Fortnight Discussion: Game Balance Issues

[Madguy]

What are your biggest issues with the game balance right now? What abilities, items, etc. do you find overpowered or useless? What aspects of the game do you find just plain unfair?

I don't really care about balance issues when you have a bunch of mutators active or you've created a character that the game classifies as "overpowered". I'm more interested in issues that pop up during a normal game with a normal character, or maybe when 1 specific mutator is active.

[Verdusk]

The moment I find which syringe is the Invisible syringe, all I need is to use all the money I collect on cloning Invisible syringes and victory is assured for the run no matter which character I use because even killing Supercops is easy when you're invisible.

I think Invisible should have less duration, and there should be another syringe for Camouflage that lasts longer for stealth style.

Assassin is OP because of how easy it is to kill people with his ability; the ability should be nerfed in such a way that require more skill or carefulness for the player to use.

I think when you're Camouflaging and you touch someone, and your camouflage should stop and they turn hostile to you.

Alternatively, Camouflaging doesn't make you invisible, but any kills you make (esp. with the boosted backstab) is silent, and the assassin has the traits Blends In Nicely and a new "Makes Less Noise" trait.

[Kajnake]

Infinite usable items. Like skeleton key and the universal safe drill are just kinda lame, and cut out item managment from the game
Damage seems slightly undertaking in regular old pistol
Scoring a backstab with a knife is the loudest thing you can do in game besides nuking the place. While playing the supposed "ninja" character
Zombie ate my game balance > Plays zombie

[MaeBea]

Hey just wanted to say I have found a bug with the Assassin's big quest ! Where can I share my problem ?

[Kelacktrick]

What happened to the sniper rifle? https://streetsofrogue.gamepedia.com/Sniper_Rifle

[DoctorStupid]

The doctor can sell all of the useless weapons he picks up from the people he neutralized for TONS of money.

I suggest that the doctor starts with a new trait that forbids him from picking up any weapons.

[Rampage Helpline™]

I have an issue with the non-level event Robot response. There are so many, and they track like Bloodhounds! Perhaps reducing the initial number dispensed or...allowing us to hack them one at a time to winnow each other down? Perhaps randomising the quality of their Sensor Suites(tm) so they have different detection ranges?

[Kelacktrick]

Originally posted by DoctorStupid:

The doctor can sell all of the useless weapons he picks up from the people he pacified for TONS of money.

I suggest that the doctor starts with a new trait that forbids him from picking up any weapons.

But doctors DO make more than other people!

[Major Mack]

if i'm to be honest being a vampire is a bit of a pain in fights with the only way to gain health being bloodsucking. also maybe have people freak out a bit more when your just casual draining someone right in front of them.

[Sylveon]

The persistent disappointment from the lack of the ability to hack toilets makes this game nigh-impossible

[anthonyiye]

Doctor OP

[it goes yuh]

It's kind of annoying that the cops always attack you when they see fights. If someone attacks you in their view, they should attack who they see as the aggressor. I'd like to be able to play the police against enemies

[burningserenity]

Originally posted by Verdusk:

The moment I find which syringe is the Invisible syringe, all I need is to use all the money I collect on cloning Invisible syringes and victory is assured for the run no matter which character I use because even killing Supercops is easy when you're invisible.

I think Invisible should have less duration, and there should be another syringe for Camouflage that lasts longer for stealth style.

Assassin is OP because of how easy it is to kill people with his ability; the ability should be nerfed in such a way that require more skill or carefulness for the player to use.

I think when you're Camouflaging and you touch someone, and your camouflage should stop and they turn hostile to you.

Alternatively, Camouflaging doesn't make you invisible, but any kills you make (esp. with the boosted backstab) is silent, and the assassin has the traits Blends In Nicely and a new "Makes Less Noise" trait.

Absolutely all of this. Also, the Ooze disaster feels like a non-event. Perhaps make it faster, or come from multiple places.

This is a bit more ambitious. In addition to gaining new traits with character levels, it would be cool if each character could level up its main abilities. This might help with the fact that the first two levels feel much easier than the others, and make the payoff for reaching higher levels.

Finally, and in a similar vein, perhaps bring in the Augmentation Canister. Perhaps make it really rare and allow characters to gain the abilities of another character for some kind of sacrifice.

[burningserenity]

Also, make npcs pick up dropped weapons; at least those suitable for their class.

[Harvesting Season]

It's been a little while since I have last played, so I'm not sure if this has been changed at all, but I have always had an issue with the cannibals in the bushes within the park. Maybe I'm just blind, but there never seems to be any indication for when one is hiding in the bushes and that's caused me a few losses in the past. It's a nightmare with the low health mutator and can be just as dangerous if you get unlucky with low health in normal mode. Having a sound cue of something moiving in the bushes or just a visual cue of slight movement would help a ton. I play co-op most of the time, so I may have missed sound cues if they are indeed already a thing.

[lisan al-gaib]

Originally posted by Swadian:

It's been a little while since I have last played, so I'm not sure if this has been changed at all, but I have always had an issue with the cannibals in the bushes within the park. Maybe I'm just blind, but there never seems to be any indication for when one is hiding in the bushes and that's caused me a few losses in the past. It's a nightmare with the low health mutator and can be just as dangerous if you get unlucky with low health in normal mode. Having a sound cue of something moiving in the bushes or just a visual cue of slight movement would help a ton. I play co-op most of the time, so I may have missed sound cues if they are indeed already a thing.

There's a small visual indicator when there's a cannibal in the bush. The bush seems to be glowing or slightly lighter than the surrounding bushes.

Anyway as for balance issues I agree that some aspects of melee should be quieter, especially backstab kills. Maybe make it that some melee weapons are quieter than others, like say a sword vs an axe or a knife vs a baseball bat. They have the same damage, but making one quieter than the other would allow more choice, and to compensate maybe the other weapon can have more knockback.