As promised in the Buzz a fortnight ago, following the launch of the new kill feature, we caught up with BSF2000 to discuss the new method of murder.
One of the advantages of my recently acquired position of HDO is that I can bootmail BSF2000, even when he’s busy, and while this hasn’t let to the regular futile conversations I was hoping for, it did allow me to ask the man himself for an interview when the new kill feature came out, and well, how do I put this.... he agreed.
We started by asking why, out of everything that BSF2000 could change, he chose to update kill. He told us that, simply “It’s one of the most important parts of the game, so it deserves to be the best it can be.” I’m sure many people would agree with that, and possibly the biggest change, we thought, was the removal of shootouts. We told BSF2000 we thought that this was an improvement, he agreed, saying “Yeah, I'm definitely glad they're gone as well.” Adding, “They were well intended, just didn't work out as well as we hoped.”
We went on to ask BSF2000 about a few of the other changes to the feature, starting with those related to the loss of shootouts. We asked “With shootouts gone, is there still a chance to sneak up and ‘stab’ someone, and thus save ourselves bullets?” BSF2000 told us “No. This was considered, but decided against.” When we discussed it a little more, he told us that the idea “Will possibly be reconsidered and added in a future version.” Another feature of shootouts was crewmembers in the same state as the person being shot could be dragged into the shootout; we asked if this was still the case. He replied very simply, “Nope” (you can see why we haven’t been chatting much)! Finally, we asked about a feature that seemed to be missing from the much less cluttered kill page; suicide. BSF2000 told us “Suicide will be making a return.” The problem being that suicide was linked in with the old kill system and is having to be re-added to the game.
Another big change is the introduction of percentage certainty to go along with witness statements, something that many people have eyed with suspicion and confusion, we asked how exactly this percentage worked, both on the Kill page and on the witness statements themselves. We were told “Now there are up to 10 witness statements send out. The total number and accuracy depends on the witness column on the search. The lower the number, the fewer and less accurate the witness statements and vice versa.” We pressed a little further, asking, “So if you get 20% in the witness column you will only get two witness statements sent out rather than five?” BSF2000 told us it was “Something like that.” Adding, “escrowing of witness statements will still be available and should be working shortly (I'll update you when they're working).” This seems like an intriguing feature; it means some people are accused of kills they didn’t make, while others get away with their kills entirely. Anything that could possible lead to more action is always welcome here at the Buzz, and this certainly seems like it could do just that! We tried to press BSF2000 for more details on what affects this percentage, even speculating that it might be affected by gymnasium statistics, but his lips remained firmly sealed.
Having got what we felt was the bulk of the information from BSF2000, we went on to ask about a few of the mechanics of kill. We started by asking if a player fails a kill, can the target be shot again immediately, we were told that “After a player has been shot, they basically run away and escape detection. Meaning searches that already found them will now have lost them and searches that were about to find them will now take longer.” He went on, “So yes they can be tried again immediately in theory, but no search will currently have found them immediately. It'll take around 3-4 hours before they can be found again.”
Our next question was on the hitlist, and how you seemingly no longer receive a bootmail when you are hitlisted, as it was last round, BSF2000 explained that “Originally users weren't going to be notified, but it's been decided that Assassin+ will now be notified” giving no further explanation as to why. Finally we asked where protection can be repaired now, another seemingly lost feature from the clear out of the kill page, “Repairing protection has been moved to the store and will be available shortly” was the simple and concise answer, seems to make sense!
We’re sure there were questions that you would have liked asked and answered that we didn’t ask, and apologies for that, but we think we’ve got a good look at how this kill feature has changed, and a little bit behind why.
We’ll be getting some reaction to each of the changes with other staff and the Buzz team in ‘Kill- Reactions’, which is also in this issue.
Many thanks to BSF2000 for taking the time to give the interview, and for giving us a new kill feature that is in my opinion, in many ways, improved.
The final word goes to BSF2000, when asked if there was anything else to add he simply replied, “I just hope users enjoy the feature.”
