Given the current situation, i'd figure i'd try and update GVH again in hopes it'll become popular again. Only problem is, there's hardly any ideas to warrant an update! No critical bugs as far as im aware to get rid of, and only a handfull of potential changes.
I'll list a few ideas here that are likely making it into the next version, by all means give some input about them if you got any to share. Reasons for these changes are listed as well. Keep an eye out for the list as i'll keep adding things to the list if anything else comes up.
Humans:
Engineer - Saws, when 'expired', tripped over, or used up in an attack become ammo, similar to the Hunter's arrows, but with a 25% chance to break. (1)
Cyborg - (WIP) The fuel system might be revamped to have around 75 fuel max, regenerate fuel a bit slower, up to 75, increased costs of 6 to dash normally and 10 to dash upwards and 2 units of fuel used to fly normally per... 'tic'/button press. (2)
Ghost Buster - Ghouls killed now simply give him the weapon so he can switch freely between default weapon and various upgrades. They still share ammo and are bound to new keys. (5)
Ghost Buster's useitem button will now sacrifice his currently equipped upgrade weapon to gain 100 ammo and switches back to the default weapon. Alt-fire, now that upgrading is automatic, is now set to switch to the Ghost Traps. (8)
Oh, and killing a Ghoul while you already had its upgrade will net you 100 ammo instead. Similar to how you could say, kill a Sjas, upgrade, kill the other Sjas and upgrade for a quick refill.
Ghouls:
Jitterskull - Attack range is reduces to about 3/5 of the original range when attacking recently after having 'teleported'/moved. Thus reducing the effective 'death zone' around a Jitterskull while its in action, forcing it to corner or close in on a target to kill it. (3)
Jitterskull's 'chewing' delay after killing a foe has been halved. His regular delay after an attack is also reduced a bit, making him able to attack a bit faster. (6)
Sjas - Slightly increased attack range from 115 to 123. (7)
Choke - Also slightly increased range from 52 to 65 (7) (WIP)
Other:
Trap-Tastic! achievement to 4 Ghost Trap kills. (4)
The reasons why:
(1) - Engineer in its current state is rather... mediocre. Both in offensive combat and that he's relatively useless once he runs out of both Saws and coal for his Steam Cannon. Hence the idea of having these replenish, wether he'll use them to keep firing Hunter-style, or keep installing traps, if the Ghouls dont take him out as he recovers the saws.
(2) - At the suggestion of a friend who complained about both the lack of freedom and that you're basically tied to the ground with little to no defence against fast and anti-air targets save for shooting them this was suggested. Still being worked on, the greatest risk would be that the Cyborg just recovers too fast and whittles his enemies down endlessly while remaining untouched.
(3) - Jitterskull always has been proven to be quite effective in most scenarios, mostly due to his beyond average range shared with the ability to instantly kill his enemies with one good hit. This should make things plain more fair for the Humans, but still allow Jitterskull to do his job of intercepting or cornering Humans. Though it makes him less viable in large open areas. Testing proved this to work in 1 vs 1, while there werent any resources to test with larger groups in theory it should work just fine. Maybe this will fix the Jitterskull spam issue as well.
(4) - Hardly ever saw anyone score FIVE kills with it, at most 3, or 4 rarely.
(5) - The Ghostbuster's upgraded weapons where rarely better then his default gun, and often more ammo-consuming if they where, or specialized otherwise. This should make him more viable for offensive purposes, instead of mostly camping with Ghost Traps. Not to mention, he has to earn those extra weapons, so it should be relatively fair. He only gains ammo if he already has the weapon he can obtain from the Ghoul he killed.
Bound at: 3 (Echo, as it feels like a shotgun), 4 (Blood, like a machinegun?), 5 (Soul, same as 4?), 6(Bone, like a railgun), 7 (Ice, its here due to having no comparable weapon)
Still being worked on, aka its a WIP. Also a suggestion from a friend.
(6) - In cooperation with the range nerf, this should make him easier to keep at bay, but still as dangerous as always up close, and remain viable in large fights by not being slown down too long. Mostly a friend's idea.
(7) - The range increase on Sjas should make things a tad better in the larger Human maps while keeping the same results in smaller maps. It should also help Choke a bit with damaging targets a bit more while they are on the run or actively fighting him.
Edit: Seems the range increase for Choke needs further work.
(8) - This isnt much different from what the altfire and useinventory did before. Should allow the Ghost Buster to sacrifice a weapon if unable to hide, shoot and guard himself with traps. And having altfire make him switch to the Ghost Traps makes it relatively easy to set up Ghost Traps, as they also use altfire to deploy the traps while regular fire activates them.
If you have any suggestions to improve these ideas or ideas of your own, who knows. Know that i cant accept every idea though, it might go against the nature of the game, or simply be to cheap or too much of a nerf, or such things.
Edit: Oh and its probaly not too usefull to ask for major map changes. Anything small or a fix, sure. But i doubt map owners would be pleased about big changes without their permission.
Well from the tons of testing vs both actual players and bots, he can still hold his own in most situations, as long as the map isnt a massive flat arena without a single piece of cover or height difference. Take in to account the chaos of battle and his dodgy movement and he should still be fine with approaching groups of humans.
It will take more effort to pin down a human and kill him, or simply intercept him though, as Jitterskull's range is around 2/3 of what it used to be at the moment. The limited range effect only takes place if he moved recently, though. To compensate his recovery from attacking is a bit quicker and his blood delay when he's chewing on someone is essentially halved.
So its basically a bit more power and less range. Hm, havent made much progress lately though, been quite distracted with other things due to the lack of ideas to work with.
Would have loved to be able to update it again, but the list of changes is pretty damn tiny:
Engineer:
-Saws that have been triggered or expired drop as ammo, with small chance of failure.
Cyborg:
-New fuel system: Higher regeneration cap but more usage and slightly less powerfull regen.
Allowing more use of the jetpack as a means to escape Sjas, Jitterskull or to get around.
Ghostbuster:
-Killing ghouls grants the GB a weapon instantly on a different slot. Still uses the same ammo count though. Getting the same weapon again boosts ammo instead. Alt-fire switches to Ghost Traps. Useinventory sacrifices current upgraded weapon for ammo.
Sjas:
-Rather small range increase.
Jitterskull:
-2/3-ish attack range after having recently moved. Recovers a little faster, killed enemies are chewn on 50% faster.
Choke:
-Slightly increased melee range.
Other:
-Trap-Tastic achievement now needs 4 instead of 5.
-Minor filesize decrease.