With the future 1.1 patch comes a wave of changes designed to increase the base difficulty of the game while normalizing Nightmare to play more like Hard. Nightmare itself could be quite challenging, but it's not an often picked mode (and quite a few custom maps don't even give the option). Hard tends to be the more commonly picked difficulty, so it's important that all difficulties have something to offer. Below are some of the changes coming to achieve that.
First up is damage. While the player's damage output was generally ok, the shotguns stood as a particular outlier. Quake's enemy health numbers leave a lot to be desired when it comes to balancing weapons like this, so they've been ditched in favor of a new model that'll allow for a better base to work from. The result is that some weapons will take a few more shots to kill without being noticeably spongier. Shotguns are seeing further nerfs with a wider spread and reduced projectile speed to help keep their range in check. Combined with the enemy health changes they're now much more close range oriented while still being ok out to mid range.
Map: A Verdant Dawn by zigi
Items aren't escaping more nerfs with bonus HP being targeted this time around. Armor tends to be a weak point in terms of balance since the player is given so much of it. The result is that some already weak enemies end up too underpowered. Tier 1 and 2 armor are being dropped to 50 and 100 points respectively given how common they are. Tier 3 armor remains at 200 to make it a much better incentive for exploring. Megahealths also tend to get spammed and keep the player topped off too often. They're getting dropped down to 50 health with the trade-off that health over 100 no longer drains (and can even be carried between maps now). This should keep them rewarding to find without having them nullify the results of previous or future encounters.
Monsters are continuing to get beefed up. Like the player, they're getting a new damage model with projectiles in particular getting their damage raised across the board. Some projectile speeds have also been increased to make certain monsters more urgent to fight as right now most monsters suffer disproportionately at mid range. Lower tier monsters in particular will be seeing some love this patch with a couple new tricks up their sleeves. Other than more bug fixes and AI improvements, monster reaction times are also being tweaked to be more fair on Nightmare and their pain thresholds have been re-evaluated to make them a bit more formidable. Combined with the item changes they should now offer a much greater challenge on all difficulties.
Last on the agenda is co-op which is getting even more features. After you die you'll now respawn in place with a brief window of invulnerability which should keep the flow going much better when playing with a group. Backpacks will no longer drop but players will now get to keep their ammo. To help with resource management, some items have been changed so that they'll remain for all players to pick up once. Also being introduced is a new mode: Nightmare Co-op. Normally co-op can get a bit stale since the fear of death is removed. In Nightmare Co-op, if even one player dies, the map is restarted. Make sure not to catch any friendly rockets! If none of this sounds appealing, setting the coop console variable to 2 will now let you play classic co-op.
While it's still being tested and refined, you can look forward to this patch around mid October.
