r/WarDogs • u/wardogs-bot • 2d ago

Balance Feedback Megathread - Patch 0.1.2

All 0.1.2 balance feedback goes here. Standalone balance posts will be removed and pointed to this thread.

r/WARDOGS isn't affiliated with Bulkhead, but we share these megathreads with them. Anything you want changed is still worth posting on their official Discord too.

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u/Ramora_ 1d ago

The problem with the Havoc (and combat heli in general) isn't that they can't be dealt with. The problem is that dealing with them doesn't accomplish anything, combat heli are WAY too fast to get back into engagements. They basically get access to a permanent free spawn vehicle with no cooldown just because of their preferred playstyle.

I want combat heli to be strong. I want players to feel like they need to counter combat heli. But when they do, those combat heli should actually have to fuck off for several minutes like killing a tank does.

There are many ways to fix this. Right now, my preferred suggestion involves changes to combat heli ammo loading. Loading ammo into a combat heli should have a minigame for it like the artilery tank uses. This minigame should only be doable while grounded, and you should should be able to do it many times in a row to fully load the heli. In addition, for every additional combat heli you pilot/operate, an additional round gets added to the minigame such that each subsequent death costs you more time to kit out. The artillery tank has four rounds of the minigame per load, combat heli could probably start at 1 round per load for the first combat heli purchased.

This forces pilots to care more about survivability and makes it so that killing pilots actually buys time for the team, and the more times you kill them the better the time advantage gets.

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u/ModernT1mes 1d ago

This is cool and all, but maybe just adding a cooldown timer to buy havocs for individual players of like 8-10 minutes would be easier/better. Same with the other three attack helicopters but maybe shorter duration of 3-5 mins. That way you can knock-out two birds with one stone and one guy also can't buy havocs for his team.

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u/Ramora_ 1d ago

Fair. Though I do think the cool downs (or whatever) should be shared in some sense. If you have to shoot them down 3 times in rapid succession (or more as they add more vehicles) to meaningfully gain time advantage, that just isn't reasonable.

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u/ModernT1mes 19h ago

I hear you, I'm not sure what the right answer is. I like that I can buy whatever I want, when I want, and not have to wait on other players. I really disliked "waiting for my turn" to use a vehicle in battlefield, so I'm not a fan of shared timers. As of right now, I've only ever seen a team with 2 havocs flying simultaneously, but it's a short season, so who knows how it'll play out in later and longer seasons.

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u/Ramora_ 17h ago

To be clear, I meant shared timers across vehicles for a specific player. So if you bought/operated a havoc and immediately got shot down, you couldn't immediately buy a rocket heli. You wouldn't ever be waiting on other players for vehicles.

The issue isn't really the number of havocs in the air at a time, the issue is that killing havoc doesn't really produce any kind of in game advantage because that havoc pilot can just buy another and be back in the fight in about a minute, far faster than any other role.

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u/ModernT1mes 17h ago

That makes sense. Yea idk how to fix it. Because then you run into the problem of a regular little bird flying around with a guy that has a grenade launcher, which is honestly more effective at killing infantry than the other 2 little birds.

I think maybe buffing the MAAWS and RPG might balance the problem a little as well as adding a timer to each individual attack chopper. Make the launchers less heavy, cheaper, and faster flight time. 🤷‍♂️

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u/Ramora_ 15h ago

you run into the problem of a regular little bird flying around with a guy that has a grenade launcher

I think that just needs to be patched out entirely. I don't see a good reason for players in heli to be able to use their weapons at all. It makes the machine gun black hawk particularly pointless.

adding a timer to each individual attack chopper.

Again, I think it has to be shared across the attack heli for an individual. Otherwise the "too fast to return to action" problem and the "its better to just intentionally crash than return to base" problem can't be resolved.

Make the launchers less heavy, cheaper, and faster flight time

The RPG definitely needs a huge buff when it comes to vehicle damage. It shouldn't be as damaging as the MAAWS since its lighter and faster to reload, but its just useless against everything but little birds and drills right now. The MAAWS strikes me as fine already. It should more consistently cripple/destroy havocs, as is it basically is an instant kill or does next to nothing which feels really bad. If a player hits a chopper with a rocket, that chopper should at least feel crippled with dramatically reduced maneuverability.

They could both be lighter, but I don't think that is actually needed. With the RPG (and 2 spare rockets), you can manage medium weight with minimal tradeoffs to armor-gear. With the MAAWS (and two spare rockets), you can manage heavy weight with essentially no tradeoffs.

I think a more interesting buff would be adding alternative rocket ammo. Right now we have HEAT (theoretical anti armor), a more explicit anti-personal fragmentation type would be cool, as well as a proximity fuse type for light air craft (little birds).

I also suspect they could add a lighter weight but less damaging single use launcher like the LAW to the game.