These aren't supposed to be too large, but more general gameplay tweaks to fix issues I've seen while playing DRG. I'll try to keep it short but I'll give explanation to each one of them. Feel free to comment what you think of them :D. I might add to this list as it goes on.
Movement
Ledge grabbing should be client side. If you've ever tried ledge grabbing with high ping, you know exactly why I am suggesting this one. It can take full seconds to perform a ledge grabbing at times.
You should have to hold space to ledge grab, to prevent ledge grabbing on accident. I can't count how many times I've been trying to run away from a swarm, and then my dwarf decides to ledge grab a swarmer and kill my speed.
Enemies
Bulk detonators should have a unique glow and take longer when spawning in. This is to prevent bulk detonators spawning ontop of teams without them realising it. The orange glow let's them know something big is about to pop up.
Shockers should have a louder audio profile. These silent jellyfish often don't make a sound until they are right up in your face stinging you. It's fine when they spawn infront of you, but they can easily spawn behind you and stunlock.
Slashers should have a different sound to normal grunts. Slashers are 10x deadlier than grunts, and should have a different sound to reflect that. Not the biggest problem, but I would like to know what's approaching from behind using my ears.
Acid spitters should miss their first shot and have a minimum range. Acid spitters often make line of sight either by turning a corner or spawning in, and then firing straight away giving very little reaction time if close by.
Dreadnoughts should have a minimum range for their fireball. On haz5, the fireball comes out very quickly, travels quickly and has a large AoE to top it off. The dreadnought can perform this attack at very close ranges leading to situations where it's actually impossible to dodge it.
On haz5 exploders could exploder slightly quicker. By the time you get to haz5, often exploders are one of things most easily dealt with. Having them explode slightly quicker would give them a bit more urgency.
On haz5 praetorians acid should do more direct damage. I'm not a big fan of the DoT on the acid, but the direct damage of the acid could be buffed by a small amount.
Swarmers / Shockers should scale damage according to numbers. E.g 1 swarmer/shocker doesn't do any damage, but 3 will do 1.2x the normal damage. This prevent chip damage from that on single annoying swarmer, but makes a swarm of them deadly.
Brood nexuses should be spawn deadlier enemies. Right now brood nexuses sadly just spawn the same two little gremlins to harass and annoy you. They don't do anything deadly but just cause frustration.
Mission Types
Salvage defence zones should be made more reliable. I've seen many examples of a salvage zone being practically impossible to win, without an engineer on stand by. This creates massive issues when you don't have an engineer e.g solo.
Salvage defence zone barriers should be made more transparent. Right now if you are close to the edge, the barrier flares up and it becomes far harder to see where you need to shoot. This can make it harder to defend the zone.
Elimination should have a mission structure similar to mining expeditions. Elimination caves can only be described as a complete mess. Overlapping rooms just further complicate an already complicated cave structure. it makes finding minerals, cocoons and secondaries feel like a real slog.
Elimination should sculpt the terrain around cocoons similar to salvage. Dreadnoughts are enemies that require a decent chunk of space to stand a fighting change, yet the caves the cocoons spawn in don't reflect this forcing a player to wait for the dread to dig all the way to a suitable room.
Bulks shouldn't spawn on solo salvage. While I think bulks as an enemy are fine for multiplayer salvage, on solo they currently railroad you into taking electric bullets and can often be a death sentence if you have chosen some equipment.
Secondaries
Dystrum milestone should be reduced. Currently dystrum is only found on one gamemode, but has the same milestone objective as all of the other secondaries. The requirements for the milestone should be reduced to compensate for this issue.
Fossils should spawn more frequently. Fossils are infamous for being hard to get. I don't want to change that too much, but having more of them around means you don't have to worry about checking the backside of every icicle around.
Drop Pod
Droppod should grant complete immunity inside the green zone. This is to prevent the classic bulk slam dunk on the droppod at the end wiping your team because the scout has decided to farm some extra kills.
Equipment Balancing
Gunner should be able to re position equipment. Gunner currently has a distinct lack of mobility relative to other classes. In a group, he's fine but in a solo setting he's the only class where movement is so restricted. (credit to Ghost404)
Add a disclaimer to the zhukovs and minigun that each round costs 2 ammo. The amount of misconceptions and misinformation I have seen is really becoming an issue. Stat boxes are supposed to be accurate.
Sticky flames needs to be buffed. Sadly, direct damage builds are currently outperforming sitckyflames in most regards. It does more damage, and is far quicker. If taking sticky flame damage, the damage should be increased even further, and the sticky flame ignition should cause enemies to catch fire in the blink of an eye. The base duration of sticky flames should be increased, and the duration upgrades removed.
Boomstick needs some more range. I don't think boomstick is a bad weapon, point blank it can easily compete with the zhukovs but the range is way too close and often puts you at massive risk. Some extra range by decreasing the spread would put it toe to toe with the zhukovs.
The Bulldog should have less recoil. While this weapon is great, the recoil is just way too much to handle. Firing one shot, and you won't be able to shoot it again for a while. This change would just make it handle so much better.
Gunner should have a flat damage reduction while firing his primaries. Gunner often has to stop firing because a small cluster of jellyfish or swarmers have started poking at his knees. Unlike other classes, he can't just kite because of the slowdown. Some flat damage reduction would help counter these tiny enemies, while leaving big guys as a threat. (Thanks for Broly for the idea of flat reduction)
Proximity mines need to be reworked. In their current form, they are completely useless in a large amount of cases, with them just being tripped by a single exploder. They need some kinda change to be useful.
HE grenades should have 100% fear chance. This will give them a nice unique niche for the driller, and give us a nice reminder of the classic grenade revive before they were nerfed.
Sticky grenades could do some more single target damage. This just helps them to be more useful, because they are currently unreliable and often are underperforming relative to other grenades. (Credit to dwarfurious)
Gas grenades could deploy quicker. Often enemies die or move elsewhere by the time the grenade finally goes off. By making the deploy time quicker, it reduces these mishaps.
IFG's should have a larger AoE. They used to be very strong, but now they have been nerfed way too much. They are very ineffective in many situations and sadly pheromones just outclasses them.
Mining speed
Mining should always dig out a large enough area to move through. Dense biozone feels great to mine in because of it always digging out a large enough area to move through, compared to everywhere else where it feels like a slog.
Dirt should always be a 1 hit. This is just a nice quality of life thing. I play the game to explore, not stare at a dirt wall holding right mouse :D
Environment
Environmental hazards like radiation or gas from mushrooms should fill up a bar before doing increased damage. This would make them a larger threat, but remove the annoying chip damage. Right now they are more just waiting for your shield to regenerate rather than an actual hazard.
Stepping on a cave urchin should cause increased movement speed for a bit. Give us a use for these little floor bois, rather than just be a literal pain in the foot.
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