Topic: About dimishing returns / tuners / damage
first off... dimishing returns is a bad game design and mostly only cuts in another flaw in game design. so we have to get rid of the first flaw in game design...
the problems i see:
- Calculation formula: is way to complex and the boni are stacked in the wrong way(s)
- Tuners: besides the first point. they also have multible stats that benefit each other (especially weapon tunings)
so to the first problem:
make a new reballance of the weapons. including the dmg calculating formula.
make all dmg bonus work the following:
(dmg ammo) + (bonus1(%)/100*dmg ammo) + (bonus2(%)/100*dmg ammo) ... ...
so all you do is adding your bonus you get calculated from the BASE DMG. no multipliers!
if you want boni with more significant effect then simply increase the bonus %.
this way dmg can not scale exponentialy somewhere too high...
same way for ROF. if you increase that with a bonus.. always go from the base ROF of the weapon.
Tunings:
one major problem are the 3 stats on weapon tunings. and all 3 increase the dps. influencing each other and in combination by the way its calculated it increases dps eponentially.
so the solution besides changeing the formula would be to change it to one stat:
- firearms: + ROF (autocannos are all about getting more bullets on the target)
- em guns: +DMG (EM is all about more dmg. boosting the magnetic field for more power also sounds resonable)
- laser: +Crit (yellows are all about crit...)
- missile: + ROF (a missile warhead dont does more dmg... but boosting ROF on a missile launcher sounds resonable) (wanted to go with range, but that would be just another range extender...)
make all weapons T1 with no Bonuses! no +%dmg ...
can give bonuses with increasing tech lvl.
Ballancing:
for all that you have to get your board together and see what dps you want to achieve at max. taking skills, slots, and ammo into consideration.
- but that in a spreadsheet.
- adjust boni from skills
- adjust base ammo dmg ( for example em guns have standart dmg boni. remove that and put it directly on the ammo.[of cource for SR weapons there has to be a bonus. but that also should be calculated to the ammo]. i would not make a difference in ROF between SR and LR weapons... but thats another story)
what you have now:
- a more simple system where everyone can easy see how his bonuses are affecting his dmg/dps.
- no more problems with exponential increasing stats
- more diversified weapon types.
- future proof if more boni might arrive in the future.
not too hard to do and ballance.
win win.