Resident Evil: Discussion Thread [Concluded]

[Seon]

I am already in! Whoo :p

[Askthepizzaguy]

Poor Catharsis. Someone took your name.

Catharsis, my fellow CFC'ers, is named Amsel over here.

Welcome Amsel.

[Sprig]

I do have one question I am guessing that this game will last till beyong christmas or new year. Will the game go into a break for the period? I am guessing that there will be a lot of inactives and not even I can commit to make it to a computer during that period.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I do have one question I am guessing that this game will last till beyong christmas or new year. Will the game go into a break for the period? I am guessing that there will be a lot of inactives and not even I can commit to make it to a computer during that period.

Let's see....

Phase One should be done by the 30th of November, I'm sure.

I estimate 2-3 days per phase, so....

Dec 3- Phase 2
Dec 6- Phase 3
Dec 9- Phase 4
Dec 12- Phase 5
Dec 15- Phase 6
Dec 18- Phase 7
Dec 21- Phase 8
Dec 24- Phase 9

I am hoping to get 9 or 10 phases in before we get to Christmas. After that, I'll have to figure something out. There should be a bunch of dead people by then.

What I will probably do is extend the phases to 3 or 4 days apiece, after perhaps a 2 day Christmas Eve/Day break and perhaps a 2 day New Years Eve/Day break. After New Years I'll return the game to normal speed.

I think this should be OK. I'll set everyone who doesn't get their orders in within the 4 day period to "defense" and "run away" mode, without moving them. That way most of them should take almost no damage and shouldn't die over the break. But I do have to keep the game moving even a little bit, or else the game risks stagnating. I'll take it slow and compensate for the inactivity but I will need to keep things rolling.

I'd be willing to halt the game entirely during the Christmas-New Years period, but given how I am worried people will drop from the game or forget about it... I'd want to maybe put it to a vote and get people to promise they won't abandon mah game.

[Splitpersonality]

I want to sign up AGAIN...

Becuase this game shall be amazing

[Sprig]

Heh, by Christmas you will be screaming for a break yourself :P

[Askthepizzaguy]

Frozen in Ice would like to join.


Frequently asked questions:

4. I am very interested in the premise of the game and would like to join, but I am worried about the amount of time I will have to spend on it. So basically my question is it the type of game that requires a lot time or is it more of the type where I can get away with spending only a little bit on it every day when I'm busy but then get more involved as my time frees up?

A: Yes exactly! The action phases (player's order send-in phase) are 48 hours long unless I have all your orders. And then it takes another 24 hours for the host to roll the dice, move the people, and send out 80 reports to 80 players. So a few minutes every 3 days. It should be fun, but not at all taxing of your time.

[Zain]

In

Although I am already signed up, I figured I would go public.

[Diamondeye]

Thanks for the advice, guise.

And Sprig over here seems to be with a capitalized 's'. Is that on purpose, Sprig?

[Renata]

Catharsis had to change his name? What a travesty. *waves at the CFC-ers*

[WilliamWallace]

I would like to join this game.

[Beskar]

Hey WW, this is off-topic, but could you edit your signature to make the text clearer? It is nearly impossible to read in it's current state.

[seireikhaan]

In, if I can be a zombie.

[Ephrum]

In

[Karo]

I'm in

[Amsel]

Catharsis had to change his name? What a travesty. *waves at the CFC-ers*

It certainly is! 'Bob' was available, but not 'Catharsis'. Up is down, hamburgers eat people! *waves back*

Anyway, this is just a concrete confirmation of playership in-thread: that is to say, in.

[Sprig]

Thanks for the advice, guise.

And Sprig over here seems to be with a capitalized 's'. Is that on purpose, Sprig?

Yip


Question: Are we able to make noise? Our awarness is limited but sound travels a long way.

What if my character was to yell out 'help me' would anyone hear it? or at least know the direction it came from?

[Askthepizzaguy]

More frequently asked questions:


5. which skill makes you use weapons the best... Combat?

A: That's a good question. If you mean the actual combat itself, then:

Melee weapons: Combat, Speed, and Strength
Ranged weapons: Combat

Although high stealth can get you first strikes much easier, and help you avoid combat if you wish.
Awareness will help you avoid getting surprise attacked with first strikes and can help you get first strikes against those who use stealth on you. Luck helps you avoid damage, but not consistently. Basically all skills come up in combat, but as for dealing damage, you want to have some combat skills.

6. Can you attack some one without them attacking back?

A: Yes. A first strike will cause damage without retaliation on the first round of combat. Then if they are set to "run away" they won't counterattack they will just run. There will be no second round of combat.

7. What about sniper shots?

A: Snipers are a different beast. If you choose to "sniper", you must have a long range weapon (sniper weapon), not every gun can do this. When you sniper someone, you don't move that turn, and you fire at someone in your awareness radius. They cannot counterattack unless they also happened to be sniping at you at the same time. And they will only see you if they already saw you.

8. Can different factions work together / not automatically attack each other?

A: Yes.

9. What about zombies, can I work with the zombies? Or the plague demons?

A: Zombies are different, they cannot cooperate with you. They are part of the zombie horde and have limitations on what they can do. And uh, the plague demons aren't friendly...

10. Are we able to make noise? Our awarness is limited but sound travels a long way.

A: Well, that's good thinking, but it goes against the limitations of what I designed the game to do. Let's pretend if you were to do something like that, the entire zombie horde comes after you, and that's the reason why you can't. However, there is something in the game, the flare gun, which if you fire it into the air, everyone on the map can see it. You can use that to rally people to your location... or lure them into a trap.

11. Do we start with 0 points on everything? When choosing what to add points to, Is there a limit to the amount of points I can assign to any one attribute ?

A: You start with all your points evenly distributed. You can choose to take away points from one category and add it to the other. So if you don't assign your points, all your skill sets will have an average number of points. And yes, your maximum in a category at the start of the game is 10.

12. If I'm attacked does the attack take a fixed amount of my vitality or does it vary? Could I die in one strike (with no chance to fight back or run away), or would it take many?

A: Some weapons will cause more than one point of damage if you are hit successfully. Yes, you can die in one strike with certain weapons. For example: If you get blasted by the rocket-propelled grenade, you can possibly die instantly (especially if your luck fails). If you get hit repeatedly by an automatic weapon (several shots fired in one combat round) you can lose enough vitality to die that round. Also, some players will have the strength, speed, and skill to cause severe damage with melee weapons.

However, any attack which removes your final vitality point gets a special 50/50 "saving throw". If you win the "saving throw" you will survive the attack and keep your final vitality point.

In celebration of the big round number.

[Diamondeye]

It certainly is! 'Bob' was available, but not 'Catharsis'. Up is down, hamburgers eat people! *waves back*

Anyway, this is just a concrete confirmation of playership in-thread: that is to say, in.

In soviet Russia...

Well, yeah, anyways. I'll just add you guys as friends here. If I can do that as Junior Member :p

[Ferret]

However, any attack which removes your final vitality point gets a special 50/50 "saving throw". If you win the "saving throw" you will survive the attack and keep your final vitality point.

Can this save throw be used multiple times? Seems like you could survive a long time if you get lucky.

edit: also can you combine the 'cooperate' and 'vigilante' statuses so that you try to ally with humans but attack any zombies?

[Stildawn]

Im sure Pizzaguy will take into account whatever your orders are.... So I dont see why he couldnt combine any number of plans... I was sure as hell going to combined a few?

[Beefy187]

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Can you have more then two weapons?
Eg, can you have a sniper rifle and a sub machine gun at the same time?

[Sprig]

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Can you have more then two weapons?
Eg, can you have a sniper rifle and a sub machine gun at the same time?

Probably but it might slow you down a bit.

[Askthepizzaguy]

See below

14. Can this save throw be used multiple times? Seems like you could survive a long time if you get lucky.

Yes. Every time your final vitality point is taken away, you have a 50/50 chance at life or death.

This means someone can shoot at you with a machine pistol 4 times in a combat round, and have you miraculously survive each bullet. Or you could die on the first one.

See below

15. Also can you combine the 'cooperate' and 'vigilante' statuses so that you try to ally with humans but attack any zombies?

No, and here's why:

Alliances will be a powerful strategic advantage. In order to gain access to the benefits of alliances, players have to risk something. The first thing they have to risk is being betrayed, but as it stands there are quite a few more townspeople than there are anti-townspeople. So the risk is real, but not completely prohibitive. The second thing they have to risk is their immediate safety during that round.

In order to indicate to someone you just met, in a survival situation, with crazy murderous psychos around, that you aren't a threat... you have to approach them with caution, with your weapons lowered, obviously and visually non-threatening. This is the only way they will be willing to trust you. Or, for the sake of the game being a challenge, that is what I have deemed necessary. If you do this, you risk being the victim of a first strike, much like being caught in stealth mode causes such a risk. In order to gain something you must risk something. Your weapon being lowered means anything in the area that is hostile to humans will attack you first, and that's what you risk.

On subsequent phases you may be more aggressive, but your ally (which you now recognize and trust) will never be a target of your weapons fire ever again, unless you tell me you wish to attack them specifically.

See below, paraphrased

16. When are you allowed to combine orders, and when is it not allowed?

Here I have to say I am not sure. It depends on what the orders are, and I'll have to make a ruling depending on the situation.

If you wanted to do two incompatible things, such as "search" and "stealth" (how can you search thoroughly and remain hidden at the same time?) I have to rule against it.

There is an area where I will say yes, you can do this: You can issue a "stand your ground" order with exceptions. For example: You could order me to have your character stand his/her ground in battle until you are in danger of death, and then run away. Say you had 8 vitality points, and you felt confident enough to stand your ground... well, you risk death if you stand your ground against a more powerful foe or a group of attackers. So, let's say you lost 6 vitality in that battle, and you decided more than that is too much to risk. You could tell me you wish to leave the battle if you lose 50% of your health or more, or a certain number of vitality points (VP).

That kind of specificity I can handle, because I feel removing that option from the players would limit creativity while also gaining nothing in terms of simplicity, and balance. It allows intelligent play without sacrificing much of anything, and it isn't hard for me to implement, so it's in.

The trouble with some orders is that they are mutually exclusive of other orders. I can't combine the advantages (and therefore cancel out the risk) of say, cooperation attempts and also aggressive actions. One is a passive action, the other is aggressive. For the purposes of this game, in order to gain the advantage of one you have to lose the advantage of the other. The best compromise there is vigilante mode, where you attack non-humans only. If you see someone requesting cooperation while you're in vigilante mode, you might stay put and offer the same next round, hoping they also stay put and continue requesting cooperation. The risk there is that they don't stay put and you lose a round while also leaving yourself vulnerable.

To make headway in this game you have to risk something. Risk moving too far into unexplored territory.... risk losing time by staying put... risk your life and health by doing aggressive actions... risk giving up the first strike to aggressive people by doing passive or defensive actions... risk being sneaked up on while doing sniper actions.... and so on and so forth. To gain, you must risk. That is how I maintain game balance and ensure fairness, and also make it so there is no single correct strategy for the game which breaks it, or makes it dull and uninteresting.

See below

17. Not sure if this has been asked before. Can you have more then two weapons? Eg, can you have a sniper rifle and a sub machine gun at the same time?

Yes. You can carry an unlimited number of weapons and items and gear, but at a certain point I will tack on a penalty to your speed, which reduces your ability to fight in melee situations, and reduces your movement points on the map. I will do this when (in my judgment) you have several heavy weapons or you have a super-heavy weapon. This will not apply if you keep the total number of weapons in your inventory to a reasonable amount that you think you could actually carry in real life.

For example it's possible to carry several pistols without a problem. Several gun holsters makes it easy. You might also strap a couple of machine pistols to your legs. You might have a sniper rifle with a strap around your shoulder, and a shotgun in your hands.

What would be a neat trick is carrying a rifle, a shotgun, and a grenade launcher. At that point, you aren't going to be moving around as well or as fast. Now pile on 4 more guns and try beating anyone in a melee battle. I want to keep it as realistic as possible in my judgment.

18. Also, a related point: During any given combat round can you use more than one weapon, perhaps one in each hand fired simultaneously?

You can use a different weapon on a different combat round, but not two different ones in the same round. The one exception is if you're using two guns that come as a pair. For example there's a pair of machine pistols that come as a pair and effectively count as one weapon. In all other cases, there are no exceptions.

19. Can you combine two similar pistols and treat them as a pair?

No. Pistols will be relatively common and there will be little point in having automatic weapons in the game when you could effectively turn common pistols into an automatic weapon simply by holding one in each hand. I know this breaks the realism a bit, but it's for the purposes of simplicity (I have made only rare sacrifices in realism for the sake of simplicity) and game balance. If I allowed that, I'd have to make automatic weapons even more powerful than they already are, and then anyone with automatic weapons will destroy anyone with any other kind of weapon, and that's a game balance issue. They are already powerful enough and I do not believe two handguns are more powerful than a single sub-machine gun, and that's the only reason I won't allow combining two weapons.

I really would if I could, but I'd need to re-work the game mechanics and I like them as they are. Maybe next game.

Probably but it might slow you down a bit.

Correct.

There is also a weapon or two (very rare) which all by themselves encumber your movement and speed. These are special exceptions which are put in there for balancing purposes.

[Ephrum]

I suggest that we all be very nice to Askthepizzaguy and send him basic orders because already this seems like it's going to consume his life temporarily.

[Ferret]

thank you for the detailed reply

and yeah, you can trust that ATPG will put the effort in to make this a great game

[Thermal]

I think ATPG enjoys being so unbelievably busy with things like this.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I suggest that we all be very nice to Askthepizzaguy and send him basic orders because already this seems like it's going to consume his life temporarily.

Actually I don't mind detail, just try to keep it under 2,000 words... And remember to highlight the important parts.

and yeah, you can trust that ATPG will put the effort in to make this a great game

Just need more players. Strange, a lot of people have read my invitation and not replied one way or the other.

[Zain]

People tend to do that, even when they see a great game.

[Amsel]

Maybe it's the long rules post that puts people off. Not a comment on your rules-post, ATPG, it was clear and well-written, but I know when I see long swathes of regulations I usually end up playing with the scroll-wheel ("whee, look at how fast it goes"). To be honest, it's a testament to your skills at this sort of thing that I got this far at all.

Surely people will come eventually, they've got to. This looks like it'll be worth seeing from the inside.

By the way, Frozen In Ice isn't on the signup list: is that just because he hasn't made an account yet?