Zandronum

Hey guys. There's a fairly popular server running Shotgun Frenzy 1.4 that recently some of us have been chiming in on possible balance fixes. I do not own this server but I thought it'd be helpful if I made a thread for those of us who do play on it (and for the server admin) to organize changes / fixes for this balance patch and for topics related to his server itself.

Shotgun Frenzy 1.4 + Balance

Currently, I've noticed the following changes:
[spoiler]Buffs:
All explosive upgrades improved - the flames deal much more damage than before.
Rocket Launcher seems to deal more base damage. RL Spread seems more valuable now. Exploder rockets extreme boost in power.
Flamer significantly improved and also gains the extra damage from the "flame" buff.
BFG ball changed into a projectile that passes through enemies in a fairly thick ball. It's use has improved significantly.

Nerfs:
Dualshot Razor upgrade damage reduced.

Other:
A couple naughty exploits were fixed.[/spoiler]



Comments on this patch
[spoiler]BOOMSTICK - Nice to see explosive round weapons get a boost in power, but explosive boomstick is far too useful for how quickly it can be obtained. Perhaps less flames come out of each shot?

QUADSHOT - As a result of the explosive buff, Quadshotgun is far more useful than it was previously. However, it still suffers innate ammo problems that force players to buy ammo dispensers. Super shotgun also receives the problem only slightly less. I understand that the point was to trade ammo for more effectiveness, but in relation to other upgraded weapons it loses it's place. My Suggestion: Add an increase to max shell count. The ammo consumption stays the same, but allows a slightly longer battle trip than previously, and allows it to match up with better relationally to the other upgraded weapons.

ROCKET LAUNCHER - Exploder is extremely overpowered. Needs a significant damage nerf; just not as little damage as it used to deal. I like the radius on it, but as of now it deals far too much and is an "instant win" gun.

DUALSHOT - Razorblades now deal less damage, but this weapon is still on the overpowered side. I would half the damage output of each blade fired. It still has the incredible ability of penetrating huge lines of demons. If half seems too drastic, then 3/4ths its current damage. It needs a fairly firm slap with the nerf stick though.

FLAMER AND BFG - They finally deserve to be called 'Super Weapons'. However, they're still extremely easy to afford mid way through the game once players get their main weapons upgraded. I like the damage Flamer deals, but I think it has too much sustain. Consider doubling the ammo usage of it so that you can't permanently stay in the fray (I was able to do this picking up multiple ammo refreshes from kills). Also, for both Flamer and BFG I think a modest price increase of 5000 and 2500 credits respectively is well within fair given that more weapons are useful now and credit generation isn't quite as difficult at it once was.[/spoiler]

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Thanks t3hplayer for trying your hand at breathing some new life into the mod through some interesting balance changes! I seriously enjoy the glance given to many weapons that weren't very useful or atleast cost effective.

Also I hope this forum is fine for this thread as this topic goes over both t3hplayer's unofficial Shotgun Frenzy patch AND discussion about his server.

Does the naughty exploits also cover getting tankgun as infantry?

I do like all these changes, I am no real fan of sfrenzy, but it is fun to play once in a while, and boomshot was heavily underpowered.

it covers the spectator exploit, and the assault pack b.shot exploit (both infinite credit exploits).

I don't know about the tankgun one.

I forgot the details, but you can drop the tankgun somehow, and then you can go back to the hanger.
Then you go and pick up the invisible tankgun, and just blast away.
I believe this could be fixed by making the pickup item destroy itself on spawn.

I think the tank gun exploit is fixed too. I'd only ever seen one person do it previously, though, anyway.

There are also some other fixes coming, including:

- Add a cool down of a few seconds when the commander creates turrets and other buildables. Keeps people from trolling and breaking the server as easily.
- Make the BFG work like a real BFG. Originally the SF BFG just acted like a gigantic rocket launcher, probably due to Zandronum not supporting custom damage types for the BFG tendrils, which made it impossible to keep the BFG from damaging the core. I've found a work-around for this, however.
- Switch upgrade points cost for exploder / spreader on the rocket launcher
- Fix a bug where sometimes you join and you're not level 0
- Other random stuff

Also, is anyone interested in making new maps for SF? I think it's a great mod, and it'd be a blast to have some more SF maps.

Edit: Also, the server has weapon drop disabled, so that alone probably prevents the mech gun exploit

I got a lot of balls in the air at the moment, so I will hold off from starting on mapping for SF, as I will have to keep up with the quality og the current maps and learn how they are made.

I might do something in the future, though first I want to ask this, for anyone who reads this thread and want to make a map:
What is the amount of "special content" you think if appropiate for a map?
By that I mean things such as limited use death traps, like there are on some maps.
Should there be fancy things that do other kind of stuff on the map such as randomisers with a parcent chance or maybe combination of several?

Pretty much anything imagineable, so where is your margain for how much this should fill in the maps?

Resurrecting this thread. My intention is to post periodic updates about what's changed in the mod. I'll start with all the changes I can recall so far, which are already done:

• Fixed numerous money exploits
• Added server variable "sf_creditcorrection" which is used to control how much credit is added for new players joining later in the game. Negative values reduce the amount, positive values increase it.
• Fixed explosive shot -- wasn't working previously due to Zandronum bug
• Reduced dual-shot razor damage
• Increased flamer and BFG damage
• BFG now works like a real BFG instead of a large explosive projectile
• Modified elevators in sf* maps so that they constantly run -- can't be blocked by players
• Added a cooldown to turret placement by the commander -- makes it harder to place enough turrets to break the server
• Switched upgrade cost on rocket launcher upgrades -- in practice, the cheaper upgrade was more useful than the more expensive one

Planned changes for upcoming versions:

• Demonic core will be invulnerable until either the last wave of enemies has been reached, or enemies have destroyed all batteries
• Modifying boss monster in sf05 -- way too easy to stunlock and kill
• Modify super weapons (flamer and BFG) so that they start off weaker and have upgrades -- right now, the game is pretty much over as soon as someone gets a super weapon, hopefully this will help

Comments welcome

duke 3d wrote: Why there is no spider mastermind?

I'm not one of the original developers for Shotgun Frenzy, so I can't really say for sure. For whatever reason, the original developers decided to not have Arachnotrons or Spider Masterminds as part of the waves in any level.

I'm not opposed to tweaking the waves, though. As I mentioned, the next patch will likely have the guardians in SF05 altered. It might be interesting to have Spider Masterminds or Arachnotrons spawn sometimes as well. I'll look into it in the future.