[MOD IDEA] Suggestions on Rebalances for agents and daemons


suggestions of rebalance  

5 members have voted

  1. 1. what is your opinion about the rebalances?

    • Yes, I would like to see Peddler receive a buff with your suggestion.
    • I prefer other buff option for Peddler
    • No, I think Peddler is fine as he is or maybe he needs a nerf.
      0
    • I like anatomy analysis 2.0 for 2 PWR for shalem 11
    • I like penetration and piercing scanner for the price of 1 augment slot for Shalem 11
    • I prefer other buff option for shalem 11
    • No, I think shalem 11 is fine as he is or maybe he needs a nerf.
      0
    • I like automatic scanner and small range for decker
    • I like manual scanner and bigger range for decker
    • I prefer other buff option for decker
    • No, I think decker is fine as he is or maybe he needs a nerf.
      0
    • I like the extended hacking of vault doors for banks on a fixed amount of turns
      0
    • I like the extended hacking of vault doors for banks on a scaling amount of turns
    • I prefer other buff option for banks
      0
    • No, I think banks is fine as she is or maybe she needs a nerf.
    • STOP WHINING ABOUT CHITON NOOB! leave chiton alone!
      0
    • Yeah, nerf chiton
    • I would prefer other nerf option for chiton
      0
    • Dude chiton sucks it is too easy, buff it!
      0


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Bellow I placed some suggestions for rebalances on certain issues, but be warned that you may have to read quite an explanation so please choose well what idea you want to read first.

 

Dr. Kit Peddler (rebalance on a mod) I have already talked about this idea, but for your convenience I reposted that discussion here. You may find this post on "[Mod] Dr. Kit Pedler" started by Shirsh. 

hey @Shirsh

 

I am sad to hear about how the shield rigs are not available anymore, and about its new augment, I thought the same when I saw olivia's augment. I was like "well, dang. There goes Peddler's usefulness".

 

I really, really like Peddler and I think he deserves an augment that is more unique than just 2 titanium rods for the slot size of one (by the way its not meant to be an offense) and I thought of a way to give Peddler an augment that feels unique. And I think I have found something.

 

Peddler's description says he is a "PWR juggler" although even the Peddler prior to update 12 didn't feel like he 'juggled' PWR. I suggest Peddler has a special ability with a set cool down, like an item, but it is installed to Peddler like a unique augment.

I'll try to explain using an example.

 

Imagine Peddler had Monst3r's overcloaked D.A.R.T. gun. It has a cool down of 8 turns (quite a lot to my liking but lets ignore that) for practical purposes we will ignore its negative effect of triggering daemons. So if Peddler has the item and it is on cool down, lets say you just used it so it will be ready in 8 turns. If you use Peddler's augment you can use the item again (assuming you still have an action available) at the cost of -8 PWR. You charge the device taking 8 PWR from your PWR pool and you are able to use it again, but you MUST use it that turn, you CANT charge it and use it later (this ability is meant to be an emergency tactic not so much of a spare battery) Now supposing the item were on 6 CD or 5 CD it would subtract a quantity of PWR equal to the number of turns left until the item is usable again.

 

But it doesn't end there. It can also work on reverse. Lets now say you have your overcloaked D.A.R.T. gun charged and available. If you don't feel like using the item you may put the item on cool down and receive a PWR bonus. So if you use the ability on the overcloaked D.A.R.T. gun when it is charged you would receive +8 PWR but the gun will be on cool down. This is to make the augment usable for items that use PWR instead of turns to charge up like volt disrupters. 

 

I feel like the ability could be balanced when used on reverse. If you think that getting +8 PWR by just putting one item on cool down you could make it so that the PWR gained follows a certain logic (P = PWR gained, C = CD of the item, P = C/2, where P >= 2, else P = 1)  or just ignore the reverse mechanic completely.

 

Also, a fair cool down for this ability is important it must have a cool down greater to 1 turns, otherwise it would be able to be used several times on a turn, I suggest a good cool down for this ability would be somewhere between 3 and 5, maybe 4. Also I suggest this ability's cool down is not affected by the Torque injector's augment since that could potentially break the ability.

 

I hope this suggestion helped you in your modding, I would like to mod this myself, but I don't know what file I would have to modify in order to do this. Some sort of 'use_item' function, I think? it would be something like this in pseudo code:

this is an example in pseudo code of the 'inverse' usage of the ability

 

use_item = function?
{
      if count.augments(peddler_augment_kpc) > 1:  

--this count.augments condition is supposing you are voluntarily activating the ability, it is not meant to hit this condition just for the reason of having the augment installed.

         {
           set.cooldown = item_cooldown --this will place the item on its normal cool down, but notice no 'use_item' statement is executed.
           addCPU = item_cooldown  --this will award you the PWR units for using the ability equal to the item's CD turns
           set.peddler_augment_kpc = peddler_augment_cooldown  --this line puts the ability on cool down

         }

      else --this line hits when you DONT activate the ability so item execution works normally

        {

          use.item  --normal item execution. the item does its job

          set.cooldown = item_cooldown --since the item was used the item goes on its cool down as normal

        }

}

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is an example of the 'normal' usage of the augment in pseudo code.

item_unusable = function?
{
       if item.on_cooldown

             {
             if count.augments(peddler_augment_kpc) > 1 --if the player has the augment and triggers it

                 {

                    add.CPU = -(item.cooldown)  -- add the negative value of the number of turns on cool down the item has

                    item.set_cooldown = 0  -- set the cool down of the item to 0 so the player can use the item
                    set.peddler_augment_kpc = peddler_augment_cooldown  -- place peddler's augment on cool down

                 }

              else  -- if the current player does not have the ability or does not trigger it then...
                {
                  raise.exception(item_unavailable  -- raise the normal exception not allowing the player to use the item since it is on cool down
                  set.reason = 'item on cooldown'  -- set the reason for this as normal

                }
}

I hope this suggestion helps you to make your mod even more awesome! I really appreciate all your efforts to make Peddler live once again, and I hope you get to make old forgotten Peddler as renowned in the Invisible Inc agency as agents like Internationale or Tony Xu.

 

May Peddler live forever. Best of lucks for you, friend      

 

 

 

Shalem 11 :

Shalem has been best described as the guy who saves you when you screwed up, but lots of complains against him are constructed on the basis that he is a character that seems best fit for a lethal mind set in a game that seems to penalize violence, with some exceptions (Draco I am looking at you!) But the real icing on the cake here is the fact that his non-lethal tactics seem to be handicapped compared to other agents. When most neural disrupters carry a cool down of 2 to 4 turns shalem's salvaged disruptor has a 5 turn CD, it makes neural disrupters 1 seem godlike! I propose 2 main ways to rebalance Shalem:

 

1. Give him a unique anatomy analysis that costs 2 PWR but can also disable heart monitors 2.0 and give his desert wind rifle +2 armor piercing instead of just +1 armor piercing. I am not sure if normal anatomy analysis is able to disable haert monitors 2.0, but in case it does make it a 1 PWR cost anatomy analysis.

 

2. Give him a piercing scanner and a penetration scanner in one augment (+1 armor piercing on both ranged and melee items) like in the old pre alfa piercing scanner. also give his salvaged neural disrupter +1 armor piercing. this gives you a reason to keep the salvaged disrupter at least until you get a neural disrupter II. With this setup Shalem 11 basically becomes a huge safety net (which may require rebalancing) that grants protection against almost all guard types

except FTM barrier guards, OMNI protectors, OMNI soldiers, Sankaku drones and a very huge mess up with a K&O adaptable flack guard

But is still quite risky to play with because a 5 turn CD disruptor is still a 5 turn CD disruptor. You must choose very carefully who you will KO since you can only do that once every alarm level until you get a better neural disruptor.

 

 

Decker :

I know maybe I should stop complaining about Decker's augment, but I really feel like he deserves a buff. I conducted a poll on some suggestions for decker's augment and I found many people feel like decker should have a buff too. Many people suggested that his augment should be balanced by making it an automatic scanner like internationale's that works at range.

 

It would uncover daemons on a range (maybe a smaller range compared to internationale) if the devices are already uncovered (unlike internationale's item which finds the devices, decker's augment would find the daemon but not the device, to make the augment work you would need to have visibility on the device and have the device on decker's range of scan)

 

Maybe it could work like internationale's pre release augment. which was manual. An ability that works once per turn, but this would require Decker has a larger radius of scan getting really close to internationale's range of scan.

 

Personally I would prefer Decker has a reduced range of scan with an automatic scanning function.

 

Banks :

This might be the most unpopular rebalance suggestion, but I think it deserves a shot. It was born out of a logical analysis of the futuristic logic of locked doors on the game. If locked doors require a password contained in a pass card, but Banks has a quantum crypto computer in her brain that is able to crack passwords in seconds thus enabling her to open password protected locked doors, then why wouldn't she be able to open vault doors (which by the way seem to be protected by rather mediocre passwords like 'password123') in a longer period of time? I mean sure she would take a few more turns, but she should in theory be able to open the door right?

 

Maybe she would be unavailable to do any other action (like when you are scrubbing data banks) for 3-4 turns until she opens the door, but I know some people will object saying that would make executive financial suites useless. To that I say no. why? well, because it is far too situational. It would work supposing you have 3-4 turns to spare, which in later days is less and less likely unless you are doing it on day 1, also you would need to have banks in your team, and get her to the vault door and have her survive 3-4 turns without interruptions, if her hacking of the door is interrupted the door will permalock and you wont be able to open the vault door (like what happens when you get away from the range of scan in an executive financial suite mission. if you do that then you get no vault card) this hacking of the door can occur if she is shot, if she is spotted, if she is KO'd or if she moves, goes into overwatch, or melee reaction.

 

If you still feel like a fixed amount of time would render executive financial suites useless then I propose the following mechanic, look at the table bellow:

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|           alarm level                 |  number of turns to hack vault door          |_______________________________________________________________________________________|                                                                                      |                                                                                      ||          level 0  ------------------------------ 6 / 7 turns                         ||                                                                                      ||          level 1  ------------------------------ 5 / 6 turns                         ||                                                                                      ||          level 2  ------------------------------ 4 / 5 turns                         ||                                                                                      ||          level 3  ------------------------------ 3 / 4 turns                         ||                                                                                      ||          level 4  ------------------------------ 2 / 3 turns                         ||                                                                                      ||          level 5  ------------------------------ 1 / 2 turns                         ||                                                                                      ||          level 6  ------------------------------ 0 / 1 turns                         ||______________________________________________________________________________________| 

 

This is meant to induce you to stay more time to get the whole benefit, but also take more risks than using the method of getting the vault card. If you like to play very aggressively or you are willing to take big risks then this buff of banks' augment maybe for you, but otherwise you may want to get that vault card and play it safe.

 

The chiton daemon :

Something that kind of bothers me of the chiton daemon and labyrinth daemon as well as the aces program and wings program is a simple question. How can a cybernetic program affect physical people? How?? How is that possible? It breaks the immersiveness for me. And I know this game is a rogue like and that complaining about it being too hard is almost whining and showing my incapability to play the game, but I personally feel like the chiton daemon went to far.

The chiton daemon gives all guards on the level a temporal armor of  +1 for 3-4 turns.

 

the labyrinth daemon nerfs all your agents movement points by giving them -2 movement points for 3-4 turns

 

the aces program lowers all tagged guard's armor by 1 armor (that means all taged guards have -1 armor for 1 turn) it is a rare program by the way.

 

the wings program gives all your agents +2 or +1 movement points for 1 turn. Also a rare program. 

 

If the pulse 2.0 daemon is able to afect the items themselves, then I feel like if the daemons affected the items themselves instead of the physical people themselves it would make more sense. like this:

 

The chiton daemon lowers armor piercing on all your armor piercing items by 1 armor piercing for 3-4 turns. This means that if you trigger the daemon and you have a neural disrupter II for the daemon's duration your neural disrupter has no armor piercing. Because of how this works guards who do not have any armor would still have no armor, but besides that it would create a proportional result that doesn't create an illogical scenario in which a guard that does not usually have armor seems to grow an armor out of no where, and after 3-4 turns his armor disappears in the air for no apparent reason. 

 

the labyrinth daemon -2 could be acceptable if we suppose that the lost action points are due to an interference in the operator-agent communication and thus the agents are unsure of where exactly move, but I don't feel like tampering with this daemon

 

the aces program would work similar to the chiton daemon, but on inverse. Although this could break the ability, maybe I should not touch this ability. But I did feel like having a guard that doesn't have an armor grow one out of nowhere was kind of unfair and illogical.

 

the wings program, see labyrinth daemon. 

 

So yeah, maybe it is more of a rant than an actual suggestion, sorry for that.

 

 

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Here are my thoughts about rebalancing some agents:

 

Dr. Kit Peddler:

While your idea is nice, but could be abused a lot:

Neural Disruptors become much better than Volt ones in terms of PWR cost.

Buster chip 3 with torkue injectors put hacking programs to shame.

Stim3 allow you to fly all over map for nifty price.

And so on...

 

To keep original idea, but keep things balanced I suggest to make it similar to Arch Nika augment: for Dr Peddler could decrease all cooldowns on his items by 1 for 1 PWR per item, but only once per turn.

 

 

Decker :

I see Decker as Noir old fashioned spy/detective, so I would suggest something more basic for his augment.

1) "Peek" action does not cost AP

or

2) "Watch guard" does not cost AP

 

 

Shalem11:

There was good suggestion, that Shalem could TAG guards with any gun for 1 PWR and have +2 armor piercing vs tagged enemies.

 

 

Rush:

While her augment not as shallow as Shalem's original she looks pale in comparison to Sharp and her augment is bit boring.

 

I suggest to rework it so Rush would get +1KO,+1ArPen for each 2 tiles sprinted in straight line before KO-ing guard, but only last straight line counts (if you ran 4 tiles in line and then ran in other direction there are no bonus KO/ArPen until you run some more in line). This way you still get default +1KO,+1ArPen at short sprint, but also could set up her for devastating blows using corridors and such.

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Ok, call me crazy, but seeing Archived Decker's Refurbished Revolver breaks my damn heart...

 

I'd really appreciate it if you could buff it by removing the Refurbished Revolver's "Cannot Reload" rule. That would make my day.

 

Other than that, love the changes you're making. Can't wait to download ;)

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Ok, call me crazy, but seeing Archived Decker's Refurbished Revolver breaks my damn heart...

 

I'd really appreciate it if you could buff it by removing the Refurbished Revolver's "Cannot Reload" rule. That would make my day.

 

Other than that, love the changes you're making. Can't wait to download ;)

 

I admit that, for endless mode, the revolver is basically junk. However, removing its one drawback would buff it far too much; it would be twice as good as a hand cannon, and cost 0 credits (Shalem's rifle is twice as good as the shop-purchased equivalent, but that only amounts to 1 extra shot).

 

But the main problem with making it reloadable is that the flavor text states that the bullets are custom made. Maybe it could be changed it so that the bullets can be purchased between missions for a hefty sum.

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I admit that, for endless mode, the revolver is basically junk. However, removing its one drawback would buff it far too much; it would be twice as good as a hand cannon, and cost 0 credits (Shalem's rifle is twice as good as the shop-purchased equivalent, but that only amounts to 1 extra shot).

 

But the main problem with making it reloadable is that the flavor text states that the bullets are custom made. Maybe it could be changed it so that the bullets can be purchased between missions for a hefty sum.

 

I see your point, but I think that honestly Decker needs a buff. And besides, it would be a unique weapon that stays relevant late-game (in Endless), if you give him armour piercing or give the revolver to someone with armour piercing.

 

I think that the bullet-purchase mechanic would be a fair tradeoff honestly. maybe 900 creds for a full reload?

 

All in all, I think that the buff would make Decker more enjoyable to play with, it would give him that cool Blade Runner vibe.

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