MA: Under the hood: bigger, stronger, better!

... and we will get new little (bug)friends

 

Under the hood: bigger, stronger, better!

One of the many cool new things were working on right now is the items upgrade and enhancement system, due for release soon.

Almost all items can be upgraded to new tiers, and the tier system allows for the connection of a number of enhancement chips that can slot into an item. It works like this: you take an item that you want to improve and begin using it. With usage you increase the items tier like when you get normal skill experience. Every new stage (Tier 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 etc) one additional socket slot opens up on the item. For limited items the progress is fully automatic while for unlimited items you need to manually upgrade the tier when it reaches a new stage.

An enhancement chip can be connected to a socket. Chips have different functions (weapon chips may add damage, range, accuracy or durability, while armor chips add defense, and mining finder chips add range or search depth to name but a few examples) and can be mixed in order for a player to create their own customized version of their favorite item would you focus on maximizing your damage, or maybe add range and thus creating your own sniper rifle, or maybe be more economical and reduce ammo burn and deterioration? Or a mix you decide! And if your current mix is unsatisfactory, you can always disconnect and connect other enhancement chips to the slots.

Enhancement chips manufacturing is a new branch in the crafting system. To create the actual enhancement chips, you need blueprints as well as ingredients. Using them, you can create the chips that you can use yourself or sell on to others.

This addition to Planet Calypso will expand the usability of items, making them better and more dynamic than before, making it an easy system even for beginners. It also introduces a high level game to improve the best items to even higher levels, making the enhancement system something for both newcomers as well as veterans.

Source: http://www.entropiagateway.com/2009/12/under-the-hood-bigger-stronger-better/

 

It all depends on how much these chips end up costing, of course, but it certainly sounds interesting. I get a sneaky suspicion that these things aren't going to be cheap though. ;)

 

I can just imagine all the ubers running around with Tier 20 Mod Faps filled to bursting point with durability chips. lol.

 

I am kind of excited, I think it takes the game in the right direction if its done properly

I am afraid of 2 things and probably alteast 1 will be true at time of launch...That they are gonna be extremely expensive and/or Limited. That would be a nice anticlimax.

Here is some hopes though that I have with the system

1. You have to USE the item to unlock next tier. It sounds like it will be this way. I was kind of hoping higher skills would mean higher tier unlocks at first but then I realized activity and usage is better so Warants will stay at Tier 1 for a year or so in average

2. I hope that the enhancements are unlimited and comes with a reasonable amount of decay. Like adding 4dmg for 1pec kind of style slowly nerfing guns in average but making up for it in adding more DPS and more FUN. Maybe keeping my EP41 for so long gives me a option to make it a decently high DPS killing machine without spending a fortune

3. Marco mentions range,dmg,accuracy,lower decay and Heal Enhancement attachments. I would like to also see reload and lower skilldemand for L fap attachment. There are several L faps I would gladly pay 1pec extra decay for to use for a level decrease of lets say 5 levels. The "lower decay" attachment is interesting also. I assume the decay removed from the gun will be reflected by decay on the enhancement making it kind of useless on a UL gun but for instance on L guns I can see abunch of them getting more eco thanks to deleted some decay on the gun and therefor taking away some extra markup from %

4. I hope high end items lose some value thanks to other items being able to close the gap some. Might happen,might not but I seriously doubt MindArk would like Mod Merc doing 40more dmg as example at Tier 10 than Ep41 doing 40more dmg at Tier 10...maybe I am just hoping

All in all though, this aint the first time we get promised something that sounds awesome but instead getting a turd polished and repackaged as tasty fudge

 

Why increase the dura on a mod fap? Increase is healing speed.. or max heal.


I wonder how the decay on these will work and if they will be near to anything as eco as existing amps/weapons

Or that this is a downgrade.

 

Quite sure it will be a downgrade in general. I can see the durability/decay enhancement being very useful though on L guns in theory.

Right now for instance my EP41 which I use for about 1minute a day in average the last 1,5years is about 4,20 dmg/pec. If I could add 30dps to that without spending a fortune and still maintain a 4,08-4,12 dmg/pec ratio I would be very pleased

 

This made me think of an article about ZT online or some other Chinese mmorpg. The lvls 1/2/3 were easy to get, as you added more stars/tiers to the item there was a % chance it could fail and destroy all previous stars with it so you had to start again, no refund. And each tier/level costed X times more than previous level, similar to our skills. I think this will be MA/FPCs approach.



This is the only ZT online bookmark I have so must be buried in here or on some link from it.

http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php

Totally agree with this but in this Universe uberness can/will always be bought regardless of time spent in game

 

"...more dynamic than before..."

Great, just what we need...

On the upside, this sh!t won't be happening for quite some time if ever. Just more Smoke Up The @ss for the noobs and the gullible to get starry-eyed over.

 

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Marco said your knife will kill Hogglos in 3hits and for less than 2ped a kill when its fully enhanced!

 

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excellent idea, very similar to how i envisaged a weapon crafting system in a game project. i dont want a high power long range tagger, a 100m opalo will do, etc. I can make a not-so-eco but fast+high heal fap for CP. we can tailor items to our style, not the other way round.

but there is the downside for merging this into an existing system, alot of specialist or fringe weapons just dropped massivly in value. also, not too keen on accuracy modifiers or similar skill related buffs. for me easily maxed L has never really sat with well alongside supposed skill based system, this further degrades the value of skills.
ah... but it seems the tiers will be skill related. looks like it might actually have been thought through.

 

I dont see anywhere where it says it will be skillrelated unless you mean indirectly since a unlimited old school weapon with all tiers unlocked should be a pretty good gun in theory. That might create a need for skills again...Problem is that L guns will probably get similarly upgraded and still remain weapon of choice.

This change can do some awesome stuff in terms of prices. Inactive people still keeping some items such as FoeRipper might see that specific FoeRipper lose alot of its value if a Tier 10 Strikehammer can perform better for a total cost of way less (in theory). Opens up for professions as "item leveler" I guess for some people.

This could also mess up auction quite abit unless they will separate guns and tiers so people dont pay to much for a tier1 since markup is based on average which might be atleast tier5 and up.

I do feel some sorrow for Terminator and Imp.DOA guns..who is gonna level them up?:p


PS. Offering Powerleveling of Laser and BLP guns free of charge..only pay losses!

 

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hmm, the text is typically open to misinterpretation. by saying that with usage they gain slots like skills, i assumed the tiers are unlocked in relation to skill. but rereading it i see your interpretation, that the actuall usage of the weapon itself is tracked and gains slots. this makes more sence, we wont have people running round with uber grade opalos.

have they just killed off (or at least limited) the reseller market? weapons sitting idle drop in value while those in use gain?

 

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