*sam* Posted Sep 7, 2011, 11:16 am	There are several current threads that have fragmented Scavenger discussions ongoing.. however, my key concern before opening up DW:Scavenger to the rest of the players is: are things balanced ok? Could current beta testers please reply to this, specifically on their opinion about balance. - are town prizes balanced ok now? - are courier/mission rewards balanced ok? - is the role of the mechanic skill and the opportunity to find and use scrap metal balanced ok now? I think all other issues can be sorted out after we're live. The key thing that has to be right before wiping the beta gangs is that resource gathering is correctly balanced..
FireFly Posted Sep 7, 2011, 11:23 am	I'm unsure, havent been able to play for the few last days... I'll do some more when I get home, should have time today... School
*Ninesticks* Posted Sep 7, 2011, 12:15 pm	Ok, resource gathering for me so far. I haven't been terribly active, but this is what I have found in general terms. Apologies if it is a bit long-winded. Scrap Metal Quite hard to find in the wilderness, but easy enough to get those few essential units breaking down knackered loot cars. Overall, feels about right, what I breakdown tends to get used repairing armour. Mechanic Skill In favour of staggering mech skill required for repairs as per the camp mech rating system - or something similar with different numbers if needed. Car Parts Not seen any yet, but then I have not really needed them either. Chassis Again, quite happy with the balance here. Engines Probably the hardest thing to get in good condition, again balance seems good. Weapons Getting to loot a lot of reasonable condition weapons, but then I am happy using 50-60% weapons (saves on the ammo don't you know  ). Nothing too fancy, weapon selection is more ammo supply/ammo in weapon rather than weapon condition. Happy with the supply of ped weapons coming from scouting. Ammo Quite hard to come by at the moment, but this is no bad thing as it restricts the abundance of weapon systems. Food/Water/Fuel Really struggled to find these, managed to loot a week's worth of food the other day from traders, but have not seen any water either as a town prize, trader cargo or as a reasonable courier mission (not that I have any vehicle capable of attempting a courier mission nor the fuel). These seem quite hard to get hold of and I am braced to take a hit on lack of water come Friday. The only fuel I have got is from siphoning. Town Event Prizes They feel quite random, though I was very happy to get 10 mg mags that one time. Not all that useful for finding the necessities nor as offering an alternative playstyle to piracy. Still think a small tweak allowing players to pick from a list of smaller prizes would be a reasonable solution, though I do have a concern that this would make things too easy. Conclusion Pretty much good to go, certainly playable. Regarding finding the necessities what you do here will perhaps come down to how hard you actually want to make scav. If you want starvation etc to be a very real factor then keep it broadly as it is.
FireFly Posted Sep 7, 2011, 1:12 pm	One thing, I to suffered from a lack of car parts and as I noticed when getting a decent mech, they run out fast doing any forms of repairs. I still do think that we need some form of system to prevent a single mech from doing the all the repairs in a single town at once, that really just breaks the illusion for me. And your "Everyone will focus on the same town" comments be damned, if you cant repair it in BL then ship it to SS for repairs, then ship it back, after all, this is supposed to be scavenger mode. That's my only real issue right now to be honest.
*Rezeak* reecestensel@hotmail.co.uk Posted Sep 7, 2011, 4:35 pm	For me, everything is well balanced out at the moment, apart from ammo. But I think that once the markets/trading system gets up and running with more players that should be resolved. Everything else (apart from car parts, but I don't expect to be finding them for a while) I've been able to gather just fine.
Rokkitz Posted Sep 7, 2011, 9:44 pm	I think the game is balanced enough to go live. I struggle and probably lose almost as many scouts as I win since the Antagonist was removed (brilliant move). Resources are scarce enough, and the markets will balance out the rest. It is frustrating not having the resources you need, but you always have something else that others will want. Courier mission rewards If anything, I feel that courier missions rewards are a bit off. I have been offered 3 units of fuel to drive to Sars from SS for instance. The long hauls in general are not worth taking. There is a nice bit of frustration by forcing players to plan their routes since the will need to bring their own fuel. It is excellent! Town event prizes Town event prices are random in a nice way, but still too high I think. I would suggest limiting non-league events and such to maximum 5 units of whatever the price may be. 10 MG clips for winning a race is too much. One suggestion would be to completely remove the link to prize money. Lets just say 5 units for win, 3 for 2nd place and 2 for third place? (units being any random item you may win in town events such as fuel, water, medicine, ammo etc). Ped weapon ammo can now be removed from the winnings, for the weapons that drop as loot (shotgun, xbow, rifle). If you decide to launch and leave prizes as they are, I wont complain. Courier rewards needs fixing but this can be done post launch as it does not give any negatives to players that might join later.
*sam* Posted Sep 8, 2011, 10:22 am	Thanks guys, I think I'll run with it as it is for the moment, and quite likely revisit the town event prizes when we see how much the player market lets people get the stuff they need from each other.
FireFly Posted Sep 8, 2011, 10:50 am	Make sure you launch it at something like 18:00 server time tonight... You know, cause feautre launches need those set dates
*sam* Posted Sep 8, 2011, 11:03 am	Erm.. I decided on 11:02 today, FF.
FireFly Posted Sep 8, 2011, 11:09 am	ITS NOT EXACTYLY ON AN HOUR, ARRRGH! What kind of dev are you!?
*sam* Posted Sep 8, 2011, 11:18 am	I guess I must be less anal than the other devs you know then, FF
FireFly Posted Sep 8, 2011, 12:17 pm	*sam* said: I guess I must be less anal than the other devs you know then, FF  Hahhahaha
Rokkitz Posted Sep 8, 2011, 1:05 pm	Arrgh! SAM set us up. We all happily started our gangs before realizing that in a few hrs there is upkeep.. This weeks food and water will be lost. =)
*Rezeak* reecestensel@hotmail.co.uk Posted Sep 8, 2011, 1:29 pm	Rokkitz said: Arrgh! SAM set us up. We all happily started our gangs before realizing that in a few hrs there is upkeep.. This weeks food and water will be lost. =) That's not a set-up. That's brilliant.
*sam* Posted Sep 8, 2011, 2:26 pm	Yeah I thought about mentioning it.. figured it wouldn't be *too* big of a problem as your gang size will be small.
FireFly Posted Sep 8, 2011, 2:53 pm	*sam* said: Yeah I thought about mentioning it.. figured it wouldn't be *too* big of a problem as your gang size will be small. lol... expenses this week is 10 food/water... Nah, it'll be fine