Rato’s Gameplay Balance and Overhaul
This mod aims to provide a balanced but very challenging experience, improving depth of gameplay and incorporating some realistic mechanics. Guns are balanced by their score and are unique; explosives are not perfectly accurate; and fights realistically lead to incapacitation prior to death by new wounding and bleeding mechanics.
For now there are 3 main overhauls:
- Gun overhaul
- Wounding overhaul
- Explosives overhaul
- Stealth overhaul
You can check all the weapon’s stats in this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H-FabqarVxvAz2jkfr5-1ilo4YDhT_YYVAFg1zroFvU/edit?usp=sharing
- Weapon calibers are realistic, so two weapons with the same caliber will have very similar damage. There is room for variations depending on the class of the weapon or other aspects.
- Lighter calibers tend to have more aim bonuses.
- New calibers: 5.45×30 and 7.62x54R, created by SunmakerXD.
- All weapons, including uniques, were rebalanced according to a scoring system that attributes points to each of the weapon’s characteristics. The score was then compared with the value of the weapon. As such, higher value weapons = better weapons.
- There have been changes to make each weapon unique. Even direct upgrades have differences that can make them worse for specific builds.
- Weapons classes were changed to dominate a specific range and have a specific function.
- Burst fire damage is multiplied by 1,2, autofire damage is multiplied by 1,2 and run and gun damage is multiplied by 1,4.
- Overwatch has no extra attack. Total attacks = (AP/attack cost) + perks + weapon mods.
- Snipers were balanced. They have less damage than burst weapons, but high range, aim and critical scaling.
- Every weapon that has a tag (like "High Crit" or "High Damage") was updated to reflect this tag.
- All hits with firearms cause bleeding.
Weapon class:
- 9mm pistols: have -1 ap cost. Low range, low damage, good aiming. Balanced for dual-wield.
- Snipers: have very high critical damage scaling. High aim and range, medium damage.
- (NEW)SMGs: have extra 15% damage against flanked targets. Medium-low range, medium aim, medium damage.
- ARs: have good damage with new burst fire changes. They tend to not have weaknesses in any aspect, being jack of all trades, and also tend to have good customization. 7.62 has high penetration and high damage, low aim; 5.45 have medium damage, medium penetration and medium aim, 5.56 have medium damage, light penetration, high aim.
- MGs: have been rebalanced, have good damage and overwatch, low aim and medium range. Still a WIP.
- Shotguns: have extreme damage, very low range, medium aim. Still a WIP.
- Revolvers: have medium range, medium damage, good critical scaling and good aim. Still a WIP.
Specific weapon changes:
- Uzi shoots 4 bullets in burst fire (this does not apply to run and gun). It makes it have more potential on dual wield setups, and I think this adds to the weapons identity.
- Double barrel shotgun has 15% static crit, and no scaling. It is destructive when close by any hands, but you can’t do much better than that.
- Tex’s revolvers have the highest crit ceiling, so they can grow in potential as he does.
- M14 is now semi auto. Has new default mod: Extended Heavy Barrel, +6 range, bonus to single shot accuracy. Adds a mid game alternative to snipers, competing with the Winchester.
- As Winchesters 1895 had 7.62x54R versions, it is now possible for a crazy mechanic in Gran Chien to modify an W1894 to do the same.
- Some weapons lost access to recoil boosters so that they would not be the only efficient choice owing to buffed burst damage.
- The 2 top rifles have very high critical values.
(NEW)
Does it make sense when someone at 10% HP keeps fighting as well as when he had 100%?
These changes were implemented to emulate progressive incapacitation in a gunfight due to wounds. These make fights more tense, because an early mistake or brilliant play can make fights snowball. Also gives tactical depth of retreating (in terms of range or even from the sector) when hurt.
- Wounds: now cause Accuracy penalty (-6%) and AP penalty (-1) by stack. The threshold to apply wounds has been increased (you need to take a bit more damage).
- Bleeding: applied by every weapon hit, causes HP lost per turn (5), AP penalty (-1) and Accuracy penalty (-5%) until bandaged. Penalties reduced. I’m trying to work out a way to make these apply only on unarmored hits (WIP), and might tweak their values later.
- Maimed: essentially a superior bleed, it is a new status effect that HP ammo and similar have. It will stack with bleed, practically doubling its value – HP ammo applies both. HP lost (10), AP penalty (-1), Acc penalty (-10%)
Minimum mishap chance is very high, but the range of the offset is minimal. Even with the best explosive experts, grenades will be more realistically thrown and not pixel perfect, always having a chance of a slight offset. You should calculate the "general area" where you want the grenade to go. I have uploaded a screenshot with the average variation of a grenade landing.
Timed explosives have less chance of mishap.
Proximity explosives are like vanilla in terms of mishap, but their action costs 7 AP, I feel they should work more as a trap than an explosive you would use mid combat. The extra AP is your "setting it" even though you have to throw.
Specific changes:
Tweaked Shaped Charges values (nerfed)
Shaped Charges, HE, and stick grenades apply bleeding now, the others explosives had a 10% damage boost.
New flashbang, now has the following effects:
- Suppresses;
- Dazes (new effect, essentially a superior Blind, which inflicts a hefty penalty in CTH);
- Cancel overwatch and pin down;
- Also, it is loud like it is supposed to be.
Suppressors no longer completely silence your gun, they cut the noise radius by half. To effectively sneak, you need to use Subsonic ammo now, a type of bullet designed to travel slowly and be less loud. The game comes with 9mm subsonic, but I have added variants of other kinds, accessible through crafting.
Subsonic ammo gives penalty to damage, aim accuracy and range. They also, even when paired with a suppressor, don’t completely silence your gun. Different calibers of subsonic will have different efficiency. I will post a screenshot explaining the ranges of each caliber further.
Unsuppressed guns now make much more noise, be careful as they could as well attract the attention of surrounding groups of enemies when you start a fight.
Ugly suppressor is back! It decreases aim bonus and reliability, and silences your gun less effectively than a suppressor. Don’t use it, please!
Note:
This mod uses the 5.45 and 7.62x54R calibers made by SunmakerXD. His mod, for now archived, made mine possible and here I salute him.
This mod also uses Increased Damage Automatic Fire made by Hoshi.
Very much a WIP, anyone is welcome to weigh in and share their experiences and opinions.