View source for Talk:Concepts/Strength, Weight and Equipment

== Points to Consider ==
* How should strength relate to weight threshold?
** 1 strength == 1 weight? might need adjusting the strength stats in order to make sense, specially if using real life units (currently we have soldiers spawned with 15 to 25 strength)
** Or maybe some non linear relation between them? (from experience I can tell you that a few kilograms can make a huge difference IRL)
* How should the penalty calculated.
** Flat penalty or based in the amount of overload.
** In the later case linear penalty or some other formula.
* A bonus for actors that are carrying a very low weight.
* Maybe an absolute max to the weight an actor can carry, based on strength?
* Also: revise the system for gaining strength experience
--[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 04:53, 26 September 2012 (SAST)
* What came to my mind first - Will a penalty only affect the soldiers ability to walk around or will it also prevent him from firing a weapon? E.g. a weak soldier picks up a Rocket Launcher and  gets a penalty. Now he can (slowly, but he can) carry that weapon around the battlefield using the remaining TUs, but not fire it? --[[User:ShipIt|ShipIt]] 10:28, 26 September 2012 (SAST)
** Yeah, this is an issue. It's possible that a soldier will have a TU penalty large enough to prevent him from firing a weapon (sniper rifle for instance) because he just doesn't have enough TUs. When we test if a weight leaves a soldier encumbered or not, we should also test whether a weight makes it impossible to use a firemode for an equipped item, and alert the player. I've put another error message text below. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:10, 26 September 2012 (SAST)

== UI Suggestion ==
Here is a simple suggestion to display the weight. Putting it in this window makes it available in base and in the HUD, for campaign/multiplayer/skirmish. When weight is normal, text can be white. When weight is very light, it can be green with a little icon by it (I can supply icon, just ask). When weight is too heavy, it can be red with a little icon by it. Icons will have tooltips.

[[File:weights_ui_proposal.jpg]]

Ideally, when adding an item to the soldier's inventory, if the weight will exceed his maximum capacity, it should pop up a small window alerting him to this and forbid him from adding the new item.

Text for the UI tooltips/errors:

light icon: "This soldier will gain * TUs because he is not carrying much."

heavy icon: "This soldier will lose * TUs because he is carrying too much."

capacity exceeded error: "This soldier can not carry anything else."

firemode can not be used error: "This soldier no longer has enough TUs to use the following items: \n\nWeapon: Firemode (TUs required)"

To implement the UI stuff, I would just need to know where in the code the soldier's weight is being totalled, when the game is checking the weight again (ie - when items are added/removed), and I can add the confunc's needed in.

--[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:27, 25 September 2012 (SAST)

: I wouldn't insert UI calls directly in the inventory code, (the AI uses it too, for example) but the UI container nodes behaviours could be used for this. --[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 05:02, 26 September 2012 (SAST)

== Proper Weights ==
Doing some quick internet research, soldiers report up to 45kg of gear on long haul stuff. But our guys are rapid response, deployed to the battlefield. They don't carry rations or survival gear. I found a page on globalsecurity.org which showed a "Fighting Load" at around 18kg. Check the table near the bottom and the section titled "The bottom line" on this page globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/call/call_01-15_ch11.htm 

Other things to keep in mind. An M4 Carbine is around 3kg loaded with 30 rounds. A Barrett M82 (50 cal sniper rifle) is 14kg. The Carl Gustav rocket launcher is 8.5kg, but most of the weight is probably in the rounds.

Since a soldier starts with 15-25, we could make it simple: 1 strength point = 1 kg capacity. However, the way the UI is done now, all the ability/skill bars use the same template, which means empty-to-full is expected to be the same. In other words, we may want a system where the soldier can grow his capacity to 75-100. In this case, we'd need a different equation between Strength value and kgs capacity.

Here is a quick, first pass at a rate: A soldier starts with 15kg maximum capacity. For every 5 strength points, he gets an extra kg. Encumbered when exceeds 75% of capacity. Extra speed when below 30% of capacity. That would work out to:

 Str	Max	Enc	Extra  Speed
 20	19	14.25	5.7
 30	21	15.75	6.3
 40	23	17.25	6.9
 50	25	18.75	7.5
 60	27	20.25	8.1
 70	29	21.75	8.7
 80	31	23.25	9.3
 90	33	24.75	9.9
 100	35	26.25	10.5

With this rate we can't really model realistic capacity. In reality, an average soldier COULD carry 50kgs (though he wouldn't typically fight with that, he could walk around alright). Another option would be to have a much lower encumbrance threshold (say, 50%) with a rate that starts at 30kg maximum capacity and gives an extra kg for every 3 strength points. Encumbrance at 50%, speed boost at 20%:

 Str	Max	Enc	Extra Speed
 20	36.6	18.3	7.3
 30	40	20	8
 40	43.3	21.6	8.6
 50	46.6	23.3	9.3
 60	50	25	10
 70	53.3	26.6	10.6
 80	56.6	28.3	11.3
 90	60	30	12
 100	63.3	31.6	12.6

: Are we sure we want to have a soldier reach 75 - 100 strength? As with other abilities there are other actor kinds that will have a higher natural strength, like some aliens for example (I'm thinking ortnoks), and both humans and aliens share the same skill range (MAX_SKILL is defined as 100)
: --[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 04:50, 26 September 2012 (SAST)
:: I'm open to other possibilities. My first thought was to have all soldier skills and abilities follow the same general trajectory (rookies start around 20, elites end game around 70-100). This would avoid confusing the player, who might see his strength growing more slowly than other abilities and think he's doing something wrong. But your point about other actor kinds is good to keep in mind. It might be worth considering all abilities, where humans should max out, etc. I'm unfamiliar with how Speed and Mind work currently. In general, I favor consistency as a learning aid. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:10, 26 September 2012 (SAST)
::: Something to keep in mind: there is a hardcoded max for the experience a soldier can gain per mission in a given stat, this was originally calculated assuming an average career length of 100 missions for a PHALANX soldier
::: That means that in 100 missions a soldier can gain up to (assuming that they get max exp every time): 25 strength, 14 speed, 30 accuracy, 39, mind, 50 <weapon skill> and 99 max HP
::: See: {{Repositorydir|src/game/g_match.cpp#l112|G_CharacterGetMaxExperiencePerMission()}}
:::: Thanks for that DarkRain. These numbers are interesting. I think making the stats conform to each other will take a lot more work, so I suggest we ditch the idea of getting Strength to 70-100. We can do a straight up system: 1 STRENGTH = 1 KILOGRAM of maximum-can't-equip-any-more weight. Rookies could start with 35 and use the second of my two systems above. Is everyone alright with this idea? I believe if we want to rationalize all stat values at some point in the future, we can change it then. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:49, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
::::: Yes, I guess that's fine. --[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]]

: In the mean time {{http|pastebin.com/1PGsmGsJ|here}} is a list of equipment with proposed weights, if someone wants to have a look, it will probably go under severe adjustments but need to start somewhere.
: --[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 04:05, 28 September 2012 (SAST)
:: Cool. I went ahead nad put it up in another proposal page on our wiki so we don't lose it: [[Proposals/Equipment_Weights]]. We can also discuss it as needed there.

== Penalty Suggestion ==
I am in favor of a flat penalty. If a soldier is encumbered, he loses 50% of TU. If soldier is below the light-weight threshold, he gains 50% of TU. (Actual numbers subject to adjustment, of course.) It has the benefit of being clear and consistent, so the player can more easily calculate the costs/benefits. Also, by nailing the full penalty/bonus around certain thresholds, it will encourage strategic thinking: how can I equip the maximum on this guy without exceeding this threshold. Or, since I'm already over the threshold, I might as well load him up with extra ammo for the snipers/scouts.

When we distribute the penalty/bonus throughout the weight, we force these kinds of decisions on every single piece of equipment the player is adding, which could be a little tedious. Furthermore,  by distributing it evenly, there are no MOMENTS OF DECISION -- times and places in the game where the player feels like this decision is one of the important ones. If they're all equal, the game can feel a little flat. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 13:13, 25 September 2012 (SAST)

: I mostly agree with H-Hour, although "gaining" TUs seems not very intuitive to me. I would assume the given TUs for a soldier are to be his maximum. If he adds weight, this number goes down. 
:I´d say: A soldier can carry some percentages additional weight without a penalty, as you add more weight on each threshold he loses some more percentages of his TUs. This means, if an actor has 20 Strength and 30 TUs, he could carry '''100%''' (20 kg) additional weight without a penalty (loosing '''0'''%), up to '''120'''% (24 kg) losing '''10'''% (3) of his TUs, '''150'''% (30 kg) losing '''30'''% (10) of his TUs up to were he simply cannot carry more weight. '''Numbers''' open for discussion and scriptable anyway. 
:--[[User:ShipIt|ShipIt]] 10:28, 26 September 2012 (SAST)
:: The reason I chose the system I did is to try to reinforce and communicate to the player a "normal" weight load. In order to gain the TUs, the soldier would need to carry very little. I don't want the player to react to a "normal" load as though he were suffering a penalty. I realize it's just semantics -- giving a TU "bonus" for low weight is functionally no different than the system you describe ShipIt. I'm more concerned about how to display to the player that it is normal for them to be in the middle and only in special circumstances would they want to be below or above certain thresholds. I'm not too concerned about precisely how the mechanics work behind the scenes -- starting with a maximum and working downwards seems fine to me -- but I do want to be clear with the player what they "ought" to do. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:10, 26 September 2012 (SAST)
::: I'm fine with both 'ways' as it is the same way technically. We can't increase the TUs very easily, because we have a max route length that a player can walk. --[[User:Mattn|Mattn]] 07:26, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
::::That is something to consider, I remember someone mentioned that even the normal TU gain that comes form increased speed caused some soldiers to have more TU than the max pathing length.
::::--[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 19:51, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
::::: {{Repositorydir|src/shared/defines.h#l74|MAX_ROUTE 33, MAX_MOVELENGTH 60}} Can we raise this without overloading the pathfinding system? --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:09, 29 September 2012 (SAST)
:::::: We might just give it a try - i've doubled it and gave 100 TUs more on actor creation and did not yet see a problem - but it is definitely more computation work - so we have to profile it. Maybe aDuke knows more about it. --[[User:Mattn|Mattn]] 19:41, 29 September 2012 (SAST)

== Stat Increase ==
=== Increase Mechanism ===
What causes strength increases now? What should cause strength increases? The obvious one is: carry more weight in a mission, gain more strength. It's not a terribly sophisticated method, but I can't think of anything better. We could use the thresholds to adjust how much strength increase a soldier gets each mission. If encumbered, they get 100% of mission max. If normal, they get 50% of mission max. If extra light, they get 10-15%. Thoughts? Or any info on what causes strength increase now? --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 13:23, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
: It just occurred to me that we'd need to decide WHEN to measure a soldier's load (start of mission, average of all turns, end of mission). I am in favor of start of mission. It will prevent extremely dedicated leveling fanatics from spending the last few turns of a mission having their soldiers pick up everything they can find. They can still game it by starting a mission with loads of equipment and then dropping it on the first turn, but this would be a dangerous thing to do: the first turn is often when the player is most exposed and so he needs all the TU he can get to find cover and/or eliminate threats. Another alternative would be to measure his weight at the beginning of the second turn, but I have the slight feeling that this is trying to be too clever. We could check each turn and average them, but I fear this will reward people who spend every spare TU of an idle soldier picking stuff up. We should discourage this kind of mundane leveling if possible. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 13:34, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
::Whatever system you choose, it will always be exploitable in some way. We could also give a flat/percentage increase per mission, which would depend on the starting or current strength value. This way, the the weaker soldiers will need to play more missions in order to reach the max than those that have better starting stats.
::--[[User:ShipIt|ShipIt]] 17:17, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
:Right now just taking part in a mission will give 46 exp (of 214 max), additionally moving around with heavy armours (the ones that cause a TU penalty) will give more experience, crawling gives twice the experience than walking.
:: I am really not in favor of the idea that moving around or crawling gives extra experience. It is very non-intuitive for the user and rewards really mundane and mindless leveling (running soldiers around or crouch walking for the sake of stat gain). Can we remove this somehow? I would prefer just a flat increase per mission, as ShipIt suggested, or the light/normal/encumbered method I described. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 11:33, 28 September 2012 (CEST)
::: Well, I think the TODO that says: "make a formula for this once strength is used in game" means its OK to change this. --[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 20:06, 29 September 2012 (SAST)
: Also, you probably know it already but I will mention it any way, the stats are calculated as initialSkill + (experience / 100) ^ 0.6, which means it ramps up faster at the beginning and slows down the more exp is gained (for example gaining 25 points of strength will take 100 missions at the max exp of 214, gaining 50 points would take 325 missions at max exp)
:--[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 19:46, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
:: Sorry, but I'm not familiar with the ^. What math is happening there? I think it's very good that it goes quicker at the beginning. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 11:33, 28 September 2012 (CEST)
::: Exponentiation: initialSkill + (experience / 100)<sup>0.6</sup> --[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 22:45, 28 September 2012 (SAST)

=== Max Values ===
DarkRain said that in 100 missions strength can increase a max of 25. If we started around 35 (STR = KG), that sounds about right, but could probably be increased since few soldiers will gain max strength increase in all 100 missions. If a soldier gains 25kg and we use the 50% threshold for encumbered, he'll only actually gain 12.5kg extra carrying capacity. We may want it to be a little higher so that power armour (for instance) is really too heavy for some soldiers. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 13:23, 27 September 2012 (SAST)
: Regarding the questions about how many missions we face in 2.5. I don't know. I don't have any save data for that and expect at least one more change before 2.5 to reduce the count, so I'll probably have to wait for after 2.5's release to get some good saves. If soldiers don't reach 100 we can always revise the max increase in the future, but I think it's a fair estimate for now. It was a lot more before we reduced the number of UFOs appearing. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 11:48, 29 September 2012 (SAST)

== Roadmap? ==

When this could/is expected to/should be included into the game? This seems easy enough to be ready soon, but the re-balancing for 2.5 is already huge, and I'm not sure how many balance-altering game mechanics should be included in a single release, especially since I'm not the one trying to keep the game balanced.

--[[User:DarkRain|DarkRain]] 05:31, 26 September 2012 (SAST)

:I would say that this is up to Nate, but I would vote for a sooner than later implementation, because we would need this for the multiplayer balancing, too. The teams should be equally weighted.
:--[[User:Mattn|Mattn]] 09:58, 26 September 2012 (SAST)

:: I'm ok with quick. 2.5 is going to be a major release in terms of balance-altering changes. In some ways, it's easier (and better) to do all-in-one balancing than piece-by-piece balancing. I've rebalanced heavy weapons after removing the heavy weapon skill, and I'll need to rebalance them again after we implement the weight system. I think it's gentler on our users to put as much rebalancing in one major release as possible. They'll have to re-learn a lot of things with 2.5, and making them re-learn it all again in 2.6 would be annoying. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:10, 26 September 2012 (SAST)

:::Then go for it DarkRain, but please keep in mind while coding this that i need access in the multiplayer cgame implementation, too (via the cgame api of course, not cia direct calls - if you have questions about it, just ask) - because we plan to make multiplayer teams more fair and use the weight value (and other stuff) for this to ensure that a player does not carry too much equipment into a multiplayer round. --[[User:Mattn|Mattn]] 07:25, 27 September 2012 (SAST)

== Cgame access ==

What will need to be accessed from the cgame api? I have only checked it lightly so far but shouldn't be a problem (but I'll come back asking if I get stuck)

== Making it scriptable? ==
Would it be very difficult to make the basic thresholds and penalties scriptable at the campaign level? I would think of adding the following parameters to a campaign definition:

 weight_light		0.2
 weight_heavy		0.5
 weight_normal_penalty	0.3
 weight_heavy_penalty	0.6

Also, making the max-weight-gain-per-mission scriptable at the campaign level might help players mitigate any balancing issues. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:18, 29 September 2012 (SAST)

== Finalizing Specifications (Please Vote) ==
Please vote yes/no/more-debate on a specification below. When something is voted on, I'll move it over to the main page. --[[User:H-hour|H-hour]] 12:24, 28 September 2012 (SAST)

=== Weight Values ===
: All weights in kilograms. UFO script will need to be a float.
:: H-Hour: yes
:: ShipIt: 
:: Mattn: yes
:: DarkRain: ok

=== Soldier Weight/Skill ===
: 1 Strength skill = 1 kilogram of maximum weight.
: Rookies start with 30-40 Strength skill (avg 35) and 46 max TUs (correct Speed values to be worked out).
: A soldier gets all TUs when they wear less than 20% of max weight. (light)
: A soldier gets 70% of TUs when they wear between 20-50% of max weight. (normal)
: A soldier gets 40% of TUs when they wear more than 50% of max weight. (encumbered)
 Kgs max	Kgs encumbered	Kgs fast
 30		15		6
 35		17.5		7
 40		20		8
 45		22.5		9
 50		25		10
 55		27.5		11
 60		30		12
 65		32.5		13
 
 ROOKIE PROFILE
 Tus max		Tus normal	Tus encumbered
 45		31.5		18
:: H-Hour: yes
:: ShipIt: 
:: Mattn: yes (not sure about the values - but about the mechanic that 1 strength unit is 1 kg)
:: DarkRain: good starting point (but I'm concerned that max pathing distance is 33 TU IIRC)

=== Stat Increase ===
Still discussing existing increases (walking/crouching).

=== Max Values ===
: Increase max strength growth over 100 missions to 35.
:: H-Hour: yes
:: ShipIt: 
:: Mattn: unsure - it's 100 missions a little bit too much?
:: DarkRain: hmm... ok, but does someone know the average career length of PHALANX soldiers with the new UFO rates?

=== UI ===
Anything we need to discuss/vote on here?