Anyhow, I'm just posting here that Usepoints v5 is nearing release state.
What's left to be developed?
Currently, all features are in. I'm in the process of writing the translation file at the moment. Yeah, you heard right. Usepoints v5 will support 10 languages by default. What languages? The languages that I see most often on my server.
What's new in this version that sets it apart from every other Buy Plugin clone out there?
This version comes completely customizable, and has been completely modularized. It's up to you which modules you want to run, and what features you want to enable. If you prefer old school, you can load the config as one large file, or as the individual files.
How many customizable variables are there?
Currently, there are 257 different game-modifying variables that you can modify. It sounds like a lot, because it is. The default settings that are provided have been set for a balance in a 10vs10 environment, and through about a year of testing.
The Buy menu has AI Director integration!
I've set up a system where the director can make its own purchases on the buy menu, and earn its own points under the same rules system that players earn points.
This means the director can participate in upgrading its special infected (see below for info on this) as well as purchasing team upgrades and the other purchases that Infected players can purchase, making Infected bots not-so-useless, and effectively deadly in the right situations.
Upgrade your Special Infected!
Players have the ability to purchase personal upgrades which increase the power of their special infected. Face it, some classes, like the Jockey, are basically worthless in their vanilla state. In their upgraded states, all of the Infected classes earn an advantage in different areas. With 12 upgrades specific to each player, and the ability to unlock more when you've upgraded all of your available classes, the combinations possible are (some-what) limitless.
What languages are supported by default?
The translations file will support the following languages by default: English, German, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Russian, French, Japanese
The great news? If your language isn't listed, you can easily add it to the translations. They're separated into several files to keep management easy.
I run a stats mod, and there's already enough congestion on my chat screen.
That's OK. Players have the ability to toggle on/off two different things in the plugin. First, The buy menu comes in simple and descriptive mode.
Aside from simplifying their menus, or leaving them descriptive, players can choose whether or not they receive point announcements. This is general handy if you decide you simply don't need to see the extra information.
Is there support to save your points for later games?
At the moment, no. I had discussed it with my community at one point and the consensus was this would strongly deter new players from coming to the server, let alone presents a very unbalanced atmosphere. However, you can choose how and when points are reset, if they are reset at all. When a player leaves the server, their points are wiped. I don't have it set up to store based on steamid solely because I decided against including a way for players to quit and come back later with their points. By default, points are also wiped when you switch teams, but it's one of the variables you can modify.
This point system isn't developed with other point systems in mind...
I wrote this one from the ground up, without reference to the other point systems. This generally means that, while it uses a menu structure like the other point systems, players don't have to use the menu for anything. You can just type <trigger> (You can set the trigger) <itemname> to purchase the item at any time, assuming you have the points. By default, typing several popular commands, such as !points in chat will open the purchase menu. Why? Well, the purchase menu displays all pertinent information at the top.
Usepoints 5 comes with two built-in game-changing modes.
You can play the classic way, where all costs are static, or you can play with Increment mode.
By default, Increment mode is enabled.
What does that mean?
Increment mode means when a player purchases an item, that category/item cost rises, for that player alone. This means dynamic costs, and that everyone has a different cost/item. On my server at least, it results in strategic purchasing, where teammates communicate with each other to determine what they need to buy to devastate the other team. This works for both the survivor and infected team. With the variable settings, you can modify what item costs start at, what they raise by with each purchase (if increment is enabled), their maximum cost (raw value or multiples of base value), etc.
At one point, Restriction Mode was included, but it was scrapped in v4.
Point calculations... For everything.
If you can think of an action that you can perform as an Infected player that hurts the survivors, then it most likely earns you points in some way. From hunters who receive height + distance points, to Jockeys who receive jump distance, ride distance, ride time, and more, to smokers who earn bonuses for pulling a player based on height relations, distance, and more, the ability for you to earn more points is based on your imagination. Of course, you can just stand in plain view and pull them if you want to keep it simple.
Survivors, and their "leveling" system.
The survivors have a new "leveling" system that was integrated several months ago, which gives players incentives to play with different weapons and abilities, as well as killing special and common infected in a variety of different ways. It's like an experience system. There is a set number of kills or damage required with each weapon category, individually with some items, and then globally in some other categories, as well as team-based categories, where, when met, sometimes the player alone, or the entire team receives a point bonus.
By default, survivor players start out with a 1.000 multiplier. This means that any points they earn will be multiplied against their multiplier. Starting at 1.000, the points earned stay at their default.
It is optional to select a maximum multiplier that survivors can reach, but it is disabled by default, which means, under default circumstances, survivors have the potential to earn as high a multiplier as they can achieve.
This becomes difficult, because like a leveling system, every time a goal is reached in one category, that category takes longer to reach the next goal, to the point where it just isn't feasible anymore.
At any time, survivor players can check out their multiplier statistics, to see where they're at in each category, as well as see what their multiplier is, and who holds the highest multiplier on their team, which might help players determine where they're located.
Every aspect of how multipliers are configured is controlled by variables that you can configure.
When will it be released?
Like I said, I'm just doing translations right now. I hope to have this finished today, and released soon after.
If you have any requests...
Post them here. I'll see about adding them to the plugin. There are a few hundred purchase options at the moment, so I guess it would make its customizability close to perk mod, maybe?
Want to help us test Usepoints v5?
I've been developing, and testing it for about 7 months, through several iterations, while I write what I think is the most flexible version, yet. If you want to help us test it on our live server, click my signature, it'll connect you straight to the server that the plugin is being developed and tested on.
Linear Mode
