Partly reintroduced low-bound of damage variation from random damage spread, for weapons which ignore falloff (Sniper Rifle and Grenade Launcher).
Now, damage in the tail-end of falloff range (>665.6 units) will decrease gradually, down to the minimum damage variation (-14.8%) at max falloff range (1024 units).
Note that critical hits ignore falloff and damage spread.
Effectively, this means direct hits with Grenade Launchers will deal 85 damage at 1024 units, gradually going down from 100 damage at 665.6 units
The Sniper Rifle has a 2.5x extended range vs. other weapons. This means a fully charged bodyshot with the Sniper Rifle will deal 128 damage at 2560 units, going down from 150 at 1664 units. And an uncharged bodyshot will deal 43 at 2560 units, going down from 50 at 1664.
We think there was a balance oversight when random damage spread was disabled by default. When it was disabled, we lost the variance at the lower end of damage. Although zero variance is the expected value for damage, in practice, damage thresholds were designed for damage spread to sometimes proc at the lower end. For example, with random damage spread on, grenades would sometimes do 85 damage, and this would have implications for thresholds beyond just the unpredictability. Although the randomness of this mechanic felt unfair, we think it’s good to bring back the lower-end in a way which further encourages fights to take place at closer range, further emphasizing the falloff mechanic.
Experimental change: reworked the Soda Popper
Hype glow now always shows on the Soda Popper when hype is available
Hype is activated by jumping a third time while the Soda Popper is fully deployed
You are marked for death while Hype is activated
Hype is lost upon touching the ground
This transforms the Soda Popper into a high-risk, high-reward aerial mobility tool, which rewards players for maintaining air time through well timed jumps, and punishes them harder for failing. It also makes the ability much more readable to enemy players.
Fixes
Reverted experimental changes except global ramp-up and spread changes
