Death Warrant Forums

This is another one of my suggestions for Monster Mash.

Balancing the power of monsters is vital towards making a good RPG invasion game. So I thought of a system where it automatically adjusts monster levels depending on the average player level. This way, we'll have monsters that provide a good challenge for times when a lot of high leveled players are on, and have monsters that don't "instantly pwn" low level players when a lot of them are online. My suggestions are:

For every player below level 80:
Monster DB is decreased by 3.5%
Monster DR and HP are decreased by 2%

For every player that is from level 80-150:
Monster DB is decreased by 3%
Monster DR and HP are decreased by 1%

For every player that is level 151-180:
Monster DB is increased by 5%
Monster DR and HP are increased by 2%

For every player that is 181+:
Monster DB is increased by 15%
Monster DR and HP are increased by 10%

Feel free to share your opinions with the monster level adjuster.

My main concern over this system is that low level players will purposely kick-vote high level players in order to get the monsters nerfed. So that could be a problem.

Naive low level players already complain about high level players making the game harder. Many believe that the monster level is already based on the average player level.

Can the actual monster level be displayed on the HUD (maybe under the time) and maybe scoreboard (or other secondary screen)? The HUD would allow live players to see the monster level at a glance and the secondary screen would allow dead players and spectators to see the monster level.

I think the monster current level has well has the players average level should both be displayed into the HUD. This would make preparation for survival on high level monster much more easier.

I honestly see no reason to change the monster levels. But if any thing Seven and Franky do have a point. Some kind of warning system would nice to help those survive.

I like the idea of displaying the current monster level on the HUD.

Tossing some more ideas out here:

-Should there be some kind of cap on monster level?
-Worthwhile to think about scaling monster adjustment factor (This * Lowest Level equals the Monster Level) down when there are only a few players playing?
-Cap on monster damage bonus maximum (e.g. damage bonus cannot exceed 200% of normal damage)?

DW_FrankyTheFly wrote:I think the monster current level has well has the players average level should both be displayed into the HUD. This would make preparation for survival on high level monster much more easier.

The average monster level doesn't mean anything as far as game play is concerned. I think it just confuses players who don't know that the monster level is based on the lowest level player alive.

TigerRaptorFX wrote:I honestly see no reason to change the monster levels. But if any thing Seven and Franky do have a point. Some kind of warning system would nice to help those survive.

Some time ago I proposed some kind of visual HUD warning system where we got a green light if the monster level was low (150 or less), yellow (monster level was medium, 150-250), and red (monster level 250+). In my experience, these monster levels correlate roughly to "energy weapons effective" to "energy weapons somewhat effective" to "energy weapons useless, time to use piercing or vorpal".

not sure why this here when system already has a monster level adjuster which works ok, especially when low levels are on?

don't forget the general consencus was to reject a cap and other adjustment factors in What if there were no low levels on INV?

i'm not oppsoed to people changing their minds and i would not be opposed to cap of course, but i am perfectly fine with the current setup and i must now admit that i get a twisted thrill out of trying to survive when i'm alone or one of last few survivors. the latest piercing fixes seem to work pretty well (well enough despite some odd quirks). wouldn't mind it to be easier to get a piercing weapon but 'play your am' is fair enough i guess.

would love to get the monster level (just the number is super ok for me) on the hud. i would not want to have to hit any key to see it, should just be visible. so many times i got powned b/c i wasnt keeping track of things and a hud indicator would be helpful to track it.

if you do make some hud mods, I wouldnt mind a simple score indicator(just the player's own numeric score, no need for ranking or anything else) as well on main hud right next to the monster level. i use either the scoreboard or the adrenaline indicator to get a general feel for how well my current attack is doing, how tough the situation is, how well certain monsters take certain attacks, etc etc. it's hard to be always pressing f1 to see this count and adrenline counter is also hard to use b/c that numbers always jumping around. it would also be helpful for other tasks like being able to quickly eyeball how many points a particular monster is, help to gauge the general effectivness of some particular attack (lke a deemer combo) and etc.

HUD on monster level would also be pretty nice. Instead, we could make a skill called Monster/Globing Awareness. My suggestion toward that skill is:

Costs per level: 10,15,20,25,

Level 1: A bar will be shown below your radar and above your EXP bar that changes into 5 colors: Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red.

Blue for monster level very low to the point where you can globe+trip with energy flak +3 without any problems.
Green for monster level low, but to the point where you can only use trip with globe in short bursts.
Yellow for monster level medium to the point where you can't use globe and trip.
Orange for monster level pretty high. Time to use DMM
Red for monster level so high that energy weapons useless and need vorp and/or piercing.


Level 2: Same bar as level 1, but warning messages appear on the top of your screen when monster level gets to yellow and red. (Can be disabled)

Level 3: Gives you the exact average monster DR that appears above the Monster awareneses bar along with warning messages when green, yellow, orange, and red. The warning messages also make an alarmlike sound along with the text.

Level 4: Same as level 3, except you get the average PLAYER level alongside with average monster level and you have option to warn every level 140+ player who doesn't have Monster Awareness 2 and above.

Text Messages for warnings:

Green Warning: Using Triple with Globe is hard now! Time to watch yourself!
Yellow Warning: Monster DR so high that you can't sustain Triple with Globe anymore!
Orange Warning: Monster Level high! TURN ON YOUR DMM AND GET READY TO USE A DEEMER NRG COMBO!
Red Warning: Holy SH%#! MONSTER LEVEL SUPER HIGH! ENERGY WEAOPNS USELESS NOW! USE VORPAL AND PIERCING!

Any criticism?

DW_WailofSuicide wrote:-Should there be some kind of cap on monster level?

No.

DW_WailofSuicide wrote:-Worthwhile to think about scaling monster adjustment factor (This * Lowest Level equals the Monster Level) down when there are only a few players playing?

No.

DW_WailofSuicide wrote:-Cap on monster damage bonus maximum (e.g. damage bonus cannot exceed 200% of normal damage)?

No.

High level monsters are supposed to be a challenge. Opposing them isn't impossible. It just requires different strategies.

Seven_of_69 wrote:Can the actual monster level be displayed on the HUD (maybe under the time)...?

Or maybe under the adrenaline since I eye that number more and more as the monster level rises. A simple color indicator could indicate green, yellow, and red. Or a sliding scale could vary the color intensity as monsters get progressively harder. Monsters aren't simply easy, medium, or hard. :swink: