tweak: Reduce Stinger Site damage bonus from Anthrax Gamma by 50%

[Stubbjax]

Summary

This change reduces the damage bonus granted by Anthrax Gamma for the GLA Toxin Stinger Site by 50%.

Details

In 1.04, all GLA Stinger Site variants deal 20 damage to ground targets and 30 damage to air targets by default. However, the Toxin variant gets this damage doubled to 40 vs ground and 50 vs air after the Anthrax Gamma upgrade. AP Rockets can then multiply this bonus by a further +25%.

After this change, this damage is reduced to 30 vs ground and 40 vs air after the Anthrax Gamma upgrade.

Note that the Generals Challenge variants are not affected, as those often use tweaked values in a likely effort to diversify and/or heighten the difficulty.

The general impact of this change is that all first-tier combat vehicles, with the exception of the Combat Bike and Technical, now take an additional volley to destroy. For an overview of the impact of this change against all vehicles, expand the Impact against vehicles section below.

Impact against vehicles

The following vehicles take the same number of Anthrax Gamma Stinger Site volleys before and after this change:

• Air Force Comanche (before Countermeasures)
• Aurora
• Comanche (after Countermeasures)
• King Raptor
• MiG (after MiG Armor)
• SCUD Launcher
• Technical
• Tomahawk

The following vehicles can withstand one additional volley before AP Rockets:

• Air Force Comanche (after Countermeasures)
• Chinook
• Combat Bike
• Helix

The following vehicles can withstand one additional volley after AP Rockets:

• Comanche (before Countermeasures)
• Dozer
• MiG (before MiG Armor)
• Raptor

All other vehicles can withstand at least one additional volley irrespective of AP Rockets.

Before

Weapon	Target	Damage	Bonus
Stinger Site	Ground	20	-
Stinger Site	Air	30	-
Gamma Stinger Site	Ground	40	+100%
Gamma Stinger Site	Air	50	+67%

After

Weapon	Target	Damage	Bonus
Stinger Site	Ground	20	-
Stinger Site	Air	30	-
Gamma Stinger Site	Ground	30	+50%
Gamma Stinger Site	Air	40	+33%

Rationale

The massive damage bonus granted by Anthrax Gamma is unwarranted and makes no sense when compared to the +25% damage bonus of the more expensive and less accessible AP Rockets upgrade. It does not make sense that Stinger Sites would be the primary benefactor. No other faction has an equivalent upgrade.

The adjusted values are now more aligned with player expectations and the Anthrax Gamma upgrade's tooltip, which describes a +50% damage bonus (albeit indicating only affecting toxin-based weaponry).

These are the applicable damage bonuses in 1.04:

Object	Beta	Gamma	Bonus
RPG Trooper	40.0	52.0	+30%
SCUD Storm	700.0	750.0	+7%
Stinger Site (vs Ground)	20.0	40.0	+100%
Stinger Site (vs Air)	30.0	50.0	+67%
Toxin Rebel	8.0	10.0	+25%
Toxin Terrorist	700.0	500.0	-28%
Toxin Tractor	12.5	20.5	+64%
Toxin Tunnel Network	10.0	12.5	+25%

Despite this change, it remains counterintuitive that a faction specialising in (anti-infantry) toxins has the most advanced (anti-vehicle) rocket weaponry. Fundamental faction design issues may be addressed in the future.

Testing

Before

A volley from a Stinger Site with Anthrax Gamma + AP Rockets leaves a Humvee with 90.0 / 240.0 health

After

A volley from a Stinger Site with Anthrax Gamma + AP Rockets leaves a Humvee with 127.5 / 240.0 health

[xezon]

GC_Chem variant is not updated.

Rationale text should be highlighted as such.

In INI documentation missing.

ToolTipGLAUpgradeAnthraxGamma is not updated.

[Stubbjax]

GC_Chem variant is not updated.

Do we want to update the GC variants? It's fairly straightforward for bug fixes, but not so much for balance tweaks. It's possible that some of the GC variants may be intentionally stronger. For example, GC_Chem_TunnelDefenderRocketWeaponGamma deals 60 damage while Chem_TunnelDefenderRocketWeaponGamma deals 52. What should we do about this?

In INI documentation missing.

What documentation would you like that cannot be covered by git history / tooling / change log generation?

ToolTipGLAUpgradeAnthraxGamma is not updated.

Is an update required with this change? The existing description, "+50% damage bonus to all toxin units", is now more aligned (albeit still completely misleading) as a result of this change.

These are the applicable damage bonuses in 1.04:

Object	Beta	Gamma	Bonus
RPG Trooper	40.0	52.0	+30%
SCUD Storm	700.0	750.0	+7%
Stinger Site (vs Ground)	20.0	40.0	+100%
Stinger Site (vs Air)	30.0	50.0	+67%
Toxin Rebel	8.0	10.0	+25%
Toxin Terrorist	700.0	500.0	-28%
Toxin Tractor	12.5	20.5	+64%
Toxin Tunnel Network	10.0	12.5	+25%

[xezon]

Do we want to update the GC variants? It's fairly straightforward for bug fixes, but not so much for balance tweaks. It's possible that some of the GC variants may be intentionally stronger. For example, GC_Chem_TunnelDefenderRocketWeaponGamma deals 60 damage while Chem_TunnelDefenderRocketWeaponGamma deals 52. What should we do about this?

I am not sure. Maybe leave then if they differ a lot already.

What documentation would you like that cannot be covered by git history / tooling / change log generation?

The same documentation that we did in Patch 1.

Is an update required with this change? The existing description, "+50% damage bonus to all toxin units", is now more aligned (albeit still completely misleading) as a result of this change.

I think the change in Patch 1 made sense. "Up to +50% damage" was more accurate than "+50% damage".