This post talks about the added Amphtank factory in my refumble mod (boatcarmod), and the goals and ideas that lead to those designs.
Mode Link:
https://zero-k.info/Mods/Detail/186Repo Link:
https://github.com/Stiofan-K/ZK-Balance_Testing_Mutators.sddThe general idea for the factory was to just get more things for Sea-K. Hover and amphbots were already covered, so I wanted to try amphibious vehicles/tanks.
Of course they still need to be compatible with surface factories and such too.
The idea for the theming of this factory was based of the amphbot to other bot factories comparison, where they are generally slower but more tanky. Our vehicles factories generally emphasise speed to at least some degree, so there was a niche for a sort of slower handeling vehicle factory.
To get around the issues of seafloor vehicle pathing, amphtanks that can submerge function like submarines and stay at a certain depth underwater instead of sticking to the seafloor.
Most current amphtanks float on the water surface, I'll specifically mention if they submerge in water.
I'll just talk through the in units and their ideas, themes and possibilities, a summary before:
Murderhole: Floating Armed Construction Tank
Springald: Burstfire Light Raider Amphtank
Hive: Deployable Riot Swarm Missile Amphtank
Mangonel: Skirmishing Depth Charge Launcher
Crocodile: Subsurface Assault Bombard
Arbalest: Rapidfire Gauss Firesupport
Anura: Subsurface Assault/Raider Amphtank
Ballista: Disarming Anti-Air Amphtank
Plaguerat: Terrain Flattening and Nanoplague Bomb
Con:
Murderhole!
Idea here was an armed amphibious con, a different counterpart to welder which is stronger in water and weaker on land.
So! It's Welder with it's turret removed, instead now tossing depthcharges out of it's back.
In water the dephtcharge is seeking meaning the murderhole can fight off a lone sea raider, but dies to a coordinated attack of 2 as long as they avoid clumping together.
On land the charge is unguided and tossed at the enemy, though since it isn't seeking all raiders can bait and dodge it's charge, with tac ai/autoskirm being decently adept at doing so automatically. Though as more raiders swarm it, it will be more likely to hit.
In practise this means that Murderhole does better against larger groups of raiders compared to welder and can act as a support for porc and armies against raiderblobs.
In turn Murderhole doesn't have the guranteed kills and safety welder has against most lone raiders, except in water.
Raider/scout:
Springald!
A burstfire particle beam raider!
Intended to be a sort of skirmy raider, that doesnt like being swarmed and pokes away at the edge.
Borrows alot from scorcher, in hp breakpoints and such and gains it's tankyness by being cheaper than it at 100 cost.
Slower than scorcher by a decent degree 95 instead of 115.
Damage breakpoints let most raiders survive one or two bursts, to where only pairs or groups of springalds start to pick off single raiders.
In practice it plays akin to a dagger/bandit hybrid, that isn't effective in a dive/dive happy as dagger or other raiders due to low dps. 69 dps, 45 damge, 3 shot burst, 2 second reload.
Overall, I think I've hit the mark pretty well with this one, where I've not had to change much or had anyone note anything negative about it.
Riot:
Hive!
Deploying Swarm Missile Riot
Hive leans into the dps side of riots, with rapidfire swarm missiles that retarget onto the hives next target if the original target dies.
Currently deploys to fire, so is relatively easily skirmed.
Overheats, slowing its firerate to half its maximum, partically to limit anti assault effectiveness
Is watercooled, so cools it's overheat faster in water.
Has decently high range at 420, but could easily be less.
DPS is at 376 currently, 2500 hp.
With the way the missiles work the damage is pretty guranteed and single target, but they take much longer to do their damage compared to all other riots.
There are a few possible version here, without needing to deploy or overheat, but it seems in a decent spot at the moment. It can do it's job.
The general idea here was that we don't have a missile riot unit yet and I wanted to make a sort of backloaded damage riot. With overheat it is more frontloaded with delayed damage atm though.
Skirm:
Mangonel!
Depthcharge launching skimrisher.
An expensive (300 cost) and relatively slow (50) skirmisher vehicle.
Has some aoe (70) on it's projectile (scary) but overall not great dps (73 dps, 220 damage a shot, 565 range)
Has the option to high angle fire, to fire over terrain obstacles and enable trench warfare.
Is similar in functions very similarly to recluse, as an expensive skirm/antiskirm and is countered similarly.
On land, Mangonel feels pretty safely settled with little to no negative feedback about it so far.
It does it's job as an expensive but relatively strong skirm, with an interesting edge in highangle fire and aoe.
Land Mangonel has generally not had much negative feedback, outside the scaryness of some aoe on a skirm.
On water things are alot more spicy and uncertain, since it's depthcharge can track once it hits water. With no true antisub riot in the factory, like Archer or Claymore, Mangonel, Murderhole and the subsurface unit's need to make do atm.
The depthcharge has a very short flighttime(1s) so raiders can still juke or flee, and the weaknesses of land mangonel do still apply.
Still this is scary antisub skirm, which is threathening for amphbots and subs to say the least.
And also sort of seeking skirm in water too, which is also scary.
So overall, I think the pure land usage for Mangonel is fitting enough, with the water use being much scarier.
For water I've not had too much negative feedback either, though the sample size is much lower for amphtank vs amphbot in water matchups. Land and water charge share a reload.
Assault:
Crocodile!
Subsurface Assault bombard.
The idea here was an assault tank with long reload, single heavy hitting rocket/torpedo.
It is the first unit listed that swims underneath the water surface as a sub.
This has been probably the most critiqued unit for decent reason, and I've steadily tried to adjust it into a better state.
It feels like a unit sort of stuck in the normal assault slot that wants to be a heavy assault instead, though I'm still not quite sure what stat profile and cost would befit it's idea best.
On Land Croc lobs a around 1k damage rocket at 380 range with decent aoe (140) and 10 second reload. It is decently dodgeable by raiders, so lone crocs get swarmed, while stacking them up makes them difficult for raiders to approach
In water, Crcos shoot a impact torpedo, which is similar to the rocket with much reduced aoe (32, only able to catch multiple units with extreme clumping) but tracking. It's an implementation of the slow unmanoverable torpedo, so theyre likely to miss juking raiders.
Torpedo and rocket have linked reloads.
I've steadily tuned down the hp and subsurface capabilities of crocodile, to make it easier to skirmish on land and swarm in water. The latest version of croc doesnt have much testing yet. A safe but less interesting projectile would be reusing crab's 600 damage shot.
Artillery:
Arbalest!
Rapidfire Gauss Firesupport
The idea here was making a longer range gauss weapon, which is scary as a concept by itself already.
The previous itteration had some difficulty to get going, but was maybe just too self synergising and uninteractive in the end. There were two ways to go there, either a more expensive variation or a cheaper toned down version.
Now it is cheaper (900 cost) and toned down in range (675) and damage output, while becoming slightly tankier (1500 hp).
It overheats faster, so has an innitial burst of high damage output (301 dps), before slowing down to 20% firerate.
Is watercooled, so cools faster in water.
This might be a healthier spot for arbalest, but is like croc not too tested in this iteration.
Overall, there are a few ways to go with the idea of gauss firesupport/arty that i'm trying to feel out, but it is a scary concept, especially for amphbots again. The low line of fire and resulting need for line of sight is an interesting drawback, that I tried to leverage by needing to shoot alot/deploying to fire. And it is also inline with being better in water.
Heavy/Weird Raider:
Anura!
Subsurface Raider
Anura is the second/heavy raider, that goes subsurface and moves as a sub in water.
It has a decently tanky chassis, but is relatively slow for a raider at 90 speed. It's land plasma repeater have relatively slow projectiles that make it easy enough to kite by other raiders, but also make it good at kiting.
It's best used as a sort of light assault or antiskirm raider than a raider fighting raider.
In water or near shores, it shoots a torpedo at water and subsurface targets.
Overall, I'm again pretty okay with how land anura plays out, being on the heavier end of raiders but leaning more into an assaulty role.
Water anura feels okay too sorta, but is much harder to test for. I also need to steal the range update function for the shorter range torp from duck.
I do especially like the way anura shoots its land weapon, and I managed to animate the blitz model to be amphibious.
AA:
Ballista!
Disarming Flak AA
Idea here is simple, AA that denies bombing but doesnt necessarily kill the plane.
Current implementation works decently well, and also comes with a crasher missile as a sidearm to not have planes endlessly hover above.
Feedback seems oki. But there is uncertainty about if disarm flak is fun as a concept or not.
It also messes with bomber ai since theyre disarmed and won't return as some might expect, so is maybe meh even on those grounds.
Another idea would be a very high velocity single shot AA weapon of sorts, but thats also sort of scary or meh.
Another again would be a gattling AA, sort of like how toads autocannon works.
Bomb:
Plaguerat!
A terraform bomb that flattens terrain around it. It has bot pathing to make it easier to put into place to flatten your path forward.
The other thing included is nanoplague, at 8 bp rezspeed. With it, amphtanks get a neat tool to followup on large wreck fields or deep suicidal raids that revive as zombies again.
N thats it so far.
Springald, Hive, Mangonel and Anura seem pretty stable on land at least, with the other units still trying to find their footing and specific niche.
I want to make the models myself when I get to that, but it seems sensible for the concepts to be stable before starting on that. o,o"
I'm still also sort of looking for an idea for a "normal" assault to then maybe put croc in a heavy assault role. But maybe theres no need for a light assault with anura around
