2018-10-28 19:24:32

I thought I'd hop on swamp after like a year of not playing it and then realised....I can't find my mouse.  ugg.

I'd love to be able to use xbox controler!  smile

2018-10-28 19:38:24

you can use Joy to key but the driver is hard to find.

2018-10-29 06:15:30

Hey Aprone, have you given any more consideration to consumable purchases? like the more rare items such as running gear. I think so many people would be interested in that, and it's all optional. don't have to buy if we don't want to. you could even have more powerful versions of weapons available for purchase. that'd be super cool stuff. I wouldn't mind helping you out a bit more, and I'd love to get these sorts of items. I think you should really think hard about it. it won't hurt anyone, and those who want it can buy it. plus you get a little extra money on the side. win win situation I would say. what do you guys think of this idea?

2018-10-29 06:44:15 (edited by Shadowcat 2018-10-29 06:44:40)

The problem with that though would be with all microtransactions in a game where PVP is sometimes a thing. The people with extra cash to throw around would always constantly be ahead of everyone else.
Well, depending on what was for sale, I suppose.

"You know nothing of death... allow me to teach you!" Dreadlich Tamsin
Download the latest version of my Bokura no Daibouken 3 guide here.

2018-10-29 06:50:06

I hate the idea of pay to win. those that can't afford it will feel left out and be trodden on by those that can.

Who's that trip trapping over My bridge? Come find out.

2018-10-29 13:17:31 (edited by flackers 2018-10-29 13:19:18)

I'm yet to own any running gear. I sometimes stay logged on when I'm not playing in the hope I'll get some, but if they're like the bunny slippers, I'll probably only have them a couple of days before they break. I'd love there to be a game play way of getting this stuff, but I am opposed to micro purchases. The temptation when you have this sort of revenue stream, is to have the game configured in such a way as to cause people to have to keep buying stuff as much as you can get away with, and they end up paying shitloads for a game without realising it. And apart from the imbalance this causes between people with tons of disposable income and those with little, my biggest complaint with this kind of thing is there are young people who don't control the purse strings playing these games, so they end up pestering their parents for money all the time. If I were GodKingSupreme ruler of the universe, micro purchases would be banned outright on all games.

2018-10-29 14:47:40

Musicman, I haven't really stopped to give that any more thought, but I do still get the occasional person popping in to ask me to add something to that effect.  Like Blindninja, Badger, and flackers above... I worry about games becoming pay to win.  That is a pretty big problem in a lot of mainstream games, so it's a headache I've always wanted to avoid.

The answer I've given out a few times, so my apologies if I've already said it on here before, is that I'd only consider micro transactions if it were in the form of community bonuses.  For example, someone pays not for a set of running gear for himself, but rather the purchase is a community gift giving everyone a set of running gear (whether they are logging in at the time or not).  People would know who made the purchase with some sort of message, so they'd know who to thank.  This would allow people to get the gear they'd want to buy with micro transactions, but it would avoid pay to win by giving the same gear to everyone.  I've known of a few mainstream games that do this sort of approach, and it seems to work well.

Of course I'm not saying this is planned or anything, it's just a hypothetical way to fix the pay to win part of micro transactions.

Well my vacation is over.  tongue  I took last week off of work so I could get programming done, and it's sad to wake up this Monday morning and know that it's back to work for me, lol.  I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked, but there was definitely progress.  By this time I would have wanted a Halloween event to already be running, but I got myself so buried in other code that I flat out forgot to work on an event!  Yikes, I only have a few days, so I better come up with something fast!  big_smile

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2018-10-30 20:40:38

Hey aprone, nice event so far it's interesting  sure.  A suggestion for the next update or at least offline or campaign mode, a map with bots on it.

2018-10-31 01:17:25

just a point to the whole micro purchases thing. why aren't we using rep for that? after all, for the most part, it's a continually growing supply of something we aren't really using. no reason we can't put it to some use. but don't make it cheap. as in, if you are going to have a set of apronics or running clothing or what ever, have it cost millions maybe. what ever. just pointing out that there is something already in the game that could be used wayyy more than it currently is.

2018-10-31 02:08:06 (edited by flackers 2018-10-31 02:15:50)

The rep suggestion sounds like a good one. I haven't been playing long, but I have 7 million or so that I can't see how I could ever spend. At first you need all the rep you can get, but as soon as you start doing missions it just piles up. It would be nice to have something to spend it on.

2018-10-31 19:31:22

First of all Aprone I just want to once more express my great appreciation for your time and efforts in getting this Halloween event up and running. I know you were very limited for time and it was later than you meant for it to be implemented, but it's proven a refreshing change and the intention of it promoting teamwork was very welcome.

That said, though, I feel there were a number of areas where tweaks/improvements would improve the likelihood of people actually doing what was intended of them, lol. smile

I don't know how closely you've been watching how it's been going, but rather than running around the map with the chosen looter, trying to keep the swarm off their back and healing, a big chunk of people have simply been going to the same map and camping out somewhere safe, such as a safe zone. Not all people, certainly, but a considerable number.

So I'm just going to make some suggestions which I feel would encourage players to do what is intended of them.

I already made a suggestion to you on Swamp, when I was logged on as my Link character, whereby the larger experience bonus (1000) would be given only to people who are within a certain range of the looter, rather than it simply being the same map.

I also think it would be more encouraging if every X amount of experience rewards, people were also given a gift item (be it a gift or just a random weapon/armor etc). This would probably give more of an incentive to take part for high-level characters, for whom 1000 experience points is hardly anything, lol.

Another suggestion which a number of people have stated is that the rewards should be based on loot points collected, rather than items collected. This would make normal and HC characters who are the chosen looter to be more balanced (because of the reduced amount of loot for HC).

Also, on quite a number of occasions the chosen looter has been the same person for literally hours, lol. I think it would seem fairer if there was a maximum time limit for someone to be the chosen one for. Not sure what would be the best amount, though, as one would likely have to allow for people on other maps to have time to travel to the same map as the new chosen looter, and to take part for a while, whilst at the same time not allowing the same person to hog the spot for an age. smile

And, unless something has slipped my mind, (which is entirely possible) last but certainly not least: please, please fix that there broken tracker, lol. It very, very frequently shows entirely the wrong coordinates for the player you're trying to track, which makes trying to follow the chosen looter around much more difficult than it should be. This may even have lead to players feeling uninterested in helping the looter, but that's just a thought.

Those things said, though, I'm enjoying the event a lot and I've had a blast going round both as a looter and indeed a healer, keeping them there peoples from becoming zombie food. Hehe. So again, thanks for the event and I look forward to the eventual release of the update you've got in the works, and, of course, the next event!

(I have a suggestion for a type of mission which I feel would be very cool, but it has a lot to it so it would be a great deal of work on your part to get it implemented, so I feel it's more a distant dream than a possible addition to the game. That said, I'll make another post about it soonish - I'll leave this one to be directed only at this event).

2018-11-01 03:02:53

Ace you've brought up some great points.  Many of those problems are indeed due to the rushed nature of this event, but after work I will try to find the time to add in a few of these ideas.

When the event had been running for about a day, I actually worried that the same person might end up being the target for hours at a time.  When I asked if that had been happening, everyone said no.  Perhaps I asked the wrong group, or perhaps it just hadn't happened yet, but that's why I didn't code in a maximum time limit.  It seems I should have, and that's going to be one of the first changes I made to this event when I get time.

I'm glad people have been enjoying a teamwork themed holiday event, and I look forward to reading your mission idea.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2018-11-01 03:27:41

Aprone, I am really very upset to say the least.

It's the second mission I do that boxes are not recognized. the first was 70 boxes and now a 120.

game in hc mode and it is not easy to find the ammunition to accomplish the mission and without speaking the time spent on the mission for nothing. I think you can verify that I actually found all the boxes and took the truck. so the least you should do was give me back what I used on the mission.

my name in swamp is ozob and this is the time right after the mission (the current server time is 21:02:32.)

2018-11-03 16:43:25 (edited by flackers 2018-11-03 16:48:02)

I think it's worth considering the current event for permanent inclusion in the game. It adds an extra dimension to the main game, and is great motivation to loot, and another way of earning a bit of extra exp. I'd just say, Get rid of the 50 exp for doing nothing, and as Ace suggested, make the 1000 exp only apply to those within so many tiles of the looter. I'd even maybe suggest making the zombies a bit more aggressive because to be honest, when I was the target, I didn't notice any real difference. If you did do this though, you might have to have a command that lets players opt out if they wish.

2018-11-03 17:04:57

Flackers, I will keep this in mind.  People have really seemed to enjoy this event, and aspects of it probably could be added to the main game without any issues.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2018-11-03 20:48:11

Whilst I was on S2 (the map with the bridge and steak house), as the chosen looter, I, too, found it wasn't really any harder than usual - in fact, I would go as far as to say it was actually somewhat easier than how it would be normally, as, for some reason, the main swarm was hardly ever anywhere near me, and didn't chase after me like I experienced on, say, S1 (the second floor of the hospital). Perhaps not the best comparison, as the latter is set entirely indoors and so very confined, close-quarters action. Nevertheless, though, it certainly wasn't at all difficult as it was intended to be.

I personally would be up for it becoming a more regular occurrance, but I am a little unsure as to whether I think it should become a permanent addition. I think a lot of people had lost a lot of their interest after a couple of days or so, so there was only really a small percentage of people actually taking part. Though whether the issues I mentioned in my previous post being resolved would spike up any new interest in it I of course am not sure. I, myself, was thinking that it'd be good if the event happened every now and again, just to liven things up a bit when it might be starting to get a bit... well, dull might not be the correct word, but, y'know, to spicen things up a bit.

It's of course your decision at the end of the day though, and if those little hiccups are fixed it'd improve the overall enjoyment for people who participate in it.

Now, I just want to report a bug or two which I've remembered and which I don't believe I mentioned to you when I told you of the few I could bring to mind:

There's an issue which I know was present in the game a long time ago - a few years, I believe - and I'm not sure if it was resolved at the time but has more recently risen it's ugly head again, or if it was simply never sorted out in the first place. smile

I'm not sure what causes it, but, sometimes, if I am killed on a mission, when I log back on I will find myself back in the normal maps, but with *extremely* low health, and I wouldn't have lost anything other than anything which was broken during the heavy attack I suffered. I could be wrong but it may possibly happen every other time I am "killed" on a mission. So, like, it will, then it won't, then it will again, etc etc.

Something else which has been happening... since raiders were first implemented, I believe, but which I'm not sure whether you'd class as a bug or not (I would've thought it'd be one, though), is the fact that raiders can spawn outside the indoor barracade areas. They quite frequently, for instance, show up, just one on their own, outside, seemingly anywhere. Now I personally wouldn't mind too much about this but some of the raiders, which use certain weapons, I simply cannot figure out just where they are. I can hear their bullets striking near me, but can't pin down where they're coming from, so the only thing I can do is to move around, turning to face different directions and firing until I hear them grunt in pain, lol. When you have big swarms of dires etc all sprinting after you, it's a lot harder than it may sound (also, without barracades to use for cover, shouldn't all the zombies be attacking them just as eagerly as they do us players? lol).

Ok, well I think that's the only other issues I can currently think of.

I mentioned about a very complicated idea for a new kind of mission, but I honestly wasn't at all kidding when I said that it would require a great deal of work on your part to get it implemented, so I am pretty sure you'll be reluctant to do it - I am well aware you are low on time as it is to work on Swamp, after all.

That said, though, I find the idea too interesting to let pass by without an explanation of it.

It's certainly not an original idea by any means, but it would be a pretty big change compared to the already-existing mission types - at least for the most part.

So, yeah, here's a description of my idea. I admit I've not fully thought it through, so there could be factors that I'm missing, but here goes:

A mission where players, just as is the case with the CTF mission type which is currently in the game, initially choose to be on either the red team or the blue team, but they then are presented with a number of different classes, each of which have their own attributes, weapons etc to make each of them have differing strengths and weaknesses, and therefore to encourage teamwork. This is quite obviously inspired by video games such as the Team Fortress series. It would play best as a CTF match, in my opinion - certainly, having it just be a team-deathmath scenario would kind of make teamwork much less important.

This, though, I feel, would require there to be some more maps created especially for this mode - which is honestly what I've been thinking CTF mode could much do with receiving, as well - and they would be designed with the kind of teamwork playstyle in mind.

So, there could be classes such as:

'Scout', who would have low armor and low-powered weapons, but would be the fastest runner in the mode and therefore a good class to go after the opposing team's flag - or, lol, baby in the lovely land of Swamp big_smile

'Soldier', a class with a more medium armor level and some more damaging weapons, with a more average movement speed. This I suppose would be one of the better, all-round classes.

'Engineer', who would have the ability to create a sentry turret in a location of their choosing and keep it stocked up with ammo/repair damage it's taken. Slow to medium speed, with weak to average strength weapons.

'Medic', who is able to use his medkit to heal injured team members, and, perhaps, able to harm players of the opposing team with their medkit. Medium speed with weak to medium strength weapons. Perhaps have this class be the only one who has a field kit, therefore making them a much more beneficial class to have on your team.

'Heavy-weapons guy', this would be the most heavily armored, and slowest movement speed class to choose from, but that would be evened out by the heavy powered weapons which they are granted with. A good defense class.

There could also be a sniper; a pyro (who would of course have the good ol' flamethrower, but I'm not sure as to whether they'd be a good fit); and of course the spy, which, well, lol, wouldn't really quite work in an audio game like Swamp, as far as I can tell. big_smile

...and now I'm sure you can tell just how complex and ambitious my idea is, lol. I know it would require a lot of work to get such a mode coded in but I honestly think that, if that doesn't promote working together as a team, I don't know what will.

And there are some elements coded, or partially coded in already: different armor classes with differing speeds; a very varied weapon selection to assign the different player classes their weapon sets from; a medkit which can already heal injured players (which would require tweaking to have it behave differently depending on who's team the targeted player is on); for the engineer's turret, I was thinking that, as there are already guards in the game (although they're currently located in the most strangest of places, lol smile), it would surely be possible to create a damageable turret for which the engineer has to take care of the upkeep of.

So some of the elements are already in the game, it would be a kind of conglamiration of various parts of the game with some extra bells and whistles added, along with some new maps and... yeah, simple as that (sarcasm alert!), a Team Fortress-inspired CTF mode which would hopefully get considerably more interest than what's in the game at present.

Anyway, that's my pipedream for you, lol. I am well aware it's almost definitely far and above what you're willing to put your precious time into working on, at least for now, but I personally find the idea to be quite fun (well, of course I would seeing as it's my idea, big_smile).

Ok, this post is getting far longer than I intended it to be so I will now hit that 'post' button and go sulk somewhere.

Thanks again for the fun event, and, again, I look forward to the next update! Keep up the good work, and take care.

2018-11-03 21:42:10 (edited by flackers 2018-11-03 21:45:57)

Doubtless the novelty doesn't last, but to me, having it as a regular part of the game, would just add another bit of variety. It might be more interesting to have it come and go though. Maybe you could spice it up by increasing both the jeopardy and rewards. Then it might become something people would look forward to. If you don't like the idea of people getting a lot of exp this way, maybe giving gifts instead might be an idea.

2018-11-03 23:25:30

Ok I like this idea too.  How about it be on a different Map each day or time you set it that way people can get away from all the zombies chasing them thtimes?

2018-11-04 11:49:28

just curious, as I was unable to see the event due my out of time acount. what was the event about? it seems interesting for those coments.

2018-11-05 22:05:53

I didn't see the original announcement of the event, if there was one, so this is just what I gathered from taking part. If you were not in the safe zone or on a mission, there was something called the reaper that would pick players at random. This meant zombies would be attracted to that player as they moved around the map. If they didn't pick up any loot for a certain period of time, the focus would switch to another player. But if they did pick up loot, for something like every 15 pick ups, they'd get 1000 exp. Anyone who was on the same map would also get 1000 because they were seen to be potentially helping the looter to fend off the zombies, but you could just stand in the SZ and still get the same. If you were anywhere else, you got 50 just for being online for the event.

2018-11-11 17:31:48

On the subject of forts:

I personally think the way they function has become more flawed over time, for a few reasons.

On the whole, clans which include players of very high-level are pretty much completely untouchable by newer, lesser-levelled clans, because there is no balancing going on when in a fort battle. In my opinion it would be a positive action to do something to try to resolve this, as I believe it's the main issue that lets it down the most. The top-level clans simply dominate the forts with no chance of others being much competition at all.

A few suggestions would be having players be automatically set to a certain level whilst in a fort map, and having certain skills be set, E.G. max speed, to make it more balanced. Probably be good to leave some leeway, though, to allow differences in points in different weapon catagories etc.

I also think the weapon damage is very unbalanced. I understand it's not an easy task to make such a wide and varied selection of weapons each have their own major strengths and weaknesses and to give them all, or at least most of them, a decent reason to use them, but how it is at the moment, the MG4 is the 'must-have' weapon for clan battles, and so that makes all the other weapons redundant.

I wonder if there could also be a major overhaul of how it all works, but I've not given it much thought so I've not got anything to suggest for now.

Anyway, I'm not meaning to moan or anything - I'm just writing out my thoughts in hope of some positive change.

Also, Aprone, I would be interested to hear your thoughts regarding the different mission mode I wrote a number of posts back. As I state in the post itself, I am not expecting you to do it, given your limited time as it is, but, y'know, a person can dream, can't they? smile Would be nice to hear what you think about it, though, nevertheless.

That's all I've got to say for now. I hope all is well.

2018-11-11 17:53:40

While I do not want to change the MG4 I do wish there were a weapon of equal power in a nother catigory.

2018-11-13 22:58:15

I'm getting an error 52 when I try to run the game.

Power is not the responsibility of freedom, but it is actually the responsibility of being responsible, it's self, because someone who is irresponsible is enslaved by their own weaknesses.

2018-11-13 23:29:47

try running the checkup.exe file. that usually fixes the error 52.

Who's that trip trapping over My bridge? Come find out.

2018-11-14 14:09:33

How's this idea, rather than weakening the MG4 would it be easier to add a weapon of equal power in another catigory such as the kai sniper.  Just an idea.