[NeO_Anderson]

Some of you may have noticed that on the server after completing certain tasks you are shown a message saying that you have earnt EXP. For those of you that don't know what this is... EXP (which is short for Experience Points) is exactly what it says in the name, Experience Points. Every time you complete certain tasks for example killing a bad guy, reviving a team mate... or even saving a survivor from being choked to death by a Smoker, and so on... you will earn Experience Points. At the time of writing this there is no set way or use for Experience Points other than simply earning and seeing how "Experienced" you are in comparison to your friends.

We do have some future plans and I will outline now what the distribution rate is below. Firstly EXP (Experience Points) at some stage can be traded in for;

- Weapons/Ammo
- Items (Such as pills or Medkit)
- Pipebombs or Molotovs

We will also be allowing people to trade in their EXP (Experience Points) for what we will call "Special Abiltiies". We're still in the process of creating and deciding new Special Abilities but at this time we have two that will be implemented first.

- Pyroblast. This will set fire to all Infected players at the same time. They will not only die once their health reaches 0 but become quite visable for the survivors.

- Beaconize. Similiar to above, it will put a beacon on every Infected player that is alive. We may make it set a beacon on all Infected (even after they spawn) for 10-20seconds or so. The infected will have a pulse-like effect coming from them but they will not die or be harmed.

It is not certain exactly how much EXP will be required to use each abiilty as we're still monitoring the amount players earn on average and will base it on that.

Now heres that table I mentioned earlier that will outline the EXP distribution at the time of writing this:

Quote

EXP POINTS TABLE:

[Survivors]:

Healing someone = 20 ONLINE
Killing using single pistol: 5 ONLINE
Killing using dual pistol: 4 ONLINE
Killing using molotov: 5 ONLINE
Killing using anything not listed above: 3 ONLINE
Reviving teammate: 10 ONLINE
Harming team mates: -5 (Triggered every 5seconds of an attack)ONLINE
Player saves another from being choked by smoker: 10 ONLINE

[Infected]:

Tank kills using car/object: 5 ONLINE
Tank successfully kills a survivor with his rock: 5 ONLINE
Killing using hunterclaw: 10 ONLINE
Smoker successfully starts to drag a survivor: 10 ONLINE
Smoker successfully chokes a survivor to death: 10 ONLINE
Boomer Infects someone and they die as a result: 15 ONLINE
Hunter succesfully pounces onto survivor: 5 ONLINE
Infected player attacks smoker whilst he/she is choking a survivor: -30 ONLINE

There is a known issue with the 'Boomer Kills someone with vomit', sometimes EXP is given out multiple times, we're still monitoring this. Anything marked with ONLINE means that is is or should be active on the server. Anything marked with OFFLINE is well....not online.

[UPDATE]

It's been awhile since I updated the EXP system so I did so to night. Enlight of the well known disadvantages of the way we store EXP using the mIRC based bot I have decided to completey redo this part of it.

Everything is now converted and is running completely by the server. So for those that use IRC, the "EXP" bot will soon be removed. By making this upgrade we solve a number of issues and more importantly open new doors to possibilities for future scripts and updates. The most important fix that I want to make clear is that for all them users that were purchasing abilities when they had like -5000 EXP this is now a thing of the past and is no longer possible! Whats more, I have gone out of my way to recover as many peoples EXPs as possible so if you were one of them people that were buying all the abilities and then not bothering to help the team to earn em back, you'll now have to pay big time as you will not be able to use abilities until all the EXP you spent has been worked off!

Please report any issues you find with this new upgrade!


Here is a current list of online abilities:

Quote

Survivors:

- Kevlar Body Armor - You will recieve less damage from the enemy than usual.
- Boomer Vomit Protection - Your screen will remain 100% clear when hit by Boomer Vomit. (MAY protect team mates too)
- Recover from Ledge fall - Pull yourself up when you have fallen off a ledge (Press shoot to activate)
- Self Revive - When incapcitated, you will be able to revive yourself. (Press shoot button to activate)
- See Through Vomit - The screen will remain 95% visable when hit by Boomer Vomit.
- 150 Health Points - Health boost.
- Reduced Recoil - Improved accuracy.
- Increase Clip Capacity - Every weapon including pistols will have an larger magazine/clip.
- Increased Bullet Damage - Self explainitory.
- Combat Knife - Allowing you to escape hunter/smoker hold. (Press shoot button to activate) Can be used ONCE per round
- Revive Teammates Faster Than Usual - Self explainitory.
- Run Faster - Self explainitory.
- Reload Faster - 'Quick Hands' allowing you to reload faster.
- Incendiary Ammo - Bullets cause fire

Infected:

- Mutated Blood allowing them immunity from fire.
- Mega Horde - allowing infected to call for zombie reinforcements.

Experience Points are being recorded at this time: YES.

Planned Experience Points reset/deletion: NEVER.

Currently working on: Infected abilities



Latest changes:

- Fixed the EXP storage system. It is no longer possible to buy EXP when you have less than 20 EXP.

[NeO_Llama]

I just hope it's balanced...

[NeO_Anderson]

Remember this is in beta stage, expect things to change and expect bugs to occur.. I will do my best to ensure it is balanced and bug-free. If you have suggests, feel free to express them. :)

[NeO_Pro]

I like the ideas (Pyroblast and Beaconize)

Beaconize I believe that this would have to happen automatically from server with the right amount of experience points and affecting only the player who has reached that amount for one round then by bypassing that amount that certain player would be able to automatically use Pyroblast, so you would need a very experienced player to be able to achieve both of those situations in a one round game!

[squid267]

I'm really liking some of the special attacks the Surviors get like Pyroblast.

[Reeker]

There will be "Killing using melee ~5exp :)

[HUGSnKISSES]

You should raise the exp of Hunters.
Either that or give bonus EXP, for potential damage done during a pounce.

Expert use of a hunter is no easy task and most people will be forced to learn how to utilize them better if they get higher EXP on the scale.

[NeO_Anderson]

HUGSnKISSES, on Jul 25 2009, 06:38 PM, said:

You should raise the exp of Hunters.
Either that or give bonus EXP, for potential damage done during a pounce.

Expert use of a hunter is no easy task and most people will be forced to learn how to utilize them better if they get higher EXP on the scale.

Ok :) I'll look into something.. I've read somewhere that it is possible to detect whether or not people are pushed back when a hunter jumps onto someone near them... if this is true then I will give a bounus 5EXP for each person that gets pushed back. :)

[NeO_Solarus]

Finally smokers can choke their victim with the knowledge that any hunter stealing their kill will die....ah~ such a satisfying feeling.
now we wait for the beta stage to finish :D yay

[NeO_Llama]

S0larus, on Jul 28 2009, 04:55 AM, said:

Finally smokers can choke their victim with the knowledge that any hunter stealing their kill will die....ah~ such a satisfying feeling.
now we wait for the beta stage to finish :D yay

Everytime I 'steal' from a smoker it was an accident :(

[samprince1991]

How to use the exp in the game?
Give the complete guide .

[NeO_Llama]

At map start type in !abilities in the chat box.
To turn the laser off/on type !laser
To buy abilities push the corresponding button.

[NeO_SinrOne]

Today i started to play L4D and i had some issuies with EXP (was -210, worsest). Cause when i shot the zombies and my team mates just ran into my bullets so i lost exp all the time.. But thank god my savior came (Mr.A) Now i have plus exp :D Its good thing, but i think team mate shooting minus exp should be lower.. Cause its impossible to be without shooting ur own team mates, cause i could call it chaos =D

And yea the pounce exp should be increased, u die immediatly when u hop on someone lol :D
(sry for bad english :P)


Fun game !

[NeO_Anderson]

It's not impossible, there are many people with +experience some even have over 1,000 and it's only been a few days since it got reset so it's not impossible to earn EXPerience :)

At first, I found it very hard to earn experience... but if (like most people used to do) and just shoot even if your team mates are near by where you're aiming at then obviously you'll loose experience. For me... in a split second, I think before I pull the trigger - are there any survivors near where I'm shooting at? this saves me loads of EXPerience. At the end of the day, even if you do accidently shoot a survivor, there are many ways to make up for it, from healing team mates to melee attacking a smoker that is choking your team mate. It's just a matter of learning how to shoot and when to not shoot. There will come a time when your only option is too shoot through your teammate in order to save him or her and this is unavoidable but even if you have this periods occur there are ways to make up for it.

I don't feel that anything should be adjusted at this time. The only people that I have seen with minus EXP are people that are new to the server really. Everyone else seems to have 200-700 EXP on average and some have as I said before, 1000+.

[NeO_Solarus]

(3)SurvivorBot had the most exp...somwhere around 6k :D but thats a bot ofc.

quick thing, the mega horde. i dont know if you've already worked on it and i have no idea how the director makes the horde spawn but sometimes its just not "mega" enough. sometimes there are about 5 zombies and nothing else happens.

could you also tell me how much time there is between consecutive "mega horde" calls? is it once/map or once/person or is it complicated game equations that are too difficult to explain? i dont mind any explanation but just a heads up on the mega horde ability.


OH! that reminds me, there was someone sometime who (hated the aim-bot effect the survivorbots had and) thought it would be awesome to have an ability to be stealthed to them. I thought about it and found a flaw, if the stealth is permanent (one round) how can bots save those lagging behind or afk (in a "what if" the other players dont look back).
your comment on this?

[NeO_SinrOne]

After Mr.A (Anderson , lol) reseted my exp, i had +300 , now i have 5500 exp :D

[Ysabelle]

I was wondering if maybe we could have an ability (only useable once per round) that would allow infected to spawn wherever they wanted? (Persay closer to survivors, when it says "too close to survivors" or "they can see you")

The application for this could be boomers being able to spawn in the middle of a group of survivors

Just an idea :)

[Twix]

S0larus, on Aug 25 2009, 03:14 PM, said:

could you also tell me how much time there is between consecutive "mega horde" calls? is it once/map or once/person or is it complicated game equations that are too difficult to explain? i dont mind any explanation but just a heads up on the mega horde ability.

I believe someone said it was once every 5 minutes. Which reminds me... the timer should be reset at the beginning of each round. There are times when its used at the end of the last round and then it can't be used until the timer elapses.


And, Ysabelle, congrats on those nifty stars you got there. Good thing those titles go to players that deserve them. Teleportation would definitely be an interesting ability. Think about it, savvy players can "unstuck" themselves when playing as a tank ;)

[Ysabelle]

=] thank you twix.

Also, another idea I had was that I saw a lot of people with negative (-) exp buying abilities and digging themselves deeper into the negative. Is there any way we can cap out how far you can dig yourself in the hole before you are no longer able to use abilities? (Say like -200 exp you can't buy abilities)

I feel as if abilities are a privilege, and when people TK and get negative exp they should not be allowed to afford abilities.

[DX]

I have the same problem using experience points. I had some -250 exp points but still i was able to buy abilities, and then after that i had some -290 exp. Then moving on to the next map when i tried the same thing it displayed a messege "You Do Not Have Enough Exp Points", But when i turned infected i was able to buy them, But i stopped buying abilities after that when i had -ve exp. This thing is happening every alternate maps. Player are still able to buy abilities tho they have negative experience points. Why?

I agree with Ysabelle that people should not be allowed to buy abilities with -ve experience points. Then whats the use of having "EXP POINTS".