[May '25] Improvements & Bug Fixes
Rolling list of improvements from May 2025

This month I'm going to be focusing on armor. This will include a full review of all armor we have, the armor values, how armor is calculated when reducing damage, the price of armor, availability of armor, how players evaluate armor ICly, and more. Please expect some fairly large changes over the course of the month, if my time allows. I will do my best to make sure these changes do not cause bugs, or negatively impact anyone's wallet. I don't expect the cost of armor to be changing a huge amount, however I do expect the amount of damage it reduces for different damage types to change. This will be communicated OOCly, and the information will be more readily available ICly as changes are made.

These were in game and have been for decades but only 4 of them. They are now on sale at a store so more will make it into game.

We kept the old WJF armor, tac-comps, helmets, when we remade them a decade ago. Some of these made their way into the game on NPCs, likely due to someone creating the wrong object. I've removed all of these from game, and recycled the entire armor set so we don't encounter that again.

I also removed a few other half finished items from the game (recycled) to clean up the armored objects we have, so that it's easier to reason about what armor we have, how it's being used etc.

We have a new reminder that encourages anyone who hasn't already, to apply to be an SGM when they hit 13 months. Technically we allow people to join at 12 months but there are already a bunch of reminders at 12 months so I spread it out.

There was a bug in the unsilence all code for NLM production. It was TBing due to a missing return statement. Fixed.

There was a tb in the autopruner since March 27th when I introduced the fighter boards. I've fixed the object causing the tb and added better error handling and alerting on the pruner so we become aware of these faster if they happen. Thanks to Bubbles who pointed out the pruner was coming in low recently.

You can only see the kind of damage types a weapon will do if you have the weapon on you. It won't show if it's being held by someone else, or it's on the ground.

Renamed, and now under the neXus brand.

These had a very very small amount of armor that they shouldn't have had as they were not children of $armor. That armor has been removed.

(Edited by Slither at 2:05 pm on 5/5/2025)

(Edited by Slither at 11:46 am on 5/6/2025)

I have done my balancing pass on Armor Level 2 (Protek, WAI CR/PR/IR Jumpsuits). This level of armor is now open to be used with the survey command.

A quick overview of the way things are for Level 1 & 2 without too much IC info.

Level 1 Armor Product Lines (Nexus, Du-Wear) primarily protect against a single damage type (either edged, or blunt). Each piece of armor provides a set amount of protection against that damage type. It provides a small amount of protection against a few other damage types as well.

Great entry level armor, ability to mix and match, low price point, still provides good protection for specific damage types especially if you wear items from the same set/brand.

EcoGear is intended to protect against the elements, and damage types that you don't typically get from weapons (acid, heat, fire). It does not provide much protection against physical attacks. This is mostly useful for… the future, when more damage types are done by the environment. It's probably useful out in the badlands, but this isn't really gear for a ganger. A corpie might wear this to look sporty.

Level 2 Armor protects the same amount as Level 1 armor, but it provides that protection for both edged and blunt damage, it also introduces protection for piercing damage but not to the same degree as edged and blunt.

The benefit of this armor level is that you get protection against multiple damage types and you start to see piercing protection (guns primarily do piercing damage). It has a higher price point, but it can still be mix and matched with Level 1 armor (or Level 3 armor) for added protection.

My hope is that this balancing, and opening up players to see what armor protects against what as an IC mechinism, will leave fewer people feeling like they HAVE to have Protek, especially in the early/mid-game. If you are, for instance, a ganger, primarily fighting a gang that uses a bat, and you can determine that that weapon mostly does blunt damage, then you can grab the Level 1 armor that protects best against blunt damage and you don't NEED protek because it would not actually be protecting you more. In fact, wearing a set of Level 1 armor may make you less of a target, your regearing costs will be lower, and you'll still get good protection.

Protek will remain the CorpSec staple, providing good protection, but not nearly the level of Level 3 & 4 armor, which I have not yet balanced. More to come.

(Edited by Slither at 1:59 pm on 5/6/2025)

I had to make some changes to the way we send email, as it was failing. I've done so.Fixed the MOO a few days ago, fixed the website just now.

The survey command will now display information about the impacts wearing the armor will have. This is an indicator of if and what negative stat penalties the armor may have upon wearing it. If you have munitions you can see basic info, such as if the armor will impact the coordination of the wearer, with a passing skill check (slightly harder than the other survey checks) it will tell you in more detail the amount of impact the armor will have from its penalties.

This should hopefully better engage the munitions skill, and let more information about the penalties that armor may incur, make it into the game without extensive testing by each player. Also, if we change these in the future, the info will be more present ICly and old meta narratives won't be maintained longer than they should.

For example:

Your examination of the test helmet reveals it will have a minor impact on the coordination of the wearer.
Your examination of the test helmet reveals it will have a noticeable impact on the awareness of the wearer.

I have updated our tooling to include armor weight on our charts. I've gone through each piece of armor and balanced the weight. I also made it convert grams to pounds, for those of us that can't eyeball the metric system.

This made it a lot easier to spot outliers… of which there were many.

For example, Du-Wear pants weight 22 pounds.

Obviously, pants probably shouldn't weigh that much, especially at the entry level where lower tier players are using them.

Moving forward:

Level 1 Armor sets typically clock in at: 25-30 pounds for a full set

Level 2 Armor sets (minus the jumpsuits): 35-40 pounds

Level 3 Armor sets (minus the jumpsuits): 28-38 pounds (there are fewer items, and coverage at this level)

Level 4 Armor sets (including the jumpsuit): 80-90 pounds.

This is a decrease across the board of a LOT of pounds, especially Level 1 and Level 2. People should be able to carry more along with their armor, especially at the lower levels.

I've reviewed this armor, and brought it inline with Level 2 armor, which is where it was intended to be. This armor essentially gives you a layer of armor across every naked on your body (already did this). The change I made was minimal and will automatically take for anyone who already has the armor. I am not going to copy over all the verbs and code needed to make survey work on this object – anyone in the know can know it is the same as a WAI PR-X jumpsuit in terms of protection. I'll include that in the help file for armor that I end up writing.

(Edited by Slither at 7:56 am on 5/8/2025)

All stores in the game that are not player run have had their prices adjusted to account for all the price changes in the past few months. A LOT OF STUFF is now cheaper in stores. Everything in the stock was looked at and adjusted across the 30+ stores we have.

(Edited by Slither at 8:51 pm on 5/9/2025)

These now cover the shins as well as feet.

Xo3 KNEEPADS

These now cover the thighs instead of the shins.

Xo3 THORAX PLATES

These now cover the neck naked as well.

Descriptions and worn messages have been updated.

Remove and rewear to see the benefits.

The changes described in this post are not in game yet. I've started migrating the data and testing things, but it shouldn't impact players yet, until I tie it all together. I wanted to capture it here though.

All clothing currently defines a thickness score. This score is used for two things, which makes it really difficult to work with.

1. Thickness is used to limit how much armor you can wear at one time by preventing you from stacking too much of it. This works because we cap the total thickness of an area to 10.

2. Thickness is used to determine what can be worn on top of what.

I hate thickness. I hate that it is one integer number that defines two different things.

I'm breaking thickness up into two separate properties, which can be independently set.

Property 1: layer

Layer will be used to determine what can be worn on top of what. This allows us to prevent people from wearing their armored jumpsuits on top of a Protek Trenchcoat. Or an Environmental Suit on top of the rest of their clothes.

You cannot wear a layer 0 item on top of a layer 1 or a layer 1 on top of a layer 4. etc.

I've given all non armored clothing a default layer of 1 (this is the common layer for most things. For player clothing with certain special names as defined in this post: https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/new-game-features/tailoring-materials–names-n-layers-174/ those clothings will get a special -1 layer which means it can be worn on top of anything (think capes, ties, scarfs, doctor's coats, etc).

Basically, I've migrated the values from thickness that were used to determine what can be worn on top of what.

Property 2: armor_stacking_score

This is specific to armor only. Players will have a max armor stacking score of 10, across all the armor they wear. It will generally mean you can wear a full (or close to it) set of most armors, but with Level 1 and Level 2 armors where there are more options (pants, shirts, flaks, jackets, trenches, codpieces, shades, helmets, jumpsuits, catsuits, etc) you will likely have to pick and choose what you wear.

(This is already how it works now, because we have thickness covering that already, but in most cases, you'll actually be able to wear a bit more armor, when this change goes live.)

To give you an idea of how it will work here are my working numbers:

Jumpsuits/full body armor (minus head): 3 points

Dresses/Jackets/Trenches/Dusters/Xo5 chest plate/Judge Chest Plate: 2 points

Pants/shirts/boots/shades/helmets/codpiece/etc: 1 point

A full suit of Xo5 will take all 10 armor stacking points.

A full suit of Xo3 (w/ D-fence boots & bodysuit) will take all 10 armor stacking points.

Level 1 & Level 2 armor (Du/Nexus/Pro/etc) will require some decisions based on the type of coverage you want, and the style you prefer, as most of these sets have more items with greater coverage, especially when you consider the WAI Level 2 bodysuits.

These updates to properties are in game, but no code is referencing the new props yet. That work will continue tomorrow or Sunday.

I have finished the thickness migration. Everyone is now on the new layer + armor stacking score system. I have tested with multiple players, found a few issues, and resolved them. It is possible there will be additional issues, but some things that were possible MAY NOT be possible anymore, and that is intentional.

If you find yourself not able to wear as much armor, then you are hitting the armor stacking score max. If you really think it's a bug, submit one. But it may be intended.

If you find yourself not able to wear something over or under your armor, that may not be a bug. Ask yourself if it should reasonably possible, if you think yes, submit an @bug and I will look into it, but we may not agree on what should be reasonably possible.

Here is a full breakdown of how armor and layering works now, pulled directly from 'HELP ARMOR'.

ARMOR

Armored clothing can reduce the damage your character takes in combat, or from ambient damage (such as fire). Our goal is to allow characters to mix and match armor to get the kind of protection that they desire, at the price level they can afford.

DAMAGE TYPES

There are a number of different damage types in the game. The main ones in terms of damage dealt during combat are:

* Blunt

* Edged

* Piercing

You can inspect a weapon to see what kinds of damage it is likely to deal.

There are also a number of other damage types which are more environmental (such as fire or radiation).

SURVEYING ARMOR

Armor defines a special command used like this: survey

If you have the munitions skill, you can see information about the armor item that others can not. This includes:

* the types of damage it protects against

* (at higher levels) a general idea of how much protection it offers against each damage type

* if the armor impacts the mobility of the wearer

* (at higher levels) how much of an impact to mobility it causes

ARMOR STACKING SCORE

Every piece of armor has a score attached to it. A good rule of thumb is the more locations a piece of armor covers, the higher the armor stacking score. When you wear a piece of armor, your armor stacking score increases based on the score of the item you just wore.

There is a maximum armor stacking score. Attempting to wear a piece of armor that would raise your armor stacking score over the maximum will result in a failure and a message that you cannot wear any more armor. If you are NOT at your maximum, the message will indicate the failure AND that you may be able to wear a smaller piece of armor, should you find one.

ARMOR MIXING AND MATCHING

We intend for armor to be mixed and matched and still be effective. If you can figure out the kind of weapon your enemies uses, and what kind of damage that weapon uses, you can maximize your protection against that type of damage without needing to buy the most expensive armor. Mixing armor across levels is encouraged as well. You don't need a full set of a specific type of armor in order to get protected.

ARMOR LAYERING

We have lots of different types of armor. That armor is meant to be worn in a certain order, which helps us prevent stacking of armor we do not intend to be stacked. The order armor must be worn is dependent on the layer defined for that armor. Here are the general layers for armor:

* Layer 0: Jumpsuits

* Layer 1: Pants, Shirts, Dresses, Skirts, Codpieces

* Layer 2: Shades

* Layer 3: Flak Jackets, Jackets

* Layer 4: Trenchcoats, Dusters

* Layer 5: Helmet, Boots, Gloves

If you attempt to wear a Layer 1 item over a Layer 4 item, you will be told the item must be worn under X item.

ARMOR WEIGHT

Armor can be heavy! If your character is weak, you may be limited in how much you can wear. Below is a general guideline for what armor sets may way at each level. It will depend on exactly what items you use to complete your sets.

Level 1 Armor sets: 25-30 pounds for a full set

Level 2 Armor sets: 35-40 pounds

Level 3 Armor sets: 28-38 pounds

Level 4 Armor sets: 80-90 pounds.

ARMOR STAT EFFECTS

Some armor can have negative effects on your mobility, because wearing heavy or restricting stuff might protect you, but it makes it harder to move quickly / gracefully.

ARMOR PRICING

Armor is priced based on the coverage it offers, and the protection it offers from each damage type. Cheaper armor is more specialized/limited in terms of what damage types it protects against.

ARMOR LEVELS

There are 4 levels of armor, that offering increasingly protection.

LEVEL 1: STREET WEAR

This level includes clothing lines like Du-Wear, neXus, and EcoGear. neXus and Du-Wear each provide decent protection against a SPECIFIC damage type. EcoGear provides minimal protection from physical attack damage, instead providing protection against non-physical attack damage (fire, radiation, etc).

This level of armor is all about style. Armor at this level is specific in the damage it protects from, because it is cheap compared to other armor.

There are more armor items at this level (even in a single product line) than you can wear. Trade offs may need to be made in terms of what parts of your body you have protection.

LEVEL 2: ARMOR WEAR

This level includes clothing lines like Protek and some WAI and Dermalweave. At this level you can expect protection from multiple types of physical damages. The protection for any specific damage type is on par with Level 1 armor, but you're getting protection from multiple types of physical damage from the same piece of armor. This is the first level where piercing protection is available on armor.

There are more armor items at this level (even in a single product line) than you can wear. However, you should be able to get coverage on all your body parts if you pick the right items.

There are armored jumpsuits at this level that provide a base level of protection from all physical damage types with the addition of specialized protection against certain damage types.

LEVEL 3: MEDIUM ARMOR

This level includes Xo3. This level of armor provides an increase in physical and environmental protection.

This level of armor requires mixing and matching in order to get full armor coverage.

LEVEL 4: HEAVY ARMOR

This level includes Xo5. This level of armor provides superior physical and environmental protection.

This level of armor offers a complete armor set, if you are able to find the pieces and afford the cost. However, you can mix in armor from lower levels and still get excellent protection.

DAMAGE REDUCTION FROM ARMOR

Armor is rolled on every attack. If you are hit in a location that has one or more armor pieces covering it, and that armor offers protection against the damage type you were dealt, your overall damage will be reduced. The amount of reduction depends on rolling your armor score multiple times to determine how much damage is reduced. There will always be SOME damage reduction. If your armor reduces all of the damage, you will see a special message (in a different color) during combat. Otherwise the messages will appear as they always do, but don't worry, the armor is working in the background to reduce the damage you take.

ARMOR QUALITY / REPAIRING ARMOR

As armor blocks damage, it's efficacy is reduced. This is represented by an armor quality score. Characters with the necessary skills are able to inspect armor for damage and may be able to repair it with the appropriate tools.

(Edited by Slither at 10:25 am on 5/11/2025)

I've migrated all the player clothing with names that are called out above (also in help tailoring) to the appropriate layers. It's possible this will cause you to have to rethink some of the clothing you wear that you may have been wearing above or below other items.

If certain items become a big problem for people, I'll update things, but I wanna gather some feedback first.

(Edited by Slither at 7:33 pm on 5/11/2025)

I've fixed the worn_msg on these, it said it had a clock and settings, which was flavor text representing functionality it did not have. It doesn't have that wording anymore.

There were some typos in the attack messages for brawling and MA that have been fixed.

Did a bunch more testing with various weapons and Level 3 and Level 4 armor tonight. Thanks to the players that helped me. Things are looking good. Unless I'm missing something in my testing, this appears well balanced and outcomes are slightly more predictable and less completely bonkers random. The # of combat rounds for example in some of my testing with the old system and Level 3 and Level 4 armor ranged from 6-16 rounds. While in the new system it settled more reasonably at 11-15 rounds most of the time. Some of this depends on the weapon and where the person gets hit. But the armor rolls are much more consistent and I like that.

Another thing I noticed that Marital Arts and Brawling are fucking bad ass. They do really good damage even with no weapon, especially at higher skill levels. Anyone sleeping on these unarmed combat skills should consider them, because they were netting damage that was on par with some mid-tier weapons.

I was worried someone in Xo5 would just be able to stand there for 40 combat rounds, but that isn't the case. It took only like 1 combat round longer than my testing with a katana to take someone in Xo5 down (with the new system, it was less predictable in the old system but still within a reasonable range).

This statement about MA/Brawling being pretty great is true in both the current system, and in the new system, btw, and is not a product of the new system. Unarmed combat is definitely versatile.

Haven't had a chance to mess with parry yet, want to finish this testing first. I think we may be ready to turn this on as early as tomorrow.

It won't be an earth shattering change, as everything averages out over time, but I think people will appreciate that it is more predictable, while still having some rolls. For example, if you have 30 armor over a location in the old system, you might get 1 damage reduce or 30, or anywhere in between, but in the new system you're getting a consistent 10-20 range on your reductions, with much fewer outliers.

I've balanced the stat penalties on level 1 and 2 armor. And adjusted a couple at Level 3 as well. You'll need to remove/rewear these items for the adjustments to show up.

A few level 1 armor items didn't have proper stat penalties. Those have been added (but are very minimal @ -1 typically).

Several of the level 1 and level 2 items people use a lot had too high penalties and those have been reduced.

In general I balanced this based on the coverage the armor provides. Greater coverage, slightly higher penalty. Lower coverage, lower penalty. This should make mixing and matching more interesting as you can mix several small pieces, or a couple of large pieces.

The updated armor damage reduction code is live. Instead of doing damage = damage - RANDOM(total_armor_on_location) it will do a coin flip for each point of armor you have, and total up the successes. This should make armor much less flakey and more reliable, while still maintaining a level of randomness due to the rolls.

I'll keep an eye on this, and appreciate bug reports if you see something weird, but it's actually a fairly small change, now that all the other changes I've made have been in for several days or more.

(Edited by Slither at 7:51 am on 5/14/2025)

I've updated the layers on a bunch of generic fashions to be more appropriate, and fix some issues that were raised with underclothes not going under the right layer among other things I saw.

I have updated the text of this advantage to be 'bonus to munitions checks' because it's definitely about more than just firearm maintenance now. We didn't have all the systems we have now, when that text was written.

(Edited by Slither at 11:13 am on 5/15/2025)

Fixed a bug with @LEASE that was not properly resetting the weekly profit payout date to the current time the lease was being assigned. This was causing admin to have to take manual steps to clean this up. Not anymore! Automation baby.

Any exit with a shortname of 'g' such as 'garage / g' will now be a two letter combo like 'ga' for garage or 'gh' for guardhouse. This is due to the g exit getting in the way of another command.

Forgot to do this when I renamed the skill. These softs are not Armstech Skillsofts.