Item rarity

In a previous post we described how different items are created and mutated on some of their attributes and today I want to talk a bit more about how this works on firearms. Today we have three rough types of firearms for the player to use each with the following stats: delay between shots (Delay), usable ammo types(AmmoTypes), spread of fire (Spread), ammunition consumed per shot (AmmoPerShot), volume of effect (Volume), current upgrades (Upgrades). Each type of weapon has its own rating system where it gives itself a rarity on a scale from 0 to 1 which is used both in loot placement and to display quality to the user as seen below where the yellower a firearm is the better.

Great Pistol

Below Average Pistol

In fact not only does the inventory representation change based on quality but the item's appearance on the ground changes as well. Currently we do not have models for firearms on the ground, so they show as black boxes, but we do have particle effects to show you their rarities!

Rarity Particles

With our generation system and rarity system be uniquely determined by a given firearm type we keep a consistent metric while also ensuring that our weapon types feel really different. For example while our sprayers (think flamethrowers) are quite different from rifles, our pistols operate in a pretty similar hitscan fashion to our rifles. To distinguish these two weapons and keep their niches separate you will find that pistols tend to be slower with potential for more power while rifles tend to have more Spread with much smaller Delay and less AmmoPerShot.

Thanks for reading, try to experiment with weapon types and keep your eyes peeled for rare weapons!