No sugar-coating it. Enemy Ogryns are in an awful state. They have to be spammed by the AI director to pose a threat, and it’s very annoying to deal with them in huge numbers, especially if you are not using any weapon without Uncanny Strike or that isn’t in the Meta.
So I made propose changes to these enemies, so their numbers can be significantly reduced and, in turn, better the gameplay experience for the players.
I’ll first go over changes I’d propose to implement to all the Ogryns then I’ll go over each type and give my suggestions as to what changes they can get to be spawned much less in compensation.
Changes to all Ogryn enemies
Details and Poll
All enemy Ogryns share the same annoying issues.
They are very easy to stagger
To put it simply, singular enemy Ogryns don’t get to do anything because they are too easily staggered by things. Voice of Command, explosions from either barrel or grenades, Arbites with all of their stagger talents, Ogryn with Impactful Heavy Hitter Keystone talent. All of these things render every Ogryn enemy completely harmless for a couple seconds. And in these couple of seconds almost every time they die immediately.
They are too quiet
It’s infuriating how all Ogryns, most notably Crushers, are so quiet that they can easily go unnoticed behind players backs until they attack, at which point it’s almost always too late to save oneself. Being aware of your surroundings is one thing, but not being able to hear giant Abhumans in heavy armor stomp up to you is just unacceptable.
The impact of their attacks are too weak
Being honest here, this only applies to Bulwarks and Reapers, but it still somewhat applies to the Crusher, so let me elaborate: What I mean by “Impact of their attacks” is that their attacks do not communicate the strength of the enemy. An example of that is Bulwarks and Reapers close-combat attacks that are blocked only take away 12% of the player’s stamina. Crushers are done right in that regard since, if blocked, their attacks can take away 50% or even 62% of the player’s stamina.
However, there’s something that all Ogryns lack in regard to communicating the power behind their swings. It’s the ability to launch players into the air. VT2’s Chaos Warriors and Bulwarks had this feature in their upward-swing-attacks. If it hit a player who failed to block it threw them away a few meters.
- Increase Ogryns resistance to stagger
- Either significantly increase or rework Ogryns audio
- Increase the impact of Ogryns attacks (attacks take away more stamina, upward attacks launch players into the air like the knee kick from the Scab Capitans)
- All of the above
- Neither
- Other (comment below)
*Extras
Ogryn Stagger Resistance – Detailed Breakdown
Ogryns have three stagger levels:
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Level 1 (≈ 2 seconds): Causes the Ogryn to take a single step back.
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Level 2 (≈ 3 seconds): Forces stronger reactions, such as taking several steps back (Crusher, Reaper) or breaking guard (Bulwark).
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Level 3 (≈ 5 seconds): Knocks the Ogryn to the ground.
All stagger levels cancels out the Ogryns actions (attacks for instance).
When I suggest increasing Ogryn stagger resistance, I mean the following changes:
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Explosions and Voice of Command currently stagger Ogryns to Level 3; this would instead stagger them to Level 2.
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Arbites – Break the Line currently staggers all Ogryns to Level 3. With the change:
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Crushers and Reapers would still be staggered to Level 3.
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Bulwarks would be staggered to Level 2.
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Using Break the Line again while a Bulwark is already staggered would then escalate the stagger to Level 3.
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Ogryns with Heavy Hitter and Impactful (at max stacks) using light attacks:
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Currently, light attacks stagger Ogryns to Level 1, then to Level 2 within 1–3 hits.
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With a pickaxe, light attacks currently stagger directly to Level 2, then to Level 3 within 1–3 hits.
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With increased stagger resistance, light attacks would require more hits to reach Level 1, then Level 2.
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Pickaxes would no longer skip stagger levels, instead staggering Ogryns to Level 1 first, then Level 2.
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Changes to Crushers
Details and Poll
Carapace issue
Most weapons struggle with Carapace. Without Uncanny Strike or any other rending talents they are completely useless against Crushers. That only makes the outliers that much more powerful, while leaving the weaker alternatives in the dust.
Lack of an audio cue when attacking a specific player
This is something that existed in VT2, and it helped greatly to inform the players who are currently being targeted by the Chaos Warrior. Not only does the targeted player hear a loud, deep “thump” sound, which indicated that the Chaos Warrior is locked onto them, but they also hear the Chaos Warrior address the character, they play as, directly, which served to characterize these enemies and their relation with the playable characters.
- Increase the Carapace-penetration value, on weakspot hits, on all weapons struggling with Carapace (ex. Heavy Sword)
- Give Crushers a Flak weakspot on head.
- Make Crushers play a distinct audio cue, so the player knows they are being targeted
- Increase the speed of Crushers attack-animation on higher difficulties
- All of the above
- Neither
- Other (comment below)
*Extras
Increasing Crushers attack speed on higher difficulties - detailed breakdown
Crusher attacks have fixed animation durations that determine how quickly each strike is executed. Currently, their attack timings are approximately as follows:
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Standing overhead swing: ~2.0 seconds
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Walking forward overhead swing: ~1.25 seconds
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Running side swing: ~1.0 second
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Downward fist slam: ~1.0 second
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Standing side swing: ~0.75 seconds
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Forward kick: ~0.75 seconds
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Upward swing: ~0.75 seconds
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Elbow strike: ~0.5 seconds
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Backhand slap: ~0.5 seconds
Proposed Changes on Higher Difficulties
From Damnation difficulty and above, increasing the Crusher’s attack speed would result in the following adjusted animation times:
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Standing overhead swing: ~1.5 seconds
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Walking forward overhead swing: ~1.0 second
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Running side swing: ~0.75 seconds
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Downward fist slam: ~0.75 seconds
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Standing side swing: ~0.5 seconds
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Forward kick: ~0.5 seconds
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Upward swing: ~0.5 seconds
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Elbow strike: ~0.25 seconds
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Backhand slap: ~0.25 seconds
Changes to Bulwarks
Details and Poll
Almost nothing can break their guard
Bulwarks cannot be made vulnerable to attacks if it’s not a staggering ability. The only outlier I know of is the Ogryn Pickaxe which, I saw, is able to break the guard of the Bulwark by simply hitting his shield long enough.
They are unarmored
This is the case of “If their spawns will be significantly lowered, then they need a buff to compensate” and Bulwarks have a completely exposed torso and head.
- Make Bulwark’s shield have a stagger meter–enough hits on the shield break the Bulwarks guard, leaving him open to attacks
- Give the Bulwark an either Carapace or Flak torso
- Give the Bulwark an either Carapace or Flak head
- Increase the Bulwark’s health
- Neither
- Other (comment below)
Changes to Reapers
Details and Poll
They are too easily suppressed
Now, since the AI director can sometimes spawn 8+ Reapers at the same time, it makes sense to suppress them so easily. However, if their spawns are to be significantly lowered, then they need some kind of buff to compensate.
- Increase Reaper’s immunity to suppression
- Increase the Reaper’s health
- Neither
- Other (comment below)
Thank you to anyone who contributes to the discussion, and thank you to @IGN_Vera for inspiring me to make this Community Poll! I look forward to reading feedback.
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now we obviously can’t have a full nurgle enemy in a nurgle themed game, that would be outright absurd and destroy the…..check excuse lists….balance, yeah, balance
