Hi FreeStyle Community,
So, a lot of you have wondered exactly what the new quest update system is. Well, I'm here today to tell you exactly what my plans are for this item level system, how it's going to tie into gameplay, and what you should expect short and long term.
Introduction to Item Levels
Welcome to a new chapter in GunZ Questing: Item Levels.
What is an item level? Well, I'm glad you asked. An item level represents the PVE strength of an item (for now, this is only weapons), and ties in directly to the damage of a weapon. These item levels are visible on the inventory screen for items you currently possess:
The item level of this sword is Level 100, and the quality of the sword is Epic, as noted by the purple color on the popup when mousing over the item.
The base Player vs Player (PvP) damage is listed on the weapon as well. This is used in the calculation for the Player vs Environment (PVE) damage for the weapon; PVE damage is simply a percent of base PVP damage. The percentage increased is equal to the item level of the weapon.
Rarity
Rarity is a multiplier that is applied to the weapon in question after the final damage is calculated based on item level. Rarity is randomly assigned to any item upon quest completion, and higher rarities are harder to obtain than lower ones, to add a bit of grind to the equation. The following are valid rarities for items:
- -Common: 1.0
- -Uncommon: 1.2
- -Rare: 1.4
- -Epic: 1.6
- -Legendary: 1.8
Let's refer to our example:
Our example sword is (Epic) in quality and has a base PVP damage of 18. This signifies a 1.6 modifier to the base statistics of the weapon from rarity alone.
The item level is 100, so this adds +100% to the base percentage, resulting in 200% base weapon damage.
After the 200% is applied, you now have a weapon that deals 36 damage, as shown:
Once the value of 36 is obtained you must now multiply the end result to apply the rarity of the item to the calculation. As we do not support decimals in GunZ, decimals are cut off from the value and we are left with 57.(18 * 200 / 100) = 36.
((18 * 200 / 100) * 1.6) = 57
This is the value of the weapon's PVE damage after all calculations.
Sacrificing Items & Higher iLevel Questing
The act of sacrificing an item destroys the item, and gives your quest a chance to drop items around the level of the item sacrificed, as well as adjusting the quest's difficulty itself. By default, quests can drop items ranging from iLevel 0-5 and act as if you had sacrificed an item at Item Level 0. This range increases depending on the items sacrificed. For example, if you were to sacrifice an Item Level 10 weapon, items will drop ranging from Item Level 5-15.
The act of sacrificing is done on the Equipment/Shop interface once in a quest game. You select the item from your list, and click the big 'ol sacrifice button.
As a result of sacrificing an item, the NPCs in the quest game room will be buffed in hitpoints to match your item level, plus a 0.1% HP and AP bonus per Item Level. This is so quests have a linear, and increasing curve as you complete more of them. There is also an experience bonus based on the Item Level of the item sacrified (0.1% per item level). These quests should only be attempted if you think you can handle them. They get hard and no doubt you will run out of ammo as the quest levels get higher.
Your team's highest item level item equipped must be within 15 item levels of the quest in order to obtain experience, so use caution when questing with people that have higher or different item levels. I have no doubt that getting Item Level 15 items to make quests easier will be popular and a minigame in itself.
The Future
We plan on adding particle effects to higher iLevel weapons at different thresholds. They will be visible in both PVP and PVE, and will be a mark of your accomplishment in PVE, but provide no statistical benefits in PVP combat.
We plan on adjusting the kinds of weapons and thus drops in Quest mode. You'll expect to see Machine Guns and Rifles from the hardest of bosses such as Lich and Iron Golem, whereas single renards and such may drop from lower end, trash quests.
The system is a work in progress and we intend to expand on it rapidly in the coming months. Stay tuned for more information!
Q/A with McSic from tonight:
So if I get this right, you can just sacrifice items you bought in the shop, right?
You can only sacrifice items, one item, per quest game
Shop items are level 0, and you can only sacrifice quest items that are above level 0
Well, you CAN sacrifice level 0 quest items, but they will have no effect and just simply eat the item.
Allowing people to sacrifice a higher number of items would allow them to have much tougher quests though, if needed
Yeah that would screw up progression with the way it's designed though
The idea behind it is, it gets harder, and at a certain point it's just pointless to continue as the rewards won't be worth it, that's why I suggested to encourage people to get to higher level quests by adding cool particles etc
"The NPCs in the quest game room will be buffed in hitpoints to match your item level" how exactly does this calculation work?
This is based off of the single item sacrificed. Once the game is failed, or completed, another item may be sacrificed.
Does a lvl 50 item mean that mobs get 5% bonus hp/ap?
No - They get 5% bonus hp/ap on top of the total value from increasing it to 50.
So It would mean 55% more HP for those NPCs.
It's a linear increase per tier, meaning, your weapon matches the item, except it gets harder as you go along by increasing the HP base slightly.
What's the max item level?
As far as you can physically go without running out of ammo.
So - to answer that, there's no max item level, but it will get harder as time goes on.
Oh okay. My first thought was that the Item lvl was set to always be the default item lvl of the quest
The item level is 0 by default, but if someone in your quest party has item level 16 weapons equipped, or anything higher than 15, your entire party won't get exp.
