It appears the last time I discussed changes was 0.2.3. So here are all the changes since then. Please provide feedback.
1. Weaken structures
I saw that at one point, Troman doubled the HP of every structure. Now that I've generated balance tables from 1.10, 2.1, and Rebalance, I've found out that Troman increased a lot of defenses' HP beyond the initial doubling. Hardcrete was increased from 250 to 1100. Hardpoints have been increased from 400 to 1300.
I think the HP should be decreased to be a little bit closer to twice as much as 1.10. Doubling structure HP is drastic enough; tripling and quadrupling has caused major balance problems. Anyone who's played 1.10 always complains that structures in 2.1 are practically invincible (especially bunkers), but they shouldn't be.
2. Replace Flashlight Hardpoint with Pulse Laser Hardpoint
No one ever uses Flashlight once Pulse Laser's been researched. We might as well give players one more hardpoint they'll actually use.
3. Pulse Laser replaces Flashlight, instead of Heavy Laser
If you didn't know, in Warzone, researching certain things will make certain other things outdated - removed from the design, manufacture, and build screens. For instance, researching Assault Gun will remove all earlier machineguns from the design screen - the Assault Gun is a direct replacement for all earlier MGs.
Same goes for Pulse Laser. It's basically a replacement Flashlight. It has better accuracy, damage, range, and ROF. Heavy Laser, on the other hand, is not a replacement for Pulse Laser - it's way heavier and lower range, and was designed to be used completely differently. So it makes more sense for Flashlight to be replaced by Pulse Laser than Heavy Laser.
4. Graphics updates.
Please, who would ever say no to this? Here's all I did: I made Twin Assault Gun look like a Twin Assault Gun, and Lancer (cyborg) rockets look like lancer rockets (they looked like mini-rockets before). I also made the Rocket Bastion shoot rockets that look like lancer rockets (it previously shot what looks like mini-rockets), so it's easier to tell that it shoots rockets, not mini-rockets.
5. Body prices back
This is another one of the things I didn't realize what Troman did. He made all bodies cost practically the same.
1.10:
Bug: 20 power
Retaliation: 100 power
2.1:
Bug: 29 power
Retaliation: 37 power
NP bodies used to be significantly cheaper than Project bodies. Now they're only 1 power cheaper, except the Scorp, which is 1 power more expensive. And later game bodies, which should get a lot more expensive, are only slightly more. Vengeance is 60 instead of 200. 60 is only 31 points more than the cheapest body. 31 points. For comparison, Scourge Missile, which you should have by then, is 300 points.
I've put them about halfway between 1.10 levels and 2.1 levels.
6. The big cannon/rail vs rocket/missile split.
I've been talking about this for a long time on the IRC channel, but I haven't mentioned it on the forums.
Basically, the idea is to change the multipliers for cannons vs rockets. Anti-tank is a huge type. It's the primary type of 5 different subclasses: cannons, rails, mini-rockets, rockets, and missiles. The next most popular type is artillery, which only has 3 subclasses: mortars, howitzers, and bombs. And it's really only two - bombs are just VTOL versions of mortars. All other types only span 2 subclasses at most.
So that's why I'm proposing a split: Give cannons/rails one type, and mini-rockets/rockets/missiles another. Here are the multipliers:
Code: Select all
Old anti-tank Rockets/missiles Cannons/rails
Cyborgs | 75% | 30% | 60%
Wheels | 133% | 130% | 120%
Half-tracks | 133% | 125% | 110%
Tracks | 110% | 120% | 100%
VTOLs | 20% | 100% | 60%
Hover | 133% | 100% | 100%
Soft | 100% | 90% | 130%
Medium | 80% | 60% | 110%
Hard | 70% | 30% | 90%
Bunker | 47% | 60% | 40%Damage upgrades have been in 30% steps. ROF upgrades are often in 20% steps. Taken together, these upgrades are huge. It's most dramatic in the cannon line: Light cannon starts with a DPS of 8.7 and ends up with a DPS of 123.5 (Which, I'll point out, is about as much as a fully upgraded Scourge Missile, in case anyone was still in doubt a rebalance was needed).
I think these should be reduced to 25% steps and 15% steps. This would reduce a fully upgraded T3 weapon to about 3.8x as much as a base T3 weapon, instead of 5.7x. Warzone will still be a game where upgrade research matters a ton compared to games like, say, StarCraft (where a fully upgraded weapon is around 1.2x as much as a base weapon).
So why decrease upgrades at all? The answer is that these decreases are just enough that trading up weapons become favorable. I see too often people think "I don't want a un-upgraded needle gun, that's too much weaker than the mostly-upgraded cannons I have" or "Scourge won't be better than TK until I have 3 rate upgrades and 2 damage upgrades, and that'll take another... 30 minutes. The game will be over by then!"
Upgrades should matter, but when keeping with existing upgrades is more strategically important that switching to a new and better weapon, something's wrong with balance.
8. Cyborg factory has been moved down a bit, and only requires Engineering
Previously, in Rebalance, it required Fuel Injection Engine, and before that, in 2.1/1.10, it required Hardened MG Bullets. It was changed because cyborgs have nothing to do with machineguns. I'm moving it to Engineering because it's closer in terms of time to get to as Hardened MG Bullets than FIE.
9. Cyborgs don't have to be researched.
Research flamer, get flamer cyborg free. Research lancer, get lancer cyborgs, etc. Borg factory still has to be researched, and heavy cyborgs still have to be researched.
It's a bit unfair that you can use weapons in tanks and VTOLs just by researching the weapon, but you need to research it again to use it in a cyborg. This fixes that, and should make cyborgs better.
10. Lifted structure requirements for many research items.
Researching borg transports don't require a VTOL factory built anymore. Researching Command Turret doesn't require Command Relay Post built anymore. This is so people who don't study the research tree can still get these items. The structures are still required to build them, of course, but now people will be able to see them in the research screen, first, and maybe then they'll be more inclined to build them.
Feedback, please!
it's gone
(I agree with all the other changes btw)
