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Reworked the XM42B, updated the M42C further, updated or added descriptions, made Aimed Shot work with all Snipers, etc.

Closed Kaga requested to merge Kaga_404/colonial-warfare:Kaga_404-XM42B_AMR into dev

Changelog

:cl: Kaga

rscadd: The XM42B Experimental Anti-Tank Rifle has been reworked into the XM42B Experimental Anti-Materiel Rifle. This weapon is not currently available through normal gameplay, but may be randomly playtested.

rscdel: The XM42B no longer requires a minimum targeting distance of 8 tiles.

tweak: The XM42B's ammo and related references have been changed from 'anti-tank' to 'anti-materiel' in most cases to reflect the updated identity of the weapon.

tweak: Increased the XM42B's damage from 95 to 125. This was previously updated as part of the M42C's preliminary update.

tweak: Reduced the XM42B's fire delay from a whopping 5.6 seconds down to 3. This is still the highest in the family, higher than both the M42A and M42C.

tweak: Increased the XM42B's magazine size from 5 rounds to 8.

rscadd: The XM42B's ammo now has the Wall-Penetrating trait, as the M42C was previously given. It can now hit multiple mobs, objects, and turfs, with each hit reducing the maximum range. At point-blank, this comes out to a maximum of eight hits.

rscadd: The XM42B's ammo now deals increased damage to walls and pylons, similar to the U7 Underbarrel Shotgun. This allows it to break most resin walls and doors in one shot, reinforced walls in eight (a full magazine), and Pylons in three shots.

tweak: Increased the M42C's damage from 125 to 150. This serves to further close the gap between its damage per magazine and the M42A's Marksman magazines (750 vs 1050 to 900 vs 1050), reflect its increased muzzle velocity relative to the XM42B despite being the same caliber, and to keep it distinct from the XM42B's new identity.

rscadd: Adjusted the Ghillie Suit's Aimed Shot ability to now work with all Sniper Rifles. By default, this deals 300% damage, but the XM42B and M42C both have special damage calculations with it.

rscadd: The XM42B's Aimed Shot deals 300% damage against large Xenos (375), and 180% to everything else (225).

rscadd: The M42C's Aimed Shot deals 300% damage against large Xenos (450), 150% to smaller Xenos (225), and 200% to everything else (300). As the ability currently requires the Sniper Spec's Ghillie Suit, beware of the recoil.

tweak: Cleaned up some outdated code in the M42A's ammo variants.

/:cl:

Details

A combination follow-up to the previous PMC Sniper MR (!2029 (merged)), this time focusing on giving the XM42B a new identity and allowing it to be tested once again in the modern era of CM.

A few years back, while CM was still Closed Source, the XM42B anti-tank rifle was tested occasionally as an alternative to the Sniper Specialist kit. Ammo could be bought from Requisitions, but the weapon itself had to be obtained through an administrator, and the tests eventually ended with no results released. The weapon quietly fell by the wayside, and became deprecated more and more as the gameplay continued to change and evolve, eventually having its ammo removed as an option from Requisitions altogether.

From personal memory and what code remains, during its original testing period the weapon performed as follows:

  • Extremely high damage per shot, dealing well over half of most Xeno's HP, even at high Maturity.
  • Extremely slow firerate, with a delay between shots of 5.6 seconds.
  • A firing-range restriction that prevented targeting anything within 8 tiles (past even the standard view range).
  • A magazine size of 5, even lower than that of the M42C (6).

It appeared to previously be intended for two main purposes:

  1. As a high-power finisher for wounded targets, bursting them down before they would be able to retreat. Due to its extremely slow firerate, attempting to kill most targets with it alone was unlikely, as they would have over 5 seconds to get out of sight, and the tiny magazine size made it expensive to use on any target that you could not guarantee a kill on. Regardless, it still served an extremely viable niche at the time, and with Maturity still in the game it could also punish unwary targets that ventured out while Young, all on its own.

  2. To counteract lone Boilers during FOB sieges, forcing them to either pull other Xenos to cover for them as they sieged, or to slow down the rate of their assault. Both it and the M42A could counter Boilers at the time, but in different situations and through different means. The XM42B would deal massive damage, forcing the cover to cycle out and taking up more Xenos. On the other hand, the M42A did so through either Incendiary or Flak, forcing them to either cycle through protectors or space out, which could cause gas globs to miss.

In the modern state of CM, neither of these are particularly viable anymore. The first goes against the more durable designs overall, and the second no longer functions with the introduction of MOBA Boilers.

In addition, it possesses most of the same issues that the PMC Sniper's M42C previously had, when compared to the Sniper Spec's M42A.

  • A magazine size of 5 versus the Sniper's 15.
  • Massively lower firerate, with a delay of 5.6 seconds between shots versus the Sniper's 1.5 seconds.
  • Individual shots that only deal 125 (updated from 95 alongside the M42C in !2029 (merged)) damage versus the Sniper's comparable Marksman Ammo at 70 damage, both of which have no special effects currently.
  • No Aimed Shot ability, making its relative potential damage even worse. (125 damage versus 210 damage Marksman Ammo Aimed Shots.)

Due to the lack of information available on the intent behind the past design and testing of the XM42B, as well as the new overall state of the game and design philosophies, I've decided to start from scratch and begin working on a new identity for it as an Anti-Materiel Rifle rather than an Anti-Tank Rifle.

While designing the new identity, there were two primary points that I used as a basis:

  • The weapon's damage should NOT be increased further to attempt to make it deal damage like it previously did, as Xeno Health has been increased overall, and anything that could deal large portions of a T3's health in a single hit could easily oneshot T1s.
  • In exchange, the weapon should now have more utility, similar to how the M42C was changed to have a strong niche in holding tight quarters against swarms, as well as combating MOBA Boilers.

By combining portions of the M42C's niche and a more flexible anti-materiel design, the XM42B now serves as a potential sidegrade for the M42A. It exchanges the M42A's ammo variety, utility, and efficiency for higher burst damage and new niches, as a result of its Wall-Penetrating trait and bonus damage against walls and structures.

As a sidegrade, it can:

  • Rapidly clear paths through walls and doors, making pursuit and pushing easier.
  • Combat Boilers on the field, similar to the role that the Sniper used to serve before MOBA Boilers.
  • Provide higher burst damage against heavy targets.
  • Provides damage against swarms in tight quarters, as the M42C's design intended.

However, it also:

  • Has slightly less damage efficiency per magazine, compared to Marksman Ammo still.
  • Loses all Flak and Incendiary utility, preventing it from disabling healing, blinding, or slowing targets.
  • Has a base firerate that is still half of the M42A's, making it deal less DPS when just used normally against a target. (125 vs 140).

As this identity is not yet set in stone, and the weapon is still very much in testing like it was all those years ago, I have not introduced it as a fully fledged alternative available for anyone to pick up in any round. Instead, I've added an ammo crate for the XM42B AMR to Requisitions, making it possible to test once again with minimal Admin oversight, much like before.

Sidenote: The M42C's damage has been increased to 150. It still requires 2 shots to have a chance at critting any full-health Xeno, even a Runner, but this brings it more in line with the base damage potential per magazine (6 * 150 = 900) to the M42A (1050) and the new XM42B (1000), as well as both keeping a niche for itself versus the XM42B and making sense with the higher muzzle velocity.

Additionally I've made the Ghillie Suit's Aimed Shot ability function with all Sniper Rifles, not just the M42A, allowing the XM42B to synergize somewhat with the existing kit. This was done with Alardun's permission, as we are considering further expansions of the ability in the future.

However, I have implemented special logic for the Aimed Shot ability when using the XM42B or M42C with it. Instead of simply dealing 300% damage to any target, which would go well over the 230 limit I've set for damaging Xenos (Base Runner HP), I've instead set it to deal different damage based on the target type. This makes sense given the new identity as well, as overpenetration would result in less damage to the intended target.

Currently, the logic functions as follows for both Aimed Shots:

  • Big Xenos will take 300% damage (375/450).
  • Non-big Xenos will take 225 damage (180%/150%).
  • All other mobs will take 180% damage from the XM42B (225) or 200% from the M42C (300).

Notably, the M42C currently requires the PMC Sniper Armor to shoot without stunning yourself for an extended period of time due to legacy code that I have chosen not to remove with the preliminary experimental changes, so there is currently effectively no risk of chained Aimed Shots from someone utilizing the Ghillie Suit and the M42C.

WP also provides a couple of interesting interactions with Aimed Shot. First, the Aimed Shot effects only apply to the intended target, so the damage potential does not scale exponentially. Secondly, WP does not currently ignore the Line of Sight requirements, so the channel can still be broken. However, bodyblocking will not prevent it as easily.

Other Miscellaneous Changes in this MR, just for ease of merging:

  • Fixed up all the Incendiary ammo datums to be more consistent. Some of them did Burn, some didn't, some had shrapnel disabled, etc. I've set them all to do Brute damage again, since it's still a solid projectile (just filled with incendiary compounds), but they do not leave shrapnel. If they are intended to do Burn damage for some reason, let me know, but from the inconsistency I don't think it exactly a standardized or defined thing.

  • Cleaned up some weird Accuracy and Accuracy Variance code on the Incendiary M42A ammo datum. For some reason, the accuracy was manually set to 0 for it?

Testing Notes

Discussed with the Event Maintainer (Jerkface) whether the old testing methods still function in modern CM, and these are the current guidelines for field testing of the XM42B:

  • Admins need to log this, since it's still them introducing it into the round. It's meant to be balanced, and a sidegrade-exchange for the Sniper's kit, but it is still spawned-in.
  • This doesn't count as an actual event for the 'no multiple events in a row' guideline, but the Admin who spawns it in needs to observe it and note the effects, at least somewhat (unless I'm around to observe it, in which case I'll be able to observe the data for that round so they don't need to be burdened with it).
  • Testing still requires Event Auth, both for logging and so the round in question can be noted for the data collection purposes.

Related Issues

Edited by Kaga

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