List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

Jk Howling · 2019-07-16 01:17:52

Just some balancing issues I wanted to list out and bring up for discussion. I'd consider posting on the Github but these aren't really bugs, and it's fallen very, very far behind lately so I don't have much faith in it anymore.

If you wanna add to it, try to keep it related to gameplay and issues you have with balance. For bugs, you can report them at the Github, which he may or may not get to before Christmas.

I'll start. Will update with more if they come.

- Pine walls and doors are WAY too expensive. 5 ropes per wall is not worth it in any scenario. This is a damn shame because they actually look really nice, but are almost never seen due to how much milkweed it takes.

- Milkweed farming lacks progress, and is outclassed by roaming for wild stuff. 8 bowls of soil and 4 bowls of water for a single rope is pretty rough, and time-consuming. Roaming for wild stuff that costs 0 water and 0 soil, just time [which growing takes anyways] will always be more worthwhile. A large majority of the gameplay is centered around milkweed as a resource; Enough of it that we should definitely have incentive to farm it over roaming for wild stuff. Besides, during the process of domesticating plants, did we also not end up improving them for our needs?

- The new scrapping process lacks intuition, and is problematic for early game. I've had multiple incidents recently where we had an accidental duplicate toolhead or some scrap steel early on in the game, but weren't able to smith it due to not having a knife for the pencil yet. Early iron is crucial, and small mistakes can set the entire camp back.

- The iron tech tree needs rebalancing. Ground iron is very sparse due to the rng-based spawn system, and we require at least 9 [including shovel, which is necessary for the well; I'd count hoe too though, for farming] to even begin mining. Not to mention that iron mines are also rng-based without a set minimum

- Swords are still rather powerful, enabling players to 1-v-## an entire town, as being able to drop bloody ones and pick up fresh ones immediately enables them to juggle swords and slaughter. These players often go completely unpunished as we are unable to curse them. They also essentially ruined the purpose of Bells, creating what is essentially a deathtrap to either the ringers or [more often] the followers.

AmberA · 2019-07-16 02:12:48

-Beans! One of the most common trash items I see. Beans are often accidentally picked and then immediately dropped causing ground clutter. Berries are often accidentally picked too but that’s ok because if you drop a berry someone will eat it. But beans require lots of processing and therefore in many towns beans become ground clutter. (Possible solution: all vegetables can be used to make compost)

Baker · 2019-07-16 03:01:50

-Cars and Planes aren't useful despite being high effort. Low effort horse carts require no fuel and are easy to replace if lost.

- PvP massively favors the attackers, Game favors violence over peace in general.

- Rail carts still suck

- IMO, Lives regen too fast. Slower regen helps prevent rampant /die

Morti · 2019-07-16 04:48:35

AmberA wrote:

-Beans! One of the most common trash items I see. Beans are often accidentally picked and then immediately dropped causing ground clutter. Berries are often accidentally picked too but that’s ok because if you drop a berry someone will eat it. But beans require lots of processing and therefore in many towns beans become ground clutter. (Possible solution: all vegetables can be used to make compost)

I think it'd be nice if green beans lasted longer.
I have many fond memories of playing hide-and-go-seek, tag, or hide the flag, on one, two or four of the city blocks in my neighborhood as a kid. I loved to hide in people's gardens, and munch on their green beans, or try out other vegetables they'd planted there.
I can't recall a single time where any of the adults ever came out and scolded us for running around in their back yards, and back then, people didn't even fence in their yards, everyone just shared a block and people walked freely from yard to yard just to interact with their neighbors.
It's a little harder now to find a city block that isn't divided into several picket, chain link, or privacy fences, but I know there are still a lot of yards where people haven't bothered to put up fences.

But yeah, maybe make it so green beans don't dehydrate unless put on a plate or in a bowl for some, amount of time.
That way we can snack on them longer while we enjoy our game.

Worse thing that can happen is some kid from another family eats a few of our beans while playing tag.

Goodness, why don't people play games like hide-and-go-seek, or hide the flag, in this game?
Oh, that's right, 15 years of game design says every game needs to be a murder simulator, I'm sorry, how naive of me.
Everyone's too busy telling you how bad swords and fences are to think of more creative and friendly things they could be doing with their time.

Well, here, let me put forward an example of the kind of game we could play. Let's call it... Cinnazuli or, CZ for short.
What you need to play:

One Cinnabar:
One Lapis Lazuli:
Two teams; of roughly equal size for example: 1v1, 2v2, 2v3, 3v3, 3v4
Two biomes of roughly equal size, or, areas that can be marked off, maybe with markers like fences, just loosely, to give people an idea where the fields are. Fields could also be easily marked by say 40x40, 40x80, or, 80x80 areas, with the lines drawn between natural springs used to mark the playing fields.

Here is an example of a play field in purple, with the Cinnabar Team's red field on the left and the Lapis Lazuli Team's blue field on the right.

Ideally the fields would have an equal number of obstacles blocking an equal amount of view, but, nature isn't always like that, some blocks just have better hiding places than others. So, here is an idea, rather than choose the fields ahead of time, one person from each team rolls a bowl of die, highest roll chooses which field they want to hide the other team's object in.

Players meet at the center well or on the boundaries between the two areas to roll to see who takes what side.

After the winner of the roll chooses their side, a person from each team takes the others item; blue team takes the cinnabar, red team takes the Lapis Lazuli. The winner of the roll then makes sure everyone is ready (says something like "Ready?"), after they get confirmation (everyone says "Y" "yes" or "yeap", something to that effect) from everyone, the players then run to out to the opposite ends of the field and can then decide where to hide the opposing team's object.

The players are given one minute to hide the other teams object before they have to be back at the center. In that one minute players must remain within their side of the field. They can attempt to spy on the other team by staying close to the center, or, run distractions if they are being watched. Anything they want to do in that time, but the Cinnabar and Lapis Lazuli, must remain within the fields, and be accessible by the other team.

After the minute is up and everyone is back at the center, the player that won the roll, then checks with the other team again "Ready?" "Yeap" and then the teams scour the other sides looking for their object. Players again, must remain in the opposing team's field, but they can, if they so choose, run up and down the center line attempting to distract the other players, or, see how close they are to finding the item.

First team to return their object to the center, wins the game, and if everyone still has time, a new game can begin.

Obstacles, like boxes, baskets, buildings, trees, may be included in the fields for various types of games.
The game could be played around a town, where the central well is the meeting area.
Please be sure all players are fairly well clothed and have adequate food before starting the game.
I don't want anyone to die while trying to play this, but if winning means that much to you that you aren't going to run and grab food, I can understand.
No weapons please; no hiding your item near the border, and then shooting the other players with arrows as they get close to it or stabbing them from the dividing line.
These rules may be subject to change, by anyone, so long as participants have an idea of what ruleset they are playing by.

I think these rules are simple enough that you could teach someone how to play in less than a minute and the game could be a lot of fun. Please be polite to the other team. When you are done playing, I'd appreciate if everyone said GG or, good game, to the opposing team, I'd say line up down the center and pass by each other, touching each player of the opposing teams hand as you pass by them telling them good game, but, this isn't elementary school football, but you are free to be as friendly after you like.
Please try to have some nice food around so players can attend a banquet after the game is done. Try to keep the post game banter and smack talk reasonable. I have been making up yard games for over 35 years, I'm a professional. I know most people in the business.

Morti · 2019-07-16 05:08:36

Jk Howling wrote:

List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

Oops

MrsDuckGirl · 2019-07-16 07:25:11

The warsword shouldn't be made out of steel.
I'm against the warsword, that's a mean and stupid update, but now we have to deal with it. Okay, but it should be a little bit harder for them to build it than just steal the pipes intended to the oil rig That is really annoying to spend all your life gathering iron, turning it to steel, getting water and kindlings, all this mostly alone, finally get a bit of pipes, enough to set the pump before you die, and some kids come and turn your pipes into swords.

Last edited by MrsDuckGirl (2019-07-16 07:26:32)

arkajalka · 2019-07-16 16:38:02

You could skip few irons in early camps when you didnt need to use pencil to create scrap bowl, you can reforge the chisel and file after you created saw, now knife is a deffo must make item cause of the scrap bowl. Creating knifes creates opportunities for murder.

Forging a sword should be much more complicated task than just hitting an ironpipe with hammer.

In real life to create a sword you need to:

1. Create blade base from overlapping iron. You can achieve this by stacking "steel blade blanks" on each other and hammering them into one sollid piece or by heating a iron bar and twisting it. Then reforgin that piece into true blade shape.

2. Create a hilt/armguard by forgin iron into form, adding leatherstrips to the base and then somehow bind it to the hilt.

3. Create a knob that locks in the parts and secure it someway

4. Sharpen and polish the blade.

Im not a sword maker by profession, but still hitting a pipe with hammer seems way too oversimplified.

Rope making is seriously made too hard. In real life you could theoreticaly make rope out of any plant cause they all have fibers, some are just longer than other that affects the durability. You aren even solely depended on plant fibers you can also use animal fibers like wool to create rope. Heck you could prolly make a rope out of your own hair. 420 blaze it rastamon.

Lets say you could make rope ez and make those sweet pinepanels. Add grieffer-->add axe-->lots of kindling-->profit. So pinepanels are super material costly and really eazy to grieff.

MOSQUITOES REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Ultimate super predator, the top of the food chain, immortal, untouchable, uncureable demon spawn that punishesh from development.

Last edited by arkajalka (2019-07-16 16:40:11)

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-07-16 01:17:52

List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

#2 2019-07-16 02:12:48

Re: List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

#3 2019-07-16 03:01:50

Re: List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

#4 2019-07-16 04:48:35

Re: List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

#5 2019-07-16 05:08:36

Re: List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

#6 2019-07-16 07:25:11

Re: List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

#7 2019-07-16 16:38:02

Re: List of Balancing Issues [No suggestions]

Board footer