The [FGS] Clan

I'm glad so many of you are supporting the radical ideas I have for my overhaul of DXMP as Skilgannon put it. I was afraid some of you would find the ideas too... liberal(?) and think that I was destroying the game at the heart, which is definitely NOT what I want to do. Think of it as a Shifter type deal. I keep the game essentially the same, just give it a few tweaks for more fun and playability.

But nonetheless, there IS going to be a huge overhaul, of EVERY ITEM and almost all multiplayer aspects in general. I want to mix in all the great elements of the SP RPG part of DX and the MP FPS together. THIS IS NOT GOING OT BE ANYTHING LIKE RPG CITY I will say that now. I don't plan on slowing the game down a lot either. Even though the mods will take some time away from shooting on more on discovering and using other items, you should have no problem retaining the fast-paced style of MP, but it may change the pace for some players. It won't be your typical run-from-spawn-room-as-fast-as-you-can-to-the-one-area-of-the-map-you-know-you'll-see-people-and-fire-away gameplay. It doesn't mean you can't do that. If your THAT confident in your pistol, go for it :D

Here is a list of the changes I'd like to see in my modifications:

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Ammo:

The alternative ammo for DX is lame, one of the few things about the whole game that isn't insanely awesome. So I wanted to change a few things up to make searching for those alternatives useful to certain new strategies that will emerge.

Ammo Crates - Eliminated. Rather, the ammo will be placed well around enough and the ammo is given the no physics property instead of the weapons at spawn. So you have to get the weapon you want first, but if you come across ANY ammo for it your whole team can load up. No reason to make this one more complicated than it already is, but generic crates that magically replace all of the ammo is OUT.
Sabot - Higher damaging rounds than buckshot
Darts - Higher damaging darts
Flare Darts - Catches target on fire
20MM/Assault Guns - If possible, I want to eliminate this ammo and change the way the assault rifle uses the ammo system. When you cycle through your ammo with your assault rifle OR assault shotgun OR GEP Gun it cycles through your grenades you have in your inventory. Then upon firing it shoots them across the map and they don't begin beeping to explode until they hit something. This way you can long-range a few grenade attacks.
(NEW!) Napalm Glue - Alternate ammo for flamethrower. Shoots a glob of ignited napalm goo shotgun style that creates a fire on any surface it lands on. It will be short range and fall back like throwing knives do. If you run too close on or by the flame, you catch fire, simple as that. Also it burns twice as hot if you get the stuff directly on you. To keep players from spamming the ground with the stuff, the canister will only contain 4 rounds

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Weapons:

I don't really feel like adding new ones. People may think that, but who needs new textures and meshes when we have several weapons that people hardly ever use? Major changes have been planned to make most weapons better in general and to REALLY balance out the game and expand to more strategic options. Also, with only a few weapons considered special enough to lock behind a door (LAW... about it) I want to make several of these weapons good enough to hide.

Pistol - Faster fire rate, somewhere between the original and the beretta
Mini Crossbow - Faster fire rate, higher poison damage
Sawed-Off Shotgun - Faster fire rate, extend clip size to 8
Crowbar - Increased damage, longer range
Knife - Increased swing speed
Pepper Gun - Increase poison damage, radius and duration
EMP Prod - Increase damage, drains opponents' energy -25 per tag
Throwing Knives - Slight increase in distance in which they begin to decend, to increase range
PS20 - MUCH greater damage, greater damage radius of bolt when it explodes, causes RADIATION damage and catches anyone within the radius on fire <--- (I want this to be as desirable as the LAW.)
Dragon Tooth's Sword - Perfect as is
Stealth Pistol - Draws out silently, SCOPE (short range) with enough damage increase from scope to make it a 2 head shot kill without targeting, also less movement than sniper rifle
Sword - Increased swing speed, increased damage
Assault Shotgun - Increase ammo to 14
Assault Rifle - Lower default damage from 3 to 2, sorry it is overpowered and overused, the purpose of this mod is balance and creativity
Sniper Rifle - EVEN ON MASTER LEVEL THE SCOPE WILL MOVE JUST A LITTLE BIT! The only way to get a perfectly steady scope is by using targeting or an alternative method mentioned later
GEP Gun - Keep the homing mechanism, but extend homing lock time by just a tad to keep annoying GEP abusers
Flamethrower - Increase damage and range slightly
Plasma Rifle - Rather than firing three random blasts at once, it fires three in a row straight
LAW - Perfect as is
(NEW!)Spector Charge - EXTREMELY RARE! Scramble Grenade skin, however it isn't thrown, merely triggered in hand and it send out the Warren EMP Blast which drains everyone's energy to 0 within the radius and causes SEVER electrical AND EMP damage. Also will reset any turrets within the radius not controlled by your team. Will replace neutron bomb on my maps, sorry Nobody, I know I told you I'd put a nuke there, maybe on my next map I can work it in.

*GRENADES - I want to keep the 3 MP nades the same, just add the Spector Charge. However I want to BARELY increase the grenade explosion time and keep it at the same level no matter what skill levels are

I want all of the weapons to have physics and go away when taken. Each area where you would expect your whole team to get a gun (armory, ect) there will be enough for your team and then some. Any worthwhile weapons will be first-come first-serve. I'm going to need help with coding to make sure that the following applies to weapons for my idea of balance to work:

1. Player picks up weapon, weapon DOES NOT REAPPEAR (yet.)
2. Player can pick up AMMO, but NOT another gun of the same type, to keep from one *metabolic end product way out* to steal all the assault guns for himself (not sure why someone would want to screw their team like that but they are out there.)
3. If the player throws any item, it will sit on the ground for usually MP time, then once it disappears it will be returned to its starting location.
4. When player dies, his body disappears and the player who killed him cannot retrieve it. BUT! If possible, I'd like to make it so when you kill someone, they drop the item in their hands at the time.

-Keep in mind, through any time between the first and last point, I DON'T want the item to reappear until the last property-

5. Any items taken by player who dies are THEN returned to their starting place after death, NOT AFTER RESPAWN or when they leave the game.

It seems complex, but this is the only way I can see to keep the balance even. No people sticking around waiting for many lams to reappear, no one person taking all the good guns, etc.

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Items:

Time to give these guys a reason to exist in multiplayer. I'm even throwing in the suits, but not overpowering any of them. They will be enhanced depending on skill level, but their defaults will be low and go up by 25% increase to a max of 100% increased duration at master level to only 20 seconds apiece.

Hazmat Suit - 10 second default duration of immune to poison unless ingested (booze), 20% protection to poison attack and environmental damage
Ballistic Protection - 10 second duration of 20% ballistic protection
(NEW!) Bio Enhanced Stealth Camo - "A vest containing disposable radar jamming and light reflection nanites merge temporarily with the host's nanotech systems to grand effects of Radar Transparency and Cloak augmentations." Ten second duration.
(NEW!) Nanotech Goggles - "Powerful one-use energy activation of these photographical nanites enhance what the naked eye can perceive and stimulate hand-eye-brain coordination, offering vision enhancement and heightened weapon abilities." 10 second duration of targeting and vision enhancement.

*Both the camo and tech goggles drain 1 energy per second. If one aug already give the ability the suits grant, then the other appears. If the user has both augmentations, then the suits will do nothing and be a waste.

Candy Bar - Take away poison status, +20 health, +15 bio
Soda - Running speed x1.25, +10 health, +20 bio
Liquor - 20 second duration of lessened accuracy but 20% increase in hit points, +20 health
Wine - Not as bad accuracy loss, rest same as liquor
Soy Food - +25 health, + 25 bio, 20 second duration of healing 2 points per second
Cigarettes - 20 second duration of having the next best level of scope steadiness, increased poison damage
Medkit - Perfect as is
Ambrosia Vial - 30 second duration of immune to poison effect on vision and -15% poison damage
Zyme - 20 second duration of increased running speed, jump height, next level up on all skills, and unlimited bio energy however after the duration is up you have no bio or regeneration for 10 seconds. Also it will grant a vision enhancement like effect where your vision goes red instead of blue and enemies are illuminated red but teammates appear normal and you aren't granted seeing through walls ability. If you are already using vision enhancement, those effects will be dominant but the vision will change to red still.

All of these items can be activated all at once, however the effects will not add up, it would be a waste. There is going to be a max on just one of these items at a time, given their good use, and plenty more items iwll be availible to fill the slots.

The cigarette idea came to me when I saw some forum talking about Metal Gear Solid and what items in it are useless, and someone had posted something saying, "Doesn't the scope stay steadier after smoking a cig?"

The zyme I REALLY like. I own this inspiration to Red Eye of Cowboy Bebop. I mean, what would high-tech nanites be like on cocain?

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Skill system/other changes:

Rather than gaining a certain amount of points to up one skill per kill, some kills between 1 and 20 will grant large skill boosts or a bonus effect and every kill will replenish some health and energy to help deal with one person becoming mobbed by more than one enemy. At least if he can pick a few off he will be able to last a little longer while the whole gang rapes him. Call it an adrenaline boost from killing a man and the nanites take advantage of the chemicals :D

I want the voice over of "x is DOMINATING" and such in the mod as well. There will be great bonuses when you hit one of the stages, up to Unstoppable, because I don't forsee TOO many people getting about a 20 kill streak unless it is a game full of noobs.

Spawn with all skills untrained, then:
Per kill = +30 energy +60 health

1 kill = all weapon skills upgraded to trained
3 = all non-weapon skills upgraded to trained
5 (Killing Spree) = all skills upgraded to advanced, all ammo
7 = all non weapon skills upgraded to master
10 = (Rampage) all weapon skills upgraded to master, all ammo, all energy
15 = (Dominating) All ammo, all energy, all health, and TAKE OVER ALL TURRETS IN GAME INSTANTLY
20 = (Unstoppable) All ammo, all energy, all health, release Warren's EMP Blast

Since I figure it would be hard enough just to get master skill level, the streak bonuses are designed to make the player a good deal more powerful at each interval to at least give them some edge to get to the higher streaks. So while a 15 streak may be hard enough as it is, once your DOMINATING the map and your nanites disperse amongst the area and control the electronic devices then perhaps a few of them will get you closer to the 5 kills you need to set off your ultimate weapon!

I also want to mod some of the properties of the characters:

Jump Height: 25% higher
Run/walk speed: 25% faster
Hit Points: 20% increase in legs
Health Regeneration: Yes, add natural health regeneration. Nothing major, a mere 1 point per second. How often do you not engage an opponent within 60 or even 30 seconds after an earlier brawl? It would be less than a medkit more than likely, but it helps.
Bio Energy: Natural regeneration will go to 40 points rather than 25, with a 25% increase in regeneration speed

*On a side note, you may have noticed I am adding several more mechanisms of healing or staying alive longer. The reason is that, thought here are certainly many noobs still around, the fact is the growth is the community is rather slow, we all know. What I am saying is that a majority of the players who will be playing this mod are well versed in DX, and even newcomers to the mod will pick up after a few games what goes on and then excel. So the gameplay itself has become less engaging, kills are made far to quickly and you dies very often. Time to turn our split second kill fests into longer more epic clashes.

Inventory System:

Rather than the usual 3 grenade 3 weapons options with tools picks kits bio and the useless in all maps I've seen nanokey ring. Instead, I want 1-4 to be weapons, grenades included. Then I want 5-0 to be any other item. This enables a much wider variety of strategies entirely with all of the change being made to the now useless items. Also it would allow for some teammates to return from other areas of the map with a surplus if he is a good team player and give his mates some of the items they need should they converge on who uses what strategy if you follow me.

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That's it. The overhaul project, yet unnamed. Thoughts please.

"15 = (Dominating) All ammo, all energy, all health, and TAKE OVER ALL TURRETS IN GAME INSTANTLY"

I thought you said you wanted it to downgrade excelling player as the streak progresses?

Hammer[HK]Time! wrote:"15 = (Dominating) All ammo, all energy, all health, and TAKE OVER ALL TURRETS IN GAME INSTANTLY"

I thought you said you wanted it to downgrade excelling player as the streak progresses?

As far as weapons and being generally overpowered will skills. However anyone able to get to a 15 streak is just that good anyways and it would be nice for a few people to actually attain it.

Besides, turrets aren't going to be altered. It will still be just as easy to bypass one.

okay I have one request and it won't change much at all but, make the maximum spread of the assault rifle a little smaller. I am actually one of the people who NEVER use the assault riffle, and that is the reason. (it is a fair trade off, more accurate less damage)

other than that this is one of the best ideas ever to come to DX

Wow, Nino, just wow. This could kick-start DX again.

As for the name, maybe call it the namele......oh wait that one's taken.

Ammo Crates - Eliminated. Rather, the ammo will be placed well around enough and the ammo is given the no physics property instead of the weapons at spawn. So you have to get the weapon you want first, but if you come across ANY ammo for it your whole team can load up. No reason to make this one more complicated than it already is, but generic crates that magically replace all of the ammo is OUT.

Not too sure about this. I'm afraid it will take out a bit of the pace of the game. Seeing we're getting more health and more survivability options, fights will take longer, so ammo will be an issue. Ammocrates have the advantage of being universal, thus not interupting the pace of the fight much. Having different ammo for each gun lying around will require you to a) know the map by heart (not necessarily a bad thing, but it will take time) b) interrupt a fight just to get to ammo (this might be negotiated by placing a lot of ammo all around, or placing all ammo in one place, but then you could just place an ammobox, so ye...).

So basicaly not too excited by this, but maybe with tactical positioning these problems can be overruled.

20MM/Assault Guns - If possible, I want to eliminate this ammo and change the way the assault rifle uses the ammo system. When you cycle through your ammo with your assault rifle OR assault shotgun OR GEP Gun it cycles through your grenades you have in your inventory. Then upon firing it shoots them across the map and they don't begin beeping to explode until they hit something. This way you can long-range a few grenade attacks.

Don't matter how cool this sounds, in se, it's just another GEP gun without the locking thing. A bit redundant? I mean having three weapons doing the same thing is, IMHO.

Pistol - Faster fire rate, somewhere between the original and the beretta

Dangerous, very dangerous. Pistol is a powerfull weapon already, but requires more 'skill' to handle. Making it's firerate higher seems overpowered to me.

Stealth Pistol - Draws out silently, SCOPE (short range) with enough damage increase from scope to make it a 2 head shot kill without targeting, also less movement than sniper rifle

Even thought I love pistoling, this too seems a bit over the top. What you created is a fast firing-silent-melee-sniper, without the reload issue a standard rifle has. Imagine someone running around cloaked and then just, BAM, two fast shots to head and you're dead. Maybe a tat overpowered too.

Plasma Rifle - Rather than firing three random blasts at once, it fires three in a row straight

Baddabing, baddaboom?

There is a reason some weapons are the way they are. The game developpers balanced the metabolic end product out of them to get fair gameplay, like the flamethrower, plasma and pistol. Be very cautious with changes to these weapons, I'd say.

Spawn with all skills untrained, then:
Per kill = +30 energy +60 health

This seems dangerous to me too. Seeing you already have inherent bonusses to streaks (more augs, and the bonusses you provided, which I think is a good idea), but adding an extra health and energy bonus seems a bit too much. Streaked players will eventualy become monsters xD. Especialy with the extra items (this I love too), streakers will be very hard to kill, even without the health and energy bonus. Maybe just give everyone the same health and energy, there are enough other bonusses.
Maybe add an item that gives +x max health/max energy for a certain period of time, so that just killed ppl have a greater chance of killing streaked players, and maybe code it so that if you have a streak greater than 5 (just a number lol) you can't pick it up.

Voila, my two cents. I'd like to add, that I realy like the project, and with a little tweaking and balancing this could kick ass. Certainly something I would enjoy playing.

@ prophet the assault rifle/ grenade launcher from the sound of it would shoot gas nades too which will add diversity and emphasize tactics. I think this mod's purpose is to change gameplay so that players don't have to rely on skill,but tactics. the plasma rifle thing would actually make it harder to hit the target because the plasma bolts are slow.

Mini Crossbow - Faster fire rate, higher poison damage

If this is a 0 aug mod you're planning to make, this shouldn't be there at all. It will punctuate gameplay and interfere with more sophisticated firefights. Even the glue napalm idea was less inhibiting of combat flow than this, which means it shouldn't be there.

The naplm glue is a good idea, though. Just should be very hard to find or has extremely little ammo, like 20mm ammo but less. However, if you're planning on replacing the change ammo system with altfire, then you should make the firerate of napalm glue very slow.

this is not 0 aug so its fine.

Kothar wrote:@ prophet the assault rifle/ grenade launcher from the sound of it would shoot gas nades too which will add diversity and emphasize tactics. I think this mod's purpose is to change gameplay so that players don't have to rely on skill,but tactics. the plasma rifle thing would actually make it harder to hit the target because the plasma bolts are slow.

so it'll be like assault can only fire gas grenades and shotgun only EMP?

I was thinking it would shoot any grenade in the inventory.

But then assault and shotgun do the same thing... having 3 weap doing the same seems a bit...redundant...

not really. It kind of keeps the shotgun and assault gun even. If a person prefers the shotgun over the rifle then you still have the grenade capability. in essence the assault rifle and assault shotgun are pretty much equal in damage and spread. the only difference is that the shotgun shoots a single round that has no chance of being as accurate as the assault rifle has the potential to be. where the assault rifle can be shot semi accurately if you are standing still.

I actually see no usefulness in the assault rifle in combat because the spread is ridiculously huge forcing me to stop moving to be more accurate, and everyone knows the moment you stop moving in combat you are dead.

and the GEP doesn't shoot grenades it shoots rockets.

the grenades won't explode on impact but start beeping as soon as it hits something, from what I understand.

EDIT: ok so yeah the GEP does shoot grenades apparently, but I see no reason for this.

@Proph: I think what Nino is talking about in relation to the health thing is just replenishing health, not adding extra on so it becomes 110% 120% etc etc. Otherwise you'll end up with players with health over 9000.

Awesome responses guys, GREAT insight! I'll go by some of y'alls points one-by-one:

Kothar
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Hmm... I like your thinking. I agree, an ASSAULT gun is not meant for standing still. Perhaps a worthwhile compromise would be to bring in the crosshairs somewhere between where they are when moving and standing and keep them the same. This will also help how practically useless the assault rifle is at any skill level less than advanced.

Prophet
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Thanks for all the input man. As far as the ammo crates go, I think your right. They are a cornerstone of flowability in DXMP, and I think your right. The ammo system should remain the same.

For the assault gun/grenade launcher combo what Kothar said is correct, they will begin beeping upon striking a player or surface AFTER launch. The reason for this is to enable some longer-ranged grenadiering. For example, if your on the highest building in DXMP_Towers it would be impossible for you to chuck a gas grenade or LAM down to the elevator or much less across to any of the other buildings. So instead of using the overpowered 20mm ammo rounds, you launch one of the other grenades, give it the same physics as a 20mm shell and bada bing bada boom you have a true assault weapon.

As far as the pistol goes, I don't want it to very exactly center between the pistol and berettas fire rate. More specifically an increase to 1.2 times normal rate.

Concerning that and your comments about the stealth and bow, remember that most players playing this mod will not very often get to master skill level on their weapons in good-sized games. Your right, a stealth pistol with scope IS almost too deadly, that is if everyone spawned able to keep the scope from moving too much. Also remember that while the scope on a sniper is perfectly still at master level, scopes on pistols are not. The only x factor is

The plasma rifle I was a bit vague on. It will be like a slow M16. *pow pow pow* then one second pause. So I would slow the fire rate down some too.

And yes Skil was right I didn't mean add to max health/energy I meant heal/recharge that amount.

As far as having three guns do the same thing, not everyone will be using both or all three of them like Kothar said. It is for tactics. The main reason I decided to use both assaults at the time however was simply because of their name: assault. Keep in mind, many of my inspirations are coming from Call of Duty 4. I thought the idea of the grenade launcher added to "assault" weapons. I just put it on the GEP because I thought to myself "Look at that big mother fucker if that can put a heatseeker up your ass it had better be able to spit a grenade 100 feet."

HammerTime
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I DID say earlier this map should retain it's 0aug playability, but I think with all of the changes 0aug would kinda suck with it : /

Even if you weren't right about the bow, all of the other items would become near useless during 0 aug.

However I feel that these alterations will make any 0 augger love augs once again, because no one can deny that augged play was our first love.

And yes, the napalm glue and most of the other alternate ammos will indeed be hard to find, as if the weapons themselves weren't hard enough.

That's all so far. Glad you guys are so into this. Don't forget though, I am amatuer at coding and such. I took Visual Basic and I have some computer know-how, but I will have to teach myself as I got along. Baby steps. Anyone willing to help in any way is welcome. Coding, mapping assistance or even just posting helpful links as I keep you up to speed.

But all is for the future, I still have to finish my map :D

Things are looking good. Almost finished with the rooms. ALMOST!