Twiliteblue's Balance Mod
twiliteblue
bug stalker Join Date: 2003-02-04 Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
bug stalker Join Date: 2003-02-04 Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
<div class="IPBDescription">TBM (617d159)</div>Here's a small balance tweaking mod I've made after build 222.
If any server operator would like to try it, the mod ID on Steam Workshop is:
<b>617d159</b>
I would love to hear all your feedback!
Changelog:
Balance Mod
v1.81 (previous changes have been discarded)
================================================================
Increase Personal Resource income rate by 25% (0.15 per tick, from 0.125 every 6 seconds per resource node).
Player now continue to gain personal resources while dead.
Commanders now gain personal resources.
Reduced Kharaa Harvester resource cost from 10 to 6.
Reduced Harvester build time from 45 to 30 seconds.
Increased Skulk armor from 10 to 15.
Parasite damage increased to 15.
Increased Gorge base armor to 100.
Reduced Hydra build time from 10 to 8 seconds.
Increased Mature Hydra health by 50 (600 total health including armor).
Increased Lerk Carapace upgrade amount by 5.
Reduced Lerk flap energy cost from 3 to 2.5.
Increased Lerk Spikes minimum damage range from 9 to 15.
Reduced Spores damage from 20 to 17 per second.
Increased Fade base health from 250 to 300.
Increased Swipe damage from 65 to 72 (punctual) damage. This allows Fades to work better with Skulks.
Reduced Onos Stomp shockwave range from 12 to 10.
Increased Stomp energy cost from 40 to 50.
Reduced research time of Kharaa 3-Hive abilities from 90 to 60 seconds each.
Reduced Kharaa lifeform gestation time by approximately 20%.
Reduced Carapace cost from 15 to 10.
Reduced Adrenaline cost from 15 to 10.
Reduced Celerity cost from 15 to 10.
Celerity now has a shorter activation cooldown (reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 second),
and a shorter ramp up time (reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 second). Celerity bonus speed is lost over
1 second, increased from 0.2 second.
Reduced Grenade Launcher damage from 130 to 100, and reduced explosion radius from 8 to 6.
Increased Grenade Launcher research time from 20 to 30 seconds.
Reduced Flamethrower research cost from 25 to 20.
Increased Jetpack cost from 10 to 15.
Exo starting armor increased from 300 to 330. Exo armor per Armor upgrade reduced from 90 to 80.
Reduced Exo minigun damage from 25 to 24.
Increased Mine damage from 125 to 140.
Increased Axe range from 0.8 to 1.0.
Increased Arms Lab cost from 20 to 30.
Increased Armory cost from 10 to 15.
Reduced Advanced Armory cost from 20 to 15.
If any server operator would like to try it, the mod ID on Steam Workshop is:
<b>617d159</b>
I would love to hear all your feedback!
Changelog:
Balance Mod
v1.81 (previous changes have been discarded)
================================================================
Increase Personal Resource income rate by 25% (0.15 per tick, from 0.125 every 6 seconds per resource node).
Player now continue to gain personal resources while dead.
Commanders now gain personal resources.
Reduced Kharaa Harvester resource cost from 10 to 6.
Reduced Harvester build time from 45 to 30 seconds.
Increased Skulk armor from 10 to 15.
Parasite damage increased to 15.
Increased Gorge base armor to 100.
Reduced Hydra build time from 10 to 8 seconds.
Increased Mature Hydra health by 50 (600 total health including armor).
Increased Lerk Carapace upgrade amount by 5.
Reduced Lerk flap energy cost from 3 to 2.5.
Increased Lerk Spikes minimum damage range from 9 to 15.
Reduced Spores damage from 20 to 17 per second.
Increased Fade base health from 250 to 300.
Increased Swipe damage from 65 to 72 (punctual) damage. This allows Fades to work better with Skulks.
Reduced Onos Stomp shockwave range from 12 to 10.
Increased Stomp energy cost from 40 to 50.
Reduced research time of Kharaa 3-Hive abilities from 90 to 60 seconds each.
Reduced Kharaa lifeform gestation time by approximately 20%.
Reduced Carapace cost from 15 to 10.
Reduced Adrenaline cost from 15 to 10.
Reduced Celerity cost from 15 to 10.
Celerity now has a shorter activation cooldown (reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 second),
and a shorter ramp up time (reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 second). Celerity bonus speed is lost over
1 second, increased from 0.2 second.
Reduced Grenade Launcher damage from 130 to 100, and reduced explosion radius from 8 to 6.
Increased Grenade Launcher research time from 20 to 30 seconds.
Reduced Flamethrower research cost from 25 to 20.
Increased Jetpack cost from 10 to 15.
Exo starting armor increased from 300 to 330. Exo armor per Armor upgrade reduced from 90 to 80.
Reduced Exo minigun damage from 25 to 24.
Increased Mine damage from 125 to 140.
Increased Axe range from 0.8 to 1.0.
Increased Arms Lab cost from 20 to 30.
Increased Armory cost from 10 to 15.
Reduced Advanced Armory cost from 20 to 15.
Comments
Hallucinations now have 10% of real units' armor.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sounds like fun >:)
You should also implement some limit on macs and drifters.
You should also implement some limit on macs and drifters.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Good point... I forgot about that!
<!--quoteo(post=1991065:date=Oct 14 2012, 07:48 AM:name=twiliteblue)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (twiliteblue @ Oct 14 2012, 07:48 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1991065"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Increased Structural damage to deal 250% damage to structures (up from 200%).</b>
- I think everything that was dealing damage to structures was doing enough of it.
<b>Increased Mine explosion range from 4 to 6. Reduced Mine cost from 15 to 10.</b>
- Mines were already good enough.
<b>Reduced Grenade Launcher damage from 130 to 90, and reduced explosion radius from 8 to 6.</b>
- GL was good for its price. If it's made this weak, cost should be reduced as well.
<b>Increased Dual Minigun research time from 20 to 60 seconds.</b>
- One minute of research time is huge, but I agree that 20 seconds is too little. Maybe 40 seconds?
<b>Reduced Marine weapon upgrade bonus to 8% per level.</b>
- 10% is fine.
<b>Reduced Phase Gate health by 900 and armor by 50.</b>
- Woah that's a big nerf. I think phasegate health and armor is quite ok.
<b>Increased Xenocide damage from 200 to 250.</b>
- Shouldn't make xeno that powerful even though it's a third hive ability. One skulk shouldn't be able to do that much damage for a ~free sacrifice. This just promotes every skulk running in one by one, instead of teamwork where already 2 skulks could wipe out an entire platoon of marines (even without the change).
<b>Increased Skulk health by 5.</b>
<b>Reduced Skulk Carapace amount by 5.</b>
- ?
<b>Reduced Gorge Carapace amount by 40.</b>
- Gorge health was fine with cara.
<b>Increase mature Cyst health to 600.</b>
- I feel like this isn't really necessary. Already takes more than a rifle clip to kill a single cyst.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Increased Structural damage to deal 250% damage to structures (up from 200%).</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- Only a few weapons deal Structural Damage: Axe, GL, Exo Claw, and Sentries. This change is mainly to pave way for GL player damage nerf (while making Exo Claw and Sentries slightly more useful). The Axe might deal slightly too much damage to structures as a result, but with the weapon upgrade nerf, it should be ok.
Increased Mine explosion range from 4 to 6. Reduced Mine cost from 15 to 10.
- Mines range was too short to damage Fades and Onos properly (perhaps due to a bug, which I do not have the ability to fix). With my Parasite damage buff, Skulks should have an easier time clearing mines (5 parasites vs the old 10).
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Reduced Grenade Launcher damage from 130 to 90, and reduced explosion radius from 8 to 6.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- GL still deals almost the same damage to structures. It was just too deadly against players (Skulks and Fades in particular), and had a ridiculous explosion radius. This is a popular suggestion from the community which I like to test.
<b>Increased Dual Minigun research time from 20 to 60 seconds.</b>
- Marines don't lose the Dual Minigun upgrade when they lose a Prototype lab, which can be rebuilt quickly. This is a powerful, once-only upgrade which Marines rush for. I don't think there is a huge difference between 40 and 60 seconds for such a late-game upgrade anyway.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Reduced Marine weapon upgrade bonus to 8% per level.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- Marines armor upgrades already prolong their combat lifespan by up to 100% (without using med packs). Their powerful damage upgrades force aliens to pick Carapace just to survive, or face high risks of losing large chunks of res.
By reducing the effectiveness of both Carapace and Weapon Upgrades, I wish to reduce the gap between those with and w/o Carapace, boosting the viability of Regen upgrade late game.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Reduced Phase Gate health by 900 and armor by 50.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- My change might have been too heavy handed. I've increased PG health slightly in v1.2. Phase Gates were way too tough IMO. Marines were rushing nonstop from the IP to the PG exit, and to the Hive, without even the need to leave anyone to defend the PG, thanks to the pushback. Phase Gates so powerful, for the mobility they provide, and the pressure they place on the Alien team. With Nano Shield, it can take 2 Skulks, or even an Onos 10 to 15 seconds to destroy a PG, which is more than enough time for marines to defend it.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Increased Xenocide damage from 200 to 250.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- Xenocide seems quite weak for a 3-Hive ability, to many members of the community, including myself. Marines with Armor 2 should survive one hit from Xenocide, unless they're right at the centre of the explosion. :)
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Increased Skulk health by 5.
Reduced Skulk Carapace amount by 5.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- These tweaks were required due to the Marine Weapon upgrade changes, to ensure that each upgrade provide some incremental benefit. The base Skulk health increase prevents them from being insta-killed by W0 Grenade Launchers. The Pistol is slightly better against Carapace Skulks (now takes 7 shots instead of 8 to kill at W0).
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Reduced Gorge Carapace amount by 40.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- The change was match the Marine Arms Lab weapon upgrade nerf.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Increase mature Cyst health to 600.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- Cysts shouldn't be killed too easily until Marines have either Welders (early), Flamethrowers or GLs (mid/late game). It is too easy for one or two marines to cut the cyst chain early game.
In case any one is wondering about the reasons for the Parasite damage change, here are my reasons:
Skulks feel rather helpless against Shotgun rush, Jetpacks, and large packs of Marines in general. Since Skulk is the most common Kharaa player unit, I feel that they lose too much effectiveness late game, and in large scale combat. Hopefully, the Parasite change will help Skulks feel less helpless, by empowering their ability to weaken marines from range.
Even at 20 damage each, it takes 5 Parasites (200 energy cost) to reduce a Marine with 0 Armor upgrade to below 75 health (1 bite kill). It should provide sufficient time for the Marine to either retreat, or kill the pestering Skulk.
The change will also create fun new tactics for Skulks. Adrenaline or Regen (depending on first Hive tech) will boost the effectiveness of Skulks who prefer to harass marines from range, even after Marines have A3W3 upgrades.
Marines may want to research Welders, and stay in pairs to counter Parasite harassment, as they the little peashooters can wear Marines out over time.
Groups of Skulks ambushing a lone Marine will also be able to use Parasite as a reliable finishing attack. However, it will remain highly unlikely for Skulks to kill Marines using Parasite alone, as it would take 8 to 14 Parasites to kill a Marine, which takes a lot of energy and time.
I've tweaked Skulk health and Carapace upgrade, and Marine Weapons upgrades to have the following effects:
It now takes 11/10/9/8 (Weapons lvl 0/1/2/3) Rifle bullets to kill a basic Skulk, up from 10/9/8/7 (b223).
A Carapace Skulk can survive 13/12/11/10 Rifle bullets, which is unchanged from the official build.
A basic Skulk can survive 6/6/5/5 Shotgun pellets, up from 6/5/5/5 pellets.
A Carapace Skulk can survive 8/7/7/6 Shotgun pellets, which is unchanged.
Now, a basic Skulk can survive 4 Minigun bullets against all levels of Weapons upgrades, up from 4/4/3/3.
A Carapace Skulk can survive 5/4/4/4 Minigun bullets, up from 4/4/4/4 Minigun bullets.
Against Grenade Launchers:
A basic Skulk dies in 2/2/1/1 direct hits, instead of a 1 hit kill at all levels.
Carapace protects Skulks from 1-hit-kill from a grenade at all levels, which is a huge difference to 1 hit kill at any level in the official build.
Currently, unlike all the other structures, Shift and Shade, where one in a location is enough, Crags need multiple to be able to heal the buildings and players. A forward offensive position should use 1 of each structure. If you can fix that issue, then life will be great :)
Your most recent skulk changes seem fair, but to be honest, most of the other changes, particularly reducing mine cost, seem unnecessary. UWE had to increase the cost from 10 to 15 because of mine spam, this is going to reverse that.
Currently, unlike all the other structures, Shift and Shade, where one in a location is enough, Crags need multiple to be able to heal the buildings and players. A forward offensive position should use 1 of each structure. If you can fix that issue, then life will be great :)
Your most recent skulk changes seem fair, but to be honest, most of the other changes, particularly reducing mine cost, seem unnecessary. UWE had to increase the cost from 10 to 15 because of mine spam, this is going to reverse that.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks for the encouragement Soul_Rider!
Unfortunately, I don't have the experience to implement a non-stacking health percentage-based Crag healing aura. Any help would be highly welcomed!
I've already reverted the Mine cost change in v1.3.
Increase energy cost of umbra
Increase time umbra stays on player to 3
Ensure the amount of eggs is as least double what is being used currently. WAY too easy to lock down a hive.
Increase heal rate from hives.. takes 21 seconds to fully heal a skulk.
I like it tho.. especially the GL player dmg!!!
edit: you cant do anything with the amount of shotgun pellets can you? if so i have some numbers to share for shotgun spread and damage based on amount of pellets.
Cone is in the shotgun file. All is adjustable :D
================================================================
Adrenaline now increases energy regeneration by 50%. Reduced Adrenalin maximum energy pool from 200 to 150.
Reduced Fade base health from 280 to 270.
Reduced Kharaa Harvester resource cost from 8 to 6.
Tweaked Lerk flight controls again.
Increased Umbra energy cost from 25 to 35. Increased Umbra duration from 5 to 6 seconds.
Reduced Onos Stomp shockwave range from 12 to 10.
Why do you think its horrible? It's taking the best of both worlds and compensating for the weaknesses of both. + energy regen, + energy pool.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=121873" target="_blank">Lol</a>
I like that it got implemented here, hopefully it works fine
I'm psychic. :)
Make sure you toggle off the mod filter ("filter modded) to see it in your server browser.
See you there. :)
Adrenaline now increases energy regeneration by 50%. Reduced Adrenalin maximum energy pool from 200 to 150. - Doesnt fix the problem
Reduced Fade base health from 280 to 270. - Fade HP isnt the problem, blink is too slow
Reduced Kharaa Harvester resource cost from 8 to 6. - WHYY???
Reduced Flamethrower research cost from 25 to 20. - Doesnt make flamethrowers useful
Reduced Observatory cost from 15 to 10. - Uhh observatories were too expensive?
Tweaked Lerk flight (better air control). - Lerk doesnt need more control.
Increased Lerk maximum speed from 11 to 12. - If you increase the speed you should reduce the HP...
Reduced Fade cost from 50 to 45. -....why??
Reduced Exo cost from 50 to 45. ...
Reduced Extractor health from 4000 to 3200 - Marine rts are not too strong its too easy to rebuild them with Sprint...
Reduced Axe damage to 24.
Increase Axe range from 0.8 to 1.0.
Increased Mine damage from 125 to 130 (light damage).
Increased Mine pack cost back to 15.
Increased both Carapace and Regeneration research cost to 15.
Increased Grenade Launcher damage to 95 (structural).
Increased Weapons level 3 bonus damage from 24 to 25%.
Increased Skulk health from 75 to 85.
Reduced Skulk Carapace from 25 to 20 armor.
Reduced Fade Carapace from 95 to 90.
-All these changes to fix gls one shotting skulks? Which is almost never an issue except in the case where a marine actually has good enough aim to hit the skulk directly with the grenade... otherwise your just getting splashed by the nades, so tweak the splash radius and not the actual damage..
Hallucinations dont need to be better... and the FOV changes just seem random..
And this is just a basic look over...
...
...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Balance, is also a fickle thing, open to subjective interpretations. By making this mod, my aim was to experiment with changes, so people can see how certain changes can affect the game (for better or worse).
I do not expect everyone to understand or like my tweaks. They are based on my personal opinions about elements of the game that can be improved.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing your opinions! :)
================================================================
Players now continue to receive Personal Resources while dead.
Commanders now receive Personal Resources.
Increase Personal Resource income rate by 25% (0.15 per tick, from 0.125 every 6 seconds per resource node).
Reduced Umbra energy cost from 35 to 30.
Gorges maximum Hydra count reduced from 4 to 3.
Fixed Onos anti-structure damage. It was doing too much damage.
Reduced Celerity start time to 0.25 second, from 0.5 second. Celerity bonus speed is lost slower, over 1 second, increased from 0.2 second.
Changed Welder damage back to 30.
Increased Welder repair rate on Sentries from 150 to 200.
Reduced Power Node health to 2000, with 1500 armor, (2000 health, 1000 armor in b223).
Exo starting armor increased from 300 to 330. Exo armor per Armor upgrade reduced from 90 to 80.
Skulk health adjusted to 75 and 15 armor. Skulk Carapace adjusted to 25.
Parasite damage changed to 15, at 30 energy cost.
Reduced Lerk flap energy cost from 3 to 2.5.
Increased Lerk Spikes minimum damage range from 15 to 20.
Vortex costs 50 energy, reduced from 60.
Mature eggs have 300 health and 25 armor, up from 250 health and 25 armor.
v1.71
================================================================
Increased Swipe damage from 65 to 72 (punctual) damage. This allows Fades to work better with Skulks.
Fixed a script bug.
v1.81 (previous changes have been discarded)
================================================================
Increase Personal Resource income rate by 25% (0.15 per tick, from 0.125 every 6 seconds per resource node).
Player now continue to gain personal resources while dead.
Commanders now gain personal resources.
Reduced Kharaa Harvester resource cost from 10 to 6.
Reduced Harvester build time from 45 to 30 seconds.
Increased Skulk armor from 10 to 15.
Parasite damage increased to 15.
Increased Gorge base armor to 100.
Reduced Hydra build time from 10 to 8 seconds.
Increased Mature Hydra health by 50 (600 total health including armor).
Increased Lerk Carapace upgrade amount by 5.
Reduced Lerk flap energy cost from 3 to 2.5.
Increased Lerk Spikes minimum damage range from 9 to 15.
Reduced Spores damage from 20 to 17 per second.
Increased Fade base health from 250 to 300.
Increased Swipe damage from 65 to 72 (punctual) damage. This allows Fades to work better with Skulks.
Reduced Onos Stomp shockwave range from 12 to 10.
Increased Stomp energy cost from 40 to 50.
Reduced research time of Kharaa 3-Hive abilities from 90 to 60 seconds each.
Reduced Kharaa lifeform gestation time by approximately 20%.
Reduced Carapace cost from 15 to 10.
Reduced Adrenaline cost from 15 to 10.
Reduced Celerity cost from 15 to 10.
Celerity now has a shorter activation cooldown (reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 second),
and a shorter ramp up time (reduced from 0.5 to 0.25 second). Celerity bonus speed is lost over
1 second, increased from 0.2 second.
Reduced Grenade Launcher damage from 130 to 100, and reduced explosion radius from 8 to 6.
Increased Grenade Launcher research time from 20 to 30 seconds.
Reduced Flamethrower research cost from 25 to 20.
Increased Jetpack cost from 10 to 15.
Exo starting armor increased from 300 to 330. Exo armor per Armor upgrade reduced from 90 to 80.
Reduced Exo minigun damage from 25 to 24.
Increased Mine damage from 125 to 140.
Increased Axe range from 0.8 to 1.0.
Increased Arms Lab cost from 20 to 30.
Increased Armory cost from 10 to 15.
Reduced Advanced Armory cost from 20 to 15.
Most likely not.
I'm sure over time, the good ideas/changes will be tested, and added.
For now, it looks like this mod is "buried".