[B18] Shooting Skill Enhanced (22nd Jan 2018)

[FoxXeL]

Awesome! Can I place this on an existing save?

[XeoNovaDan]

You should be able to

It's purely XML so I don't see why it wouldn't

[Love]

This does make melee weaker, yes? Is there anything you can do about that?

[XeoNovaDan]

This does make melee weaker, yes? Is there anything you can do about that?

I haven't touched melee in this mod, but if reports persist, I may make some tweaks. It arguably does make it slightly less viable in the respect that higher level shooters may dispatch of melee units quicker.

If there are more reports on this matter, I'll buff the personal shield. I can't do too much though as I don't know C#, so I can only do things that are changeable via XMLs.

[asquirrel]

Seems kind of overpowered.  I'd rather just see the aiming time reduced but no increase in accuracy.  Your mod makes them dead on balls accurate.

[Zxypher]

Seems kind of overpowered.  I'd rather just see the aiming time reduced but no increase in accuracy.  Your mod makes them dead on balls accurate.

This is a good idea. Maybe a combination? I like the improved accuracy at high shooting but perhaps it is too high? I've not got to end-game yet so I can't say...I do however like the idea of an Aiming Time  boon.

[XeoNovaDan]

Hmm, I'll nerf the accuracy a bit
I'll probably change it so that the post-processed accuracy is 98.7% instead of 99% for level 20 shooters (as opposed to the rather lacklustre 97.85% in vanilla, and 98.7% will be a 55.5% hit chance at 45 tiles for a healthy colonist)? You've got to remember that level 20 is godlike, so way above the average human, and it's very difficult to sustain that level of shooting. The gap between Level 17 and 20 shooting is very large with this mod too, and I rarely see colonists really get far above 15 or 16.

I'll split it up into components too, and keep the 1.0 download for those that want the original experience. Or perhaps I'll make a LITE version which does the 98.7% PP accuracy at 20.

Thanks for the feedback

[Love]

woah woah woah. I was happy with the way the mod was working already. Pawns can't hit the broad side of a barn by default and you have to completely rely on killboxes.

Combat Realism is incompatible with so much stuff and this was a great alternative.


Edit: Ok, whew, those changes are being relegated to a Lite version of the mod.

I still would really love a buffed shield for the melee pawns.

[XeoNovaDan]

I still would really love a buffed shield for the melee pawns.

Alrighty. I'm not sure how many other people think the same so for now, it'll be a component mod. Does a 20% buff on max energy and perhaps 10% on recharge rate sound good?

[joaonunes]

I still would really love a buffed shield for the melee pawns.

Alrighty. I'm not sure how many other people think the same so for now, it'll be a component mod. Does a 20% buff on max energy and perhaps 10% on recharge rate sound good?

It depends... Does the shield keep recharging constantly while taking damage? If yes then increasing the max energy is more "Balanced" than further increasing the recharge rate.
If the shields only start recharging after taking no damage for x seconds then you can go either way... The player will obviously benefit the most from an increased recharge rate because he is smart enough to pull the pawn away to recharge the shield at increased pace.

I'd say increase the max energy. Seems the most balanced between player vs computer.

[XeoNovaDan]

I'll do some further testing to try and formulate a more precise figure. If there is indeed something that particularly sticks out, there could be a v1.1 very soon.

Edit: Okay, done some testing, and this is definitely a balance issue that needs addressing. I'll buff personal shield health by 60% on the main mod and shooting accuracy component, and 25% on the Accuracy LITE 'patch'.

Edit 2: Test conditions



Colonists:
Val: 12 shooting, healthy, good pistol
Gorar: 3 shooting, 96% manipulation, poor machine pistol
Ler: 4 shooting (trigger-happy), healthy, shoddy shotgun
Chinchilla: 7 shooting, healthy, awful assault rifle
Spider: 6 shooting, 92% manipulation and 99% consciousness, poor pistol
Badger: 4 shooting, healthy, normal machine pistol
Huntsman: 11 shooting, 90% manipulation, normal survival rifle

Slashers:
Table: 4 melee, healthy, normal steel shiv, 88% poor personal shield
Max: 0 melee, healthy, normal plasteel mace, normal personal shield
Kim: 5 melee, 85% manipulation, shoddy silver club, normal personal shield
Epsilon: 9 melee, 93% moving, 83% superior silver mace, normal personal shield
Marjot: 14 melee, luciferium and minor asthma, poor plasteel knife, awful personal shield

[Love]

Awesome, very professional.

[XeoNovaDan]

Thanks, will update the mod as soon as I come up with a conclusion.

I've also updated that reply again as to display all relevant info for the colonists and slashers. As you can see, everybody's got kinda standard gear so it's a level field really

Edit: I forgot to save :/
I'll try to get another similar bunch of slashers, and be sure to save.

Edit 2: It seems that generally 3 people get downed when accounting friendly fire as well as the attackers (I moved the shooters closer as the slashers wouldn't aggro anybody else past a certain range, and got the same results but with properly working AI). I now know to generally make 3 people downed and/or dead the target for balance, perhaps slightly higher. Will report on final figures later.

[XeoNovaDan]

Hm, even changing the personal shield max health to something ridiculous like 1000% in Apparel_Shield still results in them shattering as if they're made of glass :/

It may be hard-coded...

[asquirrel]

Hmm, I'll nerf the accuracy a bit
I'll probably change it so that the post-processed accuracy is 98.7% instead of 99% for level 20 shooters (as opposed to the rather lacklustre 97.85% in vanilla, and 98.7% will be a 55.5% hit chance at 45 tiles for a healthy colonist)? You've got to remember that level 20 is godlike, so way above the average human, and it's very difficult to sustain that level of shooting. The gap between Level 17 and 20 shooting is very large with this mod too, and I rarely see colonists really get far above 15 or 16.

I'll split it up into components too, and keep the 1.0 download for those that want the original experience. Or perhaps I'll make a LITE version which does the 98.7% PP accuracy at 20.

Thanks for the feedback

"change it so that the post-processed accuracy is 98.7% instead of 99% for level 20 shooters (as opposed to the rather lacklustre 97.85% in vanilla, and 98.7% will be a 55.5% hit chance at 45 tiles."

I'm trying to figure this out.  If someone is level 20 they now hae a 98.7 % chance for a hit.  But then you say a 55 % hit change at 45 tiles?  So how many tiles out is the 98.7 % chance for a hit?    What weapon do you base these percentages on?

Other thing. It would be great if you could break the mods into two components.  One which decreases the aiming time for those with higher shooting skill and another one that does your accuracy increase at a higher shooting skill.  That way if I think the increase is too much I can just use the aiming mod. 

By the way, I use the no skill degradation mod, so it's possible for me to get my guys and girls up to level 20 shooting skill.    Thanks for considering this idea!