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Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:58 am
by juice
hi, i just started playing a few days ago and i'm wondering if its possible to rebalance some of the weapons so that they are more useful. i notice that players tend to use only a few weapons, notably link gun, shock, mine, mini, flak, mp5, and sometimes lightning gun. the weapons that don't seem to be nearly as useful are ones such as rocket launcher, avril, grenade launcher, and bio (if only for damage). would it be possible to change some of the effects of these weapons to make them generally more useful and fun to use?

for avril, perhaps you don't need to change the speed or fire rate but simply remove the homing device and make it like a mini nuke. on bio, i'd say just make the damage a bit higher and perhaps make the alt fire charge up a bit faster and make it a much bigger projectile at the end. as for rocket launcher, i'd say make the projectile travel faster. i'm not certain what to do with grenade launcher though personally i think it bounces a bit too much. maybe more damage/bigger radius?

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 4:00 am
by DW_Ant
Avril of force is very powerful

energy rockets is good for later waves when globing....spider mines always explode in your face & rockets have faster shooting speed than flak.

Eons grenade launcher replaced the old one... Although it blasts my speakers, I still like the new one lol.

Bio....ummmm....that can be juiced up a bit. It may be powerful charging that thing, but that's the problem. Spending the time charging it.

Sniper rifles were modded so you can do headshots on monsters, but people don't like it due to smoke or something.

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:54 am
by DW_WailofSuicide
juice wrote:hi, i just started playing a few days ago and i'm wondering if its possible to rebalance some of the weapons so that they are more useful. i notice that players tend to use only a few weapons, notably link gun, shock, mine, mini, flak, mp5, and sometimes lightning gun. the weapons that don't seem to be nearly as useful are ones such as rocket launcher, avril, grenade launcher, and bio (if only for damage). would it be possible to change some of the effects of these weapons to make them generally more useful and fun to use?

for avril, perhaps you don't need to change the speed or fire rate but simply remove the homing device and make it like a mini nuke. on bio, i'd say just make the damage a bit higher and perhaps make the alt fire charge up a bit faster and make it a much bigger projectile at the end. as for rocket launcher, i'd say make the projectile travel faster. i'm not certain what to do with grenade launcher though personally i think it bounces a bit too much. maybe more damage/bigger radius?
In short, probably not.

I would like to see some more balance between the weapons, but it's really unlikely we'll see that happen. The weapons people choose to use have certain characteristics which make them the weapons of choice. Hitscan weapons are an obvious choice for maps where engagements take place over longer ranges. Breaking those down, MP5s have DPS and Shock Rifles have Vorpal. Mine Layers are useful for shooting around corners/edges and not aiming. Link Guns have linking, and the highest overall DPS.

You really aren't going to see people using other weapons unless they're forced to, because the characteristics of these weapons are unique and effective. The only realistic way to get people to use something else (barring other changes) is to make the other weapons overpowered - Which might be good for occasional fun (see EONS INV Grenade Launcher) but total weapon replacement for these weapons is unlikely.

I don't want to discourage you though, and there may be some things in the future which make some of these lesser weapons more desirable.

D2Boss wrote:Avril of force is very powerful

energy rockets is good for later waves when globing....spider mines always explode in your face & rockets have faster shooting speed than flak.

Eons grenade launcher replaced the old one... Although it blasts my speakers, I still like the new one lol.

Bio....ummmm....that can be juiced up a bit. It may be powerful charging that thing, but that's the problem. Spending the time charging it.

Sniper rifles were modded so you can do headshots on monsters, but people don't like it due to smoke or something.
Rockets and Flak have roughly the same DPS, actually. Strong preference for Flak is probably just acquired taste.
Well, the EONS Grenade Launcher could possibly replace the regular grenade launcher. Same for the EONS Sniper Rifle (which is what you're referring to). Neither of these are given items though.
I'm not even sure Bio can ever be useful. We've already got Flak secondary (high damage arcing fire explosive weapon) and Mines (high damage arcing fire auto-tracking explosive weapon). Both of these pretty much do the same thing Bio theoretically does, but better. I don't see how Bio can be desirable without it having something that neither of these weapons already do.

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:32 am
by InflatableHero
WailofSuicide wrote:Rockets and Flak have roughly the same DPS, actually. Strong preference for Flak is probably just acquired taste.
D2Boss wrote:rockets is good for later waves when globing....spider mines always explode in your face & rockets have faster shooting speed than flak.
Rocket fails to keep my globe running shooting Lucifer where as flak can run globe forever, also globe and triple for some time before running out.
WailofSuicide wrote:Well, the EONS Grenade Launcher could possibly replace the regular grenade launcher. Same for the EONS Sniper Rifle (which is what you're referring to). Neither of these are given items though.
Is there anyway you could replace the originals for every map and the loaded weapons for wm with a mut. like the mp5 one? I prefer the EONS ones and never use the originals >.>

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:14 pm
by DW_ACY
The idea is to keep mutators to a minimum because they slow the server and make for larger downloads on client side, and the pause and lag of server backup during the game keeping track of individualized projectiles. add a mutator to that and that's more work on the server. the idea is for changes that are clean and intergradeble without additional stress on the server or bandwidth.

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:48 pm
by DW_Ant
InflatableHero wrote:
D2Boss wrote:rockets is good for later waves when globing....spider mines always explode in your face & rockets have faster shooting speed than flak.
Rocket fails to keep my globe running shooting Lucifer where as flak can run globe forever, also globe and triple for some time before running out.

Sry I was referring to rocket launcher vs alt fire of flak cannon. Any splash damage is great when you are surrounded by a hundred monsters ;)

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:05 pm
by Scumsberg
I would like to see all weapons have comparatively equal XP earning potential, in the right situations.

Avril could be a great weapon to deal with air threats (which this server has a lot of) but it's slow refire and poor damage means it makes virtually no experience. I'd like to use it but I simply don't because of that fact.

Same for rocket launcher.

How is XP calculated, per hit or by damage dealt? If it's by damage, all that needs to be done to fix rl and avril is increase their base damage. Maybe rl could have a bigger splash radius as well.

If it's per hit that would explain why hitscan spray and pray are the mainstay of every character.

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 4:56 pm
by -1PARA-Queenie
Infinite Bio guns will rule the world one day! :drunken: :cheers:

:queen:

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:56 pm
by DW_KarmaKat
Actually Bio rifles two have two pretty good functions if you get the right magic weapon type. Vamp bio is pretty much a fire and forget way to boost your health. Blob out some shots into a pack of monsters, reap the benefits then switch back to your primary fighting weapon of choice. I also find that Reloading Bio rifles are quite handy to boost your teammates' ammo supply and it's less of a distraction than say, rockets, flak, mines or MP5 'nades due to the minimal weapon fire effects the bio exhibits (i.e. no big flash or explosion). :)

KKat
:flower:

Re: Weapon balancing

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:01 pm
by Seven_of_69
All the weapons are useful in some manner or other and it often depends on their magic type. A petri bio rifle can give you Holy Shard kills while a healing bio can keep lower levels alive. A knockback lightning gun can push raptors and other monsters away. Vorpal LG can be good if you don't have a vorpal shock. Standard energy grenades with a triple can gain you adren much faster than the triple uses it. Petri, freezing, piercing, and other grenades can be useful in specific cases. Petri, freezing, and healing rox are useful. For a WM, nrg+3 rox can tank Luci with globe and triple as long as you start with full adren. I never gain as much adren back with rox as I do with nrg link or flak.

If any changes are needed for weapons, my suggestion is to reduce the volume of the booming EONS grenade launcher. :faroah: