Melee multiattack **still** OP, plz nerf

[AmkG]

Not sure if you saw this comment here: https://github.com/jwvhewitt/gearhead-caramel/issues/168#issuecomment-674487654

Multiattack is still too OP. I have a lance of two Secutors (whose Arena Cannons are fairly OP themselves, which suggests to me we need to boost up Burst costing even more: the Daum and Secutor Burst weapons are unfairly cheap for the amount of damage they spit out) and a Musketeer. Prior to me getting a Gunslinger Daum from salvage, I was working a modified Wolfram mecha (put the Heavy Actuators 5 in the arm with the Pickaxe, remove the Armor 5 from that arm, replace it with the Armor 2 from the cockpit (which is in the fairly well-armored Torso so it's an OK risk to take)), and if I had the Secutors stand back and shoot their Arena cannons they had about the same performance that Wolfram mecha (which I might add had just the stock equipment plus 2x Lightened Wheels 6C, which are very cheap). The Secutors get much better performance if I have them dive in and melee with their Mecha Wreckers.

They just dive in and one-shot everyone, with little to no risk from counterattacks.

Charge is even more ridiculously OP now as well, being a melee attack after all.

My char has 18 Reflexes and 18 Speed, and had Mecha Fighting +4 at the start (is at +7 now). Yes, it's a dedicated-melee char, but still. My sense is that melee multiattack is too OP to the point that getting an army of Haihos with a single very powerful melee weapon each (Wrecking Ball, for example, I imagine would get similar performance to Mecha Wreckers) and with one arm removed (to cut down on weight while evading incoming fire) might be the best early-to-midgame strategy.

[jwvhewitt]

I have toned it down again, and upped the cost, mass, and volume modifiers for Flail. I wonder if damage in general is too high in comparison to health? I think the way things are currently tuned, weapons do more damage compared to health than they did in previous GearHead games. A Damage 3 weapon, which is pretty common for main armaments, is capable of one-shotting enemies pretty regularly with good skill. Damage 4 and 5 weapons do one-shot kills even more dependably. It might be a good idea to return to GH1/GH2 damage levels where a regular hit isn't necessarily catastrophic but a high hit roll can get bonus damage (currently no such thing as a critical hit).

[AmkG]

That might be true --- I sometimes get surprises where my full-health mecha is one-shotted, and the mobility/armor tradeoff is a hard one to balance on my own mecha. How about doubling all healthbars? That's a simple solution to scale down damage. Though that makes the game harder since you have more enemies than allies in general, so they get more benefit from increased healthbars. On the other hand, it makes non-damaging actions like EW, skills, and utility attribs like Ignites Ammo and Drains Power more favorable in relation to raw damage.

Also, consider instead of a single d6 roll per damage statpoint, use a 2d3 roll, which reduces the extremes (also adjust Charge from a d8 to a 2d4). Sometimes an attack hits and whiffs too often as well, making the game a bit too chancy, so going for a more reliable distribution might work better.

[AmkG]

The increase in health certainly makes melee feel better, so far. It also represents a fairly large drop in ranged effectiveness as well. This means increase in usage of power and ammo, which is fine, I think.

It also makes the game a good bit harder, as predicted --- you have more enemies than allies, usually. You also run the risk of running out of ammo/power, with no way (that I know of) to disengage from combat --- I think you need to allow the lance to (try to) rush to the exit in combat mode and leave combat, and maybe also allow an immobilized mecha to self-destruct.