From Mazeworld

Latest released Mazeworld update: MazeWorld v3/OP1 - May 9th 2015
Next planned update: MazeWorld v3/OP2 - Not yet announced

Upcoming

Date unknown

Opus Perfecta part 2

For the second part of the Opus Perfecta updates, we bring much-dreaded yet much-needed changes!

Release date coming soon.

Melee weapon balance

• All melee weapons that previously had two weapon damage types listed (such as "Sharp/Piercing") will now have two modes, similar to firearm fire modes, which dictate in what way and what damage type this weapon is going to cause.
  • Example: A KA-BAR knife has both Sharp and Piercing - it will cause Sharp damage when used to slash, and Piercing when used to stab.
  • Bludgeoning with items and weapons remains possible as an unlisted, implied possibility - this causes Blunt-type damage.

• All melee weapons have had adjusted damage tables. New tendencies included higher Pain but lower Limb Damage for Blunt weapons, and lower Pain/higher Limb Damage for Sharp and Piercing ones (with more dramatic changes for Piercing only weapons, than for Sharp and Sharp/Piercing ones).

• 4 new melee weapons:
  • The Stun baton, a Class 5 Short weapon which uses Taser batteries and can be used either as a blunt baton, or to deliver stunning charges.
  • The Kukri, a Class 5 Short weapon which is capable of surprisingly vicious damage.
  • The Sai, a Class 5 Short weapon capable only of Piercing damage, but which is capable of causing multiple wounds in a single hit (See below)
  • The Morning star, a ClasS 5 Long weapon designed to smash and crush bones easily.

• New secondary effect: Multiple wound weapons.
  • Basics: Certain weapons, when they successfully hit an opponent and cause enough damage to cause a wound, may cause multiple wounds instead of just one.
  • Concerned weapons: Broken bottle (1d3 wounds/hit), Meat fork (1d2), Ngombe throwing knife (1d3), Scissors (1d2), Shuriken (1d4), Tekko-kagi (2d2), and the new Sai (1d3).

• Protection chart changes
  • The Resistant trait now requires weapons to cause 3+ Limb Damage instead of 2+, in order to sustain an injury.
  • The PROOF trait now requires weapons to cause 5+ Limb Damage instead of 4+, in order to sustain an injury.

The leaderboards update

The leaderboards as we know them will be closed down. Contestants will no longer be ranked directly against one another using a point system.

Instead, various performance categories will each have their own leaderboards, in order to have more of a fair comparison for every category.

Contestants will now be ranked on the following performance:

General statistics

• Total rooms visited
• Total creatures defeated (kills)
• Total wealth
• Missions passed in a single visit
• Runs completed in a single visit

Combat statistics

• Combat leaderboards (total kills in each category - Precision Rifles, Combat Rifles, Shotguns, etc.)
• Special Tactics (total amount of (T) points, aka weak point kills)
• Headshot Gallery (total amount of /H\ points, aka headshot kills)
• Brutal Brothers (total amount of [B] points, aka brutal overkills)

Faction statistics

• Youkai's worst nightmares (total youkai kills)
• Bane of the Military (total military kills)
• Most Wanted Blacklist (total law enforcement kills)
• Holiest Warriors (total demonic kills)
• Honorary Hell Employees (total angelic kills)

Player statistics

Players themselves will be ranked on these statistics.

• Most Contestants with completed visits (total amount of visits which are not either ongoing or ended in death)
• Player-wide stats (total rooms, kills, wealth, missions, runs across all Contestants of a given player, as well as averages)

Death tolls

Though not strictly related to performance, the Death tolls will still be part of the Leaderboards.

• Death tolls: Total amount of dead contestants
• Death tolls: Leading cause of death
• Death tolls: Most Hated Enemy (creature that kills Contestants the most often)

Encounter modifications

• Conducts will no longer be officially tracked and the article will be deleted. Any player wishing to restrain their own Contestant's behavior must do so on their own.
• Deleted creatures: Angel, Archangel, Fighter Angel, all Enlightened creatures, Horned devil, Hostile genie
• Changes to Divine Gifts: Now a 2/3 chance to spawn an Angelic creature (new category, see below) which will act as the Contestant's ally (if possible). The remaining 1/3 chance spawns the Divine Items as usual.
• Creatures that change categories:
  • Warg, Hellhound, Black Hound and Cerberus become Demons instead of Canines.
  • The entire Worms category is merged into Demons.
  • While shrine maidens are humans, they are now considered to be Angelics (see below).
  • All Undead/Zombies are considered to be Demonics as well, and zombie kills count as demonic kills.
• New creature category, the Angelics, which serve as a counterpart to Demons, and become a new faction to serve as the Demons' antagonists.
• New roomstyle, the Demonic Pit, which serves as a demon equivalent to shrines.
  • Demonic pits contain Demon altars, and can be serviced by Demonic maidens (see below).
  • It is even possible to pray and make offerings at a Demon altar, which have their own offering system.
• Komainu and Komatora no longer spawn to the help of a shrine maiden when attacked or when a Contestant rolls 2. Instead, 2 random Cardinal Beasts (see below) show up.

New encounters

New angelics

• Angel
• Guardian angel
• Auror
• Archauror
• Holy Turtle
• Holy Dragon
• Holy Tiger
• Holy Phoenix

The Holy prefixed creatures are referred to as the Cardinal Beasts, being animal incarnations of the Gods.

New demons

• Demonic maiden (considered as such, but is human)
• Imp
• Daemon
• Fiend
• Archfiend
• Great Daemon

Inaccurate Hit system

The Inaccurate Hit system is a new feature which changes the default Failure Threshold system to account for a new level of accuracy between misses and hits. Inaccurate Hits work on the principle of a hit being successful but not hitting the intended body part, instead hitting a random one using @bodyaim.

An Inaccurate Hit occurs when the dice score is equal to (FT value) +1 or +2 pts. Assuming default FT of 6, Inaccurate Hits occur on 7 and 8.

On the old system, accuracy under default conditions (FT 6) worked as such:

• 12: Critical hit
• 7-11: Hit
• 3-6: Miss
• 2: Critical failure

Using the new system of Inaccurate Hits, it will be as follows.

• 12: Critical hit
• 9-11: Hit
• 7-8: Inaccurate Hit
• 3-6: Miss
• 2: Critical failure

The Inaccurate Hit range depends on FT, thus it moves as FT changes, increasing or reducing the window of accurate hits.

Related changes

• If FT were to raise to 9 or 10, Inaccurate Hits take precedence over Hits, but never over Critical Hits, meaning that 12 always means Critical Hit, but that if FT is sufficiently high, all potential Hits would become Inaccurate.
• Concentration overrides Inaccurate Hits, since it guarantees that all potential Hits into Critical Hits as long as the effect lasts.
• Inaccuracy becomes a Secondary effect, which causes the following effects:
  • If the weapon is ranged, all hits because Inaccurate Hits.
  • If the weapon is melee, damage output is reduced by 0.8x (Pain and Limb Damage)
  • If unarmed combat, damage output is reduced by 0.8x (Pain and Limb Damage), except if a martial arts technique is attempted.

• Multi-projectile weapons (Buckshot, Flechette, etc...): Dice score now only indicates hit or miss, just like with other weapons. FT modifiers now affect multiproj weapons the same way other weapons are affected.
  • Amount of projectiles that hit is now rolled separately and only in the event of a hit. It becomes a simple 1d9 for shotgun buckshot, and 1d20 for flechette and grenade buckshot.
  • Shotgun chokes will be reintroduced as weapon accessories which affect shotguns firing multiprojectile (and do nothing on singleprojectile shells). With a choke equipped, the projectile hit rolls become 1d6+1d3, and 1d14+1d6 respectively.

• Explosive weapons: Dice score now only indicates hit or miss, just like with other weapons. Explosion power is now subject to an independent roll: 0.25+1d3*0.25. This guarantees that any explosive that does hit, hits at least at half of its listed power, with equal chances of rolling for half, 75%, and full power.

• Smoke grenades: Effect to users is modified - instead of causing FT+1 to users, it causes Inaccuracy.
• Flashbangs: Effects to victims is modified - instead of FT+4, it causes Environmental Blindness.
• Weaponlights: All weaponlight effects now only last 1 turn, repeated for as long as the weaponlight is aimed at the target. Soft light now causes Inaccuracy, Normal light now causes FT+1 and Inaccuracy, and Strong light now causes FT+2 and Inaccuracy.

New combat skill system

Contestants may now have variable skills with the various weapon groups of the game. These weapon groups are the same as those defined in the Achievements.

There exist five skill levels, which match the Achievement badges:

• Unskilled (between 0 and 9 kills)
• Basic (Bronze, 10-24 kills)
• Skilled (Silver, 25-49 kills)
• Expert (Gold, 50-99 kills)
• Master (Platinum, 100+ kills)

In order to increase one's skill level with weapons, there exist many methods:

• The simplest and most common method is killing enemies. Kills are the meter used to gauge weapon skill.
• Training by going to a shooting range (firearms and explosives), and playing one of the many target shooting minigames.
• Training by going to a dojo (melee and unarmed), and playing one of the many Wooden Man minigames.
• During Startgame, the Contestant will receive Basic skill along with every weapon group he/she received a weapon.

Training skills

Each training minigame works on the principle of Training Points. They serve as a substitute to field experience until a certain point. When completing training minigames, the Contestant may receive Training Points. 10 TPs substitute for 1 kill. A maximum of 250 TPs can be acquired per weapon category, which is just enough to go from totally unskilled to the Skilled (silver) level. Further experience must then be obtained on the field with actual kills.

Ally-related changes

Ally limits will be reinstated, under the following conditions:

• In normal conditions, 1 creature of any type can be the Contestant's ally.
• In addition to 1 other creature, maximum 1 hired mercenary can follow the Contestant.
  • Hiring two mercs is possible if the Contestant wishes to, as long as funds allow.

Latest

May 9th 2015

Opus Perfecta part 1

For the first part of the Opus Perfecta updates, the traditional bag of new weapons and weapon-related changes, two new features, and associated minor changes will be offered.

Bag of guns

New weapons

• Heckler & Koch UCP ; Class 3, 4.6x30mm, pistol. The elusive 4.6mm pistol companion to the MP7.
• IZHMASH Saiga SGL31-61 ; Class 1, 5.45x39mm, conventional rifle. Nothing more than a semi-auto only AK-74.
• KBP GSh-18 ; Class 3, 9x19mm Parabellum, pistol. An incredibly reliable and lightweight 9x19mm pistol, perhaps one of the best in this caliber.
• Mossberg MVP Patrol ; ; Class 1, 5.56x45mm NATO, conventional rifle. An economical 5.56mm bolt-action rifle, capable of accepting STANAG magazines and NATO-S optics.
• Savage Arms Axis ; Class 1, 5.56x45mm NATO, conventional rifle. A 5.56mm bolt-action rifle, perfect for beginners as a step-up from .22 LR.
• Savage Arms Axis XP ; Class 1, 5.56x45mm NATO, precision rifle. Same as above, but with an integrated optic, for those budding beginner snipers.
• Springfield M1903A3 ; Class 1, .30-06 Springfield, conventional rifle. The non-sniper version of the M1903A4, for the veterans and the bolt-action lovers out there.
• Suhl SSG-82 ; Class 1, 5.45x39mm, precision rifle. A curious 5.45 sniper rifle. Perhaps not the most powerful, but certainly a lightweight and economical choice.

Replaced weapons

• The Nexter FAMAS F1 is replaced by the GIAT FAMAS G1. The G1 is slightly different from the F1:
  • The G1 no longer has an integrated bipod, but now possesses a threaded barrel (Standard threading).
  • All other statistics and features remain the same.

New accessories

• A new magazine, the STANAG 10-round magazine, which comes standard with the new MVP Patrol rifle. Size tier: Medium. Weight: 0.5 units empty.

New Customs Minor services

• Model conversion between the Axis and Axis XP rifles.
• Full-auto conversion for the Beretta Cx4 Storm to the Mx4 Storm, which replaces Semi-auto only with a Semi/Full trigger group.
• 2 new Tactical conversions:
  • Cx4/Mx4 Storm to Cx4/Mx4 Storm Enhanced. Adds 2 Small light mounts + 1 front mount compatible with foregrip.
  • FAMAS G1 to FAMAS G2. Adds an integrated bipod, and replaces the magazine well with a STANAG magazine compatible model.

Other changes

• The Tavor X95 magazine is renamed AR 5.45 magazine.

Full-auto fire balance

Basic principles

• Players will no longer be capable of choosing an exact amount of shots to fire when using firearms capable of full-auto fire.
• Instead, players choosing to fire in full-auto must declare a trigger pull length.
• All of these firearms will also receive a new statistic called AutoROF, which is a reflection of that firearm's rate of fire.
• The combination of trigger pull length and rate of fire is what determines the actual amount of shots fired.

AutoROF is a numerical value which corresponds roughly to half the firearm's real-life rate of fire in rounds per second (RPS), rounded up.

• The Kalashnikov AKM has a rate of fire of 600 RPM, or 10 RPS, which translates into an AutoROF stat of 5.
• Conversely, the Colt M4A1's rate of fire is 900 RPM, or 15 RPS, which translates into an AutoROF stat of 8 (7.5 rounded up).

The trigger pull length system offers players the ability to fire bursts of variable lengths, informally called "pull speeds". There are four different speeds:

• I - Short: Amount of shots fired is equal to 1dAutoROF. (Examples; AKM: 1d5 shots, M4A1: 1d8 shots)
• II - Medium: Amount of shots fired: 2dAutoROF. (Examples; AKM: 2d5 shots, M4A1: 2d8 shots)
• III - Long: Amount of shots fired: 5dAutoROF. (Examples; AKM: 5d5 shots, M4A1: 5d8 shots)
• IV - Magdump: Amount of shots fired is always equal to the maximum possible result of 5dAutoROF (AKM: 25 shots ; M4A1: 40 shots)
  • Caveat of magdumping: If a Contestant chooses to magdump their weapons, and there is still ammunition left in the weapon after their turn is over, they will be forced to attack on the next turn, with the same weapon and fire mode, until the weapon is empty or malfunctions. Beware: if a magdump is performed, Recoil carries over from last turn, and so does any loss of accuracy due to Recoil!

Pull speeds allow players to have rough control over how many rounds they wish to fire. Whether the rate of fire of a player's ideal firearm is low or high depends on personal preferences and styles - some may prefer the higher degree of control of low ROFs, others may appreciate the volume of fire high ROFs offer.

The wiki will soon be updated to display the AutoROF value of each relevant firearm in the Lists of weapons.

Improved clothing and armor sets

An expanded selection of clothing and armor, to diversify the various outfits worn by the many types of personnel in the Mazes, and to offer a larger choice of wearables to the Contestant.

New clothing items

New citizen oriented-clothing:

• Top - Formal workshirt
• Top - Tank top
• Bottom - Boxer briefs
• Bottom - Cargo pants (forest camo)

New job-specific/personnel outfit clothing:

• Top - Butler suit
• Bottom - Butler trousers
• Headgear - Chef hat
• Top - Gi jacket
• Bottom - Gi pants
• Top - Pimp vest
• Bottom - Pimp pants
• Headgear - Pimp zebra hat
• Footwear - Pimp zebra shoes
• Top - Prison jacket
• Bottom - Prison trousers
• Footwear - Prison shoes
• Top - Stealth jacket
• Bottom - Stealth pants
• Top - Student outfit vest
• Bottom - Student outfit pants
• Bottom - Student outfit skirt
• Top - Technician jacket
• Bottom - Technician trousers

New armor:

• Arms addon - Elbow pads
• Arms addon - Arm guards
• Legs addon - Knee pads
• Legs addon - Leg guards

Related changes

Renamed clothes:

• Engineer's hard hat -> Hard hat
• Medieval armor (arms) -> Medieval arm guards
• Medieval armor (feet) -> Medieval sabatons
• Medieval armor (legs) -> Medieval leggings
• Medieval armor (top) -> Medieval cuirass
• Medieval helmet -> Medieval helm
• Semi-transparent dress -> Nightwear dress
• Sportswear top -> Tracksuit jacket
• Sportswear bottom -> Tracksuit pants

Scrapped clothes:

• Scrapped tops: Seifuku top, Gakuran top, Russian Army t-shirt, US Army t-shirt
• Scrapped bottoms: Seifuku skirt, Gakuran bottom, Fundoshi, Russian Army pants, US Army pants
• Scrapped footwear: Galoshes, Pink slippers

Changes to clothing damage:

• Bullet-type damage now deals variable damage, depending on limb damage dealt, according to the following formula:
  • 0.1 + (X / 10) = Total clothing damage, where X is the amount of limb damage dealt.
• Example: 1 round of .45 ACP FMJ shot at a human torso wearing a Type-3 Kevlar vest would do the following damage:
  • Assuming the bullet deals 3 damage (1d6+2-3), the vest will then take 0.1 + (3 / 10) = 0.1 + 0.3 = 0.4 damage

• Trauma plates can now negate incoming clothing damage on the Body armor carried by the plate. In other words, a vest with trauma plate inserted is impervious to being directly damaged.
  • EXCEPTION: If a bullet is sufficiently powerful to surpass the plate's Pass-Through Threshold (PTT) and cause the plate to fail, this means the bullet has managed to penetrate both plate and vest; and as such, both plate and vest take damage.

Encounter changes

• Several encounters have new and/or modified standard clothing and armor, due to the new introduced clothing items.
• Citizens are no longer separated into 6 distinct subtypes. There is now only one, and their clothing is procedurally generated (see below: Improved Citizen equipment generation)
  • Halflings now also benefit from Citizen procedurally generated equipment.
• Scrapped encounters: Russian Army soldier, US Army soldier, Hostile scientist, Samurai warrior, Medieval knight, Armed prisoner
• Miners no longer exist as a separate encounter; they become Engineers and form their own Engineering Team, the Mining ET. In turn, all Engineers assigned to mining duty have all the standard equipment an Engineer traditionally has, plus a pick-axe, 2x Small C4 charges, and a detonator.

Improved Citizen equipment generation

Maze Citizens and Halflings receive semi-random equipment based on the following rules:

• Clothing kit (Top: 1d11, Bottom: 1d10, Footwear: 1d8, Headgear: 1d14, Body armor: 1d14)
  • See below for clothing kit generation
• 1 random LBE
• 1d2 random weapons, with 1d2-1 random accessory and random ammunition type each (if both weapons can't be equipped together, the second weapon is discarded)
• 1d3 full mags or equivalent per weapon
• Inventory kit (Food: 1d2, Valuables: 1d2, Money: 1d2, Meds: 1d2)
  • If 2 is rolled for Food, 1d3 different @food are generated in the inventory
  • If 2 is rolled for Valuables, 1d2 different @loot are generated in the inventory
  • If 2 is rolled for Money, 1d1000 P$ is generated in the inventory
  • If 2 is rolled for Meds, 1d2 different @meds are generated in the inventory

NOTE: Each item is rolled in the order described above, then checked to see if it fits; if it doesn't (due to exceeding maximum LBE capacity or LBE lacking specialized pouches to carry them), it is discarded.

Clothing kit generation

Numbers correspond to dice roll. Top: 1d11, Bottom: 1d10, Footwear: 1d8, Headgear: 1d14, Body armor: 1d14

Male clothing kit:

• Tops: 1: (none), 2: T-Shirt, 3: PT T-Shirt, 4: Sweater, 5: Leather jacket, 6: Shirt with tie, 7: Parka, 8: Tracksuit jacket, 9: Trench-coat, 10: Tank top, 11: Camouflage T-shirt (blue camo)
• Bottoms: 1: (none), 2: Jeans, 3: Shorts, 4: Mountain pants, 5: Tracksuit pants, 6: Leather pants, 7: Cargo pants (plain color), 8: Cargo pants (blue camo), 9: Cargo pants (forest camo), 10: Boxer briefs
• Footwear: 1: (none), 2: Regular shoes, 3: Running shoes, 4: Leather shoes, 5: Cowboy boots, 6: Hiking shoes, 7: Flip-flops, 8: Motorcycle boots
• Headgear: 1-7: (none), 8: Fedora, 9: Bandana, 10: M1 helmet, 11: Baseball cap, 12: Boonie hat, 13: Beret, 14: Twaron helmet
• Body armor: 1-7: (none), 8: Flak jacket, 9: Light stab vest, 10: Heavy stab vest, 11: Type-2 Kevlar vest, 12: Type-3 Kevlar vest, 13: Twaron vest, 14: Light Dyneema vest

Female clothing kit:

• Tops: 1: (none), 2: T-Shirt, 3: PT T-Shirt, 4: Sweater, 5: Tracksuit jacket, 6: Sundress, 7: Evening dress, 8: Bra, 9: Tank top, 10: Leather jacket, 11: Formal workshirt
• Bottoms: 1: (none), 2: Jeans, 3: Shorts, 4: Tracksuit pants, 5: Skirt, 6: Formal skirt, 7: Panties, 8: Thong, 9: Cargo pants (plain color), 10: Cargo pants (forest camo)
• Footwear: 1: (none), 2: Regular shoes, 3: Running shoes, 4: Hiking shoes, 5: Flip-flops, 6: Ballet sneakers, 7: High-heeled shoes, 8: Motorcycle boots
• Headgear: 1-7: (none), 8: Fedora, 9: Bandana, 10: M1 helmet, 11: Baseball cap, 12: Boonie hat, 13: Beret, 14: Twaron helmet
• Body armor: 1-7: (none), 8: Flak jacket, 9: Light stab vest, 10: Heavy stab vest, 11: Type-2 Kevlar vest, 12: Type-3 Kevlar vest, 13: Twaron vest, 14: Light Dyneema vest

Other minor changes

Lore-related modifications:

• The in-universe term of Game Master, to refer to the character rather than the real-life game master, is replaced by the term Administrator (shortened to Admin), to avoid confusion with the real-life GMs.
• The characters Sergey Kovrov and Elias Keiban are scrapped, leaving Hebizuka Jinkou as the sole Admin of the Mazes, and consequently, as the sole overarching leader/overseer of the entire Mazes.
  • In turn, this means that "Administrator" and "Admin" are the only terms left to refer to Hebizuka's role, that the Entity no longer requires at least 2 shells to sustain itself (it does still need at least one), and that Hebizuka now assumes all of the responsibilities of the other two scrapped characters.

All other minor adjustments that these changes are implying will be rolled out as well - the above explanations are non-exhaustive.

Older

See the Changelog Archive.