Since I am under the impression that a lot of players in this game make their own balance modifications by now - and some felt the need to post theirs in their own thread, I’d wonder if anyone is inclined to share what he did and what the reasoning behind his choices were? In a more collected fashion (aka a single thread)
Maybe this serves as an inspiration for everyone!
Personally, I’ll make a start with my combat modifications (since I’m currently feeling they feel like what I was looking for – but beware, I did tinker and try this with stock mechs in mind, not min/maxed boats):
a) Hit rate balancing:
1. Weapon to hit: down by 5% to 70%, with gunnery 10 would cap out at base 95% to hit. Originally I did try 65%, but with all the other nerfs 70% is honestly better. Maybe even keeping it at 75 would be
2. Melee to hit: down from 90% to 70%. Since melee can’t be easily made affected by evasion, there had to be a risk of missing these light mechs that depend on evasion coming from *somewhere*: this also gives the melee-to-hit buff from piloting meaning. DFA modifier down to -20% chance from -30% compared to regular melee to make up for the higher risk coming with it. 3. Mech-to hit to 0/1/2/4 by weight class, vehicle to hit to 0/0/1/2. (unsure if this is really necessary, or if the vanilla values would be sufficient)
4. -5% chance to hit for self-movement.
5. Reintroduced a division of short and medium range to the game, 0/2/4 range penalty.
6. Terrain evaluation changed to kick in at 30 meters height, offering +10% to hit bonus. Makes attacking from above a more strategically desireable position.
This leads to a maxed out Gunnery 10 (base: 95% to hit) shooting an arm-mounted (+5) medium laser (+5) after self-movement (-5) on long range (-20) vs. a 4 evasion (-40) light mech (-20) to have a base 30% to hit compared to previously 60%, effectively making focus firing or sensor locking mandatory approaches. Also, the currently useless +accuracy weapons - as well as long-range weapons in general - are suddenly pretty darn useful.
I experimented with permanent evasion and no inherent to-hit modifiers on chassis types to compensate, but I have to admit after trying it out: I think the act of consciously focus-firing down mobile enemies is, simply put, more fun!
The entire to-hit nerfing incidentally helps with balancing out missiles stab-damage because overall less missiles hit.
b) Other things
6. Buffed the initiative order of tanks and turrets: tanks now move on the same respective initiative phases as mechs, they also get 75% of the evasion from movement. This makes those light and med tanks quite the nuisance, instead of being pure defenseless fodder – especially those LRM Strikers. Turrets move one initiative phase later than their classification, making them more dangerous compared to their frailty.
8. Since you can’t give jumping an additional to-hit penalty, I made it accumulate stability damage instead. This makes jumping something to be used tactically and not *at every move ever*
7. Poorly maintained enemies buffed to 50% and 75% instead of 25% and 50% respectively. Yeah, I just wanted the game to be harder in general. And hey, armor is free so this one makes sense!
8. Precision shot gives a 10% to-hit bonus. Slightly changed cost to 35 from 30. I feel the tradeoff of deciding on an important single action vs. having a permanent 10% to hit bonus from being inspired is a valid tactical choice with hit rates actually being lower.
9. Bracing/Bulwark nerfed to 33% damage reduction.
10. All actions that give morale when you do it reduce your morale the same way when you suffer them: destroyed body parts, crits, etc. - at first I made the abilities take your entire bar, but that essentially reduced a mechanic from the game, and you need this with engagements being inherently more deadly now (due to AI changes).
11. Sight and sensor range 450m. This is max range for the medium-long range weapons such as Large Lasers. Coupled with the debuff of M Lasers and SRMs on closer engagement ranges this makes the larger weapons more relevant, due to being more accurate in many situations.
c) Weapon changes:
1. AC/2: damage down to 20, ammo up to 45. Heat 3.
2. AC/5: damage down to 40, ammo 20, Heat 5.
3. AC/10: Ammo to 10.
4. S Laser: Damage to 15, Heat to 3.
5. L Laser: Heat to 25. (ERLL: 40)
6. PPC: Heat to 35. (ERPPC: 50)
7. LRMs: Damage up to 5. (to compensate for the lower turnout of missiles hitting)
8. SRMs: Damage up to 10. SRM4 Heat to 10 (same)
9. Flamers: Heat 10, Damage 10, Heat Damage unchanged, unlimited ammo. Runs cooler than in TT (would be 9)
10. Other lostech weapons (pulse etc.): balanced based on the relations between them from tabletop and the regular weapon values, but irrelevant to post unless someone is curious since they’re mostly a non-entity in the current game.
In total, I ended up with a hybrid of TT with some slight alterations inspired by the game. My last change was that I ended up buffing missiles regular damage up to TT values since - especially indirect fire LRMs - now hit significantly less.
---
I also applied amechwarriors AI changes, and no RNG modifications (the hit rates are already bad enough, no need to make them even worse by using skewed numbers), and boy...currently almost every engagement serves me with a repair bill. Often painful, lost arms and whatnot. I hit that withdraw button several times by now and did punch out a couple times too. The long-war-player in me likes it more now
Doubts:
Not sure if the lower hit-rates really pan out with low-ammo weapons on these absurd 5-skull 10 assault opponents now: like those 5 shots of AC/20 would have to be used REALLY when you’re confident you will hit that shot. But then you should have damn good pilots at the point when you hit those missions...
Also I haven’t really figured out yet if endgame +2 Stab Damage LRM’s are still as OP. But possibly not if you don’t make LRM boats than can shoot 60 missiles for 20 turns straight.
So far, however, for early game and light/medium mech play, this feels quite well balanced.
Lastly:
d) to-do:
Anyone knows if or how to make being entrenched stack with cover?
I’d actually like entrenched being in cover be 50% and outside 25% damage reduction. But no clue if or how to do this :O
Maybe this serves as an inspiration for everyone!
Personally, I’ll make a start with my combat modifications (since I’m currently feeling they feel like what I was looking for – but beware, I did tinker and try this with stock mechs in mind, not min/maxed boats):
a) Hit rate balancing:
1. Weapon to hit: down by 5% to 70%, with gunnery 10 would cap out at base 95% to hit. Originally I did try 65%, but with all the other nerfs 70% is honestly better. Maybe even keeping it at 75 would be
2. Melee to hit: down from 90% to 70%. Since melee can’t be easily made affected by evasion, there had to be a risk of missing these light mechs that depend on evasion coming from *somewhere*: this also gives the melee-to-hit buff from piloting meaning. DFA modifier down to -20% chance from -30% compared to regular melee to make up for the higher risk coming with it. 3. Mech-to hit to 0/1/2/4 by weight class, vehicle to hit to 0/0/1/2. (unsure if this is really necessary, or if the vanilla values would be sufficient)
4. -5% chance to hit for self-movement.
5. Reintroduced a division of short and medium range to the game, 0/2/4 range penalty.
6. Terrain evaluation changed to kick in at 30 meters height, offering +10% to hit bonus. Makes attacking from above a more strategically desireable position.
This leads to a maxed out Gunnery 10 (base: 95% to hit) shooting an arm-mounted (+5) medium laser (+5) after self-movement (-5) on long range (-20) vs. a 4 evasion (-40) light mech (-20) to have a base 30% to hit compared to previously 60%, effectively making focus firing or sensor locking mandatory approaches. Also, the currently useless +accuracy weapons - as well as long-range weapons in general - are suddenly pretty darn useful.
I experimented with permanent evasion and no inherent to-hit modifiers on chassis types to compensate, but I have to admit after trying it out: I think the act of consciously focus-firing down mobile enemies is, simply put, more fun!
The entire to-hit nerfing incidentally helps with balancing out missiles stab-damage because overall less missiles hit.
b) Other things
6. Buffed the initiative order of tanks and turrets: tanks now move on the same respective initiative phases as mechs, they also get 75% of the evasion from movement. This makes those light and med tanks quite the nuisance, instead of being pure defenseless fodder – especially those LRM Strikers. Turrets move one initiative phase later than their classification, making them more dangerous compared to their frailty.
8. Since you can’t give jumping an additional to-hit penalty, I made it accumulate stability damage instead. This makes jumping something to be used tactically and not *at every move ever*
7. Poorly maintained enemies buffed to 50% and 75% instead of 25% and 50% respectively. Yeah, I just wanted the game to be harder in general. And hey, armor is free so this one makes sense!
8. Precision shot gives a 10% to-hit bonus. Slightly changed cost to 35 from 30. I feel the tradeoff of deciding on an important single action vs. having a permanent 10% to hit bonus from being inspired is a valid tactical choice with hit rates actually being lower.
9. Bracing/Bulwark nerfed to 33% damage reduction.
10. All actions that give morale when you do it reduce your morale the same way when you suffer them: destroyed body parts, crits, etc. - at first I made the abilities take your entire bar, but that essentially reduced a mechanic from the game, and you need this with engagements being inherently more deadly now (due to AI changes).
11. Sight and sensor range 450m. This is max range for the medium-long range weapons such as Large Lasers. Coupled with the debuff of M Lasers and SRMs on closer engagement ranges this makes the larger weapons more relevant, due to being more accurate in many situations.
c) Weapon changes:
1. AC/2: damage down to 20, ammo up to 45. Heat 3.
2. AC/5: damage down to 40, ammo 20, Heat 5.
3. AC/10: Ammo to 10.
4. S Laser: Damage to 15, Heat to 3.
5. L Laser: Heat to 25. (ERLL: 40)
6. PPC: Heat to 35. (ERPPC: 50)
7. LRMs: Damage up to 5. (to compensate for the lower turnout of missiles hitting)
8. SRMs: Damage up to 10. SRM4 Heat to 10 (same)
9. Flamers: Heat 10, Damage 10, Heat Damage unchanged, unlimited ammo. Runs cooler than in TT (would be 9)
10. Other lostech weapons (pulse etc.): balanced based on the relations between them from tabletop and the regular weapon values, but irrelevant to post unless someone is curious since they’re mostly a non-entity in the current game.
In total, I ended up with a hybrid of TT with some slight alterations inspired by the game. My last change was that I ended up buffing missiles regular damage up to TT values since - especially indirect fire LRMs - now hit significantly less.
---
I also applied amechwarriors AI changes, and no RNG modifications (the hit rates are already bad enough, no need to make them even worse by using skewed numbers), and boy...currently almost every engagement serves me with a repair bill. Often painful, lost arms and whatnot. I hit that withdraw button several times by now and did punch out a couple times too. The long-war-player in me likes it more now
Doubts:
Not sure if the lower hit-rates really pan out with low-ammo weapons on these absurd 5-skull 10 assault opponents now: like those 5 shots of AC/20 would have to be used REALLY when you’re confident you will hit that shot. But then you should have damn good pilots at the point when you hit those missions...
Also I haven’t really figured out yet if endgame +2 Stab Damage LRM’s are still as OP. But possibly not if you don’t make LRM boats than can shoot 60 missiles for 20 turns straight.
So far, however, for early game and light/medium mech play, this feels quite well balanced.
Lastly:
d) to-do:
Anyone knows if or how to make being entrenched stack with cover?
I’d actually like entrenched being in cover be 50% and outside 25% damage reduction. But no clue if or how to do this :O
