Kaos story - Part 3 (utilities roster development)

[Dream Trance]

Finally the utilities section that now consists of 6 items (classic version had 7).

We did take out the controversial Double Time that was imbalancing many games in critical moments, also Laser sight which did not add anything important to the gameplay and acted more like an "empty crate" to reduce a chance of getting something else from the utilities roster.

Another major change is the removal of Jet Pack that made travelling too easy, especially in the tense endings which we wanted to be more tactical and not so cheap after all.

In return there are 2 replacements that compensate these removals. We thought these will serve better while stressing the skill factor even more.

15 seconds - additional seconds to your turn time usable on demand whenever needed and not instantly activated when collected.

Double Jump - Original alternative for a Jet Pack, this kind of mid air jump extension provides creative climbing possibilities that require much more skill than just flying with a Jet Pack.

All the other utilities known from classic kaos stayed, but the probabilities were tweaked to provide convenient moblity flow.

Utilities probability sorted by frequency of appearance:

Fast Walk appears approximately in 41 of 100 utility crates (previous probability was 25 of 100)

We increased it due to the removal of Laser Sight (had another 25% of drop chance) and to maintain the pace of play whenever a creative long run is required so basically lack of Laser Sight makes you benefit in faster walking possibility than ever before.

Crate Spy appears approximately in 23 of 100 utility crates (previously just 10%)

This decision was made because there were controversies about overall turns amount of Crate Spy time for both players and it could have been unfair to the one that had way less of that time. Since it becomes 2,3 times more common now, both players will be able to use similar crate content knowledge throughout whole match, making the gameplay balanced even more.

Double Jump appears approximately in 15 of 100 utility crates (Jet Pack had this value at 10 of 100 in classic kaos)

This replacement is awarded with additional 5% of availability to compensate lack of flying tool for the sake of creative mid-air jumping ability.

Low Gravity appears in 10 of 100 utility crates (previously 20 of 100)

The reduced probability of this tool makes overall mobility probability set at 25% (along with Double Jump it makes nice combination with - previously Jet Pack + Low Gravity had 30% combined). Lowering it by 5% overall results in slightly trickier mobility flow and forcing even smarter mobility management.

Invisibility appears in 10 of 100 utility crates (previously 5 of 100)

The reason behind this change was to increase the darkside factor as well as the tactical side of battle to provide tense deciding moments.

15 seconds appears in 1 of 100 utility crates (Double Time used to be 5 of 100)

Since this utility is collectable and stockpilable it needs to be rare, it can change the fate of a round or match if you need those last 15 seconds to complete your action or just add a few more crates to your arsenal instead of much more (usually) from a Double Time crate.

That sums up this section. I'll use this article to describe a few more final options that complete the full description of the new official edition:

darkchute - Parachute has now black sprite instead of white (credits to the author of this feature)

livehp - health points are deducted (as well as added in case of Health Zone) in real time in this scheme so you can see how energy drops (or rises) as it happens - helps with managing turntime more efficiently (also credits to the author of this feature)

antiglitch_revised - a feature that takes care of anything unusual and unexpected that may occur from the outcome of some specific weapon usage. This helpful option allows to prevent the game from being stuck as well as possible major bugs. (Thank you StepS for creating this improvement)

r2_wpanel - an option to turn on / off the transparent weapon panel with weapon amounts included to be able to have an overview of current arsenal without the need of remembering F shortcuts or just for the awareness to plan turns more effectively. (Thanks to rafa2 from Colombia for creating this option)

[h3oCharles]

do you plan on adding live death?

[Dream Trance]

I'm not sure if animated death sequence in motion leaves a grave.

We need graves to revive worms from.

We also want to keep as much of classic behaviour as possible for tactical reasons, so it feels more like classic kaos and not just special effects.

Should test to see how it behaves and whether it's acceptable for competitive needs.

[WTF-8]

We need graves to revive worms from.

We also want to keep as much of classic behaviour as possible

because reviving worms is very classic

darkchute - Parachute has now black sprite instead of white

so it feels more like classic kaos and not just special effects.

totally not just a special effect

[Dream Trance]

Compiling statements detached from the context is not the smartest thing to do I guess. And this is what you just did.

Never said it's all classic, because it can't be since px is concerned.

By classic behaviour i meant physics modifications in gameplay behaviour, like modified gravity, and things like that, was more of a "mental shortcut".

Again, by special effects, I rather meant the pyroman graphical modifications and stuff like that and certainly not the sprite change, jeez

Not sure why you cut these parts out of context. It doesn't prove anything.

[WTF-8]

Compiling statements detached from the context is not the smartest thing to do I guess. And this is what you just did.

Not sure why you cut these parts out of context. It doesn't prove anything.

Maybe you should align things better so you don't contradict yourself in every message, rather than blindly dismiss every attempt to point that out? Especially when you're going to defend against a joke by calling a sprite recolor not a graphical modification, jeez

[Dream Trance]

It's rather you putting those sentences near each other making this effect of contradiction.

I suppose that by "pointing out" you mean yourself quoting random lines that do not relate to each other directly?

I am not dismissing anything blindly, just defending myself from manipulation from your side.

If that was a joke than why do you make it look like mockery?

What I should do is rather not making these "mental shortcuts" if readers can't interpret them (about graphical modifications for instance).

In other words: I simply didn't mean what you are trying to imply I did. I'll try to clarify intentions better, sorry for any misunderstandings caused.