Sorry for not making an update for a while, I instead focused on spending the last month creating two new features which are both almost complete. These are both the Skins feature which is around halfway complete and the Leaderboard feature which is already in the base game.
Now when you look at the Ranking UI within the Networking feature it will rank every person who has a score into the leaderboard. This score is currently based on how many players you have killed, which I feel displays experience more than skill, as an experienced player with a low win rate could still have more kills than a newer player with a higher win rate. Also, there is currently an issue where if you wish to see the updated statistics on the leaderboard you have to restart the game.
Test players on local server
I am still thinking of other ways to calculate this effect while also staying balanced. For example simply ranking the leaderboard based on the win rate would mean newer players could get a lucky first kill and never play again as they already have a 100% win rate. So I have done some simple testing of a few algorithms that may display skill over experience while still staying balanced. Some of which incorporate the other players score so beating a player with a higher score than you would increase your score more than beating someone with a lower score than you.
I am number one on the live server.. come at me :)
Then there is also the issue whereby people can farm points by constantly killing another owned account which is one of the more difficult issues to address. For this issue the only real way of stopping it is by limiting how much score one can gain from killing the same player over and over again.
I would encourage people to test it out and give some feedback on ways to improve it.
The other feature I have been working on is the Skins feature which can currently display local skins that are built into the game.
Crazy test skins I'm using to debug skinning
The selector at the top will change the entire player's skin while clicking on each limb with change its individual skin. This leaves room for some simple customisation as you can easily mix stains together.
Example of Skinning in Choose Weapons UI
Same Skin In Game
However when you select the fists skin you will more often than not change your weapon combination which is quite irritating to deal with. I have considered having it so clicking on the fist changes its skin while clicking on the area around the fist changes its weapon. However this functionality may confuse first time users.
My next step in finishing skins will be implementing Steam Workshop support which will allow for a wider variety of more interesting skin designs to be added to the game. I must then also allow for skins to be displayed online which would require an approval process which could then also lead to skins being implemented into the base game.
The skins I've made to test and develop skinning are very primitive but this is what I am aiming for once Steam Workshop is integrated.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=624733305
In order to implement this feature I had to do a lot of work on polishing the player models as well as ensuring that both players are exactly the same.
Previously both players had different sprites associated with them that meant player 2 had slightly higher resolution limbs than player 2. Not only that Player 2 actually had shorter arms and a slightly smaller further back head.
When I noticed all these inconsistencies I began not only refurbishing Player 2’s limb sprites but also the shape and structure of Player 2. And to ensure that both players are identical Player 1 is now a direct copy of Player 2 just flipped the other way around.
Pending tasks are now
- Chat System (Keeping in theme with the game).
- Finish Leaderboard (I need to think of an algorithm that can't be exploited).
- Complete network game lobby UI (make pretty and complete all network game modes).
- Complete network game restart UI (make pretty).
- Steam workshop for player skins.
- Research different arenas and backgrounds.
- General bug fixing, tidy up and enhancement of look and feel..