Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

forman · 2021-11-21 00:43:33

I spoke of this stuff here and there and now I'm going to consolidate with a little more detail from the technical side

1. Trade/Biome restriction

The Original Idea:
Force different groups of players to interact with each other
Promotes interaction
Realism in that some resources are only available in some places
Spacing out groups probably saves system resources when population is high

The problem:
Trading stuff, especially with a language barrier, is frustrating and boring
People may ignore you
The bug in Eve placement often makes the distances anywhere from 2k-10k
Families can't get necessary goods for water (rubber, oil)
Villages perish as soon as the deep well expires

Solution:
Eliminate Biome restrictions
Increase band distances to 1k or more

Why this works:
Families still benefit from trade because they won't have to walk as far
All of the problems are solved because any family /can/ get stuff if they need, they just have to walk
Realism is preserved and improved (obvious)

Why this is easy:
Jason mentioned there are switches to add and remove content
Extending biome bands and disabling the biome restrictions should not be more than two edits and should realistically only take a couple hours

Conclusion:
In so little time, the game is fixed and improved in so many ways

DestinyCall · 2021-11-21 00:49:21

I like this idea a lot. Easy to implement and it would improve quality of life in many situations.

forman · 2021-11-21 01:16:36

I spoke of this stuff here and there and now I'm going to consolidate with a little more detail from the technical side

2. Combat

The Original Idea:
Adds a layer of danger when it comes to bears, boar, and wolves (also snakes and bugs to some extent)
You can kill people who are problematic
The system is intentionally hobbled so that griefers can't use it to be more problematic

The problem:
Bears, wolves etc basically just become an annoyance (hetwu literally marks tiles to prove this point)
The rewards they drop are hardly worth the bother
Boar and bears, as they exist, are both grief-able (in fact, the most damaging griefing technique)
Griefers can just run away, and then come back (which is particularly bad with horses or cars)
The system is clunky and just generally bad (probably because it's intentional)

The solution: Weapons, Armor, Health Pips (players and walls) Scalable Enemies -- and remove the existing system
- As soon as a player pulls a weapon, the screaming and alert is triggered
- Keep the system as it is for bears/wolves (with arrows) and snakes with knives (for close combat)

- Implement basic health pips (maybe five to start off)
- Pads/stiches return base pips after they are damaged
- Armor adds grey pips but as they are damaged they are removed until the armor breaks

- Better weapons do more pip damage (eventually)
- Walls and bears/wolves have same pip health system
- Walls could theoretically be improved with craftables

- Wolves and bears naturally get stronger (more health/damage) over time
- They seek players and will attack walls to access

Why this works:
There will be more things to craft
There are more reasons to build walls and structures (and probably more crafting options here too)
There will be a greater sense of danger and necessity

Why this is easy:
Most of this is scalable -- it will work as it is with basic clothes/knives/bows/walls but leaves opportunity for new craftables
The basic code for health already exists (in bears if not players)
The pip code already exists
Removing the current system may even be a switch
The alert code already exists
Item degradation code already exists (at least for clothes)
Seeking pathfinding code already exists (this may present the greatest challenge though)

Conclusion:
This is considerably more difficult than the previous idea but it's mostly patchwork.
The code already exists in some implementation and just needs to be copied/moved with minor edits and then be tested/debugged.
The only real work here is the pathfinding with respect to destroyable walls.
The algorithm/code needed is surely already written up somewhere because I've seen it in numerous games.
This whole system, without any new items, could be done in a couple days.

forman · 2021-11-21 01:38:04

3. Score/Game Purpose

The Original Idea:
It's a survival game
You are born, contribute, have to say goodbye, and then you die
The game is an experience

The problem:
We've run out of content
The game just repeats itself down a westward tube of bands without purpose
Looting becomes an issue because it takes away from the survival experience

The Solution: Waves of infinitely scaling enemies, Scoreboard, Rewards (elevated privileges, custom skins)

Full disclosure: what I'm basically suggesting is what they did in Don't Starve. In that game, dogs get stronger and more numerous over time.

Scoring has many options, but basic things like total enemies killed and highest level of enemies killed are easily tracked, various achievements/challenges could be added
Families can be scored as well as individuals

For privileges, being able to choose which family you are born into (based on score) having access to better skins or being able to customize your own (at least in color)

Rewards would include score obviously but higher level enemies could also drop rare craftable components (for weapons/armor/walls) a bear-skull helmet, for example

The waves of enemies could be implemented in a variety of ways the point being that instead of running out of water or getting bored, you eventually are overrun

Why this works:
Stories becomes more rich and complex, heroes are born
The game has a purpose with a meaningful scoreboard
Looting becomes risky and rewarding -- a new gameplay aspect rather than a problem
Variety of possibilities for new content to be added

Why this is easy:
Scoreboard already exists and making those changes should be trivial
Enemies and seeking behavior already exists just increase/gauge spawn frequency
Nothing suggested here really requires more coding only scalable changes (like new skins, new achievements/challenges)
These implementations should take no more than a few hours

Last edited by forman (2021-11-21 01:38:42)

arkajalka · 2021-11-23 11:48:06

i like the idea

arkajalka · 2021-11-23 12:03:54

I miss the combat system and the danger that you had in the old dayes. You could actually fight yourself to victory. Nowdayes you just get dropped bears on to and maybe never even meet the griefer that is behind all this.

This is especially true when i play with vanilla client as it is intended to. Theres really no way for me to catch the griefer in action unless he is a monke brain and walks like 4 tiles next to me and as griefers usually run mods. So they see me before i see them and im helpless to combat that cause i play the game as it is inteded to(VANILLA)

Arcurus · 2021-11-23 15:08:01

To biomes:
Instead of biome restrictions i would suggest to make biome boni for different races. Like black likes hotter climate and can pick better stuff from desert and so on...

Also in my implementation the map is limited, so resources are not full endless, but they respawn slowly. Also i plan to have them more on strategic locations...

To combat: in my custom server i implemented it that way, that each hit reduces the max amount of pipes you have. On zero pipes you are dead.
Additionally you need until healed more food. With time you heal unless starved to death. Pads speed the process up.

The combat itself is not yet fully implemented, but the pipe stuff is implemented.

For the combat itself the idea is to switch back to skill combat. You click a tile and if the enemy is in range of the weapon in direction of this tile you hit with X% probability. Certain stuff like how healthy you are and which weapon you use might change X.

Armor would be nice, but this would need client changes unless Jason...
Also not yet 100% sure if the Client would allow something like above in the current form. For sure the max pipes as live points works, this i implemented already.

In my implementation wolfs and so on have a preferred biome, but can walk out. Implementing groups of wolfs that attack should not be that difficult. Wolfs and so on also get offspring if they dont reach the population limit.... so if you do nothing they will multiply.

On top of that the plan is to have a winter, which makes them very hungry.

To walls. My plan was to allow making walls stronger through adding wood. The stronger it is the more hungry work you need to remove it. This should solve the problem, that you cant remove walls at all once build (except with the elder stuff) and allow still to force your way in with effort. When a wall is attacked you get a notice.

I think it can be implemented with the current client.

Also the custom server allows NPCs, so this could also be used as a competition for resources.

For sure you will be attackable on horses... and bear grieving will not be that easy...

To score:
Yea one score could be survival time of the villages with enemies more attracted to older villages...

Adding new enemies would be nice, but would require client change, which is not my focus yet, unless one wants to do.

forman · 2021-11-23 16:52:25

Arcurus wrote:

my custom server

The game is open source so I was most likely looking to fork the code directly in git.

As I mentioned, this will mostly likely be in mid-late December.

If you have your own server implemented, I'd be interested to see once its online.

I'm not really looking to make any major changes -- just basically re arrange existing components to fix the problems.

forman · 2022-10-07 09:24:47

lalalalaal

Arcurus · 2022-10-11 09:46:04

forman wrote:

lalalalaal

In new implemented Open Life Reborn you have race boni instead race restrictions. So you can life together in same village and have kids. Kids will inherit color from parents with a chance to adopt to close nature.

Also the score is changed, it depends now on how well you and your close relatives life (YUM). And kids will alsways give positive score.

With nature attacking stronger with time, im thinking about implementing something like this. currently in Open Life Reborn animals can already move much more free / on top of stuff and leave their biome / migrate by chance. They also multiply if on the right spot. So would not be that difficult to implement some attacks from nature if you mess with nature.

Wolfes go already for not burried bones and in winter they go on food search....

Arcurus · 2022-10-11 09:51:13

And yes combat system is fully redone.

You can hit someone also if not hit the perfect right tile, but then your damage is reduced the more you missed.
Also it uses the exact location to calculate where you are, so it considers also less then full tiles like 0.2 tiles away.

You have now hitpoints equal your max food pipes. So kids have less grown up more unless very old.
Good health / YUM increases also your max food pipes / hitpoints.

Different weapons do different damage.

Clothing protects against some damage depending on insulation.

You get prestige / score mali for attacking kids / close relatives / allies and so on (if they have no weapeon)

For sure it needs some more testing and balancing, but should be much better already then vanilla where only leader can kill.

Last edited by Arcurus (2022-10-11 12:24:39)

Arcurus · 2022-10-11 09:56:25

... and if you want, Open Life Reborn is fully written in Haxe, so quite easy to setup and code. Switching to Haxe knowing a C Style language is super duper easy I learned it also on the fly by making the new server.

Since the new server can be compiled restarted in few seconds and saves player data its also super easy to debug stuff and try out new stuff.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2021-11-21 00:43:33

Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#2 2021-11-21 00:49:21

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#3 2021-11-21 01:16:36

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#4 2021-11-21 01:38:04

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#5 2021-11-23 11:48:06

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#6 2021-11-23 12:03:54

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#7 2021-11-23 15:08:01

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#8 2021-11-23 16:52:25

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#9 2022-10-07 09:24:47

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#10 2022-10-11 09:46:04

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#11 2022-10-11 09:51:13

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

#12 2022-10-11 09:56:25

Re: Relatively Quick, Easily Coded Game Fixes

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