I suggest a big list of changes to fix ZK balance and to encourage variety regardless of map type. And also some "flavour" changes.
Most of them consist of simply changing numbers on text files and should be easy to implement...
...If people agree on them, which is unlikely :).
***** NOTE: UPDATED THE LIST ON 2015/12/19
*****--- general changes
- improve heat ray consistency : decrease max dps by 33%, but make it drop to 33% at max range instead of 0% (or 10% or something, don't know )
(this affects dante, scorcher, battle commanders and doomsday machine)
a 400-to-0 dps heat ray would change to 266-to-88 dps, scorcher would change from 314-to-0 to about 200-to-65
- standardize idle regen timer to 5s of not taking damage on all units
- add 2 HP/s idle regen for all units without explicit regen
- add 10 HP/s combat regen for all striders that didn't have it, including big ships
- improve terrain slope tolerance for wheeled and tracked vehicles
(doesn't need to be as good as robots, but should be enough to make them less likely to get stuck on craters or beach slopes)
- reduce standard armored form damage resistance from 75% to 60% (they become 2.5x tougher, not 4x)
(affects some static defenses and halberd hovercraft)
- standardize max stun times for paralyzer weapons : 3s in general, 10s for tick (down from 16), 20s for infiltrator and shock missile (shock missile down from 45s, infiltrator down from 30s)- standardize sight ranges : 550 for cheap ground units, 700 for expensive units and aircraft
- prevent air transports from grabbing enemy units
- prevent light air transports from grabbing ships
- prevent heavy air transport from loading bantha and detriment (maybe more expensive air transport unit could be added)
- drone leash ranges X : if drone strays more than X range away from owner, push move order to move to X/2 range of owner along the owner-drone vector
- lots of units need some tuning to their move animations, especially robots, for many it could be improved by simply speeding it up to match the move speed. It'd be best if they had dynamic walk animations that varied with unit speed %.
- some vertically launched missiles fly too high, arguably higher than their range. Reduce vertical flight times (happens on reef, impaler, S.L.A.M commander module, detriment) and decrease missile speed to compensate.
--- commander changes
- add 500 HP for all commanders
- make all commanders move 10% faster
- increase range by 10% on beam laser, light particle beam, disruptor beam, heavy particle beam, riot cannon, lightning gun, flamethrower
- increase damage by 10% on flame thrower
- increase damage by 10% on riot cannon
- increase damage by 20% on heavy particle beam
- increase base health regen from 5 to 15HP/s at level 3+ on all chassis
- add torpedo weapon module : 400 range, 300 damage, 3s reload time, 48 aoe, homing, 300 projectile speed
- set drone leash range to 600, reduce drone HP by 25%
- high density plating : reduce cost from 425 to 375
- lower strike commander's regen per level from 7.5 to 5 HP/s (with the extra at level 3 it'll end up with 35/s at level 5 without modules, same as now)
- add an extra 10 HP/s regen to battle commanders at level 3 ( 25/s at level 5 without modules)
- remove the disintegrator gun module (1 hit-kill weapons that ignore enemy HP are toxic, dgun allows commanders to situationally deal lots of damage without investing in damage at all)
- commander ressurrectability (pick one):
a) commanders can no longer be revived, strider hub can rebuild each of the dead commanders for the team at their latest upgrade state at 50% of original cost
b) athena ressurrection speed is tripled when reviving commander wreckages for the same team
c) do nothing
--- specific unit changes
CLOAKY BOTS
- warrior : increase range from 270 to 300
- tick : reduce cost to from 120 to
90 100, make it amphibious with 50% speed penalty
- spectre : reduce reload time from 18s to
12s 15s (dps from 83 to 100), cloak E/s requirements up from 1/5 to
3/15 2/10
- gremlin : reduce cost from 150 to 140
- zeus : add 5 HP/s combat regen and increase range to 300 from 280, remove inaccuracy, make it amphibious
SHIELD BOTS
- roach : make it amphibious with 50% speed penalty
- felon : reduce shield drain per 108 dmg from 75 to 50, reduce fire rate by 50% (350 dps at 450 range is still very good)
- racketeer : (pick one)
a) do nothing
b) increase reload time from 5s to 7.5s, change damage from 1000 disarm to 200+600 paralyze damage (27+80 paralyze dps)
c) increase reload time from 5s to 7.5s, change damage from 1000 disarm to 500 and 64 aoe and make it a slower non-homing rocket (67 dps)
SPIDERS
- redback : increase cost from 280 to 320, range from 300 to 350, speed from 1.7 to 1.8, HP from 900 to 1200
- crabe : increase HP to 5500 but decrease armored form damage resistance from 66% to 33% (1.5x tougher, instead of 3x), make it amphibious
(could use some animation tweaks to movement and armored form, and fix the model's cannon hole textures)
- infiltrator : reduce cloak cost from 4/12 to 2/6 E/s- tarantula : reduce cost from 400 to 370
- venom : increase reload time from 1.75s to 2.25sHOVERS
- scalpel : increase model size 15%, reduce AOE from 96 to 48, increase cost from 220 to
260 240
- mace : increase range from 345 to 370
- penetrator : change model proportions, make model base a bit wider and not as long, with a bigger turret and thicker barrel
(currently turret looks too small for such a thick and powerful beam)
VEHICLES
- ravager : make it amphibious with 25% speed penalty underwater
- impaler : reduce range from 1500 to 1400 and add 64 aoe and the reef's missile explosion effect, reduce speed by 10%
- slasher : increase cost from 140 to
170 160
AMPHIBIOUS BOTS
- reduce water regen to 10HP/s on all cases (currently buoys have 60HP/s!)
- angler : increase speed by 10%, increase range from 600 to 700 and dmg per missile from 150 to 200 (25% dps increase)
- archer : remove water tank mechanic, change weapon to "Azure Beam laser", a 120 dps light blue beam laser with 300 range that gets a 15% damage boost while standing on water
- buoy : reduce slow damage per shot from 250 to 150
TANKS
- reaper : make it amphibious with 25% speed penalty underwater
- goliath : make it amphibious with 25% speed penalty underwater
- welder : make it amphibious with 25% speed penalty underwater
- copperhead : reduce range from 900 to 800, increase aoe from 32 to 64, increase HP from 1200 to 1700, reduce speed by 20%
- tremor : increase model size by 20%
- panther : increase model size by 20%, increase HP from 1100 to 1300, increase range from 260 to
300 280
- pillager : increase model size by 20%
- banisher : (pick one)
a) do nothing
b) increase cost from 520 to 720, double reload time (dps from 190 to 95), increase range from 340 to 520
AIRPLANES
- raven : no longer slows down or dives near target, make bomb homing, so it never misses, increase cost to 350
- hawk : increase dps from 96 to 120 and reduce range from 800 to 700
- thunderbird : (pick one)
a) reduce max disarm time from 20s to 10s
b) replace it with a 5s stun- swift : set attack safety distance to 350
(attack safety distance makes them abort the dive if too close to their target to avoid collisions, explosions and enemy fire)
- vulture :
remove radar jammer reduce radar jamming range from 700+ to 400 and increase cost by from 340 to 460
- wyvern : increase reload time from 8s to 20s and base rearm time from 5s to 10s
GUNSHIPS
- banshee : reduce hit points from 860 to 820 and increase cost from 220 to 230
- valkyrie : increase cost from 80 to 180 and HP from 300 to 600
- vindicator : increase cost from 500 to 1000, increase HP from 1100 to 2500, increase weapon ranges from 100 (wtf) to 350, remove the dedicated AA laser (keep only two 50 dps lasers)
- black dawn : increase cost from 900 to 1000
- krow : increase model size 20%, increase flight altitude from 100 to 180, increase laser range from 450 to 500 and drastically reduce number of bombs from 75 to 30
SPECIALIST BOTS
- moderator : increase model size and height by 25% (to give it a higher firing point), range from 420 to 550, cost from 240 to 380, HP from 450 to 650, reduce dmg per shot from 500 to 350 and adjust reload time to keep dps
- firewalker : shoot two big fireballs instead of many and make their fire AOE bigger (something like the new blastwing explosion : higher single target dmg, more consistency, less total aoe)
- sumo : add option to toggle between gravity beams and 2x 120 dps beam lasers with 400 range- archangel : reduce cost from 550 to 480
SHIPS
- shredder : decrease weapon dps by 15%
- snake : change the weapon to a slower 400 range homing torpedo with 360 dmg, 4s reload, 48 aoe and without slow damage
- serpent : increase aoe to 48 and reduce reload time from 8s to 6s (+33% dps)
- hunter : increase cost from 350 to 450, range from 350 to 450 and damage by 50% (120 dps)
- crusader : increase cost from 550 to 620
- skeeter : increase cost from 70 to 130, increase range from 260 to 360, increase HP from 240 to 440, change damage from 45+(180 disarm) to 90+(180 paralyze) with 4s cooldown instead of 2
- typhoon : increase cost from 320 to 360
STRIDERS/BIG SHIPS
- scorpion : add 30HP/s combat regen, increase HP from 12K to 13K and weapon ranges to 500 from 420/470
- reef : drastically reduce turn rate and acceleration, reduce speed by 20%, set drone leash range to 1000, reduce drone dps by 33%, increase HP from 7200 to 10000, increase cost from 3500 to 5500
- warlord : drastically reduce turn rate and acceleration, increase cost from 3800 to 4800, make batteries fire individual shots instead of bursts of 3 (keep dps)
(warlord could also use a model change, its long and narrow model doesn't fit the game)
- funnelweb : set drone leash range to 800, reduce drone HP by 25%, make it amphibious
- detriment : increase gauss range from 600 to 800 and damage per shot by 50%, double the reload time of missiles (halving dps) and increase range from 900 to 1200, drastically reduce death blast to something like the Bantha death blast
- bantha : increase lightning range from 465 to 500, do something to its emp missiles, they're totally random
(change bantha model to make its head look bigger and more powerful, somehow, if it's supposed to be its main weapon)
STATIC DEFENSES
- screamer : remove stockpiling mechanic, increase reload time from 1.8s to 8s (200 dps)
- big bertha : increase cost from 5000 to 6500, reduce dps by 15%
- hacksaw : increase cost from 220 to 300, increase hp from 580 to 1200, increase range from 420 to 600
- behemoth : fire individual shots instead of bursts of 3 (keep dps)
- gauss : reduce cost from 400 to 320
(gauss model could use a replacement to something that looks sturdier when open)
- missile silo : increase cost from 1200 to 1500
