|
Post by zaimoni on Aug 9, 2012 20:20:05 GMT
The trick is how to make realism not conflict with game play. (Agility, which is the all-around melee attack and all-around defense booster, may be the "easy start" for a newbie. Since any reasonable tactical system is based on denying zombies all effective attacks whenever feasible, Agility really is more of a mid-game skill than a starter skill. I'm finding that Firearms is a better starting skill as that gives a tolerable hit rate for pistols.) In this case, saying a martial artist trains both Martial Arts and Agility can be made to work.
Regarding proposed changes to strong: -2 STA for pushing sounds reasonable. I'm not so confident about damage bonus for objects, but as that doesn't come up much for me I have no trained intuition. (I'm not bashing much after day 0.)
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jul 31, 2012 23:53:32 GMT
Well...on your very first turn you're SPD 1.00 so you get 100 energy before taking your turn. The energy cost of your move is either 50 (running) or 100 (normal-speed). Note that things like firing weapons or picking up/dropping items are always normal-speed even if you have the running indicator set, but melee attacks and jumping onto things do happen at running speed.
So it often makes sense to immediately run at the start of the game, if it gets you to key supplies before someone else (the AI rarely runs even when it makes sense to).
After that it gets more complicated. Getting double-moved by speed 0.66 when you're at speed 0.66 happens something like this: * before you get energy: you're at -64, Z is at 0 * you get energy: you're at 2 * you take normal move: you're at -98 * Z gets energy: Z is at 66 * Z moves: Z is at -34 * you get energy: you're at -34. You miss a turn. * Z gets energy: Z is at 32. Z gets move, again; you've been double-moved by a Z at the same speed as you.
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jul 25, 2012 19:06:28 GMT
I have not observed zombies running; the high-speed ones merely walk faster.
CHAR agents and bikers definitely can run, so I'd guess any living can run.
In any case, under the current mechanics if the first move doesn't take the unit's energy (not a public stat) below threshold then it gets to move again, before anyone else gets a chance to move. If it's you, then you just got a no-retaliation move.
Combat adviser: even considering that the combat adviser does not account for when you miss a turn, it still is a far more dramatic difficulty reduction than advertised (75% difficulty factor is not remotely correct, it feels more like 25% to me). (In particular, if a move takes you below 10 stamina then your actual speed for the next time tick is 0.66 rather than 1.00, assuming you aren't sleep-short. Making the adviser account for this looks tricky.)
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jul 22, 2012 14:17:49 GMT
In that case, It wouldn't be a suspicion, here's how an example would work : Creature 1, Speed .66, Slowed Human Creature 2, Speed .67, Zombie How it would work : with a .01 speed advantage, Creature 2 moves once, then, 1 takes a step and 2 moves again, Creature 2 would cover two tiles while 1 would only cover one, thus, C2 would be capable of moving twice as fast as 1 just because of a .01 speed difference, and this would mean that in a fight, 100, 66, 50 or 125 speed would mean jack shit as the one with higher speed gets two moves everytime Do your homework On average both the current system and the proposed alteration one give the same number of normal-speed moves per 100 time ticks. I'm proposing losing the option of total immunity when breaching doors, windows, and choke points created by flaming cars. And Armor is a crucial item, in a fight, the last thing you have time to do is equip armor or grab equipment or change weapons, Grab equipment from the ground, yes. Wearing/unwearing armor and changing weapons are free actions in RS9 (as might be expected from one time tick corresponding to 5 minutes of real-world time.)
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jul 20, 2012 1:00:19 GMT
While it would be more intuitive to go with a "highest energy moves first, always" (no more being double-moved at speed .66 by a zombie at speed .66), I suspect it would make the game harder.
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jul 19, 2012 18:21:04 GMT
More counter-intuitive is that when you're slowed to 0.66, it is possible for a zombie with speed 0.66 to double-move you.
As I'm such an anemic player that I'm writing a savefile viewer in Ruby for RS9, I have tracked down how this works. I can get accurate predictions as follows: * Speed is energy recovery per time tick (of which there are 720/day), divided by 100. The savefile representation is a 32-bit signed integer. * Once it is your turn, you can move as long as your energy counter is above 0. A normal-speed move costs 100 energy; a running-speed move costs 50 energy. Yes, this means that if your internal energy counter is 50 or higher that the first running move is "free", and nobody moves, not even that red skeleton with speed 200.
If you aren't wearing armor, then careful note taking is all you need. The day stamina cost for running is 4; the night stamina cost is 6. So your visible stamina changes will alterate: 4 (free move; "out of phase"), 2 (everyone else moves as well; "in phase") or 6 (free move; "out of phase"), 4 (everyone else moves as well; "in phase"). Of course, time works weird in the hospital, and possibly the subway.
(Current tactics on my end is to wear armor when expecting a counter-attack; e.g. meleeing skeletons. Otherwise the turn cost isn't worth it, even if would be much better roleplaying.)
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jul 9, 2012 18:36:47 GMT
Just wait, the subways get overrun very easily. A small army of zed is chasing some people, they seek shelter below. Army follows, people get nommed, and then you have a ton of zed wandering around, breaking your stuff, etc. Underground anywhere gets overrun easily -- if it has stairs to the surface. Problem is when a zombiemaster wants to hide out for the day; they'll go down stairs just for that.
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jul 2, 2012 4:29:37 GMT
i've found a neat problem : no place is entirely secure to place your loot ! Actually, there is if the game has a gap between subway stations: a subway section that doesn't have a subway station. It seems only you can be bothered to actually change map sections laterally, and zombies don't spawn in the subway :)
Note: the game will crash, hard, if you try to exit into a subway section with no subway station on the other side.
So...something like this: XS-SX
S are the subway station sectors.
- is the subway section between subway stations. Perfectly secure loot storage, although I find the time cost of getting there and back unacceptable.
X are subway sections beyond subway stations. While there are exits to these sections, there is no in-game map representation.
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jun 29, 2012 1:05:06 GMT
But don't arrive too early at the police station. The person of interest has unusual hours.
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jun 16, 2012 17:48:09 GMT
The two tactics that don't seem to work well with followers: Visibility Control (to include your tracks as well as actual vision) and "running to deny counter-attacks when breaching doors, etc."
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Jun 1, 2012 6:26:10 GMT
It it wasn't for the lack of beds, a subway section with no surface exits would be very reasonable as a safehouse (at least in V9).
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on May 13, 2012 23:08:51 GMT
Basic measurements done in both V8 and V9, speed 1.0; I'm not looking at armor at this time. * base stamina cost: day 4, night 6 (transition isn't exactly on the hour and presumably depends on prevailing light level) ** that is: an "out of phase run" costs full stamina and does not update the time counter; an "in phase" run gets the net cost reduced by the recovery rate of 2 stamina/tick. Note that if the intermediate stamina is under 10 then that recovery is done at speed 0.66 rather than speed 1. Also note that the combat assistant is inaccurate when stamina is under 10 at any point before your next turn; monsters may get more moves than indicated. * That red skeleton that always moves at speed 2, does not alternate moves with you when you're running. Rather, it takes both of its moves on your "in phase" run. This suggests that nothing moves on your "out of phase" run.
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on May 6, 2012 6:20:09 GMT
As I've been playing with the new features, I've noticed that keeping sane is somewhat hard (and very interesting). If anyone has any tips to keeping sane, feel free to mention some. I recommend getting the 'Strong Psyche' skill as soon as possible. Killing zombies also restores sanity. That makes Famu Fatale's katana moderately interesting (it hits fairly hard, has only a minor stamina penalty, and is indestructible), if one blunders across her or it. Edit: Testing indicates the base sanity restored by killing either an unevolved skeleton or unevolved shambler is 60.
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on May 2, 2012 3:10:37 GMT
I would suggest "major tranquillizers". (In overdose: induce sleep. In moderation: reduce sanity damage from witnessing disturbing actions/events.)
Also: whatever converted the CHAR guards to not need to eat would be an interesting addition. (Retroactive continuity: this is a "safe" prototype treatment of whatever backfired as autocatalytic zombification. Still mentally impairing; losing the food clock in exchange for increased sanity loss and/or lower maximum sanity would be an interesting choice.)
|
|
|
Post by zaimoni on Apr 21, 2012 7:08:18 GMT
Unfortunately for Belinda Carter (the protagonist of the latest not-for-real game to survive past day zero), there are no subways conveniently located for recharging runs to the police station. (Night fighting uses up those big flashlights fast. For this game, police station is in the northwest corner of A1 in the business district. Current plan is to loot the CHAR offices in A1, and police station before deciding what to do next.) Furthermore, basement base #1 had a critical deficiency: no bed. This threw off calculated bedtime considerably; she ended up waking in the 1AM-2AM block rather than just before midnight. Fortunately, nothing decided to break down the table blocking the stairway.
(It appears that with neither Hardy nor Awake, the sleep counter recovered per tick is 4 without a bed, 6 with a bed.)
|
|