[Workshop Mode] Loot Quest - Long-term PvE RPG with Save Codes [v7.5.0.0]

Workshop Discussion
#1

Loot Quest – the Eternal Hunt (by Delwion#2667)

Hunt enemies for a chance to obtain epic loot and save your progress with the help of 40-digit save codes in this long-term, slow progress PvE RPG mode (you slowly progress over the course of several matches)!

Players who complete the Training map tutorial are awarded a 40-digit save code that allows them to start the game at level 1 with 50 gold!

  • If you would like to play on a specific map, deselect all others in the custom game lobby settings (maps that are disabled by default are not supported).
  • Make sure you play with a host you can trust (a malicious host could give players invalid save codes or manipulate the script in other abusive ways).
  • Always import scripts directly via share code to ensure you have the latest official version of the game mode (if you copy the settings from another player’s lobby, you may be playing a modified version without knowing it).

(When importing via share code, wait until the game mode description and settings have fully loaded before taking any other actions. This may take up to 20 seconds, depending on the platform and server latency.)

Beginner’s guide, FAQ, full manual, and changelogs can now be found on the Loot Quest website: 

https://lootquest.shivtr.com
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Just a loot quest question
Loot Quest Calibration Fail
#2

This mode is a ton of fun (as is World of Overwatch :grin:). Thanks for taking time to try and sort out the server crash issues. Your work isn’t going unnoticed or unappreciated!

3 Likes
#4

Hey Delwion Your doing amazing work and I love your game mode.
It’s a shame that is crashes often :slightly_frowning_face:
I dont know if this helps but ive noticed that it crashes when changing Characters in my item slot maybe cause it needs to load lots of info on the character?

anyway im loving it & i hope you keep it up :grinning:

#5

Thanks for all the positive feedback and for playing the game mode :slight_smile:

I will do some tests in the next few days (hopefully) with the new server load values to see if I can identify specific parts of the script that are very problematic.

In the games I hosted, Loot Quest crashed for a variety of reason, sometimes at what seemed like random moments when nothing special was happening (not a lot of loot on the ground, no enemies, no player taking any complex action). But I’ve seen a few rules that triggered crashes more often. Among them is the moment when a player wants to display a code, when a boss dies (even though there is just one extra event compared to when a normal enemy dies which is really simple), when players repeadetly equip high level items. Hopefully, I can identify some problems and find a way to avoid them.

Edit: In an unrelated side note: I’ve posted a smaller, simple and easy PvE mode yesterday in my Various Smaller Projects thread yesterday: Robot Strike Volskaya (it’s very different from Loot Quest though but I thought I’d mention it here in case anyone wants to try it :)).

1 Like
#6

Your MOD is the reason I got on this forum for the first time, absolutely amazing. I really love the mod. I would like to add a couple things after playing about 6 hours yesterday.

Are there a min number of players for enemies to spawn in? Often it would just be me and one other while we waited for a third to join and mobs would only spawn then.

Boss scrolls sometimes don’t spawn bosses, yes I know it can take a while, but we waited a very long time :slight_smile:

I’m still not sure how to view the stats of a char, is there an interface for that?

I doubt this but I’m asking anyways, any way to shorten the code…? xD I get it if not but it’s a pain to enter 40-50 times a night until crashes are done.

Thank you so much for working on this, the community really loves it.

#7

I’m glad you like the mode :slight_smile:

The maximum number of enemies that can spawn is equal to the number of players in team 2 that are outside of the spawn room. The game will rotate through all players in team 2 to decide near which player the next enemy will spawn (so the first enemy will spawn near the player in slot 0, the one after that near the player in slot 1, etc.).

When you use a boss summon item, the next enemy that will spawn based on your position will be a boss. So it can take a while.

Regular enemies despawn after 20 seconds of inactivity, leaders after 40 seconds, bosses after a minute.

There are global cooldowns that stop all enemy spawn events for a bit when something complex happens, for example when a player joins the game or presses ultimate status to display a code (that was one of the many things I tried to reduce the risk of crashes) .

It’s possible that there are some issues with respawn. I fixed one problem in the latest version (try to use that one if you didn’t before). But there may be other issues. I haven’t done a ton of testing on the latest version, needed a break from working on this game mode. If respawn feels slow it’s partially due to cooldowns (global and enemy-specific) that I introduced in an attempt to reduce the risk of crashes.

There is unfortunately no way to see your stats (except by looking at the inspector as a host if you know which variable stands for what). I had planned on adding that feature but gave up on it quickly when the game started crashing.

I don’t know of any way to shorten the code without saving less values. The equipped item actually has 19 values that need to be saved, at least 7 of them are double digit, then there’s the money (4 digits), level, boss items, XP progress towards the next level (4 digits). If there are clever algorithms to make the code shorter, then I have to say that I unfortunately don’t know how to do that. I could make the items more generic (right now they have 5 separate stats for damage dealt, damage received, max health, move speed, projectile speed and I could just use one stat instead, but that would mean a lot of work without any guarantee that it helps with crashes and make a previous codes invalid).

I know that it’s really annoying to enter such a long code. I was worried about that when I was planning the game mode on paper already (I was worried that it would be too annoying for people to enter a long code once every 60 minutes - or more often - I thought if someone would join 10 minutes before the match is over, they would simply skip the round and wait for the next one :)). Now, the crashes have made this code entering problem way worse (plus it really takes away from the enjoyment when you need to constantly fear that you’ll lose your progress) which is why I tried so many things to stop the crashes from happening.

Hopefully, I can find a way to make the game mode more stable with the new server load values in the next few days/weeks. And if not, I might remake the game mode completely in a simpler version, since I really like the loot and save mechanics myself (when I started playing other game modes I kept pressing crouch in the hopes to pick up some loot, haha) :slight_smile: Hopefully, I can find a way to fix it :slight_smile:

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#8

Thanks for clearing so much up!

Enemy not spawning, I think I figured that one out based on what you said. Me and the other person testing were players 5/6 so I think that’s why it was skipping. Today they were spawning just fine when I was the only player, but the top one instead.

I agree that shortening the code wouldn’t be worth it, especially when it would make current codes not work. Honestly entering once an hour or so isn’t bad, once the crashing issue is solved I think it will be fine.

I honestly don’t know where to find your most up to date version, I just saved the settings off a game I joined, so if you can point me that way I would appreciate it!

#9

Update.: We found that rank 1 enemies always crash the server

#10

Thanks for the info, I will look into these issues (the rotation problem was definitely an oversight/bad design by me, I should have used a filtered array of all players in team 2 and then go by rotating index, not just go by player slot without checking if the slot is actually occupied; I will fix that in the next version) when I start working on Loot Quest again (maybe tomorrow/later today/in the next few days; not sure yet). The most recent version I published is always in this thread. When I work on the game mode I usually update it at least once per day :slight_smile:

Edit: Rank 1 enemies aren’t any different from the other ranks. So not sure what could be the problem there. If you still see the enemy rank as an in-world text above the enemy’s head however that is a pretty old version of the game mode. The latest version might be a bit better for the crashes and have some of the respawn problems fixed.

#11

Ok found something that consistently breaks the server. when you get a red hero and try to save it crashes. you can sometimes use the hero without crash, but as soon as you try and save it goes down.

edit: We found a way around it: Once you trade to the new red hero, sell the old one right away. then wait at lest 2 minutes before you save

edit 2: Found that is only with the most recent version. as soon ias I went back to the old one the issue is gone.

edit 3: on and off bug in old one, consistent in new one.

#12

Thanks. It might have something to do with the permanent visual effect that red items can offer or the higher number of default abilities that are unlocked. I already redid all of the actions related to the visual effects about half a week ago (in one version the effect was created/destroyed when the player equipped a new item, in the other, the effect was there permanently and was just made visible/invisible; unfortunately neither version seemed to have any impact on the number of crashes for me).

I’ve started some very early testing with server load values and got some ideas of things that might help reduce server load without compromising the game mode too much, but this will take a while. If I get a more stable version of the game mode I will post it here :slight_smile:

#13

i start the game and no bots ever come out, can someone help me.

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#14

Just to be sure, you are placing the 6 bots in team 1 and yourself in team 2?

If so, the bots won’t spawn until you leave the spawn room. If you leave the spawn room, a bot should soon spawn near your position (± 20 meters away from you in both the x and the z axis).

There will never be more bots to fight than players in team 2 that are outside of the spawn room.

1 Like
#15

I tried to start the mode up with the recommended bots but the ranks aren’t working properly. The level 1 bots are just as easy as level 5. The bosses are working but do almost no damage. Did I mess something up in the set-up or is it a bug?

#16

That is a bug sorry T_T I never tested this version in higher level areas. All enemies are the lowest rank in the code I posted. I will post a new code in a bit where this is fixed (+ lots of other small bugfixes).

Edit: Thanks for reporting this :slight_smile:

(Bosses deal 50% more damage compared to regular enemies of the same rank; and leaders 25% more.)

#17

Yes plz send help, I’m stuck and my controls for spawn room aren’t doing anything

#18

thanks for the help. i did notice that almost every time i try to save a red character that has dropped from a bot that is crashes.

#19

Same for me. I got a rank 1 soldier 76 (suprisingly from a rank 5) i ran into spawn to save. when i tried saving, it crashed due too excessive workshop script load. same thing happened to another person in the game a bit later, with a rank 1 genji.

#20

I had a crash similar to this last night. I have a save with a red-tier (~4400) hero and when I went to save after about 20 minutes it would crash out. I was the only one in the game the entire time and hadn’t done anything other than kill mobs (including a few bosses), pick up gold and a few items, sell items, port back to spawn, and level once (11 -> 12, if it matters).

#21

Thanks for the feedback. I have noticed in my testing as well that the two events that cause crashes the most often still are displaying a save code and equipping an item. The longer a match has lasted, the more likely these actions will cause a crash. However, other actions such as selling items to the NPC store or even just using the town portal ability can also trigger the crashes if a game has been running for a certain amount of time. At this point, I don’t think adding more wait actions to the equip item or show code commands would really help (there is like one wait action for every 5 actions that are relatively simple calculations already).

I will make another attempt to reduce the risk of crashes starting today/in the next few days, this time by removing the player selling and buying stations, by reducing the number of teleporters in the spawn room, and most importantly by redoing the item stats system so it does not use vectors anymore. I will also try to optimize equipping an item by avoiding the creation of temporary values (the stats of the equipped item are currently copied to a temporary player variable). I may also reduce the inventory size from 10 to 5 and reduce the maximum number of drops on the ground again. Hopefully, one of these things will help a bit with the crashes.

Edit: One more thing I forgot to mention: Surprisingly, the number of players in team 2 seems to have no big impact on how often/soon the game crashes. One way to explain this could be that each individual player has a limit on how many resources the variables of that player can take. Another explanation would be that a big problem takes place in events of team 1, but that seems unlikely: I have used all the actions that happen to team 1 in other game modes before without problems. And one more thing: Both the equip item action and the show code action keep the server peak load below 100 in the first few minutes of the game, so I don’t think they alone can be responsible for the crashes.

1 Like