DESIGNER NOTE ON BALANCING FOR 2023
2023 is the year of gameplay for Rogue Company. This means we intend on rolling out more balance changes, these balance changes are a combination of handling the pain points of our current balance and to run experiments that drive Rogue Company in a stronger direction. We have a guiding star for this year: more defined and stronger identities across the board. While we will maintain the combat core that we are proud of, we will look to every element around it (Rogues, Weapons, Perks, Loadouts etc) to find opportunities to refresh and strengthen their identities. Every balance patch will be an incremental experiment to get us there and we look forward to going on this journey together with our players.
NOTE: As you play on PTS, if you have feedback to share, we encourage you to relay it to use via socials and the public Discord.
ROGUES
Mack
From our observations out in the wild and supporting data, Mack is currently the top performing rogue with an extremely high win rate. While his inherent power was meant to compensate for a low-power ability, this gap between him and the other rogues have prompted us to take a look at said power. We want to take a careful approach to shifting the balance of RoCo, every change can impact the big picture. As you read through the rest of the patch notes, you’ll see how the changes affect the big picture for Mack. For now, the direct change to Mack is to address the armor gain component of his passive until we can come around to making his identity stronger. Note: This’ll also impact his infamous duo partner: Dahlia!
- Standard Issue Passive – Reduced amount of armor recovered when downing enemies from 25 ->15
Cannon
Cannon is an interesting character. His identity is that of a battle-loving juggernaut. He has a powerful loadout and a devastating ability when in the hands of a bold player. However, his performance is on the low side. Taking an incremental approach, we are changing up a couple of things in his loadout to see if we can give him a boost.
- Replaced C4 with Frag Grenade
- Replaced Rare Helping Hand with Rare Blaster
- Replaced Epic Bulletproof with Epic Tenacity
- Replaced Legendary Tenacity with Legendary Bulletproof
Kestrel
Kestrel received some improvements to her drones in a previous update. She has always been a performing Rogue and there are some aspects to her ability that could do with some slight adjustments. We’ll continue to observe her and will make adjustments in future releases.
- Drone Swarm blast diameter reduced from 8m -> 7m
PERKS
Life Drain
The Life Drain family of perks is a very impactful one. We definitely value the effect that it has on a player’s mindset once they have it or whenever they are fighting a Rogue that has one. That being said, the top end of the family might be a bit too generous. We are reducing the amount healed and will observe the long-term effects for now.
- Life Drain Epic
- Reduced Healing amount from 40 ->35
- Life Drain Legendary
- Reduced Healing amount from 60 -> 50
Gunsmith
Gunsmith has a force-multiplier effect that can greatly affect the performance of our weapons. Based on our data, testing and community feedback: we felt that this family of perks’ power contribution and when you could access it was, at the very least, under-costed. For now, we are increasing the price across all rarities and will observe the impact.
- Rare Gunsmith
- Cost Increased from $5000 -> 6000
- Epic Gunsmith
- Cost Increased from $7500 -> $8500
- Legendary Gunsmith
- Cost Increased from $10000 -> $12000
Shredder Rounds
Given the interaction complexities of Toughness and Armor (and how they are typically shared among our tougher rogues), we are increasing the Anti-armor effectiveness of shredder rounds and adjusting the price to better reflect it. This will push shredder rounds as the paramount perk choice when dealing with armor. As a result, the bonus ammo reserves felt tacked on and does not strongly contribute to the strong focus of this perk. So in response, we are removing that element from Shredder Rounds. Don’t worry, for those who like spraying bullets, the bonus ammo reserve can return as a standalone perk in the future!
- Removed the Bonus Ammo Reserve part of all levels of Shredder Rounds
- Rare Shredder Rounds
- Increased damage to Armor and Deployables from 10% -> 15%
- Increased price from $5000 -> $5500
- Epic Shredder Rounds
- Increased damage to Armor and Deployables from 15% -> 20%
- Increased price from $7000 -> $7500
- Legendary Shredder Rounds
- Increased damage to Armor and Deployables from 20% -> 25%
- Increased price from $9000 -> $10000
Weapons
D40C
The D40C has begun to see a ton of play due to its high precision and damage at too optimal of ranges. It is going to receive some adjustments to its core that will be the first step and indication of our direction for SMGs at large. We want to more strongly establish an identity for each of our weapon types and balance within those identities. In that regard, SMGs are agile, short-ranged skirmishing weapons that favor high rate of fire over accuracy and stopping power. The identity for the D40c is that it is a closer range brute with a high-capacity magazine that favors well with the bruiser-esque rogues.
- Hipfire Accuracy has been reduced from 0.915 to 0.85
- Crouching Accuracy Mod removed(0.01)
- In-Air Accuracy penalty reduced(-0.09 ->-0.03)
- ADS accuracy modifier reduced from 0.075 to 0.05
- Bloom Increased
- Bloom Recovery Increased
- Base Range Reduced from 12m/25m ->8m/17m
- Lvl 2(range/jump accuracy) and Lv3(recoil/reload speed) have been swapped
LMPX
The LMPX has been an overall powerhouse that can contend with, and sometimes beat out, our ARs and DMRs due to its incredible accuracy, control and range. While we value its identity of being the more controllable SMG, we are bringing it more in-line with fitting in the core identity of the SMG weapon type. So we are also putting it through the same ruleset that the D40C is getting, but while retaining its own identity among its siblings. The LMPX is a controllable SMG with an integrated suppressor that is handled with finesse by calm and clever rogues alike. Essentially the “you really should ADS with this” SMG.
- Hipfire Accuracy has been reduced from 0.915 to 0.83
- Crouching Accuracy Mod removed(0.01)
- In-Air Accuracy penalty reduced(-0.09 ->-0.065)
- ADS accuracy modifier increased from 0.075 to 0.09
- Bloom Increased
- Bloom Recovery Increased
- Base Range Reduced from 14m/26m ->9m/19m
- Base Reload Speed increased from 1.35 -> 1.5
- Base Mag Size reduced from 30 -> 25
- Level 1 Upgrade Increases Mag Size to 30 and Increases Reload Speed to 1.35
- Level 3 Upgrade Increases aim accuracy and reduces recoil
Arbitrator
Shotguns, much like their long-range cousin the sniper, are a core staple in shooters. Their identity of being incredibly lethal at danger-close range is something that we want to maintain and dial into. The Arbitrator is a pretty contentious weapon as it seems to operate well at unexpected ranges and the risk isn’t quite high enough to match its lethality (more so in the hands of certain perks and rogues, which we will address later). As such, we are reducing the effective range, fire rate and reload speed to bring in its identity while asking the wielder to adapt and have a bit more risk in their decision-making. This will also put it closer to the identity that we will want shotguns to have going forward. To reiterate: the identity of a Shotgun is that they are high-damage, high-risk guns that can punish careless enemies that dare get too close. Keep an eye out on changes to other shotguns in the future!
- Falloff Ranges have been reduced
- Base/Rare/Epic: 9m/15m -> 7m/12m
- Legendary: 11m/17m -> 10m/15m
- Fire Rates have been reduced(Rounds Per Second, not factoring Reload Speed)
- Base: 3.33 -> 2.5
- Rare/Epic/Legendary: 4.44 -> 3.33
- Reload Speeds have been increased
- Base: 2.4 -> 2.8
- Rare: Loses Reload speed upgrade
- Epic/Legendary: 1.8 ->2.0
LW6 Revolver
We still value the LW6 Revolver’s place as the DMR of pistols. However, we feel that its fire rate and reload speed should be tuned down to require the player to have the steady hand and calm mind of a proper gunslinger. We will keep an eye on the LW6 and other pistols in the future to bring them up to have stronger identities.
- Fire Rate reduced from 3.03 -> 2.5
- Reload Speed increased from 1.6 -> 2.0
KNOWN ISSUES
- NOTE: THESE ARE THINGS ARE STILL FUNCTIONAL BUT Descriptions for the following are still showing the old values, these will be fixed in the next build. For now please rely on the above patch notes for accuracy.
- Epic and Legendary Life Drain displaying old heal amount
- All Tiers of Shredder Rounds displaying old description
- D40C upgrade levels 2 and 3 displaying old upgrades
- LMPX Lv1 and Lv3 displaying old upgrades
- Arbitrator Lv2, Lv3,Lv4 displaying old upgrades
FIXED ISSUES
- Ranked Rewards are now properly displayed in UI. Its not banners we promise!
- Future Tech Dallas has the wrong thumbnail
- Fixed: Seasonal Contract “Down 40 Enemies before they damage you” not tracking progression
- Fixed: Seasonal Contract Use 50 Deployable abilities or Gadgets is not tracking all gadgets used
- Fixed: Ronin unable to shoot and explode her own Ballistic Knife
- Fixed: Conviction’s Milestone #3 “Down X Enemies after continuously Firing for 1 second” is not tracking progression
Source: Rogue Company
