My Feedback
Ok, here we go!
Skills Damage
One main problem concerning the balance is that effects balance & skill balance are mixed.
- Effects aren't everything, and sure, it is important factor, and absolute one in One Versus One duel, but not all combats in Dino Storm are 1VS1 duels.
- If you are not receiving damage, you are not generating power & therefore unable to use your effects.
- If you receive Shock or Rage Down effect then all what left for you is your skill damage.
- If we assume that all Weapons are balanced in 1VS1 scenario, then that means that weapons with weak effects have strong skills, and weapons with strong effects have weak skills.
There should be a test where power generation is disabled for all testers, and check how balanced weapons are without the use of their special effects.
Skill Damage must be balanced separately from everything else for all Dinosaurs & Weapons.
Dinosaurs Skill Damage percent (%) should be equal for all dinosaurs, while for Weapons the stronger their base damage, the lower their skill damage percent (%) should be, to have an equal Damage Per Second from Skills.
Skill Cooldown
The idea to have an additional seconds for skills to cool down and be used again when they are used in power is in itself good, but to use them as a way to balance Dinosaurs & Weapons by how often you can use their effects is bad.
- By adding inconsistent Cooldowns for each Weapon, you end up with Imbalanced Weapons.
- The longer your skill cooldown is, the weaker your skill is in terms dealt damage over time.
- If your effect is missed/dodged/countered, then your additional cooldown is still applied.
What must be done is having a stable additional cooldown of [+10 Seconds] for all Skills without exception & Balance the rest separately.
That seems to be the only way, because if you try for example to disable additional cooldown for skills that are missed/dodged, you didn't solve the countered effects issue, and it would give skills which contain effects that are always applied a massive advantage.
Vitality/Damage Curve
I'm in full support with how things currently are, Vitality should remain extremely high & Damage dealt by Dinosaurs or Weapons whether base damage or Skill damage should remain low.
Effects Damage (Direct/Buffs)
I do not support how effects are right now, for how strong they are.
We got Tyrannosaurus Rex Bleed & Burning Colt Burn with 1000% base damage, or Gatling with its 75% chance of critical hits Vulnerable effect.
Having strong effects forces us to rely on strong healing.
Effects should be adjusted to a point close to that of base damage & skill damage.
Healing/Recovery (In Combat)
While I believe that Recovery implant is finally balanced, I can not say the same for the healing ability, as it is still extremely high.
- The change in Health bar might be unnoticeable, but the changes in values are extremely concerning.
- The more healing points you have, the more healing you receive in form of retrieved Heal Points.
- Healing if strong enough can wash your dealt damage clean and you would notice no drop on target's heal points.
- The stronger Healing gets, the longer combat lasts.
Healing ability should be heavily weakened, to a point where it would be acceptable compared to the low dealt damage whether base, skill or effect damage. (Hopefully after effects are weakened as well)
Healing/Recovery (Out Combat)
I like the concept of having an Out of Combat healing. This will help us not rely on Healing ability or Recovery implant, and allow us to weaken them to a fair point.
I do think however that this Out of Combat Healing should be strong enough to help us refill our Health Bar quickly, same as how it used to be before it was deleted in 2016's Dev Shack.
Combat Cooldown
I accept that Combat Cooldown should be long, and I accept that Clothes shouldn't be changed until Combat Cooldown is finished same as how we have to wait to be able to change equipment.
I do not accept that we should continue being prevented from teleporting during combat Cooldown. I think it is unnecessary, pointless & irritating. Especially now that Combat Cooldown became that long.
Health Bar
According to what I wrote above, if implement, here is what you should expect:
Your Health will be very high
Your Damage will be very low
Your Recovery will be very low
Damage will slowly eat up your Heal Points.
Recovery will be able to only slow that process but not stop it or revert it.
So long you are in combat mode, do not expect your health Bar to be full.
Once you're out of combat mode, your Health Bar will be filled in few seconds.
Your Health Bar will represent how long you can fight in open combat.
High Health means you are able to take more damage & fight longer.
Low Health means you have to get out of combat & evade fighting, as there is no other efficient way to heal quickly.
If not implemented, you will continue face the following issues:
- You can't defeat an opponent if you are not receiving damage to generate power. (Health of opponent remain almost unmoved)
- Your effects will wreak havoc. (Health of both sides would be lowered quickly in 1VS1)
- With support of "One-Hit Prevention", Low levels would remain extremely hard to beat, even when ganged up against. Making them a very efficient support tool in Combat.
- Some Weapons or Dinosaurs will be able to beat others despite being far more lower in health.
Implants & Techs (Base Attribute)
Base Attributes are the following:
- Vitality
- Strength
- Endurance
- Damage
- Clock
- Range
- Focus (Doesn't Count)
- So long as these implants & Techs works by adding a fixed value rather than buffing these attributes by a percent (%), you will never ever get balanced results.
- Making these implants & Techs adding different fixed values to dinosaurs & weapons is still mediocre way to solve the issue.
Percent System must be adapted & used. No matter how complicated implementing it might be to these implants & Techs, you should start working on it & make it possible. Real Balance will never be possible without it.
Skill Ranges
I'm fine with it except for the following:
Gatling Skills Range should be swapped, so that Curtain Fire becomes (Close & Medium) & Pinpoint becomes (Medium)
Yager Rifle Skills Range must be changed, so that both skills be able to Fire in (Far Range). While Sneak Shot will be (Far & Medium) to continue being able to slowdown approaching opponents in medium range, and Burst Fire will be (Far) as a compensation.
Burning Colt Skill Ranges should be swapped as well, so that Fire Detonator is only (Close), and Fire Burst is (Close & Medium). If not desired due to animation complication, then swap the effects themselves.
Stability
Stability at level55 is able to almost completely erase "Stun", "Confuse" & "Fear". While Fear is a power & cooldown free effect, I think it is unfair for Confuse & Stun, as you do not only counter these two effects but you also waste the power used to generate it, and force a long cooldown regardless whether you benefit from effect or don't.
Stability should not be very effective against Confuse & Stun effects, but be more like Heat Regulator against Paralyze effect.
Armor Penetration (Penetrate) Effect
While Pachycephalosaurs have an effect that can completely stop all MISS & DODGE from happening against one opponent, I suppose it would be better to also make the Armor Penetration effect for Burning Colt absolute against one opponent, by making their Armor Attribute completely penetrated.
Armor Penetration effect efficiency should be 100% penetration against target that has the effect.
