How Are Resources Scaled?
TheMaster42
Join Date: 2002-11-07 Member: 7515Members
Join Date: 2002-11-07 Member: 7515Members
<div class="IPBDescription">As aliens, AND as marines?</div> Okay, I was thinking in my head (with not a full understanding, which is why I'm posting here), "okay, so each nozzle gives out x amount of resources per minute...for the marines, then, they'll get x resources per minute. But wait, for the aliens, if they have x resources per minute from each nozzle, do they then get x resources per minute per alien?
"Well, the developers aren't dumb, so I bet the resources the aliens get are divided up by the number of aliens on the team...so aliens get x resources per minute, divided by the number of players. So both teams get even resources, cool...but wait! Doesn't that mean in a 10v10, it takes the aliens 10 times longer to get their first hive than it does in a 1v1?!? Ew, that's not good, either...
"Well, the developers aren't dumb, so maybe the resources are constant for the aliens, but scaled up for the marines...or something..."
But now I'm just totally confused, and would like to know the actual numbers, if anyone knows them.
"Well, the developers aren't dumb, so I bet the resources the aliens get are divided up by the number of aliens on the team...so aliens get x resources per minute, divided by the number of players. So both teams get even resources, cool...but wait! Doesn't that mean in a 10v10, it takes the aliens 10 times longer to get their first hive than it does in a 1v1?!? Ew, that's not good, either...
"Well, the developers aren't dumb, so maybe the resources are constant for the aliens, but scaled up for the marines...or something..."
But now I'm just totally confused, and would like to know the actual numbers, if anyone knows them.
Comments
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->- Resource points are equal for both sides. What I mean by this is that x points on either side should equate to the same amount of power. Likewise, NS was designed for equal sized teams.
- The resources "scale" with team size. Marine and alien resource towers gather resources at the same rate. They gather 1 resource point every 6 seconds. For the aliens, this is multiplied by ns_playerresourcescalar (.23) and then given to EACH alien player's resource count. So to balance this for the marines, the team gets points equal to 1*.23*numPlayers, and added to the team's total. So in big games, the marine resources will be growing faster then in small games. This is required to make sure that aliens aren't resource-starved in big games. numPlayers is the number of players on the team, not on the server. Spectators don't count, dead players do.
- Every time a resource tower gathers resources for the team, it draws a rising number above the tower, showing how much it gathered. This number is the value BEFORE multiplying by .23 and the number of players on the team. In the patch, this number will reflect the actual resources given to the team for the marines.
- Resources never run out for any node.
- Gorges get resources at 3x the rate of other a non-gorge player. The aliens have a resource pool that all the resources go into, and are then divided up. Dead players never receive points. Here's an example: assume a resource tower harvests one point for an alien team, where the alien team has 1 gorge, one skulk, and one dead player. The total points harvested are 1*.23*3 (numplayers) which is .69 points. The skulk gets one share, the gorge gets three shares and the dead player gets 0 shares. .69 points divided by 4 shares is .1725 points per share. The skulk gets .1725 points, the gorge gets .5175 points. If any player can't receive the full point count because it would put them over their max, the excess points are kept in the pool and are potentially awarded during the next resource interval. Resources are added and divvied out every 6 seconds for both teams.
- If an alien player leaves the team, his resources go back into the pool. Resources are never lost for either side.
- If one team has less players then the other, and mp_teamresourcehandicap is 1 (the default), then that team's incoming resources are multiplied by a scalar equal to x/y where x is the number of players on the larger team and y is the number of players on the smaller team (team size, doesn't care about rank, role, or alive/dead status).
I think that's everything. It took a surprisingly long time to come up with this system, definitely one of the hardest aspects of NS.
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Hope that helps!