Today we will be testing some more experimental balance changes to weapons. These won’t necessarily be added, but will help us understand the design space within TF2. Drastic balance changes like this are not currently planned for the release of the mod, and are only part of testing.
Testing what should be a minor ramp-up fix:
Though this change should provide very small adjustments to damage ramp-up (in the range of a 1-3 damage increase), changing such a fundamental mechanic must be tested.
Ramp-up now considers the closest possible distance the attacker and victim can be to each other, rather than max ramp-up only being applied if they were inside each other perfectly.
This should make max damage from ramp-up more intuitive and consistent.
Experimental Ullapool Caber rework:
Detonating the Caber explodes in your face, dealing massive lethal self-damage.
Increased the explosion radius to the standard 146 units used for explosives, up from 100.
After the impact explosion, the Caber will fall to the ground, exploding again after 0.7 seconds for 100 damage.
The secondary explosion will be crit-boosted if the initial attack was a crit.
This will restore some of the prior effectiveness of the Caber, now lethal to a Medic at max health, while giving some tradeoffs and counterplay vs. the older design. The newer design is an effective last resort panic option for the Demoman, and does not need to be resupplied due to its lethal self-damage. It gives an opportunity for the Demoman to deal similar damage as before the nerf, while also giving an opportunity to enemies to avoid it.
Note that we have also fixed some damage inconsistency issues with this weapon previously, which allows it to apply relatively consistent damage upon impact, also contributing to making it more pleasant to use.
Experimental Diamondback rework:
Removed crit collection mechanic.
-42% damage penalty
No random critical hits
New design: “tech upgrade” weapon concept.
The Diamondback now fires explosive microjets which stick onto enemies and create a timed mini-explosion that deals 15 damage.
Upon sapping a building or getting a backstab, upgrade your weapon’s microjets up to 10 times.
Each upgrade level adds another timed explosion.
Each active microjet stuck into enemies increases their damage by 5% and radius by 62 units.
After the Ambassador lost its ability to full damage crit at a long range, the Diamondback stuck out as problematic. Instead of giving Spy another crit falloff mechanic, the weapon was reworked to better match its identity and inspiration as a tech weapon. This change should give both the Ambassador and the Diamondback a unique and rewarding identity. We’re aware that giving Spy, a single target assassin class, radial damage is unprecedented, but we’d like to explore this design space to better understand its effects on gameplay.
Experimental Revolver base change:
All Revolvers, excluding the Diamondback and L’Etranger, can now headshot similarly to the Ambassador.
This means the stock Revolver, Ambassador, and Enforcer can crit upon headshot.
The Ambassador has a clearly attractive premise for Spy players: increased skill expression and rewarding kill outcomes when a backstab is not viable. In order to level the playing field and improve Revolver variety, the Ambassador loses its unique place as the headshot revolver, and remains the only perfectly accurate Revolver in Spy’s arsenal. This allows it to have a unique identity as a marksman tool, while not having an awkward tradeoff.
Fixes
Fix some player respawn bugs
Fixed Pyro density mechanic not actually being disabled
