Discuss the massively-multiplayer home defense game.
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Thank-you for the update. I'm excited for the (hopefully) larger player base that will come with a steam release.
I agree that it is a major change. I think that sorting by value would give an appropriate rough estimate, which I think is still important. Also that showing visits/deaths could help give ideas about how the house is doing but that they could be wildly misleading based what assumptions you choose to make about how to interpret the data at hand (which is awesome). Showing just the visits/deaths doesn't thematically make sense in terms of a robbery-sim realism check already so I'm not concerned about the dissonance / disconnect from reality increasing if the house value column was removed.
As I said earlier I mostly thought it might be worth considering because then it becomes harder to count the tools you think you need versus the known payoff and decide if you can break even/profit from the endeavour (or maybe I'm the only one that does that.)
I think the gamma issue is a problem that is not yet solved. I've been trying to come up with useful suggestions but I don't really know how the vision is implemented so there isn't that much that I can usefully say beyond the basic point of it still needs work. By tweaking the images I've found that materially more information can be had about what is on the other side of walls. This is a problem because:
a) it gives players in the know an unfair advantage, maxing out monitor settings should not be a key game play decision
b) it makes mazes, dead ends, and any obscured places have to be at least one square larger or further back to give similar obscurity. This reduces the effective size of the house for many applications.
My general thoughts is that it would be best if adjusting the gamma didn't give additional information. Given the way things are implemented is seems like this is unlikely to be possible. The next best case would be if only the square that is partially visible already in the haze was able to be lit up but no information bleed from the squares beyond it happened.
I really love the shifting, murky shadows in this game. I hope some solution can be found where they remain and gamma adjustment becomes less of a beneficial tactic.
Okay. That makes sense in a mechanic if not thematic way. Thanks for the reply. I'm glad that I wasn't just failing to figure out how to fix my door. Although with this new knowledge the (newly) very cheep door stops seem like an even better deal now.
I thought sleeping dogs couldn't be killed at all but I recently saw someone shoot a drugged dog. Is that supposed to happen?
Does anyone think that adding a daily cost of living for each family member would be an interesting mechanic? Perhaps each adult costs $100 and each child costs $50 so if you have your whole family alive each day costs $300 to keep everyone alive and fed. The numbers are just examples, $300 seems a little high.
If you think this is a bad idea, I'd like to know why. I enjoy toying with game mechanics, so if this idea can be made better I'd love to find a better iteration of it.
Thanks :-)
When a door is stopped and then the state is saved is it supposed to make the door irreplaceable without paying the full replacement cost? I was trying to replace my door but couldn't figure out how to do it without incurring a $240 (or whatever doors cost) fee. Help please.
Have you ever considered/tried not showing the house value? Maybe still sorting the houses by descending value still though. I think it would add more uncertainty/tension into some of the decisions to be made.
Okay. Thanks.
Even sticking pressure switches reset? It looked like it was still pressed.
I recently saw a house where my interactions weren’t as expected. I was hoping someone could explain it to me.
But first a brief recap of my understanding of saving the damage to a house. It happens when a) a family member is killed or b) your safe is robbed. In the case of a killed family member all damage/changes that occurs even after the family member is killed up to the point where the robber dies or leaves becomes permanent. Changes that are saved include all damage to non-mobile objects (this includes walls, switches, wires, buttons, etc) and anything that drugged or killed pets or family members. Dogs that were out of place but not drugged or killed will revert to their initial location.
I encountered a house where a dog walked over a sticking pressure plate which powered an electric floor. The dog then walked onto the electric floor and was fried. After that the wife was clubbed and the robber left. On a second visit I would have expected the wife to be dead, the dog to be dead, the button to be pressed, and the electric floor to be on. On a second visit the dog was dead on an un-powered electric floor despite the button still being pressed. It is possible there was more complex circuitry involved would that be possible to explain this effect?
I've noticed that fairly often there will be a house with no defenses and much cash (sometimes full $2000) available. Who does this and why?
It is my understanding that you must self test before your empty house goes up to the list of available houses. My only theory is that there are some people who have no interest in building defenses, and only enjoy the robbery aspect of the game but this doesn't make any sense either because I'd expect them to buy some tools at least. Thoughts?
Has anyone else noticed this?
Thank-you both for your fantastic and informative answers.
I had noticed the trigger lock and that it is left behind when the gun is picked up, nice detail. Usually there is no way for the robber to get to the shotgun first but I figured I should ask about that edge case in case it ever came up.
I've got a few questions about wife and family member behaviors that I hope can be answered fairly easily by anyone in the know.
1) What is the range of the shotgun?
2) When holding the shotgun if the wife moves into range will she fire immediately after movement?
3) When holding the shotgun will the wife ever deviate from the shortest path out of the building (assuming no killed children)?
4) If I can reach the shotgun before her can I take it?
5) My understanding is that if I club a kid the wife will run to them rather than the exit. Is this correct?
5)a) Does this behavior change if she is armed?
5)b) Will she still shoot on sight when running to fallen kid?
5)c) Does the kids body have to be line of sight or does she always just know?
5)d) Does going to the fallen child persist between robbery attempts? For example if I clubbed a kid after the armed wife escaped and then I left when I came back would the wife immediately take the most direct path to the child?
6) What is the range on the hand gun?
7) Can the wife shoot the shotgun the same step that it is picked up?
8) Line of fire: strait lines that are not blocked by walls clearly are counted by the spaces covered but how does range get counted on diagonals/possible partial cover?
9) Do children block line of fire?
Thank-you for any and all answers.
Woah, okay. That is an interesting fix to the problem of multiple accounts boosting each other. Thanks. I totally misunderstood that mechanic.
Thank-you for your fantastic answers to all my questions. :-)
I do have another question though.
My understanding was that if I take tools with me when I rob any house they will be forfeit if I leave without robbing the place. If I get to the vault I keep my tools I think. Now to the story and question. If you go to rob a house and immediately back out (1 step total) do you lose your tools? I thought yes but the tapes from the most recent robbery attempt on my house say no. Someone came to my house with a gun then left, taking 1 step total. I gleefully checked my vault and found no gun there. Is this a bug or a feature?
Thanks again.
I thought of another important class of information that I am woefully ignorant of.
Building and replacing objects:
When I go back and edit my house I am not credited money when I remove an object but I seem to not be charged if I replace it somewhere else. Is this the correct interpretation of the house behaviour? As far as I can tell I can replace sleeping dogs with wake dogs for no cost too. Are there any other wrinkles that I need to know about?
Thank-you for the informative reply Joshwithguitar. Based on your reply about magic dance am I correct in understanding that once an animal sees you it continues to behave like it can see you from that point on even if line of sight is broken?
I have a few questions and this seem like the most appropriate place to ask them:
1) Tools:
a) Do the tool that failed robbers abandon, that are then in my vault, get stolen when someone robs my vault?
b) Do the tools in my vault show up as part of the house value that is displayed in the hose selection page? If yes do they display at sell value of purchase price?
c) If I put tools in my backpack and then log off do they stay in my backpack or do they go back into my vault as I don't use them / lose them to rob a house?
2) Money:
What value does the wife carry and when is it changed/updated?
3) Paintings:
a) How are they stolen from other players houses?
b) How does the periodic price decrease work?
c) Do they show up as part of the house value?
d) All I know about paintings is that they can be purchased at auction and are displayed at house entrances. Is there anything else I need to know about them that impacts gameplay one way or another?
Thank-you for the FAQ updates thus far.
As a new player reading through this discussion I am only just barely following some of the more complex circuit discussions and can't hope to understand their application in game yet. That being said it would be a shame for the real depth and emergent complexity of the circuit design to be sacrificed for ease of comprehension. In contemplating this issue today my suggestion is detection of 'advanced circuitry' (anything that acts on itself turn over turn in a way other than would be normal action in 'memoryless' mode). Would it be fair to place an 'advanced circuitry' flag on houses that contain such complexity so that you know what class of trouble you are getting into?
Additional: What is a 'magic dance' in this game? or Invisible poodles?
Thank-you.
Hello! New player here. I heard about the game through the feature on Extra Credits and bought it 3 days ago. I really like this game although there is still a lack of important information that is not easily available. Like:
What does it take to break a house such that it is removed from the list of houses to rob?
Is there still income generated over time and 2x income by wife?
Does wife hold 1/2 money? If yes why do I lose >50% of total dollars when robbed but wife is not found or killed?
When robbing a house with a broken safe is it possible to use the safe to get out of the house? If so how?
I'll try and remember more things I've been uncertain about recently and update this post.
Being forewarned by the Extra Credits Video that there wasn't much info on how anything worked in the game I read the entire wiki. This provided a good base of information but lacks many details and looks like it hasn't been updated since version 10. Once I know more about this game I'll probably try and add some things to it to cover confusion I had as a new player.
So far one thing I've really wanted is to know how many times a house has been successfully robbed or had its state saved by robber actions. I want to know this because I am aware that once someone breaks parts of a house it might not be solvable anymore.
I'll add more thoughts when I get a few more together.