Patch - Feb 27 - private servers, new red perks, balance tweaks

[lamster]

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Feb 27, 2009

Changed max level to 40 to reflect final unlockable counts
NOTE: you did not lose experience -- level 40 now requires the same amount of exp 45 used to require

Loopy
increased tracking missile damage by 3%

Loopy-Red "Acid Bomb" (NEW)
"Replaces EMP with acid that reduces armor and causes damage over time."
longer cooldown and higher energy usage than EMP
gas cloud lasts 2 seconds and spawns an acid debuff on enemies that fly through
acid debuff causes 50 damage over 3 seconds and increases damage taken from other sources by 30% for 3 seconds

Miranda-Red "Time Anchor" (NEW)
"Replaces reverse with the ability to teleport to a previous position."

Miranda
reverse no longer cancels forward momentum along new direction of motion
miranda can now reverse with 0 energy, however 0-point reversing provides a weaker speed boost and causes the reverse drive to take up to twice as long to reset (depending on energy used)

Green "Repair Drone"
reduced heal per second by 11%

Green "Heavy Armor"
decreased effectiveness -> effective hp changes: (Loopy 31% -> 25%, Explodet 26% -> 22%)

Blue "Reverse Thruster":
reduced energy usage by 40%

Increased duration of "show perks when camera switches targets" effect by 10%

Added Private (password protected) Servers
to make your server private, type a password into the "Secret code" text field in the server configurator

Added Ban command for server admins
bans are persisted between server restarts and shared among servers using the same launcher
"/vote kick playerId" now results in a 2 minute ban

Added "Black/Gray Smoke To Indicate Plane Damage" option in map editor to make plane smoke more visible on dark maps

[protest boy]

time anchor + wall powerup = tons of fun

[TheCapedAvenger]

Does Time Anchor deal damage to opponents?

[lamster]

no -- just teleports you back to where you were ~1.15 seconds ago

[argonide]

acid bomb is nice, probably a bit spammable in large games with its current stats, haven't tried it in a big game though so *shrug*.

time-anchor: the internet sucks as it is, no need to simulate more lag

[Kupac]

Time Anchor is ultimate.

[porpus]

Definitely like the time anchor, very fun. Not so sure on the usefulness of the acid bomb though. Maybe more playing time will affect my opinion, but at this point I'd still rather use emp.

[Blank]

acid bomb- needs team color or some way to tell who fired it.

time anchor- needs a cooldown. Shouldn't be a spammable move.

Reverse thruster- still don't see the point. Biplane can already do this, miranda doesn't need to do it (moreso with time anchor), bomber and explodet can attack people behind them. I think dio made the suggestion earlier to make this as overpowered as possible then downgrade it as necessary.


Some random perk suggestions:

Veteran Pilot- Start life grants X# of bars (I have no idea how many) or you carry over 1/3 the bars you had from your last life to your new one.

Beginner's Luck/Rookie Pilot- Basically the reverse of Ace Pilot. You start with all the vet bonuses but as you gain bars, you lose the benefits.

Ejector Seat/Parachute- at 10-15% or lower health, you eject from your plane (person who hit you last still gets the kill and if you run into a cliff that lowers you to 10%, that's still a suicide). Respawn timer is cut in half for you.

[lamster]

acid bomb renders with whitish smoke if it's friendly, green smoke if it will damage you

[nesnl]

Originally Posted by lamster

acid bomb renders with whitish smoke if it's friendly, green smoke if it will damage you

Seems like the opacity of the acid bomb is really dark. When planes are behind the cloud it's hard to tell what's going on. I don't know if that's the point or not, but in my opinion you should reduce the opacity of the acid bomb graphic. Also, it seems a bit overpowered as it is right now. Might need to reduce the damage modifier.

[Blank]

Originally Posted by lamster

acid bomb renders with whitish smoke if it's friendly, green smoke if it will damage you

oh, I guess I've never seen friendly acid bombs then O_o

(EDIT) I think it would just make a lot more sense for it to follow the same "rules" as explodet mines, missiles, and bomber grenades and be whatever team color is.

[lamster]

Yeah maybe it should use team colors, but I thought it'd look a bit funky (and not at all menacing) to have multicolored smoke puffs in the air. If it still seems confusing after playing a while I'll mess with it some more.

[tmm3k]

Time anchor is my new favorite perk, but yeah it does seem a little overpowered.

[DiogenesDog]

Not only would it look funky, I think it'd screw up feedback. As a new player, if I saw a bright pink puff cloud in the air I'd never think it was a weapon. And I certainly wouldn't associate it with acid.

IMO just making the threatening vs non-threatening acid is the important thing.

[Kupac]

You could keep it like it is now but instead have the friendly acid cloud go in the background. So your ship would fly over instead of under it. (in the z-axis)

[lamsbro]

In general I would like to see the green and blue perks be a little more exaggerated. Consider the following changes:

Heavy Armor: more powerful, maybe 50-75% damage reduction.
Energy Booster or whatever its called: make it give a huge increase, maybe 100% increase in energy

Other perks I think could use some changes:
Shrapnel rockets - just isn't that interesting and its pretty weak too.
Bomber normal tailgun - I think it could use a boost in damage
Bomber bombs - these should be devastating but take a long time to recharge, right now they are neither. Consider decoupling them from energy requirements, afterburner + bombing increases control over where they fall and adds a potentially interesting dimension to the game.

[tmm3k]

Originally Posted by lamsbro

Shrapnel rockets - just isn't that interesting and its pretty weak too.

I've actually been preferring shrapnel rockets when playing maps with open spaces, such as Hills, Core, Woods, and Lost City. I only use regular rockets when I know that blowback from them will end up doing more damage, like in Cave.

[Blank]

i'm okay with current green/blue perk strength for the most part. It's the really underpowered perks that need to change it up IMO (reverse thruster, flexible wings).

Shrapnel Rocket IMO just isn't very fun. Most other planes get something really different in look/feel (miranda laser vrs bouncy, loopy acid vrs emp or double shot vrs single, bomber grens vrs bombs or flak vrs turret, biplane heavy cannon vrs regular). Explodet is still shooting a missile out the front and a mine out it's ass regardless of what you choose.

I feel bomber rear turret (flak or otherwise) ranges from fine to maybe too fine (flak). I honestly don't mind regular bombs so much. With the possibility of grenades on a bomber, you have a (slight) element of surprise when you start dropping bombs. I'm doubtful any more tweaking of bomber bombs will have any worthwhile effect for the plane (without making them uber powerful).

[Triped]

What if shrapnel rockets acted like they sound they should act - blowing out a bunch of shrapnel that flies in all directions? People close to the blast would get hit with a lot more pieces obviously.

When I think of shrapnel I think of shell fragments in WW1 blowing up and whizzing around slicing people's necks and all that.

[tmm3k]

Originally Posted by Triped

When I think of shrapnel I think of shell fragments in WW1 blowing up and whizzing around slicing people's necks and all that.

Only problem might be is that not everyone has the particle count set to the max.

[Triped]

Originally Posted by tmm3k

Only problem might be is that not everyone has the particle count set to the max.

Why would that matter? Isn't the server keeping the official record? Anyway, I don't think it would create too many more particles than some of the machine guns in the game.

Edit: Also, the rocket could explode into fewer, bigger pieces that deliver some knockback. That'd solve the particle problem.

[Smushface]

Originally Posted by nesnl

Seems like the opacity of the acid bomb is really dark. When planes are behind the cloud it's hard to tell what's going on. I don't know if that's the point or not, but in my opinion you should reduce the opacity of the acid bomb graphic. Also, it seems a bit overpowered as it is right now. Might need to reduce the damage modifier.

I think the trade off between having acid bomb is pretty fair, aka you lose EMP and double missiles.

I mean, the amount of damage you can put out with acid bomb i pretty disgusting, but just the loss of EMP alone is pretty huge. If acid bomb was nerfed even just a little bit, I don't think it'd be worth the trade off.

I also think acid bomb is a necessary option for loopys but thats a different conversation altogether.

[Snowsickle]

Originally Posted by Smushface

I think the trade off between having acid bomb is pretty fair, aka you lose EMP and double missiles.

I mean, the amount of damage you can put out with acid bomb i pretty disgusting, but just the loss of EMP alone is pretty huge. If acid bomb was nerfed even just a little bit, I don't think it'd be worth the trade off.

I also think acid bomb is a necessary option for loopys but thats a different conversation altogether.

Completely agreed. I honestly don't think the acid bomb could be balanced any better than it is. Seems quite powerful but there are times where I would rather fight an acid bomb loopy than an emp loopy.

[I_AM_PBS]

Wow, so acid does away with both EMP and missiles eh? Kinda a bummer, but I guess understandable if it is that powerful. Will have to give it a shot this week when I finally level up.

[Grif]

It removes EMP by replacing it, and limits you to single fire missiles (only one red perk).