[SP] Warping Plague

[Rydygier 1317]

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I am not a big fan of time limits. 

 

In fact - likewise. Limit here just gives you organized measure of success - how many you can save in that time, but this is half-optional even now. You can finish earlier: either evacuate as soon you feel, amount of people, you can take with current Materials value is good enough/optimal, while you gathered 100% of data (which is doable in 20 turns), either you can achieve alternate ending, if you find key data near the initial area center and measure enough data from warpers (after finding key data, each day amount of data measured equals the chance for the breakthrough), you should be able to stabilize warpers on their current positions using a device, that currently cost 250 Materials each, and if you manage to stabilize all warpers, scenario should end, because you stopped spread of the plague (area spread and resulting increasing number of warpers is caused by their constant displacement), thus saved everyone/most of surviving on the island - didn't tested this way though, I suppose, will also require balancing, total cost in Materials may be pretty high. 

 

In fact, scenario should still work fine without a limit. Chances for weaponry and hostiles will just raise further until hit upper limit, then stay flat at it, in time player will loot all the buildings, so situation at some point will stagnate (but at some very nasty level of hostility probably). That's it. I can remove Turn Limit from the formulas and instead put there fixed number, sot that's not the problem either. 

 

I think, if scenario become worthy of it, I probably introduce customization panel similar to one in Pilgrimage and Descent Trajectory, so player will have opportunity to tailor the scenario to own preferences, set the turn limit or turn it off completely etc. 

 

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As long as the "guardians" do not use melee and teleportation (or any kind of magic at all), I am looking forward to them.

 

Probably neither magic, neither "normal", still "shootable". All these creatures are "from elsewhere", as the whole Plague. Don't know, but thinking about stuff like unlimited 40mm grenades with some FX, but limited rate of fire, range and accuracy and very limited mobility to avoid making them some kind of unbeatable nemesis. But I may figure out something else/better too. 

 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- tweaked HUD for better clarity (whole words, less numbers - shown only storage room left and free quarters left, other data here was probably useless anyway, some may be added to detailed daily reports);

- Fast Travel. Each 5 seconds code checks, if player is closer, than 100 meters to a named town (few types of named locations, hills etc. excluded) location on land, that is not activated yet. If so, it will be activated for Fast Travel, message + sound given, map marker added. Once there's at least one FT marker, Fast Travel action is available. Range from the Town depends on amount of hired Scouts. Without scouts player can FT in 1000 meters around the Town, each Scout adds another 1000 of range. Markers out of range will have different color. Also markers show required amount of scouts to reach them with FT, when any. If there's only one marker, Fast Travel action takes the player directly there. Otherwise map is opened and code waits for LMB click, then will take the player at closest marker in range. If none in range - FT cancelled, message given.  FT is not availabe during fight (enemy closer than 300 meters from the player knows about the player);

- Added info about number of "houses to loot for today" to the looting message;

- Now daily limit of houses to loot is bound with number of hired scouts (because they should help the player increase his daily efficiency, as they help also AI food harvesters or scavengers by giving them intel about promising places to check), so instead of hardcoded 20, there's 20 + scouts;

- expanded Instructions in the map screen (fast travel, HUD, new benefits from the scouts, some small changes).

 

More to come other day...

[Rydygier 1317]

BTW one thing to consider: the fact, player can freely reassign inhabitants at any moment can be easily exploited: make all scouts, take all benefits from them then switch all back to production. I think, I'll make, so each inhabitant could be reassigned only once per day (closing the roster GUI will fix occupation for inhabitants, whose job was changed, till next day). 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- new survivors can be invited to the Town even without sufficient quarters. Such persons will squat in any other building till proper quarter appear, then will "move in" there. Until then they'll be marked as "homeless" in the Occupation Roster and daily report;

- code responsible for civilians control tweaked to work better within this scenario;

- increased opacity of report/roster GUIs background, tweaked few other things;

- Now work assignement can be changed once per day for each inhabitant. As soon roster is closed, changes are fixed till next turn - in the roster such inhabitants will be properly marked and clicking on them will do nothing. Inhabitants having at roster exit same occupation set, as before will be not fixed;

- orange stash was so sad and lonely, so now there's small composition of static objects added to it, mostly ornamental purpose, but some actions was moved from the orange box to the laptop. 

[neofit 65]

Nice to see how hard you're working on it.

 

At the end of the first day, I could not end the day. The option was not there at the orange box.

 

I restarted the game with the latest version. Bought 3 houses. I started driving in a NE arc setting up fast travel points in cities, up to the airport and the military zone. Looted all my daily allotment. Get 5% of data and teleported back to my village. Bought an extra house. Then tried ending the day but the option wasn't there.

 

Maybe it is because there were some enemies N of the city when I started. But since I had nobody to protect and they are not giving any loot, I didn't bother. When I got back into the village, the marker wasn't there anymore. I drove N of the village for a few minutes just in case, saw nobody and attracted nobody, so I quit. Also, with the previous version, except on the very first day on my first version, I never killed any mobs around the village. Every morning there was somebody, but the ? marker was gone by the time I returned to the village, and nothing prevented me from ending the day.

[Rydygier 1317]

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Maybe it is because there were some enemies N of the city when I started. 

 

Yes. Those marked on the map need to be neutralized first (the only requirement before ending current day is possible). I'll investigate why they/their mark may disappear on their own (shouldn't). Also I need ot think, if such requirement is needed actually. 

 

Meanwhile, today started work on "warper guardian" unit, but still requires more work and then balancing tests. 

[neofit 65]

On 4/12/2019 at 3:03 PM, Rydygier said:

 

Yes. Those marked on the map need to be neutralized first (the only requirement before ending current day is possible). I'll investigate why they/their mark may disappear on their own (shouldn't). Also I need ot think, if such requirement is needed actually.

I only killed them on the very first day. Then afterwards, on the two playthrough I had started prior to this one, I never bothered. At the end of the day, the marker always disappeared, whether I had a guard assigned or not. And I never had problems ending the day, so I presumed that they either got killed by the guard, or just went away.

 

If possible, I'd prefer it if killing them wasn't necessary to end the day. Going outside with a handgun to kill some specops geared mobs is not something I'd do for fun, they don't even drop anything.

[Rydygier 1317]

Most of them haven't more, than a pistol, especially during first days, also I've some plans as for certain benefits from killing them, but anyway requirement of killing them in order to end of day may be no longer necessary. It was a way to prevent player skip day after day without doing anything, which was bad for mission design for a reason, that is no longer there, so perhaps indeed now I'll allow player end a day anytime he please (doing so without any activity now is against his interest anyway). 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- added last daily report review to the laptop;

- removed end of day restriction (player can end a day anytime if not "in fight");

- removed turn limit for now (as for situation dynamics, how chances for stuff and opposition are increasing each day, is set like for 50 turns, which is noticeable faster than previously);

- near hostile presence creatures marked on the map should not auto-disappear when player is far, unless are dead;

- new resource: Weird Matter - one sample required now to discover warper stabilization and one sample per stabilizing device;

- bodies will not disappear immediately after death, player can examine each creature body with a chance to obtain small amount of Data (but within daily limit!) or a sample of Weird Matter (rare);

- new kind of hostile: Warper Guardian. Static (can only turn in place toward player) creature, that will appear near each not stabilized warper when player get closer, than 275 meters from it, one per warper. Will disappear back if player go away, but will return back unless killed. It has increased resistance to damage (multiple hits required) and will throw at player small explosive ordnance every 5 seconds, if has a free LOS. Accuracy at first is rather poor, but Guardian will adapt and accuracy will improve each shot. Accuracy will decrease when player on the move and each time guardian is hit. But the longer the fight, the faster guardian adapt back (in certain limits, depending also on distance). 

 

In summary, it is possible to defeat guardian even with a shitty pistol, tested, but especially first one may be a challenge if player has only a handgun, especially without any cover to utilize. With a rifle it gets easier. Save game before approaching a warper anyway recommended. Difficulty was tentatively balanced, but it may require further tweaks if too easy or too difficult. Examining the body of fallen guardian may be especially fruitful, apart from bigger Data chunk (need to be made independent from daily limit though...), there's guaranteed Weird Matter sample or few and after first examining later analyze should result in a discovery of another handy device, that also can make fighting next guardians easier:

 

- after requirements are met (possesing at least one Weird Matter sample, examined guardian body), player can use Weird Matter samples via mouse action to get 90-95 damage immunity for 30 seconds. 

[neofit 65]

Hi,

 

Like the last time, I did not have the option to end the day. Then I thought that maybe the table by the orange box is not just for show, and bingo, the option has been moved onto the laptop :). /facepalm

 

More observations:

 

* It's nice to finally have a reason to kill the NPC. But maybe it won't be too game breaking if the data we get from examining them not be subject to the daily 5% cap?

 

* Since apparently the size of the house matters, it would be nice to see how many slots I am buying before making the purchase?

 

* On day 2, after looting the first house, the game told me that I had 22 houses to loot? Cool I thought, we get more occasions every day. But this was not the case, after the game told me "3 more houses today" I apparently still reached the daily cap, and all the house markers disappeared and looting was disabled.

 

* Can the report be more detailed? On the one hand, the part we have today is fine, with a status of the colony. But then I'd like to also see a detailed daily report,  like what did the workers produce, what did the scavengers and scouts do during the last day?

 

* The option to assign a guard only appears on day 2? Also, it feels a bit weird to have someone apparently skilled in something, since I have the possibility to assign the NPC to that task but not others, but then seeing him have a skill of 0.00 is a bit weird. Not much of a "skill", is it? ;). I think that either everybody should be able to do anything with a skill of 0.00, or, if we the current "available for a task or not" situation, skills should start at 0.01?

 

* I had to stop on Day 3 again. I had 5 enemy groups around the town, so I needed to craft some ammo, roll up my sleeves and go to work. Problem is: I can craft ammo, but I cannot take it out the orange box. Nor can I take the new looted handgun. I cannot put said handgun into the box, nor anything else like my remaining clip of ammo.

I restarted, still no go, the the orange box is unusable.

Exited the game, removed ALL the mods, restarted, crafted one clip, still the same, cannot take out or put anything in.

 

[Rydygier 1317]

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* It's nice to finally have a reason to kill the NPC. But maybe it won't be too game breaking if the data we get from examining them not be subject to the daily 5% cap?

 

At least in case of  guardians (because they are limited in number per day and within range of warper data gathering zone, which means finghting the guardian player would likely gather earlier daily limit anyway) - I agree. The rest - not sure, since although there's "soft safe code" to limit amount of groups spawned at once, in total they are unlimited per day (apart from those marked on the map player can encounter other groups, spawned dynamically), while daily limit should somewhat represent time requirement to analyze data, so I wouldn't like to give even remote possibility to collect 100% in one day; Still, I could rather softly (maybe asymptotically) reduce amount of gathered data from all bodies above the limit than simple denying such possibility. 

 

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* Since apparently the size of the house matters, it would be nice to see how many slots I am buying before making the purchase?

 

Should be doable, currently that number is calculated at action usage, but I could calculate this before action is added and to complement action name with resulting value. 

 

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* On day 2, after looting the first house, the game told me that I had 22 houses to loot? Cool I thought, we get more occasions every day. But this was not the case, after the game told me "3 more houses today" I apparently still reached the daily cap, and all the house markers disappeared and looting was disabled.

 

By design, player should be able daily to loot number of buildings equal to 20 + number of hired scouts, where this addition depending on scouts is a new thing. I apparently forgot to update the code for displaying icons etc. with this new scouts rule. I'll correct that. 

 

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* Can the report be more detailed? On the one hand, the part we have today is fine, with a status of the colony. But then I'd like to also see a detailed daily report,  like what did the workers produce, what did the scavengers and scouts do during the last day?

 

Total daily production of each resource is there ("added") thus I assume, you would like to know exact contribution of each worker separatelly? Things like indidual skill bonus are summed and only total sum used in formula returning daily production. Also influence of scouts is indirect... Problematic is also basic production per worker. There's no such thing basically. It's not like: we take guy X, we calculate, how much he produced, then we take guy Y and calculate his input, then... There's taken sum of workers in given speciality, then to this sum is applied square root and multipliers (that also are sums of individual contributions). No way to tell, who exactly contributed how much. I would need to re-design whole thing from scratch to make possible detailed listing per person. I can only tell, by average each consequtive specialist contributes less to total sum in his speciality (due to square root). Except for scavengers, where instead of square root is more unpredictability introduced by weighted randomization (HUD shows only statistical average for Materials daily production). 

 

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* The option to assign a guard only appears on day 2? Also, it feels a bit weird to have someone apparently skilled in something, since I have the possibility to assign the NPC to that task but not others, but then seeing him have a skill of 0.00 is a bit weird. Not much of a "skill", is it? ;). I think that either everybody should be able to do anything with a skill of 0.00, or, if we the current "available for a task or not" situation, skills should start at 0.01?

 

That skill value should be read as "additional bonus" on the top of basic skill, which is equal to all. Individual extra talent to the work, which anyone can perfrom at average efficiency, if you prefer. And also experience factor, as this skill will grow each day, NPC was working in given speciality (or, instread, per shot fired for guards), so in time NPC may become more valuable specialist in given work.

 

To hire a guard, you need to have a weapon in you orange stash for him. So number of guards is limited to amount of weaponry, you stashed in the box. Guard will get random weapon taken from orange box (and should put it back when re-assigned to other job, likely with extra magazine inside BTW 🙂 ). This way even later on "cheap junk", you personally do not use anymore, is still somwehat valuable and useful. 

 

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Problem is: I can craft ammo, but I cannot take it out the orange box. Nor can I take the new looted handgun. I cannot put said handgun into the box, nor anything else like my remaining clip of ammo.

I restarted, still no go, the the orange box is unusable.

 

That is 100% vanilla inventory mechanics. It worked for me earlier, I'll test, if it is broken now for any reason for me too. But not sure, what to do, if it is. Capacity limiatations? No idea.  EDIT: same thing for me. Hmmm... What may cause that bug? It wasn't there earlier, and there wasn't Arma 3 update inbetween. EDIT2: I know. I just disabled simulation for all this objects composition to prevent any physics-based mess etc. and in case of containers that apparently blocks inventory interactions. I'll remove that. 

 

Once again, thanks for excellent feedback. Very helpful. 🙂

[neofit 65]

9 minutes ago, Rydygier said:

 

Total daily production of each resource is there ("added") thus I assume, you would like to know exact contribution of each worker separatelly?

No, not per NPC. But I'd like to know that all my scavengers gave me this and that, all my workers produced this, etc. So I see the difference between what was scavenged and produced, and see what I need to adjust.

 

12 minutes ago, Rydygier said:

To hire a guard, you need to have a weapon in you orange stash for him. So number of guards is limited to amount of weaponry, you stashed in the box. Guard will get random weapon taken from orange box (and should put it back when re-assigned to other job, likely with extra magazine inside BTW 🙂 ).

On day 2 I had no weapon in the stash, so I could not assign a guard, this works. Later that day I found one 9mm handun and kept it in the stash. On day 3 I could assign *everybody* to guard duty. I set up 4 guards with no problem, even though I only had one handgun in the stash. Maybe it's because none of them could retrieve the gun from the orange box, just like I couldn't?

[Rydygier 1317]

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On day 3 I could assign *everybody* to guard duty. I set up 4 guards with no problem, even though I only had one handgun in the stash. Maybe it's because none of them could retrieve the gun from the orange box, just like I couldn't?

 

Good thinking. Likely reason. Hotfix update is coming soon. 

 

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 But I'd like to know that all my scavengers gave me this and that, all my workers produced this, etc. So I see the difference between what was scavenged and produced, and see what I need to adjust.

 

Basic daily report shows only daily production of each resource as "added". Should be also what you looted put there then? I'll try.  

[neofit 65]

2 minutes ago, Rydygier said:

 

Basic daily report shows only daily production as "added". Should be also what you looted put there? 

If I understand it correctly, scavengers find stuff, not sure what kind, and workers produce ammo and food? I wanted a report to see what has been scavenged separately from what was produced using my workshops.

[Rydygier 1317]

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scavengers find stuff

 

Scavengers do find stuff, which here means "producing Materials". They're in practice Materials "producers", where "production" process is equal to scavenging. So in this regard current report form gives you full clarity. All "added" materials are from scavengers activity. All the rest - not. 

 

Scouts are the guys, who boost some other "production" (by finding and reporting to workers some worthy checking sources of materials or food across the map, that is theoretical explanation at least). 

[neofit 65]

2 minutes ago, Rydygier said:

Scavengers do find stuff, which here means "producing Materials". They're in practice Materials "producers", where "production" process is equal to scavenging. So in this regard current report form gives you full clarity. All "added" materials are from scavengers activity. All the rest - not. 

Oh, OK. I was hoping they'd scavenge some health packs or real ammo or weapons while wandering about :).

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- orange stash inventory accessible again (limit of capacity theoretically may become a problem though at some point...);

- looting limit should, I hope, consider properly hired scouts now;

- data gathered from the Guardian shouln't be a subject of daily limit anymore. 

 

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on Day 3 again. I had 5 enemy groups around the town

 

Which, BTW, sounds kinda overly generous. Some balancing may be in order...

[neofit 65]

I think the work assignment window needs some changes. I understand the need to allow only one assignment change per day to avoid exploits, when for instance in the morning one puts everybody on scout duty for a better fast travel range, then sets everybody to work on stuff before ending the day. But currently there is a problem with guards, and it would be better if we got a confirmation window before the changes are applied.

 

The problem with guards is as follows. On day 2 I usually never get guards since I have no free weapons in the stash. And I don't know if the 5 or so people I have have good skills in that area or not. On Day 3 I usually get 1-2 new handguns, as well as new people. So say I had people 1-5 as workers from day 2, and on day 3 I have 2 guns, and 6 new people. So I click on #6 until he is a guard. He takes one weapon. Then I click on #7 and make him also a guard, not to actually make him a guard but to keep his skill displayed while I check the others. But he takes the second weapon like #6. Then I try to check if #8 is a better guard but can't, no more free weapons.

I remove both #6 and #7 from guard duty, but they don't return their weapons. So in the end I won't be able to set anybody on guard duty for this day. As soon as I close the window, all my changes will be committed.

 

So, suggestions:

 

1. A confirmation window with Yes/Cancel before the changes are committed for the day.

2. Guards should only take their weapon after confirmation

2. A display of all skills for every NPC would save a lot of time too, maybe as a tooltip, maybe as its own window. With maybe a highlight as to each NPC's best skill maybe. Or better yet as a table with showing NPCs vertically, the skills with values horizontally (maybe rounded to 0.x for more room), so we can checkmark the one we want?

[Rydygier 1317]

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but they don't return their weapons

 

They should. They did for me after I fixed box inventory, I'll re-check that with more weaponry and several guards. 

 

I'll think about improving work assignment GUI, thanks for suggestions. Current form isn't optimal for sure, only it was most simplistic/quickest to do. Table with separate confirmation button and cancel/close without confirmation sounds good. 

[zagr 38]

i like the idea behind this, can you maybe in the future make a version for Chernarus REDUX? 🙂 i would like to play on this map, also sometimes i can't assign guards, i'm not sure why, maybe i'm doing something wrong?

[Rydygier 1317]

Hi, thanks. Ports to other maps are considered during script design, so are possible, once I finish basic version. Optimally without any scripting knowledge, so anyone should be able to make own ports just by pastig stuff in EDEN and files to the new port folder. However scenario is not suitable for large areas (performance issues due to amount of warpers), thus on large map such scenario need to be limited to only chosen part of it, or warpers will be very scarce, but that's to consider in the future.

 

Assigning guards - each guard require actual weapon piece from orange stash. No weapon - not possible to assign a guard. 

 

Meanwhile - file updated:

 

- fixed too many "near hostile presence" appearing each consequtive day;

- now building assignment action names include info about expected capacity/space gain;

- redone occupation roster. Now it looks like this:

 

 

(the aesthetic aspect still under consideration...)

 

Clickable are: all headers, all non-greyed out numbers, both buttons: cancel and OK.

 

Clicking on given header works as sorting feature (alphabetically for names, by skill value for each skill column). Clicking again same header reverses the order of sorting: ascending/descending. 

 

As you can see, now normal, basic skill is displayed as 1, not 0, to better grasp, what it is (acutal value in scripts stays as it was, lesser by 1). Clicking on the number (each is a button in fact) in chosen row and column will assign given inhabitant to given job. Number of the job, that given inhabitant can't be assigned to, is greyed out and inactive - non clickable. Reasons may be: it is his current assignment, no more working space, no weaponry in the stash for the guard (as on the above image), current assignement fixed till tommorow. 

 

In case of all except guards, they are actually assigned to the job immediately upon clicking the number, inhabitant name will change the color and will get a job description suffix. Thanks to that player can observe on the HUD, what impact on daily production current assignements will have. Guards however aren't equipped nor sent upon clicking the number, only visually marked by the color and suffix (and one piece of weaponry reserved).

 

Clicking "cancel" will restore for all inhabitants jobs, they had before roster was opened. Same will happen if roster is closed by Esc key. 

Clicking OK will fix chosen jobs and will equip and send to patrol the chosen guards.

 

 

[Rydygier 1317]

Thinking about not really interesting another part of island, stil kinda empty in overall, and thus about that third faction idea. Perhaps a group of other survivors, but acting more like ruthless gang of looters and extortioners, also hostile against creatures and often but not necessarily against the player, as poorly equipped as the player is so no problem with too much too good weaonry... Not sure yet, need some time to figure out their mechanics and background details. Then also about enriching plot background, narrative aspect, protagonist... Anyway, I plan to switch may attention for some time elsewhere, which should give me that time, meanwhile feel free to keep providing any feedback, thoughts, bug reports etc. 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- added another faction of survivors, hostile to the player. At this moment they mostly garrison southern town and each day send some patrols roaming here and there. Other interactions between this gang and the player's town in plans. From killed thug player can obtain normal inventory and also some portion of Materials. Deep in their territory there's better equipped bunch of bandits, one of them is their leader (in 200 meters radius marked in 3D by red exclamation). Killing the leader or 75% of town's garrison will "end the treat" which for now means no more daily patrols from there. 

 

- now warpers are also radiation sources. Player got new HUD elements to monitor radiation level (+Geiger sound, also indicated by element color), absorbed radiation dose and radiation shield. Next day after finding first Weird Matter sample there will be a discovery allowing spend Weird Matter to reduce absorbed radiation dose (once per day, via mouse action if dose > 1). From the other hand, the more Weird Matter player carries, the higher radiation protection is (non-linear, assimptotic, never really 100%). At some high dose levels (> 1000 mSv) there will appear info about few steps of radiation sickness in the daily report, may also appear short term effects during gameplay, also player will not regenerate health each day. Ending a day with dose > 3000 means end of the game (character too sick to continue).

 

Both features only slightly tested, may require balancing.  

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated:

 

- changed dosimeter naming and units: Effective Dose  (mSv) and Dose Rate (mSv/h instead of R/h) - more correctly and clearer. 

- add wip&experimental "tribute payment" mechanics - that southern gang is now called The Fittest. From time to time there may appear a message in the daily report, that they expect a tribute to be paid (certain amount of Materials). The payment can be done at the orange Stash (red mouse action, if there's enough Materials). The more days it stays unpaid, the bigger risk, the gang will organize an attack on the town. As long this attack continue, can't be switched next day. The attack is consiered over, when 75% of the attackers are gone and none is left within town area. A group, that will suffer 75% losses should flee and be removed when far enough from the player or close enough to their territory center (not tested). This still requires more work, but let me know, if that's good idea and how well it work. 

[Rydygier 1317]

File updated with minor tweaks. Added gameplay sample video showing current progress on typical player activities at Day 1: