I want to add a feature to my game that would allow characters to become skilled more with a specific instance of a weapon. In other words, you could have two identical rifles, but your character is better with one than the other. Farscape inspired me to push this idea. Winona [smile] Where other skills in this game are increased specifically by the human player using points, this "personal" attribute would increase very slowly over time, as they use the weapon, automatically. One of the problems I'm facing is storing either an experience-count per weapon for each character or an experience-count per character for each weapon. Either way, it seems like a linked list type setup would be needed. Where maybe the list could be scanned at certain points and a fast-access record could be stored somewhere. Sorry, I guess I'm getting into coding aspects. The other problem is having a bunch of instances of weapons. I actually didn't want to allow the player to be able to see their personal skill with specific weapons, but how could the player possibly know which of two identical weapons is the one they are better with? Also, shops will not sell specific weapons. They will have a store amount of each type and would be restocked based on time. That means if you sold a personal weapon, it's gone forever. I guess this isn't a big deal, but a lot of players would probably upgrade weapons throughout the game, and at some point, buy a better weapon, and have it not be as effective as their last weapon. If the player cannot see their personal skill, it's impossible to determine unless you target practice with both. So I was wondering what other people think about it. Should I allow the player to see the personal skill? Or how could I avoid showing a number attribute while still showing even small differences in the skill? Color coded perhaps?

Initially I thought you were just going for a basic weapons experience system: Player A has caused X amount of total damage with the weapon, so he is level Y and therefore the gun has a Z% smaller firing radius compared to where the gun is actually pointed. Something like that. I like the sound of that, especially if you don't tell Player A that he has leveled up with the gun, nor what leveling up even entails.

However if I'm following you correctly, you want Player A to have a skill level specific to Assault Rifle A? And when he/she fires Assault Rifle B (which is the exact same kind of gun), Player A will recieve no such bonus? Is that what you're saying? If so, I don't think it will go over particularly well. It seems needlessly complicated and unrealistic. Why would the player be inept at handling a physically identical weapon? Furthermore, knowing this, why would any player ever give up that weapon?

One of the things I really hate in an RPG is enhancing a weapon that will eventually be thrown away. I just can't get behind it. The benefits are temporary, so I'd rather move through the game quicker rather than spend the time get the enhancement. It seems like a waste of time to me, rather than carrying a power-up through to the end of the game. That may just be me, though.

If you're going to do it, definitely don't give it a number the player can see. Maybe give the "familiarity" with that particular weapon an enumerated rank:

Cold steel - unfamiliar - not bad - familiar - trustworthy - an old friend

The idea is slightly more appealing if there is an easily achievable rank and as the game progresses the player is forced to switch his/her limited supply of weapons (like how you can only carry 2 in Halo and some are better than others). That way, you can start out with the pistol, get it up to the highest rank after a level or two, and then find you're better suited with the shotgun and sub machine gun. If you later need to pick up a pistol, you'll be starting from scratch, sure, but it's not hard to work the weapon up to the cap (which shouldn't offer an incredible boost, BTW, just a somewhat significant one). Although as I think about this, I don't see why the same system wouldn't work just as well if the specific gun doesn't matter, only it's type.

It's an interesting concept, and I'm not saying it isn't worth merrit, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find a situation where it makes a whole lot of sense. Still, you might be able to make it work if you're that into it and are willing to take the time to code it. Make sure it fits the game itself, though. Tailoring an idea to fit into a game is fine. Tailoring a game to match an idea is the devil.

Good luck!

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Original post by CyberSlag5k Initially I thought you were just going for a basic weapons experience system: Player A has caused X amount of total damage with the weapon, so he is level Y and therefore the gun has a Z% smaller firing radius compared to where the gun is actually pointed. Something like that. I like the sound of that, especially if you don't tell Player A that he has leveled up with the gun, nor what leveling up even entails.

This exists as well, but not specifically for weapon types. Characters only have skills in weapon categories, such as pistols or cannons, and not glocks or miniguns. Although the personal experience I'm suggesting could work this way instead of referring to specific instances.

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However if I'm following you correctly, you want Player A to have a skill level specific to Assault Rifle A? And when he/she fires Assault Rifle B (which is the exact same kind of gun), Player A will recieve no such bonus? Is that what you're saying? If so, I don't think it will go over particularly well. It seems needlessly complicated and unrealistic. Why would the player be inept at handling a physically identical weapon? Furthermore, knowing this, why would any player ever give up that weapon?

The personal experience would be different than normal skills. The type of bonuses you get with the personal "levels" would be unique, like increased manual firing rates or faster reload times. This is a futuristic setting, and weapons are a bit complex. So you could think of them being like a car. If you own the same car for a few years (exaggerated since my game will not span years), it would definitely feel different to drive another version of that same model, right? You know all of the strengths and weaknesses of your car, and the new one is alien to you.

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One of the things I really hate in an RPG is enhancing a weapon that will eventually be thrown away. I just can't get behind it. The benefits are temporary, so I'd rather move through the game quicker rather than spend the time get the enhancement. It seems like a waste of time to me, rather than carrying a power-up through to the end of the game. That may just be me, though.

In this game, it's all about cash, not progress. You can buy a weapon anywhere at any time, if you have the money. However, if you enhance a weapon, it will certainly be worth more if you sell it. If you're referring to the personal experience idea, that's a bit unrelated. The personal bonuses would only be achieved after a serious amount of time with a specific weapon. You would probably never notice the feature unless you became comfortable with a certain weapon and stuck with it through most of the game. I've found myself holding onto certain weapons in most of the RPGs I've played, just because I really tore up a battle with it. Even if I upgrade to a new weapon, I would try to stash it somewhere if the game let me :)

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If you're going to do it, definitely don't give it a number the player can see. Maybe give the "familiarity" with that particular weapon an enumerated rank: Cold steel - unfamiliar - not bad - familiar - trustworthy - an old friend

This is what I want to do, but two weapons could still be easily confused. Since it takes so long to raise this bonus, one weapon could could be far advanced and still be at the first level, just about to tip over into "unfamiliar". That's why I need to make it obvious that one is higher than another. But how can I do this without numbers?

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The idea is slightly more appealing if there is an easily achievable rank and as the game progresses the player is forced to switch his/her limited supply of weapons (like how you can only carry 2 in Halo and some are better than others)

I have to comment on Halo. Everyone thinks Halo is the ultimate weapon balance. First, all of the weapons except one are extremely useful. Pistols are perfect against anything except Elites. Plasma Pistols are great against Elites and the green dudes with shields, because of the charge-up blast, and it's manual firing rate is amazing. I would have to say these two pistols of the game are by far the best weapons. Pasma rifles are nice when your fingers get tired with the pistols, haha. Needlers are the bomb against elites. Pop-pop-pppppop, take cover. Now we get to the sub machine gun. What the hell is this? This is supposed to be the future, and this thing shoots sloppier than a modern uzi. It takes about 6 SMG shots to equal the immense power of a single pistol shot, if you can actually land 6 in one place. It's so pathetic, shooting people in the head with it just pisses em off.

I am referring to playing on the Legendary difficulty of course. I hope no one actually played the game on normal.

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It's an interesting concept, and I'm not saying it isn't worth merrit, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find a situation where it makes a whole lot of sense. Still, you might be able to make it work if you're that into it and are willing to take the time to code it. Make sure it fits the game itself, though. Tailoring an idea to fit into a game is fine. Tailoring a game to match an idea is the devil.

I'm trying to remove some of the "factory" feel that I'm afraid my game will have. I would like to add a lot of hidden elements that the player can discover on their own through playing, rather than the instruction manual or stat sheets. By the way, did you know you can kill Hunters in a single shot by shooting them in that small patch of orange skin on their back? That's a hidden element. I want lots of these types of things.

Thanks for the advice

Hmmm... would this be a RPG? or a FPS/RPG hybrid?

Personally my favorite weapon of all is the Shotgun, Halflife, Doom 1-2-3, in most games where its implemented well, i perfer it. Then again, i'm pretty fond of dual pistols to. ;D

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This is what I want to do, but two weapons could still be easily confused. Since it takes so long to raise this bonus, one weapon could could be far advanced and still be at the first level, just about to tip over into "unfamiliar". That's why I need to make it obvious that one is higher than another. But how can I do this without numbers?

If were talking FPS interface/gameplay over RPG, you could make it on how the player draw's the weapon. For instance, if the player is noobish at a particular weapon, his hands would fumble with the weapon unsteadily or something as he draws the weapon. If the player is particularly skilled, he may draw the weapon and flip it around in his hand like a skilled cowboy sharpshooter, or robo-cop whenever he puts his gun away. This would be a fairly visual clue to the player that he's become quite familiar with his favorite weapon without relying extensively on names and numbers.

This game is a 3rd person RPG. All combat is real time, though. So bonuses will be noticable in combat. But I'm looking more for a way the player can see it in inventory screens or such. Just a way to identify one weapon from another. But I suppose they could simply rename it. This puts it into their hands to make the weapon unique.

I think a nice twist would be to take the system you're talking about for weapon familiarity and instead make it the way to identify magic items. Get rid of the hand-wavy "Scroll of Identification"s and instead require a character to become familiar with their weapon and figure out the bonuses instead of just knowing them through divination. It could also make for an interesting trade system if only players familiar with the item can actually see the bonuses - you'd have to build trust and a reputation to really be a trader. In such a system, NPCs would buy AND SELL magic items as regular items most of the time, and even if they're selling a "Sword of Slaying +50" you're taking their word on it if you buy it. It would also mean you could buy a "Sword +1" only to find out the user was just barely familiar with the weapon and it's really a "Sword +1, +50 vs Dragons" or something like that.

Only certain enchantments would take familiarity to notice, though, as it'd be obvious if a sword is on fire or dripping acid etc, but it could still require familiarity to know how much the fire hurts, etc.

Maybe it should apply to ALL item stats, and not just magic enchanments. Who really knows exactly how protective this chain shirt is compared to this chain shirt. You could make mundane stats much faster to learn, and also allow special skills to figure them out even faster (a master armorsmith that specializes in chain shirts should figure them out after only a few hits, or maybe even just spending time using some kind of 'inspect' action).

Well, you could also animate the pictures of the weapons (if any) to show the same level of skill as previously mentioned, though that wouldn't neccessarily be that great for inventory viewing. On top of renaming you could also make favorite weapons appear more worn and used, indicating frequent and skilled use. You could also allow the player to customize the texture with little things, maybe writing the name on the gun, or a notch for every kill, to custom decals/paint jobs.