A continuation of my post from Spawning with Clothes? - #4 by RedCo
Alright, I have a feeling many of my fellow Forum members are wondering how to balance out new players and old. This is the status quo in almost every multiplayer survival game on the gaming market; new players join a server, veteran players curbstomp them into oblivion and sadness. Well, fear not, for Comrade Red has hammered out a possible solution to this age-old problem.
Please proceed with a clear and open mind, as this entire topic is a work in progress. Please leave any suggestions and concerns below and keep conversations civil.
Starting Bonuses and Supplies
This is directly inspired from a standalone mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. called Dead Air.
Essentially the basic premise of this is the choices a player can make from the character creation menu. Please note that these starting bonuses only apply to the first time that a player joins the server, once he/she dies, these bonuses are lost.
The player can create âloadoutsâ in character creation, located in the main menu, but are also prompted with a selection once he/she joins a server for the first time, with the option to create a new character if desired.
The first bonus is the playerâs skillset. The skillset is the characterâs previous occupation, such as law enforcement, construction worker, etc. This skillset will affect how quickly the character gains experience for a specific skill, but at the same time skillset will negatively affect the experience multiplier for another skill, for example an assasin or hitman might specialize in bladed weapons, sniper rifles, and handguns, but would gain less experience on heavy weapons such as explosives and machine guns.
The second is based upon a point system, with each character having 100 points to use. The player is given a selection of kits and skills, the latter of which may be difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise. The kits would range from a basic set of equipment, which contains some starting gear such as a sawed-off shotgun and buckshot, a jacket, shirt, pants, and shoes, a lighter and some food and water; to a more advanced combat kit that would contain a low-tier automatic weapon, ammunition, and perhaps a tactical rig. Skills would cost 10 points each, and would range from Iron Stomach, for example, which greatly reduces the chances of food poisoning and perhaps palate fatigue; to Attentiveness, which both increases searching speed and also increases the chances of finding better loot from randomized spawns.
Wave System
Now, some may protest the point system which allows for starting gear as giving some players an unfair advantage, but for this I also introduce what I call âspawn waves.â Essentially, once a server is âwiped,â or starts anew, akin to Rust, players that join the server would be classified by waves. The selection of kits available to players depends on which wave they are in. The first wave would be the pioneers in the new area, and represent those who entered the area first or were living there when the apocalypse occured. The second wave consists of those who moved shortly into the area after, with the third and fourth having come in from other, farther areas, meaning that they have a much wider selection of kits as well as more high-tier gear than the other two waves to compensate for the fact that they joined late.
Well, thatâs all for today, I guess. Red out.