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Suggestions / Armor rework suggestions with a bit of sneak
« on: December 31, 2019, 10:58:45 am »
The following notes are meant to provide more tactical based choice for players, decrease the linearity of armor tiers and further develop the variety of character builds. At this moment server is basically on hiatus and few balancing tests might bring some action without major problems.
Armor Class – invert the whole armor class scale and make it better for worse armor.
Now I understand there already were some major changes involving armor class and I know that it was taken from the original game practically untouched, but it still kinda loses it’s purpose (as it did in original game). As far as I know, armor class directly influences the chance to be hit by opponent and is increased with the armor tier and quality. And here comes the illogical part – the better (heavier and larger) armor you have, the less chance to be hit you get. Basically, having a vault suit with the smallest silhouette possible you have the highest chance to be hit but the huge mountain-like APA gives you the lowest chance to be hit when reality is a total contrast.
In my suggestion the smallest target with light armor is supposed to be the hardest to aim at, but when you hit it, you hit hard. Yet the biggest one will be way easier to hit, but unlike light armor it can really take that hit. That said inverting the Armor Class tier scale would be sort of logical and might bring us some funny builds (like naked evasive melee monks). Light armor will have the purpose of avoidance and heavy armor will get the direct combat role. Personally I would be happy with just this change, but I can also expect some adjustments for high tier armor DR and DT to compensate that.
I understand that the base idea of Armor Class was to get yet another parameter that protects you (by cutting the chances to be hit), but we already have straight and simple DT and DR for that, yet the logic behind AC is quite unexplained.
PA and APA – make vulnerable to EMP damage type at some point.
That would make a fair counter to PA players in pvp (like Town Control) and since there is only two sources of EMP damage (12 gauge EMP shells and Pulse grenades) PA will still remain powerful enough to make presence. The main point is to make PA players stay more awared in pvp and other non-PA players (mostly faction squads) to sacrifice shotgun or grenade damage to create more threat to PA. That would not make a lot of imbalance since shotguns with EMP shells will deal exceptionally low damage against everything else as well as Pulse grenades which also require decent throwing skill being a pretty rare item.
Metal armor (+Mk2) – reduce Laser DR and increase Normal DR.
It is quite unexplained why this armor has ridiculous 75-80% Laser DR (making it comparable to Tesla’s and PA’s ~85%) yet awful 25-30% of Normal DR (comparable to Leather armor). Considering it has a low Plasma and Electricity DR, how different can those damage types be for Laser? I assume that stats were just copied from the original game, but in FOnline more than a half armor sets have 60%+ DR to Laser, which makes laser kinda underperforming damage type in both pvp and pve. I can also assume that Metal Armor is considered as a Tier 2 “multipurpose” protection or “Leather with Laser DR”, but it really looks more like cheap Tesla (which is quite strange since Tesla is a nishe choice). As for laser snipers, people use tesla helmet to counter them anyway, not the body armor.
Thermal Armor – make stats comparable to Leather Armor Mk1 (except Fire DR ofc). A little laser/plasma/electricity DR boost to compensate might be in order, but not necessary. I also suggest to make blueprint acquirable through specific quest only.
For now Thermal Leather Armor is basically a better version of Leather Mk2, copying it’s stats and adding 75% Fire DR, when it would be more logical to make people choose between Mk2 and Thermal (Like with Tesla and Metal Mk2). If you want overall better protection – you take Leather Mk2. If you want exceptional fire resistance – you take Thermal (with other stats copied from Leather Mk1).
In addition Leather Armor is commonly used by sneaker builds and it would be a nice touch to give them a sneak-based quest for Thermal Armor blueprint. The quest can involve some powerful npc’s and be completed either by high-level character (who just wants loot, exp and a blueprint for another character) or sneaker who can (depending on sneak/lockpick/steal level) pass the quest peacefully without taking down all the NPCs and gathering loot. I assume even some of existing quests can be changed that way.
Sneak – add an increased chance to dodge projectiles while sneaked (Through a new perk probably).
Basically it explains itself – if person is sneaked it blends in the environment better and has lesser chance to be hit. That will give melee sneakers more chances to get close to the target and ranged sneakers to avoid the unlikely encounter. The first hit from both sides will take off the sneak anyway, but at least the change will negate a bit the effect of motion sensor. Burst weapons should still be pretty good with revealing sneakers.
That said any reasonable respond to this wall of text would be appreciated.
Armor Class – invert the whole armor class scale and make it better for worse armor.
Now I understand there already were some major changes involving armor class and I know that it was taken from the original game practically untouched, but it still kinda loses it’s purpose (as it did in original game). As far as I know, armor class directly influences the chance to be hit by opponent and is increased with the armor tier and quality. And here comes the illogical part – the better (heavier and larger) armor you have, the less chance to be hit you get. Basically, having a vault suit with the smallest silhouette possible you have the highest chance to be hit but the huge mountain-like APA gives you the lowest chance to be hit when reality is a total contrast.
In my suggestion the smallest target with light armor is supposed to be the hardest to aim at, but when you hit it, you hit hard. Yet the biggest one will be way easier to hit, but unlike light armor it can really take that hit. That said inverting the Armor Class tier scale would be sort of logical and might bring us some funny builds (like naked evasive melee monks). Light armor will have the purpose of avoidance and heavy armor will get the direct combat role. Personally I would be happy with just this change, but I can also expect some adjustments for high tier armor DR and DT to compensate that.
I understand that the base idea of Armor Class was to get yet another parameter that protects you (by cutting the chances to be hit), but we already have straight and simple DT and DR for that, yet the logic behind AC is quite unexplained.
PA and APA – make vulnerable to EMP damage type at some point.
That would make a fair counter to PA players in pvp (like Town Control) and since there is only two sources of EMP damage (12 gauge EMP shells and Pulse grenades) PA will still remain powerful enough to make presence. The main point is to make PA players stay more awared in pvp and other non-PA players (mostly faction squads) to sacrifice shotgun or grenade damage to create more threat to PA. That would not make a lot of imbalance since shotguns with EMP shells will deal exceptionally low damage against everything else as well as Pulse grenades which also require decent throwing skill being a pretty rare item.
Metal armor (+Mk2) – reduce Laser DR and increase Normal DR.
It is quite unexplained why this armor has ridiculous 75-80% Laser DR (making it comparable to Tesla’s and PA’s ~85%) yet awful 25-30% of Normal DR (comparable to Leather armor). Considering it has a low Plasma and Electricity DR, how different can those damage types be for Laser? I assume that stats were just copied from the original game, but in FOnline more than a half armor sets have 60%+ DR to Laser, which makes laser kinda underperforming damage type in both pvp and pve. I can also assume that Metal Armor is considered as a Tier 2 “multipurpose” protection or “Leather with Laser DR”, but it really looks more like cheap Tesla (which is quite strange since Tesla is a nishe choice). As for laser snipers, people use tesla helmet to counter them anyway, not the body armor.
Thermal Armor – make stats comparable to Leather Armor Mk1 (except Fire DR ofc). A little laser/plasma/electricity DR boost to compensate might be in order, but not necessary. I also suggest to make blueprint acquirable through specific quest only.
For now Thermal Leather Armor is basically a better version of Leather Mk2, copying it’s stats and adding 75% Fire DR, when it would be more logical to make people choose between Mk2 and Thermal (Like with Tesla and Metal Mk2). If you want overall better protection – you take Leather Mk2. If you want exceptional fire resistance – you take Thermal (with other stats copied from Leather Mk1).
In addition Leather Armor is commonly used by sneaker builds and it would be a nice touch to give them a sneak-based quest for Thermal Armor blueprint. The quest can involve some powerful npc’s and be completed either by high-level character (who just wants loot, exp and a blueprint for another character) or sneaker who can (depending on sneak/lockpick/steal level) pass the quest peacefully without taking down all the NPCs and gathering loot. I assume even some of existing quests can be changed that way.
Sneak – add an increased chance to dodge projectiles while sneaked (Through a new perk probably).
Basically it explains itself – if person is sneaked it blends in the environment better and has lesser chance to be hit. That will give melee sneakers more chances to get close to the target and ranged sneakers to avoid the unlikely encounter. The first hit from both sides will take off the sneak anyway, but at least the change will negate a bit the effect of motion sensor. Burst weapons should still be pretty good with revealing sneakers.
That said any reasonable respond to this wall of text would be appreciated.