Makes ash walkers a little more reliant on age rituals, nerfs age benefits

[YakumoChen]

About The Pull Request

Lowers ashwalker species armour by a tick. Removes innate ash storm immunity. Ash storm immunity is now gained through the first age ritual instead of speed.

How This Contributes To The Skyrat Roleplay Experience

Ash walkers are really, really cracked after the whole ritual thing. Giving them a speed boost after 20 minutes is really bad for the game balance, species should not be innately faster without specific, hard to get items.

The innate armour with the age ritual also contributed to them being incredibly strong, to a lesser extent.

They didn't receive any nerfs after they're already buffed on skyrat, the rituals have been nothing but a pure buff for them. This should tone them down from being unstoppable on lavaland and stronger than the average geared miner just for living for a few minutes.

Making the ash storm immunity not innate makes some sense from a game standpoint (it discourages them from venturing too far out at first and getting lost) and it's hard to come up with a different unique buff to replace the speed buff they get, it encourages them to learn the rituals and not having instant immunity to storms is not any more crippling than it is for miners.

Proof of Testing

taking damage from ash storms

I am now ash storm immune after the ritual

Changelog

:cl: balance: Toned down ash walker innate armour, removed innate ash storm immunity balance: Instead of a speed buff, their first age ritual benefit is now ash storm immunity. /:cl:

[Jolly-66]

It's markdown. You need spaces between the parameters and your content, otherwise it won't work.

I fixed it for you.

[GypsumKobold]

I have some concerns regarding this balance change.

Miners have suits that are available to them round start that makes them ash storm immune. Even those that don't take that suit, they are also given capsules so they do not need to retreat back to the mining base when a storm occurs. An Ashwalker has neither of these things and there is no guarantee the monsters required for the age ritual will be nearby.

This also feels very punishing to any late spawn Ashwalkes, where tendrils have been hunted, and the round start mobs killed, it's easily possible for a late start Ashwalker to be unable to gather the materials needed to perform the aging ritual in the first place.

Moreover, this nerf doesn't apply to all maps; storms are not an issue on Ice Box.

Removing the speed? Even powering down the big fire breath, it's all fine to make Ashwalkers less dangerous, but the ash storm immunity removal only serves to remove Ashwalkers from the round.

[Zergspower]

agreed, the ash immune probably needs to stay - they've no way to seek shelter or use a gps to find a shelter

[YakumoChen]

Do you have any suggestions for a buff that isn't speed? Having a species buff to speed is the main reason for this PR.

Miners have suits that are available to them round start that makes them ash storm immune.

The SEVA suit is very poorly armoured.

They can also mark tendrils to make it more annoying for miners, or summon ash drakes for more bones and sinew, and almost all miners leave at least one legion corpse alive.

Ash walkers have been granted a ton of ways around resource starvation, mostly with their own rituals. I only see this as being a problem for ash walkers who can't manage resources properly early on, and the ash storms are avoidable as long as you don't stray too far from the base.

[GypsumKobold]

I do have a suggestion for a buff.

Skill increase, give the Ashwalker enough experience to reach level 5 in mining and smithing. This isn't enough to use reagents, but will let a solo Ashwalker who is busy with other things have a catchup mechanic for ore gathering, since it is enough to let the forge be more efficient.

When an Ashwalker dies and rebirths from the eggs, they also loose any learned skills, and can additionally help an Ashwalker get back to where they were before they died.

[YakumoChen]

I have no idea how to do that.

[YakumoChen]

Tbh I don't see "icebox doesn't have storms" as a particular gate to this

A benefit to playing one map depriving you of a "buff" is a relative non-issue. The other reasons I think Ash storm immunity needing earned still stand. Prepare better, get good.

I could just remove one age category entirely but I'm sure you'd all find a way to complain about one less free (FREE!) buff too

[github-actions[bot]]

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[YakumoChen]

bump

[YakumoChen]

@jjpark-kb this seems like your thing to review

[tf-4]

Reasoning checks out to me

[MitztheKat]

I hope you step on fruiting cacti and die to a goliath, miner main :)

[YakumoChen]

I hope you step on fruiting cacti and die to a goliath, miner main :)

Skill issue