In terms of the vanilla balance, this is mostly spot on. I'd move the Laser Pistol up to A tier (Overcharge setting has the same degradation as Normal and its cooldown period can be cancelled by re-equipping the weapon, carry multiple and you don't have to worry about ammo or weapon condition) and the Annelid Launcher to C tier (Exotic 6 Research 6 is simply exorbitant for a weapon that isn't all that much better than the Viral Proliferator). It's also worth noting that the Grenade Launcher gets +100/128% damage from modification level 1/2 unlike every other weapon which receives +10/25%, which takes a weapon that was already borderline S tier due to its versatility and low investment into the stratosphere. I put a lot of effort into reigning in the outliers in my Rebalanced Skills and Disciplines mod -- the wrench no longer benefits from Standard weapon damage scaling, Stasis Field Generator requires Heavy 1 and prism cost is halved while the Grenade Launcher requires Heavy 3, the Fusion Cannon has higher damage output with safer splash radius, Exotic weapons never degrade, and plenty more including a new expanded weapon modification system. If you're ever bored with vanilla you might get a kick out of it.
Woaah, thanks a lot for the comment, RSD. Love your mods, was debating on keeping them for my playthrough streams, but my 1st one was supposed to be vanilla+ sorta. I'll definitely be playing with them on from now on, especially the enemy behaviors. No more silly slow-mo hybrid uppercuts XD Iunno, I stand corrected, your case for the energy pistol is strong and I never knew you could shoot faster by switching, that's mad lol (also infinite ammo f yeah). The Annelid Launcher being moved down makes sense, you barely use that thing when you're 90% done with the game, and it's not even worth fully investing in 2 skills. I left it at B in the vid originally because I genuinely wanted to like it from a design perspective, plus Diego's sacrifice added more narrative weight to it. Again, great idea, needed a lot more "oomph".
This teir list is almost exactly what I would have picked. EXCEPT, the emp rifle, and the laser pistol. The emp rifle on overcharge just kills all robotic enemies in one shot with AOE and no danger of dying, and the laser pistol kills easy enemies without wasting ammo. Because they save ammo for other weapons, they are super valuable. The only thing holding back the emp rifle is the 6 energy requirement, but MAINLY the 6 maintenance requirement to maintain the gun. Unlimited ammo is HUGE in a resource conservation game.
You could negate the maintenance if you use the anti-entropy psi ability. I use that plus a weapon so I would not have to waste any cyber modules in maintenance and I have a better way of conserving psi points so I do not waste cryokinesis or pyrokinesis on killing enemies.
Great video. I'm re-installing SS2 after 5+ years and this will be very helpful in planning out my play-through. I'm planning on doing a similar thing of playing with vanilla + texture mods only and then adding re-balance type mods. Thanks again!
The crystal shard and wrench deal the same damage type, actually, so neither can damage the final boss. Only the other two melee weapons can damage it.
If this game gets remade like it's predecessor, I'm hoping they expand on or rework the energy heavy and exotics, enough to be viable anyway. The only thing I'd disagree with is the annelid launcher for C. Compared to other weapons it requires so much more investment both in research and scavenging just to get some reliable use out of it, but isn't available till the very end of the game when you've already cleared out the majority of the enemies it's worth using on.
Your big mistake with the fusion cannon is thinking prisms are limited. A lot drop late game, and they are shockingly cheap from stores. They are the late game equivalent to standard bullets. The Fusion Cannon is like an Assault Rifle that sacrifices specialty ammo in order to get splash damage.
In terms of the vanilla balance, this is mostly spot on. I'd move the Laser Pistol up to A tier (Overcharge setting has the same degradation as Normal and its cooldown period can be cancelled by re-equipping the weapon, carry multiple and you don't have to worry about ammo or weapon condition) and the Annelid Launcher to C tier (Exotic 6 Research 6 is simply exorbitant for a weapon that isn't all that much better than the Viral Proliferator). It's also worth noting that the Grenade Launcher gets +100/128% damage from modification level 1/2 unlike every other weapon which receives +10/25%, which takes a weapon that was already borderline S tier due to its versatility and low investment into the stratosphere.
I put a lot of effort into reigning in the outliers in my Rebalanced Skills and Disciplines mod -- the wrench no longer benefits from Standard weapon damage scaling, Stasis Field Generator requires Heavy 1 and prism cost is halved while the Grenade Launcher requires Heavy 3, the Fusion Cannon has higher damage output with safer splash radius, Exotic weapons never degrade, and plenty more including a new expanded weapon modification system. If you're ever bored with vanilla you might get a kick out of it.
Woaah, thanks a lot for the comment, RSD. Love your mods, was debating on keeping them for my playthrough streams, but my 1st one was supposed to be vanilla+ sorta.
I'll definitely be playing with them on from now on, especially the enemy behaviors. No more silly slow-mo hybrid uppercuts XD
Iunno, I stand corrected, your case for the energy pistol is strong and I never knew you could shoot faster by switching, that's mad lol (also infinite ammo f yeah). The Annelid Launcher being moved down makes sense, you barely use that thing when you're 90% done with the game, and it's not even worth fully investing in 2 skills. I left it at B in the vid originally because I genuinely wanted to like it from a design perspective, plus Diego's sacrifice added more narrative weight to it. Again, great idea, needed a lot more "oomph".
This teir list is almost exactly what I would have picked. EXCEPT, the emp rifle, and the laser pistol. The emp rifle on overcharge just kills all robotic enemies in one shot with AOE and no danger of dying, and the laser pistol kills easy enemies without wasting ammo. Because they save ammo for other weapons, they are super valuable. The only thing holding back the emp rifle is the 6 energy requirement, but MAINLY the 6 maintenance requirement to maintain the gun. Unlimited ammo is HUGE in a resource conservation game.
You could negate the maintenance if you use the anti-entropy psi ability. I use that plus a weapon so I would not have to waste any cyber modules in maintenance and I have a better way of conserving psi points so I do not waste cryokinesis or pyrokinesis on killing enemies.
Great video. I'm re-installing SS2 after 5+ years and this will be very helpful in planning out my play-through. I'm planning on doing a similar thing of playing with vanilla + texture mods only and then adding re-balance type mods. Thanks again!
Thank you for the support. Have fun with revisiting this classic!
The crystal shard and wrench deal the same damage type, actually, so neither can damage the final boss. Only the other two melee weapons can damage it.
who cares if it can kill the final boss? shodan is dead easy with 3 ice picks even cryo will kill her with just a few shots
If this game gets remade like it's predecessor, I'm hoping they expand on or rework the energy heavy and exotics, enough to be viable anyway.
The only thing I'd disagree with is the annelid launcher for C. Compared to other weapons it requires so much more investment both in research and scavenging just to get some reliable use out of it, but isn't available till the very end of the game when you've already cleared out the majority of the enemies it's worth using on.
Your big mistake with the fusion cannon is thinking prisms are limited. A lot drop late game, and they are shockingly cheap from stores. They are the late game equivalent to standard bullets. The Fusion Cannon is like an Assault Rifle that sacrifices specialty ammo in order to get splash damage.
Agreed. There's no reason not to spend modules on Psi.
Make more SS videos plz why do you only have one also this was the only useful video I could find about SS2 weapons lol
cool but I wish you'd shown every weapon in action. can't believe I can't find any video like that on youtube