Killstreaks & Achievements

cbk1994 · #1 05-30-2012, 02:00 AM

To help keep PKing on Era a little more fun and dynamic, I propose the addition of killstreaks and PK achievements.

At first, these would only apply to gang kills/gang members, but could eventually be expanded to those not in gangs once any kinks have been ironed out.

Killstreaks
A killstreak is simple: you kill a certain number of players without dying. The higher the killstreak, the better the bonus.

To make it a little more interesting, we would have two types of killstreaks:

a "general killstreak" which increments for every player killed.
a "gang killstreak" which increments for every member of a certain gang killed; for example, if I kill 5 BH members without dying.

PK Achievements
PK achievements cover a wide range of possibilities. Some examples:

Revenge. Kill an enemy who last killed you within 3 minutes of that kill.
Flawless. Kill an enemy (who has full health), by yourself, without taking any damage.
Rampage. Kill three enemies within 15 seconds.
Cold-Blooded. Kill an enemy with your melee weapon.
Frag Out. Kill an enemy with a frag grenade.
White-Hot. Kill an enemy while blinded.
Juggernaut. Take 500 damage without dying.
Kill Steal. Steal a kill from another member of your gang.
Going "Rogue". Die three times without getting any kills in a gang raid, and mention lag after each death.

Bonuses
A bonus is a result of getting either a killstreak of a PK achievement. There are two types: those which affect only you, and those which affect your entire gang.

Any numbers listed (like “heal +10”) are just placeholders and will be balanced once this idea has been fully hammered out.

The better the bonus, the harder it will be to achieve. Some bonuses will have multiple incarnations (e.g. a 2-kill-streak gives you an instant +10 heal but a 5-kill-streak gives you +40).

We can deal with mapping achievements to bonuses later. Right now I’m more interested to hear which bonuses are a good idea, which are bad, and any other ideas for bonuses.

Any bonus which lasts over time (like “an additional 10 max HP”) will range from a few seconds to an hour. We’ll discuss that at a later stage.

All of these effects can be applied to either an individual or to a gang. Bonuses applied to a whole gang would last for less time than those applied to an individual.

Instant Heal. Heal +10, +20, etc.
Heal Faster. Heal an additional +5 or even +10.
Nuke 'Em. Obtain a free nuke.
Tank. Gain an additional 10 max HP for some time.
20/20. Blind doesn’t affect you.
Fireproof. Fire doesn’t damage you.
Armor-Piercing. Your bullets do damage to a player’s health and not their armor (if they’re wearing armor).
Full Heal. No explanation needed.
High Caliber. Your bullets do 1.5x their normal damage.

In-Game Display
Both killstreaks and PK achievements would display at the top-right of the screen for a couple of seconds, and then fade out.

When you get a bonus, it shows briefly at the bottom-left of the screen:

This would show for about 5 seconds before fading out. This only shows for those who get the bonus, not for everyone. So, if Smasher gets an achievement which results in his entire gang getting a bonus, his entire gang sees this box at the bottom left. If the bonus he receives affects only him, then only he sees it.

For bonuses that have a timed effect (like high caliber, heal faster, etc.), an icon shows for each at the top-left of your screen, to the right of the main HUD.

(I’d like to eventually improve the look of the HUD as well)

The bonuses are just a series of icons side-by-side, with the number of seconds left counting down. If you hover over the icon, the name of the bonus appears (as you see with “Fireproof”).

Obviously I’m no artist, and I’d like to have these graphics done by somebody with some more experience, but these should give you a general idea on the implementation.

Opinions

I’d like to hear what you have to think, especially about possibilities for bonuses and achievements, but also about the idea in general and any changes that could be made to it.