Consistency updates for bandoliers #1512
Merged
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−8
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Summary
SUMMARY: Balance "Rebalance bandolier capacity for consistency relative to shotgun bandoliers, based off average volume of ammo used"
Purpose of change
Bandoliers are in a bit of a weird niche, their intended main advantage is a reduction in reload time, but with it being 0.8 seconds faster on average that tends to be moot compared to being able to carry extra ammo. I personally feel that these two advantages aren't that great on their own, but are perfectly fine when combined, enough to make for a solid balance against their primary drawback of giving up a fairly valuable torso slot.
For shotgun bandoliers the numbers check out just about right I feel, but the problem is pistol and rifle bandoliers, which hold less of ammo that tends to be smaller than what the player will likely be filling shotgun bandoliers. Moreover, most of these ammo types, especially in the case of pistol ammo, will usually be less damaging than shotshells, so a bandolier's worth of shotshells will already last you longer in a fight than the other bandolier types.
While adjusting reload and draw speed mechanics would be a good long-term solution to making bandoliers more useful for their "main" job of drawing ammo faster, and I don't feel that simply removing them is the best solution either, I feel that it'd fit its current niche (two minor benefits that combined become worth occupying waist or wrist slots) better if the bandoliers for ammo that tends to be smaller and lighter held enough to be worth it relative to the shotgun bandolier at minimum. This is also something that can be hashed out easily without code changes, and would likely be something I'd do anyway alongside a draw cost code change because it's still a major inconsistency.
Describe the solution
There are many ways to potentially determine how much more valuable storage space for each ammo type was, but for this I decided to go with consistency based on the averaged volume of all ammo types usable in a given bandolier, and that would be:
Flintlock was an exception however, its average is 30 mL per shot because blunderbuss rounds are 100 mL per shot, twice that of .700 NX (rifle bandolier's biggest ammo) and four times that of .500 Magnum (pistol bandolier's biggest ammo option). The much lower range of ammotypes also makes its impact that much more disproportionate compared to how the biggest ammo. Ignoring this outlying value instead gives an average of 17.5 mL.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Grenade and stone pouches in comparision are a lot harder to balance and were left untouched for now. The former because the values again have a massive disparity but they come out to an average that would justify bumping its ammo capacity up by 1 which is barely a tweak, plus it varies IMMENSELY (arguably far more than any other bandolier type) just how useful those rounds are relative to what other bandoliers can carry. The latter meanwhile because rocks are massive but also easy to scavenge, but also furthermore their damage is pistol-tier. The fact they're belted slot is honestly more tempting to change than their capacity, giving up a backpack for 10 rocks is a bit wacky.
The generic ammo pouch is in a weird position. As a "crappy item that holds a fuckton of ammo" niche it's good, but whereas encumbrance isn't enough of an issue to need any substantial tweaks for bandoliers, 5-11 encumbrance is a lot. 60 of even the biggest ammo you could expect to hold in it won't even really make a dent in your encumbrance in a generic backpack, but it does make up for it by being able to hold some wacky ammo options nothing else can. But on the other hand, it also lacks the ability to hold some things other bandolier-type items can, like blunderbuss rounds.
Other schemes for consistency include:
Other possible ideas:
Testing
Checked affected files for syntax and load errors.
Additional context