SourceForts: Haven Design Document
 

This design document is an entirely in-progress work. Although much of this is considered the current working design, it should not be taken as representative of the final game. I repeat: if you don’t like what’s in here, don’t worry, it will likely change. As always, comments are appreciated, and you may find that your input pushes the game in a way you prefer.

If it makes you feel better, think of this more as a testing direction. For example the current weapon load-outs are more placeholders than anything else, being implemented for testing purposes only. There are also several sections under heavy debate with several totally opposing ideas, these are being worked out, but it is taking time.

That said, comment on this, even if we've already changed what you've commented on, it's likely to prompt us with more ideas and help shape the game further. It will also give us a good idea of where the community wants the game taken.


The original game mode will be a unique combination of capture-the-flag and control-point based gameplay.

There are two teams, here on our referred to as “red” and “blue.” Each team will have a base at each end of a long, non-linear map. In this base, there will be a flag. Between the two bases will be 3 midfield bases, which will each contain a control point. Throughout the course of the game, both teams will fight to gain control of the control points, which give the controlling team a number of advantages in combat. To win, a player must bring the enemy flag to a control point they control.



Midfield bases are defensible locations that each team will seek to control. The team that controls the control point in each base will have faster freezing times in these areas.


In each midfield base, there will be a single control point. Each point is represented by a visible entity, a “scrap,” of a left behind human structure that the playable characters are trying to preserve such as a bridge, statue, etc, as well as a visual cue showing the size of the actual control point.

These control points work similar to those in many other games. If a player stands on the point uncontested, he will begin to capture it. The more players on the point, the less time it takes to capture. If an enemy stands on the point during this process, the capture is blocked.


At each control point, as well as each main base, there will be a spawn room. At any given time, players will spawn either one point back from their front control point, or, if that is not available, at their spawn. Spawning takes approximately 15 seconds from time of death.


At each main base, there will be a single flag, which, upon being “touched” by an enemy player, is moved directly above said player’s head. If the player reaches a control point owned by their team, that team will wins the game. If the player is killed before capturing the flag, the flag is returned to its stand to await another attempt. The flag is not accessible to the enemy team unless that team currently controls a majority of the control points on the field.

Like the control points, it is impossible to freeze blocks inside the flag zone. [In SF 19x, it is possible to exploit a glitch in the source engine where stacking a number of physical enties (around 40) will result in the entities becoming frozen in place, making the flag impossible to get to. Some mechanism may need to be implemented to prevent this problem]




As of the current design, classes have not yet been finalized for a working build, and are therefore solely my interpretation of a number of the ideas currently under construction in the developer forums. They very likely do not represent the final classes.

Scout (infiltrator) – capping class.

This class is fast, has little health, and has the ability to perform a number of trick-jumps which allow him to bypass structural defenses. His weapons are based solely around this purpose; he is not in any way meant for midfield combat.

Trickjumping consists of:

The dash – pressing shift results in a rapid acceleration of movement minus the effects of momentum. It does not change the characters height, but allows him to change directions extremely quickly.

The wall-jump – pressing jump while moving towards a wall reverses your trajectory relative to the wall, while effectively giving you another jump from the point of contact.

The long-jump – dashing before a jump allows the character to perform a longer jump than normal

The high-jump – jumping while not dashing results in a much higher jump than the long-jump, but does not go as far

Weapons:

Melee: thwacking stick: medium damage, high rate of fire

Disruption rifle: disrupts the targets vision and slows mobility (both movement and aim) for 3 seconds, but does no damage. This weapon has a 3-shot magazine, and takes a while to reload.

Pistol: low-powered pistol. Medium rate of fire, low damage, extremely accurate; enough to taunt an enemy, but not enough to do any major damage.

Build gun: allows infiltrator to spawn a jump block and possibly another block (currently undecided)

Soldier (grunt): - standard combat class.

This class is about medium speed, medium power, and high health.

Weapons:

Assault rifle: high rate of fire, good accuracy, moderate damage to players. Has the ability to shoot through a single layer of standard wall blocks while also damaging them. Short reload time, 40 shot magazine. Has a laser sight that fades with distance.

Pistol: high-powered energy pistol. No ammo, but has an “overheat” system.

Melee (rifle smash): disables opponent for 2 seconds

This class also has the dash, but cannot use it straight out of a jump like an infiltrator can.

Build gun: allows player to spawn a bubble shield and a health supply sphere

Rocketeer (rocketeer) –anti-material class

Slow speed, high power, low health

Weapons:

Shotgun: low rate of fire, high close-range power, very little long-range power, long reload time.

Missile launcher: fires a single, BF2-TOW style guided missile. The player must hold down the mouse button for the duration of the flight, and on release, the missile will explode (to prevent the player from accidentally tapping the button, the player must hold the button down for 1 second before the missile is ready to fire). The accuracy of these rockets (tendency to fly in a straight line, as opposed to a varied one) depends on the rocketeers health. The rocketeer must maintain line-of-sight with the missile, or it will disengage and fall to the ground causing no damage.

Build gun:

bunker block - spawns a small, two man bunker that the rocketeer can use for defense in the midfield.

mini-health block - this block recharges all players health within its radius, but at a slower pace than the standard health block. Also, it can only restore the player to 80% of their maximum health.

Grenadier (suppression) – support combat/siege

Grenade launcher: fully automatic, but relatively slow firing grenade launcher. Similar to a grav-nade, it has a slight arc, but unlike the grav-nade, grenades explode on contact with any surface or player. It has a much smaller damage radius, but does a great deal of damage. It also has a rather large physics effect, making it useful for knocking players around, as well as making it useful for limited “nadejumping" This weapon has an overheat system; a visible bar will measure the "heat" of the weapon, and it will fill with each shot. It will cool down slowly, but if it reaches full, the player will have to wait till it is completely cooled off before firing again.

Submachine gun: high rate of fire, high capacity, low damage.

Build gun:

temporary shield block, which blocks all incoming projectiles, and absorbs half of the damage the holder would take.

det-pack - an explosive charge that, once set, takes 20 second to detonate. During this time, it is vulnerable to attack. If destroyed, it does no damage. If it detonates, it does 60% damage to the block it is attacked to, as well as some damage to surrounding blocks.

Engy(architect) – builder

The architect is not considered one of the standard classes; to become an architect, a player proceeds to the point they wish to build on, and presses the class menu, whereupon they will become the architect. To change back, they follow the same procedure. The architect cannot move past the limits of the midfield base or main base, which means they cannot build in the midfield, or on an enemy base.

Weapon: shotty. Relatively inaccurate, high-power, low ammo

Secondary: build gun - builds standard blocks, and health/ammo recharge stations.




Each player has a "build bar" totalling 100 points that governs that players ability to spawn blocks. On spawn, each player will receive 40 points, and the bar will continually fill at a slow pace until full. Furthermore, players receive a set number of points for accomplishing certain goals, such as destroying blocks and killing players.

With these points, players can spawn blocks using the process specified below.

Building will work on the following process:

1: Player pulls out build gun

2: Player holds the middle mouse button to open a menu

3: From this menu, the player selects one of a number of entities.

4: Player waits a certain amount of time (variable) while the entity is “spawned” (created) in the grasp of the gravity gun. On completion, the player loses a number of points equivalent to the cost of the block.

5: From here, the player can:

Manipulate the entity – The player holds the r button to activate the manipulation system. This allows the player to manipulate the block. For standard building blocks, the player can manipulate

Freeze the block in place (left-click) – freezing a block in place takes a certain amount of time (variable). If the button is not held for the entire length of time necessary to freeze, the player will simply continue to hold the block, and it will not be frozen.

Store the block by switching weapons. The block will stay in your build weapon until you pull it out again


This system encourages a "fight to build, build to fight" system, where players must both build and fight to make full use of their time and effort. It will be difficult, if not impossible, for players to become a dedicated builder, but a dedicated fighter who does not build will be at a distinct disadvantage compared to his teammates and enemies who do.


Currently, (because there is no block limit, and therefore no increase in blocks for a rip), the block ripping mechanic will not be included. This may change with testing. With that, the standard method of removing a block is simply destroying it, and we will give a great deal of effort to make sure that this process will be a challenge, but not frustrating.

The total block count will be limited by the block points system, as well as the rapid destruction of blocks due in part to both the moderate block health (3000-5000), and an explosive effect of the blocks on death.

Standard block: This block is relatively powerful, will show damage effects, and will explode on death, causing approximately 40% (of the total block health) damage to all surrounding blocks, with no line of sight. This way, if two blocks are destroyed in a 3 layer wall, the third block will be destroyed. Because this also damages players to a lesser extent, the defending team will have to make sure their blocks remain at full health, as a chain reaction might kill, rather than just wound them as a single block would.

Jump block: This circular block propels players high into the air, allowing them to jump over walls and other obstacles. Combined with trick jumps, the block offers a number of unique opportunities for players to get over and around walls.

standard shield: Like a standard block, but transparent, less health, and heals itself constantly. This can be held in front of the player, or frozen as a makeshift bunker.

bubble shield: this small spherical block emits a spherical shield able to protect around 3 other people around the holder. Rather than a health, this block has a charge meter that constantly goes down when activated (as well as with damage) and goes up when not activated. If the shield ball is dropped, the shield is activated and will last approximately 5 seconds at which point it is destroyed.

ammo block: this small pillar shaped block restores ammo of all within its active radius at a slow rate, approximately 10 seconds for a full ammo restore. Will not restore a players ammo if they have fired a weapon in the last 5 seconds

health block: similar to the ammo block, this block restores the health of all those within its active radius. It also will not restore a players health if they have taken damage in the last 5 seconds.

Admin

Sourceforts has long been a game associated with griefing, so we've decided to implement a built-in admin system. This gives admins access to all the standard admin utilities, without the need to install a 3rd party admin system. Administrator access would be handled in a similar way to the 3rd party system, with the server owner able to set admin permissions using a text file or the in game interface.

Furthermore, we will be implementing a "community admin" system, that allows responsible individuals to become admins on all servers who opt into the program. By default the admins will not have any server level control and will only be able to manage players, with kicks and bans for example, although it would be simple for a server owner to give more power to the community admins. Server owners can set individual permissions for each of these admins if they so desire and block certain community admins from accesson a blacklist basis.

Player Tracking

2.0 will also include an in-depth player tracking system that logs all player actions on all internet servers, and attackes them to that players steamID. With this, players will be able to keep track of their successes and failures over time. The framework for this system will be implemented in the initial release, and upgraded in subsequent releases.

Clan tracking

Players will be able to manage their clans by way of a web interface, which allows players to wear an official tag in-game. Clans will be able to set whether their clan is invite only, or open to all who wish to join. In later releases, the website will host an official tournament, allowing clans to set match dates, and automatically submit their scores to the site.

Cool.

This guy speaks the truth.

eh im still a fan of 1.9.x series (ducks and hides)

tho glad to see work being done.

I think a variety of bases in the middle would be better than strictly three, since strictly three points could make one "dominant" strategy work for every map.

Regardless of whether your flag is gone or not?

How much faster would it be to freeze? How big would each control point be? Would CP size differ from map to map?

Again, does this mean certain cps would be bigger than the others in the same map? (perhaps the middle one being 1.5x the size of the outer two or something)

That long? I think it would have to be shorter if this is going to be as fast-paced as I hear it will be.

This definitely seems to favor the offensive much more than defensive. Does this also make dropping the flag impossible? It seems like it would be very exploitable to have one way of dropping the flag return it, and the other way have your team be able to get it, but the enemy team can't.

Implement a limit on how many blocks each class could spawn per life, or something of the sort. Perhaps a "first life" could be sort of a startup life and have something like six pieces spawnable that round, and then once you die you only have 3 from then on out. Would require balancing though, as the number of objects needed to freeze is 34, if you assume four players per team then it only takes two lives each (before the enemy could mount any sort of offensive)

So there's effectively no normal jump for the infiltrator?

If you're going to do this, why not just have it bound to a key? It's only one piece, you could have it bound to another weapon.

Secondly, if sprint is gone, why don't you give the infiltrator the ability to spawn like a speed bursting piece? I'm thinking of CSS surfing as an example. It would be small and provide a small speed burst. (Perhaps +30 speed when walking through it)


Ok, it shouldn't have the ability to completely change direction free of momentum and whatever else though.

Health supply sphere sounds better given to the grenadier class since it's a suppression based class.

Sounds very exploitable.

What exactly is the bunker? Is it going to be just a combination of pieces or what? Concept art?

Not a good idea. If you're giving the rocketeer a bunker and having it's power revolve around health, you're making it irrelevant that it's power and accuracy fluctuates pending its health.

So basically the one in TF2 except balanced for this?

OK, would this be balanced for one per life? If not, then I can see the grunt spawning an ammo block or whatever on the nearest CP to the grenadier, allowing the grenadier to place multiple det-packs across the entire enemys fort. This would occupy the entire enemy pending health of each det-pack.

Should be a tiny bit more combat-viable. What are the rulings when it comes to a flag/architect encounter?


Would need a load of balancing imo.
What happens when the architect is killed while creating an entity?

Is the build gun going to have a shoot effect like the gravity gun has? If so, it wouldn't be wise to do this, considering it would give the architect a range weapon that it shouldn't have.


Are there going to be tutorials? It seems like there would be a very large learning curve with something this important.

A very big issue of balance.

I suggested to Oddjob on steam awhile ago that you should make blockhealth pending on how many points you put into it, and there wouldn't be a set amount of points per block, just a minimum and a maximum (ie: spawning a 3x2 would be minimum 30, maximum 50, and if you used 50 points it's 5000 blockhealth, if you used 30 then its 3000 blockhealth). Or you could make it exponential to show that quality > quantity.

Sounds good but also very exploitable again.

Doesn't sound good if you're defending against it. How is the defensive team supposed to know it's there if it's completely transparent? (If I'm just being an idiot and you said 30-80% transparent somewhere, I apologize)

You're going to need to be absolutely positive you pick the right people.

Same as above. Are you going to make a separate forum for appealing bans then? It seems like it would be necessary if 2.haven attracts a lot of new players.

Stats? Or a log of bans and reasons?


A bit dependent on the amount of people the game attracts if you ask me.

Final thought:

Community admin should have a special tag (like the [Dev] or [Test] tags in the current version)

Sounds good to me. But what if somebody exploits the admin system?

Admin system will be monitered for abuse and community admins will not have the ability to do more than kick/ban unless otherwise specified by the server (who can give more powers to the community admins if they wish)

Here's a few comments:
-Thwacking stick sounds cool.
-I like that the idea of having unlimited pistol ammo for combat class
-TOW style is wire-guided, there would be no need to maintain line of sight.

I like it. Good job devs <3

P.S. 15 seconds is a long time to wait if it's every spawn.

It's not going to be exactly like one or the other, but the basics are off of each game's rocket system.

I was bitching about semantics, thank-you-very-much.