Beltans Grunts and Builds suggestions

[OneManClan]

Something’s been bothering me lately. I always liked the soldier skill (summon grunt), but when you compare it to the builds like sentries and teslas, the soldier skill really blows the builds out of the water for defense. Considering a lot of factors, I’ve thought of some ways to improve the health of balance as far as the builds and grunts are concerned.

+ Grunts buy medpacks more frequently.
+ Grunts have a shorter “pain-stun” interval at higher levels.
– Grunts gain much less maximum health per level.
– Grunts start with less maximum health.
+ Grunts rank up faster.

The Grunty starts weak and gets stronger. I've re-written much of the AI, but the payment/upgrade system is pretty much original CustomTF. I use them frequently and the current system feels 'fair' to me. It's VERY difficult to get a soldier promoted to the point where they get a rocket. I've had some people say the bot is 'overpowered' and others say it's 'underpowered'... so.. I dunno ..

+ Grunts at high ranks become immune to disease.

Great idea, I'll put it in, (if its not already there!).. otoh, having a medikit is standard practice for a player who intends to protect/promote their grunty 'all the way to the top'

+ Builds upgrades cost 60% less metal.
+ Builds health is increased by 75%.

That's a BIG difference.. I dunno..

– Builds repair option only heals 10% of the build’s health per second, keeping the builder in place like hacking does until the player cancels it by moving or until the build is destroyed or fully healed.

Hmmm. Kinda like the TF2 engineer (?). Rather than a %, maybe give less repair per spanner 'hit' .. otoh SG's are easily destroyed .. so I'm not sure making them harder to repair makes things 'better'. Otoh if cracs , impulse/daedelus rifle (jeez it needs a rename!), etc did less damage it might balance out. Not sure if that would make the gameplay 'better', or just 'different'..

+ Builds have only one level of I.C.E. It takes 30 seconds to implement, and provides the benefit of level 3 I.C.E.
+ Builds have an option to implement I.C.E. without the hacking skill, but it lowers the maximum health of the build by 33%.

[/quote]

Yea, the enemy dismantle does 'feel' (yea yea i know this is subjective) unfair sometimes, but then you can always ice, which makes the enemy's spanner useless. What if... instead of dismantling... the enemy spanner 'broke' the SG to stop it firing, and emptied it of ammo. That way A: you don't instantly lose your level3 fully hacked (but no ice) gun, and B: the enemy can then damage it w a gren/weapon while it is disabled (?) ... hm..

[Beltan]

I spent two hours composing a great reply.
I promptly fucked it up with an accidental click.
Here is the short short version.

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Sentryguns and Tesla Coils
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My proposition on builds is to make them an objective both for the attackers- to target and take down as a team- and for the defenders- to defend the build and the engineer working on it so that it's high level of potential is realized.

1- Builds counter speedcappers, allowing combat to remain important.
2- Builds encourage teamwork by being tough enough not to be destroyed with one mirv grenade.

Builds should be priorities on each side: Take it down and soon, but don't suicide to it or you feed it kills- which should transfer into some passive benefits for the guns. A long-lived, well-defended sentry should become an "immovable object", making it difficult for the Red team to make progress...meaning early builds should start cheap and easy to beat.

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Grunts
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Grunts will become an epic piece in our games if they are rebalanced. Grunts have no cost, and have mobility- a huge advantage over the defensive builds. Thus, they should have reasonable weaknesses to make up for those sizable benefits.

A reduction in maximum health will ensure that players facing an enemy Grunt won't simply be overwhelmed by sheer attrition. Right now, Grunts seem to have perfect aim, which I feel is problematic. We've just been able to keep getting away with it because they usually use their 'nailgun'.

The tradeoff I feel would be suitable is to give low-level Grunts a lower accuracy rate, with an increase in accuracy with each rank they achieve. Keep in mind that this will hurt the low-level Grunts less than it would initially seem, because Players tend to try to dodge naturally. If a Grunt will hit with 60% of the nails where they are aiming, a player who dodges can be to avoid the bulk of the damage, but an element of luck comes into play, causing additional threat with 40% of the shots ranging from slightly off center to wildly veering shots (not ridiculous like to the left, right, or behind the Grunt's target, but far enough off to miss the target entirely unless the target is running straight into the path). Some of these "misses" will actually hit due to the projectile nature of the nailgun weaponry.

Each rank should bestow a significant benefit to the Grunt. General improvements in aim, health, and evasion should happen with every rank, with one particularly special bonus each time the Grunt ranks up, such as an improved weapon (Super Nail Gun, Super Shotgun, L.A.C., etc.) or a different bonus like more frequent health kit purchases or an improvement in detection (I notice spies now! or Even Theives cannot hide from me!) or some other bonus like immunity to infection. Furthermore you might eventually set some of these bonuses up as randomly generated- so sometimes you might occasionally have a "sharpshooter" Grunt that has an especially nasty aim, or one that is constantly buying 6 health packs a minute.

Anyway the Grunts are cheap, mobile fighters designed to pay off big if they can survive, and that payoff should come well before we're into the last 10 minutes of a match! Make it difficult to keep a Grunt alive and leave players to come up with creative solutions. An epic "Boss Grunt" fight vs a rocket launcher is way more exciting than a dummy that sits there with mirvs exploding around him shouting "GRENADES!!!!" until he's been hit by 14 of them

Demons need a common weakness so that it is clear that their counters are Chaplains and Crusaders. I'm thinking Chaplain aura reduces their attack and movement speeds by 50% and the Crusader's smite negates the demons' health regeneration for 30 seconds and halves their current hit points.
The thing is, Demons need to be frightening. Scrags should be spraying acid everywhere each time they strike! Pirhanas don't have to kill their targets instantly, but could bite and immobilize the victim underwater while it chewed on them! Demon/Fiends should be fast and terrifying, and Shamblers should be a hulking monstrosity that it takes multiple enemies to take down.

Too many times the old standby of "Throw mirvs at it until it goes away" is used in every situation. Tossable grenades just don't have offer enough counterplay. Have a Shambler bat grenades back where they came from with twice the force. Shamblers should be immune to lightning and infection, and Demons shouldn't take damage from fire weapons!
With the variety of demons, there should be a specialty each one plays too. Scrags could be chitin plating akin to Kevlar and spray acide at every target in it's attack cone to be a handful for snipers.
Demons could tear apart heavier player classes with their rapid, high damage rending claws. Pirahnas are inescapable water bastards that have infectious bites. Shamblers are strongly defensive, repelling grenades and striking multiple enemies with chain lightning. I'm sure you can fill that last demon slot with something sneaky and quiet that creeps up on players to scare the hell out of them! 'Hidden'-like demon who causes adjacent targets to burst into flames? Maybe looks for backstabs? Maybe a demon who collects meat and heads for it's summoner? Infinite possibilities for variation.

Builds: Tough, high-potential, set defensive positions.
Grunts: Low health, Mobile guards, Level up quickly.
Demons: Fast, expendable, adaptable specialties.

It's a damn shame I fucked up the other post I was making. It was entertaining. This one's just more straightforward.

Let me know what you think.