WEAPONINFO_ALT, videos x2, "loss" of menu options...
 

R@S,

SOOOO tired!

Deleted my prior Saves. Installed v.4. "Blue Sun Mod" loading window appeared, but the typical 7.62 golden screen never had a chance to be seen because I had a CTD.

I had a hunch that it might be due to my using the WEAPONINFO_ALT (which was renamed properly), so I installed my backup of the original WEAPONINFO and I restarted the game. That worked! :grin: But...I wasn't able to try out the more realistic weapon settings!

:cry:

I really wanted to experience that!


OTHER BUGS
The introductory video played TWICE; once immediately after I started a New Game, and again after I selected the avatar.

Once the Kill Book is opened up, the title of the book is misspelled as "KillBook." It needs a "space" between the "Kill" and the "Book."

With the first time usage of the Kill Book to setup one's Parameters and Skills I was offered up just ONE chance to Decrease Parameters, but since I didn't have the Parameter settings memorized I chose instead to "Check Parameters & Skills."

After I checked them out, I selected "Back" to return to the previous menu offerings, and I was disappointed to note that the "Decrease Parameters" option was no longer listed.

So I went to Load the start of the "Bus Map," and discovered that it wasn't auto-saved. That would've been helpful, as typically whenever someone enters a map that's automatically done for the Player.

With no other option left, I tried to start a New Game, which automatically caused a CTD and a "Crash Screen" report window was lovingly waiting for me.

I was then forced to restart the game from scratch, and right after I finished doing what I could on the "Select-Avatar" screen, I clicked on Health so that I could decrease it and the introductory video immediately started playing--this confused me, to say the least. I hit Escape to cut short the video, and found that my menu options had changed; what was new was that an "Increase Parameters" option had been now added. While I was able to figure out what to do, it was disorienting, and if I was new to the mod, with the CTD episode, and then the videos suddenly playing, and the menu options changing during one of the playbacks, well, that would make quite nervous about proceeding further...

Later on, I noticed that this limitation in being able to look back and forth at one's overall listings and then going back to adjust them is absent once one Levels Up to Level One. These menu settings are...
1) Spend Points
2) Check Parameters & Settings
3) Close
And these worked just fine without there being any CTD events. Can the very first initial Character Creation menu be altered to work as it does once one Levels Up to Level One?



SUGGESTIONS
I'd add a statement so that the players are aware that the 6 points they get at leveling up are not the only means that they'll be earning points, since the old system is still also in effect. Maybe something along the lines of...
"These 6 points are in addition to any increases one may gain as part of the default in-game rewards system."

When establishing my starting skill levels, I keep missing adjusting Stealth because it can't be seen. I overlook the fact that one can scroll the menu options further down. If there's a way to add a downward pointing arrow, or the words "More options below" or... That would help in this accidental oversight from occurring in the future. The "Stealth" listing is also missing from the Unit description page (the last visible entry is "Doctor," which in itself is also confusing since the Skill that one can adjust is listed as "Medic").

In regards to the above, I can't recall if Professionalism is also a Skill that has issues with being seen?

The opening text for when one is just about to start creating one's character is a bit confusing. Perhaps consider altering it to...
"Welcome to Algeira!
You've been contracted by Mr. Alexey Rezvi to locate Ippolit Bashirov. You are to promptly meet Mr. Rezvi at the hotel in Puerto Viejo to receive details regarding this mission. The guide that Mr. Rezvi hired for you, Paquito, is missing along with your equipment! It would be prudent to check on his whereabouts after Mr. Rezvi's been contacted.

1) Continue with character creation..."


Banking is BACK baby! :grin:
Yay! It took but a minute to figure out how to enter large denominations with the banker. Oh, what a sight to see! I haven't yet completed enough time to see if the $1,000 I deposited will have accrued the proper 5% interest, but I am excited to see that this option is back, and am already confident that it'll be working fine.

Time for bed!
Thanks for the great work. The dialogue options displaying one's current levels in Parameters and Skills sure helps to speed things up when investing one's points. Another big improvement.

Snore!
Kyle
July 7, 2010
:)

Don't worry about it, I've prolly forgotten to add a weapon or something in that file, I'll fix it for the next test version, it wouldn't be that hard.

I think I made a booboo and has the start video option playing twice, both in my start replace phrase and in the outsourcedconfig files. I think you can fix this right away by setting the IntroMovie "0" in the outsourcedconfig.ini. But I have also turned it oof the the source code for the next version.

I think you went one step to far when you were browsing the first increase/decrease menu. Once you select "Done" the ability to decrease parameters is gone for good. This dialog screen looks like this:

1) Increase Parameters
2) Decrease Parameters
3) Check Parameters
4) Done // Once you select this option, you can't go back. The character creation is complete.
EDIT: I've changed the last dialog option to "Done (complete character creation)" to minimize confusion about how sever this choice is:)


I've now added a list of the attributes in this screen showing what attributes are tied to this class you selected. I think that'll make it easier to choose what parameters to increase/decrease.

The CTD events at the parameter increase/decrease screen could be caused by the dialog tree limitation, or rather, my attempt to circumvent it. We'll have to see if this occurs in the next test version, if it does I might have to try a different way. The weird thing is, I never had any CTD's when testing it.

You snooze, you lose:-P I could divide the dialog options so that they all are display without having to scroll, but keep in mind that this is also tied to the screen resolution. As it is now it displays all options for me, but I'm running it on the highest resolution available. Both stealth and professionalism isn't available to check anywhere in the vanilla game, but since stealth is an important skill, I've added it to my dialog screens. I hope that in the future the players will use the kill book rather than the journal tab to check the current levels.

I think the 5% DAILY interest calculations might be to generous. I would either have to lower it, mebbe to 3%, or make the interest calculated on a weekly basis. But this needs testing before anything is altered.

I've added your suggestion to the start dialogs, thanks for making that for me.

Return stats to previous levels...banking %...
 

R@S,

I'm happy to hear that WEAPONSINFO_ALT is probably an easy fix. I'm quite sure that once players discover that there's an .ini that supplies more realistic weapon performance settings that a good chunk of them will migrate to use the alternate settings. That will please the "hardcore" crowd.

The "intro video playing x2" fix will be most welcome. Yay!

Your changing of just "Done" to the statement that also specifies that by "Done" the Player is agreeing to completely end the character creation process is a very wise move.

For some reason, it didn't register that the screen resolution could be affecting just how much text I can see on screen at one time. Hah!

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you that if the interest rate is set to 5% a day that they would be too generous. There wouldn't even be a little bit of a challenge buying the newest equipment just by waiting around and letting the bank do all of the earnings-work. If it's compounded daily, then a rate of 2-3% would be better, or if it's compounded weekly, then the 5% might do. I agree with you that this is one feature that should be tested more thoroughly before making alterations to it. Here in the US one's lucky to find a bank that will even give an extremely meager 1.2% to a member's savings account, and that's for a month's worth of time. I'd assume that since the region's so poor, it's desperate for capital, and banks would probably be more generous to a client that's likely to bring a lot of it into the country.


SUGGESTION
I'd supply two more options to the Character Creation and Leveling Up menu options...
Return all Parameters to previous levels. and...
Return all Skills to previous levels.
If a Player becomes dissatisfied with a number of his choices, it might just be quicker and easier to start from the previous settings for either all of the Parameters or all of the Skills. This way, having to do scores of "Decrease" clicks can be avoided, and reduce a Player's frustrations.


I'm happy that you feel that my dialogue suggestions were sound ones. Always happy to assist where I can.

Looking forward to the next release, as always.

Yours,
Kyle
July 7, 2010

Here's the next test version:

Class System v5 beta

I've fixed the WEAPONINFO_ALT and it was as I suspected, I'd forgotten to add the XM-18 grenade launcher and that caused the CTD.

I've also divided the parameter selection page into 2 pages, since you reported a CTD I checked the log myself, and iven if I dint get a CTD there was a warning about scrolling. Once I divided those screens the warning disappeared and I hope your CTD's will as well.

Sweet! Got it. More later... :grin:

By the way, being a Swede, are you aware of this mod, Cry of Fear using the original Half-Life engine? Their work is incredible. There's no way that I'd ever guess from the screenshots that they're using the original HL engine.

If you ever played the now legendary Afraid of Monsters mod for HL, then you'll have a good idea of what the terrifying potential of this mod is going to be. I never finished that mod. I couldn't take it!

Cry of Fear links:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/cry-of-fear
http://www.cry-of-fear.com/

And the classic Afraid of Monsters. Wear diapers when you play it... I'm serious!
http://www.moddb.com/mods/afraid-of-monsters-dc

Nope, never heard of any of those mods, they look great though and I might give them a whirl when time permits. The sad thing is that I haven't had much time to play other games this past year, the only one I played through was Borderlands. I've recently bought the latest STALKER and hope I'll have time to play that soon, but for the time being most of my spare time goes into a big black hole called Modding 7.62:D

Snipers & Dexterity...
 

I ended up not having time to give build 5 a try last night. :(

But I remembered an observation that I forgot to mention earlier regarding the Sniper's set of attributes. I'd exchange Dexterity for Stealth, or at least reduce the amount of Dexterity for some degree of higher Stealth. But perhaps you know something from digging into the game's guts that I don't, such as perhaps Dexterity plays a much larger role than officially described in sniping at a target.

I envy your ability to play the latest STALKER. My rig can barely play the original STALKER, and the only way I was even able to test the Super Mod Pack was due to the fact that the team working on it is going the extra and generous mile to release a version of the mod for players whose systems are not powerful enough to run the game with higher end graphics. All of the AI, gameplay, and other adjustments are there. If you haven't tried out STALKER with SMP, you can find it here:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/super-mod-pack

STALKER is a great game (another one I haven't finished due to other duties, and now, like you, contributing to 7.62). But someday I will play STALKER to the very end and of that I have no doubt. It's a nearly-perfect game world, where the sense of dread is ever palpable.

I've heard that STALKER's sequel, Clear Sky, isn't as good, but that the Call of Pripryat is right up there with the original STALKER. Oooh man, to have enough money someday to get a new rig! :mad:

One last observation about a mod that's not our own... If STALKER was able to make dread palpable, then Afraid of Monsters makes fear incarnate. I don't know if I'll ever complete that horrifying mod. :grin:

Have to go. I hope to get some time on build 5 tonight!
:)

Yeah, SATLKER is a great game, I played through the first one several times. Haven't tried that mod tho. The second one was a big disapointment since it mostly used the same maps as the first one. It was still great, but I felt ripped off after playing twice for basically the same game. And boy was it bugged at the release, it took several months before they had a patch that made it work for me without too much hassle.

I thought about the Sniper Class's dex/stealth thingy but decided that having the dex was the best way to go. Otherwise the scout and sniper would have almost the sam class skills bar the Reaction/Sniping difference. And I think the dex paramter is the best one for a sniper, changing, clip, draw your secondary weapon, going prone/standing up and similar actions are important, at least how I play it.(I'm only using two or three mercs and leave my sniper without a spotter/ protection)

I'm anxious tho know if the CTD issue has been resolved. If it has we can move on to the naxt step, finding an upper limit to the various attributes. Then off to the new Global AI system, I've already made the basic code for it, around 500 lines, now I need to find some suitable names for the Reloaded maps that will act as permanent maps that the player can conquer.

Personally, I'd like to see a Sniper that acts more like a real sniper. This means most importantly the ability to make precision shots without a lot of aiming time, and makes those shots really count. Concealment is an important aspect for snipers, but it's not their primary skill of focus. In theory, they should be far enough away from the enemy that concealment plays little into their overall strategy.

Tactile speed is also not really a key fundamental with snipers, they concentrate more on deliberate and precise movement than rapid movement. Rapid movements are easier to detect, even at a distance, and could give his position away. Slow and defined movement is what keeps a sniper alive.


The Scout on the other hand should be relying on stealth and concealment as their number-one skill focus. They are usually going to be up close and personal with the enemy, attempting to blend into the surroundings just feet from enemy patrols.

For them, rapid movements are more important than precise movements. They should be relying on CQB-oriented weapon systems, to include hand-to-hand methods and melee weaponry for silent kills. The ability to quickly reload magazines or switch from an SMG to a throwing knife should be fast, while their ability to accurately hit targets at a distance is often a rarely-used skill.


Because of the limited number of squad members, it's often not going to be desirable to use a "spotter" with your sniper. In this game, snipers will usually need to operate solo. Because of this reason, I can understand where you are coming from to give a sniper the ability to quickly swap from their long rifle to a secondary weapon. But I think their primary focus should not be on dexterity or stealth as much as the skills required for precision shooting or their stamina that allows them to crawl in the prone for long distances.

I dunno why, but I have a strong feeling about the sniper class and dexterity when it comes to game mechanics. I always felt that operating heavy machinery is what a sniper does, and dexterity is a good thing to have for that:-P

But this is just speculations on my part, and your idea of adding Stamina to the sniper makes much sense. I think that to fill that need I'll give all the classes an additional skill. Here's what I'm thinking:

Trooper [Class Skills: Strength, Dexterity, Reaction, Shooting, Gunfighting] + HeavyWeapon
Sniper [Class Skills: Eyesight, Agility, Dexterity, Sniping, Camouflage] + Stamina
Skirmisher [Class Skills: Reaction, Stamina, Strength, Shooting, Gunfighting] + Throwing
Sapper [Class Skills: Dexterity, Reaction, Intelligence, Sapper, HeavyWeapon] + Eyesight
Scout [Class Skills: Eyesight, Hearing, Agility, Camouflage, Stealth] + HandToHand
Medic [Class Skills: Health, Energy, Stamina, Intelligence, Medic] + Shooting

Why give the medic shooting as a class skill? Well, this class has only 1 Skill and 4 Parameter, if I added another Parameter it would mean that if this class is chosen, 3 skill points would have to be spent on the medic skill. This way it makes it more balanced and the reason for choosing this class isn't only the Intelligence Parameter this class has.