Immersive Balance
An immersion driven rebalancing of the game using 1) difficulty settings for more deadly combat and economy rebalance. 2) loot tables so NPCs carry a plausible weapon and ammo loadout. 3) ammo stats for more useful AP and HP.
An immersion driven rebalancing of the game to address:
General ennemy sponginess.
Terrible durability mechanics.
Ennemies dumping magazines fighting you but carrying a total 6 bullets in their “inventory”.
Changes are therefore following this pattern:
Base damage buffed significantly so FMJ rounds are effective against unarmored NPCs and basic mutants but some ennemies will justify the use of AP ammo (exosuits, large mutants).
NPC Loot rebalanced so that NPCs carry a credible “inventory”, including ammo and weapons.
Ammo and weapon prices have been reduced, weights have been increased to realistic (best info available) values. Generally ammo is split into three categories: Common Sidearm (9×18, .45, 9×19…) / Common long cartridges (5.45, .223…) / Rare long cartridges (7.62R…)
Ammo balance for AP and HP have massive piercing and damage buffs but generally never drop in NPC loot so while you’ll be swimming in 5.45 FMJ you have to save AP and HP ammo. Essential to stock up on these when available and carry some around at all times. Preperation is key.
Trade ratio changed to about 3/4 (i.e. if the trader sells for 100, he’ll buy for 75).
Base price modifers decreased overall. Numbers were just too big resulting in massive swings of poverty and affluence depending on what the player does/loots. Consumables and artifacts are relatively more expensive
Compatibility / Files modified:
~\GameData\DifficultyPrototypes.cfg //all general game modifiers like damage, health, trading prices.
~\GameData\ItemPrototypes\AmmoPrototypes.cfg //ammo specific price, ammo FMJvsAPvsHP balancing
~\GameData\ItemGeneratorPrototypes\DynamicItemGenerator.cfg //loot tables to give NPCs credible ammo loot. Also NPC loot spawns as weapons condition between 25% and 95%.
Only 3 files to minimize compatibility issues with the trade-off that cannot change more things here like weapons, mutants…
Difficulty modifiers
Following logic behind these changes:
Easy: Rage mode, use when softlocked by “strange” (broken) ennemy spawns or “strange” design missions that force you to be exposed to damage.
Medium: Vanilla ennemy damage but upped player damage to reduced sponginess.
Hard: Punishing but fair, everything is deadly including you. Promotes positioning and locating and taking combat slowly and tactically (until the game spawns 7 bandits 2 feet behind you…)
The difficulty cfg game file has the following modifiers within: Easy / Medium / Hard
NPC_HP = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes, sponginess addressed by increasing player damage instead.
NPC_Armor_Strike_Add = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes.
Armor_Strike_Add = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes.
Armor_Anomaly = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes.
Armor_Radiation = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes.
Armor_PSY = 2.0 / 1.5 / 1.0 > given the little variety in psi-armors this should differenciate more between high and low psi-armor. Not on hard, suffer.
Armor_Durability = 5.0 / 5.0 / 5.0 > big increase so globally 1~2% loss per expedition.
NPC_Weapon_BaseDamage = 0.01 / 1.0 / 5.0 > medium diff is vanilla, big increase on hard (feels nice but the problem is the ennemy spawns and ennemy vision through foliage). Easy is godmode.
Explosion_BaseDamage = 5.0 / 5.0 / 5.0 > big increese, grenades kill (beware tripwires).
Weapon_BaseDamage = 50.0 / 5.0 / 5.0 > big increase, easy mode is to kill anything if you’re locked in a room without the ability to go back and get AP ammo.
Weapon_DurabilityDamage = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > kept at vanilla value.
Weapon_Durability = 5.0 / 5.0 / 5.0 > big increase so globally 1~2% loss per expedition.
NPC_Weapon_Rank_Add = 0.0 / 0.0 / 0.0 > kept at vanilla value. Also what does this even do?
Weapon_Rank_Add = 0.0 / 0.0 / 0.0 > kept at vanilla value. Also what does this even do?
Effect_Satiety = 0.5 / 0.5 / 0.5 > halved values, tired of have to pop out borscht in the middle of firefights.
Effect_Sleepiness = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no change
Effect_Bleeding = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no change (i would incrrease on hard but psy-hallucinations make you bleed so this would be very toxic)
Effect_Degen_Bleeding = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes.
Regen_HP = 1.0 / 1.0 / 0.1 > I can’t be the only one who never uses doctors in vanilla?
Mutant_BaseDamage = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes, i would increase but there’s too much stunlocking and one hit kills from mutants.
Mutant_AttackCooldown = 5.0 / 4.0 / 3.0 > big increases to make mutants “hit and run”, not convinced this works.
Weather_Storm_Weight = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes.
Weather_Emission_Weight = 0.5 / 0.5 / 0.5 > halved to try toincrease time between emissions, does this even work like this?
Consumable_Cost = 0.5 / 0.5 / 0.5 > lowered but still relatively higher to promote trading food and medkits. (bandages are too expensive but I would have to add another file to change, thinking compatibility)
Ammo_Cost = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > kept vanilla modifier, changes instead are made to specific ammo in ammo cfg file.
Armor_Cost = 0.2 / 0.2 / 0.2 > lower values so buying an armor isn’t genmerational bunkruptcy and you can’t sell an armor for a million.
Weapon_Cost = 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.1 > much lowered so player can’t make bank by looting all the weapons.
Artifact_Cost = 0.5 / 0.5 / 0.5 > lowered but still relatively higher to promote artifact hunting.
Repair_Cost = 0.2 / 0.2 / 0.2 > lower values, still a money sink but not bankruptcy
Reward_MainLine_Money = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > kept at baseline value, with lower values overall quests should now be a good source of income.
Reward_SideLine_Money = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > idem.
BuyCondition = 2.1 / 2.1 / 2.1 > same trade ratio over all difficulties: “75 cents on the dollar”
SellCondition = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > kept at baseline value
NPC_AttackCooldown = 2.0 / 2.0 / 1.0 > should make ennemies relatively more aggressive in hard vs medium, not sure this works like this though
Radiation_AccumulationSpeed = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > kept at baseline value (would increase for hard but it would cut-off a lot of playable areas)
Anomaly_Damage = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > no changes (would increase for hard but some anomalies are currently a bit wonky)
Upgrade_Cost = 0.5 / 0.5 / 1.0 > reduced value except for hard diff, where upgrades will be more difficult to acquire.
HipAccuracyMultiplier = 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.0 > kept at baseline value, idk if this needs any balance changes.
