https://youtu.be/LgxhKVQvG7Q
This update introduces a massive change to the scoring system. I’ve been observing how you guys have been playing the game non-stop over the last 4 years changing and manipulating what’s there to give you all hopefully the most engaging experience. You may have also noted the bump from 0.9.8 to 0.9.9. Yeah ;)
Balance is not easy. While I want to challenge the fuck outta you, I also don’t want to overwhelm or intimidate new players. I personally think so far that’s worked out. Every time a new player comes up (at events) they always doubt themselves, but once they jump in, if it clicks with them of course, they start to ask how other players get the scores they see, and that is all I’ve ever asked for. Hell I’ve seen people that have been playing it for quite some time and are still finding out they can do certain things they weren’t even aware of. Documenting this all though is going to be a bitch, but I’m hoping through the flow of gameplay it all makes sense. Complicated mechanics for the sake of it isn’t very interesting or fun. Complicated mechanics with a purpose are my goal. It’s ultimately up to you all if I nailed it or not.
So here we go.
For the sake of keeping this nice and tight I’ll only go into what has changed. All the basics remain the same except the calculations for the most part.
- Cost -
Blacking Out will now only require finding 2 Parts, however the actual restore will cost 20% of your Material Stock in addition to the Parts.
Activating Shields will now cost 3% of your Material Stock.
Restoring your link will cost 1% of your Material Stock.
- Changes -
First let’s start with the Material Multiplier. You can now activate a Material Multiplier once you activate your Shield Multiplier. Every third Material chains the multiplier, Shield Bashing a Tracker while using Time Directive counts towards the chain, while Shield Bashing a damaged Tracker will cause an insta-chain. What kills the multiplier? Getting hit by a Tracker while standing still. If you lose your Shield Multiplier and a Material Multiplier is active the MM will continue cooling down allowing you time to reactivate the SM otherwise you will lose the MM if cooldown completes. The reasoning behind this was to motivate you to stay in Chaos Mode. As always though that is your choice to make :)
Second, your Shield Buff (the bubble that forms immediately after activating shields) will now auto pick up Material which counts towards your EVA Control Bonus. In addition it now only damages nearby Trackers instead of also destroying them. This just felt better because it means you can now Shield Bash immediately after and get rewarded for it. Before this change the feeling was comparable to some asshole pulling out of a “trust fall.” You can trust me now ;) Also your BFP Material pick up, or BFPMPU if you will, also counts towards your EVA Control Bonus, or EVACB :D
Third, your Kite Bonus now also affects the amount of Material you pick up. Essentially this now doubles the Material at base value. So you have a choice of either doubling your Material pick up or using the Stackher Bonus (circling a Resource while Kiting stacks the Kite Bonus, you knew this right?) and yes the Material Multiplier applies to the KBMM as well ;)
Fourth, Rushin’ Firewall now applies a Material Bonus as well. Picking up Material while the Rushin’ Firewall caves in multiplies the amount of Material by 5 at each stage of the cave.
The MM works in the same way the SM does in that it’s an overall multiplier while all other Material Bonuses are stacked. The basic math is as follows: (Base Material + Rushin’ FireWall Amount + EVA Material Amount) * Material Multiplier = Good Times.
Other things that I’ve changed are finally adding the water effect/shader to the Assault Side. It’s been missing it for far too long and I finally found one I’m happy with that’s extremely performant. I also gave the Recovery Side a slightly heavier depth of field effect. I still can’t quite get it to where I used to have it, but Unity changed their algorithms for Depth of Field and Bloom in the Post Processing Stack v2 enough so that it’s hard to get it just right. Apparently they are more efficient now so who am I to argue with that.
FIXED:
- EVA Callout for 20XX
- Material Gathering Display should now properly animate every time Material is recovered
- ScreenGlitch during a transfer from Critical Health to Sliver Bullet status
ADDED:
- Score Category has been added to Mission Failed / Mission Accomplished because hey why not :)
