DevLog #1: Skill rebalancing

If you ever dipped a toe into game development, you know that testing is a core activity in the process. How else would you know if things work? During my latest bug-hunt, I was replaying a major portion of RUTHLESS:1 from the get-go, without developer tools I should say. While test-playing, I noticed something: For some reason, I barely used buffing skills at all. Why would that be? Turns out they drain way too much energy for the little effect they have, I mean 40 Energy (half the pool of some low-level early game mechs) for a measly 2% boost of a single stat? With the release of version 0.5.0, this will be a problem of the past and basic buff skills will only use 16 Energy, a cut of 60%, and provide a 5% boost to a stat, increasing their usefulness dramatically.

There will also be nerfs to some skills: Those that can be upgraded to use Double Shot or Triple Shot will see their damage reduced. Adding another shot without drawbacks, other than increasing energy usage is just too powerful, especially in the early game, essentially making these the only logical choice to pick as the first upgrades. In the future, Double Shot will only deal 80% of the base damage per shot (160% total) and Triple Shot will deal 64% of the base damage per shot (192% total). Of course, the required energy to use those skills will also be reduced.

I have some more skill balancing ready for you, but to see these, you will have to be patient ;)

This is it for now.

Greetings from Berlin

Alex

P.S.: Going forward, I want to turn this DevLog into a bi-weekly format to address issues requested by the community, as well as describing and showcasing topics I recently worked on to keep you excited for future updates.