Vampire vehicles

[pooty]

I have the Stirge Done, and changes to Chupa (no drain).

Question, should we display number of linkers in the HUD for the Purple beam vehicles? They don't link stack in terms of extra damage, but they DO participate in Link Chain, ie LinkTank being linked by Stirge being linking by LinkBadger means the LinkTank has 2 linkers, Stirge has 1 (which does nothing but heal it).

I think no, since that's another clue that linking that vehicle somehow "powers it up". Right now the Tick Scorp, Lamprey do not show it, nor does wraith or Odin. Vampire does because it has link stacking, but that's getting removed shortly.

[Super Sanka]

Vampire is strong because of teamwork, why remove that aspect?

[Enyo]

I have the Stirge Done, and changes to Chupa (no drain).

Question, should we display number of linkers in the HUD for the Purple beam vehicles? They don't link stack in terms of extra damage, but they DO participate in Link Chain, ie LinkTank being linked by Stirge being linking by LinkBadger means the LinkTank has 2 linkers, Stirge has 1 (which does nothing but heal it).

I think no, since that's another clue that linking that vehicle somehow "powers it up". Right now the Tick Scorp, Lamprey do not show it, nor does wraith or Odin. Vampire does because it has link stacking, but that's getting removed shortly.

That’s a little confusing… the Vampire definitely does extra damage from linking, at least it does on TorlanLinkerMadness. Are you removing all link stacking from the Vampire including the extra damage it does from linkers?

And what does that mean “no drain” on the Chupa? No more self healing? That was the impetus for calling it the Chupacabra. So, another Flyer nerf?

[pooty]

I propose we change vehicles that heal themselves.

1) They should all have purple beams like the Wraith.
2) They should not gain any link multiplier.

This means removing any link multiplier from vampire tank, chupa, and lamprey, and change Chupa's beam to be purple.

From Snarf's original post.

We've generally got Purple beams no link stacking (increased damage from linkers), and those Drain (damage done increases your health).
Green Beams, Link (like Link Gun) more linkers increases by some mulitiplier the Damage Output or node healing output).

Goal here is to make it consistent.
You see Green Beam, you get increasing benefit (Damage/Heal Output) from multiple linkers.
You see purple beam that will link, no benefit from multiple linkers, but it will damage enemy and heal you at the same time (Drain).

So this is to remove the confusion, inconsistency.

And what does that mean “no drain” on the Chupa? No more self healing? So, another Flyer nerf?

Yep. No Drain on the Chupa, still gets link stacking. Stirge gets Drain (self healing is something different meaning you can heal yourself without any other event), but no link stacking. So while its a nerf to the Chupa, on the bright side there is another link type flyer now available and I'll put that on most of the Randomizers.

Are you removing all link stacking from the Vampire including the extra damage it does from linkers?

Yes, And this would be a nerf on the Vampire as well. It shouldn't link stack. To give you an idea Vampire Beam with two linkers does ~400 pts/s to a vehicle, WHILE healing itself at 264 pts/sec. Yikes. Its fun.. but that's a bit much. (its normal damage/heal is 170/112) Think of when the Vampire plows in healing its self at 264+ pts/sec, then alt-fires in the middle..and then heals back from that while being linked. Its really powerful..and its not just on linker madness which does take all that to a higher level, but on other maps even with a linker or two its a beast.

And the Link Scorpion will have its drain removed.

[pooty]

So this is on the server

Chupa no more drain (damage to heal itself)
Same Weapons, Same Damage, Link Stacking
Gave it a bit more health.
Same Greenish skins.

Stirge (New)
Same Weapons as Chupa, Same Damage, but purple projectiles/beam, No Link Stacking, but has Drain.
The Drain to heal ratio, was increased from Chupa at 0.5, to 0.66 on the Stirge... so it heals itself faster from the Drain.
Stirge has distinctive skins, you won't confuse the two.

Right now I replaced the Chupa with Stirge on Nevermore-YEAH for testing. I'll add the new one to Randos when I get a chance. Going to fix the Vampire and maybe nerf the Lamprey a bit.

I think it'd be good on Linker Madness to have one of each... instead of two chupas...

[Enyo]

Chupa no more drain (damage to heal itself)
Same Weapons, Same Damage, Link Stacking
Gave it a bit more health.
Same Greenish skins.

Stirge (New)
Same Weapons as Chupa, Same Damage, but purple projectiles/beam, No Link Stacking, but has Drain.
The Drain to heal ratio, was increased from Chupa at 0.5, to 0.66 on the Stirge... so it heals itself faster from the Drain.
Stirge has distinctive skins, you won't confuse the two.

Right now I replaced the Chupa with Stirge on Nevermore-YEAH for testing. I'll add the new one to Randos when I get a chance. Going to fix the Vampire and maybe nerf the Lamprey a bit.

I think it'd be good on Linker Madness to have one of each... instead of two chupas...

Ok didn’t know about the Stirge, that’s fine and makes sense. Will have to try the new Chupa, hopefully the extra health helps keep it from being killed too easily.

[pooty]

hopefully the extra health helps keep it from being killed too easily.

350 pts. It can take a full Avirl or battery and a couple of SR and not die. I think of it now Chupa as more "defensive" and Stirge more offensive.

[pooty]

So the LinkVehicles are updated on server for Consistency.

LinkScorpion3 - No more Drain (damage to healing). Its still a fast, boosted LinkStacking scropion.

Tick is unchanged, it never stacked.

VampireTank - No more link stacking, reduced the vulnerability to fire slightly, increased its drain multiplier slightly. Removed HUD notification (its still a linker and participates in link train, but that lack of hud shows it isn't powering up from the link). On LinkerMadness though if vamp is in front with a gunner its still capable without link stacking of doing 350 pts/s, healing itself and if it has linkers healing it, going to be tough to kill. But its not going to zip, bam, erase like it did.. of course the HeavyLink Tank will, so it might be differing strategies on that one.

Lamprey - Increased delay between alt-fire by 0.5 seconds, reduced alt-fire damage by 25%, players 150, Vehicles 300. Keep in mind the damage reduces the farther away you are.. so right on top its 300 but if you half the damage radius away its only 150. And Damage radius is small. Playing with the bots it was noticable... the reduced damage also reduces its drain heal from the alt-fire... so this was nerfed a bit, too much? idk.

And let the players know: The better the vehicle the better its link. And vehicles with Green beams are always better than Link Gun.
The lamprey by itself is better than a link gun, but two link guns linked are better than that. The purple beams will add to the linker count for link stacking vehicles though.

Vampire is the odd duck, since its beam is better than two link guns linked, so if there's vampire tank and 2 linkers probabaly best let tank link on its own and the two link guns link up. Which kind of goes with don't link the purple beams unless you just want to heal that vehicle.

I also updated and loaded a bunch of randomizers with the new Stirge.

[YEAAAHHHHHHHHHH]

So in short:

If you link a purple-beamed link vehicle, you'll heal it but not boost its linking power.
If you link a green-beamed link vehicle, you'll heal it and boost its linking power.

Is that correct?

[pooty]

If you link a purple-beamed link vehicle, you'll heal it but not boost its linking power. CORRECT

If you link a green-beamed link vehicle, you'll heal it and boost its linking power. CORRECT, and most of the link tanks, badger, scorpion it also increase the damage of the other fire modes as well. So on the basic link tank the projectiles will be bigger and do more damage, lasers do more damage as well. All Green. So linking the link Vehicles = heal that vehicle, increased (multiplier) linking power and more damage to enemies.

And those with Driver based Purple beam can also be part of a link chain. Meaning LinkBadger > Stirge > LinkTank, the Link Tank sees 2 Linkers.
I am not sure if that applies to Wraith/Odin Turrets, they might need to be last, there's code needed to "participate" in a link chain and I don't think those turrets have it. Which I think is ok. So Wraith Turret > Link Scorpion > LinkTank will see 2 Linkers. But Link Scorp > Wraith (Turret) > Link Tank will only see one.

And it doesn't matter the configuration meaning it can be a straight line or multiple linkers each seperately linking.
This LinkBadger > Stirge > LinkTank and LinkBadger > Link Tank and Stirge > Link Tank both equal 2 linkers on Link Tank. In the second example both are healing the link tank where in the first LB is healing stirge, who is healing the link tank. So there say the Stirge is fully healed, and link tank is in front, probably better to link it seperately.