Patch - Feb 24 - balance changes + bomber red perk

[lamster]

Feb 24, 2009

perk configuration is now shown every time the camera switches targets
(when dead, press C to toggle chase mode, Z/X to cycle chase targets)
placeholder text icons added for all perks

Miranda
decreased time required to reach max charge by 12%
energy regen is no longer halted while laser is active

Loopy-Red "Double Fire"
reduced angular spread on double-fire by 10%

Biplane-Red "Heavy Cannon"
reduced recoil by 40%

Bomber
increased grenade cooldown by 10%
reduced tailgun damage by 5%

Bomber-Red "Flak Gunner" (NEW)
"Replaces tracking tailgun with a high recoil, explosive, flak cannon"

Removed Bomber-Red "Mega Grenades"

Explodet-[forms other than Remote Mine]
reduced mine ejection distance

Explodet-Red "Remote Mine":
increased ejection distance
increased explosion area of effect by 12%
increased explosion damage by 20%
increased max lifetime by 40%

Green "Rubberized Hull": increased elasticity in collision calculations
damage reduction is the same (65%), but rubberized planes now bounce much farther after a collision than non-bouncy planes
added visual indicator upon wall collision

Green "Repair Drone": reduced health repaired per second (30 -> 28)

Green "Heavy Armor": improved health bonus, especially for smaller planes (health packs still recover 35% of effective hp, as always)
Loopy/Miranda: +31% effective hp
Explodet: +26% effective hp
added visual indicator upon damage taken

Blue "Reverse Thruster":
modified to increase both throttle up and throttle down rates (previously only increased throttle down rate)
reduced energy usage

[lamsbro]

Miranda:
-when player releases charged up laser it should drain the stored energy but if they press f again before it is drained it should stop draining and stop the laser, giving the player more control over how long the laser bursts last.
-a charged bouncey shot that hasn't been released could act as a shield, either reducing damage or reflecting it

Bomber:
-bombs could be tiny biplanes that pop out of the bottom of him and zoom ahead based on where bomber is pointing, exploding after a certain distance or collision. Sort of remote controlled missiles. Can be shot down.
-make bomber a littler larger physically and tougher, for differentiation sake.

Loopy:
-taser: press d to launch hook with wire trailed behind, if it hits a plane it hooks. Press d again to do some DoT or maybe disable (maybe no turning while shocked) at high cost of energy so you can only do it for a short period. Hook lasts for a certain time or until hooked player gets too far away.


Explodet:
-puncher - instead of rocket, a big punchy fist is put in the rocket tube. You press f and it shoots out a short distance to punch other planes, with some good knockback but low damage.
-make mines shootable?

Biplane:
-heavy cannon- make it more sniper rifle like, little higher damage, little longer c/d, maybe no piercing, make projectile larger so its easier to tell difference from normal biplane bullet.

Plane Differentiation:
Size: I think there should be bigger differences in size among the planes, its an interesting dynamic. Loopy could be the smallest, Miranda next, biplane medium, explodet larger, bomber quite large. Plane toughness should be modified accordingly, with bigger having more hp.

Information:
-Display your perks above the Health/Ammo/Throttle bars or increase the duration that your perks are displayed at spawn

-If you're carrying a non bomb item show it just below your plane, in a manner similar to how you display perks at spawn. It is easier to see there, currently it is easy to forget what you have and hard to see it in the corner.

-Get rid of the throttle bar?
-Throttle is best communicated through sound, I think throttle sound should reflect a more realistic throttle because that's what a player is familiar with, not the fake throttle the game uses. For example, if the player was at max throttle and stalled, the engine shouldn't cut out, it should still sound like its at max. The stall is communicated unambiguously through visual means.

-When throttling up or down there should be a slightly lagged effect in the sound just like in real engines. Currently when you throttle up to 100% your engine sound follows it exactly. This sounds artificial. Instead it should be more like real engines, where you can open throttle 100% but it still takes a second for the engine sound to start whirring at 100%. Same goes for throttling down, there is a delay. Even if the game doesn't note that delay I think the sound should, to feel more authentic. Play around with lags to see what feels right. Throttle should be indicated by not just a modification of frequency but also of loudness.

-Get rid of the spent bullet casings or make them less visible, they clutter stuff up (make it difficult to discern useful information) and don't add any information themselves.

-Display the number of enemy and allied planes alive under the respective team health bars (could be icons representing the planes with bright red X's through them where they are dead, or just numbers like 5/6 red planes, 3/5 blue planes alive). This is useful information for knowing when to make a run.

-Minimap would be useful information to help teams plot intelligent attacks on enemy bases, instead of it being random whether there is an enemy waiting for you when you pop out on the other side of the tunnel.

-Experiment with making turrets die from Bomb only, like bases. Maps with turrets have the same problem bases used to, they encourage suicidal assaults.

Tab Screen:
-The red X's in tab screen also need to be more visible, its hard to see who is alive and who is dead
-Green asterisk is not the universal symbol for friendship, how about a small version of this image instead (or just make the color of their badge green)
http://www.mybuzzle.com/media/images...Images/354.jpg
-"Score" is ambigous, how about "Kills" "Deaths"

Out of Game UI:
-Text boxes on top of text boxes is ugly, arrange them so they aren't overlapping or only show one at a time. There's no need for alpha on most of these boxes. This is a problem especially with the Log In boxes and the Message of the Day.

-Dont display scroll bars unless there is something to scroll through. This is a problem is the Friends boxes, the Chat boxes, the Server list, and probably elsewhere.

-Friends list on right side of screen should be hidden by default, or behind an expandable pane (like the "To Do Bar" in Outlook 2007).
When expanded: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...age022_low.jpg
When hidden: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...age032_low.jpg

-In general I think the Outlook layout is a good model for Altitude out of game UI. Buttons in a left pane, server list in top mid pane, message of the day in bottom mid pane, friends in collapsable right pane.

Friend UI:
-mousing over (X) should say "remove friend"
-don't need to show both the friend pop up boxes and the friend list, just show the pop up boxes when people log in and don't make them fade so fast, people need time to click them. Friend pop up boxes should behave more like Outlook 2007 "new mail" pop up boxes, if you mouse over them they stop disappearing.

Server List:
-let players sort list by "players", "ping", "map", or "server name" by double clicking the column header. Default should be to sort first by players and second by ping (currently its ping, which often means a bunch of empty servers are at the top).

[protest boy]

Originally Posted by lamster

B
Green "Rubberized Hull": increased elasticity in collision calculations
damage reduction is the same (65%), but rubberized planes now bounce much farther after a collision than non-bouncy planes
added visual indicator upon wall collision

Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet.

Is there a reason for this? I feel like this change makes rubberized hull worse because if you glance off a wall you are likely to rebound with less control than before. And since this is a perk that helps people learn how to fly, it might be a detriment.

Also a question: If I recall, the maximum bounciness for collision objects in the editor is 1.0. Can this be surpassed if you also equip rubberized hull? Might make for some interesting games!

[lamster]

I feel like this change makes rubberized hull worse because if you glance off a wall you are likely to rebound with less control than before. And since this is a perk that helps people learn how to fly, it might be a detriment.

This was my first thought as well, and the reason I didn't originally include any extra bounce. However, after reading feedback from some new players, it seems like getting stuck against the ground is a pretty common problem. I thought extra bounce might help: after stalling, you drop to the ground, then bounce off a bit giving you extra space to afterburn/recover before getting stuck in the grooves of the geometry. If anyone gets a chance to look over a new player's shoulder while they try the game, please let me know whether the bounce works as an overall detriment or bonus.

Re bouncymaps: no, you will not bounce any harder against 1.0 elasticity geometry.

[tmm3k]

I've been using flexible wings more instead of repair drone, and it's a good trade-off to be able to turn better. I find myself trying to preserve my health rather than being reckless with it, since I know it will be harder to get it back.

Also, loving the flakgun for the bomber. Seems like it does more damage than the regular tailgun (plus blowback), but it requires more accuracy than the tailgun, which is perfect.

[Blank]

flakgun bomber config is an INCREDIBLE rape machine. He can basically 2-shot mirandas/loopies regardless of what direction he's facing. Rapid to semi-rapid AoE high damage fire from 2 ends is just a tad over the top. He's basically what every explodet wants to be with less knock around.

I dunno, I'll play around with it some more... maybe it's just shock n awe from bomber being absolute crap to the best plane *ever* :|

[DiogenesDog]

Best plane ever my ass.

PULSE MAGE.

[Ajplagge]

Perhaps have reverse thrust only use up to 50% of your energy to mantain, that way you can still fire your guns somewhat while in reverse.

[DiogenesDog]

I don't see why it takes energy at all. Why not try it in its most powerful/intuitive implementation first, then pull it back from there if it's too strong? Then you start from a point of "most fun" and only dial it down if necessary...

[protest boy]

Originally Posted by DiogenesDog

I don't see why it takes energy at all. Why not try it in its most powerful/intuitive implementation first, then pull it back from there if it's too strong? Then you start from a point of "most fun" and only dial it down if necessary...

Yeah, I agree.

On a similiar note, I think that heavy armor and repair drone are about equal in usefulness, now that the armor was boosted. However they both outclass the other green perks by a mile. They both need to be dialed down at least 25%.

Unless an explodet or bomber with heavy armor is already smoking, going after one with loopy is pointless.

[DiogenesDog]

I don't know, I've been very successful with a biplane using No Recoil / Flexible Wings / either of the energy perks. It makes for a pretty disgusting pure dogfighter.

Bleh, I've said this before, but I really think Flexible Wings is underrated. And part of the reason for this is that everyone's playing in these retarded 7v7 games, which I'm really hoping isn't meant to be the standard game size (5v5 for lyfe).

[Ferret]

I've been using that config too dio, sometime ace instead of an energy perk, but repair drone and heavy armor still feel superior most of the time.

Miranda with heavy armor and ultra capacitor is starting to feel good, but I still think heavy armor should be nerfed to not provide as much of a boost to loopies. The best solution imo might be a buff to miranda base hp and a nerf to heavy armor so that miranda total hp ends up being about the same, or a little less, when using heavy armor and loopy hp with heavy armor goes down.