Adds a status effect to try to mitigate sniper stacking

[ivanmixo]

About The Pull Request

Basically the way this works is:

• Xeno gets hit with a projectile from a sniper rifle
• Xeno gets a hidden status effect applied that will make all subsequent impacting sniper rounds do 10% of their original damage for the duration of the firing gun's fire_delay duration (-1 to make shots on "cooldown" not take the 90% damage malus)

To illustrate, lets say a marksman round from a DMR-37 hits a crusher. The crusher will gain the status effect on impact, and while she has the status effect lets say another sniper round hits her. This subsequent round will only do 10% of the damage it would usually do. After the original DMR-37's fire delay has passed the status effect will have worn off and the crusher will once again be open to take full damage from any further sniper rounds.

Note however that all sunder, CC, shatter and what have you from the subsequent rounds will still apply, so it isn't totally worthless to still fire your shot, although you'll want to avoid shooting at targets other marines are firing at to maximize damage.

Current:

dreamseeker_8o6bcurOH5.mp4

With proposed changes:

dreamseeker_swOkdYhOJt.mp4

Single DMR firing for reference

dreamseeker_KJQwfaO3Cu.mp4

I've also renamed the flag previously named AMMO_SNIPER to something more appropriate.

Why It's Good For The Game

Sniper stacking has long been an issue, killing xenos from offscreen within possibly less than a second. While this may require some coordination I'd wager it's a bit too much reward to be able to instakill anything that comes on your screen just because you got some buddies to stack with you. This same logic doesn't apply to other guns because the xeno can clearly see the amount of marines they'll be engaging with and therefore able to avoid the fight altogether until they can find a better moment to strike.

This should hopefully help alleviate some of the issues with offscreen gameplay that has been occurring lately by limiting its effectiveness while also not gimping solo snipers since they don't pose that large an issue. If this proves to be too severe or too lax for whatever reason, we can just adjust the numbers.

Changelog

🆑
balance: Made some changes to curb stacking multiple snipers, check the PR for a more verbose explanation
/:cl:

[FosterGrime-Heymynameslouie]

10% of og damage only being applies seems a little bit too harsh? most I see sniper stacking is just 1 to 2 dudes shooting the same target and given how most xeno interaction have them pop in and out and how walls/resinwalls/map setups usually happens youll only ever have a single target at a time and only dealing 10% and what usually is your only target at the time seems a bit too harsh. Maybe like 20 or 25 would be alot more cooler?

I do know the intent of the pr is to mitigate like, 5 to 6 guys targetting the same xeno and it works well on that regard but it seems to disproportionately hurt small scale stacking of 1 to 2 (maybe 3?).

Probably a cop out but I think having shots progressively have lower effectiveness overtime seems like a better alternative than a flat percentage. Like the first shot and the shoots from the same shooter will always be a 100% effective but subsequent shots from sniper rifles from different people get progressively less and less effective? Seems counterintuitive but I think its worth a shot given how offscreens are generally unfun to fight against.

cool pr

[Kuro020]

like the idea, numbers might need tweaks, but well see!

[Pariah919]

10% is pretty brutal. Should do like 20%.

[SimplySmiley123]

Not sure hidden status effects are good, imagine someone who isn't constantly diving into github trying to figure out why his gun is suddenly gimped out of the blue for no visible reason.

Plus this would make marines tear each other apart because now that one guy with a DMR with no care about coordination or anything would gimp every other marine trying to use marksman guns.

[Technical-l]

10% seems really rough and i'd imagine the hidden status effect to be really annoying (especially for new players or those who don't follow updates). Donno the best way to do it but having some in-game way of letting people know of this mechanic would be cool

[DrAmazing343]

ided

as someone else said, we don't have the 2x2 shoulder fire sniper cubes rolling out to the field and the "coordinated" effect of sniper stacks is mostly due to the chokepoint nature of xeno gameplay. this is going to make sniping extraordinarily unrewarding unless you are literally the only sniper firing at a target... because xenos need to be handheld even harder?

like, I know I'm shitposting a little, but seeing dchat mald over nothing really does christen this as an ided that I think has no place in the current tgmc.

[iforgotmeword]

just something i thought of something
this shouldn't effect if the xeno is on screen
the status effect should only be when they are shot off screen

or at least have a reduced effect

[zzurge]

ivan the offscreen assassin PR man

[DorfGuy1]

This is a horrible idea. Consider the overall balance. You might be able to snipe down a boiler or a floaty boi in a few seconds, if everyone is sweating and coordinating in discord or some shit, but I doubt it. Plus, do xenos really need yet more buffs?