Frostaria: The Prism II Beta Release

Shinyehh · February 19, 2023, 2:37am

Frostaria: The Prism II Beta Release

The purpose of Prism II is to re-introduce a new way of training and sparring to the greater community. Prism II features many brand new and returning games modes, sparring facilities, an aim trainer, and so much more that its predecessor did not include. Our goal is to make hosting events more seemless and allow players to casually compete with and against one another through overseer-hosted trainings or automatic rounds being loaded in by Auto Prism (more on this later).

This forum post will help to highlight many (although not all) of the new features you will encounter when playing Prism II. If there are any suggestions or if there is any feedback you would like to share, and if you encounter any issues or bugs, please let me know by pinging me in the appropriate channels.

FREE!! Private Servers

While trainings can be hosted in public Prism II servers, players can ‘purchase’ (for free) a private server to host their trainings. ANYONE is allowed to take advantage of this feature, including players/groups not currently members of The Grand Union of Frostaria.

To allow for personalization of permissions and admins within private servers, private server owners will be given a Permissions Menu to properly set the following permissions for specific ranks of specific groups:

Admin commands
Overseer UI
Access to the Overseer stage

Once permissions are set for specific groups and ranks, and once these permissions are synced with the server, permissions settings will save to a datastore and allow anyone in the group(s) with the proper rank(s) to host trainings in your private server!

As the private server owner, you are not required to be in-game for future events held in your private server to handle admin commands so long as you’ve set up the permissions correctly for your group(s).

New Game Modes

While some game modes took inspiration from Prism I, every single mode in Prism II has been retouched (with returning modes being rescripted from scratch), and some of these modes are completely brand new introductions to the lineup.

In Prism I, the goal was to release as many modes as possible to ensure there was enough variety, and while we aimed to meet this goal this time around, we wanted to strive for replayability and re-introduce already beloved-modes with different twists and ideas above all else.

Below is the list of game modes being released in Version 1.0 of Prism II, with more to come in future updates:

Team Slayer: The team with the most amount of overall eliminations wins
Free For All: The player with the most amount of eliminations wins
Obstacles: Complete the obstacle course to win
Domination: Hold at least two (2) of the hills to score points for your team
Land Grand: Capture land regions as they spawn to score a point for your team
Kill Confirmed: After eliminating enemies, run to collect their SID card to secure a point for your team
Capture The Flag: Capture the enemy’s flag, and bring it to your team’s flag stand to secure points
Artifact: Protect a teammate as they hold and secure the artifact for your team and earn points
Regicide: Eliminate the king to become the king and earn points every second
Pushball: Push the ball into the enemy net to score points for your team
Freeze Tag: Hiders must avoid being frozen by the tagger, and thaw teammates who have been frozen
Zombies: Survivors must avoid becoming infected by the zombies, who have higher speed and less health
Spleef: Platforms will disappear upon walking on them; avoid falling through them
Battle Royale: Collect weapons and fight your way to being the last person standing
Doomspire: Destroy the spawns within enemy towers and be the last team standing

Auto Prism

When trainings are not being hosted, players (either Frostarian or non-Frostarian - anyone can play!) can join a public Prism II server and enjoy rounds that will play on repeat indefinitely. This serves the purpose of allowing players to practice and casually play and hang out during downtime, and essentially takes away the need for an admin to be present.

A few points to mention pertaining to Auto Prism:

Two (2) players must be present for a round to begin (this excludes players in a duel)
Auto Prism can be disabled (and also re-enabled) at any point by someone with admin in a public server (i.e., officers within The Grand Union of Frostaria)
Auto Prism will not run/cannot be activated in Private Servers
Maps, modes, and tech will be selected by the server at random
Every 5th game mode loaded in Auto Prism will be a “Party” game mode (i.e. Freeze Tag, Zombies, Spleef, or Doomspire); Obstacles and Battle Royale are disabled
Technology will be loaded in bundles (eg. there is a chance for GUF tech (Maelstrom + Icarus, sometimes with a Medigun), RCL (GPR + PSTL), or Winter Armada tech to be loaded, with the randomness being skewed in GUF tech’s favor.

Sparring Arenas w/ Leaderboards

In either wing of prism are sparring arenas where you can challenge anyone to a 1v1 duel, with one wing being dedicated to gun fighting and the other to sword fighting. Players can choose which map to fight on, which tech to fight with, and what score they will fight to.

In addition, there are leaderboards that will display top kills, KDR, and wins in each of the sparring wings.

Zombie Aim Trainer w/ Leaderboards

Players can also play against AI bots in a zombie aim trainer exclusive to Prism II. Near the beginning spawn area, there is a screen that players can interact with to Create lobbies with a press of a button.

While players can achieve a solo’s highscore and climb the Solos Leaderboard, they can also opt to play with a Duo Partner to climb a separate Duos Leaderboard! When joining a lobby you’ve created, a code will appear allowing you to invite a friend to join and play alongside you.

Note that there are many different settings that players can adjust to their liking (such as starting spawn rate, AI speed, AI damage, etc.), however in order to climb either the Solos or Duos Leaderboards, Default settings must be set.

Removal of Outscore

We wanted to move away from the idea of “outscores” and sitting players out; this was a philosophical approach to development as the purpose of training, in our opinion, should involve letting everyone play for the entirity of the game mode (some exceptions exist for a few “party” modes).

In its place, Max Time is now a setting (for most modes) that trainers can use to adjust how long a match should last. Further, a few modes that previously would have relied on an outscore have been tweaked to reflect this change.

Eg. Instead of “Team Death Match”, which rewarded a team the win for being the last team standing, “Team Slayer” awards a win to teams that have the highest number of eliminations.

Other Miscellaneous Features

Player Times Leaderboard
In Prism II, when a training has concluded there is an easy way for trainers to determine who has attended their event, even if players had left and rejoined throughout the duration of the training. In-behind the overseer door underneath the stage, there is a physical leaderboard which admins can scroll through to determine the length of time players have been in the server (this includes players that are no longer in the game).

Additionally, there is a screen next to the leaderboard that allows GUF Highranks to “post” the leaderboard to The Grand Union of Frostaria’s communications server. Unlike Prism I’s post leaderboard feature, this one will provide to the trainer feedback if/when the leaderboard is successfully posted and will accomodate posting leaderboards with more players (previously if there were too many players, it would not post correctly).

Note that the leaderboard will be disabled/post requests cannot be made when Auto Prism is enabled

New Overseer UI
Courtesy of Sparrow Developers Kirstey & Hisokachan, Prism II is being released with a brand new overheauled Overseer UI, as below.

Pinging System
Using the middle mouse button, players can ping locations on the map to alert teammates! Pinging a location will also give a live feed of how far away you are from the pinged location in studs, and if an enemy is pinged it’ll show a red indicator instead of a white one.

Radio Music
In Prism II, players can select from a playlist of music to listen to during rounds (during intermission, a pre-set lobby music will play instead). Players can also adjust the volume (and/or mute the sound) to their liking.

Division Accessories
Courtesy of Sparrow Admiral Bu_wls, members of certain divisions will be granted the ability to equip special division accessories on their character! As the description of this feature suggests, players must be members of the respective Frostarian division to unlock the ability to adorn these accessories.

Player ID Cards
Curious to see what rank someone is in The Grand Union of Frostaria and what divisions they’re in, or if they’re a member of an allied group? You can click on a player in the lobby to view their ID card!

Credits

Project Lead: Shinyehh
Primary Scripter(s): Shinyehh
Primary Builder(s): Bu_wls
General UI Design: Shinyehh
Overseer UI Design: Kirstey
Overseer UI Functionality & Misc. Scripting Requests: Hisokachan

Play Prism II HERE!