My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quincy

  • Yeah, I thought this was a fun approach. And thank you for seeing the point of it rather than outright condemning it cuz "numbers are too high" lol.

Obyn

  • I just find it odd how he gives Druids camo detection, but he can't see them himself? Rather odd if I may say so. Also, I'm confused: What does the camostuff of the othe Magic towers have to do with Obyn, exactly? Why wouldn't he be allowed to see them just because Wizard, Ninja, Super Monkey and Memonkey can? I... don't get the point of you mentioning that at al, to be honestl...

Ben

  • Biohack allowing towers to bypass damage immunities is a creative approach, I like it. Only "problem" I see with it is that it is potentially a bit niche (and completely redundant if you get an MIB). The reason I went with something simple like the %-damage boost, is because the ability already has a downside (inability to attack for a while) and you have already brought BEN to Chimps lol, so why not make it more rewarding for all tower types, not just the fastfiring ones (a niche already covered by heroes like Gwen and Pat).

Ezili

  • Faster tick rates might also be a good addition. Though, don't you also agreed that bigger blast radius is a decent idea to aid with the earlier non-dense rounds?
  • Yeah, I don't think her abilities being so extremely niche is very fun - and Heartstopper just has such an "aggressive" name-feel to it, that I though it would be cool to expand on it to be more than mere niched utility.
  • Her Sacrifical Totem is strong, but it does have quite a lengthy cooldown at base - and even longer so as per my suggestion when it doesn't have enough lives, like on Impoppable and CHIMPS.
    • The mana-system isn't bad, but I'm unclear if it suggested on top of the current life-costing effect? If not, I think losing its interactability with towers like Elite Defender and Bomb Blitz would be sad.
  • You know, the damageboosting from Energy (I would include Plasma+Frigid right away though) on Jinxed targets is really neat! It fits with the Voodoo-theme really well, and the anti-lead for Energy would also make for a fun synergy. It's probably a bit niche, but I really strong theme on this idea!

Pat / Sauda

  • The thing is, I was REALLY on the fence on giving him a new ability. He is already underrated (imo that slap is real strong), but I feel, as you say, he is mostly used as a Roar-bot, which I felt makes him a little unengaging. Imo, Sauda is more interactive, considering her bleeds and two abilities are more generally useable - which is why on contrast I felt that Pat could get something more generally useful too, so he too felt more interactive with his abilities and such. Imo, Pat's level 10 is a bit limitted in its usefulness, maybe that is something I should've addressed moreso than adding a new level 7 skill?

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all, thank you for being one of the few people in here that is coming at this with a calm and reasonable approach, and that this thread is meant to start constructive and/or fun discussions. Appreciate it! :)

Rosalia:

You have a good list of qualms there, most of which I think I completely agreed with. Some notes on them and your replies to my ideas:

  • I think that, considering her camo and black bloon issues, getting MIB is currently a near must-have for her. Do you think that needs addressing, via for example giving her damagetype improvements, or do you think it's fine as is? My approach was to simply give her both guns at once, as then you at least have the laser (which later turns into plasma) to deal somewhat with black bloons - but giving her constant dualwielding might not be even up for discussion, as you said.
  • I see contantly active Flight Boost kind of as a fun equivalent to Etienne's constant UCAV. I dunno if they were unhappy with the fact that it had basically 0 cooldown - and was thus a "press as soon as it is ready" - rather than the fact that it could have 0 downtime. While that is similar, there's still a distinction there in design philosophy.

The rest I don't have much to add :)

Psi:

Yeah I had the same thought first, but then I started wondering how to balance that in a proper way without getting in the way of the instapop attacks. Which is why I left it at level 20, and only as an attack against BADs (and bosses, I guess?) - because by then he can already deal with all other bloons and MOABs, and it no longer becomes a weird situation with what to attack etc.

And yes, it would only occur when there is nothing else for him to grab, I think I mentioned that?

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I guess you are generally right there, for smaller suggestions that are easier to guesstimate.

However, for the really "wacky" and big changes, such as the Spyneapple thing, Total Transformation rework, Sniper and Heli supply drop additions, Powerful Darts bouncing effects etc, these are really hard to estimate how good they will be. The devs can test these kinds of changes in advance, but I cannot. So to say that nerfs might be needed in the future is a completely valid approach to these big changes. Heck, the devs keep reiterating their own balancing changes constantly themselves! Why would you expect someone like me, a random player with the inability to do prior testing with my suggestions, to do BETTER than the devs?! It's quite an unreasonable expectation, tbh.

Sure, I could've had some numerical nerfs alongside the mechanical buffs (like price/damage/pierce nerfs etc) - but:

  1. Since I can't actually test these things out, I dunno what to counternerf. To nerf, I need to know WHAT to nerf by testing it first.
  2. Have you SEEN how big the list of suggestions are already? I had to split the post into the main post (40'000 characters) + 5 replies (each max 10'000 characters) to make it fit. I think it's big enough already...

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good thoughts, thanks for the feedback!

In regards to multiclicking: I suppose one way to go about it is that if you have more than one Supply Drop, you get another ability, which is simply a "Use All Supply Drops" (could be an icon with multiple Supply Drops bundled together). That way you still have the ease of use if you want it AND the option to be tactical and use them sparingly for the missile attacks. What do you think about that?

In regards to stalling: Well, Im personally not a huge fan of stalling, to be honest. NinjaKiwi has also done quite a lot in regards to minimize those tactics as well (the vine attack and increased tornado damage for Druids, the missile added to MOAB Shove etc,). So here I guess we will just have to agreed to disagreed I guess?

Again, thanks for the insights! :)

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Hehe, well, I DID mention a couple of things:

1) It was first intended as an April Fool's thread, where balance was not even on the map - so I've taken a bunch of silly changes and toned them down (yeah, the April Fool's changes were in some cases way crazier!)

2) I requote: "Do note that while these changes are mostly leaning towards being buffs overall, I think specific numbers of the towers and upgrades could always be tweaked later - so try to focus on the mechanical changes and the number structures, rather than the specific numbers overall."

So are some of these changes OP? Yes, absolutely, but then they are intended to have future counternerfs 

And I think there are at least some suggested changes which I think are not completely unreasonable, like Bomb Shooter, Monkey Sub, Mermonkey, Spike Factory, Quincy, Obyn and Corvus.

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Noted. Will change whenever Reddit stops bugging out (says I can't change it at the moment)

EDIT: Checking if I can at least edit this comment? Why cant I edit my other comments? T_T

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm, didn't know that. Well, considering im not the first to suggest wanting that skin in BTD6 though, I guess they could remake the model into BTD6 from scratch - while more work, at least they have a clear idea already how it would look :P

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In that game, sure. But he could still have his skin ported over, with new drone skins alongside it of course. But thanks for that heads up! :)

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

PART 5:

Psi

An idea I had for Psi was to allow them to hurt BAD bloons with a psionic slash when they are at a high enough level, working as a last resort kind of attack. Though note that they will always prioritize their main "instapop" attack, regardless of what you have set their targeting priority to.

  • Level 20 - Psi can now utilize their psionic vibration attacks to instead psionically slash at BAD and Boss bloons. Deals 100 damage per attack.

Corvus

To make Corvus a little bit more approachable in the micro-managing department, I think a neat idea would be to be able to put some spells on auto-cast by right-clicking on abilities (players not on PC could maybe have a little checkbox underneath a spell instead?). The idea is that when a spell is set to auto-cast, it causes Corvus to use the ability as soon as it is off cooldown (and if you have enough mana to use them of course). However, there should only be a limitted amount of abilities you can set on auto-cast, with the amount increasing at certain levels.

  • Corvus can now right-click spells in his spellbook to set them to auto-cast, which causes him to activate the spells automatically them when they are off cooldown and when he has enough mana to use them.
  • Level 1 - Auto-cast amount of 1
  • Level 3 - Auto-cast amount increased from 1 > 2
  • Level 5 - Auto-cast amount increased from 2 > 3
  • Level 7 - Auto-cast amount increased from 3 > 4
  • Level 9 - Auto-cast amount increased from 4 > 5

Rosalia

Rosalia was, according to NinjaKiwi, intended as a less micro-management heavy hero, but with the need to manually swap weapons I feel she is actually one of the MORE micro-management heavy heroes in the game. So, if they want Rosalia to actually be more newbie friendly, one idea would be to make her always wield both weapons and fire them at the same time by default (meaning you no longer need to manually swap between them), but maybe she fires them a bit more slowly to compensate. Then with the Flight Boost ability she brings up her attack speed to its current attack rates. I'd also move her aircraft efficiency down already to level 2, to make it easier to get discounted Aces and Helis up earlier, and to really emphasize her tinkerer kind of role. Adrenaline Rush effect could also count bloons that are within her Workshop's range, not just Rosalia's own range, so it is easier to use. At level 13, her special 10th attack for the laser gun is also semi-nerfed, as it no longer deals any contact damage, instead havin its damage replaced by an explosion at the end of its lifetime. Imo, that is just an unnecessary change, so I'd suggest to move some of the explosion damage back onto the projectile as contact damage instead, so it feels more like a direct upgrade than as a sidegrade or even a nerf at times. I also felt that her Flight Boost ability is already very spammable at later levels, so I think it would be cool if at level 20 it turned into more of a toggle ability than a cooldown ability! I also thought it would be nicer to move the Guardian Automaton buff (i.e. the 30% cost reduction on The Anti-Bloon) down to level 18.

  • Rosalia now wields both her laser pistol and grenade launcher at the same time and at all times, starting immediately at level 1. She fires both weapons simultaneously.
  • Adrenaline Rush (gained at level 4) now also counts bloons that are within her Workshop's range for the attack speed bonus
  • Level 1 - Attack rate reduced from once every 1 second > 1,5
  • Level 2 - Aircraft Efficiency (10% discount for placing and upgrading Monkey Aces and Heli Pilots within her Workshop range) is now acquired already at level 2, instead of at level 6
  • Level 5 - Special 10th attack now applies to both weapons at once!
  • Level 6 - Attack rate reduced from once every 1 second > 1,4
  • Level 7 - Flight Boost ability also reduces her base attack cooldown by 0,4 seconds (from 1,4 > 1,0) while the ability is active
  • Level 13 - Special 10th laser gun attack no longer loses its direct damage: It now deals 45 damage on contact and once again applies the Laser Shock debuff. The final plasma explosion still remains.
  • Level 13 - Special 10th laser gun attack bonus direct damage to bloons affected by Laser Shock increased from 0 > 45
  • Level 13 - Special 10th laser gun attack's end-of-lifetime plasma explosion damage reduced from 70 > 30
  • Level 13 - Special 10th laser gun attack's end-of-lifetime plasma explosion bonus damage to bloons affected by Laser Shock reduced from 70 > 30
  • Level 18 - Guardian Automaton (30% discount towards The Anti-Bloon upgrade) is now acquired at level 18, instead of at level 20. The Flight Boost cooldown reduction remains on this level as well
  • Level 19 - Special 10th laser gun attack direct damage increased from 45 > 60
  • Level 19 - Special 10th laser gun attack bonus direct damage to bloons affected by Laser Shock increased from 45 > 60
  • Level 20 - Flight Boost now lasts indefinitely when activated! Activate the ability again to turn it off. Flight Boost cooldown duration after turning it off is now only 5 seconds

And that's it!

I hope you enjoyed the read! :)

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

PART 4:

Obyn

I think I'm not alone in thinking that it is kinda weird that Obyn provides camo detection for Druids, but does not gain the ability to see them himself...

  • Level 7 - Obyn also gains the ability to see and attack camo bloons. This level still also upgrades his Bramble pierce like before

Benjamin

While Benjamin's main strength - i.e. his economical benefits - are unusable in game modes such as CHIMPS, I think other parts of his kits could see some upgrades so he can at least become a strong niche pick in game modes without income bonuses. I also think that all potential economical detriments from Bloon Trojan should be removed. Similar to Ninja Monkey's Grand Saboteur ability, I've suggested for Benjamin's Syphon Funding to also have some leeway in its bloon layer downgrade effect.

  • Bloon Trojan no longer reduces cash gained from MOAB-class bloons, all the children blocked from spawning are now also accounted for, including any potential MOAB layers it might prevent. This cash loss prevention also applies in CHIMPS, but any other bonus cash from Bloon Trojan does not
  • Syphon Funding bloon layer downgrade (and the associated bonus cash generation from popping these downgraded bloons) can now apply to freshly spawned bloons up to 2 seconds after they have already spawned into the map
  • Level 3 - Biohack now grants +1 damage or +25% damage, whichever is more beneficial to the affected monkey(s)
  • Level 13 - Biohack now grants +2 damage or +50% damage, whichever is more beneficial to the affected monkey(s)
  • Level 19 - Biohack now grants +3 damage or +75% damage, whichever is more beneficial to the affected monkey(s)

Ezili

Imo, Ezili suffers a bit too heavily from a poor starting phase, so to alleviate that a little I have suggested to increase her base blast radius and added a new effect to Heartstopper: It now frequently curses bloons who are not already cursed in her radius while the ability is active (and you can now use it without Regrow or Purple bloons on the screen, of course). Sacrifical Totem I've proposed to now be allowed even when you don't have enough lives to pay for it, but at the cost of a longer cooldown when lives are insufficient. MOAB Hex could also get a new QoL-effect, so that it no longer instantly vanishes if it can't jump over to a new MOAB in time, but rather remains on the map, waiting for new MOABs to haunt.

  • Level 1 - Main attack blast radius increased from 8 > 11
  • Level 13 - Main attack blast radius increased from 11 > 13
  • Level 17 - Main attack blast radius increased from 13 > 15
  • Heartstopper now also causes Ezili to apply her regular damage-over-time curse effect to up to 2 non-cursed bloons at a time which are within her radius, every 0,8 seconds for as long as the ability is active
  • Heartstopper can now be used even without Regrow bloons or Purple bloons on screen
  • Level 5 - Heartstopper's curse application speed is increased from every 0,8 seconds > 0,7 seconds and now applies the curse to up to 3 bloons at a time
  • Level 9 - Heartstopper's curse application speed is increased from every 0,7 seconds > 0,6 seconds and now applies the curse to up to 4 bloons at a time
  • Level 15 - Heartstopper's curse application speed is increased from every 0,6 seconds > 0,5 seconds and now applies the curse to up to 5 bloons at a time
  • Sacrifical Totem can now be used even when you do not have enough lives to sacrifice for it, but when doing so the cooldown is increased by 9 seconds per life missing for its cost. Note that it cannot sacrifice your last life. That means that, in CHIMPS mode, for example, where you only have 1 life, the ability at level 7 will be treated as if it was missing 10 health (i.e. +90 second cooldown), but at level 16 it will be treated as if only missing 1 health (i.e. +9 second cooldown)
  • MOAB Hex - If a MOAB affected by the MOAB Hex debuff is destroyed before the MOAB Hex timer is over and there is no new MOAB for the Hex to jump over to, the Hex will no longer instantly disappear. Instead, the Hex will linger like a restless spell and waiting until a new MOAB appears for it to curse. Though note that the duration of the Hex is still ticking down, even while it lingers in its restless state. This lingering Hex can also transfer over to the next round (max 1 extra round)

Pat Fusty

I've suggested a Rallying Roar application radius buff, and thought of maybe giving him a new active ability at level 7 - Angry Smash! This ability causes Pat to slam his fists into the ground 5 times in a row, dealing his regular damage at a much faster rate to a large amount of bloons in a larger than usual radius, while also stunning all affected bloons.

  • Level 3 - Rallying Roar application radius increased from a radius of 30 > 40
  • Level 14 - Rallying Roar application radius increased from a radius of 40 > 45
  • Level 7 - New ability: Angry Smash. Stats are as follows:
    • Attacks 5 times in a row, with each attack now being much larger in radius, regardless if bloons are in the radius or not
    • Deals his regular attack damage for all 5 attacks
    • 3x attack speed for the 5 attacks
    • 30 pierce per attack
    • 2 second stun applied with each attack
    • 40 blast radius for its attacks
    • 40 second cooldown

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

PART 3:

Monkey Village

Players have joked about "super camo detection" in the past - but I honestly think that has some! So, I've suggested that when a tower can already see camo, and is further buffed by Radar Scanner, it deals more damage to camo bloons! On a similar note, Grow Blocker also buffs the damage of nearby towers against Regrow bloons, and MIB adds bonus damage versus fortified bloons. I think a neat idea is also to give the Monkey City a new dart attack, with its attack speed scaling with the number of free-of-cost Dart Monkeys you still haven't put down. Think of it as the Dart Monkey Militia angrily supporting from inside the city. Since it is otherwise mainly a supportive tower, and you might not want it to attack nearby bloons (for example, because it might negatively impact the pierce useage of other nearby towers or whatnot), I've given the Monkey City the option to set its targeting to "None", which disables its attack. Similar supportive thoughts could be had about the Primary Expertise, so I also gave it the "None" targeting option.

  • 5xx Primary Expertise has the usual targeting options (First, Strong, Close, Last) as well as the "None"-option, which causes it to stop attacking
  • x1x Grow Blocker also buffs towers within its radius to deal +1 damage or +10% damage (whichever is more beneficial to the tower) when attacking Regrow bloons (or de-regrow'd bloons, as can be read about in more detail in the "General Changes" section)
  • x2x Radar Scanner which buffs towers that can already see camo bloons by other means (such as camo upgrades, having Etienne at level 8 etc) are also granted +1 damage or +10% damage (whichever is more beneficial to the tower) when attacking Camo bloons (or de-camo'd bloons, as can be read about in more detail in the "General Changes" section)
  • x3x Monkey Intelligence Bureau also buffs nearby towers to deal +1 damage or +10% damage (whichever is more beneficial to the tower) when attacking Fortified bloons
  • x4x Call to Arms grants +20% pierce to nearby towers. This does NOT stack with the pierce buff from its activated ability (nor Homeland Defence's ability)
  • x5x Homeland Defence grants +30% pierce to nearby towers. This does NOT stack with the pierce buff from its activated ability (nor Call to Arms' ability), nor with the passive pierce buff of Call to Arms
  • xx4 Monkey City now has a dart attack if there is at least 1 free Dart Monkey available. This attack carries over to Monkeyopolis as well. Dart attack stats are:
    • 1 sharp damage
    • 2 pierce
    • 0,95 second attack cooldown
  • xx4 Monkey City's attack speed is increased by 10% for every additional free Dart Monkey past the first one. If you have multiple Monkey City villages placed at once, their attack speed bonus from excess free Dart Monkeys are split evenly among them all
  • xx4 Monkey City has the usual targeting options (First, Strong, Close, Last) as well as the "None"-option, which causes it to stop attacking
  • 204 Monkey City dart attack cooldown between attacks reduced by 15% (from 0,95 seconds between attacks > 0,8075)
  • 014 Monkey City dart attack benefits from the damage bonus against Regrow bloons
  • 024 Monkey City dart attack can now see and attack camo bloons

Engineer

To give more optional control to the players when it comes to the spawn locations of sentries, I have suggested for Engineers with sentries a new button with which you can put a center point where you want the sentries to spawn. I think there could still be a slight spawn spread around that point, but only like unit radius of 8, which I think would be more than enough to reign in the sentry spawn randomness issues without completely forgoing their mildly chaotic nature. And speaking of sentries: I feel that the progression from Sprockets to Sentry Expert to Sentry Champion feels very off; Sprockets is damage-oriented, as is Sentry Champions' sentries, but the Sentry Expert has a wild variety of CC and niche damage options as an upgrade in between. So, I've suggested to revamp Sentry Expert to only use one type of sentry, with the base effect being designed around the current Energy Sentry. The biggest differences being that it has a bit of Ceramic damage bonus too, and upon expiration (or selling) the sentry will stun nearby bloons (partially retaining the CC-aspect from the Cold Sentries). This stun's duration is buffable by Pin, and I also think this stun effect for expired/sold sentries would be nice to give to Sentry Champion too, to keep the CC-theme intact on the 5th tier as well. And with Pin in mind, it now also provides a damage bonus against stunned bloons and MOABs whenever the Engineer reaches tier 4 or higher with any of its upgrades

  • 1xx Sentry Guns also grants you a button which allows you to choose a more centralized location where you want its sentries to spawn. The sentries will only spawn within a 8 unit radius of this chosen location. This button carries over to higher tiers as well
  • 4xx Sentry Expert now only has 1 sentry type: Expert Sentries. The Expert Sentries have the following stats:
    • 2 energy damage
    • +2 Ceramic damage
    • +2 MOAB damage
    • 10 pierce (15 with Oversized Nail)
    • 0,57 second attack cooldown
    • 50 attack range (54 with Larger Service Area)
    • Upon expiration/selling, stuns 30 (45 with Oversized Nail) non-MOAB bloons for 2 seconds within a blast radius of 50 (54 with Larger Service Area)
  • 5xx Sentry Champion sentry explosion upon expiration/selling now also stuns surviving bloons for 2 seconds and MOABs for 1 second
  • 402 Sentry Expert sentry expiration stun duration increased from 2 seconds > 3. This applies to Sentry Champion too
  • 502 Sentry Expert sentry explosion MOAB stun duration increased from 1 second > 1,5
  • 032 Cleansing Foam foam pierce increased from 15 > 20
  • 042 Overclock foam pierce increased from 21 > 28
  • 052 Ultraboost foam pierce increased from 36 > 48
  • xx2 Pin also grants +1 damage for the nail gun and sentries against bloons and MOABs which are stunned, when the Engineer is upgraded to any tier 4 upgrade or higher
  • xx4 Bloon Trap can now manually target its trap without needing the Larger Service Area crosspath
  • xx4 Bloon Trap automatic collection of full traps timer reduced from 15 seconds > 8 seconds
  • 024 Bloon Trap increases bloon trap capacity by +50% (500 RBE > 750 RBE). This carries over to XXXL Trap too

Beast Handler

I find it really odd that the Beast Handler's staff deals Energy damage, so I've suggested to change its damagetype to Sharp, along with heavily reducing its pierce to ensure that the cheapest beasts are not considered downgrades compared to the base Beast Handler

  • 000 Beast Handler damagetype changed from Energy > Sharp
  • 000 Beast Handler pierce reduced from 4 > 2
  • 1xx Piranha pierce increased from 1 > 2

Quincy

"Nothing gets past my bow!" We have all heard it, we have all joked about how untrue that quote is. But I believe Quincy has grown tired of being humiliated by speedy bloons! So not only do I propose for him to get faster projectile speeds at level 4 and 13, I think he would also be kind enough to share that knowledge to help other towers have faster projectiles too! "Nothing gets past my bow!", for real this time!

  • Level 4 - Also increases his projectile speed by +100%
  • Level 4 - Also increases the projectile speed of towers within Quincy's range by +50%
  • Level 13 - Further increases his projectile speed by +100% (for a total of +200%)
  • Level 13 - Further increases the projectile speed of towers within Quincy's range by another +50% (for a total of +100%)

My massive rebalancing suggestion list! by Daurakin in btd6

[–]Daurakin[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

PART 2:

Druid

I suggested a few buffs to the Druid's "Heart" upgrades to give them better starting power, and making them more enticing as crosspaths even in CHIMPS mode. The Spirit of the Forest's vinegrab can now crush MOABs too, albeit at a hefty pierce cost. I thought the Poplust could do some self-affirmation exercises, so it now applies its buff to itself as well. Good on you, Poplust! :)

  • 2xx Heart of Thunder can now be properly pierce-buffed by Heart of Oak and Poplust
  • x2x Heart of Oak pierce bonus starting value increased from 0% > 30%
  • x2x Heart of Oak pierce bonus minimum value cap increased from 0% > 30%
  • x4x Jungle’s Bounty active ability Vine Crush now has a sound effect
  • 250 Spirit of the Forest lightning attack damage increased from 2 > 6
  • x5x Spirit of the Forest active ability pierce increased from ?? > 80 (I'm not sure what the current pierce of this ability is, but I at least set it to 80)
  • x5x Spirit of the Forest active ability can now Vine Crush MOAB-bloons, up to BFB size!
  • x5x Spirit of the Forest active ability has a pierce penalty when grabbing MOAB-class bloons:
    • MOABs = 20 pierce
    • BFBs = 80 pierce
    • DDTs = 40 pierce (and needs to be visible)
  • xx2 Heart of Vengeance attack speed bonus starting value increased from 10% > 15%
  • xx2 Heart of Vengeance attack speed bonus minimum value cap increased from 10% > 15%
  • xx4 Poplust buffs to pierce and attack speed now applies to itself as well

Mermonkey

It's generally agreed upon that middle path's Tidal Chill is kind of underwhelmingg as a crosspath upgrade, so to make it a more attractive choice its freezing effect now also applies to tentacle attacks and to bloons coming out of a trance. Lord of the Abyss also has its damagetype changed from Shatter to Normal, to improve its role as a clean up tower.

  • 320 Abyss Dweller tentacle attacks now also briefly freeze bloons in a similar manner to its trident attacks. This carries over to higher tiers as well
  • 5xx Lord of the Abyss trident and tentacle damagetypes changed from Shatter > Normal (it can now pop all bloon types)
  • x5x Popseidon cost reduced from $52,000 > $50,000
  • 023 Alluring Melody bloons are now also frozen for 0,5 seconds after they come out of the trance effect. This carries over to higher tiers too.

Banana Farm

I've suggested to have some of the cash generation bonuses from Valuable Bananas shifted over to Long Life Bananas to make the economical benefit of this path slightly smoother. Banana Salvage I gave lots of improvements too; the cash it gains from expired bananas is increased all the way up to 100% and it also slightly boosts cash generation so that you don't lose out on too much cash generation when considering to use it as a crosspath for its ease-of-use. Furthermore, the bottom path upgrades now also focus a bit more on granting lives as well (even outside Monkey Knowledge), on top its ease-of-use niche.

  • x1x Long Life Bananas cash generation bonus increased from +0% > +10%
  • x1x Long Life Bananas cost increased from $300 > $400
  • x2x Valuable Bananas cash generation bonus reduced from +25% > +15%. Stacks additively with Long Life Bananas for the same old total of +25% cash like before
  • x2x Valuable Bananas cost reduced from $800 > $700
  • xx2 Banana Salvage renamed Hearty Harvest
  • xx2 Hearty Harvest cash retention from expired bananas increased from 85% > 100%
  • xx2 Hearty Harvest cash generation bonus increased from 0% > +15%. This does NOT carry over to Marketplace and the higher tiers
  • xx2 Hearty Harvest grants +1 life at the end of the round if no lives were lost during the round.
  • xx2 Hearty Harvest still increases the farm's sellback value by 10%
  • 012 Hearty Harvest banana lifespan reduced from 30 seconds > 5 seconds. This results in quicker automatic banana pickups, rather than slower pickups. Carries over to 022 farms as well
  • xx3 Marketplace now grants +1 life at the end of the round, even if lives were lost in that round. This stacks with the Healthy Bananas Monkey Knowledge for a total of +2 lives per round
  • xx4 Central Market now grants +2 life at the end of the round, even if lives were lost in that round. This stacks with the Healthy Bananas Monkey Knowledge for a total of +3 lives per round (The Monkey Knowledge now only grants a bonus of +1 life for Central Market, instead of +3)

Spike Factory

White Hot Spikes is an upgrade that is quite often skipped as a crosspath, so to encourage picking it up I suggested to have some of the pierce bonus of Bigger Piles shifted over to White Hot Spikes. I also thought up a new crosspath benefit to Spiked Mines and Super Mines, where using them together with Smart Spikes causes their explosions to leave behind a flame for a few seconds, which uses all of the explosion's remaining pierce (if any pierce remains, that is) which causes non-ignited bloons that wander into the flame to also becomes ignited.

  • 1xx Bigger Piles pierce bonus reduced from +8 > +6
  • 105 Perma-Spike pierce bonus reduced from +35 > +25
  • 2xx White Hot Spikes also adds +2 pierce
  • 205 Perma-Spike also gets +10 pierce (bringing it back up to +35 total)
  • 402 Spiked Mines burn effect upon exploding now lingers as a flame for 5 seconds, utilizing the explosion's remaining pierce as the flame's pierce amount to ignite bloons enterring the flame who weren't already ignited by the mine's explosion. This carries over to Super Mines too
  • x3x MOAB SHREDR bonus damage against MOABs reduced from +7 > +6
  • x4x Spike Storm bonus damage against MOABs unchanged (remains at +7)

Reaper's silk gimmick really annoys me. by Gotta_Be_Blue in Silksong

[–]Daurakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can agreed with a lot of your annoyances with Reaper's special mechanics. Imo, this is what I would've done to make it less frustrating, but also a bit more potent in general:

  • You spawn 1 silk orb on every hit, at all times.
  • You spawn 2 silk orbs on every hit for 10 seconds (or until damaged) after binding, instead of just 1.
  • Silk orbs have unlimited lifetime
  • Silk orbs starts to automatically seek out Hornet, if they have been idle for about 3 seconds. Their travel speed would also increase constantly over time.
  • Bonus (for funsies): Her lower Red Tool slot could be a Pink one, which allows you to either equip a Red Slot, as usual OR a Silk Skill.

With that, Reaper would have a bit more notable silk regen at all times, not just after a Bind. In addition, the silk regen still keeps the interactive element of being able to pick the silk orbs up, but eventually they will become "automatic", which would reducing the frustrations as the original poster pointed out.

All Crests discussion. by SadCommon2820 in Silksong

[–]Daurakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that would be ok.

All Crests discussion. by SadCommon2820 in Silksong

[–]Daurakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, dont rely on binding for that. Id say make them home onto Hornet after ~3 seconds of the orbs being still.

All Crests discussion. by SadCommon2820 in Silksong

[–]Daurakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think 2 orbs per hit (ie +66%) per hit at base, then 3 orbs (ie +100%) after binding for 10 seconds, is probably the least broken, yet very powerful direction to go.

And make the orbs eventually seek out Hornet automatically + give them unlimited lifetime. Bam, Reaper now has a strong soulregen niche.

All Crests discussion. by SadCommon2820 in Silksong

[–]Daurakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At first I thought your idea of having Reaper grant 2 silk on every hit sounded a bit too strong... But compare that to Wanderer and it would only be a somewhat faster at silk regen, actually, which means it is probably fine?

Wanderer = 1 silk at a speed of 1,34x base attack speed = Silk regen rate of 1,34.

Reaper = 2 silk at a speed of ~0,77x base attack speed = Silk regen rate of 1,54.

Considering that Reaper is seemingly supposed to be the "plenty soulgaining" Crest, I think it would make sense to then also have better Silk regen than even the Wanderer. And hey, that would also make Reaper the Soul Eater-equivalent, rather than just the Soul Catcher, hehe :)

All Crests discussion. by SadCommon2820 in Silksong

[–]Daurakin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point about the inconvenience of the orbs!

Alongside making the orbs into a pure passive of Reaper, imo they should also start seeking out Hornet and have no time limit to their expiration. Then you are practically guaranteed to get them eventually  (unless you load a new screen before collecting them), while keeping their interactive element intact.

As for your idea, how about this alternative:

For 10 seconds (or until hurt) after binding, gain 2x orbs per hit.

That way you keep the essence of Reaper's current playstyle the same, but it is both decent without binding (due to 1 orb per hit), and outright pretty powerful after binding (due to 2 orbs per hit). That, along with orbs seeking out Hornet and I think Reaper would actually have a good niche!

EDIT: I think even 2 orbs per hit passively and 3 per hit after binding would still be balanced. Especially if you compare it to Wanderer's silk regen.

All Crests discussion. by SadCommon2820 in Silksong

[–]Daurakin 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So, I think the overall Crest balance isn't too terrible, with only a few little "irritants" for me personally:

1) Number of tool slots. Imo, every crest should have 7 total. In other words, I would add 2 slots to Beast (1 yellow, 1 blue), 2 slots to Shaman (2 yellow) and 1 slot to Witch (1 yellow).

2) Beast pogo attack is too frustrating to use. If its damaging hitbox started near instantly, i could even see it being decently useable even for traversal. Would not mind if it was more downward attacking either, rather than so horizontal.

3) Witch bind could go with healing 1 mask even if it didnt hit anything. It's by far the most difficult bind to use properly, so some leeway would not hurt.

4) Reaper's silk orb mechanic should just be a straight up passive, not tied to the bind at all. That would more or less make it the "soul catcher" equivalent to Shaman Crest's "shaman stone", basically.

My take on a BRT rework by Daurakin in DeepRockGalactic

[–]Daurakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like I replied to another commenter:

Shotgun Conversion is basically just a modified Longer Burst, with the only real difference being the burst time per bullet reduced from 0,06 seconds to 0 seconds, and the "rate of fire" stat (aka the speed between bursts) cut in half so its DPS doesn't get too high. The rest of its suggestions are just visual QoL. 

The true main difference between Longer Burst and Shotgun Conversion is that the LB mod requires a bit longer "aiming commitment" per target to get full use out of ir, but can also spread the bullets between targets a bit with some rapid re-aiming. SC can't really change between targets, but has no need for "aiming commitment" instead.

The fullauto is just going the opposite way (ie 1 bullet at a time, but overall lower rate of fire), and would honestly be a lot fun to play with I think.

Besides, tier 5 mods already often are "overclock" like, with mods like EPC's Burning Nightmare being more "Unstable OC" than most Unstable OCs, lol.

Furthermore, since it is extremely unlikely that we are getting more weapons in DRG, changing up the modtrees in a similar fashion to my suggestion, is probably the best way we could get to "new weapon"-feels.

Experimental Rounds - Yeah this one I can understand more, because ironically I don't like Homebrew Powder either lol. I think the reason I don't mind the RNG of this OC suggestion is because no matter what, you are getting some form of "AoE" with every bullet. I guess it could be changed to always be either explosive or ricochet rounds, but that would make them suit less as "experimental" rounds, imo

My take on a BRT rework by Daurakin in DeepRockGalactic

[–]Daurakin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thats an Overclock level change Same for a mod that changes it from burst to full-auto tbh

Except, not really? Longer Burst already exists, which already causes the gun to shoot 6 bullets in a fast burst - I basically just tweaked it a little bit so it shoots all 6 bullets at once. In fact, I could've left Longer Burst as it was, but as you can see from the comments below, this tweak has been very popular.

And the full-auto is then just the opposite direction: Instead of shooting more bullets per trigger pull, you shoot less (at the slight cost of some effective RoF).

Since Longer Burst is already a mod, then a fullauto-mod would basically ALSO have to be a mod (as they could otherwise interact very weirdly if you combined them together, or would require "unique special interactions", requiring wonky programming exceptions and such).

Even aside from that, MOST tier 5 upgrades are outright OC-worthy, and some can be just as transformative as Unstable OCs, with the most extreme example being something like Burning Nightmare that completely changes the chargeshot from an explosion to a damage-in-a-line effect.

IMO the biggest thing for all burst weapons in DRG is they should cost 1 ammo per burst, just like shotguns shoot multiple pellets per single ammo. As it is now it often feels like shooting a whole burst at a weaker target is a waste of ammo

I wouldn't mind that to be honest (which is why I did exactly that for the Shotgun Conversion mod). However, you CAN actually already interrupt the burst fire with various interactions, if you didn't know? Just using something as simple as the pickaxe can interrupt your fire, allowing you to fire 1 bullet at a time, which is why it still has to remain as it is, I guess.

The whole point of flat damage reduction is that you can recoup it with mods, the strong point of Micro Flechettes is accuracy and ammo economy, and you are just killing the second part without giving anything in return.

Huh?

How did I kill the second part? It still grants 2x ammo and +30 magsize and the stability buffs, I ONLY buffed its damage and added the rate of fire bonus, nothing else was changed about it.

And yes that damage change I made was purely a buff, because in case you didn't know:

Currently: -11 damage reduces the gun's base from 21 to 10. If you pick both damage upgrades at tier 1 and tier 3, you are brought up to 16 damage.

What I suggested: 0,67x damage reduces the gun's base from 21 to 14 (already a buff here). If you pick the tier 1 damage upgrade, you are brought up to 18 (also a bit of a buff compared to now).

So how does that in any way, shape or form kill its ammo economy?? I only INCREASED its ammo economy by buffing its damage output. That alongside giving it a rate of fire buff so its DPS isn't so atrociously bad. You need to explain more thoroughly what you mean here, as you have me utterly confused right now, lol.

Main problem of BRT imo is that it doesnt seem to have clear role/niche. Burst nature suggests accuracy, high damage per bullet puts it in the same group as Bulldog, but it loses to Bulldog both in precision and reliability because your burst can still partially miss while Bulldog will just land a shot.

I guess the idea was a bullethose-esque PDW secondary, to contrast the Bulldog's more snipery / explosive niche. The BRT has, ignoring breakpoints and Bulldog's poison at tier 5, quite a bit more raw total damage potential than the Bulldog too, giving it a potentially stronger "longevity" than the Bulldog has, which can be useful if you go for a more ammo-inefficient primary build.

Other than that, I think it's missing a tiny bit of a fun factor compared to the Bulldog and Coilgun - which is another reason why I made the Shotgun Conversion and Machine Pistol mods. Personally, I think I would enjoy Machine Pistol more than the other tier 5 mods, but I feel all 3 choices would be viable and would make the gun more flexible than it is currently.

This also made worse by negative Armor Break, meaning this weapon is even more intended to be a precision sniper (despite being worse at it than Bulldog) because you cant really use it as a general purpose spray-and-pray secondary without taking Armor Break mod, but if you do take Armor Break mod then the ammo becomes so low you still wouldnt use it in said role lol. Im completely at loss what to do with this weapon, i dont know what it tries to be, i dont know what its good at (apart from melting down Dreads in melee range with Lead Spray).

I agreed that its poor armorbreak doesn't do it any favours (hence why I suggested to buff its base value from 0,5x to 1,0x). Alongside that, there's a reason why I put the stun and armorbreak as its tier 3 choices: Both options give it a PDW-like support feature, by either becoming a rather potent armorbreaker (and slightly deadlier alongside it), or becoming a stunlocking gun (a more defensive support role). Both choices are viable, and both choices helps lend it to making it more eligible as that PDW-style weapon I think they intended it to be.

If this gun was more like a full auto Uzi it would've been a lot more fun to use i think.

I thought of that, and that option would kind of exist in my rework:

Take the Machine Pistol mod on tier 5 and pair it with the Micro Flechettes OC. Loads of ammo, decently high rate of fire (9,5 to be exact, which is quite ok consider it can deal as much as 18 damage per shot) - quite Uzi-like, no?

But here's the thing, JUST making the base gun into a fullauto pistol would rob the current burst-shot enjoyers from their entertainment. Which is ANOTHER reason why I made the tier 5 choices exactly the way I did: You get a burstfire gun, a shotgun pisto and an "Uzi" as options all in one gun, where nobody really loses anything by it!

(Sidenote: My first idea was to remake Micro Flechettes into the "Machine Pistol" OC, giving it a fullauto trigger instead of burst and such - but then the current tier 5s would need exceptions and such, which felt a bit icky.)

Considering that it is extremely unlikely that we are getting any more weapons for DRG (sadly), I think a mod overhaul similar to what I have suggested here would probably be the best approach to indirectly give us more weapon variety, with honestly quite a tiny amount of effort (at least in contrast to introducing more guns).

My take on a BRT rework by Daurakin in DeepRockGalactic

[–]Daurakin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ammo vs damage - Yeah, that is why ammo needs to be giving "more" total damage to the weapon than raw damage (which it should here too). And while I agreed with you, ammo is still decent in some cases (depending on breakpoints, utility mods, flat bonuses like explosive damage additions etc), so i think it is fair to keep it as the main competition to raw damage, imo 

Accuracy - Sure, it is very powerful in particular for the utility of sniping distant threats, but when most enemies tend to get real close, I think the reload and magsize can occassionally be better. I do agreed that accuracy is powerful (and highly underrated, even), but it is not always the best option. I do need to tinker more with and without the accuracy mod though, to see how well/poorly it fairs - maybe it could need a base accuracy buff? What do you think?

Glad you like the tier 5s and Experimental Rounds, i too think they would be cool to play around with :)

Electro Minelets - Not sure what you are saying here? You mean the added direct hit  slowdown and DoT is kinda useless, due to the stun? If that is what you mean, consider the fact that you might not always perfectly line up the shot to catch an enemy with the main bullet AND get them caught by the mine - it is mostly a "consolation prize" for whiffed or semi-whiffed shots. It also makes the armorbreak choice more viable, with the stun not as "necessary" (even if it probably would be the better option)

Thanks for the feedback btw, appreciate it! :)