Today I'd like to talk about a longer period of playtesting, some gameplay updates and other tweaks. Lets start off with the bigger playtest!
A month+ long Playtest
On the 5th of October a long playtest will start to measure progression, playtime and a lot more. During this time the server will be on 24/7 till November 10th. All the players who have requested access or request access during this playtest will be accepted immediately. So bring your friends!
Note: Your progress will be wiped upon start of this playtest to ensure everyone starts at lvl 1.
The server will hold up to 64 players, and will not receive any updates during this time unless there are some game breaking issues.
This does mean that the weekend tests are done for now.
Ammo Changes
Currently, you have unlimited ammo but have to reload. This is changing due to the fact that this allows you to camp in a specific spot. Whilst camping in a spot is not bad, the fact that that would be the same gameplay for 20 minutes is.
Doing the exact same thing in a game for 20 minutes is boring, because you are experiencing a consistent feeling of emotions while doing so. The ideal gameplay loop has variations in it where various emotions come and go.
For example, lots of games have a limited inventory system to force players to not do the same constantly, even if they technically could by dumping their inventory items. Minecraft, Borderlands, Skyrim and so many other games use this system to force you to head back to a town/base and sell or store it all. Otherwise you'd just combat or mine for hours and hours.
The same goes for Ravenous Horde, as mentioned sitting in a corner isn't the way for 20 minutes. So from now on your weapons have limited ammo. And to replenish the ammo you can head to one of the 2 specific ammo refill points on any map to grab some more at a small cost. These replenish points are clearly visible and also marked on the mini-map. They're placed on strategic spots to prevent camping near them.
With this change you have moments where you are actively shooting, but also moments of actively trying to find the shortest route towards a nearby refill point without having to rush through a horde. Next to that this also changes the way you use ammo, probably more conservatively and trying to get every shot to count.
The gameplay of the game will remain more arcade-y than tactical/realistic. The amount of ammo you have per gun is not fully balanced yet around the refilling mechanic. The goal is not to have you constantly having to refill, but rather do so only a few times per match.
This change will be in the new patch before the big Playtest session.
Other Gameplay Changes
Some other changes regarding the AI zombies have changed too. Currently the amount of AI zombies scales with the amount of players. But when playing solo it felt underwhelming. You had a few zombies but not the masses you'd expect reading the game title. This needed to change as I think playing this solo (on a server) should also be fun!
So I've greatly optimized the AI zombies to use less resources and how I could use more of them at the same time without degrading performance. Mainly spawning and deleting the AI zombies took a big toll when trying to instantly spawn or kill 10 with a grenade for example. Now they're being reused (pooled, in game dev terms) and behind the scenes there are always at least 50 of them ready to bite your arm.
AI zombies have less HP and deal a bit less damage. However they come in greater numbers quickly even when playing solo. In addition their health now also increases with time, making them deadlier every second the timer ticks. The AI zombies also more or less come in "waves", you'll have busy periods and periods where there are only 1 or 2. This is done for the same reason as the previous chapter, to have variations in how the game feels. And also to give you some breathing room to go towards a ammo refill station.
AI zombies also still scale in amount/health with more players, but this time I wanted to focus first on the solo experience.
Perks
I briefly mentioned perks in the last post. But more of them are on the way!
About ~40% of all perks are currently in as of typing. But more will be added during this and next week before the playtest starts.
In the screenshot below you can see the ones that are currently in for the Hunter. I've started with the most basic/easy ones to get it all working first. The more prominent ones, such as cluster grenades take a bit more time to get right, so they'll be added among the last ones. (They also require a high level to unlock)
As you might have noticed, there are no values displayed on the perk menu. Or even on the loadout menu. This is done intentionally as often "meta" builds arise after a while when people figure out that X gun with Y perks does the most theoretical DPS but might not be the most fun style to play the game.
A great person once said: "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game."
And this is also true for Ravenous Horde. So I've opted to not show the data, in an effort to combat this, you should play with whatever setup you'd like. And that's why the perks lean into various directions.
I also try to make sure each perk (but also weapon & special equipment) is relevant in some degree. All weapons should have a place in this game and none should be the go-to weapon in all cases. The same goes for perks, I try to balance them so that not one perk is either a must have or gets never chosen. If a perk is always picked, then it might be better to remove it or add its functionality into the game by default. Every perk should also have a place in this game.
Patch Info
The rest of the patch notes and changes will be coming next week!
Thanks for all the support so far!
- Rinke
