Combos on the server: Your opinions?

It's quite obvious that Booster is broken. Well, we know how to fix that now, and Dru/Shan willing, it will get implemented shortly. However:

Are there other combos that need fixing?

Are there other combos that should just plain be removed?

I could swear that Berserk doesn't work right on the server, but it's been a while since I've tried it. IIRC:

It doesn't stack with Weapon Speed.

I thought it broke WS, but I think that's only the Berserk pickup on one of the maps

Do we fix it or trash it? I've seen a few people using it but I'm wondering if it's always accidental.

Speed, obviously, should be kept. Near as I know, it works correctly (though I've seen a dispute about that elsewhere on the Intarwebs), and I know of people who use it (even though a few of us do it accidentally).

Invis: Not useful for INV (monsters still know perfectly well where you are) but could be useful for PvP games - we might be able to write a mod that would check the gametype before removing a combo - I don't rightly know this second. We could just plain keep it as I don't think it's often accidentally triggered ...

So: Opinions?

We use the super Berzerk mod at lunch here at work. If we could make the normal berzerk act like the super, or just swap them out, so we could actually see a difference in weapon performance, I think that would be usefull. As I have everything maxed out, except my adrenilin, I dont think just the normal makes it act any dif. I picked up a berserk on a spacific map that has it in a hidden spot and I dont remember even that making a dif. in my gun speed. Cant remember.

How about dumping the wings of flight artifact and just adding a flight combo? Not that anyone uses it anyway, the artifact usually gets discarded by most...so, na...just a passing thought. It's gone now.

Invis is worthless, yes, in invasion. We dont do PvP very often, but it does happen from time to time.

Hmmm....how about a hologram combo....makes a double of you some feet away that attracts monsters away from you. Whether it be moving with you or not, I cant say. May give you an escape when your the last one on the map and everything is after you... just another passing thought....

I cant think of any combos that we dont already have artifacts for that would be worth while, or codeable.... Will think more on it.

I'd like to avoid adding any "new" combos. I'm mainly concerned with either:

- Removing existing combos that aren't used, or
- Fixing combos that are "broken" in some way

Gotchya!

well, if they only work "properly" when we play anything but invasion, I would say just to inform the masses to avid their use unless playing such matches.

So, invis and berserk = useless in Invasion. Just dont use them.
Have we tested berserk when playing any other form of match other than Invasion to see if it works properly? Think the other mtach types remove the RPG and we are all equal as if playing a standard match. So maybe their is no interfearence with the stacking.

Flak Monkey wrote:

Have we tested berserk when playing any other form of match other than Invasion to see if it works properly?

Actually Berserk is busted in all RPG gametypes too (and is way complex the way they did it).

I've been looking at how weapon speed is done and I think I have a simpler solution, except that I'm:

1. Looking for something that doesn't have to explicitly work with RPG.
2. Looking for something that doesn't break with RPG.

For the code savvy, I was thinking I could do something very similar to what Mysterial does (your statsinv object modifies the weapon speed of a weapon every time you switch it) except that to do basically the same thing, I'd have to ensure that the WS adjustment in the statsinv code had already run. Assuming that a pawn's inventory is linear (IE, all inventory objects are accessed/functions in them called in the order in which they were added), it won't be a problem. I'll have to test it a bit though.

I almost never use any of them, except for booster, which is in and of itself rare unless there are no medics on at the time. And even it, I wish I could disable the dodge combos which activate these things and rebind them elsewhere, at least on a personal basis. Too many times I have found myself activating one of them when trying to dodge rocks or something like that. Grrr.

is it possible to have booster just give u instant health .dunno if id be a quick fix but a thuoght ..

I like the Adrenaline combo the way it is. It's saved my tail more times than I can recall, but the Berserk combo is seriously underrated. When I activate it I have heard from Bot and various other players that my Weapon Speed goes way down. I'm no coder, but is there a possibility of you guys implementing some kind of special berserk or hyper mode? The berserk is seriously underrated and underused. Anything that could utilize that berserk ability and make it unique for each class would be a very interesting thing. Maybe super berserk for weapon masters, some kind of hyper mode for medics, and a type of adrenaline or special mode for adrenaline masters.

What I have right now (because I was too impatient to wait for too many opinions, and just started coding):

* Booster: Works the way "it's supposed to." If your health is below your "SuperHealthMax" (basically, start+99), you get health. If it's at or above SHM, you get shield. It stops eating adren when it fails to boost your shield (in other words, your Shield is at max). I'm quite confident that this will work, as this combo is only slightly changed from the original.

* Berserk: Simply increases your currently selected weapon's fire rate. By default it's:

NewFireRate = CurrentFireRate / 1.50

This is equivalent to someone with max WS on DC. It should stack with your weapon speed, meaning someone with max WS will get:

FireRate = (default.FireRate/1.50)/1.50

(or, for a weapon that fires a shot every 0.9 seconds, a Berserking player with max WS will fire a shot every 0.4 seconds).

I'd like to see it tested in a "real game" situation. My testing shows it works but I can reason a potential failure in how the Engine/UnrealScript will evaluate the RPG WS vs Berserk's WS. Also, this combo was redone completely and is quite complex in how it works (code wise, there's a bit of communication between the client - your PC - and the server that has to work "just right", and it took probably a day, day and half to figure it out).

If you're curious about the technicalities, see the

BotsCombos under development thread in the

UnrealScript, Coding ... Forum.

Just in case it's not clear: BotsCombos (the mod I made to "install" these combos) replaces both of the originals, keystrokes and all. With BotsCombos in use, BBBB will fire off "Bot's Booster" and FFBB will fire off "Bot's Berserk". By default, neither Invis nor Speed are changed at all (but the mod can be configured to do so).

InsaneManiac wrote:

... and make it unique for each class would be a very interesting thing. Maybe super berserk for weapon masters, some kind of hyper mode for medics, and a type of adrenaline or special mode for adrenaline masters.

BotFodder previously wrote:

1. Looking for something that doesn't have to explicitly work with RPG.
2. Looking for something that doesn't break with RPG.

Sorry, trying to avoid tying this in to DruidsRPG (for many reasons, not the least of which is because considering what needs to be done, if something in BotsCombos is busted, I want to make it easier on Dru/Shan to remove). So making it act differently for different classes would make it less portable to other mods/servers.

Mystic wrote:

is it possible to have booster just give u instant health .dunno if id be a quick fix but a thuoght ..

While it is not impossible to do what you suggest, Booster is the easiest of the "broken" combos to fix.

The base "Combo" code is all about things that operate over time. Having a combo that does something "instantaneously" would be very much un"Combo"like. Besides, I'd have to come up with some math to do something like figure out how much health you currently have, how much adren you have, and how much more health you should get. The original Booster combo is fine except for a very minor bug in the code (something that should be ">=" is actually "==").

okies hehe

If you know how to fix invisibility, now that would be somethin

Or the crate combo...

TheDruidXpawX wrote:

If you know how to fix invisibility, now that would be somethin

Ack! I'm only human!

TheDruidXpawX wrote:

Or the crate combo...

Crate combo? I know not of which you speak.

EDIT: Oh the Camo Combo - same problem as Invis really ...

It wouldn't be easy to fix. Others have tried ...