Changes included:
Warhead code split out of weapon code and refactored.
Warhead functionality now split into several classes, each handling one effect/impact.
Additional custom warheads can now be defined and called via yaml.
Custom warheads inherit the abstract class Warhead,
which provides target check functions.
Custom warheads have to define their own impact functions,
and can also define their own replacement for check
functions.
Bike spam is quite effective, and seems almost too good at silencing opposition. After playtesting, it was found that reducing the speed of rockets gives whoever they are engaging a chance to fire back before dying.
(RangeLimit increased to compensate for speed change, to keep it above 6).
The Mobile SAM has been shown to be exceptionally powerful in small groups, being able to annihilate large groups of helis. While the cost could be increased, it seems like a few changes for now would be good and mitigate some of the OPness.
Changes:
-Replace quick-firing 2-burst and replace it with 1 shot per second.
-Reduce damage to 32. This will make it kill Apaches in 4 shots instead of 3.
-Reduce missile speed from 426 to 341. (This will also effectively reduce range limit from 12.5 cells to 10).
Note: the "Range" value of the Stealth Tank remains the same.
It has been noticed that the missiles of the stealth tank seem to go on for forever (~11.5 cells), making them inescapable; their range is 7, so this is a large difference. Their range limit is being reduced so they will travel only 8.3 cells now.
Playtesting has shown that the Stealth Tank is a little bit too good against infantry, which are supposed to be its (soft) natural counter. They are the only units which can detect the stealth tanks, so it's important that they not die too easily. Right now it seems that stealth tanks are able to sit and fight infantry very easily, especially since they outrange them. This change will discourage stealth tanks from engaging infantry without care.
As mentioned earlier, the reduction of the flame tank cost from $800 to $600 made it a bit too powerful. Playtesting with damage reduced to this level seemed to be reasonable.
The reason for reducing the cost to $600 was that few people were playing with the flame tank, since it costed a lot more than other units like the light tank. It seemed to be too much of a specialist and the added construction time (and cost) didn't appear to be worth it to players. It also seemed that people were not interested in risking the unit in battlefield offensives due to its cost. Part of the changes to the unit (increased damage vs. light, heavier armor, lower cost) were to make it more accessible for use against light vehicles (such as artillery), which it can destroy quickly, but which often result in its own death. A lower cost made the unit more usable in most mixed forces.
MaxSpread to increase damage within the hit area, but keep area of effect
itself relatively low.
Additionally increased damage to make it less inferior to Nukes.
Grenadier is a wee bit too powerful vs. everything.
This will keep its value vs. heavy armor still very high, but not OP like it is for the cost.
(Grenadier will still have highest DPS vs. heavy as a function of cost, after this nerf).
Grenadiers actually do more damage than flamethrowers vs. buildings, which is counter-intuitive and not in keeping with flavour and design intent. They should be good vs. buildings, but not quite this good, especially given that they are cheaper than flamethrowers. This nerf still allows them to be effective at taking out buildings, but not quite as blindingly fast at destroying them.
It seemed that the tanks were inept at hurting buildings and needed a boost. However, after playtesting, it's clear that Nod's flame tank is already exceptional at destroying buildings, and the recon bikes are quite decent at it, too. Thus, the light tank's effectiveness at killing buildings is overlapping with the flame tank (same tech level & cost), making most Nod units effective at hurting buildings. So, I think this is in order to preserve distinct roles among the vehicles.
Since Chem warriors are awesome vs. everything, I think it would make sense to make them not quite as awesome vs. buildings. There is a bit of a lack of dinstinction between chem and flamers, and right now it doesn't appear to players like it makes much sense to build flamers when you can build chems instead. This will keep "burning buildings down" as the forte of the flame throwers.
The chems will still be decent vs. wood, but not as crazy as they have been.
To give some units a chance to escape, limiting RangeLimit of these rockets. Basically it is because if you get within range with a vehicle, but then quickly turn around to get out of range, the missile will follow you for quite a long ways, well beyond its initial range. There is currently no way to escape the missile. This allows a unit which is very fast to stand a chance of escaping a shot instead of having no chance.
Apache, for all its greatness, doesn't do very well at one of the things it's supposed to do well, namely take out light vehicles quickly (humvee, artillery, MLRS, etc.). Apache is required for Nod as a reliable way to take out MLRS, but currently it doesn't do enough damage to take it out with its entire payload (which takes 4 seconds to unload, to boot). A single Apache should be able to destroy an MLRS, if it gets the chance.
If anyone thinks the Apache needs nerfing, I would suggest looking in other areas besides its damage vs. light armor.
Also, does anyone object to removing the AG/AA distinctions for helicopters? They don't seem needed anymore.
Artillery was recently buffed, but I think this makes the fact that they can currently fire at close range is not appropriate. I think artillery should be vulnerable to units that are able to get quite close, instead of being able to fire at them and do massive damage.
The reason min. range of 2c896 was picked is that when you set min. range to 3c0, it is not able to fire exactly 3 cells away. Perhaps the behaviour should change so that 3c0 = 3 cells away.
(For comparison, MLRS has minimum range of 3).
Machine gun seems to be under-performing vs. infantry
Give it 5 bursts instead of 4. Will allow it to kill E3s more effectively.
Despite this change, overall damage vs. Light armor is not increased since Release.
After playtesting, it seems the grenade is a *bit* too slow. Keeping it slow, but bringing its speed from 5 -> 7. (Original value was 12)
Looks reasonable.
Also giving 100% vs. infantry instead of 90%.
The recent armor change for turrets made airstrike no longer killed it.
Made Napalm do more damage to Heavy (and light); made Vulcan do less damage to Heavy so that airstrikes don't do too much damage to advanced towers, obelisks and SAM sites.
Units which cannot target walls (sandbags, chain-link fence or concrete) any longer:
Minigunner
Flamethrower
Hum-vee/Nod Buggy
Flame Tank (can still run over sand bags and chain-link fences)
Civilian
[sniper--already so]
The Chem Warrior still does good damage vs. wood, but this will allow more distinction between Flamethrower infantry and Chems. People have been complaining there's no reason not to use chem warriors, which is a claim that has some merit.
Currently, the Chem actually does more damage than Flamethrower vs. wood, which doesn't make a lot of sense. This will make the Flamer do a bit more. Chem damage will be at the level of Bazooka now.
After this change, Flamethrower will have double the economic efficiency in damage per dollar vs. wood. (It already had superior efficiency, but not by much).
Grenade range reduced from 5 -> 4
Grenade speed reduced considerably, from 204 -> 85 (this was its old speed, long ago).
Grenade spread increased to compensate.
Grenadiers are now the fastest infantry. Their weapon is quite powerful but they cannot hit moving targets well. You will have to plan your tactics accordingly.
Tanks are a bit underwhelming in their ability to take down turrets and buildings during an attack. Their ROF has been upped, and their damage vs. wood has been increased.
Their damage % vs. infantry has been lowered to keep it the same DPS.
Light tank bullet speed reduced a bit to make it possible to miss. It's now the same speed as the turret, and still faster than MTNK/HTNK's bullets.
Airstrike now destroys basic turrets/GT.
Should not destroy most buildings, though. (Apparently some people were complaining about it being usde for "sniping" buildings too much).
To make damage vs. buildings relatively consistent regardless of how many tiles they occupy, napalm has far less spread now, but much more damage.
Vulcan cannon does more damage vs. heavy armor, but does not damage buildings much. This is because damage it did to buildings varied too much based on building footprint.
Ion Cannon has been a little weak lately. Increasing its spread to make it more effective.
This should maybe be revisited if/when #5120 gets looked at.
Nuke was nerfed into oblivion. Bringing it back.
These values are approximately right. One might ask how much the nuke should be able to destroy adjacent buildings, rather than ones it doesn't hit.
