| ATTENTION! This changelog contains information about a Patreon Early Acesss Rebalancing Session.
Not all of these changes will make it into the base game, if any. |
| PEARS Session 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Testing Period | |||
| 29 Sep 2023 to 1 Oct 2023 | |||
| Session chronology | |||
| Previous Session | Next Session | ||
| PEARS 3 | N/A | ||
| External Links | |||
| Original changelogs | |||
Patreon Early Access Rebalancing Session Changelog
Session 4 - 2023/07/31
This is a Public Document, and may be shared freely outside of Patreon channels. Patreon Early Access Rebalancing Sessions are experimental testing sessions offered to Patreon supporters, on at least a monthly basis. These testing sessions allow our Development teams to experiment with many things - from simple balance changes, to more complex overhauls. Not all of these changes will make it straight into the live game, if any. Sometimes our team simply wants to throw things at a wall, and see what sticks. Regardless, these sessions and the feedback gathered from them are essential to the proper balancing of SCP: SL.
If you’d like to participate in upcoming PEARS sessions alongside other Patreon Supporters, and members of Northwood Studios, you can do so by subscribing to the “Major Scientist” tier on our Patreon, at the link below:
[Patreon Link]
For this session, we’ll be testing out a second iteration to SCP:SL’s massive overhaul respawn system, which has been reviewed and improved in many ways since the first playtesting of the original respawn system (from PEARS session 2). As well, we’ll be adding the promised Alpha Warhead Override Tier-5 feature for SCP-079, which was announced as a stretch goal back before the release of Mimicry. Other small additions here include SCP-049 now having sounds for their abilities.
This document contains a full changelog of this month’s PEARS session changes - if you have any questions, feel free to ask inside any Patreon discord channel - don’t be afraid to ping a Patreon Representative, or an active Game design member!
Thanks everyone, and here's to another successful PEARS session!
- Lisp, on behalf of the Patreon Representatives team.
The Reinforcement Overhaul v2
The new Reinforcement overhaul aims to focus on multiple aspects of SCP:SL's spawning mechanics, presenting a more forgiving spawn system to compensate for players who have died early on into the game. This includes the introduction of mini-reinforcement waves and reworking the respawn ticket system to include a team-based objectives system, which will dictate how many points each reinforcement team can earn throughout the round to increase their chances of a respawn wave.
Before we begin explaining the Reinforcement overhaul, it is important to note a significant win condition change included for this PEARS session only, which will allow all Chaos Insurgents to become full targets for SCPs instead of the 75% target quota. Both the SCPs and the CI will no longer be able to win a game together.
The Reinforcement System - Spawn Wave System
Starting off into the new Reinforcement overhaul is the introduction of multiple new systems to take into account before a respawn wave occurs, which will prioritize which player spawns first. Selecting players for a respawn wave will include a "priority" system, which will first spawn those based on whose been deceased the longest, combined with a "team-bias” system that will attempt to respawn players onto the team they were previously associated with (e.g. deceased Scientists and Facility Guards spawning with Mobile Task Force). Here are the steps at which the system(s) prioritizes the following player:
- If a player has been dead for X minutes or longer, they are prioritized first for respawn above all other players who have been dead for less than X minutes.
- For players that have been dead for less than X minutes, the game will first respawn players using the "team-biased" system, which will respawn those who were previously associated with their team, ordered by time spent dead.
- Remaining players (biased against the respawning team, dead for less than X minutes) are the lowest priority for a respawn.
Along with all of this, a brand new respawn system coming into play will be designed to now spawn mini-waves of reinforcements, granted by a respawning team shortly after a full respawn comes into full effect. This system is fully designed to compensate the players who have died too early into the game. If the full-wave reinforcement team earns a total of 10 points based on the team objectives chart (which can be found further down in this document), this smaller wave of MTF/CI will spawn in. The size of these mini-waves will be determined by the number of current players in the server divided by 5 (e.g. if the server currently holds 30 connected players, a mini-wave will contain 6 players). Only one mini wave can be earned by each team per game, and these are usually earned by groups of players earning points.
These mini waves can spawn at unique locations compared to their designated full-wave spawns:
- Mobile Task Force spawn towards the end of the escape tunnel.
- Chaos Insurgency spawn towards the end of the tunnel where the CI Jeep appears.
Chaos Insurgency has a unique mini wave condition, which can be earned before a proper respawn wave appears. The CI team (Class-D) can earn this mini-wave if two of the three conditions are met:
- At least two Class-D's have escaped the facility.
- Class-D's has killed at least three foundation personnels (Facility Guards, Scientists, MTF)
- All facility guards are deceased.
In addition to this, all of the following conditions must be met in order for this special mini-wave to spawn:
- A full respawn wave has not yet occurred.
- At least one Class-D must remain alive.
- No reinforcement team actively respawning.
Developer Commentary: The mini-wave system has two primary objectives to look over. First, we want to create a system that will allow players who quickly die within the beginning of a game to respawn back into the game, which should speed up gameplay significantly faster. Second, it should act as an earnable momentum that increases the odds of your team winning. It rewards those teams for completing the important tasks like killing SCPs, helping civilians escape, and so on.
The Reinforcement System - Team-Based Objectives
Currently, a respawn wave occurs, on average, every 5 minutes. Whichever team spawns is entirely dictated by the current status of the “Respawn Tokens” - a hidden tug-of-war system that rewards civilian and militant teams who perform well. If the Scientists and MTF perform well, the tug-of-war will shift dramatically in their favor, which ensures their team successive respawns. The opposite of this is also true.
With this change, the "tug-of-war" aspect has been removed from this overhaul. Instead of competing with each other to "steal" tokens, each reinforcement team now has their own individual system, which will allow them to complete team-based objectives in order to earn spawn waves. This team-based objective system includes a list of objectives that can be completed throughout the match. Completing these objectives will grant the amount of earned points that is accounted towards a spawn wave, as well as a respawn timer to decrease how long this respawn wave will occur. See chart below to view the list of objectives, as well as their earned points and timer bonuses.
| Objective (Points Go Towards Team That Completes It) | Timer Bonus (Seconds) | Points Earned |
|---|---|---|
| A playable SCP is killed (besides 049-2) | -20 | +15 |
| A playable SCP crosses a 10% health threshold (90%, 80%, etc. Does not apply when an SCP dies) | -2 | +2 |
| A unique SCP item is used for the first time (268, 1576, 018, 244) | -5 | +2 |
| A consumable SCP item is used (207, A-207, 500, 1853, 2176) (Candy does not count) | -2 | +1 |
| A civilian escapes | -20 | +5 |
| A cuffed enemy civilian escapes | -10 | +5 |
| An uncuffed enemy civilian is killed (who has not been cuffed in the last 30 seconds) | -2 | +1 |
| An enemy militant is killed | -2 | 0 |
| A generator is successfully activated (if SCP-079 is not present in the match, no timer bonus is given) | -10 | +3 |
| A cuffed civilian is killed (by any player other than the person who detained them) | +10 | -5* |
*The total amount of points towards a respawn that a team has can never reach negative.
MTF and CI will have a fixed amount of available respawns at the start of the game (two spawns by default). After a respawn wave has occurred, this will remove one respawn wave from the reinforcement team that has spawned in. Each team can earn additional spawn waves via completing the objectives listed in the chart, for a maximum total of three spawn waves. When a team achieves 50 points in total, the additional spawn wave is granted and will reset the point system.
MTF and CI will now operate on their own, independent respawn timers rather than a fixed respawn wave for one reinforcement team every 5 minutes. The default timers at the start of a round are as follows:
- MTF: 5 minutes
- CI: 8 minutes
If a reinforcement team's respawn timer reaches 0, both of the reinforcement timers will completely freeze and will grant that winning team to spawn in. After the winning team has spawned in, both the reinforcement timers will unfreeze and will add additional minutes to both the team's timers.
- The winning team is granted 4 minutes to their respawn timer.
- The losing team is granted 2 minutes to their respawn timer.
- Once the winning team’s respawn wave has occurred, the system will grant an additional 10 seconds per spawned player to their respawn timer.
- Mini-waves will grant 1 minute to the team’s timer.
The Reinforcement System - Dead Man’s Switch (Autonuke)
The infinite loop of respawning multiple waves of players will theoretically no longer exist, as they are obligated to earn these respawn waves for their reinforcement team. However, round stalling for the longest time has been a recurring core issue in SCP:SL's gameplay loop that has been deemed to last throughout the entirety of a match (e.g. SCPs unable to locate the final target). It has been a common frustration throughout the life cycle of the game, which the Game Design team has been tasked to fix this particular issue by presenting a highly suggested system within the Reinforcement overhaul; Dead Man’s Switch (Autonuke).
When both of the reinforcement teams have run out of available respawn waves, a 4-minute timer will begin to tick down, and cannot be canceled by any natural gameplay means. However, if a team manages to earn another respawn wave, the timer will pause itself, and only unpauses once both the reinforcement teams are out of respawn waves again.
Upon the timer reaching to 0, a unique CASSIE line will be announced. After which, the 90-second detonation sequence will begin. This also cannot be canceled by any natural gameplay means.
The Reinforcement System - Spectator UI
A new UI element has been added onto the spectator menu, referred to as "View Respawn Progression". This is a toggleable option that will display all current respawn progression for both the Mobile Task Force and the Chaos Insurgency. Spectators can toggle this option if they do not wish to display this on their screen. These will display the following:
- The amount of respawn waves a team currently has (numeral counter).
- The amount of respawn points a team currently has, displayed as a bar that fills overtime.
- Once the bar has reached full capacity, a respawn wave will be granted to the respected team, which will add up to the respawn wave counter and reset the bar.
- A respawn timer, displayed as a bar that depletes over time.
- This will only display a bar, rather than a numeral counter.
- Both of the respawn timer bars will deplete (or fill) as the round continues on, and will deplete incrementally when times bonuses are earned.
- When a bar is completely empty, this will freeze both the respawn timers, appearing grayed-out in the UI and spawn the winning team.
- Once a team respawns, their bar will be completely refilled.
- A match feed, which provides additional information to the spectator when any living player completes an objective. It will also display the amount of earned points and timer bonuses they have received. These texts will also be color coded based on their class type to help differentiate all displayed information.
- Example: "Cross Conception has killed Lisp (SCP-939)" (-20 seconds)(+15 respawn points)
Below is concept art of the spectator UI for the Respawn Progression, made by Game Designer Lisp: (Please note that this concept art is outdated and is subject to change)
Alpha Warhead Override (SCP-079’s Tier-5 Ability)
Before the release of 12.0 Mimicry, multiple patreon posts were created that included all the upcoming SCP reworks and features to be released within this update. One of the patreon posts included the SCP-079 soft rework along with the rest of their abilities and features. One of these abilities was called "Alpha Warhead Override". When SCP-079 reached Tier 5, they would be able to start the detonation sequence for the Alpha Warhead from the surface zone. If SCP-079 is the cause of the nuke detonation, it will not be terminated by it.
However, due to time constraints during 12.0 development, we were unable to release this in time with the rework for SCP-079. Included in this PEARS session, SCP-079 will now be granted this Tier 5 ability to activate the Alpha Warhead.
When SCP-079 reaches Tier 5, it will display message logs that the Alpha Warhead is ready for detonation sequence from the surface zone. The player must view the inside of the warhead room on the surface in order to activate it. A distinct spinning nuke icon will be shown for all players regardless of tier, however it can only be activated by becoming access Tier 5 and using 200 power.
As previously mentioned, if SCP-079 is the one to detonate the warhead, they will not be terminated by the detonation. However, they are not immune to losing under any circumstance. If they activate the nuke and the SCP teammates die on the surface zone, SCP-079 will be terminated alongside them. If SCP-079 activates the warhead, all players (including 079) cannot deactivate it.
Here is a sneak peek of the visual nuke icon for SCP-079:
New Audio Assets
For this PEARS session, the sound design team would like to rest out some brand new audio assets that they have been working on for quite some time now. This includes new door sounds, keycard access, and SCP-049. Below are a list of new audio changes the player will be expecting:
General:
- All facility doors in each zone will receive their own unique sound effect.
- New “Access Denied” and “Access Granted” sound effects for opening doors requiring keycard access.
- SCP-173’s Containment Chamber gates will receive its own unique sound effect.
- An audio indicator is included when a player takes damage.
- This includes two separate audio clips. One for hume damage (SCPs only) and the other for health damage (SCPs and humans).
SCP-049:
- Afflicted: The first hit of the main attack, meant to be your organs shutting down. Audible to human players when SCP-049 attacks you for the first time.
- Attack Hit: This is the main attack played for SCP-049. Meant to be feedback on a successful affliction. Audible to 049 & spectators.
- Second Attack: The attack sound for the second lethal hit of 049's main ability, if someone is already afflicted and is left clicked a second time. Audible to 049 & spectators.
- The Doctor’s Call: Audible to 049 only.
- The Doctor’s Call (End): A sound effect that indicates that the ability has ended. Audible to 049 & spectators.
- Good Sense of the Doctor: A sound meant to set the tone for the Good Sense ability. Audible to 049 & spectators.
- Good Sense of the Doctor (Kill): A sound effect to differentiate a kill using good sense over the normal kill sound. Audible to 049 & spectators.
- Cooldown: A sound effect played for 049 if any ability they attempt to use is still on cooldown.
- Near Doctor Passive: A sound for 049-2 as feedback to indicate they are receiving the buff for being near 049. Audible to 049-2 only.
- Surgery Sound: A sound effect played for the revival of dead players. Audible in the world.
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