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The New World update #28: Power Armor

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
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Jan 7, 2003
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28,024
There isn't much to report at the moment (we're making good progress, the combat AI is now taking the first steps and attacking the player with extreme prejudice; the starting town is looking better and better; Joao is working non-stop on the assets which helps us tremendously, Mazin is working on randomizing portraits*, Ivan is making armor models, etc), so let's talk about the power armor and armor in general.

I dislike linear progressions in all forms, which is why we went with damage resistance vs chance to dodge (the heavier the armor, the harder to dodge attacks) in AoD, instead of generic Armor Class, whatever that is. Still, two key stats would only take you so far, which is why we added different types of damage: melee, ballistic, energy. Now you can have great ballistic armor, for example, but if you let some bersekers get into your personal space, you'll find yourself at a major disadvantage.

Anyway, the problem with power armor is it has to be awesome, which isn't bad in itself, but this awesomeness tends to make all the other armor obsolete (not to mention that *traditional* power armor should be pretty good against all types of damage, which would make the different types of damage pointless the moment you get your hands on such armor).

So we decided to explore a different direction. The power armor isn't really 'armor'. It's a device that creates a defensive field around you. As such it doesn't have any damage resistance whatsoever.

LNyMYzS.jpg

^ medium armor, rough sketch

There are 3 basic types: light, medium, heavy. You wear it like a vest. You can't wear other vests, so it's a trade off: damage resistance vs shield vs deflector. More on that in a moment. You can wear a jacket or a trenchcoat with it, so you will have some DR, just not as much as with a tactical vest.

At the moment the armor comes in two varieties:

- an energy shield that absorbs all damage until depleted (no DR). Essentially it grants you immunity for the first couple of turns, then you're on your own. If you can't use this immunity wisely and kill a couple of enemies fast, the armor isn't for you. The other energy shield (the gadget one) is weaker and doesn't absorb all damage (i.e. has DR), and can't be moved (i.e. you 'cast' it on a tile). Light, medium, heavy - 20, 40, 60 HP.

- a deflector that turns a critical into a regular strike, a regular into a graze, a graze into a miss. The deflector will lose power with every turn, so we'll need to count turns and reduce %. For example, a heavy model will start with 90% chance to deflect at turn 1, 80% at turn 2, 70% at turn 3, 60% at turn 4, and so on until the deflector is out of juice (0%). Medium will go with 90, 75, 60, 45, 30, 15, 0. Light - 90, 70, 50, 30, 10, 0

Since it's non-linear we can easily expand it and add more properties and different defensive abilities. While we're at it, here is the targeting mockup that gives you the full picture without listing all the different THC individually:

O7aex4P.png

^ 5% chance to score a critical, 45% THC, extra 10% chance to graze, 40% chance to miss

*
3MfQiWh.jpg
XIeuqvX.jpg
24IvZGN.jpg


“The Dalton brothers,” says the Chief Magistrate, shaking his head as he reviews the data. “Showing a poverty of imagination matching their actual poverty, they decided to strike out and plunder the riches of the Wasteland. By all accounts they were lucky to survive, but unlucky to return empty-handed. This is after running up a substantial debt to finance their venture, said debt causing our business community undue hardship and financial burden. Which of course must be rectified.”

“Anything else I should know?”

“Yes, there’s a note appended to the file: the Daltons petitioned the Court to provide them with means to defend themselves, on account of losing most of their belongings during their unsuccessful enterprise. They were issued an axe and two knives, so my guess is they’ll come at you hard and fast. A shotgun would be handy in this situation. “
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
damage resistance vs shield vs deflector

Is the "shield" here a reference to the chance to dodge from the damage resistance vs dodge tradeoff mentioned earlier? Or are you talking about the energy shield?

Also, JPG portraits? Tsk tsk.
 
Last edited:

Goral

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Anyway, the problem with power armor is it has to be awesome, which isn't bad in itself, but this awesomeness tends to make all the other armor obsolete (not to mention that *traditional* power armor should be pretty good against all types of damage, which would make the different types of damage pointless the moment you get your hands on such armor).
Then again if it won't be "awesome" there will be no point to choose it over regular armour. I assume that with proper items (weapons that will deal high damage and allow to kill many enemies fast) it will perform much better than regular armours, otherwise it will be the same thing with different labels. I really like how you've done it with regeneration potion, it was hard to get and there was a significant drawback to it but in the right hands it was a great asset. Hopefully it will be the same with this Power Armour.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
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damage resistance vs shield vs deflector

Is the "shield" here a reference to the chance to dodge from the damage resistance vs dodge tradeoff mentioned earlier? Or are you talking about the energy shield?
The chance to dodge is still there. Only in addition to DR vs chance to dodge you now have energy shield vs chance to dodge and deflection vs chance to dodge. Heavy power armor will reduce your chance to dodge the same way regular heavy armor does. The only question is do you want damage resistance, energy shield, or deflector. It's all about choices.

Also, JPG portraits? Tsk tsk.
Mazin didn't finalize them yet.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
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Messages
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Anyway, the problem with power armor is it has to be awesome, which isn't bad in itself, but this awesomeness tends to make all the other armor obsolete (not to mention that *traditional* power armor should be pretty good against all types of damage, which would make the different types of damage pointless the moment you get your hands on such armor).
Then again if it won't be "awesome" there will be no point to choose it over regular armour.
It should be a trade-off not automatic superiority. Win some, lose some. You lose DR but gain a defensive ability. The defensive ability is powerful, much stronger than DR, but will run out of juice pretty fast (another trade-off).

I assume that with proper items (weapons that will deal high damage and allow to kill many enemies fast) ...
More like with the right character build and regular but specific weapons that fit that build like a glove.

Hopefully it will be the same with this Power Armour.
Hopefully. Either way we'll get plenty of feedback from the combat demo (no ETA yet) and then will tweak it until 2020.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
It should be a trade-off not automatic superiority. Win some, lose some. You lose DR but gain a defensive ability. The defensive ability is powerful, much stronger than DR, but will run out of juice pretty fast (another trade-off).

Does the "juice" recharge per-encounter?
 

Shadenuat

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Anyway, the problem with power armor is it has to be awesome, which isn't bad in itself, but this awesomeness tends to make all the other armor obsolete
Well that's kinda the point of presenting an arms race and progression in the beginning.
 

hivemind

Guest
my initial impression is that the deflector power armor mode is p shit compared to just having normal DR or full on immunity
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
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my initial impression is that the deflector power armor mode is p shit compared to just having normal DR or full on immunity
It depends on your enemies and gear. Against a tough single combatant a shield might be a better option. A group can quickly drain your shield with concentrated fire, so the deflector should work much better there, especially if you have a good reinforced jacket or coat to absorb all hits converted into grazes.

Anyway, we'll go through several rounds of public testing (combat demo, full demo, early access). If it doesn't work well or if it's a clearly inferior option, we'll change it.
 

hivemind

Guest
tbh maybe I just am not on the same page regarding how much dmg grazes actually do

if you can reliably shrug them off how you mention that I see how it could be usable

will deflection vs shield be like a switch mode of the power armour or will there be several different deflection and shield armors?
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
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tbh maybe I just am not on the same page regarding how much dmg grazes actually do
Half the damage.

if you can reliably shrug them off how you mention that I see how it could be usable
Depends on the weapon and the armor (jacket or coat in this case). If, for example, your coat's ballistic DR is 4 and graze damage on average is 3-5, then you're doing fine. Even if it's 6-8, you can still handle it.

will deflection vs shield be like a switch mode of the power armour or will there be several different deflection and shield armors?
Leaning toward different modes for extra versatility (i.e. like AoD's power armor) unless someone has a strong argument in favor of different models.
 

Black Angel

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Leaning toward different modes for extra versatility (i.e. like AoD's power armor) unless someone has a strong argument in favor of different models.
I know this is in reply to whether or not the power armor will have a switch mode for its defensive capability, but if we're talking about whether or not it will have AoD's power armor (with different modes of either STR, DEX, Regen, or the combination of all those), maybe this time it can be something in-between? Like, there are different modes that comes in different power modules, but there's only one suit of power armor, and there's only one slot for a power module on it, so players will have to choose what module do they want to insert into the power armor, and it will be permanent. (basically, there will be STR module, DEX module, Regen module, etc etc)

And then, based on the character's resources (their own crafting skill, or having a connection with certain NPCs), they can 'upgrade' the power armor module's functionality. The modes might be something akin to Crysis's armor (nano?) suit.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
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Since it's not an actual suit of armor, but a device you wear on your chest, it won't give you any stat bonuses. Stat bonuses, regen, and similar abilities will be handled via implants. Unless your CON is 10, you won't be able to get all 7 implants, so most people will have to pick and choose as once installed an implant can't be removed without killing you in the process.

“The implants tax the immune system. At a certain point, rejection is unavoidable, leading to mass organ failure and death. Few people can take more than five, and once the implant is seated it can’t be removed without killing you. So I recommend against impulse shopping.”

“Why can’t an implant be removed the same way it was put in?”

“For one thing, we don’t hold onto your old organs, so there’s nothing to put back in. For another, I want you think about what would happen if I tried pulling out an Exo-Spine fused to eighteen vertebrae with microfiber optic cables woven into your spinal nerve.”

“Where can I get implants?”

“You can buy them from scavengers, if you can afford it. Or you can do the extractions yourself. Either way, they’re getting rarer and rarer.”

“What’s an extraction?”

“Where do you think the implants come from? We certainly can’t *make* them anymore.” She gives a look of disgust, but whether it is directed at your ignorance, civilization’s decline, or the nature of scavenging is anyone’s guess. “When the scavs show up to trade, they’re always telling me they found some dusty old corpse from the ship’s launch, as if I can’t see the blood on them. Half the time they’ve managed to break the damn thing when cutting it out…”
 

hivemind

Guest
would be neat if some super rare implant or something gave you like a scavengers trying to steal it off you encounter
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
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would be neat if some super rare implant or something gave you like a scavengers trying to steal it off you encounter
Already planned. High quality items worth a fortune should make you a target. If you manage to get your hands on the bridge officer's implants giving you certain powers over the Ship, then you'll have to sleep with one eye open.
 

Goral

Arcane
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Not sure if it's been posted already but here's an interesting info about CS: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7571.msg153444.html#msg153444

Vault Dweller said:
Things may change, of course, but right now your CS chance = CS skill + CS feats + CS gear + CS weapon + CS attack.

Explanation:

CS skill - 1% per rank, so if your CS skill is 10, you get 10% CS chance even if your THC is 10% - i.e. if you manage to hit the enemy, it will hurt a lot)
CS feats - Specialist (+5% CS chance), Lone Wolf (+10% Evasion, +5% CS chance; no party members, obviously), Bloodlust (+15% CS chance after killing an enemy for the remainder of the turn), etc
CS gear - a high-end eye implant will increase your CS chance
CS weapon - Less precise weapons like the blunderbuss tend to do a whole lot more damage
CS attack - some attacks actually reduce your CS chance, others increase it. Aimed: Head, for example, increases it by 10%.

Overall, it's possible to make a CS specialist who very high CS chance. As long as it's properly balanced and takes some risk and effort, we have no problems with it.
 

hivemind

Guest
CS skill - 1% per rank, so if your CS skill is 10, you get 10% CS chance even if your THC is 10% - i.e. if you manage to hit the enemy, it will hurt a lot)

wait.

so CS is like chance of an attack being a critical hit instead of a hit being a critical hit??
 

Zanzoken

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Dec 16, 2014
Messages
3,558
Anyway, the problem with power armor is it has to be awesome, which isn't bad in itself, but this awesomeness tends to make all the other armor obsolete (not to mention that *traditional* power armor should be pretty good against all types of damage, which would make the different types of damage pointless the moment you get your hands on such armor).

I am not sure I can get behind this, if for no other reason than Rule of Cool. Power armor is awesome but I think there are ways it can be balanced so as to not be a dominant choice for all builds. Just a few off the top of my head -- EMP damage, special skills / training / items to use, really difficult or costly to obtain.

There are 3 basic types: light, medium, heavy. You wear it like a vest. You can't wear other vests, so it's a trade off: damage resistance vs shield vs deflector.

What is the trade-off between the "weights" of armor? It seems like the AoD system of dodge vs DR would not apply.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
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Messages
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The heavier the armor the bigger the penalty to sneaking (which will be a much bigger factor in TNW) and evasion. It's not the weight, it's how bulky it is.

As for power armor, we're talking here about somewhat common armor that would provide a viable alternative to DR armor. An extremely rare 'cool' armor with high DR is a different issue.
 

hivemind

Guest
(which will be a much bigger factor in TNW)
How do you avoid people just sneaking naked like how everyone did it in AoD?
Or is this a matter of powergamerss gonna powergame?
 

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