Armblade implant nerfs

[Absolucy]

About The Pull Request

• early armblade implants now only deal 7 damage (14 with both), their wound_bonus is now -20, and their armor penetration is removed.
  • they now have demolition_mod = 1.8 tho, so they will still be just as good at breaking grilles and such
• normal armblade implants now have a wound_bonus of -10
• however, energy armblade implants still have the default/no wound_bonus

Why it's Good for the Game

Roundstart armblades, that can do nasty wounding with 24 damage per-hit, is a bit nasty and yucky. Instead of removing them, this just makes it so they're not nearly as good as their actual in-round printable versions, by nearly halving their damage, reducing their wound bonus, and removing their armor penetration.

In addition, normal armblade implants also had their wounding potential reduced a bit - they already deal a shitload of damage and are sharp. This does not apply to energy armblade implants, however.

Changelog

🆑
balance: Armblade implants now have slightly less wounding potential. They're already strong enough with the automatic double-attack and sharpness.
balance: Early armblade implants (the ones you can get at roundstart) now deal much less damage, have even less wounding potential, and no longer have armor penetration.
balance: Energy armblade implants (from emagging an armblade implant) do NOT have the reduced wounding potential, tho.
/:cl:

[Sunless2]

This might be a bit overkill at 14 damage, though I definitely agree that it was overtuned at 24, especially since it is a legal, and instead the weapon should be put on-par or slightly below other easily obtainable melee weapons.

There are two melee weapons(that I know of) you can order roundstart that deal 20 brute damage per hit:
Bowie knife
Shamsir blade additionally with little armor piercing, little block capability

While our two dedicated weapon implants that attack at the same time deal less damage than a one arm integrated mining drill, or even a welding tool

I would suggest setting the total damage of both blade attacks to 18 brute damage with little armor piercing while keeping the wounding changes

At this value many weapons surpass the dual blades despite requiring 1 hand to use.

[Absolucy]

@Sunless2 The main thing is that the roundstart armblades are available immediately, without effort at roundstart, and do not take up any sort of inventory slots.

[Sunless2]

I believe that nerfing these blades to this extreme will result in a undesirable effect: anyone who wishes to have armblades as part of their character gimmick will immediately try and rush for the absurdly strong 34 damage blades. Instead of settling with the much more balanced blades(at 18 not 24). these changes will only put the player into an all or nothing situation where they will always been seeking to upgrade no matter what, as 14 damage is just not usable against even pve.

The main thing is that the roundstart armblades are available immediately, without effort at roundstart

Welders are also a roundstart item and they deal more damage, as well as the previously mentioned drill implant.

I do not believe there is much different if something obtainable on-spawn or 5 minutes into the round, as rounds often last up to 4+ hours. (it does not take 5 minutes to walk to cargo and buy a bowie knife or two you can use for the rest of the round)

and do not take up any sort of inventory slots.

That's the benefit of them being implants, the same goes for the drill. you can also save more inventory space by using the shipbreaker + electrical implants, it is also why they cost 8 points each, (though points are disabled at the moment?)

Don't get me wrong, i'm all for nerfing the armblades as 24 damage that can delimb in 6~ hits is just absurd.
But in my opinion this nerfs the armblades too much. If anything, I would like to see the damage of the full version of the blades reduced to something less power-gamy. And potentially have Sec not be allowed to carry them without credible threat to the station, though Sec carrying lethals at all times is a seperate issue.