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  • Notrium Final Mix - New Version out. 0.31

    TNN17 12 years ago
    Gotta move quick to keep up with me, v0.3 has me on a roll.

    Blowtorch: Implemented.
    Flamer: Implemented, with automatic reloading.

    I'm pretty sure I've also optimised the pistol scripts while I was at it. Before, if the pistol didn't have ammo, it would automatically give itself 1 bullet so it could be equipped, now it checks to see if you have a clip or magazine handy. If so, you'll be able to equip it, even though you have zero ammo, so you can then reload and use the weapon.

    Blowtorch has a shorter range than Default, and does less damage (Welding Torch actually dealt 100 damage per second in Default, one of the best weapons out there if you're good with it). It provides light as per W/E, and has the Fire damage type.

    The Blowtorch will share a function with Tools and the Cutting Torch allowing the player better loot scavenging and repair functionality (and the android will be able to upgrade his torch without losing the ability to repair, though the blowtorch will be slightly less potent, it will not have the same energy cost attached).

    The Flamethrower has a longer range than Default (by about double, and yes, this will apply to enemy flamethrowers, might want to not stand in front of them), to better match the range of real flamethrower weaponry (quite a ways - 30+ feet/10+ meters).
    It deals less damage than the Default Flamethrower, and fires along a much tighter line - it does however have the piercing quality, unlike the Default flamethrower, making it still effective against groups.

    Due to the changes, I have no immediate plans for a super-flamer W/E style. I may, possibly, consider a twin-stream flamer however, firing two slightly less accurate streams of the same potency. You'll spend most of your life reloading with such a weapon however.

    One of the plasma weapons will share similar, though obviously non-identical, traits with the flamer.


    And yes, small reapers are annoying little cusses, but I had to get them ready for Reaper Hell.
    ...
    I mean the ship graveyard.



    Update!

    Launcher is coming along nicely, it has four distinct ammo types:
    Shotgun shells - Like the pebble shotgun and the pistol fell in love.
    Shotgun shells will involve fabric + clusters of bullets, and will form the basis for the other types of shell. I'll probably be tweaking this to be an ammo-based clip, each "clip" containing five shells (making it the single most complicated weapon in the game to date).
    Dragon's Breath shells - Like the Shotgun had an unholy lovechild with the Flamethrower. Ether is involved in unhealthy quantities.
    Explosive shell - This will consume an entire clip to produce a single explosive shell. It will essentially be a grenade that explodes on impact - so long as you don't miss.
    Hack Tool - This will also consume an entire clip to produce a single hack-bolt. On contact with an enemy machine, it will become briefly allied with you for about twenty seconds.

    Like the bow and arrows, you cannot be informed of your current ammo count, this is a hard engine limitation i'm afraid, unless someone managed to circumvent it in a genius way and lets me know.


    Whilst trying to sort out ammo use (the only two possible ammo types not too valuable to auto equip would be shotgun shells and dragon's breath) I've hit upon something of an opportunity which I'll be working on for the next day or so.

    Essentially, whilst the Launcher is equipped, the player comes into possession of a quick-key item which runs scripts specifically to change launcher ammo on the 1 (shottie shells), 2 (dragon's breath), 3 (explosive shells) and 4 (hack tool).

    When the player equips the Bow, then they come into possession of an arrow control item with 1, 2, 3 and 4 (poison rather than hack).

    When the player has neither equipped, they will 1 second later receive their third and final auto-equip tool.
    1: Best Pistol (value speed and DPS over individual shot power - namely assault/machine pistol over sniper/railgun). 2: Flamer. 3: Best Melee weapon, 4: Best Energy Weapon (these "best" weapons will have to be fairly arbitrary, but this will contain a limited selection of a few Laser/Plasma/Warp weapons).

    On each occassion a script to clean up any extra control items will occur, ensuring that the player only ever has one such item in stock at a time.

    Now I'm hoping that the N-gine doesn't throw a hissy fit about multiple complex non-overlapping quick-keys, if it does then I'll have to can this idea, but I'm fairly hopeful right now.


    Once these are done, that leaves: Plasma weapons, Sonic weapons, gravity tech, venom tech (if I end up doing the swamp region) to do and I'll be done with weapons and tech for this version.
    Oh, and the sniper rifle, I got side-tracked.

    Once those are done, I suppose I'll get to making those wrecked ships and ruin props I was meaning to do before. I really should organise myself better.
    #
    Nocture17 12 years ago
    Updates:

    Auto-equip code/items: Done.
    Items that control said code: Done.
    Code that controls the items that control the code: 50% done.

    I should have this finished and tested by this evening.

    It's now possible to craft a dud grenade - though this grenade won't explode when thrown it handles identically to the grenade, making it a good weapon to practice with.

    Strongly considering stripping out the Safety Switch to give a visible item in the options menu that can then be used to switch off the safety. This will be a bit more transparent and user friendly, but will make the fancy item scripting currently in place useless.

    Also going to rework the flamethrower reloading script - 100 from a can of ether is fine, but the flamer runs through that amount in a few seconds at most, so I'll be modifying it so that if you have two cans, both will be loaded. The other solution would be to have each can worth 200 fuel, but I don't think you deserve such leniency.

    Finally - FM has now surpassed 200 scripts, about fifty of which run regularly. Only a hundred more and it'll be the scriptiest mod ever.
    #
    Venom31 12 years ago
    "Nocture17" said:
    Also going to rework the flamethrower reloading script - 100 from a can of ether is fine, but the flamer runs through that amount in a few seconds at most, so I'll be modifying it so that if you have two cans, both will be loaded. The other solution would be to have each can worth 200 fuel, but I don't think you deserve such leniency.
    Why the fuss? Maybe its awesomeness deserves that? (didn't yet find out)
    Whatever the case, you may just lower damage at expense of slower ether flow...

    @EDIT: You seem to love coding so much... I envy...

    @EDIT2: Also it's my 350th post which exactly resembles the number of plasma shield on Protoss Archon in StarCraft: BroodWar :>
    #
    Nocture17 12 years ago
    "Venom31" said:
    "Nocture17" said:
    Also going to rework the flamethrower reloading script - 100 from a can of ether is fine, but the flamer runs through that amount in a few seconds at most, so I'll be modifying it so that if you have two cans, both will be loaded. The other solution would be to have each can worth 200 fuel, but I don't think you deserve such leniency.
    Why the fuss? Maybe its awesomeness deserves that? (didn't yet find out)
    Whatever the case, you may just lower damage at expense of slower ether flow...

    I tell you what, I'll leave it at 100 for version 0.3 and people can give their opinions if the double consumption is worth the trouble.

    @EDIT: You seem to love coding so much... I envy...

    Yeah, coding grand schemes isn't so bad, it's the petty repetition parts of coding that get me. I'd love it if NMV got updated with copy/paste/insert functionality. I almost quit back just before version 0.1 with an uncontrolled, unidentified error though, Notrium is a bit lacking in error handling I'm afraid.

    If only I could get somebody to handle the sound aspect (having checked the other mods, I'm actually feeling pretty satisfied with all my graphics, despite the time investment they took) I'd be a pretty happy bunny.

    And now I'm off home from work, to code some more!
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    Success.

    Automatic weapon scripting by default will equip:

    1: Assault > Machine > Gauss > Force > Pistol > Sling
    2: Flamethrower
    3: Vibrosword > Starsword > Beam Sabre > Blade > Spear > Knife > Unarmed strike (if unarmed strike is disabled, it will force-reenable unarmed strike and equip your unarmed strike)
    4: Plasma Rifle > Pulse Laser > Laser Pistol > Force Pistol.

    Each checks that relevant conditions are satisfied before even attempting to equip, including swim condition, stasis field conditions and safety switches (having the relevant safety for pistol/flamer/melee/energy will stop the hotkey from working at all). Failure to find an appropriate weapon will display an error message informing you.

    This means when you fall into deep water and your weapons automatically unequip, you can instantly reequip the best available weapon for your new aquatic dilemma. If you're under a stasis field or in an area where the rain is actually highly charged ionic particles then it will automatically equip non-electrical weaponry (admittedly this only applies to projectile and melee but still).

    Bows of all types automatically change these options when equipped:

    1: (Iron) Arrows.
    2: Fire Arrows.
    3: Explosive Arrows.
    4: Poison Arrows.

    Launchers automatically change them to:

    1: Shotgun shells.
    2: Dragon's Breath shells.
    3: Explosive shell.
    4: Hack Tool.

    I may use 5 to cover emergency armour equipment and make it common to all three control items, but for now that'll do pig.

    Now I guess I'll fix up the safety switch. An OCD's work is never done.



    Edit: Oh yeah! I work on (and play) FM on a dinky netbook computer (and am accepting monetary donations for a supercomputer.... just kidding), which asides from hampering my gaming skills prevents me from taking decent screenshots of the game (it seems it's almost the law that screenshots = people care about the mod), if anyone wants to take screenshots of the mod-in-play whilst testing I'd like to put a few screenshots up on the first page.
    #
    Venom31 12 years ago
    OCD can stand for from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder to Offshore Centre Denmark. What's your case?
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    Obsessive Coding Disaster probably.

    Since I'm incapable of actually doing what I plan to do, fire is now awesome.

    Not only does fire have many ways of creating now (if you're near a fire, have a tool with a lighter component, or have the energy), multiple fuel sources and ways of creating fire (dried plant matter is a major player in the burning department, but let's not forget fire itself), it also can be used for several tasks without player input.

    For example: Annoyed by too much wood in your life? Put it by a fire, the problem will solve itself, and then you'll have more fire.
    Want to dry out some leaves for tinder? Drop them near the fire, but be prepared to fish them out before they catch alight.
    Want hot water, but too lazy to press the "L" key? Drop it by a fire.
    Brown aliens exist in an uncooked form? Not for long!

    The only thing fire can't do is any of that without the possibility of the resultant fire/item being in a different place than where it started - sadly unavoidable without incredible amounts of work. Notriumese fire has mystical properties you can't possibly understand.


    Update: Safety Switches have been updated and are working better than ever. Finally!
    Now what was I doing before I decided to do that?

    Explosive ammunition is implemented. I spent awhile trying to make it work by dropping a creature next to the struck enemy, then boom, but unfortunately the engine hates me and sends the exploding creature flying into the sun as it explodes. I've resorted to the more traditional "side change and boom". Still have the Launcher ammo types to go, hopefully with slightly less in the way of ADD for tomorrow's efforts.
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    Launcher is working. Dragon's Breath shells are probably my favourite.

    I've also tweaked the automatic ammo controls - this means that Explosive arrows/shells, and Hack Shells will not automatically equip if you have no other ammunition available, but neither will the weapon unequip.

    Instead, a message will be displayed warning you that no standard ammo is available and that you will have to manually equip your special ammo with the hotkey.



    As the number of potential combinations increase, I'm planning a more intuitive hint system; combinations that are *close* to right (for example, trying to combine ether with a branch, or a glass tube with a laser pistol) will show a ghost item with 9000 combination time. This item will contain a hint relating to a possible combination called an idea (not all combinations will be spoon fed to you however, discovery was one of the cool parts of Notrium).

    For example - for the Laser Pistol + Glass Tube:

    "Idea"
    Combine: 9001
    Image: ????
    The glass from the tube doesn't refract the light in the right way to improve the beam. If you had something spherical instead, that would probably do the trick.

    Kindling + Fabric
    You could make some fire arrows out of this kindling, however you'd need to treat the fabric with some kind of flammable liquid first.

    Any plant combination:
    If you could break both plants down in water then you may be able to combine them together to create something new.

    Cold Water + certain plants/mushrooms:
    You would need to heat the water in order to cook this plant.

    What are your thoughts folks? Overkill on the assistance or sound plan?
    #
    bwansy 12 years ago
    This sounds like an excellent idea, although I'm worried about the extra amount of work needed once the number of possible combinations grow. Personally, I always select an item and scroll through the entire inventory to see what I can come up with, which gives me an opportunity to discover new combinations, therefore I wouldn't use the hints anyways. However, I imagine that this would be quite helpful to players who are not familiar with Notrium.
    #
    Anonymous1157 12 years ago
    I'm starting to think that that separate manual idea I mentioned in jest might actually not be all that bad of an idea. Maybe not a whole book, but just a reference card with hints, because that would SERIOUSLY be easier to implement than another hundred dummy items for a hint system (Assuming there are a hundred confusing item combinations).
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    Considering the state of the mod as it is I'm actually more concerned about size than I am about the amount of work involved (not that I wouldn't still appreciate some assistance with written content if it were offered ). They're just blank items - hey, it just occurred to me that I can even use my existing token system and just put in information rather than "Token A" et cetera, so I wouldn't necessarily have to create too many extra items, and since the same item can be the result of many different combinations, it wouldn't necessarily require "hundreds" of items to cover combinations; I don't see the need to provide hints for all the things that an item doesn't combine with (except perhaps ingenuity/Core etc, which could easily provide a quicky combination guides to race specific benefits to an item-type).

    But at the same time, there are four types of "wood" - Kindling, Branch, Wood and Lumber; any combination with the wrong "size" of wood might fail, and Branch/Wood > Kindling is a one way process, so making this more user friendly wouldn't be a bad idea.

    However, it's on the back burner for now (plasma weapons are next in my list) so I'm open to alternatives, if you're interested in providing a more detailed codified hint system Anonymous, I'd be happy to send you the most recent dat files for your perusal. Have you looked at the "O"ption menu system for 0.2 yet? It does actually move towards your suggestion.

    An image/text combination that could go into Animations and be opened up when needed by using one of the options items would be fantastic if someone would be interested in doing it.



    Anyway - updates:

    Number of combinations shouldn't be jumping too much now, all the basic items are in place, and most of the advanced techs are covered.

    Gravity tech implemented. There will be a few non-random anti-grav units placed in 0.3.

    Gravity Devices, when powered, lower your carry weight, crush your enemies, or even be used to fashion gravity skates - Grav-skates will boost your speed and keep you a few inches above water, swamps, and hot ash (not that being inches over burning hot ash will help much), allowing you to outrun most enemies so long as you have the power.

    Gravy guns will damage all targets roughly equally thanks to their warp-type damage, but the fun part is what happens after you hit them with it. I'll let you find out what that is... next version.

    Still to go for 0.3:

    Plasma Weapons.
    Sonic Weapons.
    Torch (flammable kind, with ether, wood and fabric)
    Sniper Rifle (can you tell I'm procrastinating?)
    Barricades (sandbags and wooden ones).

    At some point I'm going to have to revamp the entire drop system - probably not in the next few versions, but it's coming, so bear in mind - do you want to stick with the "anything anywhere" system that FM's currently using, or go back to using a "specific area types drop specific items" systems?


    Hm. You know I haven't seen Quanrian around since I started this thing, I suppose he's stopped commenting on Notrium mods and is busying himself with Driftmoon ones nowadays?
    #
    bwansy 12 years ago
    I'm in favour of a "anything anywhere" system for basic items and consumables, and area-specific for more rare items, e.g. warp core. Perhaps vary the quantity of even the basic items by area type? E.g. areas with Marines and droids have more tech-related items and few natural products, while alien-infested areas are the other way around? It makes more sense this way, IMO.
    #
    Narvius 12 years ago
    "TNN17" said:
    Gravy guns
    I just imagined a gun firing meat sauce. And hell yeah would that deal roughly equal damage to all enemies. I mean, being shot with steaming hot meat sauce? And yeah, the after effect, when everyone decides MAN THAT GUYS SMELLS TASTY LET'S CONSUME HIM and everyone starts attacking the meatsprayed alien.
    #
    Venom31 12 years ago
    "TNN17" said:
    Gravy guns will damage all targets roughly equally thanks to their warp-type damage, but the fun part is what happens after you hit them with it. I'll let you find out what that is... next version.
    Like, headbutting your enemies with all that gravity-accelerated speed?

    "TNN17" said:
    Still to go for 0.3:
    ...
    Sniper Rifle (can you tell I'm procrastinating?)
    ...
    I must thank you because I really hate sniping anyway

    As to the item spawn, I absolutely agree with bwansy on the matter.

    Hint items - wouldn't that be, like, hints from stats inventory brought to items inventory, no? Anyways, sound good to me if players will have correct understanding that it's just a hint and not wasting any time on trying to combine that. Maybe codable via icons:
    - "no icon" - explained in hints inventory of tutorial, or both
    - some special icon, like you proposed, three "?" will do if stylized appropriately (same s**t about explaining what it means)
    #
    Pete 12 years ago
    "Narvius" said:
    "TNN17" said:
    Gravy guns
    I just imagined a gun firing meat sauce. And hell yeah would that deal roughly equal damage to all enemies. I mean, being shot with steaming hot meat sauce? And yeah, the after effect, when everyone decides MAN THAT GUYS SMELLS TASTY LET'S CONSUME HIM and everyone starts attacking the meatsprayed alien.
    Now why does that sound familiar *cough bacon ray cough*

    Also, I believe I have to issue the mandatory warning for the following, so... ooh, shiny!

    Combinatorial Explosion much?
    #
    Nocture17 12 years ago
    "Narvius" said:
    "TNN17" said:
    Gravy guns
    I just imagined a gun firing meat sauce. And hell yeah would that deal roughly equal damage to all enemies. I mean, being shot with steaming hot meat sauce? And yeah, the after effect, when everyone decides MAN THAT GUYS SMELLS TASTY LET'S CONSUME HIM and everyone starts attacking the meatsprayed alien.

    That would be awesome. Not actually what it does, but still, awesome.

    Anyway! Minor, morning, updates!

    Graphics for the yellow flower have been updated, it now only occurs in swamplands making it non-existent in regular play at the moment. You'll just have to OD on toxic mushrooms instead (or actually use them for their other, useful, use).
    Now, when getting hit, your aim will jerk slightly (just the once from impact, not ultra-spasm). It's minor, but in a long range fire fight, you're probably better off not getting hit.

    Your opinions have been taken on board bwansy/Venom and hopefully others will weigh in as well (if, as it appears, I'm catering to an audience of ten people, you might as well all take advantage of it and ask for things).

    What items would you consider "basic and universal"? Scrap metal and.... rocks/sand dependent on terrain, empty cannisters, cannisters containing ether, bullets, ice packs, thermal packs, rations?
    Would you be interested in rare spawns - 1/1000 rare tech that appears out-of-place? Gun chassis, force field emitters and the like?
    Finally, what items would be best exclusively area specific - Warp coils sure, those and gravity devices will probably be in the ship graveyard and very few other places (and when there's an ending, you'll need

    An options menu hint item.... for the hint items? That's just crazy enough to work! I can modify the initial combined "combination hint" in options to explain the principle of an "idea" item that can't be made.


    Working on an update to the first post in the topic to contain some of my long term schemes and the most recent download links, so you may want to check it out later. If someone can make with some screenshots at some point, I'd still like to list them up and give newcomers an eyeful.




    Edit: Not something I plan on implementing (I may, and if someone else makes it and it's compatible with my code, I'd probably be willing to include it), but an FoF safety feature in Notrium code, just like you wanted Venom. It may require some polishing, but it's definitely the bones of a working system (yes, I can think through Notrium code in my head now, kill me):

    This will require around ten sides, twenty "safety beam" weapons (for each type of turret), an extra Bar per turret, and enforce a cap of ten turrets of each potential type, you could theoretically do more turrets, so long as you were happy do more of everything. All the sides are functionally identical aside from number (though this would make my life miserable with "disable" coding.

    Start!
    Lay turret. If there are 0 X turrets in area, side = Turret 1. If there are 1 X turrets side = Turret 2 et cetera.

    Ten Timed Scripts on turrets - time = about 25 ms faster than their weapon-fire rate:
    IF Side = N AND FOF Bar < 1.1 THEN Fire Weapon FoF Beam N - N = side # in question. (Fire safety beam of appropriate side)

    FoF beams are identical - Their range is equal to the range of the turret's weapon, their fire speed is 10 (almost instantaneous impact anywhere along its line), non piercing, spread = weapon spread, # of shots varies - little spread = 3 shots, lot = 20+. They should be able to be invisible without that effecting the shot.

    If the Turret's Weapon is piercing, the FoF beam must be too.

    Firing each beam also has:
    "Add 1 FoF Token N to player inventory."
    "Use Player's FoF Token N if they have one."

    FoF Token N Use - IF have 2 FoF Token N THEN give -1 Tokens (keeps the tokens at at most 1 always)

    Turret scripts - 5 ms slower the Safety Beam timed script (If you're dealing with very rapid fire weapons here then adjust accordingly, but for a 500 ms gun turret, this is 475 and 480 resolution).
    If Side = N, Player has Token FoF N THEN fire particle (0 speed gun with 1 bullet for duration 2ms x fire rate of turret weapon) Red Light Particle, set FOF Bar to 2 and disable weapons for (2ms x fire rate of weapon, so 500ms turret = 1 second delay), give player -1 FoF Token N.
    Script - 5 ms slower than the fire rate (gun turret = 505 ms script):
    If FOF Bar >or equal to 2 THEN -1 FOF Bar.


    Ultimately this should work out as: If the player walks in from of a turret's current direction, it can no longer fire for two shots' time and drops a red dot on itself to display that fact. If the player then moves away, the turret will be able to fire around two shots' worth of time after the player moved. It won't stop the player from lurching into the turret's sights mid-shot, but it will automatically halt it after at most one shot.

    Damn I impress myself sometimes.
    Well, if it actually works anyway.
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    Main page updated, with a bonus - download links to version 0.25.

    As an alternative to coming up with unique combinations for eveeerything, how would people feel about this as an alternative?


    "Yellow"

    Whilst these two items might work together one or both would require fairly extensive modifications before that were possible.

    - Scrap Metal + Leaves
    - Fuel Cell + Solar Panel
    - Leaves + Branch

    "Green"

    This combination is almost successful - but one of the items needs to be modified slightly before it will work.

    - Scrap Metal + Wood/Lumber/Branch
    - Light Diode + Battery/Fuel Cell
    - Solar Array + Fuel Cell



    More:

    How attached are you people to the Captain's "traditional" starting flashlight? Now that one can be made (by the captain only at present), I'm leaning towards letting the player fumble around in the dark for the early game. With a lighter and the torch - now in the finishing stages of implementation - in place, and goggles existing in the game to boot, giving the human the unique disadvantage of not being able to see at night, then giving him a flashlight from minute one seems like a wasted opportunity to make people suff- er... appreciate the fruits of their own labour?
    #
    Venom31 12 years ago
    "Nocture17" said:
    ... FoF safety feature in Notrium code...
    Oh. My. God.

    The human night blindness is cool. I haven't seen any game yet where PC has, for example, miopia. Don't think miopia is a good idea but forcing the player to search and make illumination is so... survivalistic...

    Are you going to plain write out combination hints in those additional "item ideas"? I understand it's easier but it's sometimes more fun if such hint is more vague than that.
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    Yeah, I rock. Now go do something like make a short-but-sweet defence mod with it in and start the (late) Notrium modding revolution.

    Are you going to plain write out combination hints in those additional "item ideas"? I understand it's easier but it's sometimes more fun if such hint is more vague than that.

    Sorry, those are actually examples of near misses, not supposed to be the actual contents.

    So if the player is within one "step" of being right:
    Green hint: This combination is almost successful - but one of the items needs to be modified slightly before it will work.

    Two or three steps:
    Yellow hint: Whilst these two items might work together one or both would require some modifications before that were possible.

    Four or five steps:
    Red hint: Whilst these two items might possibly work together one or both would require extensive modifications before that were possible.

    Let's use arrows as an example:

    To make arrows you need X + kindling. So trying to mix Ingenuity with any kind of wood will a green hint - it's one step to turn wood or branches into kindling.
    If you mix ingenuity with lumber (combined wood), then it's yellow - two steps.

    Combine a bullet/magazine with: Kindling = Green hint. Wood = Yellow hint. Lumber = Still Yellow hint (2-3 steps).
    Because Bullet + Wooden Arrow works, so Bullet Clip/Wooden Arrow = Green, Bullet Magazine = Yellow (3 steps).
    Iron Arrow breaks down into wooden arrows, so Bullet Magazine + Iron Arrow = 4 steps - Bullet Mag > Clip > Bullet + Iron Arrow > Arrow.
    Leaves + Kindling = Yellow. (Leaves > String > Fabric > X + Kindling.)
    Leaves + Wood = Red (As above +1)

    So rather than give actual hints about each one, it's basically an itemised hot-or-cold game, yes?
    This would allow me to give a hint on every single combination without needing more than three new items to do it with, in a subtle way. I'm really leaning towards this as an option.


    Updates: I've implemented the Torch (which I just remembered is a bane for Notrium modders everywhere) and solved the problem of the light staying equipped after the torch burns away. Now, burn-out tokens accumulate. Once the torchbearer has equipped 50 tokens (no I don't care that they might drop one torch and pick up a new one instead, the universe itself will punish them for being so damn tricky and make the new one burn out instead), the torch will be removed, as will the tokens.
    The difference is that these tokens are themselves equippable items - just before the torch is removed from inventory, these tokens are used with effect 59, force-unequipping the torch (which disables the light) and then removing them (via recursive script, just to make sure to leave the slot empty).

    Now working on *sigh* the sniper pistol.

    Annnnnd it's done. There's a "feature" where leaving a map with it equipped it resights to standard, but I'm happy with that (if nothing else it lets you use it melee range in a pinch).
    It's a "half" piercing weapon; if it overkills the target in front, it will hit a target behind at reduced damage.
    It also deals 18 + 6*Accuracy damage; at maximum accuracy, this means the Android will deal 130 damage, enough for one bullet to kill any regular alien and have some . For the human, the figure is only 90, still impressive, but a slowish (>1 sec) reload hinders things here. A vanilla no accuracy sniper rifle deals 60 damage per shot - much lower than default.

    Actually this makes me consider that temporary drugs that give brief stat boosts with negative side effects might be a worthwhile addition (and maybe I could combine it with a seed sowing system for that farming system I've been pondering doing?).



    I wasn't kidding about 0.25 being unstable - To allow you to actually survive the game, please open your items.dat in notepad and Ctrl+F: 505;//result of combine.
    Five lines up from this is the line "400;//combines with". Change 400 to 531 and save. Naturally this will be fixed when the real version comes along.
    #
    Venom31 12 years ago
    Yay, that saves great number of items... But hey, what kind of idea is red idea then - very many items will have it, no? Pretty similar to "Doesn't combine" as for me. Anyway, this may be extended later if someone wants. The hot-n-cold game will play for now methinks.

    "TNN17" said:
    I wasn't kidding about 0.25 being unstable - To allow you to actually survive the game, please open your items.dat in notepad and Ctrl+F: 505;//result of combine.
    Five lines up from this is the line "400;//combines with". Change 400 to 531 and save. Naturally this will be fixed when the real version comes along.
    Be sure to update your 1st post with that.
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    "Venom31" said:
    Yay, that saves great number of items... But hey, what kind of idea is red idea then - very many items will have it, no? Pretty similar to "Doesn't combine" as for me. Anyway, this may be extended later if someone wants. The hot-n-cold game will play for now methinks.

    Red will probably show up for a lot of combinations, that's true, but not all. Bullets do not combine with other types of bullets - they will always be "Doesn't combine". They don't combine with crystal ore, they don't combine with a chassis, in fact they don't combine with much of anything (exactly why I'm using them as an example) - except:

    Bullets + Leaves would be a Red link.
    Bullets + Lumber (Wood/Branch would be a Yellow) would be a Red link.
    Bullets + Computer Unit is a Red link.
    Bullets + Grenade is a Red link.
    Bullets + Power Unit is also a Red link.
    Bullets + Battery = Cannot Combine; likewise Energy Coupling/Energy Unit.
    Bullets + Ether = Yellow link.

    Huh. This just made me think - Seven steps to Kevin Bacon-Ray.

    The red link makes it apparent, once you're close enough, that you can get something if you investigate further; doesn't combine either means you're nowhere near, or that they have no combinations.

    It's not a 100% helper - two items may link together in two different ways, but if I stick to base level items (no more than three steps off the ground - Particle Accelerator > Power Unit > Pebble Shotgun = final tier with hints) and don't humour backwards combinations (I don't care that Grenade is a yellow link with Bullet Clips, explosive ANYTHING is not backwards compatible) this should give all the help necessary for the player to figure out almost anything... I'll have to draw a chart for this, it could take me awhile.

    Be sure to update your 1st post with that.

    Good point. Updated.


    Radiator graphicxs done. Plasma weapons will be in progress today.
    #
    Nocture17 12 years ago
    Minor Updates:

    All the Plasma Weaponry graphics done. I expect to have them, and the sonic weaponry (which also needs images), finished later this evening.

    The Pulse Laser will be undergoing a small change in how its made - Rather than using a motion detector, it will take advantage of another substance with a crystalline structure instead.
    Rather than having sand just laying around ready for you to scoop up (quite how you manage to hold it is another matter), instead, just use your ever-handy empty container whilst standing on some sand. Not only does this make infinitely more sense, it also keeps grit out of the nether regions of your space suit. At this rate FM may be the only game in history in which empty bottles are more useful than Zelda.

    Finished up the ghost of a chart for Hot'n'Cold hints, I'll probably start doing one a day or so, it's pretty massive and I'd prefer not to get bogged down with it. when I could be working on The Ship Graveyard.
    #
    Matz05 12 years ago
    Im getting a bug with unequipping-reeqipping backpacks -- something caused me to loose carrying capacity permanently. Out of curiosity, I did it repeatedly and got negative capacity.

    No skates for me! I fly for free! -- At least if the "overburdened" spam doesn't drive me insane...



    I also had a problem where suddenly no foods would be consumed. My food went up, but the item stayed, and in fact most gave a "not hungry" message.




    VERY cool mod -- I registered just to post this!
    Any hints on how I get the "launcher" (shotgun) or other new weapons? Ive got pistol, railgun, laser unit, laser, pulse laser, pebble shottie, double pebble shottie, knife, blade, clawknife, clawblade, spear, and knowledge on how to make bows and slings over the course of my testing.

    Didn't know you could cook, or make chain-reacting Ether puddles... got to try that out!

    EDIT: Also, motion ?sensors? (the glass sphere) break down into motion ?detectors? (the scanner), wich break down into motion ?sensors? and a powered terminal, giving an infinite loop and infinite powered terminals. Shouldn't the glass sensors not break down?
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    Hm. That's twice my post got eaten just before completion.

    Long story short for my updates: There were a lot of them, there's a blanket now (warm, rest in, don't get it wet, yada yada), spawns have changed (lower cap, can still have over-the-cap megaspawns), and you can now sashimi/cook blue aliens. Plasma weapons are awesome, sonic weapons.... I got sidetracked. Ingenuity now has HnC, sticking to tier 2 or lower to avoid redundancy. Hypothermia now displays help text in options (rest will later), melee is awesome (and fully implemented), knife is now worse, rather than better, than blades, million graphics done. Rain tweaked slightly, managed to get to day 2 whilst getting tiny 800x600 screenshots, what's your PB guys?

    Public service announcement: Don't be a stubborn fool like I am and run around overloaded all the time, you will die, and you will die directly because of it. Fatigue drain is beast.

    "Matz05" said:
    Im getting a bug with unequipping-reeqipping backpacks -- something caused me to loose carrying capacity permanently. Out of curiosity, I did it repeatedly and got negative capacity.

    Fixed! Thanks a lot for the bug report.

    I also had a problem where suddenly no foods would be consumed. My food went up, but the item stayed, and in fact most gave a "not hungry" message.

    Could you tell me which food? The not hungry message should definitively stop any food gain.

    VERY cool mod -- I registered just to post this!

    Awesome. It's great to have feedback.

    Any hints on how I get the "launcher" (shotgun) or other new weapons? Ive got pistol, railgun, laser unit, laser, pulse laser, pebble shottie, double pebble shottie, knife, blade, clawknife, clawblade, spear, and knowledge on how to make bows and slings over the course of my testing.

    I dread typing all this up again, but here goes, again in a shorter form:

    1: You can use more than just batteries in Particle Accelerators.
    2: The Launcher is a super single barreled shotgun, so it needs two of them, one of each type.
    3: There are three types of bow and four types of ammo. Got them all?
    4: Don't forget you can turn batteries into grenades!
    5: You need bullets for shells, and something to wrap them in.
    6: Standard Pistols have a lot more possibilities with a more powerful particle accelerator.
    7: Have you had enough spare food to make use of the brown alien's claws in other areas? They make pebble weapons better.
    8: Laser Pistols can be upgraded into something other than just the pulse laser, but you need a very rare item to do it.
    9: Force Pistol is bugged in that version, but will involve another type of pistol.
    10: Lighters need a nozzle to torch things, and something to hold and spray ether to burning death things.
    11: What happens to a gun without a diode or a particle accelerator? What happens if you introduce coils

    Think that's all the weapons in 0.25. In 0.3 there'll be more.

    Didn't know you could cook, or make chain-reacting Ether puddles... got to try that out!

    It's probably mandatory for the captain to cook or die right now, he gets a lot more food from cooked food than regular food.

    EDIT: Also, motion ?sensors? (the glass sphere) break down into motion ?detectors? (the scanner), wich break down into motion ?sensors? and a powered terminal, giving an infinite loop and infinite powered terminals. Shouldn't the glass sensors not break down?
    Also fixed, thanks again! It was combining backwards...
    #
    Matz05 12 years ago
    Thanks for the reply -- actually, I found the mass driver just after posting. So nice of you giving us an assault pistol at one of the camps -- some assembly required. I also tried the flamethrower -- is the blowtorch actually doing damage?

    I like the machine pistol, but it doesn't always seem to burst fire.


    Could you tell me which food? The not hungry message should definitively stop any food gain.

    All of them, actually, though some did it silently, most gave a "not hungry" message. Maybe something to do with eatingwhen full "sticking" the "not hungry" status, even when starving?


    Also, I saw some canister wierdness -- sometimes you can't fill them with water, no matter where you are standing. I had no trouble the first time, but after that I did.

    Hmm... coils... only coils I know are warp coils and glass tubes. Ah well! Off to figure out the launcher! From the hint I figure either a mass driver and a powered accelerator on metal, or a shottie and a double-shottie. (though that last makes less sense)
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    "Matz05" said:
    Thanks for the reply -- actually, I found the mass driver just after posting. So nice of you giving us an assault pistol at one of the camps -- some assembly required. I also tried the flamethrower -- is the blowtorch actually doing damage?

    It does some damage, but honestly it's better as a tool (especially for the android) than a weapon. It's nowhere near as great as it was in default (where it was the best weapon for taking out most aliens).

    I like the machine pistol, but it doesn't always seem to burst fire.

    This was in one of my lost posts - There's a minor glitch here where the burst control was firing every shot, rather than every three. This is fixed, so next version it'll be firing normally.

    All of them, actually, though some did it silently, most gave a "not hungry" message. Maybe something to do with eatingwhen full "sticking" the "not hungry" status, even when starving?[/quote[

    Hmm.... Were your fatigue bar or thirst bar both full? I haven't seen anything (and I've had the numerical values visible for these tests), but I'll definitely keep an eye out. If you can get a save game of it happening I'd appreciate it.

    Also, I saw some canister wierdness -- sometimes you can't fill them with water, no matter where you are standing. I had no trouble the first time, but after that I did.

    I think this was one of the bugs I covered yesterday, one of the tokens wasn't working right. Next version not only will it work correctly (including sand) you'll also be able to pick up Ether spills.

    Hmm... coils... only coils I know are warp coils and glass tubes. Ah well! Off to figure out the launcher! From the hint I figure either a mass driver and a powered accelerator on metal, or a shottie and a double-shottie.

    Don't trouble yourself too hard about the warp gun, I'm pretty sure now I think of it that the energy stunners don't have working combinations. You're always welcome to add things to test in the editor though.
    Good luck with the Launcher.

    Updates:

    - Some minor to major bug fixes - there's an occassional crash mid-game seemingly at random, I'm not sure if it's my code or I'm just destablising the game by alt-tabbing every three minutes fixing missing Empty Cannisters that should be appearing.
    - New intro splash screen containing the controls.
    - Extinguisher now works, it douses flames and deals small amounts of damage to everything else. It's fairly ammo intensive.
    - Sonic Weaponry implemented - Sonic weapons are characterised by their ammo efficiency, short range and middling piercing damage.
    - Warp Drill implemented - The Warp Drill is characterised by a little animated gif of the devil, dancing in glee that you manufactured such a monstrous weapon of mass destruction.

    And that concludes all the weapons, everything weapon-related is complete with the exception of Android-specifics. Now I suppose I should really get to makin' some ruins.


    Updated the front page with some screenshots, now you no longer have to imagine what the left two thirds of the screen looks like! Also blatant item combination spoilers and me showing off a perfectly timed double kill.
    #
    Matz05 12 years ago
    I got the launcher -- but how do you expect me to power it!?
    three ferns for four shottie shells is STEEP! The <ahem> other ingredient is plentifull enough, and the tools nescessary easy to come by, but the ... erm... case paper... is rare enough I don't want to experiment with it. If fewer (a LOT fewer) ferns were spawned as tinder and more were spawned fresh, then it would be OK, but as it is, I'm swimming in batteries but lacking in some natural materials!
    ...I hope I didn't just make tinder scarce enough no one can spare any wood... What have I DONE!?
    Seriously, having to dry your own tinder occasionaly would be great, right now its a waste of string.

    Maybe have cloth with "denominations" like wood and bullets? Small ("this" use, ice/etc packs, small treated [make incindiaries?], socks [make cold have slightly less effect, useless when wet?], etc.); medium (What you make, can be divided into small, 2-3 combined with string to make large, usefull as a bandage, makes: antiseptic bandage, treated cloth [for torch, split up for use in incindiaries?], mittens [make cold have less effect, useless when wet, takes offhand slot due to clumsiness?]; and large (backpack, tent, insulated armour [make cold have much less effect, useless when wet?], blanket)


    I'm just trying to imagine a Launcher shell now... don't think you make those neat little shotgun shells in the picture... I'm thinking a partitioned sock full of bullets and gunpowder in seperate chambers (but no casings) with an intact bullet sticking out the back to detonate the whole shebang! Throw the charge down a WIIIIDE pipe, position the detonator by a firing pin (somehow), pull* the hammer, and RUN LIKE A LITTLE GIRL!!!!
    Err... I mean, pick up the mortar-sized shotgun and blast away at aliens, like a man.

    *Stupid filter, I'd give a TVtropes refference, but due to the appeal of self-demonstrating names,I probably can't write it. Guess your time and sanity is safe. Ends with "Problem", anyways. Two words. Starts with "S".
    #
    TNN17 12 years ago
    "Matz05" said:
    I got the launcher.....

    Do bear in mind a few important points:

    1: Ferns do regenerate, tinder does not. It's only a matter of time before the tinder dries up.
    2: Ice Packs can be broken up.
    3: There will be non-boss marines carrying their own shotguns.
    4: The Launcher shotgun shots are hugely powerful, particularly the dragon's breath shells, which can deal over 200 damage per shot, to multiple targets at once. I'm reluctant to make such things much easier to manufacture (though I will be having a serious and in depth examination when I readdress spawns... namely playing the thing a lot), but your feedback is being taken on board, I have already changed down the number of ferns necessary to make fabric from 5 to 3 trying to make this a little easier.
    5: Ferns do not reappear on plains-type maps such as the Lake.

    Checking the code, the perceived prevalence of kindling is actually a bug of sorts - kindling isn't actually that common (ferns are twice as likely to occur) but kindling wasn't terminating the seed, so kindling was showing up next to a lot of other items, making life much easier for everybody.

    Naturally I've fixed this, so now you'll just have less of everything.... I did lower the prevalence of pebbles and up ferns a little bit though. This is temporary, since I'll need to make a proper locational spawn and seeds accounting for season, climate and special qualities (and possibly with a new "natural" seed as one of the start-seed drops, so I can just have an "X% chance of a plant" which can be resolved separately based on location rather than five individual % chances for plants for each season).

    Maybe have cloth with "denominations" like wood and bullets?....

    I'm afraid that I'm unlikely to make small-clothes - socks would be useless to: Aliens, the Android, the Psionic (doesn't even have feet), half use for the Extropian, and fairly pointless for the Werivar (whose hairy feet laugh at your footwear!), and only of arguable use to the Captain and the SecOps. The overall difference they'd grant the two and a half characters who could use them would be approximately 0.05 temperature/second at most.

    There's a similar problem with armour - only one character so far uses actual armour, the android integrates it, aliens have their own, so only the Captain/SecOps would have any need for such a thing, and after you hit Exosuits, they're obsolete, I'd suggest that Flak Armour at best be an extra optional step in the armour chain (and with it create a better form of unpowered personal armour), and utterly subsumed by Power Suit and up where the upgrade would simply be removed and returned to inventory as part of the upgrade (primarily as a protective measure only, you don't heat up quicker in the sun in metal armour, it's a double standard to then say you do because of cloth). I'll consider it as a possible non-energy possibility for the captain, depending how severe ion storms are.

    However I might be interested in doing some larger articles - An umbrella (hand) or cloak (body) to keep the rain off (burns up in acid/ash rain, doesn't work on ion/sand storms) (a cloak could serve double duty there, with minor benefits versus heat exposure), but anything small like gloves should be abstracted - they're there if they need to be there, and any benefit they have is already accounted for.


    How does everyone else feel about the idea of adding more complexity into the system? Honestly in this bent I'm more inclined to go with just two sizes, still requiring three strings to weave with, and then split down into smaller fabric strips with knife/tools.

    Small: Ice Packs, ammunition, torches, bandages, treated fabric strips, molotovs* (treated fabric strip + Ether bottle, high damage fire explosion and an enduring flame, but you'll lose the bottle).
    Large: Backpack, cloak*, flak*, Blanket, Tent, Shelter, Treated Fabric (which can then be split, or treated individually but less efficiently), sandbags, grav-skates* (quite probably as the skates will be changed to use propulsion systems rather than just anti-grav devices, this would reduce their weight).

    I'm just trying to imagine a Launcher shell now...

    Fortunately for everyone involved, gunpowder isn't an issue, since the guns used are all mass drivers (I assume highly advanced mag-propulsion). Even the bullets themselves are just solid metal slugs. The shells themselves are as much an artistic nod to the fact that everyone knows what shotgun shells look like as they are my inability to make something that looks better. This is why you can successfully fire pebbles from a gun, or spray things with burning death.

    How this would pertain to the launcher would be simply hurling the "shell" out at such speeds that not only is the simple fabric casing torn apart, the bullets themselves sunder under the actions of the twin accelerators, effectively making it into a massive flechette gun rather than a traditional buckshot shotgun, hence explaining the number of projectiles despite there being only four bullets per shell.

    In the case of the dragon's breath shell, the same action would both send the ether soaked into the shell spraying into a fine expanding mist of highly flammable gas and ignite it, sending a cloud of partially melted molten metal over everyone and everything within the area, presumably whilst cackling maniacally.



    Anyway: Updates!

    - Major degrees of graphics work, unfortunately. I'll get a few of the pictures up tomorrow.


    So yeah, it's tomorrow, suck down my art!

    Your awesomely fantabulous spaceship, the Var'Equillian.




    And.... Your fantabulous space ship one minute after the game begins:



    I'm sort of disappointed that I won't have occassion to use that first one, I think it came out rather well.

    Anyway, the VE will be the first "internal" map as you enter looking for "survivors" (well, loot). This is going to take me awhile.
    #
    Nocture17 12 years ago
    Minor morning progress updates.

    Balancing: The knife is one of your most versatile and important tools (of the non-technological persuasion that is), and will need to be in your inventory where possible. As such, unless somebody has some serious disagreement with it, the knife will be grouped under "unarmed" rather than "melee" in terms of safety switches, and the auto-melee (which has been moved to quick-key 1, swapping with pistols), will treat it accordingly.

    Polygons: I *think* I have these figured out, each "point" is actually a percentage of X/Y radius, with negatives being radius in the opposite directions. If someone understands this file's particulars I'd appreciate some quick pointers. I'm happily using existing polygons for most stuff, but the VE pictured above will have to have its own polygon to work with its funky shape.


    Props: Eight wrecked ships - including some tweaked classic models. Several skeletal remains.

    Each ship type will have a loot table associated with it - smaller fighter models will be more likely to grant things like diodes, P.As and field emitters, freighters will be more likely to offer up warp coils, energy couplings, fuel cells (larger ship, more power available), and "utility" type items such as computer units, storage containers, ether, rations, glass tubing or ice packs.

    Of course, most of the ships will be giving you nothing but scrap metal, they are wrecked after all.

    This brings up an interesting (to me at least) question of realism.


    Your Call:
    It always sort of bothered me how your ship exploding managed to scatter technology across the maps.

    Would you like to keep tech scattered across the country-side willy-nilly across the planet, or would you prefer to see it in "realistic" concentrations? This is a fairly major game design issue that will shape the way the game develops.

    Scattered: Things stay roughly as they are, a particle accelerator might be in a swamp, fuel cells litter the countryside, a pistol chassis in the middle of a lake. There will be some locational bias, but the vast majority of technology is scattered everywhere.
    In the Scattered version, ships and other such troves will occur only in select regions, to compliment a slightly lower than usual spawn in those areas.
    This is the tried and tested. A much easier game experience and well in keeping with default Notrium. However each new technology can be seen as a milestone, getting your first pistol, getting the flamer, getting your big-boy guns, these milestones will be random, but potentially they could happen nearly all at once, this isn't conducive to a long, consistent game experience, and let's face it, why use a tent in favour of a stasis field? They're both equally common, in fact stasis fields are probably easier to come by.


    Realistic: Jungle areas (as an example) will 95% of the time contain natural things - Rocks, branches, plants, kindling, nests, hives, mushrooms, rarely scrap metal, and very occassionally something like an empty cannister, a lighter, bullets, or other tech from a killed marine, wandering expeditionary team or the like. Each area would be graded according to what population was there - areas would be differentiated more by their inhabitants. Marines or Machines in an area means a good chance for some discarded high technology items, areas without them means the opposite.

    In this version, ships and your enemies will be your primary sources of technology, and there would be crashed ships, long-dead marines and ruined installations which you would search through. Lone, unexplained drops of tech items become the exception rather than the norm, and each ship may yield multiple items of tech.

    Low-Tech would probably have to expand to accomodate natural defences - self-defending "spiked" wooden barricades, snares, spike traps (probably one use, high damage immobilisers) to allow for base creation. Possibly even the inclusion of sharp stones and creature "bones" for making spears (which would then be throwable with a modified sling), and plant seeds to help you grow your own in a more controlled location.

    There'd also have to be some balance changes in the Realistic version, the android's power decay will be lowered substantially to something similar to human food consumption rates, certain common aliens would likely be downgraded (I'm mostly looking at you big blue), and dire aliens would be rare and restricted mostly to "deepest darkest" areas. Technological items such as Rations and Medikits would probably stay the same in terms of potency compared to alternative methods.
    The Psionic and Aliens will have a much easier time of it than the tech dependent characters, but in exchange they will likely have some difficulty when it comes to dealing with late game (especially long range) opponents compared to a well-equipped technologist - though never to the degree of Scavenger Versus Battledroid impossibility. On the other hand, bullets, ether and crystals will be rare, and as a technologist you'd have to carefully manage your resources.


    If you want my honest opinion, realism in this case would make for a more solid game in its own right (and give me the excuse to make "dungeons"), but would be a rather different experience from the traditional Notrium game, things would feel a lot more Robinson Crusoe.

    Looking forward to some opinions.
    #
    Narvius 12 years ago
    Frankly, Werivar/WE perfectly fills the role of Notrium with more stuff. I'd say go for the realism (it sounds like more work, but apparently you don't seem to bother ).
    #
    Venom31 12 years ago
    Wait a moment, do you mean only PC's ship scattered it all? As far as I understood there were many crashed ships; they were dragged by VC to some "spaceship trash" area and VC workers have been just lazy enough to leave the smaller litter be where it fell.

    You are free to do as you like, but I see no big unrealism in the tech drop as it is.

    Also, it's not very understandable how, for example, some good spaceship captain would know all this survival stuff to make his living (unlike knowing some middle-high-techy stuff to fight and protect himself).

    And
    "Nocture17" said:
    ... Scavenger Versus Battledroid impossibility.
    Why?

    @EDIT
    The Var' Equinallin's name may have to be extended by some seven letters and two digits...
    #
    Curudan 12 years ago
    I'm definitely in favor of the realistic drop system. Any thing that adds more differentiation in function and 'feel' between the different areas sounds good to me.
    #
    Endymion 12 years ago
    Realism sounds good to me since I'm all for making the early game better and longer.(Werivar seemed to just pile more stuff to the end without adding anything to the early game.)
    #
    Nocture17 12 years ago
    "Narvius" said:
    (it sounds like more work, but apparently you don't seem to bother ).

    Well I am a crazy, crazy fool, but it wouldn't be all bad, starting spawns would be a lot simpler with realism (and I'd hope for some suggestions here on top of these) there'd be:

    Crash sites - Wrecked ships which are looted - As described above, they'll probably carry the important tech - Fuel Cells, light diode, particle accelerators, anti-gravity devices, energy couplings.... Along with more standard stuff, scavenging wrecks would probably be the primary means of high tech acquisition.
    Dead marine - Dead individual marine corpse - bullets, a lighter, maybe a broken gun part, a battery, a ration, scrap metal....
    Litter - Detritus, whether in a codified campsite or just scattered abandoned - some kindling, a ration, dead battery, ice pack, live battery, Empty Cannister, the fabric strip from an expended ice/thermal pack, a mislaid lighter, a few spare bullets, dead battery, scrap metal, maybe a medikit. The better stuff would only occur in abandoned campsites, whilst the empties would be the most likely "trash" you encounter.
    Destroyed vehicles/machines - computer units, scrap metal, spare ether cans, energy tech....
    Automated research stations - Scrap metal, computer units, energy couplings, solar panels, terminals....
    "Tribal" sites - Simple weapons and items, maybe some processed foodstuffs.
    Active marine camp/Supply cache/Robot mining site - Only really present in marine/machine areas, these contain larger quantities of valuable supplies, but would spawn with their own guards.

    This is takes all the various seeds down to seven random drops (admittedly followed in a few of those cases by another random drop, and then random loot table), which subdivides my job from one unmanageably large creature into an unmanageably large number of smaller ones - which is actually a little better.

    There'll be a c.95% chance for a "natural" drop (which will then be divided into seasonal > locational > terrain, which is also how item seeds will be made to work regardless, by just dropping one of these natural drop seeds). These chances will also have conditionals, deserts and marine regions will have a higher chance for technical sites than non-marine areas, but would be more likely to strip down any wrecked space vessels and wipe out any natives.

    Interiors - These places would have scattered drops, lootable machinery and the like, and would probably have automated defences or resident pests to clear out. These interiors wouldn't necessarily be super-large (some will be single rooms). Though maps would always contain the location in the same spot, the actual contents and location of the map itself would change game by game, coloured by interior theme.

    Of course all this goes out the window when you're good enough to take out marines and machines with nothing but a knife.

    Further balance tweaking may be in allowing the android to use batteries without a coupling.


    Wait a moment, do you mean only PC's ship scattered it all? As far as I understood there were many crashed ships; they were dragged by VC to some "spaceship trash" area and VC workers have been just lazy enough to leave the smaller litter be where it fell.

    Whilst that's not a bad explanation, in the journal entries for each item, the captain makes a big deal of the frequency of certain tech drops - as they come from aboard his own starship - I believe explicitly fuel cells and ether. Additionally, at least in Default, things were very specific in where they dropped - force field generators and light diodes in the desert, lighters, glass tubes and goggles in the mining fields, particle accelerators in the.... ship graveyard? It's not inconceivable the way you explain it, but it's still a little weird, and there's all those ruined Wazzal ships laying around (unless my Alzheimer's is kicking in and those only show up in the graveyard, I think I've seen 'em elsewhere).

    Either way, is this a yea or a nay? I'm aware I can do whatever (thought-rays from the government notwithstanding), but would this improve or worsen the game experience?

    Also, it's not very understandable how, for example, some good spaceship captain would know all this survival stuff to make his living (unlike knowing some middle-high-techy stuff to fight and protect himself).

    Not a bad point, I was viewing the captain as a veritable genius on several levels - I view him as the Default default (hm.) point of view when it comes to pick-up text, so I made him capable of thinking up unique applications of materials - nothing particularly advanced about making some thick-shelled alien into armour, if you think of it; nothing particularly advanced about making a simple backpack either - again, if you think of it.
    This said, the vast majority of ingenuity-based things the captain thinks of are technological (I concede the compound bow, I may move that to another character) - Goggles, Flashlights, Power Armour, high efficiency energy systems, he's well-rounded in that respect as both technologically gifted and a good lateral thinker.

    If you're referring to non-ingenuity general tech, then note the parallel - when you first start the game, he doesn't know all this survival stuff - he's experimenting with possibilities he finds laying around in the forest, just like you are.
    If you think about it, it's actually harder for him to do the simple things than it is the big complicated things - he needs tools to do a lot of things, so he has to make a simple knife. Using the knife he can make some tools. He uses the tools to make some string, and a piece of wood, and then combines them to make a bow, and then uses his tools on some kindling to make some arrows, then use his bow (not included in gameplay experience: Captain swearing and rubbing his arm after sapping the string into it *again*). A lot of the technical applications aren't advanced antiquated techniques, they're the fairly common sense "hey, a blanket would keep me warmer than standing in this puddle!" type.
    To make a working pistol, he grabs his modular tech Pistol Chassis, snaps in a particle accelerator with some power, and he's good to shoot some aliens. Hypersonic raygun? You don't even need the chassis.
    Even if he wants to make a working railgun, he'll have to snap on a rail. Tech is so simple in the FM universe anyone can combine it, with or without thumbs.

    Nocture17 wrote:
    ... Scavenger Versus Battledroid impossibility.

    Why?

    Because the scavenger almost literally cannot defeat a battledroid (I should know, I've spent hundreds of hours playing the sucker), and impossibility isn't a particularly rewarding gameplay experience compared to challenge and success. If something is *impossible* for one particular race, then I'm doing something wrong, good game design includes a fulfilling experience. It might require lateral thinking, excessive tactics, and hit and run combat over the course of a week, but every enemy must be either undefeatable for a good gameplay reason, or undefeatable by everyone.

    @EDIT
    The Var' Equinallin's name may have to be extended by some seven letters and two digits...

    Thanks a lot! I tried to match it to the 3D intro pic as closely as possible.


    Minor updates: Some slight weapon rebalancing and categorising. Warp Drills are definitely the best all-round weapon (and have fiendish point blank damage, though they self-handicap slightly by warping and displacing their targets at longer ranges), but they haven't the best range (probably the Plasma blaster or one of the rifles, give those twin suns a running start and watch 'em fly), best damage (flamer), or best with high stats (Plasma Rifle), best knockback (sonic weapons or the extinguisher).
    ...
    My wife complains I have too many weapons in this thing.

    Balance tweak - Using a mag-rail will return scrap metals to your inventory - this scrap includes the now defunct mag-rail. Using the mag-rail on depowered batteries will also revert them into scrap metals.


    As support for realism seems quite widespread, I guess I'll start working on that after version 0.3 and it's funky graveyard of doom are completed. I really need to make a map of Notrium for my own use just so I can pin down where things will be situated with all areas in place.
    #
    Pete 12 years ago
    Im all for this. Combing the entire map with a radio looking for the one single bloody life support chip was never very fun in the first place, and stumbling into a crashed ship full of fuel cells definitely sounds like a moment to remember.
    #
    Forum » Notrium Final Mix - New Version out. 0.31
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