Looking for opinions to be collected for thought process of mechanics

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
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1

I have noticed some are not fully reading the post. If you want to give me VALID feedback, PLEASE give your thoughts on the entire post not just sections of it.

Looking for people to vote on some some of the functionality of my game I am writing. Although I am doubtful I will release it I still want to treat it like an actual project.

Now a little bit about the game. It will have a free-roam aspect. Think of criminality, GTA or other kinds of open world/wide spaced games.

Please note not everything will be added at once. I will probably end up editing this post and creating a dev log if I decide to make this a good game or not.

I wont be transparent when explain systems too well as I would rather someone NOT take all of my in-depth ideas and just clone my game as that would just be a motivation killer and is just not cool at all.

Please do not ask me to elaborate. I will only explain it in a semi in-depth way to where the idea will stick in your head, you understand how it MAY work. That is it.

Anyway I wont say much more.

Let the polls begin.

If you have any good feedback or criticism please do post it below with a quote and a valid explanation.

I am trying to flush everything out and remove any nooks and crannies while trying to appeal to the majority of the platform where possible.

Bullet handling
  • Raycast system,
  • Bullet is a separate instance + drop
0 voters
Viewmodel handling
  • Generic viewmodel (BORINGGGG and ugly),
  • Instead handle character arms separately to the weapon model. (look at below mp4)
0 voters

The MP4 in question: click me (discord cdn)

The character and gun being separate is very likely to not look exactly like it does currently when it has been refined.

Economy

I have split this up into multiple different as it will kind of be a bit too complex or impossible to explain everything in one single option per. So to make everyones lives easier I have done this.

So for the economy I want there to kind of be one but at the same time my biggest worry is the economy being super inflated kind of like other games or those gmod servers.

I don’t exactly want there to be trading as that could cause some issues and also feel it may break the way I want to present my game to the player in a certain way.

What I mean by that is think of GTA v having a trade system. It wouldn’t feel right would it? It’d be cool, sick or whatever other acronym/word you want to describe it as cool but I am sure you could agree it would be a little odd for a Gta game due to the style of its gameplay.

Main money making methods

Money making methods
  • Job system w/ a system of thievery (wont go in depth) + murdering roaming npc,
  • Job system + murdering roaming npcs
  • Job system only
0 voters

Please note murdering Npc’s wont drop more than 125 dollars at a time and it also has a 60%> chance to drop < 50 dollars.

Interacting with the shops to make money potentially.

NOTE: This is guaranteed if the thievery system is voted for otherwise it will not be added.

Money making methods
  • Allow users to sell items to item specific stores
  • Allow users to sell items to any kind of store but at a discounted price if it is not item specific
  • Allow users to sell items to any kind of store but at a discounted price
  • Don’t add this system. (Give a good reason why below I would love to hear it)
0 voters

Other passive income systems.

Now these will be for mostly users who are transitioning from early to mid and mid to late. So what that means these passives will cost a huge sum depending on the game stage it is meant for and will also be a big factor on upgrades or any other additionals to said passive income.

These will not be in the form of game passes and these will only be achievable through either a starter pack gamepass OR through in game cash only. I know I said “will not be in the form of game passes” however this means each passive will never be sold as a gamepass by its self and also will never have any game passes that are p2w. The only way it would be p2w is if you pay for cash in game like most other games.

These passives will still take a lengthy amount of time for you (depending on the type of passive you have) to recoup some cash from these passives and there will also be a big risk too as each passive will have different methods of generating you revenue, wether it be automatically earner or you have to put a bit of work into it either.

Money making methods
  • Would you be interested in a gameplay system like this? Would be cool no? (thoughts please let me know)
  • Don’t add this system. (Give a good reason why below I would love to hear it)
0 voters

I will probably add this anyway but I am not too sure yet. Just want to see if people think this would be cool too.

This is all I will share for the moment. I will make a followup post in the future and will link this and make it evident that its a follow up if I want more feedback or have other ideas I feel I have designed a bit more to how I want it to fit.

If you’re interested in the game it will be called GTL (Guns, Taxes and Laws) and will be released on my group Oubi development.

This is a big project for a single solo developer. I would outsource some of the development however I cannot afford too plus I feel it would push me more out of my comfort zone. I have had that issue for a year or so now I feel.

Thank you for reading my post. Any additional feedback, criticism or whatever that will benefit myself please drop it below <3

2

Viewmodels can look good, infact better than using the character, it just requires a lot of effort.

I’m talking needing several idle animations, good code for movement

*Cough Cough* 
local runService = game:GetService("RunService")
local isSprinting = false
local Turn, Turn1, Turn2 = 0,0,0

local Lerp = function(a, b, t)
	return a + (b - a) * t
end

function ViewBobbing(VMTB: Model, DeltaTime: NumberValue)
	local intensity = 1 --// Variable intensity for movement

	local Time = tick()
	local sine = math.sin(Time * 10 * (isSprinting and 1.25 or 1)) * intensity
	local sine2 = math.sin(Time * 5 * (isSprinting and 1.25 or 1)) * intensity
	local bobbing = CFrame.new(sine2 * 0.05, sine * 0.05, sine * 0.01)

	local CFPos = (camera.CFrame * bobbing)
	VMTB:PivotTo(CFPos * CFrame.Angles(math.rad(Turn1), math.rad(Turn), math.rad(Turn * 0.5 + Turn2)))
end

function PositionViewModel(DeltaTime)
	local MouseDelta = (game:GetService("UserInputService"):GetMouseDelta() * 2)

	Turn = Lerp(Turn, math.clamp(MouseDelta.X / 2, -4, 7) + (isSprinting and rootPart.Velocity.Magnitude > 4 and 40 or 0), 15 * DeltaTime)
	Turn1 = Lerp(Turn1, math.clamp(MouseDelta.Y / 2, -4, 7) - (isSprinting and rootPart.Velocity.Magnitude > 4 and 10 or 0), 15 * DeltaTime)
	Turn2 = Turn2 + (target - Turn2) * 0.05

	local CFPos = camera.CFrame + (camera.CFrame.UpVector)
	local vmtb = --// Select the viewmodel here
	
	if humanoid. then
		ViewBobbing(vmtb, DeltaTime)
	else
		vmtb:PivotTo((CFPos) * CFrame.Angles(math.rad(Turn1), math.rad(Turn), math.rad(Turn*.75 + Turn2)))
	end
end

runService:BindToRenderStep("viewModelUpdater", Enum.RenderPriority.Camera.Value, PositionViewModel)

and you’d need to position the viewmodel well.

However, viewmodels to have quite a few advantages over character models.

  1. There’s much less jannkiness using viewmodels. In the video you attached, the left arm doesn’t move itself correctly, and the gun is very close to the camera and mostly off-screen / not visible / difficult to see

  2. They allow for much more complex animation a lot easier, while also not affecting the performance of other players. For example, a viewmodel can have extremely detailed models and animations, while the character has lower detailed models and animations. Since only 1 viewmodel is being rendered for each player, it doesn’t impact framerate anywhere near as much as having the same extremely detailed animations and models would when on the character instead.

  3. Let’s say you want to use the Roblox Boy rig instead of the Blocky rig, you could take the arm model into Blender, and rig it for much better movement and rig the fingers, so the viewmodels have fully animated fingers and even more detail.

tldr I think viewmodels are the better option for first-person (duh) since they can do a lot, you just need to be bothered doing it.

1 Like
3

That is because I had just gotten it to work and figured it out. Like I had said it would look a lot nicer when refined and polished. I actually use a view model partly but for the weapon and its root.

I also forgot to mention that the laggy/jitteryness is because of the realism client stuff. It is also because the model of the gun is NOT welded to the players character arm yet.

I also like to add that saying I am not bothered to do this is just not at all true. Every single game uses the same view model system and it looks boring and can just get old. I want to do something new and not just follow the masses like a zombie.

4

I don’t know enough about your game to decide whether a raycast or bullet instance system would work best. Nor whether a viewmodel would work best or not.

I understand your concerns about the economy since economics is tough. But since I haven’t played GTA nor have an interest in it I can’t tell you whether a trading system would feel right or not.
I don’t know enough about your game to decide the best money-making method.
I just ignored the passive income paragraphs because since I barely know anything about the game I couldn’t care less about them since I wouldn’t know how they effect the game.

Why would you add any of this to a rocket ship racing game anyway?

1 Like
5

Its not a racing game its an open world shooter.

I get the part about not knowing enough but if you had to choose either one with the idea of x games what would you think would be best? Put it like that and it may help.

6

Entirely up to you depending on what kind of game you want.

Bullet handling? If you don’t know then just pick one and stick with it, since it doesn’t seem to matter.

Viewmodel? Don’t care, I just want the gun and animations to look cool.

Economy and trading? Economics is hard, but still up to you whether you want it or not.

Jobs? Have multiple ways to make jobs, I guess. Depends on what kind of game you want. But! I do hate when I have to do one thing repeatedly just to have the money or whatever to finally do the fun parts of the game I’m playing for.

Selling at shops? Up to you really. I hate when I have to go to multiple different shops just because the item I have is slightly different (such as an Axe shop and a Shovel shop, instead of a Tool shop that sells/buys both).
But depending on the kind of game you want you gotta choose.

Passive income? Sounds to me like you have a value issue where the normal job making process isn’t making enough money but the high level items would require hours and hours of work to afford, so you set up a side income to deal with that.
If what people are paying for at the higher levels are the same things (basically) they were buying at the lower levels, then I think this is a different issue that you should not be using passive income for.
I think if people are changing from a day job to passive income, what they should be buying should be different. Maybe at lower levels I was working a job to buy guns to fight other players, but at higher levels I should have my passive income so that I can pay people (NPCs) to fight other players for me while I’m on a whole different level from the noobs–where my issue isn’t other players it’s for example other groups.

But again, since I don’t know much about the game all I can really say is it’s up to you what you want and this is what I think from my experience in other games; doesn’t mean one thing is good or bad for your game specifically.

1 Like
7

Don’t worry all items will be categorised and be sold at one specific type of store just like your example :wink:

Well I will try to make progress slow but not too slow to where it feels like its just gonna be boring then it will get fun later on. A game should be fun through out the entire game. I will likely be adding many more methods for cash not just jobs but these jobs will be a main source of income as a new player for the moment next to the thievery and other systems in place too.

I will do my best to try and balance both worlds you have my word.

The idea of passive income is for it to be passive not for it to become a main source which defeats the whole purpose of it being passive. It will cost a lot of money to setup the facilities let alone supply them or fullfill any needs It may need if any at all (depends really on the kind you have but all will have to be managed)

There will also be events that happen to your passives which will all be negative to further reinforce the idea that it should NOT be a main source. Yes the payouts are large, YES you put a lot of money into it and YES It will take a while for you to recoup your losses however it will never be good enough to where it becomes a main source of income and better yet players might be able to disrupt certain passives too just like in gta v :wink:

The idea of jobs is for it to always be there for you to make money, No I don’t want the player playing a job simulator so they wont exactly be too lengthy or hard nor will payouts be too large however I do want players to go out an actually explore the game, get into combat and enjoy themselves. It may be a tricky thing to end up balancing and I might throw it out the window however I feel the slight bit of rp could be useful to the health of the community too. We will see when we get to that bridge…

I am against this whole thing and if so it will be costly and the ai will be easy to kill and/or weak as I want to encourage PvP rather than players using PVE as a proxy for their PVP which is just boring. I used to do this a lot in gta v with the merrywether and it was funny but also got pretty boring too as the ai would die quickly which encouraged me to pvp more and it worked.

You can only buy one type of passive and they will be all over the map. Each type will have a set of predetermined locations that all players will abide by and the price will vary from how close it is to the main city or not just like GTA V. I think you can get where I am going with this for some of the workings of some mechanics. No I am not cloning GTA V BUT I am taking things from that game to mould what I want my game to be plus they already have flushed most parts our for me too :smiley:

Each business will be unlocked via level (yes there is a level progression that I am planning on adding) and each one will vary in base price too (you wont know the base price ever but trust me you will be able to make an estimate when you understand how drastic pricing is).

Say you want passive A and its for new players who are starting out which lets say unlocks at level 10 and costs 100k. Every single player can own this type of property but the yield and other systems which will have to do with economy will be drastically different in size than the latter so on so forth.

Guns will gradually be unlocked and also price will vary on the weapons you want too so will level for unlocking said gun and everything else to do with the systems in place.

Yes you will be pretty weak as a fresh player however that should hopefully give you the incentive to actually go, make money, bother to progress and then be able to enjoy the fruits of your hard work too. I want it to be rewarding and also not too rewarding to where it gets boring. if that makes sense.

I hope this helps. Sorry for the massive text boxes but I wanted to clear things up :+1:

Any other questions or things I have missed feel free to point out. I wont go in depth about things and will try not to be too transparent just like before.