RE: Balance — update 0.23.0 | News | Caliber is a team-based online game

Table of contents:

Ammo Consolidation
Operators Balance Changes

March 14, 2024

RE: Balance — update 0.23.0

Hello, everyone!

This RE: Balance features: automatic ammo consolidation, Bastion and Tibet’s buffs, improvements to Shersheret’s Chain ability, and more.

You can find the long and the short of it in the video. This article provides a deep dive with some number crunching and game designer’s comments.

AMMO CONSOLIDATION

At the moment, you can find yourself having to fight with your magazine half-empty, the only solution being to scramble for an Ammo box.

In version 0.23.0, this problem will be solved with automatic ammo consolidation.

At the start of a new round, or upon respawning, partially empty magazines will be automatically refilled using ammo from other partially empty magazines.

OPERATOR BALANCE CHANGES

SSO

Recon Drone ability:

Increased the drone’s collision. It will now be easier to hit.
Decreased ability activation cost from 40 to 70 SP.

Game designer’s comment: the collision has been increased to make destroying the drone more practical, as it’s currently pretty hard to hit. The ability activation cost has been decreased, since stamina isn’t passively restored while the ability is active.

22 SpN

Banner ability:

Increased revival time from 5 to 8 seconds.

Game designer’s comment: Kit is too versatile of an operator, as his ability allows him to revive his allies indefinitely and return fire at the same time—something that the other Medics cannot do. Thus, we decided to leave his «passive» revival in, but increase its duration instead.

GROM

Emergency Care ability:

Added the ability to plant up to three field hospitals at a time.
Decreased base ability cooldown from 28 to 20 seconds.
Increased base medication reserves from 16 to 20.

Game designer’s comment: currently, playing as Mikołaj can be inconvenient, as you have to stay close to the planted field hospital. Mikołaj cannot effectively heal allies at different points, which puts him at a disadvantage compared to Medics with AoE healing abilities. These changes will solve this problem and make Mikołaj more useful in all modes.

SEAL

Increased base HP from 60 to 70.

Injection ability:

Applying the ability to a teammate with full HP will now preserve the healing effect (without healing above maximum HP). Previously, the ability only increased an ally’s Movement Speed.

Game designer’s comment: using the ability on an ally with full health now has a point. Allies can head into battle and, if hit, get instantly healed as long as Monk’s ability is active.

Injection ability:

Added the new upgrade #11-3: "Increases the amount of HP restored by the ability. Healing: +15 HP. Cooldown: 3 seconds."

Game designer’s comment: Monk isn’t very popular in the PvE modes right now, since his healing potential is not quite as high as most other Medics. The new upgrade is going to make Injection healing more effective.

CST

Increased base HP by 10.

Game designer’s comment: even though Fortress is quite similar to an Assault operator with her 30-round magazine, she’s still a support, but currently lacks the toughness of other members of her class.

Buddy special gear:

Increased revival time for allies from 5 to 8 seconds (upgrade #9-1).

Game designer’s comment: as is the case with Kit, Buddy’s passive revival speed gives him too big of an advantage. Moreover, it’s not always possible to destroy Buddy while he is reviving an ally. There will be more time to do so now.

Buddy special gear:

Added special gear restoration after respawning.

Game designer’s comment: this change should make Threshold and Annihilation more comfortable to play.

RAID

Reflect ability:

Increased base ability duration from 12 to 16 seconds. The ability no longer inflicts the Slowed effect on Bastion.
Upgrade #4-1 now adds +10% of reflected damage. Previously Increased duration of the ability by 4 seconds.
Decreased base stamina required for sprint from 20 to 16 SP.
Upgrade #I9-1: "Increases damage reflection of the shield while the ability lasts. Reflected damage: +10%": added an additional bonus that lowers the ability cost by 15 SP.
Added upgrade #9-2: "Increases damage reflection of the shield while the ability lasts. The operator cannot move, and ability duration is decreased. Reflected damage: +40%. Ability duration: −14 seconds."

Game designer’s comment: upgrade #9-2 significantly increases reflected damage while the ability lasts, but completely immobilizes the operator.

Reflect ability:

Added upgrade #9-3: "Decreases damage reflection of the shield while the ability lasts. Damage from incoming bullets and explosions is lowered by 60%. Movement speed is increased by 30%. Reflected damage: −40%. Ability duration: −6 seconds."

Game designer’s comment: upgrade #9-3 significantly increases defense and movement speed, but takes away the ability to return a lot of damage while the ability lasts.

Modified upgrade #10-2:

Current: "Reduced strength of the Slowed negative effect applied to the operator when using the ability. Operator slowdown: −15%."
Version 0.23.0: "Increased ammo. Ammo: +1 magazine."

Game designer’s comment: since there is no slowdown while the ability is active anymore, the upgrade has been replaced with a new one that improves Bastion’s stats instead.

CX-200 TL special gear: fixed a bug that caused the actual stamina recovery to be lower than listed in the description.

NESHER

Chain ability:

Chain no longer breaks the moment an obstacle appears between the operators. The ability stops working when an operator stays behind an obstacle for more than one second.

Game designer’s comment: right now, the Chain stops immediately if the target of Shersheret’s ability rounds a corner or moves behind an obstacle. This happens especially often in cases when the target’s movement speed is higher than the Medic’s. We have solved this issue as well.

Chain ability:

Shersheret’s movement speed becomes equal to her target’s while the ability is active.

ARYSTAN

KS-23M special gear:

The special gear no longer inflicts the Stunned effect on enemies.
It now applies the Suppressed, Slowed, and Disoriented effects. Effect duration: 4 seconds.
Base ammo increased from 3 to 5 rd.

Game designer's comment: currently, Tibet's only playstyle in PvP modes involves the Stunned effect. The Stunned effect is a very powerful one that leaves no chance for enemies that get hit with it. But if Tibet runs out of special gear charges, his effectiveness drops. We decided to nerf the special gear, but buff the operator's ability and pistol.

Obstruction ability:

Increased the shield’s base durability by 15.
Upgrades #12-1, 12-2, and 12-3 now apply bonuses even without any nearby allies.

Game designer's comment: currently, the level 12 upgrades are not very effective if there are no allies nearby. We decided to fix this and change two of the upgrades as well.

Upgrade #12-2: "Increases damage dealt by the operator by 15% while the ability lasts.": added an additional bonus that lowers the damage from incoming bullets and explosions by 15%.
Upgrade #12-3: "Special trait: when activating the ability, the operator becomes Shielded and loses all negative effects except Marked." This upgrade previously made the operator Shielded and restored 200 SP.
CZ-75 primary weapon:

Increased armor penetration from 40% to 50%.
Base ammo increased by +1 magazine.
Increased damage dealt by body/headshots: 19/32 to 21/35.
Increased rate of fire: 6 to 6.5.
CZ-75 and Vant: increased effective range of fire.

Game designer's comment: this weapon is currently far too weak, only working well when paired with the Stunned effect. Tibet doesn't have the Stunned effect anymore, so we have improved the weapon's stats.

Decreased base stamina required for sprint from 14 to 11 SP.

SSO RB

Foxhole ability:

Now, the operator can move while inflicted with the Slowed effect (70%).
Decreased base stamina required for sprint from 14 to 11 SP.

Suture ability:

Increased based healing from 23 to 27 HP.
Increased based self-healing from 23 to 25 HP.
Increased ability’s base effective range from 3 to 4 m.

Primary weapon body damage increased by +1.

JIAOLONG

Xigou special gear:

Added special gear restoration after respawning.

Game designer’s comment: this change should make Threshold and Annihilation more comfortable to play.

Linear upgrade #5 "Ammo Replacement: slugs":

Decreased armor penetration from 60% to 50%.
Decreased damage dealt by body/headshots: 83/108 to 73/102.

Game designer’s comment: currently, Yíngzhōu’s slugs are too strong and his pellets are too weak. The slugs can defeat most Assaults in one headshot. We have nerfed the slugs and buffed the pellets.

Primary weapon (without linear upgrade #5):

Increased effective range of pellets.
Increased stability of pellets.

Electromagnetic Field Generator ability:

Decreased incoming damage from 40% to 20%.

Game designer’s comment: currently, Yíngzhōu’s special gear provides too big of an advantage not just to the operator himself, but to his allies as well.

Healing Plate ability:

The ability can now be used on incapacitated teammates.
Bots no longer prioritize attacking operators with healing plates.

Primary weapon body/head damage increased: 14/28 to 16/30.

BOPE

Decreased base HP from 100 to 85.

Game designer’s comment: Barreira is well-equipped and has a shield, which makes him too dangerous and resilient for a cross-class fighter.