PVK 2 released

[Deleted User] · January 2007

<div class="IPBDescription">source mod</div>For those that dont know, PVK 2(pirates, vikings and knights 2) has been released.

<a href="http://www.pvkii.com/" target="_blank">http://www.pvkii.com/</a>

Sorry if this has been posted before, but i think released mods need a support shout out <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

Jimmeh · January 2007

Woop Woop.

Downloading now <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

Was playing PVK1 the other day, quite a coincidence.

EDIT-

What happened to the class system? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />

Comprox · January 2007

It's a beta, each team only has 1 class right now. They said they have 3 more classes nearing completion and a few more maps almost ready too. Pretty fun so far, little laggy in really big games, but not that bad actually.

I decided to be nice and throw it all up on RR as well:
Client (windows): <a href="http://www.readyroom.org/pvkii/pvkii_beta_1_0.exe" target="_blank">http://www.readyroom.org/pvkii/pvkii_beta_1_0.exe</a>
Dedicated server (windows): <a href="http://www.readyroom.org/pvkii/pvkii_beta_1_0_server.zip" target="_blank">http://www.readyroom.org/pvkii/pvkii_beta_1_0_server.zip</a>
Dedicated server (linux): <a href="http://www.readyroom.org/pvkii/pvkii_beta_1_0_server.tar.gz" target="_blank">http://www.readyroom.org/pvkii/pvkii_beta_1_0_server.tar.gz</a>

Abra · January 2007

Iama try this mod!
Think i played the first one. But i might have that cunfuesed with the battlefield mod though...

RuBy · January 2007

This game is retarded. I have to admit there is an appreciable level of polish, and the voices are funny but as a deathmatch the only feature it has going for it are the melee weapons whose mechanics are rather simplistic. Maybe with a few more classes I could even begin to see potential in this game.

Sub_zer0 · January 2007

Gets a little repetative..

Abra · January 2007

I hope the gameplay changes... gets repetative.
Pirate kegs ftw though.
Me and a couple of friends dropped like 5 kegs total and blew em up with a pistol shot.
Even with all that armor, the knight had quite some time in air.

lolfighter · January 2007

I get awfully low framerates for some reason even though Source normally runs well, and I can't figure out how blocking works. There doesn't seem to be any documentation beyond "hold down right mouse button," which works fine for shields, but not for weapons. Yet some players seem to block very well with weapons, so I guess there's some sort of trick to it. Any ideas?

So anyway, low framerates and no clue how to get block to work means that my survival rate in melee was rather low, so I had to look for other options. Vikings were out, since they only HAVE melee weapons. The knights' crossbow would be great if the lengthy, stationary reloading wouldn't mean that you usually have to switch to melee after the first shot. And the pirates' pistol is too inaccurate and weak to be all that useful, especially because of the limited ammo.

So, with melee combat not being viable for me, and ranged combat alone not being powerful enough, there was only one thing left: Powder kegs. And that's when I broke the game. Apparently, powder keg suiciding is not a legal playstyle, and everyone gets awfully mad when I do it.
The two main approaches are as follows:
The timed run: Useful for detonating at a specific point on the map. You run towards the point in question, then ignite your keg so that the fuse burns out shortly after you get to your destination. It usually requires a few tries to get it right, but once you've found the right point on your run to ignite the barrel, you can just do it over and over.
The "on demand": Useful for taking out someone who tries to melee you. Just drop your keg on the ground with secondary fire, then hack it in twain with your cutlass. On-demand suicide bomb. The disadvantage is that if you get killed before you can detonate the keg, it won't detonate at all.

Of course, I tell you this only so you can AVOID doing it. If you do, you will be "lame" and immediate members of your family will be called nasty things. Your heritage may also be questioned, it may for example be suggested that you were born of animals rather than humans.

I haven't yet been directly accused of not playing the game "the way it's meant to be played," but that may be because nVidia has trademarked that phrase.

moultano · January 2007

This game rocks. It feels like team fortress but even sillier, and for the time being more fun.

Geminosity · January 2007

well... so far I have the same problem as lolfighter; my framerates are awful. It starts off smooth with everything off or low at 800x600 but as people cluster to fight or pirates throw the barrels around my framerate commits suicide.

The melee system seems iffy as I can go whole fights blocking and some fights the block won't stop their attacks at all. The whole 'movement' part they knicked from jedi-knight seems fairly pointless considering the blocks aren't based off horizontal or vertical.
I think people who get past my block might be attacking my feet but that's about the only thing I can think of.

until the 'ealer class for pirates are released I'll probably just go knight as I like their railgu- uh crossbow and the shield is handy... not to mention pirates are always waaaay overpopulated and vikings are big horrible sweaty musclemen :p

<b>edit:</b> there's definitely something wrong with the barrels... every time one goes off my framerate drops permanently a little more. After a few barrels I can barely play and everyone starts complaining about the 'lag' even though the pings are fine. Maybe there's some kind of memory leak or something regarding them?

Aldaris · January 2007

Respawn system in deathmatch needs to be looked at. Tired of respawning in a room full of both opposing sides, and no allies. It's easier and quicker just to stand still and die.

eediot · January 2007

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Jan 4 2007, 06:33 AM) [snapback]1594515[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'>
<b>edit:</b> there's definitely something wrong with the barrels... every time one goes off my framerate drops permanently a little more. After a few barrels I can barely play and everyone starts complaining about the 'lag' even though the pings are fine. Maybe there's some kind of memory leak or something regarding them?
</div>

In CS;S and HL2;DM the physics system was tweaked considerably from the HL2 SP physics system because it creates a whole lot of lag in multiplayer. The barrels in CS;S and HL2;DM are very different in how they work than in the SP, having their realistic qualities changed/stripped down in order to make their inclusion in multiplayer feasible (i.e lagless). My bet is that the PVK 2 guys just copied the code from HL2 SP and modified from there, instead of optimising it to the level that was required.

Geminosity · January 2007

I think the servers need to keep their player limits down too... in matches where it's hitting over 16-18 people it becomes pretty unplayable.

I've kinda got the hang of the blocking system; I run about with my shield totalling everyone if they're daft enough to take me on 1v1. The only problem so far is the cheesy special attack everyone has which insta-kills everyone and can't be blocked either (you get pretty much zero warning they're about to use it too if it's a pirate, the knight one has a slight wind up you can spot and avoid it with but most knights never use it anyways).

I often find myself just sitting with my shield laughing as a pirate empties all their pistol ammo into it not seeming to realise I'm not taking any damage :p

Vikings annoy me. 2h weapons have a range almost twice the size of that actual weapon model aaand that's about it I think.

It's an ok game but if someone suddenly remade Rakion I'd drop PVK2 for it in a heartbeat.

douchebagatron · January 2007

how do you use the special attack? i havent gotten it to work.

and i havent had a single problem with lag or framerate, and every time ive played its been on a 20+ server.

lolfighter · January 2007

Oh sure, shield blocking is easy. But only knights have that. High time vikings and pirates got something more interesting.

eediot · January 2007

With less than ten players, it's not laggy at all, which is great. I played on a server with 5 or so people, it was really graphically pretty and fun. Although knights seem pretty overpowered... they can take about 3-4 direct shots in the back with a pistol before they go down, and heaven forbid they use their shield to block.

I can see this being a really fun game so long as they fix all the bugs and make it more teamplay oriented... so far it's just a fancy deathmatch.

Geminosity · January 2007

Special attacks work as follows...

<b>Knights</b>
Weapon: Long Sword (2h)
Effect: Knight swings sword 360 insta-killing anyone she hits

<b>Pirates</b>
Weapon: Cutlass
Effect: Pirate Leaps forward insta-killing anyone they pass through as they fly

<b>Vikings</b>
Weapon: any
Effect: Viking howls like a wolf and goes beserk. While beserk you run faster, swing faster and do more damage. You are also temporarily granted some extra health for the duration of your beserk though it should be noted that once your rage is finished if you do not have enough health to survive that extra health being taken back then you die :p

Specials can only be activated if:
a) You have the right weapon out
b) Your special bar is full

The special bar is the one across the top with the dragon thingy on it's right hand-side. When it is full the dragon's eye will twinkle red.
The bar is filled by hitting, blocking and though I'm not sure possibly by being hit as well. This includes hitting people with the pistol by the way so it's a viable tactic for pirates to use their pistol to get that last chunk or two needed for a lunge.

As for balance I currently think with the existing classes:
Pirates are underpowered
Vikings feel somewhat overpowered
Knights feel about right

Keeping in mind I've only ever played pirates and knights :3

Due to the fact the cutlass is pants unless you have a special ready and the pistol doesn't do much damage most pirates resort to kegging jihad style. This is because the keg has obscene range, doesn't hurt teammates and is basically the only decent weapon pirates currently have. The pistol is their second best and to be honest it's a distant second especially thanks to the fact you can't replenish the ammo for it.
Being unable to replenish their ammo in any way, the pirates almost feel like they're <b>supposed</b> to die suicidally. Once you've used your keg and 6 pistols all you've got left is your cutlass 'til you respawn :/

Knights are the slowest in the game at the moment though the most heavily armoured. The crossbow is a great gun once you get used to the fact it's effected by gravity pretty badly (the arc on it is downright crazy). Funny thing is that the Heavy Knight only gets this weapon until the archer class is implemented at which point they'll lose it :o
The sword and shield is easily my favourite as the shield blocks pretty everything short of a nuclear strike, stuff behind you or those tricky-to-block sideways attacks with 2 handers. Just so you know, crouching with a shield will actually save you from taking most of the damage of a keg as long as you face it :p
The only downside to the shield is that the 1h sword that comes with it feels a bit weak at best; even pirates take quite a few hits with it to go down and good luck ever killing a Viking with it within half an hour unless you get a good streak of hits in.

Can't speak for vikings as I haven't played them (nor ever will) but as an opponent they always feel like they've got too much health XD
If they go beserk it's even harder to kill them as most will switch to the dicing machine which is dual axes.
The fact that their superior close quarters combat and high health is balanced out by having no ranged attack doesn't really feel balanced at all... weapon switching in the game is slow at best, the knight's crossbow as someone already mentioned in this thread is only good for one shot in a fight thanks to it's monstrous reload time and while pirates can pepper them with gunshots the bullets do little damage so you pretty much need to hit them with all 6 gunshots (meaning you're out of ammo until you die) to actually kill a fresh viking. Keeping in mind that this is usually while the viking is chasing you and if they go beserk the pirates lose their (only) speed advantage and you'll be dead faster than you can say "what a lovely keg".

Then again, the dev team themselves admit that the vikings are currently easily the strongest of the three so I guess it's not something they're totally unaware of :p

eediot · January 2007

I'd say that if you know when to block, knights are actually the strongest. I've only played pirates, but it feels like it's useless going into close combat, and guns aren't worth crap unless you get lucky and expend 2/3 of your ammo on someone who's already half-dead.

I'd rather fight a knight than a viking though, because vikings slaughter you in close combat. At least with a knight they tend to use their shield a lot, allowing you to reload.

And by the way geminosity, some maps have reload item spawns for pirate guns. You just can't rely on them, and reloading takes so long, and the guns do so little damage it's not really worth it.

Dirty_Harry_Potter · January 2007

Well, concerning balance, then "we" should probably wait for the whole shebang to be done :X there's still 4 classes on each team to be finished afaik :X

Geminosity · January 2007

well emp, I do know how to block :p
I've not lost a 1v1 fight without the other person using a special (oh how I hate the specials... especially as I can't use it with the shield. To be honest though I just hate 'i win' buttons in general).

Some scummy things you can do as a shield knight include:
- Sitting at the top of the ladder of the capturable tower in that desert ruin map (if you get your positioning right the only thing that'll shift you is a keg pirate :p )
- Blocking Corridors (if It's tight enough and you position yourself correctly you can completely roadblock a whole team like this for quite some time :o ).

To be honest though, the only thing I know for sure that shield does that nobody else can is block 2 handed weapons without taking damage (with normal blocks you lose some health if the enemy is using a 2 hander, but you'll still stun them opening them up for free hits like usual).

Does anyone know if you can block bullets without a shield? I've not tried it :o

lolfighter · January 2007

I bet you can block pistol bullets with normal weapons. It's not like they're not useless enough as it is...

Retales · January 2007

What I hated about the original PVK was the pirates. If you tried to attack, they just ran away while shooting you. When you stopped pursuing them, they came within range and shot you. Repeat until 'quit'.

I always thought the mod was about close combat. I haven't been able to try PVK 2 yet, but by gods I hope they dont make the same outrageous mistake again by making one team annoying as hell.

Geminosity · January 2007

well... in PVK2 if the pirate just backpedals you'll catch up with them, but if they turn and run they can outdistance you then turn around and cap you. If you're a knight with a shield however they'll be hard pressed to scratch you, let alone kill you.

Found a technique with the pirate that lets you kill shield knights a bit too easily; if you jump and slash at their head over the shield it'll hit them for full damage and you won't get block-stunned. Fighting against a pirate that's mastered this technique is kinda annoying as it renders your shield pointless.

I still think it's daft that two-handed weapons seem to have a range twice or more the size of the actual model.

I think I've finally got sick of it to be honest. Some of the levels and gametypes don't really balance well with the current classes and the melee system is starting to bore me. I'll probably check back once they add in more but for now I'm done :p

The framerates being worse today somehow even on low pop servers didn't really make me love it much either.

Svenpa · January 2007

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Jan 4 2007, 09:00 PM) [snapback]1594856[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'>
Found a technique with the pirate that lets you kill shield knights a bit too easily; if you jump and slash at their head over the shield it'll hit them for full damage and you won't get block-stunned. Fighting against a pirate that's mastered this technique is kinda annoying as it renders your shield pointless.
</div>

We need more games with vertical movement sensitive shields it seems :/ . Really, I hate it when it dosn't matter if you watch straight up or down when useing shields, their not that heavy!

Geminosity · January 2007

heh, yeah. I had some cheeky beggar jump on my head as I slashed some other guy's feet out and when I looked up with the shield active it didn't stop his attack in the slightest. Wouldn't have mattered so much if it wasn't for the fact I couldn't stand up or move really with him ontop of me like that :s

eediot · January 2007

You should have lowered your shield and stabbed him from below, then. You're a knight, you can take about two hundred million stabs from a pirate before you see a dent in your health, and you can kill him in two hits.

Geminosity · January 2007

1) It was a viking using a two handed axe, not a weedy pirate. You don't have to jump that high to get on a crouching person's head
2) I'd just fought off two people double teaming me; this is normally suicide. I got lucky but didn't have much hp left so I died in about 2 to 3 hits*.

<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />

<b>edit:</b> actually it might've just been the 1 hit now that I think about it ¬.¬

eediot · January 2007

I've taken on two knights with my pistol [I had backup ammo] and won, but that's rare and they were pretty terrible.. I just outran them and they never shielded.

Geminosity · January 2007

if they're using the sword and shield you can actually block their attacks too without taking any damage. One of basically the only two weapons that pirates seem to be able to safely parry :3

On a fun note, in the last few games where I was a pirate I managed to kill 3 knights using parrying... two of which were even using 2 handed swords :o

<b>edit:</b> didn't kill all 3 knights at the same time though... just throughout the course of the game. In that same game we managed to kill a knight by closing a door on him XD

MrMojo · January 2007

each succesful pistol shot gets you some special, so just use it until its almost full, then use cutlass and then special to easily kill people

pirate is just fine if youre know what youre doing, id say viking is overpowered since i can easily dominate with it just by using the two handed axe

Geminosity · January 2007

only time I've ever been viking was to throw their booty chests in the water till the beggars would even the teams. Half the server was vikings and when I kindly asked they just all sat about making excuses.

After I sent most of their treasure to the bottom of the sea or carried it off to whatever enemy base was losing a few times, the teams strangely seemed to balance out incredibly quickly (I then switched to knights as they were still one down, which suited me as I had no intention on actually <b>playing</b> a big sweaty ugly viking :p ).
I wasn't very popular for a lil while afterwards but everyone quickly forgot as the game was now a lot more fun with the teams actually having equal numbers (fancy that!).

I'm still not a fan of the 'specials'. I honestly think it's crud that any idiot can instantly kill anyone without any warning or possible avoidance just because their silly bar is full; the pirate one being the worse as at pointblank it's unavoidable and it has no discernible wind-up animation meaning you can only avoid it by either pure luck or being psychic. Whether it's me using it or someone else it bothers me; out of principle I try not to use it at all but you pretty much need it as a pirate unless you're playing 'jihad joe' :p

PVK 2 released

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