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[PROJECT] Combat Overhauls - Projectiles, guns , hitscans, and Accuracy

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 10:05 pm
by kevinz000
This won't be happening for a few weeks at least as there's a lot of refactoring that has to be done before I'm willing to touch guncode

First part of a gradual wave of changes to be trialed: Hitscans
Hitscans have always been something I've viewed as a plague on the game.
In a 2D game, on-click hitscans have always struck me as skillless.
The current plan is to start introducing "skill" hitscans including things similar to the beam rifle from main (but not as OP) where you have to lock on into an angle before firing to hitscan, rather than it being instant, etc etc
Current "point and click" hitscans will be phased out, gradually anyways. Tasers replaced by non hitscans variants, non hitscan disabler/laser modes added.
With the new pixel projectile system, this is aimed at making people actually trail their shots and to make ranged weapons not an instant "win" over melee weapons due to hitscans being just a RNG roll that can't be dodged, as well as to bring on par hitscan weapons with ballistics (but that's a minor goal).
Non hitscan projectiles will simply lose the whole accuracy mechanic entirely, or nearly entirely. If you're able to shoot well enough to hit someone, you earned the hit. Stuff like pain/being drunk will be trialed being changed to angle variation in a non hitscan shot, rather than accuracy modifiers.

Aiming: Ah, the worst part of all this: Aiming if just used wit ha non hitscan system, even if it tries to predict movement and fire onto the tile being moved onto, rather than the old position or whatnot, is still very easy to predict and dodge without hitscans.
There's no easy way to fix this, as the main ways
1. prediction isn't good enough or will be too CPU/memory intensive if good enough to be viable, and trying to code an AI system that predicts how people will try to dodge is a whole new level of hell that I am not capable of.
2. Increasing projectile speed is pretty weird and would be inconsistent, but whatever
3. Could fluff it as guns being aimed well enough for them to accelerate particles into lasers if they're held still rather than just plasma blasts/whatever new lasers are called, and just make aiming for 2+ seconds force hitscan (with the old accuracy system also in play).

Non projectile changes:
Pain will slow down much less/have the slowdown calculation adjusted. I don't like speed combat in SS13 and I believe a good way to curb the whole "move faster to live, move slower to die" thing is to just make getting hit once by something that causes pain not immediately slow you to a crawl.

Security:
Introduction of 'Hybrid Tasers'. 7 taser shots, which are electrical stuns and have a range limit of 14 (down from 50) and do slightly less than old taser pain, OR 28 disabler shots, which are energy stuns and have a range limit of 50 and do like 10 pain or something instead of taser's 40. Helps balance armortypes/etc/etc, stuff like mercs will be adjusted accordingly.
Hybrid batons will also make an appearance.