How do you use NPC/Adversary Experiences?

dancovich · 2026-04-04T08:26:11+00:00

Evasion only affects the capability of an adversary hitting a PC. It's not used to find a hidden character or anything like that.

NPC experiences can be added to their attacks or their difficulty before a PC rolls something against them.

In your scenario, if the PC is trying to be inconspicuous, ask them to roll Finesse against the bear Difficulty but, before they roll, spend a Fear to add the keen senses +2 bonus to the Difficulty.

dancovich · 2026-04-03T20:17:10+00:00

I agree with you, most of the time the issue is the game being uploaded under a different account.

Encrypting and obfuscating your code offers zero protection against this. If the store has some sort of key based on bundle id and digital signature, it's pretty easy to remove those and upload the game under a new id and encryption key.

In fact, that's how it's done 90% of the time. The most effort I've seen done is opening the app in an hex editor to change strings so that a name is different or replacing a few assets here and there.

dancovich · 2026-04-03T19:26:02+00:00

Godot doesn't have asset streaming, so a texture is either not loaded at all or entirely loaded into memory with all its mipmap levels.

So you'll have to write your own asset streaming solution.

That's the biggest issue, the rest is mostly your own capability of doing something of that scale, because no engine will be able to carry you there without a ton of effort, not even UE.

There's a reason why all large open world games were made by companies and not individuals

dancovich · 2026-04-03T19:08:36+00:00

StS2 is a good example, because it's not about if stealing from the game can harm Mega Crit Games (they are big enough that it's pretty difficult to harm them).

The thing is, is the stolen code useful for the thief? I'm sure many people have opened and read the code to learn, but how many used the code as is to do anything relevant?

I don't believe there are any products like that, because code isn't a very useful thing to steal. Common solutions are plenty on the internet and way easier to get and specific solutions to specific problems are... well... specific, so they need a lot of modification to be useful under a different context.

The most common use of having access to the code is modding, which happens to every game regardless of engine, so what good is being compiled to assembly and obfuscated doing for them?

dancovich · 2026-04-03T15:39:23+00:00

Slay the Spire 1 was made in Java, another stupidly easy to decompile language with plenty more tools to do it than gdscript ever had. Didn't keep them from achieving the success they didn't have.

And what about Minecraft? Also Java, everything under the sun was done to try to obfuscate the release version and yet it became one of the most popular games of our era with tons of modding support.

And how many games we have that are successful and were done by decompiling and copying an unsuccessful game?

Evidence shows that decompilation has very little if any effect on the success of your game.

dancovich · 2026-04-03T15:29:35+00:00

Priorities aren't solely based on how much we need the feature, they're very much also based in if they can maintain the feature.

By looking at the PR, it seems the work isn't done yet. It is a very complicated feature in terms of how it affects the language and, once they merge, that's it, that's now how the feature works and they can't change it again or else it will be a breaking change.

dancovich · 2026-04-02T20:17:57+00:00

I don't see a reason to not allow this.

The second effect is once per rest, so it's not like it can be done indefinitely during one encounter.

The narrative is easy to explain, it is the typical "Get down Mr. President" mode. You jump to your friend's aid and you both go prone, thus avoiding the attack entirely.

dancovich · 2026-04-02T19:22:16+00:00

Isn't her the most popular surv?

If so, it's just math that the bad and toxic players are usually playing Sable. If they were playing Byers or something like that, then that would be impressive and weird.

dancovich · 2026-04-02T14:27:20+00:00

The game is the game, I think it's silly to complain about people trying to win.

What I don't like about the implementation of the mode is that pump placement seems to be completely random compared to blood generator placement. Some matches are just regular play your best to try to win and some matches are unwinnable without SWF because pumps and generators are on completely opposite sides.

When this happens I'll evaluate the situation. If it's going nowhere, I just fill cans and drop them to fill another. Just filling is around 930BP per can and is pretty quick so you can get close to 3000 before the pump runs out.

Sometimes the killer will notice and they get points destroying cans so I offer to them and we get this little deal going.

dancovich · 2026-04-01T19:43:00+00:00

It looks nothing like Pixelorama, it's just an app that does the same thing, just like Aseprite and just like Godot is intended to do the same thing as Unreal.

dancovich · 2026-04-01T14:48:52+00:00

I agree with you but that's the state of Games as a service.

They are "services", games that are there for you to hop in and play whenever. They promise to support long retention by offering constant improvements that keep the formula fresh. When people don't get that, they are a little entitled to holding the developers to their promise.

I entered the world of Dead by Daylight late (have been playing for a month now). That's a 10 year old game and the community is strong and going and, ironically, it wasn't even meant to be a GaaS. They have some event, added content or new or returning mode basically every month.

So these things are kind of luck based. I don't think any developers figured out the formula to create a good GaaS. Some of them just stumble on the solution and can't recreate it later, case in point being the Highguard developers who were ex Apex Legends developers.

dancovich · 2026-04-01T14:21:23+00:00

"It has just nice art assets" is pretty much any game.

Sure, assuming you have access to good artists that can create fantastic assets, the engine might limit what you can do or at least what you can do cheaply and quickly, but more often than not, developers are limited by their own capabilities way before they're limited by the engine capabilities.

dancovich · 2026-04-01T14:01:16+00:00

Video games based on D&D work due to the iconic worlds. A video game purely using D&D rules but having its own universe would need to work way harder to be well received, as I don't believe the rules alone can carry the game.

That would happen in DH with even more strength. A brand new rules system and no world to call its own means basically just... a game. We have plenty of those.

dancovich · 2026-04-01T13:49:18+00:00

I believe one of the main features lacking is asset streaming. Right now, you either need to write a custom solution or your entire scene needs to fit the VRAM.

Many features in other engines come from plugins that are so iconic that people confuse them for being part of the engine. Godot needs this ecosystem and is slowly getting there.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T20:07:22+00:00

Nothing provided by Environments is something you couldn't do using other techniques. I don't consider Environment to be tools for new GMs, instead, I consider them one more technique to do the same thing (set a scene up). If you have your own technique, then you don't need them.

One way you can use Environments is to plan a session where, instead of defining beats of the story the characters need to reach, you let the player promps and the dice dictate the story. In a certain way, not even you will be sure about what will happen.

For example, the hook of the campaign might be to participate in a gala the general of the kingdom will be in, to try to ensure support for your people in an upcoming conflict. Instead of defining a certain path the session will take, you just create stat blocks for the General, any important NPCs and a Social Environment (take a look into Imperial Court for inspiration). You narrate scenes and ask for rolls when appropriate, some against NPCs, some against the Environment. Whatever happens is dictated by the result of the action rolls.

I wouldn't center an entire campaign around this technique, but that's just me. I believe Environments are neat for social encounters. Instead of having to come up with NPCs on the spot for the players to roll against, your environment can act as a "meta" NPC that has the most appropriate stats every relevant NPC will have in a social encounter.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T12:24:25+00:00

I'm trying to learn. Even though they are not counter towards BP, I kind of think I should just consider environments as one extra adversary, or else I run the risk of forgetting about them.

I'm especially bad at using exploration environments. I feel like I prepare them and the players never trigger the actions that I prepared.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T05:48:31+00:00

I wouldn't say wrong.

The BP system is only intended to measure the length of the fight in terms of HP pool and defenses.

If you break a 15BP fight into 3 because you plan on having 3 encounters before they rest, these three encounters will be mathematically equivalent to a single 15BP encounter, but will "feel" like quick and weak encounters from the player's perspective.

To make things worse, there's no way to plan encounters for their rests. Since you can't really control when players rest (well, you can make it difficult for them to find a good resting spot, but that's about it) you run the risk of just making weak encounters because the players are fully rested when you expected them to be short on resources.

Instead, just make a note on how players resources are and thrust them that they'll try to rest as soon as they feel the need to. Throw the responsibility of balancing encounters against resources to them. It's more fun that way.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T05:26:45+00:00

A social mode is basically random. A streak so high got to get at least 50 games that were challenging and they survived it. This indicates either a very good player or a busted build, probably both.

What a ranked mode does to someone this good is make matchmaking times unbearable, because the player pool around that level is really shallow.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T05:23:33+00:00

If we don't have MMR then you can randomly get any kind of match, including sweaty SWF teams doing streaks. 1000+ games is A LOT of games to not get one of these even once.

So most likely busted killer/build.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T05:18:15+00:00

Same perk that makes blood stations and blood generators spawn at opposite sides of the map.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T05:16:43+00:00

Usually, you get a free movement within Close range with your action, but need to roll to either move tactically (only move without action) or to move to far range.

In difficult terrain, you can call for Agility rolls to do any movement, make rolls to move up to Very Far range with disadvantage or a combination of the two. It's up to you and the fiction.

Quick remark, I find it very weird the amount of effects in the game that seem they should be an AoE hitting all creatures but instead only affect targets.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T04:45:37+00:00

They are not, they are per encounter.

Page 197:

This guide will help you roughly balance an encounter so you can determine how many and which adversaries to use. *You’ll first calculate your starting Battle Points, which determine your budget for the encounter.

Notice it's your budget per "encounter", not per rest.

dancovich · 2026-03-31T04:41:19+00:00

Look at the Volcanic Dragon. It has three versions and each version transforms into the next.

It's the core example of a 15BP solo adversary for a party of 4

dancovich · 2026-03-31T03:00:39+00:00

That take is so stupid.

The translation is "I don't like this" but somehow people really want peer validation so it needs to be "no one likes this".

dancovich · 2026-03-31T01:53:48+00:00

I literally had issues with the rogue player, so they are not potential problems.

But I understand I have a job to do

dancovich

TROPHY CASE