Heavy Sniper Part 2 - The Heavying

[Kaga-404]

About the pull request

New Updates:

• AMR Aimed Shot base cast time increased by 60% from the M42A (1.25s to 2s), to emphasize working with spotter and normal shots, and solidly setting the Aimed Shot DPS under the M42A even under optimal conditions (decreased by ~40%). If this is too crippling, may increase Spotter Bino bonus to the AMR or slightly roll back cast time in the future.
• Interrupt no longer applies to Queen and Crushers unless they are the primary target of an Aimed Shot. Damage threshold requirements still apply, and any piercing will still prevent it from interrupting big xenos at all.
• Charger Strain no longer gets interrupted or slowed while charging.
• Aimed Shot slow no longer applies to Runners, as they didn't have the protection of Focused Fire to reduce the duration by half initially.
• Screenshake maximum against big xenos decreased by 1 step. Now applies at 90 and above to them, instead of 60.
• Changed non-xeno (human) stun to stamina damage instead of directly stunning, to match slugs and high impact.

XM43E1 AMR shots now have stopping power, a scaling system that functions similarly to shotgun slugs and heavy impact ammo, both in role and visible effect.

SCREENSHAKE: Hitting a target will shake their screen so they know they got hit by something heavy. This shaking scales with damage dealt, with the maximum shake being equal to slugs and impact ammo. At 60 or less damage, this does not shake the screen.

INTERRUPTION: Hitting a target will apply a mini-stun, scaling with damage dealt. At 60 or less damage, this does not interrupt targets at all.

• Big Xenos need a base damage of 90 or more damage, will only ever by stunned for 0.1s max, and cannot be knocked back.
• Other xenos can be stunned for up to 0.3s if the base damage is more than 120, losing 0.1s per 30 base damage, and will be knocked back at 90 damage or more.
• Non-xenos can be stunned for up to 3s, losing 1s per 30 base damage.

For comparison, impact rounds stun for 1s, and slugs stun for 1.4s as well as buckshot within range. The stun on this is much lower as it is only meant to interrupt, and can affect big xenos if they are the only target hit, which other heavy rounds cannot.

AIMED SHOT: Can now potentially apply a slow scaling with stopping power, similar but much weaker than M42A Flak. At 60 or less base damage, no slows are applied.

• Lasts for at most 5s of slow, 2.5s of superslow against runners and non-xenos, at 120 or more base damage.
• Slows are reduced by 1s and 0.5s respectively per size tier, and for every 30 base damage lost.
• If this slows any amount, it will always give 0.2s of reduced vision as a visible warning.

Other Changes:

• Defenders are no longer counted as an exception for Aimed Shot, only Runners. Defenders should take 200+20% current health damage on an aimed shot now, but are affected by Focus modifiers, so only 10% current health on first, then 15%, then 20% current health. Being Fortified reduces the flat damage to 125 but increases current health damage to 15/22.5/30%.
• Increased base armor penetration for XM43E1 and M42C, as in rare cases target armor could go above 50.

Explain why it's good for the game

The heavy sniper currently has almost no incentive to use its standard fire due to how little ammo it has, and being less damage efficient overall, as well as no utility on its normal shots. Consequently, it's unable to actually support allies in most cases. These mechanics should hopefully encourage standard fire more, especially against non T3s, allowing heavy sniper users to juggle their objectives of focusing aimed shots against a priority target while also using their standard shots at critical points to save allies from getting dragged off. This leans further into the weapon's identity as a support, as playtesting so far has shown that it's generally much worse at securing kills due to massively reduced DPS and aimed shot damage against T3s in the majority of situations, with its current health scaling.

Because the stopping power mechanic has very low stun numbers, max 0.3s against xenos, and the firerate is incredibly low at 3s between shots, there's effectively no kill potential with this support feature. Instead, it's a way to save allies from a far distance like slug shotguns, but with IFF and much higher range, allowing it to be done from safety with no risk of slugging your teammates in the back because they resisted out of a grab.

Additionally, high-caliber rounds should feel heavy, which is why ammo like Scout Impact and shotgun slugs give both mechanical and visual cues when they hit a target. Briefly reduced vision, stun, knockback.

Both from the user's and target's perspectives, getting hit by a heavy sniper round doesn't have any visual cue different from a pistol bullet, and the only noticeable impact is health loss unless you're staring at chat to see the 'hit by' message. There's a distinctive firing sound, but in an active front it doesn't really let the target know they got hit by the AMR, in the midst of all the other guns firing in their direction.

With this update, the screenshake and small knockdown should make it much more likely for targets to realize they've been hit by something dangerous.

Testing Photographs and Procedure

Screenshots & Videos

Put screenshots and videos here with an empty line between the screenshots and the <details> tags.

Changelog

🆑 Kaga
balance: The Heavy Sniper's XM43E1 rounds are now actually heavy. Targets hit will get screenshake, like slugs and impact rounds, scaling with damage dealt.
balance: XM43E1 shots can now potentially interrupt targets if it deals enough damage. The heavier the target, the more force is needed to interrupt them. Big xenos require a full-damage shot with no piercing, while smaller targets can also be knocked back with enough damage.
balance: XM43E1 Aimed Shots can now potentially apply a slow to the main target only, scaling with base damage and target size. If a slow is applied, vision range is reduced for a moment as a warning.
balance: XM43E1 and M42C ammo AP increased to 75 (from 50)
balance: Removed the Defender exception from the AMR Aimed Shot calculations.
/:cl: