Mantra

These are the rules the Balancemod follows when re-balancing or redesigning weapons

To view the complete list of all changes in the mod click here

The rules of balance

Without rules everything falls apart

Rules of Balance

1. All weapons should be viable in the right situations
2. General weapons must not overshadow niche weapons
3. A weapon can be a different version of another weapon as long they do not do the same thing. (More damage and faster attack speed is not the same thing, even though both affect the damage per second)
4. Class integrity: Classes and their repsective weapons shall remain unique and refrain from blending together

Balance Concepts

Mobility, Speed, Power

Mobility

Ability to move horizontally and vertically

Speed

• Running
• Jumping
• Explosive jumping

Jump height

• Normal jump
• Crouch jump
• Stat modified jump

Weight

• Distance pushed from damage / airblast taken

Air Control

• Control while moving in the air

Power

• Ability to give and take damage

Damage

• Damage per second
• Effective Damage per second
• Reload time
• Splash
• Single target
• Penetration
• Sustainability
• Lingering

Defense

• Effective health
• Damage taken modifiers

Knock back

• Distance pushed from damage or airblast

Reliability

• Accuracy
• Consistency

Healing

• Amount of damage undone
• Gradual
• Burst
• Single target
• Area of effect

Utility

Everything else that doesn't fall within mobility or power

Buff

• Increases Power
• Increases Mobility

Debuff

• Decreases Power
• Decreases Mobility

Crowd Control

• Effect applied to group of players within a specified area simultaneously

Deception

• Invisibility
• Feign Death
• Disguise
• Fake sounds
• Anything else that can cause confusion to the enemy

Class Integrity:

Keeping classes unique and separate

Scout

• High Speed - Doesn't cost health.
• Double Jumping
• Low HP
• Hit scan
• Close range
• Single Target
• Single target throw ables
• Debuff
• Margin of Error: medium

Soldier

• Explosives
• Hitscan
• Straight Line Projectiles
• Explode on Impact
• Explosive jumping
• Splash Target
• Buff
• Margin of Error: medium

Pyro

• Fire
• Close Range
• Crowd Control
• Instant damage
• Splash Target
• Anti-Fire
• Particle based
• Margin of Error: low

Demoman

• Explosives
• Arced projectiles
• Explode on Impact with players or buildings
• Explode on timing
• Explode on manual player input
• Explosive jumping
• Area Denial
• Margin of Error: medium

Engineer

• Buildings
• Burst damage
• Area denial
• Crowd control
• Logistics
• Healing
• Hitscan
• Explosives
• Margin of Error: medium

Heavy

• Low Speed
• Spin up
• Constant Damage
• Burst damage
• Big Health
• Hitscan
• Margin of Error: high

Medic

• Healing
• Stalemate breaker
• Team Enhancer
• Sustain
• Uber
• Arced Projectile
• Margin of Error: Low

Sniper

• Long range
• Charge time
• Instant kill (any range)
• Debuff
• Hitscan
• Penetrate
• Burst damage
• Margin of Error: High

Spy

• Close range
• Deception
• Instant kill (close range)
• Hitscan
• Anti-building
• Margin of Error: High

Margin of Error:

'How much a mistake impacts each class

Margin of Error: Low Example

• Heavy's minigun shoots in a wide circle and only needs to be pointed at an enemy. Corrections to the aim are made fairly easily, allowing for many mistakes while still doing decent damage.

Margin of Error: Medium Example

• Soldiers or Demomen having an explosion radius can still make them do decent damage, even if the rockets/bombs don't hit the center of the target. This allows them to get some consistent damage, even when not hitting perfect shots.

Margin of Error: High Example

• The Sniper's Sniper rifle will do no damage to anything if he misses, basically rendering him useless
• If a Spy is found out before getting a backstab, the spy will get killed and not killed anyone, basically rendering him useless.