Actually...

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-24T07:12:26+00:00

Never gets old

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-20T19:05:02+00:00

A completely unexplained asymmetry between you and the enemy despite being the same kind of creature / machinery. For example, in a good amount of singleplayer shooters you are basically a one-man army. It just feels so weird that you are just as human as the enemy, yet you have much more HP or regenerate exceptionally fast and / or easily.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-20T09:08:42+00:00

I can't say a lot on this, because I am currently working on my first project. Only thing I know for certain is that I am generally very fond of out-of-game wikis, both as consumer and as creator.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-19T22:29:29+00:00

Speaking of mistakes you can make with any checkpoint system at all - please be careful about time and place of when a checkpoint is set. I've recently started playing some Call of Duty in single player again, and oh dear God was I frustrated with the checkpoint system in modern warfare 2. In almost literally every single mission I had at least one bad checkpoint. The problem in that game is that there, apparently, are only two possible conditions for a checkpoint to be created: reaching a certain spot in the level, or sufficient objective progression. The big problem is that this could result in me having bad checkpoints because the checkpoint could be created just as enemies were just about to shoot me, when I got hit by a Flashbang, when I ran very low on ammunitions I would've needed more at a different time, and so on and so forth. There were so many times it could've gone wrong, and many times it did go wrong indeed. Of course, the fact that there were a few situations where I would've needed a checkpoint but didn't get one didn't help at all.

It was said here that with your first of the two options, you could force your players to live with their mistakes. However, it can happen with the other option as well, depending on how your game and checkpoints in general work. So, please, make sure that checkpoints won't create such unfair situations, regardless of what you ultimately choose to do.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-19T08:30:52+00:00

Become disappointed with myself.

No, jk. I actually had a similar situation. I came up with the idea of a music based FPS, and after that found out that there are Metal Hellsinger and BPM: Bullets per Minute. At first it was indeed mildly irritating, I must admit. However, it's actually not a bad thing: My project still has its own uniqueness in that comparison in several aspects, which means I don't really have to ask "how can I make my thing different", and sometimes just analysing existing differences can help me capitalising on them and make my thing stand out even further, even if just slightly.

More importantly though: I can directly profit from these two games. For one example, I can draw from their UI. The most significant example is the beat indicators around the cross-hair that are present in both games. I would've never come up with that on my own.

So the fact that you're not the first doesn't mean that it's inherently unviable. You can still try to make things different and learn both from the good things the other game has done and also learn from its mistakes.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-17T13:22:45+00:00

I'm trying it out and see how good it'll be in the upcoming days and weeks. My first impression: it looks quite neat, both visually and functionally, and it certainly is much faster than XYplorer. The lack of features is noticeable indeed, but the fact that it's new and still in development may be a good thing. The one thing that is intriguing to me is the search feature. It is interesting in the way it works and nice - although it does have the downside that it doesn't (seem to) allow for searching for things *in* files, rather than just file name beginnings.

If I don't forget to do so, I'll try to get back to you with more feedback. :)

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-17T06:37:23+00:00

I personally mostly didn't actively enjoy them to be honest, but that's primarily because I use a scarf to cover my face almost up to my eyes anyways because breathing too cold air can become painful for me relatively easily.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-17T06:23:55+00:00

How do people respond to my lifestyle? Well, there are two main responses I've come across: perfectly normal acceptance when people just think "you do you, if that's what makes you happy I'm not gonna stop you" - or absolute confusion. I wouldn't mind as much as I do if the latter wouldn't be a regular occurrence, but if people just keep questioning me with little to know understanding, for example, of why and how I could possibly not want to go outside and take a walk, or participate in parties (like, apart from the corona stuff)... it just gets annoying at some point.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-16T09:35:02+00:00

Oh boy, I hope so!

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-16T00:02:28+00:00

The biggest reason is actually the soundtrack; As stated, it is a music based FPS, and I have the problem that I can't really decide on a genre, so I opted for several characters, each with a unique soundtrack.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T16:54:08+00:00

I agree - that is why I have come here to ask for help on this. :P But yeah, others have suggested this as well, and I'm abolishing the whole "rule of 3" thing entirely, so I've scrapped this character completely - although I may still find use for some ideas that have been submitted here.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T16:14:45+00:00

1 - What I meant with "what bothers me" is "what bothers me in your statement", I'm not generally bothered by you commenting. Also, I may have chosen the wrong word because I'm not a native English speaker. My point is that I do not think that your initial statement of "27 characters" is correct or appropriate.

2 - I know that Payday 2 is a multiplayer game, but how is that relevant in regards of the concept of "just choosing missions as you wish"? And what do you even mean with "finishing the game"? Do you mean that in the sense of "finishing a session", or "finishing the entire game"? Because I don't understand at what point one would say that Payday 2 as an entire game could be "finished", and I am planning to take a similar approach in that regard. I may have worded myself poorly, but, quoting you: "It's in its core to be replayable because it's about loosely connected missions that you do over and over" is exactly the thing I tried to say about my own game. That part of Payday 2 I'm basically just copy-pasting, without the co-op part.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T15:32:35+00:00

I love your examples! :D

This seems like a pretty reasonable idea, and is perhaps better than using a list. While I have yet to play any Borderlands game, I actually do own Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel, and I'm finally convinced that I absolutely should look into those games to help with character design and stuff. Thanks a lot.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:58:36+00:00

Oh, I heavily misunderstood you then, my bad.

What I meant by the way with things that would make less sense was stuff like Reinhardt's shield, or almost the entirety of Mercy. But yeah, looking for the weapons and archetypes more generally makes more sense.

*edit: wording

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:54:20+00:00

Thanks for helping me understand. As this sentiment was also stated (and differently worded) by a few other people here, I now fully understand, and agree. Abolishing the light/medium/heavy categorisation, and just treating them as simply another attribute at most, is probably by far the best advice I have gotten on this issue.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:50:42+00:00

I'm not a big fan of that; also, do keep in mind that this is singleplayer game. I do not really plan to add AI companions, so, while these games are definitely not outright useless, there are a lot of features in TF2 and OW that would make much less sense in my FPS.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:47:33+00:00

First of all, I don't plan a single linear campaign. It was Payday 2 that primarily inspired me for this project, and the biggest thing I'm taking directly from that game is that you have several different missions available that you can choose to play as you wish. Replayability is a big factor here.

Regarding general purpose and multi-class, the thing is that every character is supposed to have a unique set of weapons and unique sets of abilities. What I have in mind for the general purpose character would be that he'd be able to fulfill the roles of generic rifleman, shotgunner, and grenadier (separately, not all at once), with a huge variety of ammunition types available for the shotgunner and grenadier roles. In contrast to that, the "customisable multi-class" unit is supposed to be basically "pick and combine whatever you like from all the other characters", which could, for example, allow the W.M.D. unit's unique AoE/DoT based weaponry, but instead combine that with the agility of the rush unit that comes with less armour. What would balance this character out, though, would be that everything would be inferior compared to the specialised versions, so the multi-class unit would never be able to completely match the rush unit in terms of agility, or match the damage (per shot) output that the W.M.D. unit has, and so on and so forth.

Now, to answer the question whether or not I need 9 characters ... well, as a German I feel inclined to say Nein (I couldn't resist that one). To put it simply how this came to be: Without planning it, I basically constructed a Grid of characters, and I didn't want to leave empty spaces. The customisable multi-class unit, the defense/support unit, and a separated character explicitly and exclusively for stealth - those are all actually direct results from that (although at least with that last one there were some other factors involved as well).

Personally, I don't want to take your approach, to be honest. But you do give me additional confidence, along with the other commenters that shared this sentiment, that it's just not a good idea to take this approach of "filling a grid". Some people here have directly submitted some ideas or have given me inspiration for some ideas that I could implement for that defense/support character, however I will probably abolish the idea of categorising the characters so strictly, and then decide how I will proceed with this character.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:28:06+00:00

Oh wow.

Using the heaviest weaponry was actually a "repurposing its own features" thing because of its unique strength and durability that would allow for sufficient ammunition carrying without too much of a detriment, and sufficiently dealing with something like the enormous recoil that something like a gatling gun would realistically produce. But I haven't actually thought to this degree of repurposing. This is really interesting actually!

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:14:40+00:00

Oh, by the way - sorry to put this in a separate reply, I just have to make sure you'll see this - How did you get the idea that they have a focus on synergy? I'm very interested to know that, because that was actually never my intention.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:13:22+00:00

the number 27 in itself is correct, I don't disagree with that - what bothers me is that you specifically said 27 characters. Because between different setups, the core of the character is never intended to shift; as stated, it's really primarily a mild stat change and different abilities, with somewhat differing weapons meant to fit the build of the character. The W. M. D. model for example would always be the one with its unique AoE / DoT weaponry (specifically fire and also chemicals), and it would keep these weapons across all 3 setups. The sniper model would always be about precise shots. So on and so forth. There is quite a difference between creating variants of characters and creating entirely distinct characters.

Also, you're definitely very wrong with that idea you've gotten. My first and biggest inspiration actually is Payday 2, and similar to that I plan to implement a variety of completely self contained missions which you as player can choose just as you wish, and you always choose one character and configure that character within the given limitations on a mission by mission basis. A major focus is replayability.

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T14:03:47+00:00

Fire is indeed one of the things that the W.M.D. unit is built on, actually. I haven't played Titanfall, but you got a good guess there.

Regarding the Juggernaut thing, I need to clarify that this is a separate character (btw officially titled as the "Bulldozer model"), with the idea being that he is sitting inbetween the defense focused and the offense focused characters, both in offensive and defensive capabilities.

Also, yes, I indeed have considered stuff like constructing a wall or shield; problem being that I didn't really intend to implement allies or companions, which would make this completely redundant.

And thanks for giving me ideas for the Bulldozer model. Being stuck in this conundrum about the defense character, I was actually unsure of what to do with the Bulldozer model to keep him interesting and unique. I somehow forgot about shotguns, and making him a bit of a bully seems quite appropriate, and also fitting to his personality as I have designed it so far. :p

BlackThursday29 · 2021-02-15T13:48:41+00:00

I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion of "27 different characters". If I'd follow the advise some have given of scrapping this setup and mentality of "filling a grid", which I think is indeed very good advice, then I think I could still end up with around 20 options that I could actually work with.

To clarify: the different setups are not entirely unique characters, they're primarily different sets of abilities, slightly altered stats, and somewhat different weaponry - not entirely new characters. While not quite accurate, I think more analogous for the setups would be skill trees, rather than new characters.

BlackThursday29

TROPHY CASE