DraQ
Arcane
The problem with SS2 is that some weapons are either very problematic investments (in a game where you need to manage resources tightly), obsolete on arrival or rendering other weapons obsolete.
And that shit often doesn't make sense in light of descriptions.
For example if laser rapier is described to cause burns, why is it *less* effective against annelids and more effective against robots?
It's laser, it doesn't deal nebulous energy damage, it burns shit, unless it heats it up so fast that it explodes, then it explodes shit blowing nasty holes in targets, especially those made of water-soaked meat they call a body.
If anything laser rapier should have been killer against organics, but maybe less effective against mechs (it should also require power, like it did in 1).
Pretty much same with laser pistol - make one mode of fire incendiary/high explosive, the other hi ex or even normal.
Want nebulous energy damage? Make some sort of particle beam or electrical weapon that doesn't rely on inflicting (thermal) burns and let annelids be resistant to those.
This would help make laser pistol distinct from whatever should be the final energy weapon in terms of gameplay utility and make it tempting to carry both, it would also stop energy weapons from being cripplingly overspecialized.
Speaking of final energy weapon - ideally it should be either a railgun (to rehabilitate SS1's atrocity), or if making a weapon using both charge and ammo would be unfeasible, some sort of particle beam weapon dealing amazing amount of (nebulous) energy damage at high velocity.
Same with std. weapons, shotgun should receive considerable damage boost (especially with buckshot) and maybe extra ammo types (to help it preserve utility and give it versatility that can be expected from pump-action as well as making it ultimate CQB gun, at least with right ammo), AR should either have its own (rare!) ammo, or receive damage reduction (to level that's only somewhat superior to pistol) and have its primary fire mode changed to 3x burst (but accurate, recoil only after third shot). Like with energy weapons this would separate the niches - want to economize? use pistol, want high burst/sustained damage (and good damage/round against resilient targets)? use AR, want both? use both.
It would also help giving weapons their distinct feel rather than them being iterations of the same shit with different models and steeper reqs - if your weapons don't feel distinct, why have multiple weapons?
Also, I'd change wrench classification from STD to HVY, to further debuff STDs. You'd probably club shit better with heavy piece of metal if you were used to handling and carrying heavy weaponry.
Exotics are awfully problematic too - not only are they cripplingly overspecialized like energy weapons (or even more so given that no ranged exotic weapons damages mechs) but they also require around 50% more cyber module investment (because of also requiring research skill) and lead to potential failed builds - exotic without research => fail.
Also, normal ammo shouldn't be equally effective against armored targets. They are armored for a reason. shooting robots with ordinary bullets should yield poor results. Similarly, AP ammo shouldn't deal bonus damage to mechanical targets. It should merely deal full damage to them and somewhat reduced damage to organics. BOOM, without multiplied damage against mechs and with more modest overall damage (apart from SG) standard weapons are no longer an all around powerhouse. Want bonus damage? Use EMP or (nebulous) energy or something.
Incendiaries should burninate swarms (I think it's actually in the latest community patch -
).Frag grenades should deal reduced damage against armor, though there might be specialized grenade type with small AoE, but nasty AP damage (something akin to vanilla's disruption grenades, but working properly).
Overall damage types in vanilla look like someone tried to make a sawyerist dream come true in regards to mechs vs. organics with predictable (disastrous) results (speaking about balance...).
Anyway, mechanically SS2 is a dismal failure compared to its prequel (see 1's penetration mechanics, energy weapon heat and power management, hand grenades, successful mechanical content gating with buff or environmental hazard gates, hardware that modified your ability to tackle in-game hazards and actually made the PC having a cyber interface a gameplay factor), the only reason SS2 is overall a better game than 1 is atmosphere (although the difference can be reduced by switching the music off in 1
) and even that is hampered by inclusion of counterimmersive gamey shit (that allegedly is something SCP aims to eliminate) like game-y damage system, stupidly implemented weapon skills and resulting gameplay of discarding valuable resources because of their incompatibility with current build (in a survival game). If RPG elements are to be the only casualty of actually fixing those problems, then it's a no-brainer - just kick them off a flight of stairs, then double tap them in the head if they try to get up.The thing is, I'm not sure RPG elements would be noticeably affected. Making a build incapable of maintaining or repairing a weapon would transform it - in a build dependent manner - from regular gameplay element into a valuable, limited resource. For example a character specializing with energy weapons would see an assault rifle as something that might be worth lugging around to use in a tight spot, while a character specializing in standard weapons might consider carrying around an EMP weapon without using it regularly, that would be invaluable against some bunched up mechs.
Depending on mechanical flexibility of the game itself (as in ability to bind arbitrary stats to arbitrary shit) even a tiered system where some weapons would have requirements for stuff like reloading/recharging and a handful of most advanced ones requirements for shooting (generally stuff advanced enough for a character to conceivably not be able to fire it without specialized training - exotics, advanced heavies).
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