Vanilla Reloaded
Vanilla Reloaded is a weapon balance mod that aims to rebalance the game's existing arsenal into a more interesting state. The goal is not to drastically alter the existing weapon balance, but instead to tone down some weapons that have become overcentralizing, while buffing some weapons that are currently underperforming. In some cases, weapons have been changed to emphasize what makes them unique from the rest of the cast, further diversifying the options available to the player.
Changes
Sledgehammer
The Sledgehammer is widely considered to be the most powerful melee weapon by a significant margin. Notably, with a fully charged hit, it is capable of outputting truly ridiculous amounts of stagger damage, allowing it to stagger chain Mothers, a mini-boss level enemy. We've toned down its charged stagger multiplier, so that giants will require a limb-break in order to stagger, and mini-boss enemies will no longer be consistently staggered.
- Charged stagger multiplier: 5.0 -> 1.5
Knife
The Knife already has an interesting niche as an unrivaled melee in to smaller enemies. The only change we have made is to increase its backstab multiplier, to give the weapon something to aim for when enemies have their heads broken. This noticeably improves its matchup into Giants, though making use of its new multiplier is extremely risky.
- Charged backstab multiplier: 1.0 -> 1.5
Bat
The Bat is a well-rounded melee, however it is largely overshadowed by the Sledgehammer. While the Sledgehammer's nerfs will let it shine as the melee with the highest stagger ability, we decided to additionally increase its light damage, to truly let its light attack shine.
Breakpoints affected: Bat will now be able to kill a Striker with a light attack to the occiput.
- Light attack damage: 3.0 -> 3.5
Spear
While the recent buffs worked wonders for Spear's usability, Spear still felt to be the most underperforming of melee weapons. We have substantially reduced Spear's stamina usage and slightly reduced its charge time, allowing players to better utilize the playstyle of adopting defensive positions interspersed with quick repositions. We have additionally given it a minor buff to its light attack damage, allowing it to hit some important breakpoints.
Breakpoints affected: Spear will now be able to kill a Striker with a fully charged attack to the body and a light attack to the body. Spear will now be able to guarantee a light stagger on Strikers with a light attack to the body. Spear will now be able to kill a Shooter with a light attack to the occiput.
- Light attack damage: 2.0 -> 2.5
- Charged stamina cost: 5% -> 0%
- Max damage charge time: 1.7 -> 1.5
Pistol
The Pistol is already a well-rounded weapon with a solid identity. Previously, the major drawback of this weapon was the inconsistency of its 3-shot kill on Strikers, but the recent patches have already addressed this.
HEL Revolver
HEL Revolver was definitely overperforming at high level play. The main attraction of this weapon was its insane uptime with reload cancel, incredibly good ammo efficiency and an incredibly fast time to kill, to the point that the overpenetrating qualities just became icing on the cake. We've leaned in to the overpenetrating qualities, while toning down some other aspects of the weapon.
- Clip size: 8 -> 6
- Bullet cost: 5.0 -> 6.0
- Rounds/refill: 18.0 -> 15.0
- Starting ammo: 60.0 -> 50.0
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 92 -> 76
- Piercing (number of enemies that can be hit with a single shot): 2 -> 3
Machine Pistol
The Machine Pistol already has some impressive stats, and it is capable of being very effective up close. We opted not to make any changes to Machine Pistol, as we believe it was largely being overshadowed by weapons such as the Carbine and HEL Shotgun, and the nerfs to those weapons will hopefully allow the Machine Pistol to shine as an effective short-range option.
HEL Autopistol
The HEL Autopistol is an interesting weapon, which leans heavily in to its crowd control capabilities at the expense of raw damage. However, we felt that its damage was a bit too lacking, especially when competitors like the HEL Shotgun have both strong damage and crowd control. As such, we've given it slightly more damage, and slightly reduced its ammo and stagger multiplier accordingly.
- Damage: 1.01 -> 1.21
- Stagger multiplier: 5.0 -> 4.5
- Bullet cost: 0.8 -> 0.9
- Rounds/refill: 112.50 -> 100.0
- Starting ammo: 375.0 -> 333.33
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 575 -> 511
Bullpup Rifle
Despite its recent buffs, the Bullpup Rifle still felt that it was significantly underperforming. We opted to take a rather extreme route when rebalancing it, we gave it some incredible stats, but then reverted its reload back to a lengthier value. Hopefully, the weapon's incredible power will now feel it justifies its long reload.
- Damage: 2.1 -> 2.91
- Falloff start: 15 -> 12
- Reload time: 2.1 -> 2.4
- Bullet cost: 1.5 -> 2.1
- Rounds/refill: 60.0 -> 42.86
- Starting ammo: 200.0 -> 142.86
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 306 -> 219
- Shot delay: 0.055 -> 0.064
SMG
The recent buffs to SMG have put it in a decently good place. We've shifted some of its power away from its precision multiplier to its raw damage, which should help the weapon feel much more consistent, and also improve its performance in more hectic scenarios.
- Damage: 1.98 -> 2.15
- Precision multiplier: 0.91 -> 0.8
- Shot delay: 0.066 -> 0.062
PDW
We've reverted the PDW's previous damage nerf. With the removal of the Heavy SMG from the Main Weapon category, we felt that it was no longer competing with it for the role of a high damage SMG.
Carbine
Carbine has been repeatedly buffed to the point where it simply outshines the majority of other similar weapons. We've toned down its damage to a much more reasonable level, but have also given it more ammo to compensate.
- Damage: 2.38 -> 2.01
- Bullet cost: 1.4 -> 1.15
DMR
The DMR is already a very well-rounded weapon, with stats that make it highly effective, coupled with its great match-up in to Shooters, this made it an exceptional choice in solo play. However, its low ammo made it suffer in team environments. We've given it a slight decrease to its bullet cost to make it slightly more efficient.
- Bullet cost: 5.9 -> 5.2
- Rounds/refill: 15.25 -> 17.31
- Starting ammo: 50.85 -> 57.69
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 77 -> 88
Double Tap Rifle
We've found the Double Tap Rifle to be a generally well-rounded weapon, which already has a fun avenue for skill expression through its one-burst on Strikers. We've slightly buffed its ammo pool to give this playstyle a more significant reward.
- Bullet cost: 3.8 -> 3.6
- Rounds/refill: 23.68 -> 25.0
- Starting ammo: 78.95 -> 83.33
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 121 -> 127
Assault Rifle
The Assault Rifle was arguably one of the weakest weapons in the game, as such we've given it some significant buffs to its damage output. We've shifted its damage and precision multiplier to a point where headshots become incredibly rewarding, and adjusted its bullet cost and shot delay accordingly. We've additionally given it a buff to its range, so that it noticeably outranges the SMGs.
- Damage: 2.1875 -> 2.81
- Falloff start: 10 -> 15
- Precision multiplier: 0.8 -> 0.9
- Bullet cost: 1.47 -> 1.95
- Rounds/refill: 61.22 -> 46.15
- Starting ammo: 204.08 -> 152.85
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 312 -> 235
- Shot delay: 0.086 -> 0.09
Burst Rifle
We've found that the Burst Rifle is already a fairly well-rounded weapon, and fits in nicely with the rest of our changes.
Rifle
We found that after increasing the range of the Pistol, the Rifle struggled to have a unique identity. While being a longer range variant of the Pistol was certainly a valuable option, we decided to give the weapon a very unique place. The Rifle will now be able to two-shot Strikers at extremely close range, allowing for an extremely effective and efficient but risky playstyle. We've additionally changed its stagger multiplier to be more in line with other weapons.
- Damage: 5.08 -> 5.66
- Falloff start: 22.0 -> 6.0
- Falloff end: 80 -> 90
- Stagger multiplier: 1.75 -> 1.25
- Clipsize: 14 -> 16
Sawed-Off Shotgun
The Sawed-Off Shotgun sits in a very strange place. On the one hand, its damage per shot and fire rate give it unrivalled burst damage for a main weapon, however, its tiny clip size and relatively long reload often leaves players in vulnerable positions when they are in the close ranges that the Sawed-Off prefers. However, the recent patches have already done a good job of improving its consistency and uptime and as a result we have made no further changes.
HEL Shotgun
While HEL Shotgun is certainly a powerful weapon, it is also incredibly unique, and so, while considering possible changes to it, we endevoured not to disrupt this weapon from its highly specialized niche. We opted to slightly reduce its damage and clipsize, in order to tone down its rather polarizing damage per clip, while keeping the other elements of the weapon intact.
- Damage: 1.67 -> 1.56
- Clipsize: 14 -> 12
Heavy Assault Rifle
As part of our changes to many of the automatic weapons, we've slightly increased the precision multiplier of the Heavy Assault Rifle in order reward player accuracy slightly more. While this doesn't change many breakpoints for this weapon, it'll hopefully still make it so that headshots feel more impactful while in team scenarios. We've additionally increased the falloff start range to be slightly higher than the machineguns that Heavy Assault Rifle directly competes with.
- Falloff start: 12.0 -> 20.0
- Precision multiplier: 0.8 -> 0.9
Heavy SMG
Moved to Special Weapon category.
The Main Weapon category was incredibly over-filled with automatic weapons, so we have moved the Heavy SMG to the Special Weapon category. As a result, it has received a large overhaul to its stats.
- Damage: 2.45 -> 3.25
- Clipsize: 33 -> 44
- Bullet cost: 1.5 -> 1.2
- Rounds/refill: 60.00 -> 75.00
- Starting ammo: 200.00 -> 125.00
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 306 -> 191
- Shot delay: 0.078 -> 0.054
Shotgun
Like the DMR, the Shotgun already has the stats to make it an extremely effective weapon, but it lacks the ammo to shine in most situations. We've given it slightly more ammo to hopefully make it a more viable pick in more scenarios.
- Bullet cost: 11.0 -> 10.0
- Rounds/refill: 8.18 -> 9.00
- Starting ammo: 13.64 -> 15.00
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 20 -> 23
Combat Shotgun
Combat shotgun has a dispropotionately large ammo pool, to the point that it dominates most of the efficiency stats, including those regarding boss killing - a role it is not at all specialized at. We've toned down its bullet cost so that it has a more reasonable ammo efficiency.
- Bullet cost: 4.0 -> 4.5
- Rounds/refill: 22.5 -> 20.0
- Starting ammo: 37.50 -> 33.33
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 57 -> 51
Scattergun
The Scattergun disproportionately trivializes most boss enemies. We've toned down its precision multiplier to reduce its damage in these encounters, and have also slightly increased its bullet cost so that it requires more thoughtful use.
- Precision multiplier: 0.7333 -> 0.67
- Bullet cost: 19.15 -> 20.0
- Rounds/refill: 4.70 -> 4.50
- Starting ammo: 7.83 -> 7.50
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 12 -> 11
Choke Mod Shotgun
The Choke Mod Shotgun sits in an awkward spot, it currently feels substantially overshadowed by its other competitors in the 30 damage tier. It is noticeably outranged by the HEL Rifle, and lacks it overpenetrating utility, and it has less ammo than the High Caliber Pistol. The only advantage it has over these two weapons is its rate of fire, which should aid it substantially against bosses, but even then it still feels underwhelming due to its relatively small damage per clip. We've made some substantial changes to it, dramatically increasing its damage but also its spread. This opens up the possibility for it to spread its damage over multiple enemies, and should also substantially improve its power against bosses.
- Damage: 30.08 -> 40.1
- Reload time: 2.72 -> 2.5
- Pellet count: 8 -> 10 (damage per pellet: 3.76 -> 4.01)
- Cone size: 0 -> 2
Revolver
Revolver is a solid option into smaller enemies but disproportionally suffers into larger enemy variants. We've swapped its damage with that of HEL Gun in order to improve its matchup into these larger enemies. We've additionally given it a longer range flashlight, as it previously had the shortest possible flashlight range, despite being a medium range precision based weapon.
- Damage: 14.21 -> 16.25
- Flashlight: Short range -> Medium range #1 (see the wiki for more on flashlights)
Machinegun (Arbalist)
No changes.
Machinegun (Varuta)
No changes.
Burst Cannon
Upon its initial reintroduction to the game, the Burst Cannon was clearly unbalanced, since then, it has received two nerfs - to its ammo efficiency and its recoil - and one buff - to its damage. We have decided to revert its damage buff and slightly tone down the increased recoil. With these changes, Burst Cannon will continue to be an incredibly potent weapon, while keeping clear downsides in both its ammo economy and its handling, as well as returning to requiring substantial follow-up for efficient kills on giants.
- Damage: 22.0 -> 20.01
- Reduced recoil
- Minimum power: 0.6 -> 0.45 (pre-nerf was 0.2)
- Maximum power: 1.2 -> 0.75 (pre-nerf was 0.4)
HEL Gun
The HEL Gun is an extremely versatile weapon, being one of the best wave-clear options while also having a strong match up into larger enemies. We've swapped its damage with that of Revolver in order to slightly reduce its impact into larger enemy variants, while maintaining its power into smaller enemies. Additionally, we've reverted some of the changes to its charge time to hopefully improve the responsiveness of the weapon.
- Damage: 16.25 -> 14.21
- Charge time: 0.3 -> 0.15
High Caliber Pistol
With our changes to Choke Mod Shotgun as well as HEL Rifle, we felt that the High Caliber Pistol sat in a good spot. Due to the Choke Mod Shotgun changes, it is now much more distinct from that weapon, and the HEL Rifle's ammo changes also provide a bit more room for the High Caliber Pistol to find play.
Precision Rifle
Its recent buffs made the Precision Rifle much more viable. The only change we've made is to increase its precision multiplier, this should make headshots much more impactful against Giant Shooters and Hybrids, while also slightly increasing its one-shot range on Scouts. This change also improves its match-up against boss enemies, though only slightly. The only other changes we would have liked to make would be to its thermal scope - moderately increasing the distance it can see through fog, as well as allowing it to see enemy projectiles. This would dramatically improve its usability against Shooters as well as Hybrids, both matchups where it should excel, but the inability to play around the enemy's attacks significantly hamper it.
- Precision multiplier: 1.3 -> 1.5
Sniper
Sniper is an incredibly polarizing weapon. In the hands of an experienced player, it can trivialize the threat posed by larger enemy varieties, but it also disproportionally suffers from low player accuracy and from level design that does not favor it. We feel that Sniper is very close to being in its best possible state, however, for the enormous amount of work that the weapon is capable of, we feel that its ammo reserves can sometimes be a bit too forgiving.
- Bullet cost: 23.0 -> 24.0
- Rounds/refill: 3.91 -> 3.75
- Starting ammo: 6.52 -> 6.25
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 10 -> 9
HEL Rifle
With such a high amount of potential piercing, the HEL Rifle is able to achieve absurd efficiencies. We've toned down its ammo statistics to be more reasonable.
- Bullet cost: 10.0 -> 11.25
- Rounds/refill: 9.0 -> 8.0
- Starting ammo: 15.0 -> 13.33
- Maximum ammo (excluding clip): 23 -> 20
Bio Tracker
No changes.
C-Foam Launcher
The C-Foam Launcher is incredibly difficult to balance. Perma-foaming doors and ladder-foam can trivialize some of the hardest content in the game, but without such environmental advantages it struggles to find value. We believe that the only way to address its power would be to change how it interacts with doors and ladders in a major way.
Mine Deployer
No changes.
Burst Sentry
Burst Sentry is currently by far the most powerful sentry. It has incredible breakpoints on Strikers, reliably killing in two bursts, and also has an incredible longevity, easily lasting the duration of most alarms. We've toned down its efficiency so that its power comes at a more noticeable cost.
- Bullet cost: 1.95 -> 2.1
- Rounds/refill: 53.98 -> 50.13
- Starting ammo: 179.94 -> 167.08
- Maximum ammo: 269 -> 250
HEL Auto Sentry
The HEL Auto Sentry is currently in a poor spot, its targetting system causes it to miss a significant portions of its shots and its overpenetrating abilities are currently not functioning. While it could vastly improve by addressing these issues (which are beyond the scope of this mod), we still would like to see it shift into a more supportive role. Currently, it has a relatively high base DPS, and is incredibly tool hungry, we've slowed down its firerate substantially and given it some extra ammo, so that now it functions as more of a utility sentry - slowing down and chipping enemy waves without being a drain on the team's resources.
- Bullet cost: 10.0 -> 11.25
- Rounds/refill: 150.38 -> 210.53
- Starting ammo: 501.25 -> 701.75
- Maximum ammo: 751 -> 1052
- Shot delay: 0.08 -> 0.125
Sniper Sentry
After its slew of nerfs with the ALT://R3 patch, the Sniper Sentry suffered from extreme usability issues. Its start fire delay became so lengthy that it was unable to fire in most scenarios, and its ammo nerfs barely justified it even in scenarious with enough uninterruped LoS for it to function. We've given it slightly more ammo, as well as dramatically reduced its start fire delay (while toning down its bio-symbiosis start fire delay multiplier) to make it more usable in more scenarios (even without constant tagging from the Bio Tracker).
- Bullet cost: 16.0 -> 15.0
- Rounds/refill: 6.58 -> 7.02
- Starting ammo: 21.93 -> 23.39
- Maximum ammo: 32 -> 35
- Start fire delay: 3.0 -> 2.0
- Bio-symbiosis start fire delay multiplier: 0.5 -> 0.7
Shotgun Sentry
*Shotgun Sentry is in a dismal state, its current targeting causes it to miss a ridiculous amount of its shots. We've overhauled its targeting, so that it now aims at the bodies of enemies rather than their heads, decreased its maximum range (it often used to get stuck shooting enemies far beyond its effective range), split its damage over 10 pellets instead of 5 as well as reducing its spread (helping it hit the enemy it is targeting much more consistently). We've additionally redistributed some of its bio-symbiosis benefits so that it is more consistent without tagging, while not being quite so ridiculous with tags.
- Damage: 15.05 -> 15.1
- Bullet cost: 1.8 -> 0.8
- Rounds/refill: 11.70 -> 13.16
- Starting ammo: 38.99 -> 43.86
- Maximum ammo: 58 -> 65
- Shot delay: 0.75 -> 0.8
- Pellet count: 5 -> 10 (damage per pellet: 3.01 -> 1.51)
- Pellet spread: 2 -> 1
- Start fire delay: 0.5 -> 0.3
- Rotation speed: 8.0 -> 20.0
- Detection max range: 10 -> 8
- Detection max angle: 40 -> 50
- Changed targeting to fire towards the body of enemies rather than their head (still prioritizes tagged enemies)
- Bio-symbiosis start fire delay multiplier: 0.25 -> 0.7
- Bio-symbiosis rotation speed multiplier: 2.0 -> 1.0
- Bio-symbiosis bullet cost multiplier: 0.5 -> 0.75
- Bio-symbiosis shot delay multiplier: 0.6 -> 0.9
Acknowledgements
A massive thanks to Jish, for inspiring me to start this project and getting me through the early stages. Thanks to Rayalot72, Chill Dude, D4RKEVA and BLACK_DRAGON for their insight on game balance. And thanks to my dog Petra, for being a lil cutie.
