the
reasons someone stated earlier - they aren't supposed to exist in this
version of the Matrix. So enjoy them while they last and then go get
another one!

Oh, they also work great for calling Agents on you, if you're in a neighborhood where you haven't tagged the access node yet.

Dragonram wrote:

HCFrog wrote:

Ooops... Wait, scratch my last comment!
I just ran something by Dracomet (thanks to a suggestion from Jeffers)
and it turns out that this idea should work just fine. Yay!

:smileyvery-happy: HOORAY!!! FOR JEFFERSS!!!!!!!

Just for those that don't know where to look, what was the suggestion by jeffers?

- Ð

P.S. anyone else picture these guys leaning over cubicles talking to each other going "hmm" "hmm" "yes that could work"

He
sent me a suggestion, and mentioned the /snooploadout command which
some players have spotted, and which does indeed dump the other
player's loadout into your chat window if you're an admin.

Montoia wrote:

HCFrog wrote:
Aaaand after checking into this, it turns out to be one of those ideas that is also not really feasible.

Ooops...
Wait, scratch my last comment! I just ran something by Dracomet (thanks
to a suggestion from Jeffers) and it turns out that this idea should
work just fine. Yay! SMILEY

[CoZ]LostProphet wrote:

HCFrog wrote:
Oh, and there are reasons that I would like to keep these balancing for
the whole server rather than just one area. The main one being that
these are partially intended to promote overall org balance. If the
bonuses fluctuate too much, that purpose is lost. They don't have to be
too uber.

Also, I had an idea for duels and tournaments. We do have some tools
that are no longer used since CR2. What if they changed into diagnostic
tools that showed whether or not someone had any org abilities loaded?
They could even show if someone had any tactics boosters going,
although there might be reasons why you wouldn't want that information
known.

But imagine for tournaments, you could have a guy with a metal detector
device sweeping the participants to check their ability loadout I
think that would be pretty slick. No more suiciding to prove your buffs
are clear

It's the little things like this that would make a big big big difference to the game

Aaaand after checking into this, it turns out to be one of those ideas that is also not really feasible. SMILEY

Sykin wrote:

Anyways, Mr. HCFrog... What if these abilities came attached to
certain clothing items, like, for example... Agent Sunglasses? Possible?

Hmmm I think we're actually saving stuff like that for another feature. SMILEY

Warboy090 wrote:
Question HCFrog
Are they going to use memory?
and if so will there be a memory upgrade?

No to both.

ThePigeonKing wrote:

HCFrog wrote:
Crits should now be available. If they aren't, please let me know.

That might be all fine and dandy if we had missions.

At all.

:smileysurprised: so I see...

OMG someone leaked our artwork!!! *CENSORED*

Oh, and there are reasons that I would like to keep these balancing for
the whole server rather than just one area. The main one being that
these are partially intended to promote overall org balance. If the
bonuses fluctuate too much, that purpose is lost. They don't have to be
too uber.

Also, I had an idea for duels and tournaments. We do have some tools
that are no longer used since CR2. What if they changed into diagnostic
tools that showed whether or not someone had any org abilities loaded?
They could even show if someone had any tactics boosters going,
although there might be reasons why you wouldn't want that information
known.

But imagine for tournaments, you could have a guy with a metal detector
device sweeping the participants to check their ability loadout SMILEY

I
think that would be pretty slick. No more suiciding to prove your buffs
are clear SMILEY

Crits should now be available. If they aren't, please let me know.

Oops, I think I should be more explicit about this whole ability activation thing.

The design is: the server will keep a list of player IDs in the
different orgs, and their levels, and the total levels for the orgs,
and the total levels for the whole population.

When someone loads up one of the abilities (I think "activates" was the
wrong term, sorry), it checks through the list to see if you're in
there yet. If you aren't, it adds you to the list and updates the
appropriate numbers. If you're already there, it makes sure your
level's still the same and then quits.

So the list doesn't change if you use org abilities more than once. In
fact it would probably just update the first time you loaded the bottom
level ability, and then maybe every time you use a hardline or enter
the game again. And if you were already there, it wouldn't add
anything, so the numbers wouldn't get skewed.

Also, it wouldn't just count the number of players, it would count the
number of levels. So a level 10 player adds +10, a level 50 player adds
+50. If we want it to weight high level players more heavily, we could
do something like squaring those numbers, so a level 10 adds 100 while
a level 50 adds 2500.

Siros7 wrote:
I always though the meet x meeting and crew stuff was at a reputation of 16 (or 15, not su sure),

ARRRGG okay so I just checked, it's 16 SMILEY

ShadowSK wrote:

HCFrog wrote:

Venatrix. wrote:

Sigh. And if you look
at the active player base, it always appears as if the Mervs and
Machinists are more dedicated than the Zionites. Numbers or not, it
depends on who actually plays the game on a regular basis.

Oh
this is one point I haven't mentioned - we'll be calculating the
numbers based on actual players using the abilities, rather than
checking the numbers in the database.

So, the first time you use one of the org abilities, it adds your level
to the total number for your org. Therefore higher level players, using
org abilities, will have the most impact on the total number of
players. We're still having some discussion here about whether the
number should reflect the number of people logged in at the moment (so
your level would be removed when you log out) or the number of people
who've logged in in the past x days, or since server reset, or
something like that.

Awesome, I was just wondering about this, actually.

So,
are there going to be minimum org-rep points in order to use the
abilities? This way, we don't have a bunch of level 2s
off-setting the impact of Zion abilities.
Message Edited by ShadowSK on 04-17-2006 01:41 PM

Yup.
The level of the lowest ability is up for discussion. I was thinking
17, because that's when you can form a crew and get your first "Meet x"
mission, but it could be higher.

Venatrix. wrote:

Sigh. And if you look
at the active player base, it always appears as if the Mervs and
Machinists are more dedicated than the Zionites. Numbers or not, it
depends on who actually plays the game on a regular basis.

Oh
this is one point I haven't mentioned - we'll be calculating the
numbers based on actual players using the abilities, rather than
checking the numbers in the database.

So, the first time you use one of the org abilities, it adds your level
to the total number for your org. Therefore higher level players, using
org abilities, will have the most impact on the total number of
players. We're still having some discussion here about whether the
number should reflect the number of people logged in at the moment (so
your level would be removed when you log out) or the number of people
who've logged in in the past x days, or since server reset, or
something like that.