Hey Folks – We are all working hard towards EA release, 9 days to go. Here is the summary…
Spencer
I’ve been fixing bugs, tweaking the map and balancing out the new progression. I’ve also got the new Infamy system to introduce that we’ve been working on for a few weeks.
This system is design to create more PVP interactions with significantly less butthurt. As Hurtworld has more of a progression of gear than most survival games (and will get much larger as we add more content), the amount you have to lose & time wasted from death becomes greater and greater. Losing everything isn’t that painful if gear is easy come easy go. Creating backups of all your stuff to ensure you aren’t naked next spawn is boring, it also stops us from design mechanics that let you get attached to your gear. Any awesome piece of loot you have you probably won’t use from fear of losing it, and most players end up running around naked with a cheap gun to minimize risk.
There is also the effect that I have seen on most popular twitch streamers is an anti PVP mentality due to the usual imbalance of encounters. Quite simply, it’s never a fair fight.
Our proposed solution is:
Only items in your backpack drop on death (hotbar and equipped items are intact)
EDIT: This wasn’t clear. Raw materials ammo and food will always drop from your hotbar & backpack
Secured gear in your hotbar and equipment slots (gear you are wearing) can only be dropped if your infamy level is above zero.
Infamy is a stat bar that increases by one every time you kill someone, and slowly decreases over time back to zero. For each point of infamy you currently have, you have a chance to lose a secured item (equipped gear / weapons / tools).
We hope this will have a few effects.
- Most people will actually use their best gear all the time
- Noobs being harassed at spawn that can’t fight back won’t lose much
- Players harassing noobs at spawn are putting a target on their own head, as their gear is now up for grabs to anyone who kills them, creating interesting skirmishes.
- Farming yield of a player will be dependant on the territory they can control. If a player tries to mine the limited resources around your base, you can kill them to claim the resources back without completely ruining their day.
- We can make tiers of gear much more expensive to create without crossing the too valuable to lose bracke
As with any new gameplay system, it sounds great in theory to us, how it plays will be the real test. This behavior will be the default on December 4th, however server owners can override playerlootmode to 4 different settings depending on preference including the classic lose everything.
Mils
Icons, icons, icons. I have been polishing up some new icons and fixing some older placeholder versions. This set is looking nice but there are always many more to come as we pump out new content which then needs an icon to pair with.
I have been toiling over small fixes to a bunch of other items, we seem to be making good progress heading toward the release.
Excited.
Gavku
Aside from a couple of fixes here and there it’s basically been more content from me this week. A bit more of an Aussie vibe to these latest items, including the icon of Australian safety the stack hat or StackRat in our case 😉
Dazzler
I have been working through all the 3rd person iron sight weapon animations an making them better/clearer and more side-on. Also cleaning up the spear and adding all the cool character items Gav has been building. And bug fixing.