The double bladed-energy sword is meant to be a loud, conspicuous weapon capable of easily killing unarmed or lightly-armed targets en-masse (read: Assistants, Service Staff, Doctors, ect.).
However, due to the prevalence and ease-of-access of stun-based weapons, a desworder is usually isn't dealt with by cooperation or wit, but rather a lucky baton strike which renders him prone on the floor. The hit is usually delivered by a security officer or a valid hunter. Afterwards, it's easy to shove (3 second paralysis) and kill the traitor, usually with their own weapon. People avoid the double-bladed energy sword due to its random nature (source: it was revealed to me in a dream). Your life and death with this weapon is usually influenced solely by RNG.
The only form of counter play is either:
- Quickly conceal the sword in bag and continue fighting when you collapse on the floor - not applicable to tele-batons, and risky all around. You might still get shoved with ease and drop your weapon - game over.
- Teleport away before you collapse - semi-applicable to tele-batons, but the time to do so is usually very short, as most players will follow-up a successful baton hit with a shove - game over. Also, you might be teleported to a shitty or unsafe location - and get killed by a crewmember, now that you are without a weapon (and are usually already going loud and hunted by the crew)
- Have stun immunity from chems - Bath-salts (take obnoxious amount of time to make and don't block stamina slowdown, deal high brain damage and are addictive), Meth, probably some other ones I forgot to list. This one is fine, but is un-fun to utilize and plain and simply boring to both set-up and deal with on each side.
Instead, the de-sword's laser-deflecting quality is a defensive one - officers are forced to engage you in melee combat, which in turn you will also lose due to random-block chance your weapon possesses.
From what I understand, the coders want to make the weapon more offensive and dangerous to deal with at the cost of decreased defense. This will be the main idea behind the rework.
Rework
(Note: In each scenario we assume that
has combat-mode turned on and clicks 
exactly once.)Against single target:
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<--- assistant|
<--- traitor with desword|
Translated to in-game grid: both are facing each other and are next to each other (but not adjacent)
- The desword hits twice per swing (32 brute x 2 = 64 damage) - critting in two swings. This makes it even with most stun-based weapons (which still take 1 swing to kill a de-sworder, mind you).
Against two targets
|
|
<--- assistant , bartender |
<--- traitor with desword|
in-game grid: Assistant-traitor same as above, bartender
standing next to , but still adjacent to traitor (his melee range). Note: can be either standing on the left or right assuming he is still lined up with the assistant.- The double bladed energy sword hits for 32 brute damage and for 32 brute damage each on the same tick (when traitor clicks assistant)
Against three targets
|
|
<--- assistant , bartender , clown |.....
<--- traitor with desword|
(Note: Ignore the dots (".") - i couldn't format it properly otherwise.)
Grid: Assistant-traitor same as above,
and on each side of - making them adjacent to 
- The double bladed energy sword hits for 32 brute damage and either or , also for 32 brute damage - choosing at random each swing, as long as one of the doesn't exit range - then it's back to 2-person model (the one above it.)
to fight one/two maximum at a time or die miserably - the batons will eventually add up and overwhelm the traitor.If
is standing adjacent to and clicks him, he will only strike twice, if someone else is touching with and still inside traitor's melee range - they will be hit as well (splitting damage between them, 32 brute each).Keep in mind that desword will only hit people next to the person you click.
...So
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|
|
|
--->
hits both and with desword, hitting each of them a single time for 32 brute - does not work (instead, hits for 64 dmg).Nerfs and other changes:
- [BUFF] flat 75% laser/disabler reflect, 30% bullet/physical reflect. - Laser deflect chance can be lowered if so desired.
- [NERF] De-sword costs 18 TC again.
- [BUFF] 75% melee block chance, if last hit was later than 60 seconds - absorbs (nullifies) the hit and turns off desword - traitor can turn it on again 2.5/3/4 (adjustable by coder for the sake of balance) seconds later, but
the desword won't "absorb" another hit for at least 60 seconds. - higher numbers mean that the desworder actually has a gap in his defense - 0.5 or 1.5 seconds -- where they can't use their weapon (because its turned off)
- [BUFF] Make de-sword have 15% block-chance against body-throws - instead of being knocked prone when hit with a body, it slows you down by 80% for 3 seconds and has a 30% chance of making you drop the desword on the floor. If blocked, will split the thrown body in two, gibbing it (or making it spill its organs) - for comedic effect.
The point of these changes is to make de-sword more melee-centric - forcing the crew to fight a desworder together. The laser-reflect has to stay, as it forces the crew to fight in melee as opposed to kiting him with 
. Furthermore, de-sword has the advantage in 1-on-1 fights thanks to its block chance, but will still succumb to collective efforts of the crew - and will still lose to bullet weapons. Reflect-chance for lasers can be further lowered if you wish, but keep it sane - putting it too low will simply let the crew kill the de-sworder from range without actually fighting him in melee. As body-throw buff: most people can see if someone is fishing for body-throws and can adjust their playstyle accordingly (retreat). If someone tries to body-throw them in melee, instead of an instant defeat, it gives both and an equal chance of getting the advantage (assuming it is an 1-on-1 scenario). 18 TC to accomodate for the increased damage, block and bodythrow buff. Desword can eat a single weapon strike, assuming you didn't get hit in the last 60 seconds - and then has normal 75% block chance. If that's too powerful, then the desword can have lowered block rate to something more sane, like 50%. This means that desword goes well against solo people with weapons and stun-batons but will likely lose if you fight more than 2 people at once.
Closing thoughts
Why change this?
- It makes the de-sword a more varied weapon with clearer downsides - desword is a beast 1-on-1 but struggles taking on more than 2 crewmembers, and still loses to bullets/laser semi-frequently.
- Fills out its intended role in the game's balance - loud weapon used for mass murder - while keeping ways for the crew to deal with it.
- It removes RNG from the weapon (mostly) - making your defeats be due to your mistakes instead of dying to a lucky baton hit the other party landed on you.
)
