Rebalance sniper bots to be more like T2 range bots

[lL1l1]

Description of the proposed changes

@Rhaelya's opening in the Discord thread

Snipers create relatively uninteractive gameplay. Due to their high range nothing beyond long range units such as artillery, spearheads or long range experimentals reliably counter them so unless there is major micro mistake they should never really die which makes them very oppressive until the counters reach a critical mass at which point the snipers are more or less completely shut down as they are outranged and die quickly. This leads to rather static gameplay as the game is stalled to either make an artillery position or invest into an expensive experimental.

The intent of the following changes is to make sniperbots more usable in 1v1 / small team games, as well as create more interactive gameplay overall. To achieve this range is reduced by a sizeable amount and speed is increased a bit, making them more of a kiting unit similar to hoplite/mongoose that can be used alongside the main T3 army. Their costs are lowered and the high energy ratio is removed making them have ratios closer to the other T3 directfire units. This way there are less infrastructure requirements while early sniperbots are less oppressive due to more options to counter them early by closing the shorter range gap with units.

This way snipers fill the role as higher range, lower hp kiting bots that can deal with percies/bricks. The answers to them should also be more varied as the much shorter range should allow for more positioning and opportunities to close the smaller gap. T2 point defence (50 range) and other directfire experimentals should also be more effective.
Their role should be less that of directfire artillery and instead closer to an actual directfire land unit that interacts with other directfire land units.

Stat summary:

• Sprite Striker: T3 Sniper Bot (XAL0305)

  • Energy cost: 25000 (35.7 e/m) -> 7700 (11.0 e/m)
  • Build time: 4950 (7.07 bt/m) -> 3850 (5.5 bt/m)
  • Max speed: 2.5 -> 2.7
  • Acceleration and Braking: 2.5 -> 3.7
  • Heavy Disruptor Cannon:
    • Range: 60 -> 47

• Usha-Ah: T3 Sniper Bot (XSL0305)

  • Mass cost: 780 -> 750

    Mass cost slightly reduced to bring DPS/mass in line with Aeon sniper.

  • Energy cost: 27000 (34.6 e/m) -> 8250 (11.0 e/m)

  • Build time: 5400 (6.9 bt/m) -> 4125 (5.5 bt/m)

  • Max speed: 2.3 -> 2.8

  • Acceleration and Braking: 2.3 -> 3.8

  • Sih Energy Rifle:

    • Range: 55 -> 42

  • Sih Energy Rifle (Sniper Mode):

    • Range: 65 -> 52

    • Reduce the duration of the reload slowdown with a faster reload damage model:

      • Damage: 2000 -> 1500
      • Reload time: 15.2s -> 11.4s

  • Sniper mode speed: 1.74 -> 2.0

    The last patch changing sniper mode speed said that it was changed to 2.0, but an engine bug made the speed multiplier apply twice, resulting in 1.74 speed. This new speed is an intentional buff, not just a bug fix.

Testing done on the proposed changes

Number changes without testing. Needs good gameplay testing because this balance is heavily reliant on micro and economic situations.

At the minimum I checked the commit history for snipers and used that to not go overboard on the buildtime/energy ratio changes like was proposed in the discord thread originally:
After T3 Rebalance January 2018 Aeon sniper cost 720 mass 8k e 4k bt for 2.85 speed (from 3) 70 range 142 DPS (same DPS as now)
The last time Aeon sniper had an 11 e/m ratio in January 2020 it cost 800 mass 8900 energy 4500 bt for 2.6 speed, 70 range, and 142 DPS
Augusted 2022 it was changed to 880 m 14080 e 4950 bt
October 2023 2.6 -> 2.4 speed
October 2023 changed to 700 m 25k e and 60 max radius
February 2025 Was the patch I worked on with giving higher accuracy and 2.5 move speed

Checklist

- [ ] Changes are annotated, including comments where useful

• Changes are documented in a changelog snippet according to the guidelines.
• Request 2-3 reviewers from the list of reviewers and their areas of knowledge.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Balance Changes
  • Rebalanced T3 sniper bots (Sprite Striker, Usha-Ah, Absolver) for improved counterplay: reduced weapon/rifle range and adjusted sniper-mode behavior.
  • Sprite Striker and Usha-Ah now cost less and build faster, with retuned mobility (higher max speed plus improved acceleration/braking).
  • Usha-Ah’s sniper performance was adjusted with a faster reload and reduced damage for sniper-mode pressure.
  • Absolver’s shield disruptor cannon range was reduced to better balance sniper matchups.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

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Run ID: 4389812e-092f-43d4-bb62-65dba5d1622c

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 149efc0 and ac470df.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• changelog/snippets/balance.7142.md
• units/XAL0305/XAL0305_unit.bp
• units/XSL0305/XSL0305_unit.bp

💤 Files with no reviewable changes (2)

• units/XAL0305/XAL0305_unit.bp
• units/XSL0305/XSL0305_unit.bp

✅ Files skipped from review due to trivial changes (1)

• changelog/snippets/balance.7142.md

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Balance adjustments to three T3 sniper bot units: Sprite Striker (XAL0305), Usha-Ah (XSL0305), and Absolver (DAL0310). Changes reduce build costs, adjust movement physics (speed, acceleration, braking), and lower weapon MaxRadius values. Sprite Striker and Usha-Ah receive sniper-mode adjustments; ACU targeting is removed from all. A changelog entry documents all modifications.

Changes

T3 Sniper Bot Balance

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Sprite Striker economy, physics, and weapon tuning units/XAL0305/XAL0305_unit.bp	Reduces BuildCostEnergy and BuildTime; increases MaxAcceleration, MaxBrake, and MaxSpeed; removes SNIPEMODE category; reduces main weapon MaxRadius from 60 to 47; removes COMMAND from weapon TargetPriorities.
Usha-Ah economy, physics, and weapon tuning units/XSL0305/XSL0305_unit.bp	Reduces BuildCostEnergy, BuildCostMass, and BuildTime; increases MaxAcceleration, MaxBrake, and MaxSpeed; updates SniperModeSpeedMultiplier; removes SNIPEMODE category; reduces main gun MaxRadius from 55 to 42 and sniper gun MaxRadius from 65 to 52; lowers sniper-mode Damage from 2000 to 1500 and adjusts RateOfFire from 10/152 to 10/114; removes COMMAND from main gun and sniper-mode gun TargetPriorities.
Absolver weapon range and changelog units/DAL0310/DAL0310_unit.bp, changelog/snippets/balance.7142.md	Reduces MainGun MaxRadius from 65 to 52; adds changelog snippet #7142 documenting all three units' balance changes including economy reductions, physics adjustments, weapon range reductions, and Usha-Ah sniper reload model update.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Suggested reviewers

• Rhaelya
• BlackYps

Poem

🐇 Sniper bots now cheaper, speedier too,
But their shots fall short—a balance brew!
Sprite Striker, Usha-Ah, Absolver's might,
Retuned for fairer T3 fights. ⚔️

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: rebalancing sniper bots to function more like T2 range bots with reduced range and increased speed.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description is comprehensive, including a detailed rationale for the changes, specific stat modifications, testing notes, and completed checklist items. All critical sections are well-documented.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@changelog/snippets/balance.7142.md`:
- Line 34: The Absolver T3 Shield Disruptor entry in the changelog contains an
incorrect unit blueprint ID. Change the blueprint ID from DAA0310 to DAL0310 in
the line containing "Absolver: T3 Shield Disruptor" to ensure the changelog
accurately reflects the correct unit blueprint identifier and prevents confusion
for players and modders cross-referencing unit blueprints.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: eb006efc-ea9f-4513-a340-f064641c1df3

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between c35a745 and bba5bfd.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

• changelog/snippets/balance.7142.md
• units/DAL0310/DAL0310_unit.bp
• units/XAL0305/XAL0305_unit.bp
• units/XSL0305/XSL0305_unit.bp

[Rhaelya]

Changes work as intended. There will likely be some further adjustments after some test games are played to fine tune the snipers.

[hotcheese4444]

I'm concerned this next patch's balance adjustments are a hair far reaching and strangely prioritized.

What do we have now:

• GC overhaul
• Sniper Bot overhaul
• Czar AA

With these open:

• Paragon 70% production nerf
• SACU overhaul
• Beetle Overhaul/reversion
• Loyalist Stun Duration
• Novax overhaul

It seems like getting toes in the water on the SACU overhaul, Loyalist rebalance against T2 (especially ilshys) and making Novax less annoying and demoralizing to play against all have years of discussions and consensus that they're a problem.

[lL1l1]

@hotcheese4444

far reaching

Our next milestone (deployment) is august 14th, so we'll have 2 months to test the far-reaching/complicated changes like sniper bots and SACUs.

strangely prioritized

If you mean by the open vs merged PRs it's just a work-in-progress. Balance team had a meeting on the 20th to make some final decisions on merging PRs. We focused it around land changes since that was what the attention was on, and using this early meeting let us prioritize these complicated changes so they can be tested more. I think in a month we'll have another meeting focused on end-game stuff like paragon, scathis, novax, nuke, and whatever else we didn't get to like loya stun duration.

[lL1l1]

Also while you were writing that message we were working on merging the changes to SACUs and beetles, so it's not as many open PRs as you listed right now.

[hotcheese4444]

I see, so there is time and plans to test these changes. I'm used to merges getting approved in bulk close to patch day, thanks