Total Warfare Mod 2 for Tribes 2, Conversion mod built on a base mix of Construction .69a and CCM. Tribes 2 is a game developed on a pre-release version of the Torque Game Engine.
* As I have closed down the Phantom Games Development website, PGD Connect services are no longer active, I have removed all functioning of PGD Connect from the mod to allow users to continue to enjoy TWM2 without requiring this.
* The Mod Load Menu has been updated, removing old links to PGD and now showing the mod's GitHub Repository Page.
* Given damage number reductions in a large amount of the mod's arsenal to balance things, zombie HP needed to be cut across the board for the most part.
* Replaced the acid cannon with an anti-tank photon cannon
* Zombie lords will now preferential target enemy ground armor before infantry, and engage their photon cannon on targets
* Zombie lords can now activate a defensive barrier to protect themselves and allies from damage temporarily... enjoy this new rage inducing mechanic :)
* Fixed an erraneous text prompt that would appear when the shadow rift detonated outside of WTF difficulty stating vardison had healed when in fact he did not
* Discussion: Most modern hardware nowadays can handle a much larger number of save files. This may induce some load-delay when opening the menu, but I doubt people will care too much.
* The final rank (Master Commander) now only requires 2,000,000 XP (Down from 3,000,000)
* The earlier ranks now have higher XP requirements, but later ranks are earned a bit more quickly.
* The "middle-rank" (Captain Grade 3) now occurs at 130,000 XP.
* Discussion: Given the update to XP values across the board, and the introduction of new challenges, this should streamline the rank system to be quicker to complete. In addition, when earning huge chunks of XP (IE: Bosses), this should reduce the loop calls to level-ups in some cases.
* Addressed the issue when gaining more than 1 million EXP that would result in your total EXP being reset by the difference between 1 million exp and your current exp.
* Fixed the bug in which picking up weapon clips with an empty weapon would not automatically trigger weapon reload on that weapon.
* Fixed a typo in the damage types for the M1700 shotgun
* Weapon Balancing Pass (3.9.2)
* The 3.9.2 content update is bringing with it a full balance pass on the entire mod's arsenal, targeting for the most part weapons that have been underused in my personal opinion.
* Most of the changes are power up changes (As is my prefered choice of balancing), but a few high end outliers have been tuned down just a bit.
* Melee Weapons
* This weapon class is one that needed a pass the most, as soon as players get the blade of vengenace, they drop every other choice and only use the BoV, this is unintended
* The balance pass here should help to make the other two choices a little more enticing without ruining the power of the BoV for the players loyal to it.
* Blade of Vengenace
* Reduced damage from 100.0 to 0.9 (No longer OHKs in PvP)
* Assassination is still a OHK
* Added a 100.0 damage modifier to all zombie types for Blade of Vengeance
* This includes player zombies.
* Removed the clause that bosses could not be damaged by the Blade of Vengeance
* Alright, the starting melee option. This one was a tricky one to adjust for, but I'm happy with this. The generic melee attack will now deal a hefty punch to targets, but if you land that headshot, you'll get a massive 10.0 multiplier making it the strongest hitting attack you have. Obviously this is a risk/reward play since you'll be right in the face of your target, but I feel like this should be the benefit you get for doing so.
* At the moment, the two statistical outliers in the pool (Crimson Hawk and Pulse Phaser) are a bit too strong, so some minor adjustments will help smooth gameplay and bring the others into play
* The monstrous R700 sniper rifle has for the most part, gone completely unchallenged since the release of the mod, and it's time for it to be reigned in.
* Removed the headshot multiplier on the projectile (The weapon still OHKs on headshot, but this will affect high-tier PvE combatants that cannot be headshot killed)
* Increased the round rechamber time from 1.2 seconds to 1.7 seconds
* The goal of this adjustment pass is to make the R700 a high-end choice in regards to having moderate damage and the largest magazine size, but allow the other two snipers to be competitive in choice. Namely, while the R700 will still be great in PvP engagements, it will no longer be the top sniper rifle in some PvE engagements (Specifically boss fights, where historically players took advantage of the R700's enormous headshot multiplier to knock down bosses from long range).
* Assault Rifles have always felt good in TWM2, the strong jack of all trade weapons good for most ranges, while being outperformed in the range of other tools
* Only minor tweaking is needed here to help some of the unused tools get up to speed
* G-41
* For the most part, this rifle has been collecting dust in the bin of unused weapons due to other tools such as the S3 and R700 in the pool
* This weapon has been in need of a long coming tweak of power to make it a more viable choice
* This jack of all trades weapon currently sits for the most part unused in the mod over numerous SMG and other rifle choices.
* I orginally planned on tuning down since the adjustments to the other weapons would have made this a "best in slot" weapon, but I decided against this and to offer it a nice buff regardless.
* Coupled with the numerous weapon attachments (Don't forget to use the F2 menu folks!), this weapon should now be a very competitive choice, but not "oppressively" so, I'll keep an eye on it though.
* Increased the damage of the rounds from 0.085 to 0.14
* Increased the clip reload time from 4 seconds to 6 seconds
* Pulse Rifle
* As it stands right now, the pulse rifle is one of the weakest weapons in the mod, with the only advantage being the fastest and most accurate semi-auto in the pool
* With the enhancements to the G-41, the pulse rifle will also follow suit, which should make it a more viable choice in mid to long range fights
* The buckshot tools of TWM2 have always been in a good place in terms of PvP, however I've noticed a sad trend of these being tossed aside in PvE aspects
* The weapon projectile has been given a 3.0 damage modifier across all zombie types to be highly effective against zombies
* Perk Balancing / Rework Pass (3.9.2)
* The next batch of balance / reworks comes to the perk system.
* A highly "outdated clone" approach for additional player bonuses, perks in TWM2 have been very disjointed in many cases, offering significant bonuses to the point that things become best-in-slot by a long mile leaving everything else to be binned.
* While the "future" (If one ever does come about for this mod) would likely see the entire system removed, the goal here is to bring things down from the Over 9000 power level they exist at now to a more "reasonable" 6 or 7.
* Primary Perks
* Primary Perks provide direct bonuses to player gear (Gear defined as weapons and equipment).
* AP Bullets
* Old Perk: Bullets do 50% More Damage
* New Perk: Bullets deal 15% increased damage, damage to armored targets increased by 33%.
* Discussion: AP Bullets was one of those "BIS" perks that was almost always grabbed because of the flat damage buff to literally "everything". Now this perk gives a small damage buff and a bonus to armored targets (Vehicles / Turrets) to focus more-so on those.
* Advanced Grip
* Old Perk: Improves Weapon Accuracy by 250%
* New Perk: [Renamed: Handling Expert] Reduces weapon spread by a varying amount (Dependent on the weapon)
* Discussion: This perk was kind of "strangely" worded as a "mega accuracy" increase, when in reality it just significantly cut down "spread" on weapons, I still think a spread reduction perk is neat, but this perk is much more toned down now.
* An example: The S3 Rifle's Spread Reduction has been reduced from 250% to 133%
* Wind Break Beacon
* Unchanged
* Discussion: This one has one of those "niche" places in the mod, good for those "oh sh*t" moments when Major Insignia / Lord Vardison launches you to Orbit
* 3 Second C4
* Unchanged
* Discussion: For now I don't think anything is needed here, but I am exploring potentially making usage of this perk reduce the maximum number of C4s you can hold at once.
* Blade Sweep
* Removed From Mod
* Discussion: Blade Sweep is one of those really strange perks I made just "for the hell of it", that never sees any use because it quite literally is pointless, and thus, it is gone.
* Martydom
* Old Perk: Your armor explodes 4 seconds after death
* New Perk: Upon death, drop a live grenade or C4 charge (if available) (Dependent on which grenade type you have equipped).
* Discussion: This one was so much fun to play around with in the sandbox, but I always felt like it was just the "No U" perk for Shotgun Countering, so now it will instead be a bit more counterable, while still being funny when that C4 explosion goes off.
* Pistol God
* Removed From Mod
* Discussion: This one's kind of unnecessary given the adjustment to Advanced Grip, plus I want Sidearms to not be a completely dominant weapon, so Advanced Grip does not apply to them.
* Double Down
* Removed From Mod
* Discussion: A relic from the old days of PGD Connect with EXP events and "rank ups", given the other big adjustment to perks mentioned earlier, this is no longer needed.
* New Perks:
* Powder Keg
* Increases explosion damage you deal by 25%
* Discussion: A good addition to go alongside AP Bullets for players who prefer explosive weapons.
* Secondary Perks
* Secondary Perks are seen as "defensive" in nature, providing direct bonuses to your player object, for the most part these perks are fairly well made, and just need minor tuning.
* Kevlar Armor
* Old Perk: Increase Shielding to 150%
* New Perk: Reduce incoming damage from bullets by 20%, explosions by 25%
* Discussion: The values on this perk were just a "wee bit" high for damage reduction, so I've brought them down a little.
* Head Guard
* Old Perk: Prevents you from being Headshot Killed
* New Perk: [Renamed: Armored Helmet] Removes the headshot multiplier on incoming rounds
* Discussion: Ah yes, the days of old where Sniper Rifles were godly weapons in PvP on our long range maps. Then I made smaller close quarters maps and people stopped using snipers in everything except wartower. This perk completely nullified an aspect of the projectile targeting game and I think that should be avoided, so sorry but no more blocking those OSK sniper hits, but this will help in rifle fights.
* Yes, I just made sniper zombies that much more lethal... enjoy ;)
* Storm Barrier
* Unchanged
* Discussion: This perk is meant to be a counter to The Ghost of Lightning and the Ion Weapons earned from it, no need to adjust what isn't broken.
* Lim Zombie Shield
* Old Perk: 20% Chance that Zombies Will Be Repeled upon attack
* New Perk: Enhanced your armor with a specialized Lim-Zombie barrier, repelling incoming attackers before requiring a recharge
* Note: This functionality only applies to 'Normal', 'Ravager', and 'Shifter' Zombies.
* Discussion: A bit of an oddity here that few people used because of the RNG element on it, Lim was meant to be a bit of a "get out of jail" card in hectic moments, but it was a bit weak, so now I've changed the functionality to repel a few (2) incoming hits before requiring a 25 second recharge
* No-Infect Armor
* Unchanged: Perk Renamed to 'Undead Resistant Plating'
* Discussion: In the new age of perks, 'No-Infect Armor' sounds like a "cheat-code", so I'm just giving it a slight name alteration without changing the functioning.
* Radar Phantom
* Unchanged
* Discussion: Nothing to do here, this just wraps up the Tribes 2 Jamming Pack into a perk.
* Bomb Shadower & Second Chance
* These two perks used to belong to the Tertiary category, but I've decided to move them to the secondary category.
* Tertiary Perks
* This category is where the bets kind of went all over the map in terms of things, These perks were meant to be your "wildcard" bonus, but instead just became these crazy as hell buffs that had strange "growth" mechanics to them, this category needed the most work.
* These changes are kind of a "start", but I'm looking to hit this category a bit harder later down the line.
* Clip Boxes, Double Time, Ammo Vet
* These three perks did the same thing but had a growth of bonus mechanic as you leveled up, but the old perks stayed in your toolbox, making them completely irrelevant.
* I want to eventually change these perks to be category based (IE: Clip Boxes would give a reload benefit to large-mag guns, like machine guns), but this requires a big rework of the weapon reload system.
* So for now, I'm going to just absolve these three perks into one perk...
* Removed 'Clip Boxes', 'Double Time', and 'Ammo Vet' from the mod
* Added 'Reflexive Reloader': Reduces reload time by 33%.
* UAV Disabler
* Unchanged
* Discussion: This one's fine as is. This perk counters the UAV strike package.
* Team Gain
* Unchanged (For Now)
* Discussion: I'm looking at a rework of this perk, right now it functions as an "assist" perk where your kills grant nearby allies XP for your actions. I like this concept, but want to tweak how the perk considers you to be "nearby".
* Bandolier
* Description Change: Increases Clips To 200% > Doubles your maximum clip capacity
* Discussion: Just being a bit more descriptive as to what this perk does.
* Hardline
* Upcoming Removal
* Discussion: For now this perk will remain in the mod, but I'm going to be "doing away" with Killstreaks in 3.9.3, this will be wrapped up into a new system called Strike Packages, but much more on this later.
* Notes
* Tertiary Perks will be getting another pass later on, seeing as I've effectively reduced this category to 3, maybe 4 usable options, I'm going to likely add more choices here.
