Hi everyone, and welcome to this month's devlog for ENDGAME. We're going to get right into the details of what happened this month!
ENDING FIXES
One of the goals for ENDGAME was to give FIREFIGHT RELOADED not only a proper goal (get to the highest level and get the mega gravity gun), but a proper ending as well. In the beta (info below), you may notice that when you die in Hardcore Mode or at the max level, the screen just fades to red.
I decided to fix this by making the screen fade properly to black, and by giving it some Half-Life 1 styled text that changes depending if you're at the max level or if you're in Hardcore Mode (the ending text always shows up at the max level, regardless if Hardcore Mode is on or not)
REWARD SYSTEM REWRITE
Much like the Shop, the reward system has been completely rewritten to be more moddable and expandable. Rather than loading each list at once, the mod will load a random rewards list file and grab a random reward from it. If it can't get any reward after a certain amount of tries (3, is adjustable in the ADVANCED ), it'll try to get the 1st or second item from the list. if it can't get ANYTHING, it'll give you a healthkit or suit battery.
This means, like the Shop, custom weapons can now be added to the rewards system. This opens up a lot of new possibilities for modders.
This addition also adds separate item types into the game. These tell the rewards system which item to spawn.
Item Types
FR_HEALTHKIT = Basic healthkit.
FR_BATTERY = Basic suit battery.
FR_HEALTHKIT_BIG = Large healthkit, gives 50 HP.
FR_BATTERY_BIG = Large battery, gives 50 Armor.
FR_WEAPON = A Weapon.
FR_AMMOWEAPON = An ammo entity that spawns a weapon if the player doesn't have it (grenade and slam)
FR_AMMO = Weapon ammo
FR_PERK = A perk.
FR_KASHBONUS = A Kash bonus which is based on your level (player's level * 10)
FR_SERVERCMD = A command executed by the server.
FR_CLIENTCMD = A command executed by the player.
Yes, you heard that right. you can make the player execute commands when they get a reward! I plan on writing a guide soon, so there will be more information about this in the future.
Here's a bit of one of the files:
"Rewards"
{
"1"
{
"name" "#GameUI_Store_Buy_HealthKit"
"item_type" "1"
"min_level" "1"
"unlocks_in_iron_kick" "1"
}
"2"
{
"name" "#GameUI_Store_Buy_SuitBattery"
"item_type" "2"
"min_level" "1"
"unlocks_in_iron_kick" "1"
}
"3"
{
"name" "#GameUI_Store_Buy_FragGrenade"
"item_type" "6"
"min_level" "3"
"weapon_classname" "item_ammo_grenade"
}
... (continued)
}
You can change language strings with regular text.
A NEW SPECIES OF ALLY
Upon reaching level 10, you have the chance to receive a Pheropod, also known as Bugbait, to make Antlions your allies. Upon throwing it, all Antlions, present and future, will become your allies. Throw the Bugbait to move Antlions to a specific point, or squeeze it with the secondary fire to make them follow you.
LONE WOLF AND IRON KICK MODES
Speaking of allies, if you don't want any allies at all, you can enable the new Lone Wolf mode. This also makes the Bugbait not be an award.
Want to kick everything in your path? Play the new Iron Kick mode, which buffs the damage of the kick, destroying anything in your path. However, you don't spawn with any weapons, can't pick up any weapons, and Health Regen is an unlockable perk, rather than it being unlocked by default (a new feature in ENDGAME).
The Health Regen is also an unlockable perk in Hardcore mode, Classic mode, and difficulties Very Hard and up. You can disable this behavior in the ADVANCED OPTIONS menu, alongside enabling it for all modes.
COMBINE ACE CHANGES
The Combine Ace has gotten a few AI changes which makes him more similar to his interpretation in SMOD. He will barely reload, no longer throw grenades or uses melee, and sometimes he will take cover from an enemy before engaging for the first time.
Now, to the BIG system....
THE "WAVE" SYSTEM
Early in ENDGAME's development, one of the plans was to add in a wave system which will spawn enemies in waves (ala Killing Floor and TF2's MvM), rather than focus on the endless stream of enemies FIREFIGHT RELOADED is known for. However, this system was more difficult to plan out than I thought. I was trying to answer one question: How can I make a wave system FEEL like it's FIREFIGHT RELOADED, while also solving one of the main issues FIREFIGHT has been experiencing for years; player progression?
Player progression is a major issue in FIREFIGHT RELOADED. As of the latest stable version of the last update, the game will spawn many different types of enemies, but there wasn't a clear difficulty curve as the player continued to level up.
So you might ask: Why is "wave" in quotes in the title? Well, I figured out how a wave system should be implemented in FR: when the player levels up, spawn harder and harder enemies until the player reaches the maximum level (now 20 from the original 50). The player's level acts as the waves counter and the spawners will naturally spawn harder enemies as you progress, rather than stopping the spawners for a minute, then restarting like most titles.
This doesn't make it a traditional wave system, but it's a wave system that is uniquely FIREFIGHT. It's not quite like Killing Floor or MvM, but it fits in with FIREFIGHT's "endless enemy" game design, and fixes the issue with player progression.
The system loads a spawnlist of enemies, them trims it to the enemies that can be spawned at the player's level. This way, the spawner doesn't have awkwardly long pauses when trying to spawn enemies.
Within the first 3-5 levels/waves, players will notice that the progression moves quick. This is to build up the initial enemy counts and to teach new players about defeating different enemies.
Despite the system not being like a traditional wave system, it fixes the long-standing issue of progression.
Here's another sneak peek at one of the files.
"default"
{
//LEVEL 1
"1"
{
"classname" "npc_metropolice"
}
"2"
{
"classname" "npc_headcrab"
}
//LEVEL 2
"3"
{
"classname" "npc_zombie"
"min_level" "2"
}
"4"
{
"classname" "npc_zombie_torso"
"min_level" "2"
}
"5"
{
"classname" "npc_headcrab_fast"
"min_level" "2"
}
//LEVEL 3
"6"
{
//elite metrocops
"classname" "npc_metropolice"
"preset" "1"
"min_level" "3"
}
... (continued)
}
ENDGAME OPEN BETA
Now, to explain why this was posted so early.
On June 10th, I plan on opening the floodgates and allowing players to try out this newer version of ENDGAME. If you want to try it NOW, I have posted the ENDGAME beta branch code in the official Discord server. (https://discord.gg/4MfShzF) This version is a slightly less stable version of what will be released on June 10th. However, if you don't mind waiting, a blog post will be released soon with all the information regarding the version of ENDGAME you will be playing.
Note that there won't be a lot of new content in either version of ENDGAME. This is one of the main focuses moving forward, alongside the creation of a proper Linux/SteamOS port.
I hope everyone enjoys what I've been working on for ENDGAME. It's been a long road, but I feel that ENDGAME will make FIREFIGHT more fun and enjoyable.
- Bitl