From Mazeworld

Revision as of 17:13, 26 October 2015

Latest released Mazeworld update: MazeWorld v3/OP2 - June 5th 2015
Next planned update: MazeWorld v4, aka OP3 - Date unknown (Each of the OP3 components will be gradually implemented)

Upcoming

Opus Perfecta part 3

The third and final part of the Opus Perfecta updates will bring the biggest changes yet to come in MazeWorld!

Unknown date

The Mission Overhaul

• Missions are intended to be overhauled to match the new roomgen system.
  • Contract Missions will no longer exist as a separate mission set ; instead, they will become secondary missions in an upcoming Sidequests feature, where Contestants may now enter a hiring bureau and request jobs and contracts for cash, equipment, reputation and fame ; which in turn will serve to unlock further sidequests as well as main storyline mission arcs.
  • Other existing mission sets will become Mission Arcs ; the Normal Missions will become the Maratuxa Campaign arc (a stand-alone, Neutral aligned arc), the Alternate Missions will become the Youkai Activism arc and the Proxy Missions will become the Mishap 4th arc ; both of which are in what is referred to as "opposed arcs" ; if one is started, the other may no longer be started.
  • In the future, more mission arcs and sidequests may be written.

Latest

October 26th 2015

OP3 features part 4: The Reputation system (Basic version)

The Reputation system (basic version)

Formal introduction of a formerly implied system of Factions, and introduction of two brand new statistics, which compose the Reputation system:

• Faction Reputation, which tracks the Contestant's record with each one of the six major Factions of the Mazes: the Military, the Youkai Activists, the Law Enforcers, the Outlaws, the Angelics and the Demonics.
• Renown, which tracks the Contestant's overall fame; how easily recognizable and famous he/she is.

The Reputation system is introduced in a so-called "basic" version because the feature is not considered complete, despite being technically functional.

Faction Reputation becomes an important meter to gauge how respected or shunned the Contestant is by these Factions, and Faction Rep is influenced by the Contestant's actions. Currently, the list of actions that can influence Faction Rep and the subsequent effects are limited:

Influencing Faction Rep (basic)

• Contributing to the victory or the defeat of Faction members in a fight
• Killing Faction members
• Attacking a town controlled by a Faction (a town is considered attacked if one of its inhabitants is killed)

• (Law Enforcement) Increasing the Police Attention level (a renamed Wanted Level)
• (Angelics, Demonics) Finding the first Cardinal Amulet
• (Angelics, Demonics) Donations to the Shrine or Dark Sanctum

Effects of Reputation

• Being in the good graces of a Faction brings many advantages; shops and services in towns that Faction controls will start offering discounts, and certain Factions will offer bonuses or favors in relation to that Faction's trade (e.g. high Angelic rep can grant boosts to prayers at a Shrine.)
• Conversely, being disliked by a Faction will mean members and towns of that Faction grow increasingly hostile to the Contestant's presence. A sufficiently low Faction Rep can lock the Contestant out of Faction-specific missions and sidequests, losing access to towns they control, and even start attacking him/her on sight.
• Factions are in conflict with each other ; Military vs Youkai, Law enforcers vs Outlaws, Angelics vs Demonics. Oftentimes, what's good for a Faction will mean bad news for the other ; the right choices must be made.
  • The higher the Reputation with one Faction, the harder it will be for the corresponding rival Faction to consider the Contestant trustworthy ; being well-liked by the Military may mean that the Contestant's efforts to be in the Youkai's good graces will be less effective.
  • Conversely, having sufficiently low Reputation with one Faction means that they will trust the Contestant less and less; which in turn, divides the effectivenss of positive actions towards that Faction - to atone for one's mistakes, one must often work harder and pay more than what was lost in the first place.
  • Reaching maximum Reputation (+1000 Rep) with a Faction grants the Legendary status, which also boosts Renown (see below), and grants undying trust and affection for the Contestant. As a Legendary figure, any negative actions committed towards that Faction have a chance to be entirely ignored. Towns controlled by a Faction that considers the Contestant a Legend may start erecting statues in his/her honor.
  • Conversely, reaching a sufficiently extremely low Reputation (-900 Rep) grants the Unforgivable status, which cancels out the effects of any positive actions towards that Faction completely ; they consider the Contestant to be exempt of all redemption ; an enemy to be destroyed at all costs. Reaching minimum Reputation (-1000 Rep) grants the Demonized status, where the Contestant becomes so infamous, all members of the Faction treat the Contestant as their literal devil, or the personal incarnation of every single of their problems. Towns controlled by a Faction that demonizes the Contestant will start plastering WANTED posters, offering a fat reward for the Contestant dead or alive, but preferably dead.

In the future, the Mission Overhaul update will bring the "Full" version of the Reputation system ; Faction Rep and Renown are meant to play a primary role with mission and sidequest finding. Faction Rep is most notably going to be the requirement to trigger the faction-specific mission sets ; the Mishap 4th and the DeadEyes arcs.

Renown currently has little purpose in the Basic version other than flavor ; inhabitants of the Mazes will react to the Contestant in accordance with his/her current Renown level. Renown will not be meant to play a major role in the future, other than to unlock certain sidequests, nor will it have many special positive or negative effects.

Other changes

On request from one of our weapons advisors, new weapons.

• Alexander Arms Ulfberht, a semi-automatic .338 Lapua Magnum precision rifle and one of the very rare few weapons rated at DV+6.
  • 10- and 20-round magazines exist for this weapon.
  • A new Customs Minor service is introduced, which allows turning the Ulfberht into a select-fire rifle (Semi/Full).

• The so-called "Baby Glocks" ; a collection of 6 subcompact Glock pistols, all of which are Class 3, Weight 2, DV+3 RV+4 weapons with no accessory mounts and generous magazine capacities for weapons of their class.
  • Respectively: Glock 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33 in respective calibers: 9x19mm Parabellum, .40 S＆W, .380 ACP, 10mm Auto, .45 ACP and .357 SIG.
  • Each weapon brings new magazines in the Glock magazines for each of their respective calibers, e.g. the Glock 26 comes with a Glock 9mm 10-round magazine.
  • Magazines designed to fit in a subcompact Glock are not compatible with full size Glock pistols or Custom Glock-SF/LF pistols, as they are too short to fit.
  • Conversely, magazines designed to fit in a full size Glock will work in a subcompact, however they impart a weight tier +1 malus when equipped to a subcompact.
    • Example: A Glock 26 equipped with a Glock 9mm 17-rd magazine designed for a Glock 17, will make the G26 become a Weight 3 weapon instead of a Weight 2.)

New rules for certain weapon accessories.

• Underbarrel grenade launchers, underbarrel shotguns, and Weight 3 drum/pan mags/C-MAGs now impart a weight tier +1 malus to their equipped weapon, in order to balance out the substantial advantages that they provide.

New magazines for existing weapons.

• FN SCAR-H: New 10-round and 30-round magazines.
• IMI UZI: New 20-round and 40-round box magazines, and a new 72-round drum.

Other changes.

• Wanted Level is now known as Police Attention. Criteria to attract Police Attention have been simplified and streamlined.

October 21st 2015

Mini-update

Some more new Maze Customs changes:

• The Glock-SF family now has new rechambering options: .32 ACP and .380 ACP.
  • The custom Glock .380 magazines that come with the .380 ACP option are compatible with Glock 25 pistols, however the original G25 15-round magazines will not fit in custom .380 ACP Glock-SF pistols, as they are too short to fit inside (Glock 25s are compacts, Glock-SFs are full size).

October 17th 2015

Mini-update

Gameplay mechanics:

• The cover, escape and stealth escape rolls have been better reworded, and their names properly defined.

Bionics:

• Several implants have had their effects reworded for clarity.
• Ninja Speed lv3 has been removed. The numbering system of implants has been changed to a letter-number system, where each letter corresponds to one of the Bases, and each number to one of the Augs for that base.

Weapons: Four new weapons and one new magazine have been implemented.

• JianShe CS/LR3, a 5.8x42mm bolt-action precision rifle, along with its proprietary 10-round magazine.
• McMillan ALIAS CS5-T, a 7.62x51mm NATO bolt-action precision rifle with three major characteristics: it is Class 2, feeds from AR-10 mags, and possesses an integral silencer.
• CMMG Mk47-T Mutant and CMMG Mk47-K Mutant, respectively Class 1 and Class 2, are two rifles derived from the same basic system: a semi-automatic 7.62x39mm conventional rifle with AR-15-like ergonomics, yet it has the ability to use AK-47 magazines.
  • A new Customs Minor service has also been introduced to offer the Mk47 Mutant rifles a conversion to select-fire.

Maze Customs:

• The L-Frame Customs family has been completely phased out. It was replaced by the Redhawk family, with similar customization offerings. The Rechambering lineup is the only aspect that differs from the L-Frame family, in that it offers more options than its predecessors.

Other minor changes:

• The WPN-SWLF supply crate is removed, replaced by the WPN-RHWK crate. It contains the following: Ruger Super Redhawk + 3x .454 Casull/.45 Colt 6-round speedloader + 50x .454 Casull FMJ

October 6th 2015

Mini-update

• The firearm rarity values have been modified to put less weight on Rarity 1 firearms, and thus improve the chances of finding a higher-quality item.
  • Old values: Rarity 6: 0.45% / Rarity 5: 2.45% / Rarity 4: 5.65% / Rarity 3: 9.50% / Rarity 2: 22.45% / Rarity 1: 59.50%
  • New values: Rarity 6: 0.50% / Rarity 5: 2.50% / Rarity 4: 6.00% / Rarity 3: 10.00% / Rarity 2: 33.00% / Rarity 1: 48.00%

September 22nd 2015

Mini-update

• The CZ 75 9mm models no longer come with a 15-round magazine; it is instead replaced with a more modern 16-round magazine.
• All weapon event lines now display rarity level.
• The bot command @wpnc5 no longer exists ; separate commands have been made for all melee weapon classes instead: @wpnC5L, @wpnC5S and @wpnCHG.

September 14th 2015

OP3 features part 3: The Big One ; New Roomgen update

The biggest part of the OP3 features is now ready for preliminary testing!

The new room generation system

After many months of work in the making, the new random room generation system is now ready for testing. There are two major components to this update, which relate to the way the Mazes now function: a new civilized area / town system, and a redesigned random room generation system for what is now known as the Uncivilized Area, also referred to as the UA or simply the Mazes.

Civilized areas

Civilized areas, or towns, are hubs with a fixed layout and a semi-random selection of features. They are protected settlements, usually either Neutral or under the influence of a faction. All towns possess an entrance point, a generator, a hospital, between 1 and 5 residential areas, a social square with many shops and facilities, and they may also have either extra shops or a mall, as well as a specific facility which defines the reason the town exists (a military base, a factory, a laboratory, an office facility, etc.)

Towns are an incomplete feature ; the relation between a town's faction and the Contestant is meant to be explored in a future update (the Reputation system).

Towns are meant to be randomly generated for the most part ; random name, faction, facilities and inhabitants may all be randomly generated. There are a few exceptions - certain towns are fixed in nature and are meant to have special, recurring facilities. For example, this is the case of the town in which the Startgame is now initiated; this town is called Arnett, and it is the home of a special facility: a biotech laboratory, where the Contestant now wakes up.

The Uncivilized Area (UA)

MazeWorld's bread and butter, procedurally generated environments and events, still exists in the form of the Uncivilized Area (UA, or just The Mazes).

The main activity of the game will be to go from town to town ; leaving the initial town of Arnett to search for other towns. Between each town is the Uncivilized Area ; the classic MazeWorld experience with its random rooms, events, and encounters.

As before, a system of roomstyles and random events still exists, but with major changes:

• A random amount of events per room is generated, instead of just one in the old system.
• Each door may lead to a different roomstyle or to special areas, which are announced in advance, in order to give the player the ability a more meaningful choice.
• The next town is not the only destination ; independent shops that have settled in the UA to service travelers, and new, explorable areas, filled with dangers but also potentially valuable loot. There is also a small chance that the trip leads to a dead end ; an abandoned city, ruins, or an otherwise dead zone which will prompt the Contestant to keep traveling - meaning that no two trips in the UA are the same, and that there is always a sense of risk associated to long periods outside of a town.
• The player may now indirectly choose a Traveling Style: Safe, Fast or Deep route, all of which affect their trip in the UA.
  • Three major factors are at play when traveling in the UA: Speed (the distance remaining until the next destination), Danger (the chance to find encounters on the way), and Explorables (the chance to find explorable areas on the way).
    • Fast route increases Speed, at the cost of increased Danger and decreased Explorables. Recommended when the priority is reaching the next destination as fast as possible.
    • Safe route decreases Danger, but decreases Speed and sharply decreases Explorables. Recommended when trying to stay away from fights, as long as supplies allow a potentially longer trips.
    • Deep route sharply decreases Speed, and sharply increases Danger and Explorables. Recommended when looking for a fight and loot, as long as the equipment is suited for a danger-filled, lengthy trip.

The Cardinal Amulets are now only findable in the UA, with a very small chance to be randomly generated as an event each room.

Objectives of this testing period

• Randomly generated towns and the UA are ready to be tested, but at the exception of Arnett, no special, fixed towns will be found while testing the various aspects of this feature. This is because fixed towns only have any real meaningful existence with the Reputation system (coming soon).
  • The routine for this testing period will be Arnett -> UA -> Random town 1 -> UA -> Random town 2. Trips in the UA will include at least one explorable, one independent shop, and one dead end. All three traveling styles (Fast, Safe and Deep) are to be tried out as well.
• As stated in the "Upcoming" section above, missions are now completely disabled, pending an overhaul.

Other changes

Changes in the structure of the Maze Military and Police.

Military

• Three new RF Companies (from 9 to 12) and one new DF Company (from 5 to 6), for a total of 900 extra men.

Police

• Introduction of a new character position, the Maze Sheriff. Equivalent in rank to the Colonel in the military, the Sheriff's role is to serve as the chief of all police in the entirety of the Mazes.
  • The Sheriff, just like the Colonel, is an unique character ; Sheriff Len Hargrave. For now, he is only referenced, there are no planned ways to meet or find him yet.
• New police role, the Call Operator. No different from standard Maze Guards regarding standard equipment and appearance, their role is to monitor and take emergency calls, directing patrol and SRT teams to the location as necessary. They are found in police stations.

• New future special facility: the Police Headquarters. It will be featured in the future as the special facility of a fixed town. The Police HQ is the law enforcer equivalent of the Main Barracks: it is the residence of the Maze Sheriff. Similarly to Colonel Wight's own Elite forces (the Battalion), the Sheriff leads his own special unit, the Emergency Support Group (ESG), a group of 8 SRT teams specially trained for crisis and extreme law enforcement situations.
  • Currently, it is impossible to trigger the apperance of the Sheriff or the ESG units or to find the Police HQ ; they will be formally introduced in the future.

Both

• New Key Item, the Tactical Radio. It is an attachment for the mobile phone and allows squads and groups to communicate with each other (provided they all have a tactical radio as well). Communication with their superiors on base ensured by using the phone and tac-radio to call the radio operator, a new role within a Barracks. The radio operator's job is to allow communication between squads and their barracks.
  • Both military and police receive a tactical radio as part of their default equipment.
  • Tactical radios do not require separate power or batteries, running as an extension to the mobile phone. Multiple tac-radios can communicate with each other from a certain distance without drain on battery power ; phone battery is only drained when calling and communicating with a central.
  • Tactical radios can be found for sale in a Workshop.
  • While Contestants can purchase and equip a tactical radio, they currently serve no specific purpose ; in the future they will be an integral part of the equipment through the Mishap 4th missions, and may be used at will to call for reinforcements (provided the Contestant's rank allows it).

September 12th 2015

OP3 features part 2: The weapon rarity system

Weapon rarity

Weapons are now generated using a new rarity system, which regulates rarity according to shop value (which itself is a representation of how 'good' the weapon is).

Firearms and melee weapons are graded on two separate rarity scales:

Firearms:

• Rarity 1: Common - Chance to generate: 59.5%
• Rarity 2: Regular - Chance to generate: 22.45%
• Rarity 3: Premium - Chance to generate: 9.5%
• Rarity 4: Superior - Chance to generate: 5.65%
• Rarity 5: Rare - Chance to generate: 2.45%
• Rarity 6: Extraordinary - Chance to generate: 0.45%
• Rarity 7: Unique - Never generated randomly, is applied to custom weapons, crafting-only weapons, and specs docs weapons.

Melee weapons:

• Rarity 1: Common - Chance to generate: 55%
• Rarity 2: Regular - Chance to generate: 26.5%
• Rarity 3: Premium - Chance to generate: 12.5%
• Rarity 4: Superior - Chance to generate: 6%
• Rarity 7: Unique - Never generated randomly, is applied to custom weapons, crafting-only weapons, and specs docs weapons.

New MazeBot commands have been created (for GM use only):

• @rarity-gun ; Generates a random combination of weapon Class (C1-C4) and Rarity (R1-R6).
• @rarity-melee ; Generates a random combination of weapon Class (C5L, C5S, Handgear) and Rarity (R1-R4).

Related changes:

• Black Markets now exist again, as weapon shops specialized in weapons of Rarity 4 and above only... with a caveat: they are overpriced. All ammunition and accessories are priced at 200% of their value. Rarity 4 weapons are sold at 200% value, Rarity 5 at 250%, and Rarity 6 at 300%. In a pinch and with a lot of disposable cash, these shops may come in useful...

The criteria given by the commands are entered in the GM's weapon database, and a random weapon, if any exists, is selected then specced among the possibilities. If the combination of weapon class and rarity returns no results, then a random weapon from that class (with no regard for rarity) is generated instead.

August 28th 2015

OP3 features part 1: The "Wildey's Here!" update: The OP3 weapons pack

It's almost a tradition by now: here's even more weapons for your ballistic pleasure. 23 new stock firearms, 2 new calibers, one new underbarrel shotgun, 2 new specs docs-only weapons, associated new accessories, and more.

New calibers:

• .44 Special, the older and shorter variant of .44 Magnum. Compatible in all .44 Magnum revolvers + the Marlin Model 1894 lever-action rifle.
• .475 Wildey Magnum, a high-powered, rimless magnum cartridge. Wildey's Here at last!

New stock firearms:

• Beretta Stampede Marshal, Class 3 revolver, .45 Colt
• CETME Ameli, Class 1 machine gun, 5.56x45mm NATO
• Charter Arms Bulldog, Class 3 revolver, .44 Special
• Colt Cobra, Class 3 revolver, .38 Special
• DSA SA58 FAL SPR, Class 1 precision rifle, 7.62x51mm NATO
• FN Herstal M240B, Class 1 machine gun, 7.62x51mm NATO
• IZHMEKH MP-412 REX, Class 3 revolver, .357 Magnum
• KAC Stoner 99 LMG, Class 1 machine gun, 5.56x45mm NATO
• Kel-Tec RFB, Class 1 conventional rifle, 7.62x51mm NATO
• MasterPiece Arms MPA57SST, Class 3 pistol, 5.7x28mm
• Norinco QBZ-03, Class 1 combat rifle, 5.8x42mm
• Rheinmetall MG3, Class 1 machine gun, 7.62x51mm NATO
• Ruger LCR CT, Class 3 revolver, .357 Magnum with integrated laser sight
• Smith & Wesson Model 24, Class 3 revolver, .44 Special
• Smith & Wesson Model 296 Airlite, Class 3 revolver, .44 Special
• Smith & Wesson Model 625-6, Class 3 revolver, .45 Colt
• Steyr AUG HBAR, Class 1 machine gun, 5.56x45mm NATO
• Taurus Model 431, Class 3 revolver, .44 Special
• Taurus Model 444 Ultra-Lite, Class 3 revolver, .44 Magnum
• Taurus Model 450T, Class 3 revolver, .45 Colt
• Valmet KvKK 62, Class 1 machine gun, 7.62x39mm
• Wildey Hunter, Class 3 pistol, .475 Wildey Magnum
• ZiD PKM, Class 1 machine gun, 7.62x54mm R

New specs-docs only weapons + their associated documents:

• DP-12 (affectionately called the Super Shotgun), Class 2 shotgun, 12 gauge
  • Specs docs required: #DP008: Prototype hybrid double barrel/pump-action shotgun blueprints
  • Has the particularity of being the first pump-action double barreled shotgun, and as such, will benefit from unique rules regarding shooting and reloading.
• LMG11, Class 1 light machine gun, 4.73x33mm Caseless
  • Specs docs required: #ON504: Prototype caseless light machine gun blueprints + #KM991: Technical guides for conversion of G11 action into other weapon systems
  • The LMG11 has a 300-round capacity, fed from a special ammunition cassette which essentially acts as a very large capacity magazine.

New magazines and accessories:

• C-More M26 MASS, magazine-fed underbarrel shotgun, 12 gauge. The M26 MASS comes standard with a 5-round magazine, and is capable of +1.
• 200-round PK belt, suitable for use in the PKM and PKP Pecheneg
• FN FAL 10-round magazine, suitable for all firearms using FAL mags, and standard on the SA58 FAL SPR.
• The M26 MASS's 5-round magazine and an extanded 10-round magazine.
• New speedloader: .44 Magnum/Special 5-round.

New Customs services

• .44 Special being naturally compatible with all .44 Magnum revolvers, it is now explicitly listed as compatible in all .44 Magnum cylinders of custom Blackhawk and L-Frame revolvers.
• New minor services: H&K CAWS to CAWS Modernized, H&K G11K2 to G11K2 Modernized, LMG11 to LMG11 Modernized, and LWMMG to LWMMG Enhanced.
  • The CAWS Modernized will add a NATO-S optic rail, 2 large Light mounts, a front mount compatible with bipod, foregrip and M203PI, and a threaded barrel.
  • The G11K2 Modernized and LMG11 Modernized both add the same modifications: NATO-S optic rail, 2 large Light mounts, and a front mount compatible with bipod, foregrip and M203PI.
  • The LWMMG Enhanced simply allows the weapon to fire .338 Lapua Magnum, for greater damage but increased recoil. Everything else about the weapon remains unchanged ; even the ammo belts required are the same!

Related changes:

• The pre-existing ".44 Magnum 6-round speedloader" will be renamed .44 Magnum/Special 6-round speedloader.
• The M203A1 was scrapped, and the M203 is now compatible with all AR-15s in Rifle or Carbine configuration.

Older

See the Changelog Archive.