Dev Diary: Tournament Enhancements
As a new idea for posting these developer updates I wanted to open up a thread where people could post their concerns, suggestions or questions of curiosity. So feel free to let us know what you think!
------ Added Information ------
Here is a summary of all of the changes coming to tournaments in Floris 2.5. Since the dev diary was done while the changes were still being developed I wanted to update what was known.
Tournament Play Enhancements 1.3
Appearance
Customization Options
As a new idea for posting these developer updates I wanted to open up a thread where people could post their concerns, suggestions or questions of curiosity. So feel free to let us know what you think!
------ Added Information ------
Here is a summary of all of the changes coming to tournaments in Floris 2.5. Since the dev diary was done while the changes were still being developed I wanted to update what was known.
Tournament Play Enhancements 1.3
Appearance
- Post combat ranking panel
- Displays the points earned by each competitor during the last round.
- Can alter display to show overall tournament ranking.
- In combat display
- Displays the current number of points earned and remaining members for each team.[/i]
- Displays the top five individual troop point totals during a round.
- Displays length of the current match and the stalemate timer if necessary.
- Includes an option to disable it from showing.
- Displays the current number of points earned and remaining members for each team.[/i]
- Team visual aspects.
- All teams now have horses that match their team colors.
- All normal and enhanced armor options are color matched for their respective team.
- Unique naming system for generic troops.
- Default troops are given a simple unique name.
- 5 “veteran” troops exist with a title prior to their name.
- 3 “champion” troops exist with a title prior to their name and a home city after it.
Customization Options
- Difficulty Slider
- Players can choose between 24 difficulty settings that determine the number of teams, the size of each team and some generic AI behavior routines.
- The difficulty setting from each round is totaled up to determine cumulative tournament difficulty when calculating final rewards.
- Difficulty can be set to random.
- Choice of weapons used during the tournament.
- Players are given three options for determining their equipment within a tournament. These options include:
- Choice of weapons which now including a polearm that isn’t a lance.
- An upgrade to their armor.
- An upgrade to their weapons.
- A significantly better shield.
- A horse. Additionally this choice may be taken twice to gain a warhorse instead.
- Any combination of the above choices may be made up to your three choices.
- You may select an “always randomize” option that will give you randomly chosen sets of weapons that work well together. You won’t end up with a crossbow and bow for example. This provides for a more native design.
- These same options may be applied for any companions in your party. Each companion may have unique settings.
- Players are given three options for determining their equipment within a tournament. These options include:
- Choice of team.
- You can select to be on any specific team you wish. This choice may be changed every round or left permanent.
- You can select “random team” to keep a more native design.
- The “Never Spawn” feature (Default OFF) may be enabled for any companion to prevent them to joining future tournaments. This is primarily to keep out non-combat oriented companions if desired.
- Additional visual options not covered elsewhere:
- Viewing teammate’s damage – Default OFF
- Viewing when achievement awards are earned in combat – Default OFF
- Viewing when team points are awarded – Default OFF
- Viewing when personal points are awarded – Default OFF
Gameplay Changes- Most tournament weapons have been rebalanced in some manner for better gameplay.
- Tournament troops have been significantly boosted in power.
- There is a level scaling option that will improve AI troop levels proportional to your own for maintaining a similar difficulty progression.
- Enabling level scaling will improve item rewards on a tournament win.
- The default setting for level scaling is OFF which means troops will stay at a static level as you progress. It should be noted that troops cannot “level down” so once their level is improved by turning level scaling on you cannot revert them back to their original default levels.
- The system for winning a tournament has been completely overhauled.
- Tournaments are no longer won by being the last person to survive. Instead a point system has been implemented with 1st, 2nd and 3rd placements earning rewards.
- Points are awarded upon several criteria as follows:
- 1 point is awarded for each person you defeat.
- 2 points are awarded for surviving a round.
- 1 point is awarded to each member of the team that scored the highest in a round.
- Being knocked out in a round will no longer cause you to be eliminated from a tournament.
- Your team can still attempt to “win the round” for points.
- The ability to tab out of a match is disabled after player death to prevent cheating.
- Dynamic Weapon Switching - AI also can randomly choose weapon sets that may include a ranged weapon, but will always include a melee weapon. The AI has been improved to switch between these weapons as appropriate.
Rewards & Betting- Performance achievements can be earned each round based on specific criteria. Each achievement awards a small amount of experience (scaled with your level) and renown. These achievements are listed after each round on the post-combat ranking display. The achievements that currently exist are:
- Swiftest Cut - Awarded for scoring the first defeat in a round.
- Fiercest Competitor - Awarded for scoring the most defeats in a round. (min: 3 players)
- Dominant Presence - Awarded for scoring 25+% of defeats in a round. (min: 12 players)
- Legendary Presence - Awarded for scoring 50+% of defeats in a round. (min: 10 players)
- Mythical Presence - Awarded for scoring 100% of defeats in a round. (min: 10 players)
- Cautious Approach - Awarded for surviving a round without scoring any points.
- New Betting System
- Bets are placed each round based on your team surviving the match. These bets are paid out after each round so the system is no longer designed in an “all or nothing” setup.
- The odds of a bet are calculated before the match based on cumulative level & renown of each competitor on each team.
- Your bet is set in the options panel using a slider and will be applied each round without having to reset it as opposed to clicking through menus in native tournaments.
- Final Tournament Rewards
- The final experience and renown awarded for winning a tournament has been increased as a reward for the increased difficulty of tournaments.
- A lesser version of the 1st place rewards is also earned by 2nd rank participant (50%) and the 3rd rank participant (25%).
- Experience awarded is determined based upon cumulative difficulty throughout the tournament. The harder you set each match the higher this reward will be. It has a level scaling cap applied to prevent too much experience earned at lower levels while still providing beneficial experience at higher levels.
- Turning off “Renown Scaling” will cause experience gained to equal the native amount. (+250 denars)
- Money awarded is also determined based upon cumulative difficulty throughout the tournament.
- Winning a tournament will gain you reputation with the town it is held in. Cumulative wins will gain even greater reputation amounts based on becoming a crowd favorite.
- Items are awarded for winning the tournament with lesser items going to the 2nd & 3rd place winners. This item reward is improved as you gain in level and that level bonus is greatly improved by enabling the level scaling feature.
- The renown awarded for winning is modified by your level and current renown. The lower you are in level or renown the higher your renown gain will be. This quickly scales down to a minimum value (+10 renown) as you level up.
- Turning off “Renown Scaling” will cause renown gained to equal the native amount. (+20 renown)
- The nobility in the town will take notice of your wins.
- Lords will react to your win based upon their personality type, your gender and their relationship with you. Their reaction will alter their relation with you.
- Ladies will react to your win based upon their personality type, your gender and their relationship with you. Their reaction will alter their relation with you.
NOTE: For individuals who like tinkering with the source code there are additional settings available in the TPE kit. These settings are detailed in a separate readme file in our new “Documentation” folder included with the source.