For me combat is slightly broken in CP at the moment, especially towards mid/end game where some of the abilities and weapons gets a bit out of hand in regards to how powerful they are. Especially some quick hack and tech weapons.
But having thought a bit more about it, I don't think it's solely due to them alone, but that a lot of it comes from the ability to "Ping" and "Mark" targets. The mere fact that you can get a visual on all enemies allows you to deal with them as if there were no cover in the game, yet the enemies act as if cover helps them, which doesn't make a lot of sense from a lore perspective, as they should be well aware that it wouldn't.
However making the AI just charge you in a huge pile, wouldn't work either, so some sort of balance need to be made I think.
Some of these things are already in the game as far as I know, but might need to be balanced and some would be changes or overhauls.
Changes to Ping
The way ping works now is that you "ping" a target and all enemies/devices linked to it will be displayed for 30 seconds with no cool down. However I think several options could replace or change it slightly, so it would make for a much more balanced and fun ability.
General for all options
The purpose of "Ping" should be more of a scouting ability or something used just before sniping someone, rather than a "Mark" everything ability, but will get back to that later.
- Ping should have a cool down of 10 seconds.
- Ping duration should be lowered to maybe 6-7 seconds duration enough for a sniper to take their shot.
- Each enemy and device have an individual defense value against pings, sort of like a firewall or something and V's skill with quick hacks will be tested against this. It makes sense that a good hacker is much better at this, than someone specced for brute force is. It would also mean that pinging someone might fail, so only revealing some targets rather than everything, depending on how many resist it.
- The more times a target is pinged the more resistant it will get, which is to prevent the player from just pinging over and over again. This could be mitigated by some skills or cyberware as well if needed.
- Depending on enemy types, the resistance should also play a role, like the Voodoo boys should have a much higher resistance against it than anyone else, given they are suppose to be hacking experts and therefore better suited at defending against it etc.
Two options of how it could be changed:
Option 1
Ping should only reveal an area around the target pinged, let's say 10 meters as a base range and each other target within that range will make a roll for whether or not the ping works or not. Could even make it so ping could cascade, so if one target is successfully pinged a new area around them of 10 meters will be chosen and rolls for everything within that range will also be made and so forth.
So a person really good at Nethacking will obviously get a lot more information than one that is not specced for it. It would also mean that doing multiple pings might not reveal the same information each time as new defence roll would be made each ping attempt.
Also since ping would have a cool down, it gives enemies time to move between each ping adding a bit more tension to an encounter, not knowing if the data you have is 100% accurate, especially if you are not specced as a Netrunner.
Option 2
Ping works a lot like it does now, so each enemy/device linked to the network will be the ping target. But again you have the defence rolls and the cool down, which in some cases would not reveal everything. The player would never know for certain, how reliable their informations are.
Also enemies should be split up into minor clusters of enemies and devices, so you are less likely to reveal everything with just one ping.
New quick hack
Could add an advanced ping, let's call it "Sonar", which you could cast on a person or device and would work more like a Sonar would, by shooting out waves in all directions in a huge area, but only reveal things for maybe 1 - 1.5 seconds. And therefore something you could use, just to get a sense of where enemies might be. So it's more of a brief image of what is going on a place and a tool for figuring out how to approach something rather than used for killing people through the walls with tech weapons.
Marking enemies
This functionality is probably the one that ruins combat the most in my opinion. That "Ping" last as long as it does is a problem in itself. But being able to "Mark" enemies makes the ping permanent and can be done through walls. Given that you have 30 seconds or basically as much time as you want to "Mark" enemies, this ruins so much.
And looks like this:
The idea of "Ping" based on its description is clearly to reveal things for 30 seconds. However this "Mark" mechanic, which isn't even an ingame ability, but a game or player tool is making it last forever. And even allows you to track targets as they move, which doesn't really make sense, how V would know where they are, when the ping duration is over. Furthermore, i think it's a bad gameplay mechanic all together, because what you do is make a ping and then you start marking targets. And once that is done, then you begin. Marking targets is useful, but not a fun mechanic as its a slow process, but also when you finally sneak in or start combat, simply knowing where all enemies are, removes a lot of tensions in the fights.
To me the best solution to this, is simply to scrap the "Mark" functionality all together, simply making it impossible, or at least this should be changes to a tracker ability or special "shot" that you can shoot an enemy with, which will then last for 2-5 minutes or something, which will allow you to track that target only. Obviously you can shoot several enemies which could be useful as long as you can see them. Yet it wouldn't be a "Mark" all ability.
For me, applying these changes would greatly improve combat in the game overall, especially for quick hacking and tech weapons (as a starting point).
Because quick hacks need you to be able to see your target, so you can't do it or at least it is much harder to just quick hack enemies from a distance without them being able to do anything. However I do still think that they have to be better balanced than they are now, being able to instant kill anyone is not a good mechanic in general in a game, and so of them are simply to overpowered.
For tech weapons, you can still use it to snipe people through the walls and covers. But it will be much more difficult to just snipe off a whole base without them being able to do anything, because of you not knowing where the enemies are before they start shooting back at you, but also due to the unreliable ping and them moving between each of them.
But having thought a bit more about it, I don't think it's solely due to them alone, but that a lot of it comes from the ability to "Ping" and "Mark" targets. The mere fact that you can get a visual on all enemies allows you to deal with them as if there were no cover in the game, yet the enemies act as if cover helps them, which doesn't make a lot of sense from a lore perspective, as they should be well aware that it wouldn't.
However making the AI just charge you in a huge pile, wouldn't work either, so some sort of balance need to be made I think.
Some of these things are already in the game as far as I know, but might need to be balanced and some would be changes or overhauls.
Changes to Ping
The way ping works now is that you "ping" a target and all enemies/devices linked to it will be displayed for 30 seconds with no cool down. However I think several options could replace or change it slightly, so it would make for a much more balanced and fun ability.
General for all options
The purpose of "Ping" should be more of a scouting ability or something used just before sniping someone, rather than a "Mark" everything ability, but will get back to that later.
- Ping should have a cool down of 10 seconds.
- Ping duration should be lowered to maybe 6-7 seconds duration enough for a sniper to take their shot.
- Each enemy and device have an individual defense value against pings, sort of like a firewall or something and V's skill with quick hacks will be tested against this. It makes sense that a good hacker is much better at this, than someone specced for brute force is. It would also mean that pinging someone might fail, so only revealing some targets rather than everything, depending on how many resist it.
- The more times a target is pinged the more resistant it will get, which is to prevent the player from just pinging over and over again. This could be mitigated by some skills or cyberware as well if needed.
- Depending on enemy types, the resistance should also play a role, like the Voodoo boys should have a much higher resistance against it than anyone else, given they are suppose to be hacking experts and therefore better suited at defending against it etc.
Two options of how it could be changed:
Option 1
Ping should only reveal an area around the target pinged, let's say 10 meters as a base range and each other target within that range will make a roll for whether or not the ping works or not. Could even make it so ping could cascade, so if one target is successfully pinged a new area around them of 10 meters will be chosen and rolls for everything within that range will also be made and so forth.
So a person really good at Nethacking will obviously get a lot more information than one that is not specced for it. It would also mean that doing multiple pings might not reveal the same information each time as new defence roll would be made each ping attempt.
Also since ping would have a cool down, it gives enemies time to move between each ping adding a bit more tension to an encounter, not knowing if the data you have is 100% accurate, especially if you are not specced as a Netrunner.
Option 2
Ping works a lot like it does now, so each enemy/device linked to the network will be the ping target. But again you have the defence rolls and the cool down, which in some cases would not reveal everything. The player would never know for certain, how reliable their informations are.
Also enemies should be split up into minor clusters of enemies and devices, so you are less likely to reveal everything with just one ping.
New quick hack
Could add an advanced ping, let's call it "Sonar", which you could cast on a person or device and would work more like a Sonar would, by shooting out waves in all directions in a huge area, but only reveal things for maybe 1 - 1.5 seconds. And therefore something you could use, just to get a sense of where enemies might be. So it's more of a brief image of what is going on a place and a tool for figuring out how to approach something rather than used for killing people through the walls with tech weapons.
Marking enemies
This functionality is probably the one that ruins combat the most in my opinion. That "Ping" last as long as it does is a problem in itself. But being able to "Mark" enemies makes the ping permanent and can be done through walls. Given that you have 30 seconds or basically as much time as you want to "Mark" enemies, this ruins so much.
And looks like this:
The idea of "Ping" based on its description is clearly to reveal things for 30 seconds. However this "Mark" mechanic, which isn't even an ingame ability, but a game or player tool is making it last forever. And even allows you to track targets as they move, which doesn't really make sense, how V would know where they are, when the ping duration is over. Furthermore, i think it's a bad gameplay mechanic all together, because what you do is make a ping and then you start marking targets. And once that is done, then you begin. Marking targets is useful, but not a fun mechanic as its a slow process, but also when you finally sneak in or start combat, simply knowing where all enemies are, removes a lot of tensions in the fights.
To me the best solution to this, is simply to scrap the "Mark" functionality all together, simply making it impossible, or at least this should be changes to a tracker ability or special "shot" that you can shoot an enemy with, which will then last for 2-5 minutes or something, which will allow you to track that target only. Obviously you can shoot several enemies which could be useful as long as you can see them. Yet it wouldn't be a "Mark" all ability.
For me, applying these changes would greatly improve combat in the game overall, especially for quick hacking and tech weapons (as a starting point).
Because quick hacks need you to be able to see your target, so you can't do it or at least it is much harder to just quick hack enemies from a distance without them being able to do anything. However I do still think that they have to be better balanced than they are now, being able to instant kill anyone is not a good mechanic in general in a game, and so of them are simply to overpowered.
For tech weapons, you can still use it to snipe people through the walls and covers. But it will be much more difficult to just snipe off a whole base without them being able to do anything, because of you not knowing where the enemies are before they start shooting back at you, but also due to the unreliable ping and them moving between each of them.