Spy DNA - Development/General info

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT ALL FOLLOWING INFO CAN CHANGE SINCE GAME IS AT ALPHA STAGE
ALSO THAT I MAY HAVE UNDERSTOOD/INTERPRET SOME THINGS WRONG

I will be updating this post as new info become available

What we know so far (most info can be found in the following post in videos if you think the following is TL;DR)
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- The game has detailed Attributes and Skills.

There are the main Attributes categories each detailed by 3 sub-attributes. Each sub-attribute has a range from 0-100 and the median is the score for the attribute category. Human average is 50.
ATTRIBUTES are:

Strength
    Strength (How much you can carry before you start being encumbered, damage in melee)
    Stamina (how long before you become tired, movement speed)
    Physical Quickness (how fast you can move with NO encumbrance)

Dexterity
    Dexterity (your ability to manipulate fine objects i.e. lockpicking, how well you can aim weapons)
    Reaction (reaction time)
    Flexibility (i.e. can you sneak through a ventilation duct, can you get out of restraints you ve been tided up)

Health
    Physical Health (How robust your health is)
    Endurance (Your ability to continue on despite injury)
    Healing (how fast you can recover after a battle)

Intelligence
    Reasoning (your ability to solve problems - used a lot in dialog checks, influences skills like hacking)
    Memory (your ability to recall things- used in dialogs)
    Quickness (how long it takes to do the above things i.e. while defusing a time bomb quickness determines if you do it on time)

Motivation (Willpower)
    Pain Tolerance (self explanatory)
    Motivation (ability to learn skills and how much time it takes)
    Mental Health (keep focus against start having stress reactions like rage)

Charisma
    Looks (primarily used in dialogs)
    Leadership (keeping the team motivated. Can also be used in dialogs)
    Charisma (general threshold with NPCs that dont fit the above)

Senses
    Eyesight (self explanatory - raycast system with visibility modifiers and spotting check)
    Hearing (self explanatory - DB based with attenuation)
    Smelling (i.e. the ability to detect a poison in a room or a room filled with flamable gas or perfume on characters)

SKILLS (the list is NOT final):
Skill range is 0-100. Human average is 25.
Skill checks are always paired with one attribute. i.e. observation with eysight or observation with hearing depending what you are trying to detect. Lockpicking with dexterity, Hacking with reasoning or other intelligence attributes etc etc

Pistols (shooting accuracy with this category of weapons)
Rifles (shooting accuracy with this category of weapons). Rifles skill is paired with Strength and Dexterity and there is also a difficulty factor.
Sniper rifles (shooting accuracy with this category of weapons)
Shotguns (shooting accuracy with this category of weapons)
Launchers (shooting accuracy with this category of weapons)
Throwing grenades (accuracy of throwing a grenade - how far from the intended target it will land)
Throwing knifes (accuracy of throwing a knife - how far from the intended target it will land)
Stealth (how much you can mitigate the noise when moving around, how much you can avoid being spotted when trying to hide)
Observation (the inverse of stealth. The ability to detect things)
Lock Picking (self explanatory)
Hacking (self explanatory)
Unarmed Fighting (self explanatory, does mainly stun damage - paired with quickness and strength for chance-to-hit and damage, paired with reaction for avoiding getting hit)
Melee One Handed (self explanatory, damage type depends on weapon but mainly physical damage - paired with quickness and strength for chance-to hit and damage, paired with reaction for avoiding getting hit)



- There is character creation that affects attributes and skills through a set of questions and answers ala JA2 style
- Encumbered system exists much like we already know it. The more you carry, the slower you move.
- Movement modes: Sprint, Jog, Walk, Fast Crouch, Slow Crouch, Prone
- Weapon at the ready and moving with weapon at the ready. Planned.
- Shooting until enemy is killed/down. Planned.
- Aim at point. Planned.
- There are no Hit Points. Instead there is an anatomical 3D model of the character to determine where you are hit and what damage/injury you take. Different characters have different 3D models.
- Learn by using or training. No silly stuff like shooting a few enemies in the head and now you are better at hacking. Training is done between missions.
- There are armors and there is a penetration system. Overpenetration is present i.e. if the bullet has enough energy it can pass through an enemy and hit the one standing behind.
- There is a ballistic model which determines how a bullet behaves. Accuracy and penetration depend on range of target.
- Concealable weapons present.
- Tiredness system. Or fatigue/stamina/energy/O2 system , name it as you like. Present.
- Suppressive fire. Planned.
- Calmness system. Or morale/adrenaline/shock/stun system, name it as you like. Some sort of it present. Some Planned.
- Destructible environment. Some. I believe close to 7.62mm Reload level. Definetely not fully destructible like Silent Storm.
- Fire from the hip. Planned.
- Chance to hit is calculated through CEP (circular error probability) not an abstract number like i.e. 35%.
- Single shot, burst fire, auto fire. Present.
- Recoil present and tied to each individual weapon.
- Recoil makes subsequent shots in burst or auto fire loose accuracy.
- Recoil affects re-aiming time when on single fire for the next shot after the first for the same target.
- Shooting at the same target increases the accuracy.
- Stance of shooter affects accuracy. Standing<Kneeling<prone.
- How the target moves compared to shooters' position affects the accuracy of the shooter. i.e. if the target moves vertical to the LOS of shooter-target, then accuracy is affected alot. If the target moves directly towards the shooter (effectively riding the LOS), accuracy may not be affected at all.
- Targeting system bundles together snap shooting, aimed shooting, scoped shooting. Now it depends on how much time you wish to spend aiming.
- Time cost allocated to several actions, including aiming and shooting, will be revisisted as now its not balanced at all.
- There is no medicine skill as genetic enhancements take care of that.
- Disabling/Incapacitating wounds. Present.
- Queing orders. Present. Actually AUTOqueing.
- 1st person view. Present.
- Some attention to details: The slide of a pistol moves when firing.
- 1-handed melee weapons only. No 2-handed.
- Autofire on an arc. Planned.
- Attachement system for firearms (scopes, flashlights, lasers, foregrips, UGLs). Planned.
- Fire on the move. Planned!
- Minimum system requirements. TBA. Probably heavy, especially for a GPU.
- Firearms/Weapons. 20+. Firearms in 3 main lines: Conventional, Gauss, Flechettes.
- Maps. Size range from 128x128 meters to 2048x2048 meters. Thats 4 square kilometers! Now you can have realistic engagement distances.
- Procedural maps. Some maps are procedural created, much like the maps of UFO:EA and UFO:TFTD. That means high replayability.
- Z-axis on maps. It will be restricted to one plane of variable elevation depending on map.
- Modding support. Only after game is released. Generated levels, Npcs, items: probably. Custom levels: probably not.
- C&C (choices and consequences) of story flow. Present.
- RP (role playing)/story through decisions and skill/attribute checks.
- GUI is not final but near final. (I actually dont believe that! I personally think they have a long way to go!)
- Attributes of weapons (probably not all attributes are here): ROF burst, ROF single/auto, has single shot, has auto, burst lenght, skill, power mod, accuracy mod, affiliated ammo types, Sight aim time, sight precision, sight zoom
- Attribute of ammo (maybe not all attributes are here): bullet diameter, density modifier, velocity, ammo type (penetration, aero, lenght to width ratio, stability, accuracy, explosive type), cartridge mass modifier, explosive ratio, fragment count, fragment mass ratio
- Ammo type: Description of a class of ammo.
  Bullet penetration works against damage since for it transfers less energy to the target. (It may even exit the target and continue its path)
  Aero in ammo type is aerodynamics which calculates how far the bullet will go (how quickly it uses its energy when traveling)
  Stability in ammo type means how much the round is affected by i.e wind,
  Accuracy in ammo type is MOA. Minutes of angle. How much the bullet is going to diverge right after leaving the barrel (before other factors like stability are calculated). 1 MOA is 1.047 inches at 100 yards. So higher number means less accurate.
- Suppressors. Present.
- Firearms jamming. Planned.
- Bouncing. Will you be able to bounce a hand grenade on a wall? Probably yes. There is a video where this happens although unintentonally.
- Can you sidestep/strafe (or roll when prone)? Not currently planned. May be included in the future.
- PGFs like TrackingPoint or One Shot XG(now CWO) or other interim systems like Eliminator or even for 40mm GL like FN FCU. "Advanced aiming systems. Yes, exact effects are still being tuned."
- Guard mode. "Some form or logic is planned. It's not clear how far we will go. Effectively you are issuing an AI command to a playable character at that point."
- Inventory system. Yes, not as much detailed as Apeiron's games. There will be a volume limit as also some quick access slots to differentiate the access time.
- Grenade throwing arc. "Ideally yes, I just need to come up with a good UI to do it."
- Can you change when the game pauses. "Yes, in the demo the buttons for this are right below the compass. We need to make it more clear when they trigger and finish the mechanism but it will be there."
- Field of view display. "Press and hold "L". We will have a better visualization in time. My first pass at a better one used too much CPU."
- Interruptable commands. Yes. "You can right click on the character portrait to clear their queue. Most commands will be interruptable. A few will not. Basically those that would leave the character in an undetermined state would reach a point where they must finish. Ex: draw a weapon, you could stop up until the hand were on the weapon and moving it."
- Detection. "Right now it's party based. If a member of your party sees the enemy, all do. We do track the information of which characters each player character has seen. We don't yet use it to enforce attack restrictions or penalties."
- What are the planned attributes of grenades? (not only for the hand thrown ones but also for barrel launched, rocket propelled etc)
Explosive type (HE=high explosive, HESH=high explosive squash head, HEAT=high explosive anti tank),
number of fragments (outgoing fragments in uniform type i.e. sphere- other types are possible),
Explosive mass ratio (i.e for 0.3 and 0.3kgr grenade you have 0.09kgr or 90gr of exposive inside the grenade),
fragment mass ratio (similar to explosive mass ratio i.e. for 0.5 and 0.3kgr grenade and number of fragments=150 then each fragment has a mass of 0.5*0.3/150=0,001kgr or 1gr)
Grenades do Shockwave damage (probably depended on how much explosives are inside the grenade) and for each of the fragments there is a hit-scan to see where they land and what possible damage they do before they lose their energy.
- Folding stock weapons. Present.
- Weapon weight balance. As closer to the end of the barrel is the center of mass of a firearm, the more easy it is to handle burst/auto fire but also the more difficult(time and energy consuming) to ready and aim the firearm. Of course the opposite stands for as closer to the holding hand is the center of mass of the firearm.
How it works now:Length and mass of a weapon affect how fast you can bring a weapon on target. Mass is assumed to be in the middle of the length.
Static weapon weight balance (i.e. not being in the middle of the lenght but 3/4 of the lenght) isnt currently planned. Dynamic weapon weight balance (i.e. it changes if you put a suppressor at the end of the barrel) isnt planned.
- Minimap. Present. You can now switch between 1st person view and minimap on the lower left corner window.
- Map edges will not be straight lines like in the alpha demo. There will be some kind of fogging effect to hide them.
- There will be random generated missions between the story-line missions. The random ones will be optional for the player to complete.
- There will be an "infiltration phase" in each mission to give the player the ability to place his characters where he wants. That will be optional so you can use the predetermined positions if you dont want to do the infiltration phase. There will be a long list of infiltration options. i.e. Tryinng to get somebody's id so you can have access to more doors in a building - access that you wouldnt have otherwise. Infiltration missions may have disadvantages as well. i.e. if you are detected the security may be beefed up or even your main mission may become an extraction of your infiltrators.
- Modular armor like IBA with additional components. Present.
- Game spans in 4 Chapters. Total game time about 40+ hours (i guess with the optional missions and infiltration phases)
- Dialog choises show the attribute which is used to check the response of the NPC.
- Non-lethal weapons : Present.
- Enhancements (genetic modifications). Didnt want to do a transcript of the video so here is the video itself: www.youtube.com/watch?v=drDUF_gLxuM

What we are waiting answers for
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- How tiredness affects shooting accuracy.
- Heart rate system which is affected by both how tired you are and how calm you are and affects accuracy.
- Will the enemies have first aid kits to heal themselves.
- Mines and sapper skill
- Height difference between highest and lowest position on a map.
- Will there be a crafting system. Even a simple one i.e. combining a string and a can to make a noise trap.
- Voice acting? All/some/none of dialogs? I noticed spies commenting during battle. How many different categories of comments?
- Incendiary weapons and flamethrowers
- Story branches like web or tree or dna branch
- Ricochets . Will some bullets ricochet on a hard surface and lethally continue their new path?
- Will hits do energy/stamina "damage" to the target? i.e. Hitting an armored target multiple times, non-penetrating hits, will his energy/stamina be less or even out of breath?
- Do armored vests degrade after multiple hits?
- Firearms jamming. What contributes to it?
- Micro/Small air/land drones (ones that can be carried by a man and be deployed in meaningful time) i.e. Battlehawk aka T-RAM , PD-100 Black Hornet , COTS-M
- Can you move backwards?
- Can you jump i.e. through a low window or over a low fence?
- Will there be animals present i.e. guard dogs?
- Will you be able to load a magazine with different ammo? i.e. HP,AP,AP,HP,AP,AP..... and not having to do this for each round but by establishing a pattern and then pressing an autofill button.
- Dragging wounded comrades (or fallen enemies out of sight of others)?
- Will the enemy AI react to the sight of his fallen comrades? Meaning will he be alerted that something's up.
- How about different weather conditions. i.e. Heavy rain would impair movement (mud) and/or visibility, accuracy etc
- Will you be able to drop your weapon in hand so you dont have to holster it to equip another? (thus saving precious time)
- Will you be able to arm a grenade and hold it as long as you like before throwing it?
- Will the bullets fly with reallistic balistic trajectories?
- Lean/fire from cover (using normal guns or guns like cornershot)?
- Flare guns, flares and chemlights.
- Do lighting conditions (of the target) affect the accuracy (of the shooter)? As also quality of lighting? i.e. its different if the target is illuminated by a midday sun than a weak lamppost.
- Guided munitions like EXACTO.
- Filed of view. Does it depend on obstractions and lighting conditions and scopes/binoculars
- A way to see the field of fire of the selected character? (field of view with accuracy calculated).
- Will the field of view/fire be narrowed when you aim through optics? (making it easier to spot further but in reduced arc as also easier for an enemy to sneak upon you)
- Game pauses. How detailed will it be? i.e. getting hit, seeing a new enemy, out of actions etc etc
- How about Dual feed weapons as ARES or Baikal MP-131 or Kel-Tec KSG or UTAS UTS-15 or Neostead
- Exoskeletons?
- Mortars (the man-portable ones) with all range of different ammo
- Ballistic Shields
- Will the time to do something be displayed before you choose to do it? (not just aiming and firing, but moving from A to B, changing stance, equiping a weapon etc etc)
- Will you be able to inject commands? i.e. issued a command to move from point A to B and while this is executed and the character is half way there, i issue a command to change stance or ready a weapon or look behind or all of them and they are carried first and then the character continues to point B with his stance changed and the weapon ready.
- Weapon familiarity? i.e. i give a new sniper rifle to my sniper and that affects aim time and accuracy because the character is not accustomed to the new weapon. Will we be able to see how familiar the character is with the weapon he is holding?
- Can you decrease/increase how fast the time passes?
- Does armor for the torso (or any other area of the character) cover only front? How about armor for the back side of the character? Will it be separate, as in reality? How about coverage of armor i.e. a helmet does not provide the same coverage for front compared to sides, compared to back.
- Do folded weapons have lower accuracy than unfolded ones?
- What is power mod and accuracy mod under gun info?
- How about loot?
- Do you buy equipment or are they given to you before each mission or chapter?
- Dialog choises show the attribute which is used to check the response of the NPC. Will this be optional?