GeoPol's Final Season Incoming

TL;DR at the bottom as always

After a significant amount of time and effort, we have failed to reach our target player growth to sustain the upkeep of seasons. Unfortunately, should the situation remain this way we will no longer be able to continue GeoPol and will be forced to retire the project in its entirety. However, if there's one thing we won't do is let this server die slowly and quietly. We've spent the last few months working to install every feature and element since day 1 of Season 6 and then some, so if this server has to end, it'll end with a bang.

That's why, from Saturday, April 19th, to Saturday, May 24, we will be launching our last official season. I'll leave answers to some possible questions at the end. However, there’s still hope. If we can grow the player base by around 50 more players by the end of the season, we won’t be shutting down. We’ll be able to keep GeoPol alive and continue rolling out future seasons for the foreseeable future.

DevLog

• Raidbases

After a long while, every raidbase on the map is complete (in the final checks as of this post). Beginning with what has seen the most changes, the underground portions of the Tiers 2 and 3 raidbases have been completed and now have incredibly vast spaces to explore and fight through. Each floor has its own theme that corresponds to the needs of the individual base, for example T2 has a floor with a rugged abandoned military feel since it is populated with military deserters but T3 has a floor with a very sterile laboratory feel because its meant to be the last space where a hint of society still exists. Since my specialty is in map design, I've spent a significant amount of time ensuring that the pacing of each floor is strong, that they remain fluid and fun to clear. A lot of effort has been made to ensure that these areas are exciting and immersive and to create these aesthetics, we've introduced some new decorations mod which I'll cover in a separate section of the DevLog.

The Tier 1 raidbase, which was released last season, has also seen some changes in the balancing of the NPCs. Ultimately we decided that the NPCs needed to be strengthened to better fit the overall purpose of the raidbases which is that they should be difficult (but possible) to attempt alone but also invite collaboration among players to try to go through them as groups. Each raidbase has had the NPCs scaled to fit this idea with an especial focus to avoid overpowering them as the Tiers increase, especially at T3

• New Weapons

We've also integrated some of the weapons I mentioned in the last announcement, some will be accessible through crafting like the SVD and Aug (see pictures below) but some will remain obtainable only through raidbases (like the Last Stand pictured in the previous announcement). The reverse recoil for snipers has been implemented and playtests are returning positive results. We'll drop some graphs Battlefield 1 style so people can visualize the effects more clearly but essentially, every sniper now has a short 'sweet spot' for damage which can result in 1-hit kill headshots but they require practice and skill to achieve in actual combat scenarios. Dante will leave more information in #weapons-changelog (see discord).

• City Loot and Bandits

After a long journey fixing bugs and working very hard, we've got NPCs to spawn naturally around the world! There are now two classes of 'Bandit' NPCs that spawn around the world, each with their own types to add an extra challenge to loot collection for players (I'll get to the new loot in a second). The first class of Bandits are those that spawn around the entire map, they're versions of the Bandits found in the Tier 1 Raidbase but buffed because they spawn in far fewer numbers (1-3). These spawn only either Rifleman or SMG types, both of which have different firing patterns, range, etc. The second class are those that spawn in cities, they have the additional type 'Heavy', which is a machinegunner with boosted health. These guys are meant to guard the new, respawning loot around the cities.

On the note of the new loot, we've also finally introduced the respawning loot around the cities! There are multiple types of chests, some of which spawn at random, others are manually placed, which appear around cities. Loot will vary wildly from lowly string and leather, all the way to high level ARs depending on the type of chest that spawns. However, theres no way to tell them apart until you actually open them and find whats inside, meaning you either get lucky or will have to stick around the cities and fend off bandits to get your reward. To distinguish these respawning chests from normal ones, they have their own GIF that plays above their hitbox. Chests will respawn every 24 real-life hours but there will be a lot to find, usually inside of buildings.

• Map Changes

One of the biggest flaws of the map in general was how flat it was. Played noticed it, we noticed it, it made otherwise colorful and diverse biomes feel stale and limited the space to create bases. To fix that, we've done a massive rework of the terrain on the existing map by changing up the height map including building custom mountains by hand. I've included pictures of some of the new mountains but they're looking pretty majestic and I want to keep some of it a surprise so I've also included some mountains we made by hand last season as reference for the techniques we applied elsewhere. Keep in mind, we've also added some more minor terrain changes (such as smaller hills, sand dunes, etc.) so theres enough terrain in between these hulking towers of earth where there isn't one spot where it feels *too* flat. The only flat spot we've left mostly alone are the plains behind spawn because we intended to have such an area in that region in the first place but, we've added some minor inclines and declines to spice it up a little.

• Removal of the Create mod

The descision to include the create mod was one made by the server's previous leadership that both me and Dante disagreed with. We've seen the implications its had on base raiding among players including the construction of lag machines and the bypassing of base claims. Additionally, the end progession of the Create tech tree gives end-game players a significant advantage over newer ones that just can't be overcome. However, since the mod had already been integrated into both the decorations and structure of the cities as well as part of the core functions of the raidbases, we cannot just rip it out alltogether. So instead, we've removed players' accessibility to craft anything under the mod.

• Airdrops

Airdrops are finally returning in three tiers. The civilian tier will spawn the most frequently and contain basic materials necessary for Immersive Engineering such as ingots, tools, etc, as well as other basic supplies such as lower tier Tac armor, food, etc. The Police tier spawns less frequently and contains more weapons including ARs, pistols, ammo, and higher tier Tac armor. The highest tier which is the rarest is the Military tier which spawns high level ARs, Machine guns, attachments, armor, explosives, etc. A notification will appear on players' screens with coordinates and a countdown until the airdrop hits the ground

• Decorations

To increase the immersion of the raidbases, we've included the ModernXL and MDM mods to give us a better toolset of decorations to work with. Additionally, we've added the Chisel & Bits mod to allow us to create custom decorations more quickly than through using BlockBench and making our own mod. also did us the wonderful favor of integrating the Modern Warfare Cubed decorations from 1.12.2 into our native version of 1.16.5 and publishing it as MWC Netherite on Curseforge. Make sure to check it our later

We've also spent some time going back between all the cities to update their decorations however, we've chosen to take a much more limited approach so we can focus on finishing the raidbases and bringing you a complete season as fast as possible.

• New Website

I published an announcement earlier to those with the announcement role that I've created a new website to replace the old docs Mark put together. It's still in the works but it's looking very polished right now. I intend to use it in the same way that the docs were, as a spot for players new and old to learn about all the features of the modpack and also as a mini strategy guide for completely new players. You can find it in #link (you're already on the website, do you really need me to tell you see the discord?)

• Other minor changes

-Traders now have updated voicelines and provide some valuable information about the surrounding map and tech trees

-Yuri (the trader in the Largest City) has had his shop decorated

-All trader shops have now been set as safe zones

-Bugs regarding NPCs not spawning properly have been addressed

-Known duplication glitches have been patched

-The bug giving tools infinite health has been patched

-Tac Armor has now been buffed, the old armor now has the protection of Iron and the Tactical and Combat armors have been given the same defense as diamond. All TacCraft armors also have increased durability to compensate for the heavy wear from gunfire.