User:Tallahzirakzigal

Hi, hello, hi. Yes, most of this page is merely suggestions. However, they also act as a sandbox for wiki formatting, so I can do two things at the same time.

2013 was a year with plenty of hats, miscs and weapon tweaks. One flaw though - no new weapons. It's a real shame as there's room for both weapon changes and new stuff (e.g. Pyromania - weapon changes on their own don't seem as special as when there's new stuff added too.) I've got ideas here and my reasoning behind them. True, a user page in the middle of nowhere is hardly the best place to get ideas noticed, but oh well. Either laugh at my inept sense of game balance or appreciate suggestions you consider decent.

Weapon tweaking

Some weapons are fine. Some weapons are a little too dominant in their slot or difficult to use. And some aren't exactly OP or UP, just got a few issues that need evening out. Here's my take on some weapons.

Scout

Generally speaking, the Scout is pretty well-balanced. There's no great hurry to tweak his unlocks.

Shortstop, Holy Mackerel

Take off the knockback penalty and healing bonus from the Shortstop and put it on the Holy Mackerel.

That way, the Holy Mackerel actually does something outside the niche role of discovering Dead Ringer Spies, and the Shortstop no longer has an annoying downside which puts me off using the weapon. If adding those two stats on the Holy Mackerel seem strange, consider that flooding the killfeed with hit notifications tells everyone you have those passive advantages and disadvantages. So it all fits together.

Soda Popper

Switch Hype to build through damage rather than running.

The point of this change is to distinguish between the Soda Popper and Force-A-Nature, which seem to be getting too similar. This way, the Soda Popper's jump ability's better but requires more effort than the Force-A-Nature's force jump.

Sun-on-a-Stick

In addition to current stats, the second concecutive hit on an enemy ignites them. No random crits.

Weapons with guarenteed crits shouldn't get random crits or else it messes up people's plans on how to deal with the weapon (I'm looking at you, Bushwacka!) The main change I want to see is a buff, however. While for short-term combat, this would be worse than the stock Bat, after three hits or more this would be better.

Soldier

The Soldier's unlock balance has improved recently, but there's a few exceptions, mostly with melee weapons.

Direct Hit

Reduce both ramp-up and fall-off.

At close-range, the Direct Hit does massive damage with little risk to the Soldier, and can one-hit light classes. Not fun to play against, and goes against the idea of the weapon being for skilled long-range shots. To compensate, the fall-off damage penalty could be reduced slightly, encouraging those longer-range shots.

Mantreads

• Increased control of movement while falling
• Reduced fall damage

The thing to avoid is to make these into super-Gunboats, so a total fall damage removal may be excessive. Better control of mid-air movement helps to line up those Mantread shots better.

Pain Train

• Penalty doesn't apply where no upside is applicable (in defence on Payload for example it acts as a reskin)
• +10% movement speed while holding the intelligence/Australium
• Slight healing from cash in MvM (like the Scout, but less effective)

This way, the Pain Train can work in CTF and MvM in a similar way to Payload, CP and KOTH-style maps - get a Scout-like upside in return for greater bullet vulnerability. And if you can't use the upside, then there shouldn't be a downside. Simple, really.

Half-Zatoichi

• Honourbound removes itself after a long while
• Reduce on-kill healing

The current issue with this weapon is that no matter what you do to the player, if they kill you with it, all your effort's gone to waste. So, let's not guarentee a full heal up every time. That's the nerf, now onto a buff - auto-removal of Honourbound after a while. This is to give the Soldier more reason to take the weapon (currently it's typically used as a Demoknight weapon as they can ignore the Honourbound penalty.) It shouldn't be just a few seconds, making the penalty for not killing still fairly harsh. Just that after a while you've probably suffered enough.

Disciplinary Action

• Slightly bigger speed boost to yourself on use
• Slightly bigger damage penalty

One problem with the Disciplinary Action is that the Soldier's slow movement speed means you usually fall behind other players you're boosting. The other problem is that its damage penalty is seen as a non-factor in combat due to its increased range. So, make the weapon more clearly a utility weapon.

Escape Plan

• Remove mini-crits taken
• Add a slight movement speed penalty at and near maximum health
• Add a damage penalty

Adding mini-crits on this weapon theoretically made sense, but this defeats the purpose of the weapon - to run away. Instead, make the Soldier slower at and near max health similar to the damage penalty on the Equaliser. Then, add a damage penalty to this weapon to avoid the problems the Escape Plan originally had after the split - that it was better in combat than the Equaliser.

Pyro

Backburner

Increase the crit angle a little. Not as wide as the Spy's backstab angle, but just a bit wider.

Currently, hitting that crit spot can be a little tricky. Now it can be less so, without making the process too easy.

Phlogistinator

Make flames push back opponents slightly in Mmmph mode.

Pushing back opponents with airblasts forms such an important part of Pyro gameplay, so having to give it up puts a lot of people off the Phlog. It's a small and situational change, and you still lose the ability to reflect projectiles.

Manmelter

Can remove Mad Milk, Jarate and Bleed for crits

This gives the Manmelter a wider range of options. It's still somewhat niche, but it gives a better reason to have the Manmelter alongside a non-Phlogistinator flamethrower.

Scorch Shot

Slightly increase knockback.

It doesn't need a lot. Just make the knockback more noticable. The low damage the weapon has should stop it from being too annoying in combat.

Homewrecker

• Remove Sapper-removing ability
• Add a good amount of knockback resistance while the weapon is out

The Homewrecker suffers from having two very different roles - the offensive, building-destroying one, and the defensive Sapper-removing one. As the Neon Annihilator can remove Sappers, that ability can be taken off the Homewrecker in exchange for something to complement building destroying - knockback resistance. That'll help in pulling down Sentries. You'll probably still need a Medic though for non-mini sentries.

Sharpened Volcano Fragment

On kill or assist with this weapon: +25% primary ammo

The best buff I can currently think of fitting in the weapon's role. +25% primary ammo means 50 ammo for your flamethrower of choice, it's just accounting for any future primary weapons. The idea is that currently you use the SVF when you're low on ammo, so now it gives a further incentive to use it then.

Third Degree

No random crits

There. It has a downside now.

Demoman

The Demoman's unlocks are fairly poorly balanced in relation to each other, (nearly always stock GL and SL rules the unlocks) and I'm not the best-placed to work out how to sort it. But I'll see what I can do.

Loch-n-Load

• Reduce damage bonus slightly
• Increase reload rate

This weapon's nickname of "Luck 'n' Lol" comes from the difficulty in actually hitting anything (I'm not gonna change that) coupled with the massive damage if you do. With random damage spread enabled, it's enough to one-shot light classes. Not fun to play against. And the tiny clip size means it's not fun to play with. Boosting the reload rate is one possibility, though it's important to avoid spam.

Ali Baba's Wee Booties, Persian Persuader

• Take off the charge regain bonus from the Persian Persuader and put it (maybe a lesser version for balance) on the Wee Booties
• To compensate, increase the health gained from ammo on the Persian Persuader.

This is more to help out fun than in the interests of game balance. Currently, full Demoknights are pretty much forced to choose the Persian Persuader due to the charge regain. The Booties are rather weak compared to the Grenade Launcher, so giving them an extra bonus is fine. And then, the ammo-is-health ability from the Persian Persuader can be strengthened, so Tavish DeGroot doesn't steal all of Dell Conagher's metal, for example.

Scottish Resistance

Special Attack (M3) places stickybombs without charging them

You can set up sticky traps faster this way, more easily taking advantage of the fire speed bonus. It's more of an ease-of-use tweak than an actual change.

Pain Train, Half-Zatoichi

See Soldier

Claidheamh Mòr

• Sort out the crit window so you get full crits during a charge starting at the same point you would in a normal charge (currently, the normal crit window starts a little later, though mini-crits seem to start at the same point)
• Increased force from sticky jumps

Personally, I'd add an Eyelander-like head system increasing charge time from the number of heads, but I don't want to change the weapon too much. Increasing the knockback from sticky jumps adds a non-Demoknight utility to this weapon which fits in with the style of it.

Ullapool Caber

• Reduce explosive damage so it deals below 125 damage on a non-critical hit (this would also reduce self-damage in the process, making it less of a suicide weapon.)
• Allow the weapon to recharge (but slower than other rechargables)

Using this weapon is fun. Being on the other end when you're a light class is not. By nerfing the damage, it's no longer an "I kill you" button. To make it more viable beyond the first hit, it'd be good if this thing could recharge its explosive over time. It should take a long time, longer than Jarate or a Sandman ball, but it saves having to go to the resupply cabinet on full health and ammo.

Heavy

Probably the class most suffering from unused unlocks. I would suggest slowing down the base spin-up speed for the stock Minigun, but then again, that would make an already dull class even more boring to play. So let's just focus on unlocks.

Natascha

• Spin-up penalty removed
• Slowdown is more powerful but must be charged and activated with special attack (M3)
• Obvious effect while slowdown's active.

The spin-up penalty is counter-productive to a weapon that relies on catching and slowing down "fleeing cowards." People generally don't like slowdown, so rather than making it always active, it can be a temporary thing. Currently, the slowdown effect's fairly weak, so that can be strengthened.

Tomislav

• Spin-up bonus removed
• Faster spin-down

As a silent killer, having faster spin-up is redundant and weakens the weapon's synergy with the rest of the Black Market Business set. Plus, fast spin-up removes part of the point about the Heavy - spin-up is a key class vulnerability. So, now, you can more quickly switch from the Tomislav to a Shotgun to finish off an attack.

Dalokohs Bar

• Increases overheal limit to fit the new health
• 17% headshot vulnerability when under use

This gives a use for the weapon when a Medic's around. This raises you to 525 health at maximum overheal, which would usually let you survive a fully-charged headshot. The headshot vulnerability means that as far as Snipers are concerned, you have the same health as before. To everyone else though, this is a sign to target the Medic.

Buffalo Steak Sandvich

• Reduce damage vulnerability to 10%
• Slightly increase speed bonus

By upping the speed bonus, Heavies should be able to close the gap with other players and actually get a shot in. And being locked to melee is punishment enough, there doesn't need to be a huge damage vulnerability, too.

Family Business

Faster reload rate

The reduced damage should be the main downside, not the time it takes to reload those extra shells.

Gloves of Running Urgently

Base speed bonus reduced, though dealing some damage with any weapon will get it up to full potential again.

This prevents the GRU being the obvious best choice for fast rollouts. You still get a speed bonus, and the full bonus fairly easily, it's just that it's not immediate.

Eviction Notice

• Combo attack: Crits on third hit
• No critical hits

Currently, the weapon is pretty much a straight downgrade from stock. So, here's a route similar to the idea for the Sun-on-a-Stick. The damage-per-second is higher after lots of hits but lower at first.

Engineer

There's only a small number of unlocks here, but they vary greatly. I'm not changing the Wrangler, despite some peoples' calls that it's OP. To use it effectively, you have to leave yourself and the Sentry vulnerable.

Pomson 6000

• Remove drains
• Restore penetration ability
• Damage hence should be based on the Rightous Bison, except deal more damage per opponent hit (so ones in the front take less damage than they would from the Rightous Bison, but ones hiding behind lots of enemies will take more.)
• Fix the hitboxes

There. The drains are gone, but it's not identical to the Soldier's Righteous Bison. The idea is that it does less damage to single opponents but greater damage to those backing them up, like a cowering Medic. You gain strength vs Medic combos, but become weaker against lone Demomen, Soldiers and Spies.

Short Circuit

• Sapper vulnerability on buildings (Sapper damages more, RTR works faster)
• Special effect on buildings so enemies know they're more vulnerable to sappers

If you're going to counter what's usually a hard-counter, it's only fair you make yourself more vulnerable to something else. So you might laugh in the face of a Demoman, but when a Spy comes a-calling, things get harder to deal with.

Gunslinger

• Slightly reduce mini-sentry knockback
• Slightly increase mini-sentry size (still smaller than a level 1 sentry) increasing the hitbox size in the process to match

The Gunslinger isn't something that needs massive nerfing. Just a small couple of changes could make it less annoying for people. This doesn't change mini-sentry strategies, the Gunslinger engie gets to keep the +25 health bonus, and it's a bit easier to take one of these out.

Jag

Make the building speed work as advertised.

Currently the Jag's bonus is too small to really be that noticeable. If the construction rate bonus was actually as advertised on the weapon description, its upside would be almost twice as effective.

Medic

The Medic's generally in a good place with unlocks, aside from a little trouble with melees.

Overdose

Increase speed bonus and damage penalty to 15%

Just making the upside and downside 50% more noticable, basically. It'll do slightly less damage, but the slight extra movement speed makes it a little bit easier to keep your distance.

Vaccinator

• Overheal build penalty scales to how long players have been out of combat for (so at recently damaged, it's still the same penalty as now, but if your heal rate is at the maximum, your overheal rate is too.)

The Vaccinator seems designed for pocketing. But when you're not in the midst of combat, having a slow overheal build rate comes at quite a disadvantage for preparing other people. This way, you should stick to mostly pocketing in combat, but heal up everyone out of it.

Übersaw

• Vary Übercharge gained based on Medigun's Über rate
  • Medigun: 20%
  • Kritz/QF: 25%
  • Vacc: 30%
• Very slight damage penalty (~10%?)

This scaling means that the Übersaw should be more equally effective no matter the Medigun. True, I nerfed its ability for the stock Medigun, and put on a mild damage penalty, but that was to stop this weapon dominating the melee slot quite so much.

Vita-Saw

Reworked. New weapon stats:

• Store an "Überstrike" for each Übercharge completed (for the Vaccinator, for every 4.)
• Überstrikes cause bleed and grant some Übercharge
• Damage vulnerability while active
• Slower fire rate

Nothing less than a complete rework is needed to vaguely keep the concept and balance the weapon. Now, it's designed as a sidegrade to the Übersaw. Instead of chain-hitting the same person, you hit and run, dealing more damage than you would with an Übersaw. Bleed, a slower fire rate and a damage-vulnerability-when-active encourage this style of attacking.

Solemn Vow

• Heal targets can also vaguely see enemy health
• Jarate self on hit

Adds a downside and an important upside to make the Solemn Vow a more interesting choice. Giving your heal target exact data may be too powerful, but vague information is still better than none. Self-Jarate on hit makes it a last-resort option in defence.

Sniper

Razorback

• Defends against one Holiday Punch hit
• Defends against a few seconds of Backburner back crits
• Recharges over a long length of time

I can't make it a particularly powerful option, but I can improve things slightly with resistance against a couple of other backstab-like abilities. Like the Ullapool Caber, it's a good idea to remove the requirement to go to a resupply cabinet to get a new one.

Bushwacka

No random crits

If a weapon has earned crits, it shouldn't have random crits.

Spy

Enforcer

• Damage should scale with the number of consecutive hits. Lower at first, higher later on in the clip.
• As a result of this change, the firing speed penalty can be reduced or even removed.

There, now the Enforcer has some skill. True, it's the third such weapon I propose something along these lines for, but this is the first non-melee. The Enforcer seems to be built for gun-heavy Spies which can't manage the Ambassador, or moments when opponents are moving around a lot. For prolonged fights, so long as you don't miss, you should outdamage the Revolver. For quick fights, the Revolver should be better.

Conniver's Kunai

• Increases max health on backstab (up to 4 times, like the Eyelander)
• This also increases the super-Overheal cap

This knife is good for chain-stabbing, but even when you're doing that, you're pretty fragile when backstabbing. With this change, backstabbing increases your max health until your super-Overheal is up to Heavy-base-health standards.

Big Earner

• Cloak gained beyond the max gives "Overcloak" above the normal cloaking limit which, like Overheal, decays over time. Overcloak allows cloaking for even longer than usual.
• You may need to chain backstabs to hit the Overcloak limit.

Okay, I couldn't get it to synergise with the Enforcer. Instead, I'm expanding on the cloak gain so the weapon's not made useless by the L'Etranger. You sneak in, chain-stab, use lots of cloak to get somewhere safe, and repeat. Similar to the Kunai's playstyle, but with cloak rather than health keeping you safe.

Red-Tape Recorder

• Reverses upgrade progress, rather than a complete downgrade to 0/200 metal.

The role of the Red-Tape Recorder is to weaken rather than destroy, being rather slow at that. And that's kept - it's just that currently, when the RTR downgrades a building, the Engineer has to pour in an awful lot of metal. That shouldn't be the case, and this change would stop that problem.