Eyyy’s Rangers Rebalance, v1.2

The 75th Ranger Regiment is really cool.

This mod adds a new unit, Rangers*, a totally overhauled vanilla-flavored Rangers unit that strives for a more challenging, balanced, and fun pre-1.0-like experience. Countless changes, big and small, have been made with an eye to both realism and balance. This mod is not about shiny new skins or new toys (though there are a few), but is focused on improving core gameplay.

While update 1.0 added a ton of really cool features, it also kind of broke balancing. In particular, vanilla Rangers are now insanely overpowered, with negative aimtimes and >100% crit chances. I intend to fix balancing, starting with the Rangers. This should make the base game fun to play again with vanilla enemies. It’s not all nerfs–I’ve also buffed some things, like LMG’s.

Almost every number and word has been scrutinized and re-written (everything, down to reload times and typos). Re-read the descriptions, a lot have been changed! Balancing was done with a combination of calculations and hundreds of hours of playtesting (hey, I like to play the game!). Yes, I promise you can still beat SSI, and NGF.

Note this mod adjusts a few global parameters, especially by greatly increasing flinch chance (more info in comment below).

I’m open to feedback! Ping me @Eyyy on the discord.

– Flinch chance has been globally hugely increased from 1.0 to 2.5, matching pre-1.0 vanilla. This means that even if you don’t instantly kill an enemy with your first shot or two, you’ll probably still win the gunfight. However, it also means enemies are more likely to stunlock you too, so be warned. In my opinion this change makes firefights much more enjoyable, and improves shooting balancing.
– Due to limitations of the game, note this affects all units and enemies while the mod is active, including from vanilla and other mods! It benefits mods balanced for pre-1.0 gameplay, such as Project ARES and Nowheraki Partisans.

– Complete doctrine rework, focused on making Rangers no longer absurdly broken. No more >100% crit, and no more negative aimtimes. Base shooting is now worse, with doctrines roughly bringing crit and aimtime in line with pre-1.0 values, which are much more natural and realistic but still quite strong.
– Careful attention has been paid to making both full auto and semi auto doctrine paths viable and balanced, but semi auto is intended to be slightly meta. Selecting "Surgical Shooting" with "Point Blank Auto" restores pre-1.0-style shooting with full auto at very close range.
– As a little treat, there are enough doctrine points to unlock the entire tree. If you want more challenge, I’ve designed the doctrines for *15 available points*, one per level instead of two, which you can self-enforce.

– Complete attacktype overhaul for all weapon types, with an emphasis on pre-1.0 balancing. In particular, the glitch that made Rangers have negative aimtime is now fixed. New transitional attacktypes have been added for most weapon classes to bridge the gap between super fast medium range rapid fire and anemic long range aimed fire, so you’ll feel that performance no longer falls off of a cliff at exactly 15 meters.

– All Rangers ammo in the game has been rebalanced with an eye to realism. In particular, new much-needed AP ammo has been added for 5.56 (M995) and .338 Norma (M1162). M855A1 is now the best 5.56 ammo.
– For realism, pistol and SMG bullets have been majorly nerfed across the board in damage and especially crit. No more silliness like the MP5 critting more than the SCAR-H. And the M1911 no longer has an 80% kill chance, sorry Lord Browning.

– Pistols have abandoned their silly careful aimed fire, and now use rapid semi auto. Base aimtime is now better than vanilla so pistols aren’t useless without doctrines, but still much slower than pre-1.0. The mostly-useless and entirely-too-large vanilla pistol doctrine subtree has been massively de-bloated, spend your doctrine points elsewhere!

– MG attacks have been completely reworked. Machine gunners now aim quickly and spray inaccurate bursts, rather than taking their time to aim laser-beam strings. Aim time is now much faster at medium-long range whether mounted or unmounted.
– To enable this, in parallel, MG optics have been totally overhauled. They’ve been optimized for LMG gameplay, and now only apply long-range bonuses when in cover–so that 6x scope won’t help until you mount the gun.
– Machine gunners can now rapidly swap targets, especially when mounted, allowing them to chew up groups of enemies all at once. MG target switching can be further improved via doctrine. This is good for killing zombies 😉
– DMR close range aim time and rate of fire has been buffed, especially for smaller and lighter DMR’s (not M14 or Mk 20).

– Consider this a "lite" version of Rake5000’s excellent "Realistic Grenades and Explosives" mod, with the changes toned down to preserve my vision for gameplay. If you want even more lethal explosives, our mods are now compatible! 🙂
– AT4 can now kill, damage, and stun enemies to some extent behind walls. It also more reliably clears obstacles behind the impacted wall.
– Frag grenades, 40mm, and the AT4 now have a chance to kill people caught in their "injury" radius. This makes them more dangerous, including to civilians and hostages. This extra "fragmentation" damage can be stopped by vests. They also stun for much longer.
– Frag detonates 1.5 seconds after landing instead of 1 second. Use flashbangs if you’re in a rush.
– Flashbangs stun for less time, for realism. Hurry up and chase those bangs into the room.

– Added 9-Bang grenade. Note that effectiveness drops with each successive bang, and the last few are actually just cosmetic.
– Added Micro T-2 optic, competing with the Holo Sight. It has a bit better aimtime than the M68, and actually slightly improves weapon raising speed.
– Added Holo + 3x Magnifier optic. Compared to SpecterDR and 1-6x LPVO, it’s faster at close range (still not as good as basic holo) but worse further out.
– Added M320 for grenadier, who can also now use assaulter’s carbines. The M320 is quicker to fire than in vanilla. Will not function if you’re also carrying a UBGL, no cheating!
– Added back sling M4 for gunner and marksman, replacing their kinda silly M1014.
– Replaced unrealistic G19X with Mk27 Mod 1 (SOCOM-standard G19 and Rangers’ IRL issued pistol). Can equip red dot, but not a suppressor like the Mod 2.
– Added or renamed ammo: 5.56 M995 AP, 6.8 XM1186 GP and XM1184 SP, .338 Norma M1214 MP and M1162 AP, 9×19 Gold Dot G2 JHP.

This description is getting too long. For more info, feel free to dig through the xml files, or even better, ping me on the discord, @Eyyy.

All assets used with permission. Luckily, there aren’t many, yet.
– 9-Bang UI made by Levan, from Project ARES

– A few descriptions modified from DoppelJim’s Nowheraki Partisans mod
– Some stats and descriptions modified from tay’s Ground Branch mod
– Wall penetrating AT4 logic modified from Uberchad’s Wall Penetrating Rocket mod (erm ackshully AT4 is not a rocket launcher)

– Mod ideas from Briz, tay, DoppelJim, Uberchad, RageNClear, alex, Rake5000, Visceral, and others
– Unit equipment knowledge from Briz, Cat, Brian, peck, tay, and others
– Mod organization/formatting/style from tay, Briz, DoppelJim, MSFMiller, and others
– Weapon and ballistics knowledge from meep, dps, and others

– Lots of testing and feedback by RageNClear and Visceral

Big thanks to the DK2 discord community!