Redesigning combat skills for .. fun. In both ways :) (Long pipe dream under costruct

[theFlu]

*** MOTIVATION ***************

My motivation for this is primarily to flesh out the roles for the attributes. Currently, the Combat abilities are primarily in Str and Perc. Agi and Fort do have some combat utility, but they're relatively weak, and don't seem to have a direction of their own. Also, the specialization between weapons is quite limited as is, 80% of point spendage is identical between ranged weapons, and the same for melee - the additional cost to add a weapon is rather trivial.

Longer overview for the specializations point in spoiler:

Spoiler

Currently, combat specialization is practically between renged or melee. You can roleplay a pistol user, but the basic spec for pistols is 5 points away from any other ranged weapon.

Perception 10/10 (22 pts), Boom! Headshot! 5/5 (5 pts), Run and gun 5/5 (5pt) and your chosen specialization (5/5). That's 37 points that most ranged will spend. Additional weapon specializations is now a matter of 5 points, which is pretty trivial in comparison.

For Melee, the situation is similar, to maximise effectiveness for a single weapon type, you'll spend

Str 10/10, Sexual Tyrannosaurus, Skull Crusher, Flurry of Blows (37 general) plus 5 for your weapon type. And then merely another 5 for additional weapons. You don't actually specialize to a specific weapon, more like buy some nifty effect for one.

Don't get me wrong, the current skills are all right, but I would love some more "active", game changing skills.

This "lack" of specialization isn't a problem as such, but it's a design decision that I'd love seeing altered - either towards specialization made more strict, or more, how would you call it, "style-based".

In this, I'm going for style based.

*** GOAL ***************

What I see as designed roles for current attributres (combat wise):

Perception: ranged combat, whether it's "I'll blast you to bits with my shotty before you get to melee" or "I'll take my aim and drop you beating at the wall"

Str: melee combat, in your face, mostly brute force, smacking things dead

Agi: All combat support; You get to sprint while fighting, take a little less damage (dodge lite)

Fort: All combat support; take less damage, don't get stunned, heal over time, ignore sickness

Int: no real combat role, "better equipment", "mines", but I can't see these comparable in the current implementation

I'm trying to achieve something like:

Perc: long range combat - rifles, AKs, pistols, accurate archery. Slow, methodical, sniper style, in trouble when things get close. That would be it, optimally. However, as this game lacks enemies that have anything better to do than to charge at you at full speed, that leaves very little for snipers to do outside tower defense. So, I tried to combine it with a bursty movement style. Take a knee, aim a couple shots, fall back, take a knee, repeat. Or SWAT sweep a POI when you have your AK sorted and your mouse game in order.

Str: short range, stand your ground. "I'll just break your bones before you kill me" Current sledgehammer style, slow, plenty of oompfh, and knockbacks. And flying zombies.

Agi: short and medium range. Fast knife / club work, grappling, hip firing bows, pistols. "Pain animation stunlocks" or "standing stun" stuns repeatedly, slows for short range kiting. Run in, burn your energy quick on a reeling opponent, weave out to rest a bit while maybe firing a bow to kite.

I'm not really touching Fort or Int for now, they would need some new mechanics to consider for "active combat"

Fort: Support; Armor ratings, stun resistance, etc. Over time shields and their use, maybe retaliatory damage (think spiked armor), maybe controls (bolas/nets, other "traps") "tanky combat"

Int: No role. Maybe over time a "preparatory" role, prep the battlefield to your advantage. Things like standalone "pistol turrets" with 25-50 rounds to drop and pickup - not really useful for base defense, but good, fast setup backup out in the field.

And I'm also Trying to stick with the current "equipment" and "design", trying to keep in mind existing gun mods, leaving flat damage increases to the weapons, etc. - something that could be implementable for A17 vanilla, maybe. Not trying to claim I did a good job at this - I'm actually hoping to be laughing at some insane combo that someone points out instantly...

 

[Crater Creator]

For future reference, you can reply to your own post after a delay; I think it’s 5 minutes.

 

[theFlu]

Hmm.. interesting. Seemed to work, thanks

Perception

Perception (+50% ranged damage, +20% accuracy (the default stats seem pretty fine to me for all attributes)):

Weapons of choice: Rifles, marksman pistol (the regular pistol, just used accurately), AK, crossbow

Boom! Headshot!: after landing a headshot (or killing with a headshot?), 20% morale increase. Killings will continue until morale improves, up to 100% morale. (recover sta, slight damage buff).

- "After hitting a head, 2/4/6/8/10% damage. Stacks 5 times."

"3-5/5 Also gain 1/2/3 Stamina regen for the buff duration"

(the morale is a joke. stacking a buff for the headhunter, 5x 10% damage? 10x10%? Sta somewhat for "AK run and gun" )

Aim to kill: while aiming a ranged weapon, gain 10..50% more damage over time (~5-10 seconds) for the next shot (reset for shots fired (or maybe not?), swapping weapons, sprinting. Or just charge up for aiming, reset when not aiming)

- "While aiming a ranged weapon, gain up to 10/20/30/40/50% damage increase over time."

Weapon discipline: 20% Reload speed increase, 50% reduced recoil

- "4/8/12/16/20% Reload speed increase, 10/20/30/40/50% reduced recoil"

Steady hands: 25% aim speed increase, 10-20% hip accuracy

- "5/10/15/20/25% aim speed increase, 4/8/12/16/20% hip fire accuracy"

Sniper training: while crouching (and stationary?), 50% reload speed increase (think rapid firing a bolt lock rifle), aim speed? +25% and aimed accuracy? +XX

- "While crouched reload and aim weapons 10/20/30/40/50% faster."

Repositioning!: For 1-2 sec after an aimed shot (hit), sprinting speed increased by 50%, (maybe with sprinting stamina drain up by 50% .. careful with ANY drawback though, such might cripple an unsuspecting melee player eventually)

- "For 2 seconds after an aimed shot, increase sprint speed by 10/20/30/40/50%"

Lucky Loooter as is

Salvage Operations as is

Essentially we need two more to fill to 10, Camouflage would make sense here, move from Agi (esp when agi got combat skills, it started bloating)

- Straight up move 'Hidden Strike' from Agi to here

- Straight up move 'From the Shadows' from Agi to here, rename to 'Camo' and maybe give some improvements "in the light" as well

** Other Ideas ...

Smoke screen to get outta dodge (drop light values in an area?, probably not trivial to implement, would at least require visuals. Plus more logical as items than skills, and as such, probably as int or fort combat)

Environmetallist: Recover spent brass (20-60%?)

Custom loading: allow crafting custom ammo (9mm into hollowpoint/mercury filled for a knockback, phosphorus(fire)/steel core(armor pierce) for 7.62 and .44, heavier/sharper/bleedier bolts). Recipes from ammo to ammo in a workbench (modifying the existing).

magazine size..? makes little sense as a perk

 

[theFlu]

Strength

Str (+50% melee damage):

Weapons of choice: Heavy (Sledge, Axe, Picks?) and Medium (Club, Machete), Shotgun. Explosives?

Stay down: Pretty reliable Knockback effects on both blunt weapons (clubs, sledges, (also a smaller chance for shotguns?)). 50% single target on normal hit, 25% as area effect on power swings.

- " Using a blunt weapon, 10/20/30/40/50% chance to knock down an opponent"

- 3-5/5 "Power attacks have a 10/20/30% chance to knock down nearby foes"

Heavy Metal into: Aoe Damage for Power attacks for Axes and Sledges. Everything in range will suffer.

- "You have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance of hitting an extra opponent with Power attacks" (and "Additional hits can cause weapon effects")

- 3/5 "Strong enough to bash through three opponents"

- 5/5 "Hitting everything in range"

Slash punk: Bladed dismemberment and bleed (all blades, including knives, single target bleed full at 3/5 to play well with Agi). Power attack (lowered) aoe damage (with hopefully weapon mod procs) Maybe small aoe chance for decapitating side targets on Power hits (tiny (1..5%) chance per target within aoe, not a small chance to decapitate all in range)

(For this description, I'm assuming Heavy metal can apply weapon-skill procs, making the bleed / decapitate effects aoe:able with both skills. With seperate proc chance per target)

- 1-3/5 "Blade hits have a 20/40/60% chance to cause a bleed" (could be just filled to 100% at 3)

- 3-5/5 "Blades have a chance to decapitate an enemy, the heavier the the easier" (2/4/6 for knives, 3/6/9 for Machetes, 5/10/15 for axes ..?)

Sexy Saurus: Heavy weapon hits increase sta regen by 10..50% for 10 secs (5/sec, 50 over ten, similar to current 50/kill, but more reliable and might consume food.. ). (Would add for clubs too, but that might break with Agi)

- "Heavy weapon hits increase Sta regen by 10/20/30/40/50% for 10 seconds"

(If mining needs rebalancing, add sta preserving/regen per block hit to miner69'er)

Adrenaline junkie: Taking damage fills you with rage and increases melee damage done by .. up to 100%. For a couple of seconds. Include shotty?

- "Taking damage increases melee damage by 20/40/60/80/100%"

Firm footing: 50% more melee damage while standing still (no walking, no running), + maybe minor stun resistance (Realistically would be "knockdown resistance" but that's not a threat in the current game)

- "Increase melee and shotgun damage while stationary by 10/20/30/40/50%"

- "3-5/5, Additionally, gain 10/20/30% stun resistance"

Skull Crusher: remove, or reduce significantly. (Hitting heads is already twice as effective, decapitation-wise lot more than that. Remove to allow Agi to keep up without a copy/paste job or turn into a 3/3, req Str 1,3,5, remove the decapitation)

Miner 69er, Mother Lode for rebalancing harvesting if needed

Pack Mule as is

 

[theFlu]

Agility

Agi (+100 sta, maybe add 10-20% general attack speed?):

Weapons of choice: Medium (Club, Machete) and Light (Hunting Knife, fist), Bows, SMG, spray and pray pistol?

Skill group "Dexterous pugilist:"

Flurry of Blows: (MOVED here) Add medium and light weapon swing speed (dramatically, up to double speeds (Not mining tools!!)). (could be a buildup "for momentum" (5% per swing/hit, up to 25% x4?) ) Trading STA for damage, turning into burstier fighting. Possibly Both animation Timing and delay between swings. Include bows?

- "Increase Light and Medium weapon speed by 15/30/45/60/75%"

- "3-5/5 Each normal melee hit grants Flurry of Pain, 'Increase power attack Damage by 3/6/9%', stacks 10 times." (Buff stack lasts for short enough not to refresh after one (or two) power attacks (duration: taking into account the 3/5 speed increase, roughly 2 quick machete attacks). Hopefully making it impossible to apply to Heavy weapons)

Reading the opponent: Each time you land a normal melee hit, you get,

a) optimally 10..50% dodge for .. 0.3 seconds? (would need a new mechanic to "ignore" hits)

b) could be also implemented as "you have a chance to gain damage reduction for 0.3s", but this could become very "tanky")

c) if buffs can be "consumed by damage": 50% damage resistance for half a second or one hit. You can "track" and mitigate one target, but don't dive in to a group.

or d) maybe optionally, a burst of extra walking speed for "manual dodging"

- "Gain 5/10/15/20/25% walking speed for 0.5 secs after landing a light blow." (name change to "Thrill of the Fight"?)

Joint warfare: Accurately attacking joints (aka leg shots, maybe also body) causes a slow / short stun, for keeping multiple opponents back while recharging. (as in mainly for ranged, maybe also melee)

- "Hits to legs have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to slow the opponent"

- 3-5/5 "All hits have a 10/20/30% chance to stun the opponent" (20/40/60%?)

"Smell of blood in the morning": Causing a bleed regenerates STA. Preferably over time (Go in, stack fast, out of stamina, retreat to recover your 200 pool quickly (speed up regen for the idea of the "weaving", 200 sta at normal regen takes 20 seconds of idling) Absolutely no logic to it, but hey ho )

Alternatively, with more of a "healthy parkourista" vibe:

Keep hydrated: While below 25(50?) STA, drinking a bottled water recovers 20/40/60/80/100 STA over 5 seconds. (Can use one per weave, shortens "downtime" to 9-10 secs. Can't imagine anyone bothering to stack bottled water for mining (if it's otherwise balanced right), but for a quick combat buff, maybe?) Could also add "while adove 105% hydration, increase sprint speed by 15/30%"

- "While below 25 STA, drinking a bottled water recovers 20/40/60/80/100 STA over 5 seconds"

Charging bully (remove): During and AFTER (1 sec?) sprinting, General damage buff (10..50%). (the current WHILE sprinting mechanic requires timing to be too perfect, the damage reduction doesn't really feel Agile)

Instead of bull:

Applied Momentum: Blows delivered while and shortly after sprinting have a significantly increased chance of (stuns/knockdowns/dismemberments). Preferably knockdowns. At 5/5 aoe knockdown? Needs a "cooldown"? (Only after at least 1 sec of continuous sprinting? give hidden buff for 1 sec at start of sprint, change to "applied buff" if still sprinting, "applied buff" expires and rechecks sprinting every .5 secs? Refreshes for 0.3 after expiration to give a chance to aim better while laggy..? )

- "Sprinting increases chance to knockdown and decapitate by 10/20/30/40/50%" (Implemented by held weapon type, blunts knockdown, bladed decapitate)

- 3-5/5 "20/40/60% chance for aoe knockdown upon impact" (regardless of weapon type, more of a multi-body-slam)

Multitasking: Chew gum, run and reload weapons at the same time 20..100% more effectively. (Run and gun replacement)

- "Reduce movement penalty for reloading by 20/40/60/80/100%"

- 3-5/5 "Hip firing fire rate increased by 10/20/30%" (Including bows)

Takedown / neck break: fist attacks have a high change to knock down an opponent (hitting legs 100%, body 25-50%?) Power fist attacks to downed opponent head, chance to break neck (kill and give the ragdoll head a spin or just decapitate).

- "Hitting opponent with fists allows to attempt a grapple knockdown; 20/40/60/80/100% for leg hits, less for other body parts"

- 3-5/5 "Neck Break: Unarmed Power attacks to downed opponents head have a 30/60/90% chance to cause massive damage. It might still bite, just keep away."

(Could include small knives, they're usable as "handles" in grappling, and could use some love to compete with machetes)

Group "Athletics:" (Can bring "Keep hydrated" here as well, not "smell of blood" though...)

Cardio: roughly as is, or use for an alternative to smell of blood.

Keep Parkour, it's awesome.

Ninja movement.. as is plus maybe, if possible, light armor movement penalty reduction (to allow military gear, although sticking to padded armor + mods should be easily viable, just odd to wear Tier 1 purples... )

Olympic swimmer, combine with .. any of the above 3 to cut a perk.

From the shadows to Perc

Hidden Strike to Perk

Light armor .. to Fort. Maybe a combined one for armor. The armor penalties need to be the deciding factor "in end game" anyway, not the chosen tree.

Considerations;

- You'll eventually get them all, so the control from Agi combined with the brute force from Str will still need to be "overcomable" by hordes. I tried keeping Agi mostly single target DPS with a decent "crowd control" and Str as an Aoe DPS

- There's some intentional interplay between Agi and Str, and Agi and Perc, but the combinations probably need a lot more thought

- No thought of any kind has been given to the actual numbers. Well, plenty has been, but they're pretty impossible to get right without trying them out. Which would require me to get to know modding...

- Popping melons mechanic could use a place in the default game, so it doesn't need to be implemented thrice

- Is the STR mechanic of trying to stay still rewarding, or just annoying? The point is to reward standing still with massive damage, which requires ACCURATE melee to, you know, not get eaten.. but the result may be that you'll just have to move and feel gimped because of that.