Aftershock: Damage rebalance I (Ballistic weapons)

[John-Candlebury]

Summary

Mods "Aftershock:Rebalance Ballistic Weapons"

Purpose of change

I was adding a turbolaser turret for one of Quill's map and I noticed that assigning armor values to monster was hard and needed you to test combat with many different weapons to judge balance. This is cubersome and can easy lead to balancing mistakes, so in here I'm trying to conceptualize a more standarized system based on armor and HP breakpoints that is simpler to test,

Describe the solution

Monster and player armor should be understood to exist in the following categories: unarmored, light armor, medium, Heavy, Vehicle/Structure. These categories should have the following defensive ratings:

Armor	Cut	Bash	Ballistic	Laser	Plasma	Electric
Light	10	7.5	15	0	0	0
Medium	20	15	30	10	0	0
Heavy	50	37	60	30	20	10
Vehicle	70	50	90	70	50	25

According to this armor breakpoints the current ammo types have been balanced as follows:

Type	Default ammo	Damage of default	AP of default	Design intent
00 shot	12 g buckshot	9x15	0	Deals with lightly armored foes at a disadvantage and deals little to no damage to medium armor. Many specialty variants.
10mm	10mm JHP	31	0	Deals with lightly armored foes at a disadvantage and deals little to no damage to medium armor.
7.5mm	7.5mm caseless	40	15	Cleanly defeats light armor, deals with medium armor at a disadvantage and deals little to no heavy to medium armor.
25mm	25mm ball	80	30	Cleanly defeats medium armor, deals with heavy armor at a strong disadvantage.
3x35mm	GG Stinger	8	30	Cleanly defeats medium armor, deals very low damage. Default ammo is considered the AP variant.
Rail Rod	Steel rail	90	40	Cleanly defeats heavy armor, deals with vehicle armor at a disadvantage.

To balance specialty rounds use the following rule:

• AP ammo recieves +15 ballistic armor piercing at the cost of -10 damage.
• Specialty ammo has the damage of AP ammo and the armor piercing capability of the default round + whatever special effect is granted. If the specialty effect is a strong AOE AP might be reduced further.

Aditionally monsters should have the following stats depending on their monster archetype

Monster Archetype	Example	Estimate HP	Armor	Melee Damage Die	Speed	Notes
Small Alien Fauna	Hevel	<30	unarmored
Alien Herbivore	Venandi	100	unarmored
Alien Predator	Boatman	300	light armor
Alien Fauna Bossfight	none yet	700+	heavy armor
Moxphore Grunt	Scavenger	80	unarmored			Regens ~10hp
Moxphore Specialized	Elder	140	light armor or medium			Regens ~15hp
Moxphore Armored	Spartan	200	medium armor			Regens ~15hp
Moxphore Bossfight	none yet	1500+	heavy armor			Regens ~30hp
Small Utility Drone	Eyebot	30	light armor
Flying Utility Drone	eyebot	30	unarmored
Human/Medium Utility Robot	seneschal	150	medium armor
Large Utility Robot	Udarnik	600	medium armor
Small Combat Drone	none yet	80	light armor			Armor is up to X3 the base rating
Human/Medium Combat Drone	Isohypsa	600	heavy armor			Armor is up to X3 the base rating
Large Combat Drone	Zenit	1500	vehicle			Armor is up to X3 the base rating
Robot Bossfight	none yet	4500+	vehicle + omnishield			Armor is up to X3 the base rating
Salvor	SALVOR NPC	80	light armor
UICA/Mercenary Grunt	UICA NPC	80	heavy armor			Armor is blative and wont last
UICA specops/Solos	SOLO NPC	120+shield	heavy armor + omnishield			Armor is blative and wont last

Testing

Needs changes to the monster themselves to make sure it plays properly, but the math checks out.