In no particular order, here are some things I want to see happen.
1. Friendly fire for all explosives + Teamkill bootingExplosives are overpowered.
- The "first shot" rule -- the first shot of a burst always fires directly at the center of the crosshairs with no recoil penalty -- does not apply to explosives; RPGs have one bullet and the other two explosives options have significant cooldown time before the next bullet.
- Explosives kill in one hit in many circumstances, short and long range. Explosives that do not precisely hit the mark can still lead to a one-hit kill. In comparison, regardless of the distance guns take up to five shots to kill with no stopping power to stop suicide bombers.
- A player who lands 4 body shots with a gun can still get that kill stolen by a single explosive, penalizing that player bullets, in-game money, and exp while solely rewarding the player who stole the kill.
- An explosive can kill through objects; guns cannot unless the player is hacking or glitching through objects.
Deaths resulting from friendly fire should not add deaths to the player killed. Kills resulting from friendly fire should not add kills to the team killer. Penalties should be given to team killers depending on the game mode, but regardless of the game type, the game should tally the number of team kills a player has made in a period of time. For example:
1-2 TK = No penalty
3-5 TK = Boot from current game, no time out
6-10 TK = Boot from current game, 2-minute time out from joining games
11-15 TK = Boot from current game, 5-minute time out from joining games
16-20 TK = Boot from current game, 30-minute time out from joining games
21-25 TK = Boot from current game, 1 hour time out from joining games
26-30 TK = Boot from current game, 4 hour time out from joining games
31+ TK = Ban
Every 6 hours, your account is relieved from one TK point, allowing for people to be excused from accidental team kills. On one hand, this is useful to boot players who are actively hunting other players in hopes of giving them a loss. On the other hand, it also targets instakill hack players who also kill their own team mates to increase their own kill count.
2. Updates to help the GMsFor those of us who are familiar, the GMs are able to ban people from the game but that is just about it. Our ability to help the community is limited by what the developers allow us to do. Here are some things that could help us.
- IP address options: See IP addresses, see accounts logged in to an IP address, see accounts created from an IP address, time out account creation from certain IP addresses
- Player kicking: Kick hackers from rooms with a chat message that says "[name] has kicked [name] from the room" to distinguish GM kicks vs. people lagging out and give players a short countdown (5 seconds) to take screenshots in the case that they think that they're being wronged.
- Key Word Flagging: Inbox/chat flagging for words related to the use/distribution of hacks/glitches. Key words should have a database that could be modified to flag code words that could be used in place of words such as "hack" or "glitch".
- Banning menu: An in-game banning menu that actually works.
- GM Verification: Server verifies if a ban request is coming from a GM account or not.
3. Disable all special characters in account creation
Special characters increase the number of combinations that people can make for their names, but I prefer how Battle.net does their account names. Battle.net allows players to create an alphanumeric username and then assigns a number on top of it to distinguish the player from others that may have the same display name, i.e. DamienVC#1102 will not be the same player as DamienVC#1103. In the case of AFO, my username would be DamienVC#145402. This increases visibility for players' PID numbers, and it eliminates the possibility of impostors framing other people for in-game violations.
Special characters make it difficult to find the right person to ban. Between special shapes, invisible characters, and characters from non-English alphabet with the exception of accents, the net is wide enough that some combinations may make some players near invisible and others may make them unbannable. Besides, who wants to search hundreds of Japanese/Chinese characters to find the one word used in an account that is cheating?
4. Account creation should require e-mail verification
One of the biggest problems with fighting the hacking problem right now is that hackers who are banned can
- Immediately come back on a guest account and continue hacking immediately
- Immediately come back on a new account and continue hacking immediately
- Immediately come back on a new account and continue hacking after the GM is confirmed offline
E-mail verification slows the rate of account creation and allows us another way to monitor and limit repeat offenders who just use the same e-mail account to make more hacking accounts.
5. In-game paid content should be limited to cosmetic items
The basis for most pay-to-win arguments is that people have access to better items at an earlier stage of their account; it is not always about paid exclusive items being much more powerful than non-paid items. Imagine if a level one player has access to one-hit guns that are available in later levels and isolates themselves in rooms for players 0-10. They may have an amazing KDR and W/L ratio, but did they earn it?
Limiting paid content to cosmetic items allows players to customize their player model without the benefit of having access to more powerful equipment earlier than they should have them. This will prevent the game from being considered pay-to-win.
6. Improve map spawn points
The worst case of spawn camping comes from players who trap other players in the Alpha team's spawn point in Bunker. For the first three or four players who are spawned into Alpha team, it is 100% assured that they have to exit the tunnel and basically 100% assured that they will run out of spawn protection by the time they leave the tunnel. Spawn camping on that map in particular is worsened by the Delta team spawn in the middle of the map.
The spawn locations need to be spread equally through the map and this is done better in the Desert Village and Industria maps than the other two. Even on Courtyard, players can camp at the pipes near the spawn and fire long range with view of at least 60% of the area in which players are leaving spawn protection on both sides.
7. Room customization
Some players want to play in bomb-only rooms, others in knife-only rooms and others in gun-only rooms. There is also the desire to have a single clan on one team and the other side would be open to the rest of the server.
8. Separate spectator seats and player seats in room space
Currently, players have to make rooms that accommodate for the number of people entering the room. i.e. You must make a four-player room for a 1v1 match with one spectator. This means that a non-spectator can enter the game and join a team, disrupting a planned 1v1 match. Rooms should have the option laid out like this:
Room OptionsAlpha Team: [1-6] [ ] Clan team (CvA matches)
Delta Team: [1-6] [ ] Clan team (CvA matches)
Spectators: [Open/Closed]
Clan vs. All: [Yes/No]
MapOther Weapon restrictions: [ ] Assault rifles [ ] SMGs [ ] LMGs [ ] HMGs [ ] Explosives [ ] Pistols [ ] Knives [ ] Shotguns [ ] Sniper rifles
Game Type: [ ] TDM [ ] DM [ ] ELM [ ] LMS [ ] CP [ ] Etc modes
9. Fun ModesRailgun Mode: All players are equipped with a single railgun. Railgun stats: 1 bullet/reload, 150 bullets/gun, sniper rifle cooldown time, scope/zoom option, one hit kill, pierce through several players, flashy shooting effect
Low Gravity Mode: All players have reduced gravity on death.
Hunted Mode:
When activated, players who are killed several times by the same person can see the location of that player through walls and objects (but not shoot through them). Players who are able to kill their targets successfully while their location is being displayed to their opponent earn an exp/money boost.
Nemesis Mode:
When the players are tied for kills past 3-3 between the two of them, Nemesis Mode activates where players can compete for a major exp bonus. The first player who gets + 3 kills on the other player (i.e. 3-3 => 6-3) will earn exp and in-game money. Nemesis Mode can activate again after a winner is decided (i.e 3-3 [start] => 6-3 [end] => 6-6 [start])
** This mode can potentially be a normal in-game function to add fun to the game.
Juggernaut:
At the start of the game, players play normally. The player who lands the first kill becomes the Juggernaut. (300 HP, 1/2 jump height, 1/2 run speed, Railgun). When the Juggernaut is killed, the player who killed the Juggernaut gets a bonus to exp/money and becomes the Juggernaut. Player/team who has the most kills wins with a large exp/money bonus. Player with Juggernaut at the end of the round is granted a medium exp/money bonus.
This mode can be played solo or as a team (but only one person will have Juggernaut at a time)
10. End the bunny hop
Although I was probably one of the first players to really use this method to dodge bullets, I've come to terms with how unfair it is and have been phasing it out of my game little by little. Actions such as sprinting and jumping should reduce the accuracy for all weapons (except maybe the knife) as your body is no longer in a stable position to keep the gun steady. This will discourage people who try to turtle behind a single object and unload all their bullets by popping in and out of cover with no penalty to their accuracy. Conversely, it will reward players who can safely secure good locations, set their feet and fire on opponents who have not positioned themselves well.
I have more suggestions in stock, but let's see if any of these get implemented.