Guns Of Icarus Online

Admin => Dev App Testing => Topic started by: awkm on July 03, 2014, 04:33:49 pm

Title: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 03, 2014, 04:33:49 pm
A huge update has been just pushed with a bunch of new functionality, features, and data changes.

Here's quick rundown of why new ammo is being tested.  Buffing a gun on top of damage modifiers given by ammo can produce the highest DPS potential in the game.  That said, many crews run all Engineers buffing their own guns.  This puts Gunners in an underutilized position.  Without introducing a slew of new mechanics or breaking paradigms we already have, the best way to improve the situation is to take advantage of the 3 ammo slots that only Gunners have by introducing new, very powerful, but very situational ammo.  Hopefully, this will encourage crews to use Gunners and take advantage of the various ammo types they can carry.  And to bring it back full circle, buffing gun functionality has been changed from increasing damage output and instead to reduce reload time.  This means that buffing a gun for a Gunner reinforces the idea of changing ammo by making the Gunner better at their job.  Buffgineers should still be a valid build and despite all these changes, a Buffgineer buffing their own gun with only 1 ammo type can still benefit by the implicity DPS improvement from reloading faster.  Hopefully this is all in the right step.

Disclaimer: These are only proposed changes.  Many skills still need a lot of work in terms of balance but the numbers should indicate the desired role for each. 

Test with a grain of salt and try to give your objective, level-headed, and descriptive feedback.  Simply saying that you like or do not like something is not enough detail.  Please describe why and how you like or dislike the proposed changes and how they will influence your play style, for better or for worse.

There are many changes so take your time and play around with the changes.

Buff Tool:
- Buff to guns reduces reload time by 25% (from increase in dmg)

And a link to a Google Spreadsheet of all the Ammo changes.  Cells that have a black arrow in the top-right corner denotes a change from Production.  Hover over these cells to look at a description of what the values are on production.

https://docs.google.com/a/musegames.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As7KK0xlixIbdENCVFEzZ09tUjktaFliLWxKekpDREE#gid=6 (https://docs.google.com/a/musegames.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As7KK0xlixIbdENCVFEzZ09tUjktaFliLWxKekpDREE#gid=6)

(You can also comment directly on each cell in the spreadsheet)

Let me know what your general thoughts are and what things need the most attention.  Again, there are a lot of potential changes here so don't take everything too seriously.  I'm not putting these into the game any time soon.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Byron Cavendish on July 03, 2014, 04:53:46 pm
What really stood out to me was the armored clip. It looks like an intelligent way to make the heavy gun more viable against well aimed artemis threats, especially on the goldfish. My only concern is that the negatives look a bit too harsh to utilize this ammo. The arcs in particular, as I would want to dufecta on a goldfish, and all the heavy weapons have limited arcs as it is. If I can't dufecta, I just would rather not use the ammo, making it irrelevant.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 03, 2014, 05:00:02 pm
RE: Dualfecta with Armored Clip

Good point.  Noted.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 03, 2014, 06:04:52 pm
I must say, this latest Ammo Pass makes me happy. These are EASILY the best incarnation of most of the ammo types ever. I genuinely had a moment where I paused and said "wtf do I ask them to take on my squid?" As I normally bring 3 Engies on my Squid, before it was never a question, Lesmok every time. Now, I'm looking at this and going "Heatsink? Dense Slugs (it's back to Lugs again?)? Injection? Greased?" It's now impossible to just pick 1 Ammo and say "everyone bring it". I genuinely feel like I WANT a gunner for the first time in forever! That's an incredible feeling! I'll probably try and do an extensive test and give further feedback later.

EDIT: Something that REALLY needs to be looked into is NORMALIZING the text. Right now, I can see at LEAST 2 different versions of text for what I assume is the same effect: "Rotation Arcs" on Injection and Greased, and "Total Gun Arcs" on Armored. If these are not the same thing, it should be made clearer, in which case they need to change anyway. If it is the same thing, then it should use the same terminology across the ammo. Right now, it's just confusing for newer players. As an experienced GoIO player, I can logic it out at least, but I'm sure a newbie would be scratching their head.

EDIT2: Also, did you revert the guns back to production? Because the Banshee no longer has it's awesome Explosive/Fire damage. Really hoping that stays, because I was a big fan of that idea.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 03, 2014, 06:09:31 pm
RE: Slugs or Lugs?

It's Slugs.  Fixed that.

RE: Gunner Want

That makes me happy.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Queso on July 03, 2014, 06:14:01 pm
As a note on Armored Clip, it will be at normal health during reloads, and it will heal the gun for new max - old max (or 100% base health with these numbers) on every reload.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Sammy B. T. on July 03, 2014, 06:29:06 pm
The gun buff thing conceptually seems awkward. Outside of use on hwachas, I feel like the reload time would be barely useful and actually detrimental as one of the main benefits of an gungineer is the repair during reload. This feels less like a balance and more like a nerf. Unless the plan is to do away with buffing as a legitimate offensive strategy, this seems like a poor idea. Can't we just try to first make gunners better with these new awesome ammo designs and then see if engineers need a nerf?
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 03, 2014, 06:41:05 pm
The gun buff thing conceptually seems awkward. Outside of use on hwachas, I feel like the reload time would be barely useful and actually detrimental as one of the main benefits of an gungineer is the repair during reload. This feels less like a balance and more like a nerf. Unless the plan is to do away with buffing as a legitimate offensive strategy, this seems like a poor idea. Can't we just try to first make gunners better with these new awesome ammo designs and then see if engineers need a nerf?

You clearly haven't seen the full potential of this change. Gungineers will have to adapt to a different playstyle than they've been using. I fully expect I know exactly how that will turn out with the new tools they're getting.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 03, 2014, 07:34:02 pm
So, just to confirm: -20% chance of fire ignition on Greased = no chance to put fires on things with Flamer and Banshee? Or is it meant to be like it was in the previous version, where it made it less likely for the gun it was on to catch fire (or at least appeared to)?
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Saull on July 03, 2014, 08:33:58 pm
Excited to test these. Especially greased and heat sink now that they alter arcs. Greasy Hades/Flak squid is like a dream come true
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Crafeksterty on July 03, 2014, 09:53:20 pm
Ok So here is my feedback and first impressions. No actual match Testing has been Done

The New Ammo + Buff Hammer

These new Ammo types are pretty refreshing and really want me to take a gunner on every ship.
Many of these ammo types are very offencive based, making for a quick killing whenever we use the ammo.

This is good actualy. Ive noticed this for both short and long range.

Buff Hammer
This definetly makes gunengineers less wanted to gun a gun more than a gunner guns it. But i cant help feeling that the offencive is a bit too strong with this. Not like there will be MORE gunengineers, but rather it will be hard to fight back versus quick reloading guns with quick reloading guns. Either some guns need their reload speed prolonged, or buff hammer goes down to 15% extra reload speed or something.

A hwacha with Proximity and quick reload buff seems like it will be very difficult to fight versus.
Or a Twin Carronade.


Proximity
Still flawed. It is much more balanced than before. But the DPClip of guns is still hard hitting. I say Turn down 80% more clip to 60%.
Very cool ammo that makes lumberjacks and hades forgive near misses along with hwacha being an actual Areal of Denial.

The mines however still hit your own ship. No srsly the mines are a problem with proximity im not sure how the stats can change to not blow up in your face.


Armored Clip
I love Armored clip, its a very cool ammo type for gunners to protect their guns with.
And its pretty balanced. I really do think this can allready be released.


Injection
Very cool, pretty balanced and may bring squids back into action.
For guns like the Hades suddenly turning into close range guns. One has to think first, is it a gunner firing it? Or an engineer? If an engineer, then his secondary is default.
But i feel an engineer with the buff hammer would still be better because of the reload suddenly not being so punishing.

It is still in a weird place for those types of guns. I dont know if a gattling or a hades as an example is better in this case.


Lesmok
Yett again, pretty balanced. Ide choose this over proximity when it comes to guns like Lumberjack or Hades.


Dense Slugs / Dragon Ash
These are simply unique

For some guns it is better to take the other, while some other guns have a choice with the balanced Explosive damage on Explosive weapons.
Dense Slugs can be a very good Mercury or Artemis Ammo type.
While Dragon ash a Hades or Light Flak Ammo type.

See why i think they work?


Greased
Very cool, and actually pretty balanced. The nerfs like -10% damage from production or -20% effective range is actually a good nerf that forces a will for other ammo types. While things like +25 more arc gives greased the more play full ammo type for closer range builds. -25% chance of fire is a weird one. But balanced.


Heatsink
So heatsink all in all does not seem like a very good ammo type at first.
But what its got going for it is the 25+ Arc. With Greased, you sacrifice damage and range. While heatsink you sacrifice 25% max health.
This is a very good balance. But i cant help fearing my own Spire build...
I managed to get the 2 side hades to aim forward with a heavy flak. Now, add in a mercury and you got a ship that kills real quick.
There have also been a few scary Goldfish builds, but the ammo is required and makes the goldfish builds balanced.
Heatsink, very balanced. Maybe not in ALL directions cause it sacrifices health. So it can easily be disabled.


Charged
Nothing special, but an upgrade from the last charged. Makes explosive weapons very damaging. Ide chose this over Greased or Dense Slugs when it comes to raw Explosive firepower.
Heavy flak charged has enough time and damage to kill a galleon i believe more so than a lochnagar would.


Lochnagar
You didnt do anything with lochnagar i understand, but with these changes, i think you should just remove the damage done on the gun.


Heavy Clip
With the changes on the other ammo, you should just take away with the nerfs. and let it be an ammo type with pure no Recoil




And Thats that
I really love these new ammo changes. It changed up alot on my builds. Im just a bit afraid of how offencive based it really is.
Mostly because of the buff hammer.

But here is another suggestion.

These ammo types start to get alot of info. Is it possible to put them in structure?
Like.

Greased Rounds
+80% Rate of Fire
+75% Clip Size
+25 Rotation Arcs
+25% Rotation Speed
-20% Projectile Speed
-30% Dmg
-25% Fire ignition chance
-20% Effective Range

Instead of the typografi being a bit jumbled.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Wundsalz on July 04, 2014, 03:51:39 am
The gun buff thing conceptually seems awkward. Outside of use on hwachas, I feel like the reload time would be barely useful and actually detrimental as one of the main benefits of an gungineer is the repair during reload. This feels less like a balance and more like a nerf. Unless the plan is to do away with buffing as a legitimate offensive strategy, this seems like a poor idea. Can't we just try to first make gunners better with these new awesome ammo designs and then see if engineers need a nerf?
I doubt this change will remove "buffing as a legitimate offensive strategy". In my opinion it rather seems to be a shift away from optimizing a weapons damage per clip to optimizing a weapons continous dps including reload times.
Though I haven't tested the change yet and I hence can't say anything about the numbers, I disagree with the statement reducing the reloadtime "would be barely useful" concept wise. Just look at the extreme that's be possible here (100% reloadtime reduction) - a continously shooting hades, gatling fire without reload time, instant mine fields? In case the reload-time buff doesn't proof to be useful enough with the current 25% I'm sure it can be made useful by twaeking the numbers.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Mezhu on July 04, 2014, 05:42:52 am
Buffkit
Buffing guns is a time-consuming task that requires a buffkit to be constantly on top of a single gun, buffing it between reloads. With the damage output of a buffed gun reduced, and the reload time reduced as well, buffkit's mechanic is altered but not for the better. Supposedly with a gunner manning what used to be manned by the 3rd engineer, the 2nd engineer now would now have to maintain the buff on his own gun and the gunner's one as well which is pretty much impossible (especially considering that the reload window is much smaller now).
Rotations are also going to be much weirder now- e.g. you don't wait on the gunner's gatling as the mortar gungineer to buff it just before it starts shooting. Instead, you have to be there once the clip finishes so that the reload can be sped up, but that removes you from your position near the mortar. Only exception is the goldfish which is practically a 1-gun ship.
For the above reasons, I'd still prefer a 3rd engineer over a gunner in all cases I can think of atm.

If there needs to be a change in buffkit's effect on guns, the duration of the buff should be prolonged and its' effect weakened (no matter if it's reload time reduction, damage increase or anything). That way, having 2 offensive buffkits would be redundant and a single skilled buffer could maintain buff on more than his own gun, making a gunner optimal over a 3rd engineer.
As it is, the buffkit fails to achieve that.


Will test the ammo types soon.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Imagine on July 04, 2014, 05:53:43 am
Birth of the buffunners?
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Mezhu on July 04, 2014, 08:43:10 am
Frost and Mezhu's thoughts on the ammo changes

Heavy Clip
The change in rotation speed can be counter efficient in some situations and beneficial in others. Clip is sometimes overshadowed by Dragon Ash.

Incendiary
Looks pretty solid. Sacrifice in direct damage for a chance to set fires, practically transforming the damage types into fire.

Lesmok
Damage is a tad too low. We'd suggest either losing the damage reduction or the rate of fire reduction (at longer ranges you almost always have to take a second to watch your shots and adjust them, so probably keeping only the damage reduction should be ideal).

Heatsink
We like the arc increase as a mechanic. It creates very interesting new builds and provides a much needed variety. Why is this on heatsink, though? Heatsink is already a very good, balanced ammo type that finds use from both gunners and engineers on a multitude of guns. Besides that, the health adjustment and repair cooldown adjustment feel odd and out of place. Health adjustment makes the ammo very risky to use on heavy guns (which often found use of it) and overall doesn't make much sense (light guns only need 1 carronade or artemis shot, and heavy guns still need 2 of those so practically the change makes guns more vulnerable to gatling and random sources of damage). Also messing with repair cooldowns is a dangerous game (you'd theoretically gain the most by malleting the gun, but a mallet on a gun with 75% max hp is already over-repairing it so has no synergy with itself).
We'd like to see those mechanics discussed and possibly implemented on another ammo type. As for heatsink itself, maybe an increase to fire stacks extinguish would be good.

Charged
Why the lowered range? We already have greased as our close-range high dps ammo type. Charged fails to find a role both in the current version and as proposed here, in our opinion, especially with the twin ammo types. Potential candidate for the bonus arc effect?

Greased
Compared to live, damage per second seems slightly higher and total damage per clip much higher. Not so bad though, if you put the lack of bonus buff damage into the equation and the fact it's only optimal at close range. The bonus arc allows for easier close-range multifectas but might be making the ammo type a little bit too good and thus a no-choice.

Twin
We've already discussed those in depth. Still not balanced in the slightest, not close to production at all. Some guns benefit just enough from them (dragon ash on banshee, carronade), while others become completely imbalanced (dragon ash on hades, lumberjack, gatling, dense slugs on gatling etc). Only suggestion is to normalize the raw damage numbers and make the side-effects attractive enough.

Armored
Good idea but there are flaws. The bonus cooldown will prove extremely punishing- one should load the ammo type to protect a gun from damage, but unless the pilot puts it out of enemy arcs the gun will steal certainly break within the 13 second mallet repair cooldown. The minus rotation is also very detrimental- if the clip works as intended the gun is going to act as a damage shield, absorbing lots of hits, thus losing a lot of health. This, in combination with the reduced rotation, will be making it impossible to aim and use at all.

Injection
Very niche use as a close range clip for guns with arming time. Conflicts with lochnagar for that role, and guns that have arming time are most of the time manned by gunners so it doesn't serve its' role of promoting the class. Would still rather have it be a turret ammo type with zero rotation but it can still find some use as it is.

Proximity
Not as broken but still broken.


ps; Was the buff duration on guns actually increased?
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Mezhu on July 04, 2014, 09:37:32 am
There are a few discrepancies between spreadsheet and ingame descriptions
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: GeoRmr on July 04, 2014, 06:41:40 pm
*sigh*

I hold the same stance as I always have, and can no longer be bothered to continue repeating myself in vain.

I can only hope that these proposed changes will not be pushed into production, and that when they are (which of-course they will be, as it seems all proposed changes end up being released regardless of community opinion.) they don't break the game as much as I know that they will. I will continue to play and enjoy your game as much as possible until that time.

If you can be bothered, I implore that you carefully re-read my post (along with the other correspondence between awkm and myself in the thread) and take it earnestly into consideration.
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4125.0.html

I wish you the best of luck,
A rather pessimistic gunner.

I think I'm going to miss burst rounds, and I can only wonder at why you're nerfing lesmok again; I hear that one renowned gunner left the game the first time you decided to nerf the viability of lesmok in the heavy flak.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: N-Sunderland on July 04, 2014, 07:03:28 pm
These changes will not necessarily all go into production. That is why they're being tested. You should test them yourself before providing feedback, otherwise you're doing very little to improve the situation.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: GeoRmr on July 04, 2014, 07:07:34 pm
These changes will not necessarily all go into production. That is why they're being tested. You should test them yourself before providing feedback, otherwise you're doing very little to improve the situation.

I know, I have given up on providing feedback. I enjoy how you assume I haven't looked at the changes personally.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 05, 2014, 12:00:57 am
So, asking for some clarification: Armored Clip has an increased chance of creating fires? or an increased chance of catching on fire? And is Greased Rounds suppose to have a reduced chance of causing fires? Or a reduced chance of catching fire?

Edit: Also, what is the actual damage on the Mercury in the Dev App? I want to make sure I have the right numbers, since all I have is a rather old excel file with numbers in it supposedly from 1.3.5. Also found an embarrassing typo: Proximity Ckip XD
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 05, 2014, 12:43:25 am
Stupid forum locking my posts so I can't keep editing them, forcing a double post :/ So, I've done some thinking. Proximity is OP because it basically makes it VERY hard to miss with most weapons, yes? What about making it so it increasing arming time, making said weapons worse in close-range combat? Not only would this provide a potential fix, it also fixes the self-destructing mines of "i want to kill myself with my own mines pls" caused by Proxy, assuming the increased arming time causes the mines to move far enough away (and I hope it does, as that is really why I mention this potential tweak).
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Wundsalz on July 05, 2014, 08:10:04 am
Edit: Also, what is the actual damage on the Mercury in the Dev App? I want to make sure I have the right numbers, since all I have is a rather old excel file with numbers in it supposedly from 1.3.5. Also found an embarrassing typo: Proximity Ckip XD

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nren7iup46pn38f/Hq1BTC1AAs
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Mezhu on July 05, 2014, 11:58:29 am
Maybe lesmok would be more appealing if it had a damage modifier based on distance traveled/maximum potential lesmok range

e.g. -25...+35% damage depending on range;
-25% at point-blank,
+5% at maximum non-lesmok range
+35% at maximum lesmok range

That way it would reward super-long range accurate aiming but would punish gunners for using lesmok just to land an easier shot at ranges where normal would also work. Numbers are kinda random. Makes lesmok less viable for mid-range combat but I'm guessing another ammo can play the mid-range combat role with a lesser muzzle speed increase.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 05, 2014, 05:17:33 pm
Edit: Also, what is the actual damage on the Mercury in the Dev App? I want to make sure I have the right numbers, since all I have is a rather old excel file with numbers in it supposedly from 1.3.5. Also found an embarrassing typo: Proximity Ckip XD

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nren7iup46pn38f/Hq1BTC1AAs

Thanks. Looks like Mercury is still the same. This makes me very happy.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Erheller on July 06, 2014, 03:34:27 pm
The Dev App spreadheet is actually inaccurate. Awkm said a couple weeks ago that it wasn't accurate and I haven't had the time (read: too lazy) to look into possible issues. I've changed the file name to indicate that it's inaccurate and may lead to incorrect conclusions.

That being said, I don't think Mercury damage got changed.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Crafeksterty on July 06, 2014, 08:39:29 pm
I just want to add that we need more conflict of choice between these ammo types.

For example, there not much need for injection if we have greased. Or vice versa. I would combine the forces to add up to one ammo.
Or have injection instead of greased.

I would go away with burst or Proximity, so that there is one. This way, we have one ammo type that does one specific thing.

I would take away charge and let Dense slugs and Dragon ash stay for the sake of conflict of choice.

Take away the drawbacks of Heavy clip to better fit versus Dense slugs

[From here, we have gotten rid off 3 ammo to not be way to abundant with ammo types]


Now, we can add 1 or 2 incredibly niche ammo type much like the Lesmok/Heavy clip/Lochnagar.
Quote
Stealth shot:

Removes all graphical effects, including tracers, projectiles, and particles.
-30% damage.
-10% velocity

seems nice, or...

Quote
Smoke Ammo
The explosion of the gun lasts for 3 seconds longer on direct hits as well as it stays with the enemy ships momentum.
-50% recoil -30% Clip


I even mentioned it before in "Call to arms for gunner ideas" topic
Quote
Im suggesting Straight up replacing greased with injection, Burst with Proximity, Charged with Lungs and Dragon.

Cus #realtalk ammo like greased and burst and charged and 2 others or 1 are very close to being default ammo like.
Having more specific ammo may make more gunner slots more desirable. As ive stated in the Design Paradigm, Game balance, and Gunner vs Engineer topic.


I still think there is a lot to be done.

The direction you are going with the ammo is Right.
But needs to be more right. If you want gunners, then the ammo needs to be specific enough to force the player to also use Default.
If we have a selection of Ammo that are all very niche, we may have 2 gunner on some ship builds. Or ships actualy utilising Default ammo.
Even gunners dont use default ammo because they have choices, but the overall aspect of having these choices is still not as helpfull to builds.

To break the wood of this subject, you must make players want to use default. Which is equal to punching THRU the wood, not at the wood.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 07, 2014, 11:54:44 am
Thanks for the feedback, here are some direct responses:

RE: Buff

The times and strength haven't been balanced.  The time and strength can easily be changed to suit the objectives.

In regards to it building too strong of an offensive (Buffed Hwacha + Proximity, or Buffed Carronade being the examples), there are some new Engineer tools that are still being tested internally that were designed to combat the added strength of ammo.

Increasing reload speeds across the board might be interesting to try, but the easier would just be to decrease Reload Buff modifier as others have already suggested.

RE: Brand new mechanics over new ammo

As I've said many times, new mechanics are not happening until new ammo tests are proven to be a failure.  That's not the case yet.  If failure is where we end up, new mechanics will be investigated.  However, this will not happen for at least another several months as our Engineering Team is booked with building Co-Op functionality.  With that said, new ammo probably won't drop until for a while as well.

RE: Armor Clip

Increased chance of catching fire.  Wording is inconsistent, I'll make a pass later.  Just let me know where these issues are and I will take a look.

Regarding nerfs, I'll take a look.

RE: Proximity Clip

The way Proximity works is that it has a ProximityTrigger value that interacts with the weapon's AoE like this:

Proximity Detonation Distance = ProximityTrigger * AoE size

So if ProximityTrigger is less than 1.0, then it will trigger within the weapon's AoE distance and also cause damage (because it's within AoE distance).  However, the original goal was to make it easier for shoot projectile weapons at long range so an additional ModifyAreaOfEffect is added.

Proximity Detonation  Distance = ProximityTrigger * ( AoE size * ModifyAreaOfEffect )

With the additional ModifyAreaOfEffect (300% in the current state) it'll be easier to hit with projectile weapons and still deal damage.  This is also why damage is nerfed by 50%.

An interesting side effect of large AoE and Proximity Detonation is that weapons can attack multiple ships at once fairly reliably if flying in tight formation.  Might be especially good on Capture Point maps.

Arming time can be added to it to ensure mines work properly.  I'll test and see what happens.  Mines steal a bunch of different values to use for itself so can be some weird behaviors as people already know.

Again, all values can change if deemed unfit.

RE: Charged

I'll take a look and see how to make it stand out more and balance it against Lochnagar.  However, it's looking like Charged may not make the cut in light of the new additions.

Bonus arc?  I really don't want to be too generous with bonus arcs... especially on a weapon that increases DPS.

RE: Heatsink

Yes, there's a lot of stuff going on.  One possibility is to remove its arc related properties and put those into another ammo.  I'll need to think a little more on that one and see if it's actually interesting to dilute ammo to that degree.

RE: Greased

In general, the arc increases need to be decreased.  Too generous with arcs.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Dementio on July 07, 2014, 02:38:04 pm
An interesting side effect of large AoE and Proximity Detonation is that weapons can attack multiple ships at once fairly reliably if flying in tight formation.  Might be especially good on Capture Point maps.

This sounds like you want to make ships viable to be a one-man army, if not even encouraged to go 3v1. I believe a tight formation requires a similar amount of communication, to stay as tight as it is, as it takes for a team to break such a formation up.
With proximity clip, I would just load a hwacha with it, shoot at the 2 enemy ships constantly disabling the both of them and have my ally beat them up without them having a chance to really do something, other than vertical dodging which only works for so long.

I would rather have such a mechanic apply to burst round's AoE effect. Increased AoE AND easier to hit, what more could one ask for? But that's just my subjective view on the matter...
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 07, 2014, 10:38:12 pm
Alright, so this is just number crunching, and it may not necessarily be RIGHT, but it may bring about some useful data, so I figured I'd share some math I did when I was questioning the effectiveness of some of the ammo.

Charged is being looked at as a potential problem ammo right now as I understand it, since Slugs and Ash look more impressive. However, there is actually a major flaw with Charged that may not have been noticed: it is genuinely the worst ammo in this version of the dev app by far. What is the primary purpose of Charged? To increase all of the damage of a gun. However, let's look at 3 of the ammo types that also mess with the damage of the gun for comparison, using the Banshee as the base.

(http://i59.tinypic.com/2h7hpww.png)

In this, it shows that not only is Charged outclassed by Dragon Ash, but even GREASED, the DPS clip, is outclassing it. It also happens to be outclassing the OTHER DPC clip in this case, but that's besides the point. Perhaps instead of my previously mentioned idea (which I still think may warrant looking in to), you might try to make Charged into a high DPC clip, with only decent DPS (and certainly poor compared to Greased or even Default). This gives it a niche that no other clip can fill. Then the more specialized ammo like Ash and Slugs can focus on specialised DPC, combined with a handful of modifiers that basically create an option that meets in the middle between extreme DPS and extreme DPC. This does bring to light however the problem of Greased outshining the "high damage" clips though, so that may want to be looked in to as well. Greased should be the mid-ranged DPS clip regardless, as Injection will definitely fill the far more risky but incredibly effective close-ranged DPS clip.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 08, 2014, 02:27:08 am
Just to throw this out there, as I figured I'd do some experimental math. Instead of how Charged works right now, how about removing the clip reduction? This puts Charged at the highest DPC of any clip. However, this makes it OP you say? Of course, that's why you also reduce the RoF by 50% instead of 30%. Now using that previous example the Banshee has a RoF of 1 shot/sec, for a DPS of only 65.25, vs the 100+ DPS for Greased and even Ash, however the DPC now stands at an amazing 522. Perhaps reductions in rotation speed can also be considered, or something else to act as a serious enough downside to make this not be an auto-pick. The biggest advantage however is on low-clip high damage guns. Depending on the type of gun, Greased, Ash, or Slugs are actually a far better choice. This is an especially BAD choice for a brawler though, simply because you don't have that kind of time in a brawling situation most of the time. Yes, you hit really hard, but you hit slow enough to make other weapons a better option for brawling, like Greased or Injection.

Well, that's my feedback on the situation with Charged at least.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 08, 2014, 11:34:09 am
RE: Charged vs. Greased vs. Dragon Ash

I'd like to point out that taking into account what kinds of damage a weapon is dealing is extremely important.  Raw damage output is not that meaningful.  Once damage has been modified against a particular component before time to kill or shots required to kill that component do calculations become meaningful.  A weapon may have an extremely high raw damage output but deal negligible actual damage to a certain component.

Currently, Charged is still quite threatening and still has high effectiveness against hull and armor for some weapons.  However, for Charged you must deal with its clip size and RoF reduction.

Charged is still a safe ammo to bring.  Ultimately, it may not be that interesting and may end up getting cut if it doesn't get more niche.  A further reduction to RoF, while good on paper, makes weapons painful to use.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 11, 2014, 01:14:00 pm
Another round of updates has been pushed to Dev App.

https://docs.google.com/a/musegames.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As7KK0xlixIbdENCVFEzZ09tUjktaFliLWxKekpDREE&usp=drive_web#gid=7

Let me know what you think.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 11, 2014, 01:16:22 pm
Ok I can't actually get into Dev App right now to refresh the data manually.  I'll let everyone know when it's actually on Dev App.... but the spreadsheet is there with the latest changes.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 11, 2014, 05:04:13 pm
Those are up on Dev App now.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 11, 2014, 05:07:00 pm
Oh and Buff on Gun has been tweaked:

7 hits to apply
Lasts 90 seconds
-15% reload speed
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Milevan Faent on July 11, 2014, 05:30:45 pm
Oh and Buff on Gun has been tweaked:

7 hits to apply
Lasts 90 seconds
-15% reload speed

For those of us who don't normally play Engie, how many hits is it on production, and how long does it last?
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: Squidslinger Gilder on July 12, 2014, 04:27:25 am
Oh and Buff on Gun has been tweaked:

7 hits to apply
Lasts 90 seconds
-15% reload speed

For those of us who don't normally play Engie, how many hits is it on production, and how long does it last?

Its 9 currently.
Title: Re: Gunner Improvements 2.0
Post by: awkm on July 14, 2014, 12:12:03 pm
Ammo testing will need to be postponed for this week since we need Dev App to test the next build.