Semi-authentic mode is being replaced by something awesome: a hybrid of FA and Open modes. This might not make the next build. Don't kill me. A long time ago, some team member mentioned that it'd be interesting to have a mode where the Open-style point setup could be determined by the mapper, rather than us.
This got me to thinking about how cool it might be to have a mode that was a sort of hybrid of FA and Open modes. Here is what I have so far:
- Mappers can define a point buy to connect various FA properties to points. These properties currently include: MB attributes, force powers, class flags, saber styles, weapons, holdables, customveh, speed, AP multiplier, and BP multiplier. This set of properties will expand in the future, probably to include weapon overrides.
- The last 4 default to their FA values in their absence. The rest need to be explicitly given buyable values. All other FA properties, including models and class limits, are defaulted to their FA values.
- The game can create a menu for you. However, if you wish to customize the menu, you can do so, as long as you name it the same thing the game would.
- If you do not create an SA, a default one will be used. Currently, the SA defaults emulate the MB Open mode classes. This effectively turns your SA into per class limits on the MB Open mode classes.
I've attached a sample new SA .mbch file. Note that behind the scenes, MB associates buyables with force powers to build off of the base point buy code. Not all force powers are available to each team, and some have special properties. All of this will be documented for mappers upon release of the system.
This is what it looks like (SA and screenies by S1):
Now, I want your opinion. Droid suggested that we might use this mode as a way to revive point progression in an interesting way. The current point progression system is broken. After a lot of discussion with various team members, I've come up with the following spec for point progression.
- Like penalty points, equipment points are retained for a certain period of time if a player wishes to reconnect to the same server. (This is already implemented.)
- Player enters a server. He is granted a certain amount of points, ramped based on the number of rounds the server has had people playing in it, if he's not recovering points from before.
- Player is granted points for completing a round on the winning team.
- Player is granted points based on completing an objective. The map may override the default for given objectives.
- Player keeps track of damage dealt. Dealing damage to the enemy team adds damage, while dealing damage to your team subtracts damage. Every x positive damage dealt, you gain points. Every y negative damage dealt, you lose points. This ensures that you don't lose points if someone steps in front of your weapon if you're doing a good job.
- A player's class defines his max and min points. If you switch to a class with a lower limit, you lose those points.
- The map may override the default thresholds we set for gains and loss of points.
Feedback would be appreciated. MBII Official Forum Thread for Feedback
