Change painsaw damage from 11 to 9

[mjstahlberg]

Please vote this issue up 👍 or down 👎 using the thumb reactions to
denote your sentiment on the change proposed in the title!

Issue addressed (optional): None
Related merge request (optional): None

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Polls may be started by developers to gauge community support for a
prospective or existing merge request concerning a small change; usually a
moderate update to the default value of a setting that affects the gameplay.
The change as such should be completely described in the issue title; a
rationale may be given in the comments.

Polls are neither necessary nor sufficient for making changes to the game.
They support, but do not replace, review and approval of the merge request.

[mjstahlberg]

This kills the Overmind in 6.3 as opposed to 5.1 seconds (7.3 instead of 6.0 on Viech/buildtime/v1). Poor Overmind.

[illwieckz]

I have mixed feeling about this, in one hand the overmind-killing ability of painsaw looks crazy, but on the other hand melee fight with painsaw is already very hard (unless you're a bot and the game waits for you to aim 😁️).

If we reduce the painsaw damage maybe we can increase a bit the hitbox at the same time to not make melee harder, while painsawing an overmind should see no difference whatever the hitbox (the overmind hitbox is ridiculously large compared to the painsaw one anyway).

[mjstahlberg]

You immediately challenge my concept of a minor adjustment poll by turning it into a discussion of alternatives. 😁

You may downvote this if you do not completey agree that it's a change for the better. It's a ~20% change, so I had hoped it would stand on its own without requiring an immediate counteraction. In fact, my vision was to turn knobs more often. The range could be the next knob to turn as well. Think of it like painting, where you might apply a dark and then a light color on top as opposed to mixing the perfect tone up front. 😉

On the matter: I don't think the painsaw needs to be any good at fighting given how devastating it is against a base. Plus, bots show that it can deter small aliens effectively with good (above human?) aim.

[illwieckz]

You immediately challenge my concept of a minor adjustment poll by turning it into a discussion of alternatives. 😁

Ahah, sorry. I cannot vote on this one.

Plus, bots show that it can deter small aliens effectively with good (above human?) aim.

This is actually unrelated to balance, it's just that the game waits for the bot to aim meaning bots are actually guided missiles that have infinite time to aim before the target can react. On this precise topic balancing against against bots would break balance against real players.

[DolceTriade]

Psaw is quite cheap and outside of bots players really only use it for OM rushes and rarely for melee engagements. I don't think this is a significant nerf. Seems good on paper so I'm voting yes, but would want to try it in a game.

[slipher]

I would rather have it nerfed against buildings only.

Edit: Ooh look there's an ApplyDamageModifier CBSE message that we can implement to apply random multipliers 😛

[mjstahlberg]

I would rather have it nerfed against buildings only.

Edit: Ooh look there's an ApplyDamageModifier CBSE message that we can implement to apply random multipliers stuck_out_tongue

This is indeed not hard to do but is the Painsaw's combat ability both important enough and sufficiently threatened by this proposal to justify a first exception of that kind? (Damage modifiers are otherwise only used for human armor.)

Consider that we're talking about a 100 credits weapon that is already used in a jetpack-past-enemies mode most of the time. A second scenario may be base defense, were it currently kills a Tyrant costing ten times as much in 2.4 seconds on its on (faster than another Tyrant in teamkill mood could do).

[slipher]

I forget that Painsaw can be used for camping. I should do that more often 😆

I removed my "no" vote.

melee fighting should be alien's speciality, and painsaw have higher DpS than tyrant. A nerf is clearly needed, especially since it's damn cheap and stage 1.