Change: Increase GLA Bomb Truck Bio Bomb range bonuses by +25%, +30% and stack Bio Bomb + High Explosive range bonuses to +45%, +54%

[xezon]

• old PR Change: Increase GLA Bomb Truck Bio Bomb range bonuses by +25%, +30% and stack Bio Bomb + High Explosive range bonuses to +45%, +54% #950
• Fixes Demo GLA Bomb Truck deals same damage as regular Bomb Truck #944
• Fixes GLA Bomb Truck Bio Bomb upgrade does not grant any practical benefit #800

This change reduces the cost of Bio Bomb upgrade, consolidates the range bonus with High Explosive Upgrade, and stacks them if both upgrades are installed on host vehicle. The effective primary and secondary damages remain the same.

This change in turn rewards Bio Bomb and Bio Bomb + High Explosives with more damage range, which can inflict damage to more things in area and therefore increase effectiveness of Truck attack.

Additionally Demo High Explosive bonus range is matched with Regular Bio Bomb + High Explosive, which in turn makes the Demo High Explosive upgrade more valuable for the same price as the the regular High Explosive upgrade.

A fully upgraded Bomb Truck will cost 1900, as opposed to 2200 before. It can be used once only.

HE = High Explosive
BB = Bio Bomb

Upgrade	Price	Damage	Primary Range	Secondary Range	Perks
Original HE	500	+100%	+25%	+30%
Original BB	500	+0%	0%	+0%	Toxin Puddle
Patched BB (this)	200	+0%	+25%	+30%	Toxin Puddle
Original HE + BB	1000	+100%	+25%	+30%	Toxin Puddle
Patched HE + BB (this)	700	+100%	+45%	+54%	Toxin Puddle
Original Demo HE	500	+100%	+25%	+30%
Patched Demo HE (this)	500	+100%	+45%	+54%

Bomb Truck buff list in a nutshell:

• 300 cheaper BB upgrade
• More range with BB upgrade
• More range with HE + BB upgrade

Stats

Default Primary damage is 1000. Upgraded 2000.
Default Secondary damage is 100. Upgraded 200.

Primary damages are unchanged. HE Bomb Truck is very good at destroying buildings. Adding 500 extra damage to Bio Bomb and stacking it with High Explosive would be non consequential against most structures, but would allow 1 Bio Bomb Truck to destroy AmericaStrategyCenter, 3 upgraded Bomb Trucks to destroy Command Center and 3 fully upgraded Bomb Trucks to deal 90% damage to Superweapons. Armor setup of Superweapons shields Bomb Truck damage well.

Structure	Health	HE Truck count	Regular Truck count	Caused damage
GLAPalace	3000	1		66%
AmericaStrategyCenter	1500		1	66%
ChinaPropagandaCenter	1000	1		100%
AmericaWarFactory	2000	1	2	100%
ChinaWarFactory	2000	1	2	100%
GLAArmsDealer	2000	1	2	100%
ChinaNuclearMissileLauncher	4000	2	4	80%
GLAScudStorm	4000	2	4	80%
AmericaParticleCannonUplink	4000	2	4	80%
GLACommandCenter	5000	3	6	96%
AmericaCommandCenter	5000	3	6	96%
ChinaCommandCenter	5000	3	6	96%
ChinaSupplyCenter	2000		1	100%
AmericaSupplyCenter	2000		1	100%
GLASupplyStash	2000		1	100%
AmericaSupplyDropZone	1000		1	100%
GLABlackMarket	1000		1	100%

The Primary damage is an overkill for most vehicles. 1000 damage will deal 90% damage to regular Overlord. The secondary damage is strong enough to critically injure infantry. 100 damage will deal 90% damage to soldiers. 200 damage will kill infantry, and also light vehicles. Veteran and upgraded vehicle will suffer less damage accordingly.

Vehicle	HE Truck count	Caused secondary damage
GLAVehicleRocketBuggy	1	100%
GLAVehicleTechnical	1	100%
GLAVehicleToxinTruck	1	80%
GLAVehicleQuadCannon	1	70%
GLATankScorpion	1	60%
AmericaVehicleTomahawk	1	100%
AmericaVehicleHumvee	1	85%
AmericaTankAvenger	1	70%
AmericaLaserTank	1	40%
AmericaTankCrusader	1	40%
AmericaTankMicrowave	1	40%
ChinaVehicleInfernoCannon	1	100%
ChinaTankECM	1	80%
ChinaTankDragon	1	80%
ChinaTankGattling	1	70%
ChinaTankBattlemaster	1	50%
ChinaTankOverlord	1	20%

Rationale

Original Bio Bomb is expensive and only gives the Toxin Puddle perk. The puddle kills infantry in a radius of 80 for 30 seconds - if it would walk over it. It is useless for most practical needs in late game, because toxin puddles can be removed with force fire to the ground or simply not be stepped on with soldiers and other units.

The increased damage radius gives the Bio Bomb a boost in effective damage area, +56% over Default and +112% over Default in combination with High Explosive. This is double area damage boost. However, practically Bomb Truck is mostly concerned about damage in front of it, as there typically will be no enemy units behind a Bomb Truck where it just passed through. Therefore, practically the Bomb Truck does not benefit from area damage bonus as much as a projectile such as a SCUD Missile would. We therefore are mostly counting on a +25% over Default range increase, and in combination with High Explosive bomb a +50% over Default or +20% over High Explosion range increase.

Primary Radius	Area	Area increase over 40	Area increase over 50
40	5026
50	7854	+56%
58 (this)	~ 10682	~ +112%	~ +36%
60	11310	+125%	+44%

Secondary Radius	Area	Area increase over 65	Area increase over 85
65	13273
85	22698	+71%
100 (this)	~ 32123	~ +142%	~ +41.5%
105	34636	+160%	+52%

The increased range does make the unit more competitive. It fits well within ranges of comparable weapons.

Weapon	PrimaryDamageRadius	SecondaryDamageRadius
Original SCUDLauncherGunExplosive	50	100
Original NukeCannonGun	50	60
Original SupW_FuelBombDetonationWeapon	70
Original SuicideDynamitePack	18	50
Original SuicideBikeBomb	20	50
Original BombTruckBioBombDamage	40	65
Original BombTruckHighExplosionBioBombDamage (HE)	50	85
Patched BombTruckBioBombDamage (BB) (this)	50	85
Patched BombTruckHighExplosionBioBombDamage (HE+BB) (this)	58	100

Weapon	PrimaryDamage	SecondaryDamage
Original SCUDLauncherGunExplosive	300	50
Original NukeCannonGun	400	50
Original SupW_FuelBombDetonationWeapon	300
Original SuicideDynamitePack	500	300
Original SuicideBikeBomb	700	10
Original BombTruckBioBombDamage	1000	100
Original BombTruckHighExplosionBioBombDamage (HE)	2000	200
Patched BombTruckBioBombDamage (BB) (this)	1000	100
Patched BombTruckHighExplosionBioBombDamage (HE+BB) (this)	2000	200

Most ground units have an attack range of 150 or more, so are certainly able to stop an approaching Bomb Truck. It's new secondary damage range of max 100 will give Bomb Truck a better chance to deal some damage to enemy units.

The reduced price from 500 to 200 is reasonable, because the High Explosive upgrade costs 500 and gives a much more valuable bonus with +100% damage.

Bio Bomb is now worth the investment, as it gives an effective range bonus, both alone and in combination with the High Explosive upgrade.

If the ranges turn out to be too powerful in practice, then they can be reduced a bit.

Could it be too powerful?

Unlikely. Unlike Demo Bike, Bomb Truck is not spammable in swarms. It will kill all allied units nearby and almost kill nearby friendly Bomb Trucks. In practice only one at a time can be sent to reduce risk of total loss. Additionally it has a long build time of 15 and will essentially block production for other units that could be of more use.

Bomb Truck also requires Palace, meaning it is not usable in early game. By that time, an opposing USA could already have Strategy Center and Humvees with +20% range bonus, China could have ECM Tanks, Lotus and GLA could have Rocket Buggies to stop incoming Bomb Trucks.

A Bomb Truck remains a risky investment that may not pay off at all.

Media

Default, Bio Bomb, High Explosive, HE Bio

The Bio HE Shockwave is a bit to bright, it was tweaked already but was not captured in this video.

bomb_truck_expl_bio.mp4

Default, Anthrax Bomb, High Explosive, HE Anthrax

bomb_truck_expl_anthrax.mp4

Default, Gamma Bomb, Demo Default, Demo High Explosive

Note the trucks are parked a bit closer to the enemy vehicles, so the Demo HE Truck actually killed a lot more.

The Gamma Shockwave is a bit to bright, and pink, it was tweaked already but was not captured in this video.

bomb_truck_expl_gamma.mp4

[xezon]

Can we merge this?

[xezon]

I noticed one more error where Demo Bomb Truck without HE had yellow instead of red shockwave. Fixed.