Hey guys, I want to post an update about some upcoming changes to the plugin. I want to take a look at each individual perk and find a way to improve it/make it more interesting. This includes the best perks like Godmode or PowerPlay and the worst ones like Blind or Explode.
I've spend the last week balancing some of them but this will be an ongoing effort that I hope to start a discussion on. I have some notes on what to do with pretty much every perk, which I'm gradually formalizing in this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
Some perks are implemented and tested on bots, some are still to be implemented, many more perks are to be added. I welcome any comments to this spreadsheet. Like I mentioned, I want this to be a discussion
I can relate to the thrill of making choices in gaming. The Roll The Dice mod for Team Fortress 2 seems like a fantastic way to inject some unexpected fun into the game. I can imagine the excitement of not knowing what perk you'll get and how it'll affect your gameplay.
As for deciding which game to play, I often find myself torn between different options. That's when I turn to my trusty coin flip method. It adds a bit of randomness to the decision-making process and can lead to some surprising and enjoyable gaming experiences.
So, whether it's rolling the virtual dice in TF2 or flipping a coin flip to choose your gaming path, it's all about embracing unpredictability and having a great time.
Last edited by FelicityMassey; 11-13-2023 at 04:43.
Long time no see, I've spend some time reworking the plugin in a pretty major way, and I wanted to start this post with a little bit of a forenote about what this change is about...
RTD was never about balance, but it's still possible to make every perk be fun to play with and against. The update 2.4.0 is the step in this direction, and a major one at that. It includes a lot of bug fixes as well as complete perk overhauls (as well as new bugs too probably).
This spreadsheet was my guide for rebalancing perks which the community (and me) deemed most broken: [ Balance Spreadsheet ]. I encourage anyone to leave their comments there, because I don't consider it finished.
In a very brief summary, this RTD update ensures that:
there are no perks which instantly kill the player,
there are no perks which incentivize the player to killbind, because there's nothing they can do anyway,
all perks can be countered by the enemy team to an extent.
Prepared support for 100 player servers (waiting for SourceMod 1.12 stable release; if needed, RTD can be recompiled on its development branch).
Code for every single perk has been revisited and rewritten where applicable — if there's a new bug it comes from this update.
Rewritten some perks according to the [ Balance Spreadsheet ], this changelog contains the summaries.
Fixed being able to remove a perk by switching classes outside spawn room.
Fixed leaking the handle for perk description menu on map change.
New perk config fields:
no_medieval — set to 1 to disable any perk in Medieval mode.
limit_global — limit active uses of any perk globally.
limit_team — limit active uses of any perk per team (unused by default).
8 new perks added:
Sunlight Spear: Hurl a spear of lightning at foes or friends, dealing moderate damage and slowdown, or speed boosting teammates.
Elden Stars: Conjure a stream of shooting stars that assail the area.
Frog: Can move only by jumping.
Paranoia: Spy is gonna get you! Or will he?
Heavy Rockets: Your rockets fall to the ground, as they should.
Weapon Mixup: Mixes up attack patterns so even you won't know what's coming.
Autoheal: Rapid self healing.
Team Autoheal: Healing for self and nearby teammates.
Loosened restrictions on some perks to allow use in Randomizer mode:
Full Übercharge & Overheal Bonus — needs a MediGun equipped only, instead of requiring to be a Medic,
Homing Projectiles & Cursed Projectiles — needs a home-able projectile-based weapon only, instead of additionally requiring to be a Solider, Pyro, Medic or Sniper,
Full Rifle Charge — needs a Sniper Rifle or Bow equipped only, instead of requiring to be a Sniper,
Extra Throwables — needs a throwable weapon equipped only, instead of additionally requiring to be a Scout, Heavy or Sniper.
Toxic:
Updated visuals to a new effect which reflects the perk's range and does not glitch in first person.
Increased default range from 128HU to 192HU.
Full Übercharge: fixed chance to break another perk when that perk is immediately applied after.
Scary Bullets & Drug Bullets: now requires a minimum of 5 damage to trigger the effect (bleed and afterburn deal 4).
Timebomb & Fire Timebomb:
Slightly updated visuals.
Added 25% resistance to all kinds of damage.
Cannot die from headshots.
Spawn Sentry & Spawn Dispenser:
Fixed not being able to spawn buildings on anything other than perfectly flat ground.
Limited the configurable building amount to a maximum of 3.
Spawn Sentry: disabled in Medieval mode by default.
Monochromia: fixed the monochrome overlay being able to be replaced by another (ex. when Übercharge is applied).
Earthquake: fixed the effect continuing after the perk was prematurely removed (ex. via command or player death).
Bad Sauce: perk is now removed when visiting a Resupply Locker.
Powerful Hits: fixed not having increased damage against buildings.
Tiny Mann:
Increased default scale from 15% to 35% (barely enough not to enter enemy spawn on Dustbowl).
Added speed boost.
Lag: Added randomization to teleport triggers.
Drunk Walk: perk now does nothing on Demoman.
PowerPlay:
Updated visuals.
Replaced full invulnerability with extremely high damage resistance.
Rebalanced around melee combat with knockback as counter.
On Scout: instead of knockback, the player is slowed down when taking damage.
On Heavy: the player does not suffer from knockback whatsoever.
Godmode:
Upon attacking an enemy, that enemy is allowed to deal damage back.
Added high damage resistance.
Cannot capture objectives.
Bat Swarm:
Now must be activated/deactivated via voice command.
Activation takes time and leaves the player exposed.
When active, player becomes invulnerable but their movement speed is greatly reduced.
Blind:
No longer complete darkness, bright landmarks are ever so slightly visible.
UI shows enemy locations.
Damaging an enemy briefly unblinds.
Explode:
Instead of exploding straight away, the player is confined to a bomb which detonates when the perk ends.
Player survives when the bomb is destroyed, either by them or other players.
Firework:
Updated visuals.
Instead of killing the player, they are only set on fire.
Smite:
Updated visuals.
Instead of killing the player, the thunder does percentage of max health.
For the duration of the perk, the player is randomly electrocuted for a split second.
During electrocution ticks, the player is granted crits.
Taking damage increases electrocution frequency.
Flying:
Fixed "flying" mode awkward controls by rewriting them to imitate noclip's.
Changed the default mode from "noclip" to "flying".
Strip to Melee:
Player's weapons are packed into cases and flung in front of them.
Destroying a case gives its weapon back and restocks all ammo.
Teammates can help destroy the cases to share the benefit.
Frozen:
Updated visuals, the player is frozen in place and does not move.
Other players can break the ice statue to free the victim, with flamethrowers being particularly effective.
Enemies contribute to breaking the statue, albeit damaging the victim in the process.
Cannot capture objectives.
Invisibility:
Player silhouette is briefly shown when bumping into enemies, attacking or taking damage.
Increased movement speed.
Cannot capture objectives.
Team Criticals:
Fixed removing crits from players with the Criticals perk.
Now works in tandem with other players' Criticals and Team Criticals such that two minicrit effects on a player are added up to grant them full crits.
For example, if Team Criticals is configured for minicrits, when two players with this effect meet, they will compliment each other and have full crits.
This effect is not noticeable by default because both perks are configured to full crits anyway.
Updated visuals in an attempt to redirect enemy attention towards the player.
Marks for death.
Mercs Die Twice:
Fixed being able to actually die when the incoming damage matches current health rounded down.
Player death now shows up in the killfeed (known issue: uses generic kill icon, regardless of weapon).
Decreased the invulnerability period on revival.
After dying, the player must wait at least 3 seconds to revive.
With each revival, less health is regained.
Cannot capture objectives while dead.
Low Gravity:
Reimplemented to increase jump height instead.
Brief speed boost while jumping.
No fall damage by default.
Hell's Reach:
Slowdown is now reset after explosions, and must repeat before the next one.
Explosions are much less frequent, but deal more damage.
After some considerations I decided to open up a Discord server to get in touch with people who are interested to help playtest or translate the plugin. This would've been a great help with development of the 2.4.0 version and all the help will be needed for future updates.
If you don't want to join yet another Discord server I've also set up GitHub Discussions for any ideas or feedback you might have: https://github.com/Phil25/RTD/discussions, and, of course, always feel free to just post here too.
Fixed resistances and altered movement speed persisting across some perks' removal due to class change while in spawn (most prominently PowerPlay's) (#79).
Fixed compilation warnings when compiling RTD without Updater or neither of the Friendly plugins' include files.
Added failsafes to parts of perk handling in order to minimize consequences of unforeseen errors.
Deprecated the sm_rtd2_log ConVar, use sm_rtd2_logging instead.
Using sm_rtd2_log will show an error as it no longer functions and will be removed in a future release. Please make sure not to use it, including in the autogenerated /tf/cfg/sourcemod/plugin.rtd.cfg file.
New ConVars
sm_rtd2_logging — specify what to log more precisely. [docs]
sm_rtd2_custom_config — specify the name of the custom config file. [docs]
/tf/cfg/sourcemod/plugin.rtd.cfg may be deleted and RTD will regenerate an up-to-date file containing new ConVars.
Dynamic perk time handling
New command sm_timertd allows admins to check targets' perk time, and add or subtract seconds. [docs]
New API function RTD2_AddClientPerkTime allows developers to add or subtract time from current roll. [docs]
Added/removed time is displayed in user's HUD.
Localization and strings
RTD now uses client language, instead of server's, for user-facing messages (#44).
Logging and chat messages have been more standardized throughout the plugin.
Optional command arguments are now specified with square brackets, thanks @Tiagoquix (#89)!
Removed unused parameter from sm_forcertd usage docs (#90).
Perk-specific
Removed class restriction from Explosive Arrows to allow use in Randomizer mode.
Reduced default duration of Paranoia from 60 to 45 seconds (#91).
Fixed being able to briefly unblind yourself on self-damage.
Hitting cloaked Spies no longer triggers the brief unblind, thanks @satanskitty (#78)!
Funny Feeling:
Fixed the effect getting removed upon using a Teleporter.
Player now forcefully stops taunting on perk's start and end, otherwise the effect may, unintentionally, either not get applied or persist, depending on the taunt.
PowerPlay knockback resistance
Check out Balance Spreadsheet for details and reasoning.
Removed the following effects from 2.4.0:
Vaccinator resistances (they were visual anyway).
Knockback increase (handled in a custom way now).
Retained the following effects from 2.4.0 (i.e. no change, only here for completeness):
Full crits.
Extremely high damage resistance.
Increased speed.
Airblast resistance.
Melee-oriented.
Friction loss on swing.
Custom visual effects.
Friction is still lost on swing but is now instantly regained when the hit lands.
Starting with 100% knockback resistance, different things happen when taking damage:
Bullets: +50% knockback (excluding Sentry Guns).
Explosions: +25% knockback and a chance to knock some classes off ground.
Flames: 10% slowdown for non-crits, 25% for crits.
Bleed / afterburn: Deal at least 1 damage.
Melee: Attacker gets full crits, speed boost and 60% crit resistance for 3 seconds.
Melee crit: +500% knockback, serves as a combo follow-up to the above.
Non-melee crit: +50% knockback, in addition to their specific damage type.
Any crit: Hugely increased damage (at least in comparison to regular attacks vs PowerPlay).
Backstab: Deals 24 damage, also counts as a melee crit.
50+ damage: 25% slowdown for duration based on the original damage — starting with near-0 seconds at 51 damage, then gradually rising up to 3 seconds at 140 damage or higher.
Jarate / Mad Milk effects slow down by 25% but their duration is significantly reduced.
On Scout: No friction loss on swing but 20% additional knockback from all sources.
On Solider: 20% additional knockback resistance, enough not to get knocked off ground by explosions.
On Demoman: 10% additional knockback resistance, gets still knocked off ground by explosions barely.
On Heavy: 40% additional knockback resistance, enough not to get knocked off ground by explosions.
On Spy: Does not have crits, but attacks stun enemies for 1s, allowing for backstabs when circled around.
Using Spy-cicle: Does not melt and grants full fire immunity when hit by flames, but with additional 20% slowdown.
When a player has a perk active, its removal when they disconnect, die, change classes or respawn upon round restart is no longer treated as a forced removal, and therefore won't be logged as an action.
Added ConVar sm_rtd2_deathcam_perk, which shows the killer's active perk over their head during Deathcam. [docs]
Added optional bForce and iInitiator parameters to RTD2_Remove API call. [docs]
Fixed RTD2_CanRemovePerk not getting called from RTD2_Remove API call.
Fixed "Cannot convert" console spam when using Sunlight Spear.
Frozen: Added breakable, muffled and volume settings. [docs]
Explode: Lowered bomb's health from 1000 to 780.
Sickness:
Coughing nearby enemies can now briefly infect them, as governed by the infect and range settings.
Optimized the visual effect.
Timebomb and Fire Timebomb:
Headshot damage now has custom resistance, instead of death prevention.
Fix RTD2_Remove backwards incompatibility with modules compiled with pre-2.5.2 RTD include file (#105).
Note to devs: If you compiled your plugin with pre-2.5.2 RTD include file, RTD2_Remove will bug out on versions 2.5.2 and 2.5.3. If you are calling this native, please either recompile your plugin with the latest include file or use RTD 2.5.4 or higher.
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