This took way longer than it should’ve.
I pretty much lost almost all interest in the game, so this is likely the last batch of reworks that I’ll be putting out.
Changes
Ion Blaster:
- Damage: 340/480 → 300/425
- Firing interval: 0,250 → 0,220
- Overheat time: 8,5s → 8s
Fire rate buff as per @OneWingLunarian’s request (though to a lesser extent). Slight overheat nerf.
Neutron Gun:
- Damage: 330; 660; 990
- Volley changes:
–
1: 1xB2 → 2xB1
–9: 4xB2 + 1x B3 → 2xB1 + 1xB2 + 2xB3
–10: 2xB2 + 3xB3 → 3xB2 + 2xB3 - Firing interval: 0,263 (constant)
- Overheat time: 9,5s → 10s
Initially, I thought the only changes I’d be making would be to the damage values (to smooth out the progression) and increasing the fire rate.
Unfortunately, even after smoothing the damage progression out, it underperforms on low power due to the larger DPS increase on 9. Due to this, I decided to rework some of the volleys.
Let’s go over those changes now.
1
Same damage, but with two projectiles. The point of this change is to give it more volume of fire to help with its performance against groups.
9 and 10
Changed to address the issue mentioned above.
I also have two designs for the 8 volley, which would fit the revamped progression better than the current volley (damage remains the same). Which one to choose depends on what we want: do we want to keep 5 projectiles (which would fit in with 9), or do we want to make it more focused (which would fit in with 7)?
Technically this change is entirely optional, so I decided to put it to a vote.
Laser Cannon:
For now:
- Overheat time: 6s → 6,5s
Slight change to make it a bit more manageable.
In the future:
We have to consider reworking the volleys from the ground up. As it is, its damage scales in such a way that its starting damage output is way too low. This combined with its low volume of fire on low power makes it pretty much useless.
I showcased a possible volley rework on the Discord server (bolt damage 400/600/800/1000), and while I didn’t receive any objections, I’m not sure if I’m quite happy with the volley designs (the S2 sheet contains those altered volleys, if you’re interested). Reworking the volleys could also be paired with a visual overhaul, as the Laser Cannon does obscure the view quite a bit (and to be honest, it looks pretty bad on bombers).
Vulcan Chaingun:
- Damage: B1: 100 → 125
Slight low power buff.
Lightning Fryer:
Damage multiplier: 1
Chaining delay: 0
Multi-hit penalty: 0,75
While I originally dropped removing the chaining delay due to the presence of cowards, it turns out that this change makes chaining way more reliable. To the point where, in my opinion, it doesn’t really need its damage increased past the raw values. My only issue is that multi-hit is initially rather ineffective against squawkers (since you have no way of getting closer other than waiting) - making multi-hit slightly more lenient could be considered.
Plasma Rifle:
For now:
- Base damage: 10: 2000 → 2100; 20: 2400 → 2600
- AoE multiplier: 0,185
either: - Damage scaling: 1,3 → 1,5
or: - Firing interval: 0,200 → 0,160
- Damage scaling: 1,3 → 1,2
or - Whatever viable setup that gives the same DPS
The first damage scaling change is the one I initially planned, the second one was prepared in response to @OneWingLunarian’s suggestion to increase the fire rate.
The overall premise of these changes is to increase the base damage output to something more appropriate for its overheat time, and make first steps to reducing the OP factor of the AoE.
In the future:
As suggested by @fractorial, consider experimenting with damage sharing for the AoE.
Utensil Poker:
- Damage: 375/750 → 325/650
- Firing interval: 0,300/0,280 → 0,258/0,241
Changed in response to complaints about the slow fire rate.
Boron Railgun:
- Damage: B1: 105 (max 194) → 110 (max 203)
Slight low power buff.
Photon Swarm:
- Damage: 120/300 → 100/300
- Fire rate (base/increase): 3,33/1 → 4/0,933
Low power fire rate increase, readjusted regular photon damage. Also bumps up the damage jump back up to 20%.
Positron:
- Damage: 70; 130; 190; 250; 310; 380; 450; 520; 590; 660; 750; 930
- Firing interval: 0,075
- Ramp multiplier: 1,5x
I tried working with splitting, but I can’t really figure out a way to have it balanced. Its multi-hit performance is quite irregular compared to chaining, and the chaining delay only serves to make it less reliable.
Fire rate was increased to 13,33/s to allow for dropping damage per shot to limit the weapon’s ability to one shot enemies on high difficulty without the damage bonus.
It may or may not need an overheat buff further down the line.
Corn Shotgun:
- Damage: B1: 465 → 475
- Fire rate (base/increase): 1,45/0,255 → 1,55/0,245
A slight damage buff and low power fire rate increase.
Absolver Beam:
- Damage (uncharged): 130 - 1080; 1300
- Damage (full): 2600 - 21600; 26000
- Damage sharing: 0,675
- Initial heat cost: 0,08
- Heat drain rate: 0,07
The numbers might be ugly, but at least it kinda works. The next step after this would be to see how much it’d benefit from overdrive.
That’s it for now. The overdrive section will be posted at a later date, assuming I can find the time and energy to write it out.
Sheets: v55 - Google Drive
S1 contains: 5/s Plasma, Neutron DPS approximation, and a failed attempt at balancing Positron with splitting.
S2 contains: 6,25/s Plasma, Neutron volley rework, initial Laser volley rework, max damage splitless Positron.