Player levels

[POSTMAN]

A cool-ish idea I had, yes it's sorta copied off of dead island.

We could have a player "leveling" system.

In the tab menu each player could have a "level:#" next to them,
Also in the players hud, near the top, could be a bar that is a % full of their progress twords their next rank.
this level could increase weapon damage (removing the need for the weapon handling skill),
and could also have price benefits, along with ego type things.

Levels could be like this: Rank1: 500 points, rank2: 800 points, rank3: 1000 points (etc)
(this would have to be changed based on how hard it is to progress levels.

Each level would be worth an increasing number of points, with a cap around say, 100.

XP could also be done away with, and instead, after each level up, (or half level up) the players could get a certain # of upgrade points,
that could be spent on upgrading skills.


Zombies could be leveled(and have a "Level: #" above their heads)
The zombie levels would be an average of all player levels on the server (more weighted twords the most common level), and you would get a certain # of
points twords the next level per zombie kill.

The way you could determine zombie levels:

Make tables of each level that has players of it.

Players (players names are letters, followed by rank)
A:1
B:3
C:6
D:12
E:11
F:23
G:1
H:5
I:5
J:1

Rank1[A,G,J]
Rank3[B]
Rank5[H,I]
Rank6[C]
Rank11[E]
Rank12[D]
Rank23[F]

Then using this equation, you would find a percent of each rank.

(Rank#:count()*100)/Total#OfPlayers //100 is for 100% of players,# is the current rank, I.e. 1, 3, 5, etc

so, with #'s, for rank 1:
(2*100)/10 = 20% of players are rank 1

Repeat for all ranks:
(3*100)/10 = 30 //rank 1
(1*100)/10 = 10 //rank 3
(2*100)/10 = 20//rank 5
(1*100)/10 = 10//rank 6
(1*100)/10 = 10//rank 11
(1*100)/10 = 10//rank 12
(1*100)/10 = 10//rank 23
100% total

(or as i just found out, you could just do Rank#*10)(I was using another method that worked for a lot of things other than this)

Then to get a weighted average, do the following:

(Rank %/100)*Rank# //then add each of these up, it would look like this:

(30/100)*1 + //rank 1 0.3
(10/100)*3 + //rank 3 0.3
(20/100)*5 + //rank 5 1
(10/100)*6 + //rank 6 0.6
(10/100)*11 + //rank 11 1.1
(10/100)*12 + //rank 12 1.2
(10/100)*23 + //rank 23 2.3

= 6.8 //would be the level of the zombies (with added fluctuation of like 2: 4.8 - 8.8)

6.8 is more heavily leaned twords people with rank 1, as there is more of them on the server than others, but still takes into account all other ranks.
This way if someone joined with rank 50, there wouldnt be rank like 42 zombies walking around (if you had just averaged)
Zombie levels would effect their health, mostly, perhaps speed as well.


That is all I can think of for this idea, but I'm sure you could make a level system influence more than just zombie difficulty.

[Remnant John]

i sort of TL;DR'd on the equation stuff, mostly because i don't code, sorry.

but i do agree, this would add ALOT more depth to the WHOLE game.
i'd never be bored again, especially if it went to level 100!

i really hope this is implemented

[CmdZoidberg]

We already sort of have a leveling system in the game though it only applies to individual skills rather than the character as a whole. But I agree, the leveling system we have now could use a boot up it's backside to make it more interesting. The grind I've had to endure to reach level 6 in Mining was astounding, it's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy (well... Maybe). I really do like the idea about zombies scaling by the average level between the current players. An alternative idea I have would be instead of increasing zombie levels, it instead increases the spawn rate/cap and also throws in the possibility of spawning more dangerous zombies instead of your average shuffler. A group of level 50's would jump for joy at the challenge of fighting a horde of sprinters.

Don't suspect this idea to get a lot of support but its one I'd like to suggest anyway. Working with the idea of having player levels and the ability to upgrade skills and attributes as you level, perhaps to throw in a bit more difficulty into the game we could have weapon skill requirements? That way people would need to chose between making a Warrior type character who has access to all the guns and kicks ass, a Merchant type who has the necessary skills to thrive in the games economy, or even try to find their own balance between the two. If you do go for this idea though, I think it would be best to introduce a level cap just to avoid getting a God Merchant to rule over the server.

[eldarstorm]

Cap would be interesting and would make you create a more specific type of toon.
Leveling system for players though, not so sure about that. the leveling system purposed would take a compleat recode of the system, so that would take alot of consideration. When we put it together we decided to go for a skills based system, instead of a leveling system.

As for the leveling system for the NPC's, that does sound interesting.... but, would you really want the new zombies to have the capability to get stronger?

[[TBU] CrazyKid]

I would LOVE for the new zombies to have the capability to get stronger!!!

[POSTMAN]

The zombies wouldn't really get stronger, they would just be a weighted average level of all players, so it's fair for all.

[LostInTheWired]

Skills behind the scene was one of my jobs, so lemme take a stab at why it's designed this way, not to say that we wouldn't change it.

Basically, we wanted to give people full freedom on how to specialize their character, without anything seeming too arbitrary or too abstracted. In my ideal (not sure about eldar), skills would rise with use. Honestly though, too little gain for too much work. Especially with the workload ahead. Also, it would almost feel like it forced you on things. Really, skills are currently an Alpha system. Not feature complete. XP needs to come from more places, skills need to be more varied and diverse. To top that all off, we need to eventually make it modification friendly, which it's not since it's so hardcoded.

But, in my opinion, we have made the best choice for now, although that may change. I've also been considering XP milestones (kinda like levels, but far more simplified) where you get to choose different sorta perks or something, but I almost feel like that's stealing. XD Overall, unless someone thinks of a better way for people to be able to specialize how they want, it'll probably stay pretty similar.

EDIT: Btw, the stronger zombies by level of players isn't a bad idea. We already increase spawn rates depending on number of players, maybe we can do amount of overall xp too.