Mercy Adjustment Mod

[FunkOff]

Alright, I cooked this up/tested in about half an hour. What this mod does, basically, is change the mercy very slightly. As we all know, the mercy releases 8 mini missiles when it shoots, and these all track and kill your ACU. What this mod does it make their tracking a little worse, so that instead of mercies having pinpoint accuracy like a homing sniper rifle, they'll hit like a shotgun blast instead. End result being mercies are less effective against ACUs but more effective against groups of units.

Try it! Or, if you're like some people, don't try it and complain about it anyways.

Installation instructions: Place .zip in your My documents/my games/GPG/FA/Mods folder. That's it.

Edit: Version 2 is now up. The shots now cluster around the target, rather than behind it, mercies also have 100 hp (from 10) and have a turn rate of 1.0 (from 0.6). This should even them out a bit.

Also, I ran some quick tests. This is how the break-out worked:
10 mercs did about 9500 damage to an acu
1 merc killed 15/20 strikers (300 mass did 840 mass in damage)
2 mercs killed 5/20 pillars and damage 8 more (600 mass did over 990 mass in damage)
5 mercs killed 11/15 Loyalists and damaged the other 3 (1500 mass did over 5280 mass in damage)

[pip]

Funkoff, it's not just a mere "adjustment". It's a complete transformation of the unit. I just tested it : the shotgun spread is far too wide: you will never hit a unit you are targetting precisely, but a wide area just behind. This can be cool, as it can make holes in a base, or it can bring down shields very effectively. It works similarly, and looks similar to the Salavation weapon (I suspect you borrowed the weapon animation). But it is in no way a simple "adjustement".

I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying it changes completely the unit's role, and unless Pilot thinks the mercy would be better with this new role, there is no chance this can be used as just a simple "adjustment", similar to a range nerf for instance.

Good imagination there though.

[FunkOff]

It was a one line of code addition lol .... I might tweak it to be more accurate tonight

[Karottenrambo]

Making the mercy viable in other situations than only in com snipe would propably the best solution.

But the hp should be increased and the turn speed lowered (its as high as the turn speed of the Ahwassha, no kidding) too, to make it a more reliable unit.

[FunkOff]

Making the mercy viable in other situations than only in com snipe would propably the best solution.

Yes. If we only nerf the mercy and do not improve some aspect about it, it will just become another useless unit that will need to be buffed in the future. A change may as well do it right.

But the hp should be increased and the turn speed lowered .

I don't really consider hp or turn rate to be serious weaknesses of the mercy. The way the mercy is used now, it's only rarely that a shot lands on it, so buffing it's HP to 100 or so is unlikely to make an appreciable difference. Turn rate is also not really relevant because the mercy has no trouble reaching targets.

[ToejamS]

Well, that is a funky idea. Zep suggested that it not auto track, ie if mercy looses line of sight it targets the last known destination. Shotgun idea tho... hmmm... thats changing the unit into something else entirely. Im not saying I dont like it, Im just saying its funky.

[Kryo]

well the question is, how can we make mercy work differently, so that it is still viable, but is not as dangerous as now for ACUs anymore.

Cost increase cant be the way, because then it will be used only for ACU even more.

Your shotgun idea is ok, but then damage is spread so much, is it really useful? idk

What could be other ideas? mine are:

1. extra shield damage + shotgun effect = fortification breaker ?

2. stun + shotgun effect = experimental stopper? (because their hitboxes are huge and stun is always good vs exps, stun of course not vs ACU)

[uberge3k]

Effectively doubling the mass required to kill an ACU won't stop the "problem" that people think is there - if 1800 mass is so inconsequential, why should 3600 be any different? And if people complain about the supposed "randomness" of mercies being hit by AA, why shouldn't people complain about the randomness of this new shotgun effect that would result in random amounts of damage done to a single target?

The additional health, turn speed, and shotgun damage (!!!) will cause far more problems than they "solve". This will make mercies ridiculously OP as they can now cost-effectively slaughter ground units, and will be nigh invincible to any form of land AA.

But I guess it'll be good to make people yearn for the good old days of mercies in their current state?

[FunkOff]

Your shotgun idea is ok, but then damage is spread so much, is it really useful? idk

I encourage you to try it in its current form (in the mod). It's so strong it might actually be overpowered... it absolutely murders hordes of T1 and is strong against T2 and T3 as well.

[FunkOff]

The additional health, turn speed, and shotgun damage (!!!) will cause far more problems than they "solve". This will make mercies ridiculously OP as they can now cost-effectively slaughter ground units, and will be nigh invincible to any form of land AA.

This is why I hope to have this iteration of the mercy tested before implemented in a patch.

But I guess it'll be good to make people yearn for the good old days of mercies in their current state?

Ahahaha. That's certainly one way to look at it.