[Secrets] Developer Blog #3 - [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]

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11-29-2014
SecretsOTheP

[Secrets] Developer Blog #3 - [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]

Hello again, Freestylers World!

I know I just posted a blog so soon, but I actually just got another feature ready for testing: The Quest Metagame!

What is the Quest Metagame, and why should I care?

Well, it's a bit more complex than my last feature.

* Quest items will now have item levels associated with them, they won't work in Player Versus Player modes but will work in quest modes. I emphasize that these items cannot be used outside of Quest mode.

* These Quest Item Levels are on a linear progression scale, 1 item level = 1% more damage on a weapon that drops.

http://i.imgur.com/lKEnEUi.jpg

* Items also have a feature called 'Rarity', which increases the stats after item level calculations by a flat 20% per tier. The tiers of Rarity are as follows:
-Common (White)
-Uncommon (Green)
-Rare (Blue)
-Epic (Purple)
-Legendary (Orange)

http://puu.sh/d9KRn/48800f517f.jpg

* Quests themselves, as in, the rounds and bosses, start off at Item Level 0 (informally referenced as iLevel here on out), and you have a chance at getting a iLevel 0-5 item through participating in a Level 0 quest through gear drops. These dropped items are used for the next 'step', which is known as sacrificing. Or, you can simply wear them for their damage increase to get even better items. Your choice.

* Items may be sacrificed for increased 'iLevel' of your quest room. By doing so, you also increase the item level that drops within your quest for one completion to +/- 5 of the iLevel of the item sacrificed. The tier of item does not matter for sacrificing an item, it uses item level and item level only. When you sacrifice an item, the room is 'locked' to this new iLevel, and you cannot sacrifice any items further. A message is output to all participants in the quest when you or another room member sacrifices an item, so there is no confusion what you are getting into when you join your buddies.

Here's some preliminary screenshot of the sacrifice feature. Button positions are not final!
http://puu.sh/d9D8r/9646f5c5aa.jpg
http://puu.sh/d9DdV/400e7eb113.jpg

* Quest NPC HP corresponds to the room's individual iLevel, and increases by 1% per iLevel. This is a flat rate, and bosses do not have Rarity (yet!).

* EXP from quests is getting a revamp. To prevent people with higher iLevels at lower levels from gaining exp too fast, you will gain exp relative to the highest equipped iLevel item versus the quest's level. This means you must be within 15 iLevels of the quest to gain any experience from it.

* Items that drop from quests are standard bounty items. The 'base' of the item that drops is relative to the old quest level (Torn Page, FGK, GK, Thunder GK for examples) and with the current quest progression, we will end up at 'endgame' at about 45 'Required Level' bounty items dropping from School Quest. No donation items will have iLevel as of yet. More on that in a future blogpost post-launch!

Sounds AWESOME! When can I expect to see it?

* This system is meant to be fun and intuitive. If it doesn't seem that way, we're gonna change it until it is! We plan on having an internal testing phase soon, but the plan is to have this revamp by V8 at the latest.

Until Next Time,
-Secrets
11-29-2014
Ommadawn

I totally support this, love your way of thinking :)
11-29-2014
jackD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ommadawn

I totally support this, love your way of thinking :)

Me to Omma :3
11-29-2014
Colour

Well this is what i call some major revamp of quest. Certainly gonna play it a lot. So looking forward to v8 and of course I hope we get to see a lot more of unique idea's for Gunz from you.
11-29-2014
jackD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colour

Well this is what i call some major revamp of quest. Certainly gonna play it a lot. So looking forward to v8 and of course I hope we get to see a lot more of unique idea's for Gunz from you.

yes colour and QUESTER ARE leveling so fast 2 days 99 lvl lol :@
12-01-2014
SecretsOTheP

Just finished up the experience portion of it, so it's absolutely complete aside from cosmetic portions which I'll have a UI developer do.

Though, I do have some questions:

1) Would you like to see exp gain a percentage increase with item level? This means that the higher you get in quest iLevel, the greater the exp reward is from the base amount. Keep in mind the highest iLevel participant must be within 15 levels of the quest for everyone in the room to gain experience.

and

2) If 1 was implemented, would you be okay with a gradually increasing NPC HP every item level? 0.1% would be added onto the NPC scaling per iLevel, so the quest gradually takes more time for more rewards. This would also give a purpose to having higher iLevel items.
12-01-2014
Funky Shot

I would love to see the hp increased. Quests now are to simple when you gain a higher level.
12-01-2014
Michi

I'd go with having the HP go higher, much more challenging than just 'fasting'.
12-01-2014
Juriën

Mmorpg to fps go go go!
12-01-2014
Zachary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoshìno

I'd go with having the HP go higher, much more challenging than just 'fasting'.

This.

A lot of people usually do School Quest, since it's only 1 boss and it's quite easy to get levels from it.
Would like to see the option where the HP increases per round or whatever your idea is.
I love how unique your idea's are, actually surprises me that people have this much intellect and knowledge about GunZ.
Not many other people think of the sort of things you do, keep up the great work.
12-01-2014
Michi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anger

This.

A lot of people usually do School Quest, since it's only 1 boss and it's quite easy to get levels from it.
Would like to see the option where the HP increases per round or whatever your idea is.
I love how unique your idea's are, actually surprises me that people have this much intellect and knowledge about GunZ.
Not many other people think of the sort of things you do, keep up the great work.

But wait, let me get to lvl 99 first. :o.o
12-01-2014
d1sgusting

Turning GunZ into Archeage. ArcheGunZ
12-01-2014
SecretsOTheP

http://puu.sh/dcqis/b25595b050.jpg

Just something I was working on tonight. Repositioned the sacrifice button, made it tell you what you're actually sacrificing, and made the button only appear when the following conditions are met:

1) You are the room master.
2) You are in a quest stage.

Additionally, to prevent the griefing of players with inferior items, the server/client has been updated to allow only people who are room master to sacrifice an equipment item for increased quest difficulty. This does not affect the old items used for item combinations.
12-01-2014
Colour

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecretsOTheP

Just finished up the experience portion of it, so it's absolutely complete aside from cosmetic portions which I'll have a UI developer do.

Though, I do have some questions:

1) Would you like to see exp gain a percentage increase with item level? This means that the higher you get in quest iLevel, the greater the exp reward is from the base amount. Keep in mind the highest iLevel participant must be within 15 levels of the quest for everyone in the room to gain experience.

and

2) If 1 was implemented, would you be okay with a gradually increasing NPC HP every item level? 0.1% would be added onto the NPC scaling per iLevel, so the quest gradually takes more time for more rewards. This would also give a purpose to having higher iLevel items.

I'd say yes to both
12-01-2014
SecretsOTheP

Updated the text colors thanks to a tip-off by a staff member that popup boxes can contain colors. Also, I standardized the colors used for rarity and changed them up a bit because some of them were unreadable otherwise.

http://i.imgur.com/YsA45Cc.jpg

http://puu.sh/dcrZG/cacf3ed5ca.jpg
12-01-2014
Jesus

lol the level well be to 200 ? ? ?
12-01-2014
Colour

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecretsOTheP

Updated the text colors thanks to a tip-off by a staff member that popup boxes can contain colors. Also, I standardized the colors used for rarity and changed them up a bit because some of them were unreadable otherwise.

http://i.imgur.com/YsA45Cc.jpg

http://puu.sh/dcrZG/cacf3ed5ca.jpg

That indeed makes it very readable, nicely done
12-01-2014
ThomasTheTrain

Sounds like a good idea to me. Nice work man, hope to be able to play it soon. :D
12-04-2014
StephanM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecretsOTheP

Updated the text colors thanks to a tip-off by a staff member that popup boxes can contain colors. Also, I standardized the colors used for rarity and changed them up a bit because some of them were unreadable otherwise.

http://i.imgur.com/YsA45Cc.jpg

http://puu.sh/dcrZG/cacf3ed5ca.jpg

Wow you actually were listening to me, as I expected it looks very nice.
All you have to do now is place anything after the coloured text on a second sentence so it would be easier to read,
cause on the second picture the letter f is hard to read from the word for (it is split up).

I wonder if we should be allowed to sacrifice any item or just specific items (say quest only items).
12-04-2014
SecretsOTheP

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephanM

Wow you actually were listening to me, as I expected it looks very nice.
All you have to do now is place anything after the coloured text on a second sentence so it would be easier to read,
cause on the second picture the letter f is hard to read from the word for (it is split up).

I wonder if we should be allowed to sacrifice any item or just specific items (say quest only items).

You can (currently) sacrifice any item that can be sold for bounty.

As for the multi-line popup (to fix the issue you're talking about), I planned on it, just haven't got around to it yet. Been making drop tables for NPCs to ease some of the burden from our other devs. It's just a string I have to change so no big deal. It'll fit with a \n in the popup box.