3.3 Player Skill System

First Person Shooters were initially the epitome of player skill games, and many remain to be so.

Operation: Hellstorm aims at no less and keeps to the highest regard the idea of creating an experience based on player skill.

The 3.3 Player Skill System is just our personal "catchy" way of referring to and breaking down the areas of player skill that we take to account in Operation: Hellstorm when designing content. Everything made in the game is with regards to this system. This includes characters, maps, weapons, skills and enhancements.

In a less catchy and literate description, we simply take the 3 main player skill areas we want to focus on and want Operation: Hellstorm to focus on. Then we divide each one of those into another 3 areas each to make sure each aspect of them is taken to account. They all at times feed into each other, and in all depend on each other to create a complete gaming experience. These three main areas include Targeting, Awareness and Mobility.

The 3 sub-areas from there on are respectively for each of these: Tracking, Calculation, Dexterity, Character Awareness, Enemy Awareness, Tactical Awareness, Wit, Relocation and Escape.

1 - Targeting
One of the basic factors of player skill, Targeting.

This is a players’ ability and efficiency in hitting their enemy.

The following 3 categories are the main aspects to targeting, whilst they also are combined into the one more often than not. There are weapons and content that utilise a combination of these skills and they remain to be the core of targeting as a whole.

1.1 Tracking
The ability to track the enemy and keep them within cross-hairs. As a trait it occasionally fits palm-grip users.

Weapons that utilise this player skill are automatic weapons with a high rate of fire and low damage per projectile/impact.

A player skilled in tracking can keep the enemy within their cross-hair and follow them at all times.

1.2 Calculation
The ability to calculate paths and trajectories of both projectiles and enemies. Calculation feeds of the other two skills, Tracking and Dexterity, but the major trait to it is as the name implies, calculation.

Grenades utilise calculation, as do rocket launchers and other weapons with slow velocity projectiles. It is also a trait of guessing/predetermining the enemy movement to hit them with more accurate weapons as well.

Players skilled in calculation can hit their target with slow weapons and/or are harder to outsmart and dodge.

1.3 Dexterity
The ability to quickly pin-point an enemy and accurately hit them. A skill based on precision and reflex.

One of the harder skills to master and on occasion more for claw-grip or tip-grip mouse users and twitch gamers.

More accurate weapons like the Railgun and sniper utilise dexterity, having a limited fire rate and a small area of effect they make precision and reflexes a necessity.

Players skilled in this area can dish out a lot of damage with singular shots from slower and harder to use weapons.

2 - Awareness
Operation: Hellstorm focuses a lot on Awareness.

Unlike other first person shooters that try to create better “visibility” on enemies, Operation: Hellstorm uses realistic conditions and lighting in all content created.

In Operation: Hellstorm the enemy will not and should not be always visible to you and it takes more effort in certain conditions to locate them for a kill.

Maps can include darker areas or areas for concealment, whilst character models are balanced to alter their appearance just enough to provoke a higher skill and learning of the game to locate them.

Players aiming at a more competitive nature will need to increase their skills in awareness to increase their efficiency in combat.

2.1 Character Awareness
This is the understanding a player has of their own character selected. How they are perceived by the enemy and their visibility in certain conditions and actions.

Players that achieve a high level of Character Awareness in Operation: Hellstorm can pass at times unnoticed if they want, especially against less skilled enemies.

This skill counters and is countered by Enemy Awareness.

2.2 Enemy Awareness
The ability to spot the enemy and to understand what advantages disadvantages an enemy character model has.

It is in this way possible to train ones' eye to be able to spot the enemy in different conditions, even when an enemy may be using a cloak skill.

Players with higher Enemy Awareness skills can spot out other enemies easier. It is harder to trick them and even more so they can create a formidable opposition as they tend to open fire sooner.

This skill counters and is countered by Character Awareness.

2.3 Tactical Awareness
Tactical Awareness is all about being able to understand how each condition and/or part of a map can be used for concealment or cover.

Understanding structure and map layouts gives an advantage in knowing what objects can be used for cover by you or the enemy, what surfaces can be bypassed by penetrating fire, and how to use ricochet and other means (blowing up a rocket behind a wall) to attack the enemy or defend against it.

Players with great Tactical Awareness can use their surrounding better and can anticipate enemy strategies and concealment tactics before they are ambushed.

3 - Mobility
A player skill reflected in all their movement that will make them a harder opponent to take down in the long run.

An immobile target is an easy target. A mobile target less so, and a successful mobile target untouchable.

Players skilled in mobility can use their movement within a map and area to further increase their advantage during combat and matches.

3.1 Wit
A players’ skill and ability to outsmart their opponent and dodge incoming fire.

A truly skilled player in wits can be seemingly untouchable even at a close range as rounds are fired into thin air trying to hit them.

A very important skill for taking advantage of close quarter combat but even more so in ranged encounters to doge out of harms’ way.

Countered by players that are skilled in Targeting (especially in Calculation).

3.2 Relocation
A players’ ability to quickly move through the field and change their location for any given reason.

It aims at the fastest and most efficient way to get somewhere.

Skilled players in relocation can use fast and clever mobility to change their location with speed and skill, including such tactics as rocket jumps, wall-running, and knowing what to use where for the fastest means to move through the field.

A skilled player in Relocation can quickly advance and unexpectedly strike foes from different positions, etc.

3.3 Escape
A combination of Wit and Relocation.

This skill is a players’ ability to balance, depending on what weapon is used to hunt them down and the situation, wits and relocation in a means to change their position without being hit.

Whilst not offering the best way to avoid fire, and neither the fastest way to relocate, skilled players in Escape can use the distance they cover or increase whilst trying simultaneously to get away from their enemy as a means to avoid fire to lure the enemy into an ambush or to completely lose them within the map.