New Community Robots with Soldier Robot Standardization

Heavy Is GPS
PROJECT LEAD
October 22, 2022

Robot Balance

Buffs

  • Skilltron & Saxtron H4l3

    • Changed:
      • Lowered cost per robot from 2 to 1
      • As they are not that universally good, lowering the cost should make them more used when they are not as big of an investment. Seeing as most players picks the Nuker robot as it's the most affordable one

  • Shounic

    • Removed:
      • -20% damage penalty vs players
      • Shounic remains one of the harder robots to use due to his gimmic, lowering the damage penalty will increase his overall kill power to be the same of a soldier per rocket

  • Dr GrordBot

    • Changed:
      • Damage penalty vs players from -25% to +25% damage bonus vs players
      • GrordBot was hardly ever used, now he will be able to do more damage with charged shots and be more of a sentry disabler and just better damage in general

  • Buff Bot, Backup, Cloaker, Captain Conch

    • Changed:
      • Increased health from 2000 to 3800
      • Set move speed penalty to -50%
      • Set clip size bonus from +3 to +5
      • Increased damage penalty vs buildings from -25% to -50%
      • Increased reload speed penalty from -25% to -100% slower
      • Changed category from Support to Rocket
      • All soldiers now follow the same standardization with Move speed and rocket launcher power to reflect that of Icebear, they should now be better on their own and not 100% relying on just buffing teammates. Putting them as Rocket type instead of Support is more fitting now and easier to find for new players

  • Captain Conch renamed to Capitan Concho

    • Removed:
      • Half Zatoichi
    • Changed:
      • Cosmetics to be a Sombrero and Poncho
    • Captain Concho was in need of a rework with the standardization of the other soldier buff bots thus his half Zatoichi has been made a new robot called Shogun in style with the SamurAI robot disruptor

  • All non-melee snipers

    • Increased health from 1250 to 2000
    • Reduced move speed penalty from -50% to -10%
    • Increased jump height from -20% to +90% Snipers remain one of the hardest robot to play due to the difficulty in getting value from your shots compared to other robots, the increase in health and move speed will allow them to tank more damage while taking the time to scope in to shoot. The jump height will allow them to better reach good positions to put on more pressure of the humans. The health pool was too low, making it very easy for a single ambassador spy to shut down a sniper by themselves

  • Carbine Cassidy

    • Changed:
      • Reduced scope move speed to normal sniper The ability to move at full speed while scoped didn't feel too good, he now is the only robot able to move while scoped

  • Dreysidel

    • Added:
      • 0.5 second faster arm time Dreysidel remained pretty high skill to be used compared to damage output, the lower arm time should make him better at securing more kills more easily when pressured

  • Roboknight

    • Changed
      • Reduced chare time increase bonus from +1000% to +500%
      • While this may look like a nerf, this means you can more easily to shield bashes with higher damage, as the long charge wasn't really all that usefuL

  • Big Joey

    • Added:
      • Overheat Mechanic:
        • Weapon becomes more accurate up to 75%
        • Overheat decays quickly when not firing
        • Overheat decays while revved
        • Reaching 100% will disable the minigun for 3 seconds
    • Big Joey remained a slightly worse HiGPS robot, with this, you get a gimmick to work on, and you can put on more mid range pressure, the pauses needed to keep the accuracy bonus gives the user something to manage, while M1 still works just fine, the overheat mechanic gives more counter play for humans if the Big Joey robot user messes up their overheat management

  • Gotham Bat Droid

    • Changed:
      • Increased move speed bonus from +25% to +30%
      • Upping the move speed this little caps the speed at max move speed at 520H/U, making him a good stalling choice if the robots are needing to be somewhere quick at the objective

  • Executer

    • Changed:
      • Reduced move speed penalty from -50% to -35%
      • While being the most fair tank, he sees very little use, upping the move speed should make him more viable as a tank in general

  • Bearded Expense

    • Changed:
      • Increased base movement speed from -50% to -30% (stacks with gru)
      • Reduced taunt time for leap from 3.35 to 2.3 seconds
      • Removed: 10 second speed bonus on hit & kill
      • The increase in move speed brings Bearded to the same speed as if he had the speed bonus. With the changes and evolution of other Tanks, he needed a tweak and a buff. The removal of the speed is make him more consistent to play as, as he's not as reliant to get the first hit to begin to snowball

  • Quickler

    • Changed:
      • Increased clip size from 4 to 8
      • Quickler is a lot harder to use than artiller, but with higher clip, his potential damage output is doubled per volley

  • Lazy Purple

    • Added:
      • On Rocket Jump: Gain minicrits for 3 seconds
      • Lazy Purple remained a worse Elmaxo, with this new mechanic you can mini-crit whenver you jump, further adding to the disruption. The killpower is high, but the sustain is not as he will take self and fall damage each time

Nerfs

  • Sergeant Whips

    • Changed:
      • Is now a Paid robot
        • Whips is a really strong melee support bot, instead of nerfing him, he's still as good, except he's expensive and is can be used way less in a game

  • Icebear

    • Changed:
      • Increased damage penalty against buldings from -35% to -50%
      • Icebear being a bit too easy to use against sentries while being free, this should change too many interractions, but increase the commitment he does to buildings

  • Artillery

    • Changed:
      • Increased reload penalty from -50% to -150% slower
      • Artillery remained a very easy go to robot to do a lot of damage reliably fairly easy. This was a bit too good compared to other robot options, while his burst fire is the same, the time between volleys have been more than doubled to give more time for counterplay from the humans in terms of positioning and pressure

  • Necromancer

    • Changed:
      • Spell from Skeletons to Bats
      • Skeletons requires a nav map for each map, and since we only play custom maps and those aren't natively included would make it not work unless the server owners specificially created navs for the custom maps, so the skill has been moved to something that requires some skill to use and isn't AI controlled, the bats still fits the theme of the robot

  • Corporal Crocket -> Commander Crocket

    • Changed:
      • Type from Boss to MK II
      • Rocket Launcher to High Roller Skin
      • Uses standardized Robot Soldier Rocket Launcher stats
      • Increased cost from 2.5 to 3 per robot
      • As we already had a soldier boss with crit rockets this one felt redundant and underused, and will serve it's purpose better as the better buff bot, but remains the most expensive

  • Gotham Protector

    • Changed:
      • Updated menun description to more accurately explain the robot

  • Sergeant Crits -> General Crits

    • Added:
      • Classified Coif Cosmetic
    • The name needed an update to indicate power, and he also needed more swag wear

New Robots

Shogun

  • Class: Shogun

  • Role: Disruptor

  • Sub-Role: Melee

  • HP: 2000

  • Move speed: +20%

  • Weapon

  • Half-Zatoichi

    • +25% damage vs players
    • On Kill: Gain 10% of base health on kill
    • On Hit: 6 second speed boost

  • Cost: Free

  • Designed by: HiGPS

  • Shogun is a split from the Captain Conch half-zatoichi playstyle, which wasn't really used, and with the standardization of the buff banner robots, it didn't make sense that the concheror had a half-zatoichi while the others did not have a melee. He serves as the counterpart to the SamurAI demo

Bread Virus

  • Class: Heavy

  • Role: Tank

  • Sub-Role: Melee

  • HP: 5000

  • Move speed: -20%

  • Weapon

    • The Bread Bite
      • +10% damage vs players
      • +25% faster attack speed
      • On Kill: Heals 200 HP
      • -50% damage vs buildings
      • On Hit: Spawns mad milk jar near target

  • Cost: Free

  • Idea submitted by: Ham

  • This tank was added as a support tank to add more variety among tanks

Uber Machine

  • Class: Medic

  • Role: Healer

  • Sub-Role: Melee

  • HP: 2500

  • Move speed: +25%

  • Weapon

    • Ubersaw
      • +30% damage bonus
      • -25% slower attack speed
      • On Hit: Gain 30% uber
      • On Teammate hit: Heal 80 HP & Gain 5% uber
      • Ability:
        • At 100% activate uber
        • Uber stays active until drained
        • On Teammate Hit while uber: Apply uber to teammate for the same duration as you have uber left

  • Cost: Paid, 1 coin per robot

  • Idea submitted by: Ham

  • This is an attempt at a hybrid melee healer robot, where you alternate between hitting enemies and teammates. This robot can solo uber chain, so a pyro is needed to deny this robot from doing infinite damage and being permanently ubered. The uber drain compared to uber gain on hit is tweaked so the medic has some time to hit different targets to keep it going.

Laugh Extractor

  • Class: Pyro
  • Role: Damage
  • Sub-Role: Flames
  • HP: 3000
  • Move speed: -50%
  • Weapon
    • Flamethrower
      • +150% damage bonus vs players
      • -65% damage vs buildings
      • +500% flame spread degree
      • 3450 Flame speed
      • -50% slower airblast refire time
    • Ability:
      • Requires 5 kills to build
      • Activated by pressing reload or special attack
      • Scares nearby players for 3 seconds within 500 hammer units
  • Cost: Free
  • Idea submitted by: Ham
  • Players can use this robot when a large group of humans is the problem, making it a better crowd control pyro

Rocketman

  • Class: Pyro
  • Role: Damage
  • Sub-Role: Flames
  • HP: 3000
  • Move speed: -35%
  • Weapon
    • Flamethrower
      • +175% damage bonus vs players
      • -65% damage vs buildings
      • +500% flame spread degree
      • 4140 Flame speed
      • +25% faster airblast refire time
  • Cost: Free
  • Idea submitted by: Moon G
  • Players would want to use this robot like a support / ambush robot, that will clear the area, this is because you will lose out on any other kinda secondary to deter humans from attacking you, but you come with default damage to quickly deal with the problem to your vicinity, in that they have less time to leave the area and or do damage to you. my theory is that this is kinda act like the BigJoey and HiGPS in how they only have small but innate differences and do we compare this robot to the other flamethrower pyros

Hacked Slasher

  • Class: Demoman
  • Role: Tank
  • Sub-Role: Melee
  • HP: 6000
  • Move speed: -30%
  • Weapon
    • Claidheamohmor & Tide Turner
      • +40% damage bonus vs players
      • -25% damage vs buildings
      • On Kill: Refill charge meter 100%
      • On Kill: Heal 400 HP
      • +1400% longer charge time
      • +100% larger no charge impact range
      • +400% impact damage bonus
      • +400% increased turn control
      • No additional resistances from shield
      • Charge is slow (350HU)
  • Cost: Paid, 1 coins per robot
  • Idea submitted by: Pizza Pasta
  • Players will use this bot for flanking and chasing, as it would be faster than PanCop but less able to take head-on fights due to a smaller health pool. While charging, this robot’s Tide Turner should lead to it's charge meter slightly decreasing when taking damage, giving humans a means to slow it's higher mobility. It also has a normal jump and slower charge compared to the other knights, making it harder for it to trimp and get crazy mobility.

Jouleson

  • Class: Sniper
  • Role: Tank
  • Sub-Role: Melee
  • HP: 5250
  • Move speed: -30%
  • Weapon

    • Tribalmans Shiv

      • +65% faster attack speed
      • -25% damage done
      • On Hit: Bleed for 12 seconds
      • On Hit: Gain 1 second speed boost
      • On Hit: Heal 15 HP
      • On Kill: Heal 150 HP
      • -75% damage vs buildings

    • Ability:

      • Invisibility Spell - 20 second cooldown
  • Cost: Paid, 1 coins per robot
  • Idea submitted by: Pizza Pasta
  • This tank would have a flank playstyle rather than engaging enemies head-on. Players will use the invisibility spell to get to an area near the humans before attacking. The speed boost lets players keep up with targets and also lets them bounce between multiple targets. The health from bleed rewards players for attacking multiple targets, keeping enemies distracted for much longer

Mini-Medic

  • Class: Medic
  • Role: Healer
  • Sub-Role: Melee
  • HP: 500
  • Move speed: +75%
  • Weapon
    • Medigun
      • Spawns with 100% uber
  • Cost: Paid, 1 coin per robot
  • Design: HiGPS
  • This robot is mighty fast, small, but very fragile. This robot is designed a panic option for robots where they need to reach the objective quickly and stall. Uber on robot is fairly strong so we'll see how this one plays as the medigun does not heal the same rate as the other giant does. He can still taunt to overheal himself

Sensor Armstrong

  • Class: Heavy
  • Role: Tank
  • Sub-Role: Melee
  • HP: 6500
  • Move speed: Normal Heavy Speed
  • Weapon
    • Fists
      • +23% damage bonus (80 damage a hit)
    • Ability: Nanobots
      • Meter filled by doing 800 damage to players
      • Press Reload or Special Attack to active
        • On Activation:
        • 5 seconds of uber and heal 151 HP
        • -50% move speed
  • Cost: Paid, 2.5 coins per robot
  • Idea submitted by: Ham
  • This is to add more variety to the paid Tank pool. The higher cost is due to his easy sentry destruction potential