Update 1.11
Overview
During 1.12 I worked as a feature owner on multiple weapons and a part of the event gameplay.
For the Devil’s moon event I worked on our event pledge system. After our design brainstorms we decided on introducing a new way players could engage with the event. We introduced Pacts, Pacts allowed players to pledge themselves to a faction and in turn be rewarded with pact specific traits.
Ballot Boxes & Pledge Marks
Design
Before you can pledge yourself to a pact you need to have some pledge marks. You collect these during the match by completing some key objectives like banishing a boss, looting a dead hunter and collecting events points. I implemented these rewards into the game.
Implementation
we closely worked together with our engineers to create a system that allows us to store custom data on players profiles. This custom data field is configurable by designer. We needed this system store players pacts and their amount of pledge marks so they could retain them across matches.
I also implemented the ballot boxes. These ballot boxes were items players interacted with to pledge to a pact and reward themselves with pact specific traits.
Soul Trap
Design
For this event I implemented our collectible entity. Players can interact with these Soul traps to gain event points. Players can also destroy them but they gain less event points. If destroyed the soul trap explodes into sharpnel damaging things around them. Another mechanic these totems implement is that they notify players that enemy players are nearby by roaring and displaying a particle effect.
Implementation
The soul trap was quite a ride to develop since we couldn’t base it on exisiting entities. Even though seemingly simple this collectable had a lot going on behind the scenes. For example these props needed to dynamiclly update the navigation mesh since they could spawn anywhere after game start. We solved this by applying navigation markup areas around the spawn points of these collectables.
Springfield 1892 Krag
Design
Implementing the Springfield Krag into the game presented a significant design challenge. It was crucial to ensure that its performance closely mirrored that of the actual firearm, particularly its seamless bolt action. Adapting the Krag's properties was difficult because it’s long ammo caliber made it tough to strike a balance between damage and fire rate. In the end we lowered its base damage when compared to rifles of similar caliber.
Implementation
The biggest challenge on the implementation front was the animation setup. I decided to reload multiple bullets at the same time. This design decision increased the amount animation interrupts we needed to smoothly transition between different magazine states.
LeMat Mark II Carbine
Design
The LeMat Carbine was quite fun to develop. The LeMat Pistol features both a pistol barrel and shotgun barrel. The main design challenge with this variant was that it feature’s a full sized shotgun and rifle barrel. As a combination rifle it encroaches on the other rifles and shotguns. To prevent players picking this as a complete replacement in their loadouts we made the weapon quite clunky by increase the reload time compared to the LeMat Pistol.
Implementation
The biggest challenge in making the LeMat carbine was that the LeMat pistol was one of the most complex weapons in our weapon system. Since the LeMat logic was quite old I refactored it so it was easier to work with.
Martini Henry Ironside
Design
The Martini Henry Ironside was quite a challenge from a design and implementation perspecitive. Turning a high powered single shot rifle into a repeating rifle poses quite a few balance issues. We balanced the weapon by making the reload unwieldy and long making it true to life. Another balance factor was the massive external magazine that you would see when aiming down the sights. It remains a very powerful weapon but provides enough drawbacks.
Implementation
This weapon is the most complex weapon I’ve ever worked. The complexity arises from that you could interrupt the reload loop at any point causing us to need into and out transitions animations for every permutation of the magazine. This complexity however allowed us to create a unique reload animation for each bullet.
Winfield 1876 Centennial Trauma
Design
With the addition of the Winfield M1876 Centennial Trauma, we added another strong blunt melee weapon. While using this weapon, you are wielding the strength of a hammer, and this comes in handy when you want to get rid of opponents that are sensitive to blunt damage. But this melee strength comes at the cost of increased recoil due to the modified stock providing a less stable platform.
Implementation
This variant was quite straight forward to add. We were able to reuse most animations but just required new ones to support the new melee attack. We did have to spent a bit of time tweaking the melee damage against some AI archetypes.
Community Reception
I think the features I worked on for this update we’re quite well received. Players loved the new event gameplay structure because it was fun and refreshing.
The weapons were really well received. I was quite proud when I saw my work in action. Here are is a prominent community member talking about the krag.