The Internal Balance of the Pyro

Well, first off, I'd like to return a shout-out to Shadowfred - my friend Scott.

His goal is designing or programming games, both if necessary - so he's kind of similar to me, except I'd rather take the programming route into just design.

Anyway, he's working on a game called Jungle Hat Madness 2 - and he'll be updating his blog with progress, so, give it a look: http://shadowfred.blogspot.com/

Anyway, a few people really liked my Undeadables article as it has a more practical display of design philosophy. Rather than me just saying "you should do this" and "a balanced game should have this", it dealt with a real example where I had to solve some issues with an idea I have loved to develop. It was a little tricky though, as, when you hold an idea close to you - it's hard to be critiqued on it, and it's hard to steer it in a different direction to what you had set in mind.

The Internal Balance of the Pyro

Anyway, I want to make another practical post today - as they're always useful as demonstrations, and today's relates to Team Fortress 2 - and the internal balance of the Pyro.

I use the term Internal as I did with Internal Content Redundancy - in the way that it relates to the options given to the Pyro when not in actually actively engaged in gameplay - so it reflects his choice of items, mostly.

The Problem

The Pyro suffers from great Internal Content Redundancy - but, well, first we'll just lay down the basics for the Pyro - so those who don't play Team Fortress 2 can understand.

The Pyro is a close range ambush class, who has above average health (175), with average movement speed (100%).

The Pyro has 6 weapons, 2 Primaries (Flamethrower / Backburner), 2 Secondaries (Shotgun / Flare Gun), 2 Melee (Fire Axe / Axtinguisher).

The Flamethrower has the Airblast ability that can reflect projectiles (mainly rockets), disrupt enemy movement (even if the enemy is invincible in an Ubercharge), and it can extinguish burning teammates. The Backburner - the other Primary that can be chosen, loses the Airblast but gains critical hits when attacking the enemy's back. This is supposed to function primarily as a strong ambush weapon, while losing the utility of the Flamethrower.

The Backburner is widely considered to be inferior to the Flamethrower, and the Fire Axe is considered to be inferior to the Axtinguisher (The Axtinguisher has a strong killing ability and combos really well with the Flamethower's airblast - the Fire Axe has nothing of the sort). The Flamethrower and Axtinguisher are considered balanced - so this is not a matter of nerfing those.

The Backburner is redundant because the trade-off the Pyro makes is unfavourable - he loses defence and support ability for ambush ability - that he unfortunately has great trouble utilising.

I'll put it into perspective - there are 3 specialised ambush classes in Team Fortress 2: The Scout, the Spy, and the Pyro.

The Scout is able to ambush effectively, as his speed allows him to trespass effectively, getting behind key players. His small frame also helps with hiding in wait.

The Spy has the cloak ability, which makes him completely invisible, allowing him to sneak past enemy lines. He also has a slender frame - allowing him to hide around corners more effectively.

Redefining the Problem:

The Pyro doesn't have the speed necessary to function as a Scout, and he of course doesn't have the Spy's cloak - the only thing he does have is his higher health (both Scout and Spy are 125hp classes). This often means that the Backburner Pyro has to battle and push his way through enemies to get around them - which doesn't work as he makes himself known (subsequent ambushes are less likely to succeed), and with his lesser combat ability due to the loss of the Airblast - it often means he dies trying to get around the enemy team.

So he needs a change in his ambushing ability - you can either increase his capacity to push through enemies - or change his style of ambushing from pushing to stealth, or speed-oriented maneuvering.

Now, if you read my post on Content Redundancy - you're likly thinking that we should increase the Pyro's pushing power, so that he doesn't encroach the Spy's stealth or the Scout's speed. The only issue is - Valve saw this issue with the Backburner when they released the Pyro update and included a +50hp buff on it, so the Pyro could survive to get behind the enemy team. This however had the side-effect of making the Pyro too effective in general combat, so rather than ambushing, he ran right up to people instead of flanking. This health was promptly removed as it upset the class balance of the game (this is actually something I'll talk about in another post - conservative balancing).

The Solution:

Anyway, with all this in mind, hopefully we have enough information to create a list of criteria and constraints.

The fix should increase the Pyro's ambush ability, while not doing any of the following:

• The fix should not increase the Pyro's combat ability (as that will lead to a more combative playstyle rather than an ambush focused play style)
• The fix should not be a general buff to the Pyro (it would upset class balance)
• The fix should not heavily affect the Flamethrower or Axtinguisher (They don't need more power, or to be nerfed - more options are good though)
• The fix should directly address the issue of the Pyro's lack of ambush ability.
• The fix should not encroach on other class's roles and special traits.
• The fix should not heavily change the Pyro, his role, or the primary abilities of the weapons at hand.

At this point, I'd like you to try and think of your own fix before reading about mine.

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My Solution:

Okay.

My fix was a little roundabout.

First of all, I thought that the Backburner should have access to a 'mini-blast' of sorts - which is a small burst of air activated by right click (costing maybe 5-10 ammo) that merely extinguishes teammates. This is just so the Backburner can be used for some support - without your allies wanting you to use the Flamethrower so you can extinguish them.

Second, I decided that the best way to increase the Pyro's ambushing ability was to increase his speed. Frankly, as we covered - wading through enemies to ambush them is pointless, and leads to imbalance when you try and increase a class's defensive abilities. Also, we couldn't give the Pyro any amount of cloak, as it would severely encroach on the Spy's role, and it wouldn't fit with the Pyro at all.

But, I'm not saying that I made the Pyro faster all the time. I made him faster not when he was holding the Backburner (that would be a general increase to his combat ability) - but when he was holding the Fire Axe.

This means that, when the Fire Axe is a Pyro's active weapon, he runs somewhat faster (not nearly as fast as a Scout - that would be encroaching) to get around his opponents.

Justification:

You might be asking "But Zanda - isn't this a bad fix as it doesn't fix the Backburner directly - but complicates things by solving the issue through a different item?" - I know I asked myself the very same question.

I decided that there was no real issue with the Backburner itself aside from its lack of utility. Its lack of movement disruption and inability to reflect projectiles can be made up for with the crits from behind. The main issue, however, was the Pyro's lack of movement ability.

So - rather than considering this a fix to the Backburner, I would consider this a fix to the Pyro that arises from the analysis of the failure of the Backburner - that subsequently increases the Backburner's viability in general play.

The other plus side of it being assosciated with the Fire Axe, is that the Fire Axe was considered redundant and now hopefully will not be, but also, Airblast Pyros who would prefer movement ability over their powerful Axtinguish combo may also use it.

You may say that this makes Airblast Pyros more powerful, but truly, it doesn't. As said, they lose the Axtinguisher Combo - but they also don't gain a lot from being faster. The Flamethrower without the Axtinguisher isn't amazing for ambushing, but also, while moving, a Flamethrower Pyro will often hold the Flamethrower so he can airblast projectiles away. Obviously you can't hold both the Flamethrower and Axe out at once, so, there you go.

The final point I need to address is that this doesn't really affect his combat ability, or class balance as he must have a melee weapon as his active weapon to get the speed boost - which is easily beaten by most classes - the main class that would have trouble is likely the Sniper, who shouldn't be in close combat anyway.

Well, truly, as the Backburner is a close range weapon - most classes would think themselves lucky that the Pyro's holding the Axe and not it anyway.

So, feel free to post your solutions, I hope you liked mine - as it's what I have implemented for my TF2 Mod.

Modding TF2 weapons.

Well, I am proud to announce my newest, and, likely, my first modding project. I said in my first post that I really wanted to get into it, and well, now I have - and, what better to mod than a game I have been playing for the entirety of its lifespan, at a large variety of skill levels, exploring every single piece of content possible. I think I'm only more qualified to make a Pokemon game.

Most people who make their own weapons in TF2 do so to see how crazy they can make it (such as machine guns shooting 4 rockets a second), or, to test out unlock ideas that they had envisioned in the past (though, with our limited set of possible modifications, most are very impossible.).

My Aim:

I skipped the first motive - as, well, the crazy game modes and etc. have never interested me - I can see why some would love randomness and having everyone shooting shotguns that shoot rockets that drop plasma grenades, but, as I mainly play games to analyse them, figure out the maths behind them, and the developer's motives - the off-the-wall modes don't interest me. I'm interested in the balance and the designs - others are into the action.

That's not to say I don't like my share of fast paced gaming, but, generally when I play my mind is elsewhere.

I started modifying weapons, and making my own for reason 2, to test out some of my ideas (luckily, most of my ideas were very basic ones that had already seen similar systems in the game, such as life steal and slowing - not to say that they are boring to use, but, they're intended to be balanced and useful, rather than different and situational), and for a third reason - I want to try and balance out some weapons and classes myself. I have a lot of fun playing with pre-existing balance, so this is perfect.

Progress:

First off, I made two weapons that Valve has had in the works for some time now - the Heavy's Gloves of Running Urgently (GRU), that are supposed to counter the Heavy's poor mobility even when outside battle, at the cost of a constant health drain. I like these a lot because they are extremely well thought out, and they don't change game balance when fighting too much. The Heavy merely doesn't take 3 minutes to get to the battlefield anymore. An interesting part of the weapon is the health drain, as, this makes the Heavy a great Medic buddy when running to the battle field, further strengthening their synergy. If Valve made all unlock like this one, I would be in paradise.

The other Valve designed weapon is the Engineer's P.D.Q. - it's a wrench that builds buildinggs much much faster (+150% speed... making a sentry go up in 4 seconds), but, it cannot upgrade the buildings it makes at all.

This build likely sets up a quick teleporter and dispenser, having other engis upgrade them, while the Engineer sets up offensive, dispensable sentries around the place to hinder the enemy as much as possible.

I love the offensive Engineer style, so I really hope this one makes it into the next update. Likewise, if Valve made all of their unlocks like this, heaven.

After these, I started making my own weapons.

First off, was a Syringe Gun for the Medic that builds uber with each hit. The tradeoffs are that it fires far slower (otherwise it would build an uber every 2 minutes just with random spam), it deals very little damage (it's much harder to defend yourself), and, it totally nullifies the Medic's natural health regen.

This highlights the risk vs. reward nature of the Medic - you can take the Blutsauger or Syringe Gun that have better survivability - or you can go for the gun that, with some use, will get you those last few drops of Uber, but, if you're caught in a bad situation, can't help you.

I also made the weapon less powerful in combat so that there are no big issues with Battle Medics trying to gun down the enemy team for an uber, rather than heal.

The 2nd change I made was to the Pyro's Fire Axe. It is currently underused in play, due to the strength of the Axtinguisher - so I added 14.5% movement speed to it when drawn. This aims primarily to solve the poor movement issues of the Pyro, which keep him out of competitive play (not that this unlock will make him viable) - but also, to make the Fire Axe a good choice.

This pure buff is balanced by the fact that the Pyro must be holding his Melee (sacrificing most offensive power) to get the buff, meaning that like the GRU, it will not affect combat too much. It may be harder to run from him, but, with the Airblast, and his average running speed, chances are you weren't really going to without killing him anyway. The melee makes it easier to kill him.

Still, I may nerf this if necessary after further thought.

The final unlock I made today was an additional Pistol for the Scout. This Pistol has a 66% chance of slowing the enemy, but gives up 25% of its damage, and fires slower as the trade-off. This makes the Pistol ideal for catching up to someone, but less amazing in combat situations.

I thought up this unlock because I was not satisfied with the Bonk Drink that the Scout got for his update.

I wanted the Scout to get an unlock that slowed the enemy, as the Scout is the optimal class to take advantage of it. The Scout can catch up to an enemy, and, as his weapons are effective in close range - he can deal a lot of damage through this. The slowing effect also compliments the annoying nature of the Scout, which Valve tried to capture in his update with the Stuns and Knockback.

By contrast, the original slowing weapon was given to the Heavy, who, while he needs to keep his enemies close to him, is in much less a position to take advantage of the trait.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to using this one if I ever get the chance - I think it'll be useful and a lot of fun.

Anyway, I'm off to bed, just thought I'd type up the report.

I have a few more ideas to make before work tomorrow - wish me luck.

Goodnight,