03/24/2020 - Feedback Request - Creatures & Combat

[Xsyon]

Important Note 03/25: Revenants can be ignored at the moment as I need to update some data files for them to work properly. I'll remove this note when they are ready to be tested.

The Test Server is ready for testing the first of many upcoming patches. The focus right now is creature AI, synchronization and combat. Other upcoming changes such as the pets and mounts system are currently switched off as they will be tested once the following is satisfactory.

I greatly appreciate it if you could test and provide feedback on the following:

1) Synchronization and Optimization

- Are other player movements better synchronized for you than on the Main Servers? This can best be gauged by players that have two accounts logged in at the same time.

- Are creature and other player movements smoother and with less sliding than on the Main Servers?

- Are creature animations smoother without the jerkiness that is currently on the Main Servers?

- Do you still experience any unusual lag in actions (such as dragging items in your inventory)? If so, can you reproduce the conditions?


2) Creature AI

The system that processes creatures on the server side has been completely rewritten and is much faster now. If needed it should be able to handle a lot more active creatures at a faster rate. It also allows features such as migration to run on a regular basis and not only during maintenance times.

Here are some things that I'd like checked:

- Display: Creatures should display their age and power groups in their name / title bar. This should help players gauge what they are up against.

- Path-finding: Creatures should follow more direct and proper paths around obstacles such as trees, boulders and buildings when chasing you or wandering around.

- Path-finding barriers: Creatures should never go through walls now. If you can get a creature to go through a wall someone, please let me know the location and exact circumstances.

- Blocked players: Players on boulders and building parts are now considered blocked. Creatures will ignore blocked players. Creatures with aggro in attack mode should run away from blocked players.

- Aggro: Creatures attack now based on an aggro system. Aggressive creatures naturally build aggro towards nearby players and will attack when aggro reaches 100. All creatures can randomly increase or decrease aggro towards nearby targets.

Attacking a creature should produce an instant aggro of 100 causing it to attack. Creatures will attack the nearby target with the highest aggro (modified by distance to the target).

Creatures may run away during combat if their life is low and they are non aggressive. More powerful creatures will only rarely run away.

- Slopes and height: Slopes should affect creature speed. Creatures now have a proper height position and will not be able to attack players that are high above or below them. Players should also not be able to attack creatures with too much of a height distance.

- Ageing and reset: I've run a script that resets the ages of all current creatures so that there is a better distribution of young, old, weak and legendary strong animals. Creatures will also age and gain power at a slower rate. (At this point almost all creatures were old and high powered, leaving no easy creatures for new players to hunt)

- Old age: Creatures may now die of old age. Creatures dying of old age will produce materials of less quality and power than if you hunted them. (You may not notice this right away)

- Migration: Migration runs every game day now and not during maintenance. This should keep a good balance of creatures in every region with more small critters near the lake and more mutants and tough creatures on the fringes of the world. Right now creatures that migrate are being teleported to their new 'home' region. This currently includes creatures trapped on tribe land. Once creatures are well distributed I will switch on a system that migrates creatures more slowly and they will move to their new homes instead of being ported.

- Avoiding hits: On the current Main Server builds players can walk backwards to avoid being hit by creatures causing them to swing and miss. This was never intentional and should not happen with the current Test Server build. If it can still be done, please let me know!

- Selection: You can click to select creatures (and objects) while moving.

- Creature variables: This is the important stuff that I can easily adjust.

Small critters should be easy enough for a low skilled new player to kill. The toughest bears should be a challenge for a high skilled veteran. Mutants should require several players to take down.

These require the most feedback and balancing. Variables that can be adjusted are: life (hp), damage, attack speed, movement speed, aggression, healing rate and the increase of attack and defense as creatures age and gain power.

I would like feedback on all creatures if possible. Are specific creatures too hard, too easy or just right? What variables do you think need adjustment?

I have a few additional changes to wrap up and I will post about those later in an edit to this post.

3) Combat

The combat code has been optimized and partially simplified. Here are some changes:

- Base weapon damage, including quality and duration modifiers should display on your weapon's tool tip.

- Non charged attacks hit at 75% base damage. Fully charged attacks hit at 100% base damage. I may remove swing power and charged attacks entirely. See my comments below.

- Skill directly increases damage up to 3+ times base damage. (Previously skill worked against the opponents base defense rating in a less straightforward manner)

4) Comments on Charged Attacks

- Charged attacks are problematic. I've run tests and have noticed that most players (new players especially) simply click and release to attack. With the current system on the Main Servers that results in attacks doing minimal damage (3.5 times less than players that do charge attacks). This gives an impression that creatures are much harder to kill and that the system is 'broken'.

Charged attacks also imbalance weapons if a player always charges and holds an attack as attacks like this will always do maximum damage without the speed of a weapon mattering much.

Because of this I am considering several options:

- Reduced effect of charged attacks. That's what is switched on right now.

- Allowing for charged attacks that release automatically when fully charged. No holding attacks.

- Removing charged attacks entirely.

- Removing charged attacks on the Peace Server but keeping them on the War Server.

- Entirely simplifying the system. No charged attacks, no manual parrying. The goal would be to replicate combat in many other similar games as that is what most newcomers seem to expect. With this option I could keep a more complex system on the War Server if there is demand for it.


5) Comments on Trapped Creatures

I know several of you have enjoyed trapping creatures in zoos. It's gotten to be quite overboard honestly and really messed with the current systems. With Pets coming in, trapped creatures won't be an option. Creatures will teleport to their home location after a while if trapped and their home location will be moved automatically if it ends up on tribe land.

Players will still be able to create visible zoos but they will be more controlled and display only tamed Pets.

6) What's next

When all of the above is tested and satisfactory there are a few additional changes I wish to make to creatures and melee combat:

- Hiding skill reduces the range that creatures can detect you.

- Add critical strike, base damage and parrying bonuses (maybe others) for Artisan and Master weapons.

- Add a stun delay effect for successful parries.

Please feel free to provide feedback on the above and any other issues related to creatures and combat in this current build. Once this is tested, balanced and problems are fixed I will patch this build to the Main Servers and we will proceed to a final testing session for Pets.

Thanks!