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[Icy]

I've added checkboxes for every suggestion now.

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[~] = Partially implemented.
[?] = Uncertain if implemented.
Strikethroughs = Suggestion rejected.

[Omega Tyrant]

Been a while, but I thought up of some more changes:

*Change Gunrunner's prerequisite of Juggler to Finesse 2

Gunrunner being allowed Whizkid in the betas has proven to be a big help and it can now be decent with a very high potential ceiling, though it still has the major flaw of requiring so many ancillary traits before it can really get going; for Gunrunner's shooting while running effect to be actually useful, you practically need to get Shottyman, requiring three more levels beyond the six you already need to get Gunrunner. But you also really want Whizkid, but because of the prerequisites and direly needing Shottyman, you can't get WK1 until level 11 at earliest and WK2 not until level 12! By making Fin2 a prerequisite instead of Juggler, it would allow Gunrunner to spec into WK a level earlier, giving it a slight buff to make that heavy investment it requires a bit less painful. I also think firing faster instead of juggling your weapons is a more thematically fitting prerequisite for Gunrunner too.

*Give Fireangel some sort of additional offensive perk, one possible idea being whenever they use a weapon that shoots rockets, give them a +2 dice bonus to such weapons.

The big weakness of Fireangel that holds it back is its terrible offense without it investing in sidearming melee, and while the explosion immunity from indirect hits is a nice defensive bonus, it's not so strong as to be worth having no offensive boon at all. A simple and thematically fitting idea is to simply have them hit harder with rocket launchers, which wouldn't be that significant of a buff but would be something that could help and would farther establish Fireangel as the "rocket launcher build". This would also help the ammo efficiency problem that holds using rocket launchers back as weapons (actually trying to make heavy offensive use of rocket launchers with Fireangel will run into ammo problems without making a Nanomachic Rocket Launcher), and even farther no-damage rocket jumps from these stronger rockets would be a nice bonus too. The bug I noted in the beta thread of direct hit explosions doing less or no damage would need to be fixed though, or else this change could backfire. You could instead give it some offensive bonus to shotguns if you want to emphasize it being a shotgun mastery and make it an actually viable pick for Angel Of Shotgunnery, but I don't know what you could do for it (Shottyhead already has the faster shotguns down and Army Of The Dead has the harder-hitting shotguns down).

*Change Gun Kata to have an instant pistol attack after a successful dodge instead of it being 90% faster, and give it the defensive perk to apply Dodgemaster to all attacks between moves.

I don't ever really recall seeing Gun Kata brought up often among the bad masteries, but I always been very underwhelmed by it, and after farther playing around with it, I'm firmly of the stance now that it's a crappy mastery. One big problem similar to Gunrunner is that it requires so many ancillary traits; it technically only requires SoG2, but in all practicality you need SoG3 or else you're just going to be too slow and too weak when late Phobos and Deimos comes, so it may as well as be a mastery that requires 8 levels. However, unless you're lucky enough to find one of the Unique pistols early, you also really need Whizkid to buff your weakass pistols, which requires two levels of Finesse that you don't really care much for as a Pistol build and then those two levels of Whizkid, at which point that's already 12 levels. But there's still SoG 4 and SoG5 after that! And you would also really like a level of Eagle Eye or two because pistols miss a lot at far range (especially if the proposed Magnum gets added)! And if you want Intuition, you wouldn't even be able to fit all that in on any difficulty below Nightmare outside of A100! You get an early game that is slightly less hard than the other Pistol masteries, but compared to other builds, you're just going to always be behind them at every stage of the game, while Sharpshooter at least offers a very strong midgame and still strong lategame.

But for the actual bonuses Gun Kata grants? Not very good either. The "near instant" attack dodging bonus may as well be worthless; one, you often won't be able to utilize this bonus when against hordes, rapid-firing enemies, and the VMR, and two, pistols will eventually come close to or hit the minimum firing speed, at which point this bonus is completely worthless. The other perk is you automatically reload your pistols when you kill an enemy, which can be very handy when fighting hordes, but still has problems that makes it not all that great compared to what other masteries offer; aside from often ending up in situations where you can't pick off an enemy to get that reload in (I find myself much preferring to have the reliability of one pistol + ammo box instead for this reason), if you get a bulk-modded Combat Pistol, Blaster, and/or Nanomachic Pistols, this bonus ends up pointless. You could very well argue you're better off going masterless for a Scout Pistol build, or using Pistols as Cateye instead!

Now I'm not sure how to buff Gun Kata. Changing the Dodgemaster prerequisite to HR2 + SoG3 would help, though no Dodgemaster wouldn't be thematically fitting. The main idea I have is to try making Gun Kata itself better, and we can focus on making that dodging perk not so worthless. The first change would be to make the attack after a dodge actually instant, like how Blademaster gets instant attacks on kills. This still wouldn't that much of a boon, but would be something so that it doesn't become pointless once you get your pistols' firing speed at or near 0.1 seconds, while you would also get assurance that no enemy will get an attack in immediately after you fire (I recently actually got killed by the Shambler in Hell's Armory with Gun Kata during an AoMr run because I went for a shot after a dodge thinking I would be safe, yet the timing ended up with the Shambler still getting its turn right after I shot), and it would let Gun Kata uniquely get a little more mileage out of action-based powerups, as instant actions don't count towards the action counter (and pistols as is benefit from powerups far less than other weapons because of how many more cumulative actions they use to kill things). The second change would be to give Gun Kata a unique boon of having its Dodgemaster being able to apply to all enemy attacks between moves, instead of just the first attack, as aside from getting a unique defensive boon, Gun Kata would now actually be able to more reliably try utilizing the dodging instant attack perk in scenarios beyond one-on-one encounters with single-projectile shooting enemies. I don't think this idea would be remotely broken either; you still need to be able to move in a way to execute a dodge against all incoming attacks from large hordes, you still have to be mindful of walls and obstacles to avoid getting hit by explosions, and it would still be worthless against the VMR. With these changes I think Gun Kata would still only be better than current Bullet Dance and Entrenchment, but it would be something to try making Gun Kata not so underwhelming.

*Give Bullet Dance the additional perk of being able to reload dual pistols faster.

Bullet Dance no longer having Eagle Eye blocked and the new Marine inherent resistances in the 0.9.9.8 beta has been a much appreciated buff for Bullet Dance, but the mastery is still really bad and I don't think it's viable at all in Angel Of Marksmanship, as much of the problems with it still remain; has the same "requires way too much investment" problem described prior with Gun Kata, still has to pick up a completely dead level in Triggerhappy that exacerbates its problems in late Phobos and early Deimos, and most crippling, that rapid-firing drains the small clips of pistols so fast, while Bullet Dance can do nothing to mitigate that problem without being lucky enough to build Nanomachic Pistols or finding a Combat Pistol and giving it multiple Bulk mods. The buffed Reloader can really help with this, but fitting in Reloader with all the other ancillary traits you desperately need is too much, while the other two Pistol masteries that don't deplete pistols as fast have something to mitigate reloading issues without needing to invest in Reloader (Gun Kata already been explained, and Sharpshooter can easily utilize ammo boxes). As such, Bullet Dance should get an additional perk to reload dual pistols at half the time or even faster. If reloading wasn't such a major problem for Bullet Dance, it could be halfway functional without the desperate need for Nanomachic Pistols and bulk-modded Combat Pistols.

*To buff Entrenchment, have it give +20% all resistances just from equipping a chain fire weapon in the primary slot, and give +50% all resistances when chain firing. Additionally, give it a second perk to reduce ammo consumption when chain firing.

We all know the fundamental problems with Entrenchment and some ideas have been floated, but nothing definitive has been formally proposed. Applying both my idea of +20% resistances just when equipping a chain firing weapon and Icy's idea of +50% resistances when chain firing would be a start. Another idea I thought of however, after seeing how Entrenchment works in Jupiter Hell, is to also reduce ammo consumption when chain firing (such as by having all subsequent chain firing bursts take 2/3rd of the ammo while still having the increased shots). A big problem with actually trying to utilize extensive chain firing is that unless you got a Nanomachic weapon or a Minigun, your clip will simply run out of ammo after only a few bursts, at which point you're left very vulnerable as you have to reload and then build up your chain firing all over again. Then extensive chain firing is also very wasteful with ammo too, as many of those extra shots will be overkill, and several shots get wasted when you pan from enemy to enemy, so you'll easily find yourself running out of ammo if you actually try to take advantage of Entrenchment without one of the aforementioned rare weapons. Reduced ammo consumption would help a lot here, letting you utilize Entrenchment's chain firing bonus longer before needing to reload, and making you waste a lot less ammo when doing so. Alternatively, if that cribs too much on Ammochain, Entrenchment could instead instantly reload when your clip runs out of ammo, if it can be programmed in a way to not disrupt your chain firing (though that wouldn't help the ammo wasting problem).

Or Entrenchment could just be thrown out completely for something new; even if it was buffed to be usable, the idea of it is still arguably the least exciting mastery in the game.

*Make Cacodemons and Nightmare Cacodemons attack more frequently.

I always found it weird how Cacodemons and Hell Knights are offensively equivalent, other than the Hell Knight having a slightly higher accuracy bonus. One idea to help differentiate them more is to have the Cacodemon attack substantially more often, perhaps increasing its attack chance to as high as 60%. Not only would this give Cacodemons a bit more distinct offensive behavior as a more aggressive enemy, it would also be more inline with how they actually function in Doom, where Cacodemons are more aggressive than the Hell Nobles. It would also make Cacodemons over damaging fluids even more of a hassle, when they'll be spending more time shooting at you instead of moving in to make them easier to hit. If this change is implemented, it should naturally be given to Nightmare Cacodemons as well (perhaps increasing their attack frequency all the way to 75%, tying it with the formers and Cyberdemon for most aggressive enemy), especially as Nightmare Cacodemons lost a lot of their uniqueness with all the other nightmare enemies being given fluid immunity. Nightmare Cacodemons could perhaps be made to hit a bit harder too to help better define their role as the single strong projectile enemy of the nightmare ensemble (either increasing their projectile damage to 2d8 or 3d5), as is they hit only slightly harder than regular Cacodemons, Hell Knights, and Nightmare Imps (with their projectile doing only 1 more damage on average and up to 2 more damage max).

*Add Nightmare Demons to Unholy Cathedral on UV and Nightmare difficulties.

Unholy Cathedral is gonna be really easy for melee builds no matter what unless you make it absurd, but it's also really easy for non-melee builds once you learn how to time hits between the Angel Of Death's moves with a fast enough build. So perhaps add a bit more to it by adding the strongest regular melee enemy in the game, that you also won't be able to cheese by luring them into the lava thanks to their newly added fluid immunity (and it's also weird that not even Nightmare has them, when it adds nightmare enemies to many other levels). Now there could be concern that this makes the Cathedral too difficult for builds with no Brute investment, but if you can move and attack fast enough to outspeed the AoD, then you can outspeed Nightmare Demons, so that trick will still work, you just have to be more mindful with your movements with handling a horde of them and avoid getting yourself cornered. Additionally, with Cathedral and Vaults having been swapped, the buffed Ironman giving you inherent melee resistance, and the Ballistic Armor assembly being buffed, you have a much better chance of getting the defenses to reduce all melee hits down to 1 damage before the Cathedral than you did before. Plus, having a horde of Nightmare Demons will dissuade anyone from wasting their time with trying to cheese the AOD on UV and Nightmare with a throwing knife :p

*Allow Firestorm and Sniper mods to be used on melee weapons, with the former changing the weapon's damage type to fire, and the latter giving the weapon autohit. Additionally buff Agility mods to give +2 accuracy to melee weapons.

Currently, Firestorm and Sniper mods can not be used on melee weapons, making getting these rare mods as a melee build particularly frustrating. The two proposed armor assemblies utilizing these mods would help partially alleviate this problem, but you could also make these mods usable on melee weapons. For a Firestorm mod, you can have using it on a melee weapon turn its damage type to fire, which would make it less effective against a few enemies (most notably Revenants and Lost Souls), but in turn would make the weapon much more effective at gibbing, that could make it a particularly attractive option on Nightmare difficulty or in Angel Of Darkness (or otherwise just for dealing with Archviles). Not to mention that this could help give the Double Chainsaw some sort of niche that it currently lacks, as a fire Double Chainsaw would be the most effective melee weapon for gibbing if you can't get Azrael's Scythe (which is especially hard to get on Nightmare difficulty/Angel Of Darkness, where you need the gibbing ability most). For a Sniper mod, simply have it give a melee weapon the autohit property; a melee weapon getting autohit from a single Sniper mod doesn't have the overpowered implications that ranged weapons getting it would, while someone paranoid about the always 2% chance to miss even with maxed out accuracy could appreciate the option to guarantee their hits, and otherwise any build that wants to utilize a melee weapon without investing several levels into Brute nor Eagle Eye have an option to make the weapon fully usable at the expense of making the weapon stronger or faster (especially with the Double Chainsaw and Ripper, which require 2 and 3 cumulative levels of Brute/Eagle Eye respectively just to have an over 50% hitrate). On the topic of accuracy, Agility mods should be buffed to give +2 accuracy to melee weapons; since melee weapons can only have 1 mod of each type and three mods total, a measly +1 accuracy from the lone Agility mod you can apply is pretty worthless, as it will be a complete waste if you are investing in Brute/Eagle Eye and still won't make a melee weapon very usable if you aren't investing in Brute/Eagle Eye (as it only bumps the Chainsaw's hitrate from 50% to 62%), nevermind the opportunity cost when Agility mods are much more coveted on armor, boots, and assemblies. At +2, throwing an Agility mod on a Chainsaw instead of just making it hit faster or harder becomes a more attractive proposition for builds with no Brute/Eagle Eye, when the jump from a 50% hitrate to a 74% hitrate is significant (or if you got one level in Brute/Eagle Eye and don't want to invest farther, going from a 74% hitrate to a 91% hitrate is still a substantial improvement that you could find expending an Agility mod for to be worth it).

[Omega Tyrant]

Well Icy hasn't been around so my new ideas haven't gotten feedback, but I thought I should post more of my ideas here regardless.

*Vampyre needs farther nerfs

After the Marine's buffs of 20% inherent energy resistances and Ironman giving 10% physical resistances per level, as well as Marines being able to activate Berserker easier from getting hit, it became clear Vampyre was very busted and so was blocked Ironman as a result. However after extensive testing with it, I can conclude Vampyre is still far and away the best mastery that borders on IDDQD with minimal investment, and it just steamrolls the game in a mindless manner. You don't even need particularly good armor nor any TaN investment; with just Nanofiber Red Armor, an indestructible but normally rather crummy armor with only 2 protection and 12% fire resistance, you're nearly invincible with a berserk Vampyre Marine with no TaN (Berserk resistances + Marine resistances + that 12% fire resistance gives you 92% fire resistance, which with 2 protection is enough to reduce any fire hit to 1 damage, while Berserk + Marine resistances giving you 80% acid and plasma resistances will also reduce nearly every hit of those types to 1 damage, leaving only very strong melee hits as the only things that can actually do some sort of damage to a berserk Marine in this mundane armor). The only thing hindering Vampyre is its somewhat weaker early game compared to other masteries, but the Marine's 20% energy resistances already does quite a bit to shore up this weakness, as well as Vampyre being a level 6 mastery always limiting that weakness from being that big a deal.

Some possible ideas to nerf Vampyre:
*Increase the prerequisites, with my idea being Berserker, 1 Badass, and 2 Finesse. (Vampyre being a level 6 mastery that gives you a free level pick never made much sense with how strong of a mastery it always been considered, making it take a bit longer to get will make the aforementioned harder early game a more clear weakness)

*Make Vampyre no longer able to recover health above 100% (could make "death of a thousand cuts" in big fights more of a threat when you can no longer easily stockpile a big health reserve, and make Survivalist's ability to recover health above 100% without powerups more unique)

*Prevent the Marine's inherent resistances from stacking with Berserk's resistances, so berserk Marines aren't ridiculously resilient without having decent armor (this would technically nerf other Marine builds too, but they'll be impacted far less than Vampyre will be, and regardless, I don't think you should be reaching the realm of 80% resistances without the aid of armor).

I think Vampyre would still be very good even if all of these nerfs were implemented, but at least one of these needs to be implemented. Would appreciate more discussion on this.

*Increase the explosion radius of the Nightmare Archvile's attack to 2

The Nightmare Archvile getting its attack changed to plasma did made it considerably more dangerous, but I think it could use a bit more to cement its status as this very scary monster. Seeing how the Arena Master's zap has a 2 radius explosion unlike the 1 radius explosion that normal Archviles have, I think the Nightmare Archvile should have that too, so its attack is more difficult to avoid and to function more effectively as the big scary upgrade of the Archvile.

*Make Mt. Erebus much more difficult
Mt. Erebus is supposed to be the more combat-centric alternative to The Lava Pits, as you have to traverse much less lava but fight more tough enemies. However, the serious resource management ordeal of Lava Pits is a unique challenge that needs proper preparation for or else you just won't be able to beat it (especially with the harder difficulties now removing the radsuits). Erebus on the other hand, you just need to rocket jump a couple times to reach the island, and then the combat isn't even hard, as a handful of Revenants and Mancubi are hardly a serious threat this late into the game (especially compared to Mortuary/Limbo before), while even if you have no radsuits to fight the Lava Elemental here, you got much more space to work with before he could drown you in lava. Beating Erebus with no radsuits nor any other special equipment is no sweat even with the harder difficulties now removing the radsuits from the level, and it's always a relief seeing it spawn instead of Lava Pits. For the possible final special level you can encounter, it seriously needs a lot more bite to it. Nothing concrete but some possible ideas:

*Add Cacodemons separately from the Lost Souls/Pain Elementals, instead of having Pain Elementals replace them on harder difficulties, while having some of those Cacodemons outside the mountain and some more inside the mountain. Then on UV/N!, replace the Cacodemons with their Nightmare variations (aside from adding more appropriate combat threat to the level all-around by having an enemy that can more effectively harass you from over the lava and having more enemies appear from raising the mountain, it would be more thematically fitting with the actual Mt. Erebus in Doom, where it's the Ultimate Doom map with the most Cacodemons)

*Increase the amount of Revenants and Mancubi on UV and N! (weirdly on UV and N! compared to HMP, Revenants and Mancubi just swap their positions while the total amount of them remains unchanged, UV/N! players should be able to handle more than 7 Revenants and 5 Mancubi this far into the game, not to mention that having more than a single Revenant patrolling the front of the island will make it more difficult to get on there without a radsuit/invulnerability/lava immune boots)

*Have two Lava Elementals spawn for the boss fight (taking a cue from Deimos Lab, as like with Shamblers, doubling up the Lava Elementals should exponentially increase the difficulty of the fight with their teleporting and regeneration, not to mention that two of them drenching the map with lava would make up for the level giving you a much larger island to work with than Lava Pits. However I could see a technical issue here with dropping the Lava Element, can it be programmed so it only drops after both Lava Elementals are killed?)

*Ideas for more level events

Since the Darkness level event was added in 0.9.9.8, it seems new level events could be possible. When thinking of possible new level events, a few ides I have:

*A "Mortuary" event that emulates what happens when you encounter the Apostle at the end of A100/666, where all enemies on the floor immediately die as you enter, and then a group of Archviles are spawned throughout the level, with higher difficulties spawning more (and perhaps UV and N! has a chance to spawn Nightmare Archviles too). This aspect of the Apostle fight is the most interesting thing about it and gives a creepy vibe to the encounter, so having something like that happening in any level could be a memorable spook.

*A "Max Carnage" event, that simply does what AoMC does but for that single floor, i.e. you and all enemies will always deal the maximum possible damage while having +12 accuracy. AoMC is one of the most popular challenge modes and is one of the few challenges whose gimmick can work as a level event, so this could be interesting and fun. There could also be a "Snake Eyes" event if you get a particularly bad level roll, where only the enemies get max damage and accuracy for their attacks while you don't.

*A "Masochism" event, that emulates AoMs by preventing you from healing on the floor. AoMs isn't a popular challenge, but I think having its effect occasionally randomly happen on any floor could make for appropriately stressful yet stimulating scenarios. To prevent it from being a practical automatic death sentence if it happens when the player enters a floor at low health, you can have it heal the player to full health at the start of the level, before then preventing them from healing any farther until they exit the floor.

When looking at the other existing challenges, I don't think any of them could really work as level events. The weapon lock challenges are obviously out when they would create inevitable unwinnable scenarios if they happened as random events. You can't just strip a player of their inventory mid-game so an AoLT event is out. An AoP event is redundant when any random level can already just not spawn any powerups, thus preventing you from using powerups on that floor. An AoI event could be done, but it would be very frustrating to be unable to save any mods you found during that level event for later use, especially so if it was a rare mod. An AoHu event where your max HP gets temporary reduced might be workable, but replicating AoHu would make the level event exceedingly frustrating, and otherwise the aforementioned Masochism event makes for a fairer "don't get hit" level event. And then of course it doesn't need to be explained why AoPc isn't workable as an event.

*A couple new challenge mode ideas

Kornel indicated that adding more badges and medals is on the table, when rejecting the proposal here to set the badges to 25 per tier and 50 total medals. With that, it seems more challenge modes could also be on the table, so I got some ideas:

*A challenge mode where all the floors will be Arena-type levels. The idea of this was briefly discussed earlier in the thread when I was suggesting challenge ideas that discourage campy play (since so many of the existing challenges encourage it), and after thinking on it, I think it could make for a fun challenge, as you will have to fight in these more open levels with limited corner shooting opportunities and having enemies actively hunt you, while resources are also more scarce as every floor will only have 10 items (though to keep the first couple floors from being too luck-based for any build, I would add a Shotgun + shells, Chaingun + more bullets, and Combat Knife to the player's starting inventory). A similar challenge mode could be done for only Maze levels too, given mazes are typically much more difficult than normal levels but in a different way, with much more haphazard level geometry and ramped up danger that results in more + tougher enemies spawning. A Cave-only levels mode could also be an interesting challenge (we could even call it Angel of 0.9.9.6, given how ridiculously often you ran into Arachnotron caves in that version :p), though given the more limited enemy selection in caves, only encountering caves would get monotonous and so I'm not so sure on that being a good idea. When it comes to the set levels for these challenges, Phobos Base Entry should be removed like it is with Angel Of Pacifism and Angel of 100, while the boss levels could stay or be adjusted to fit the challenges (Tower Of Babel and Dis are already practically Arena type levels).

*A challenge mode where every randomized floor will have a level event. Usually in a standard game, you'll only encounter a couple level events per run, so having them on every floor could make for more exciting yet more challenging runs.

*This is an idea I don't think is very feasible, but I want to spitball about it anyway in case something can happen; a challenge mode where upon advancing to the next floor, your equipment and inventory is reset to your starting inventory, alongside your health being reset back to 100% (but your traits and EXP total will remain). In Doom, the most popular self-imposed challenge is to Pistol Start every map (i.e. instead of carrying over all your health, armor, weapons, and ammo, you reset back to only having 100%, no armor, your Pistol, and 50 bullets), so much so that people will even play through ultra hard megawads this way, so being able to replicate that experience in DRL could be fun. Aside from possible technical limitations, a serious issue I see is in Doom, the official maps and often fan-made maps are explicitly designed around being beatable when Pistol Starting, whereas the random level generation of DRL of course would not cater to this and you could very well often just end with floors where there are no weapons nor enough ammo, so your only option is to stair dive and pray. Also most special levels would be outright unbeatable, as would Tower Of Babel and Dis (while Phobos Anomaly would force a pacifist clear). To address the former issue, like the aforementioned Arenas-only challenge, the default inventory can be modified to include a Shotgun + shells, Chaingun + more bullets, and Combat Knife, so that you'll always have some means to fight back regardless of your build (while exotics and uniques could be made thrice as likely to spawn, since you only get to use them for a single floor anyway). For the latter issue, perhaps there could be an exception where entering special levels and the boss levels doesn't reset your inventory (you could still end up RNG screwed though if the immediate prior floor is lacking in resources or forced you to use them all up, the alternative would be modifying each of these levels to have special item placements during this challenge like how Hell's Arena has different rewards based on the challenge, but I can see programming that to be a big pain).

If any of these challenge ideas are accepted, then I can think of badges for them. If new challenges aren't gonna happen and thinking of challenge ideas is a waste of time, then do let me know Kornel.

[Omega Tyrant]

Kornel stated new enemies are possible, so I want to propose the following:

*Add Nightmare Revenants and Nightmare Mancubi

Currently every non-boss enemy has an upgraded version, whether it be a nightmare version, a boss version, or "elite" versions in the case of the formers, with the exception of Lost Souls, Revenants and Mancubi. The latter two I think shouldn't be left out, and would help add variety to lategame A100, as well as give more options for upping the difficulty of special levels on UV/N! (such as the aforementioned Mt. Erebus or the new House Of Pain that could really benefit from it). As for the actual stats of them, I think something like the following would work:

Nightmare Revenant
HP: 40
Armor: 3
Accuracy: +6 melee, +6 ranged (though does this really matter?)
Melee damage: 1d3 + 9
Projectile damage: 5d5, plasma damage, radius 1
Speed: 160%
Depth: 60+
Danger: 14
Weight: 5
Inventory: Rockets (X3)
Uses Items: No
Uses doors: Yes
Attack %: 60
Special abilities: Like normal Revenants, its projectile aims at the tile the player was on. Immune to fluids and will chase the player through them. Has 50% bullet resistance and 25% plasma resistance.

The main idea is to ramp up the Revenant's glass cannon attributes relative to the other high tier monsters, so its HP doesn't see as much an improvement as the other nightmare monsters but it gets way faster, and while its projectile is no stronger, being plasma of course makes it much more difficult to have effective armor against; you won't be able to neuter its threat with just Fireproof Red Armor, and Cerberus Armor won't be reducing its damage as much either. Then finally, given this Revenant swaps a fire attack for a plasma attack, I thought it fitting to swap the 25% fire resistance with a plasma resistance; aside from the more unique plasma resistance, it also helps covers a weakness of the original Revenant where it could be so easily killed in a single Plasma Rifle volley, and makes it even more annoying for Pistol builds that before could rely on an Energy Pistol or Blaster to get past the Revenant's bullet resistance.

Nightmare Mancubus
HP: 100
Armor: 4
Accuracy: +3 Melee, +3 Ranged
Melee damage: 1d3 + 12
Projectile damage: 4d6, acid damage, radius 2
Speed: 70%
Depth: 70+
Danger: 14
Weight: 3
Inventory: Rockets (X6)
Uses items: No
Uses doors: Yes
Attack %: 70

Special abilities: Like normal Mancubi, it fires three projectiles, with one aimed at the player and one at each side, and if it attacks, it will fire a second volley for its next turn even if it can't see the player, unless it gets hit and interrupted. Unlike normal Mancubi, its attack can leave behind acid tiles. Immune to fluids and will chase the player through them. Has a 50% melee resistance and 50% knockback resistance.

So course with a Nightmare Mancubus, you would make it an absolute tank. With its attack, instead of making it plasma like other nightmare enemies, I think it should be acid instead. One, it helps for more variation when Barons and Bruisers are currently the only enemies with acid attacks. Two, it's not quite as immediately lethal without very specific armor as it would be with a plasma version of its attack, but it still cannot be neutralized so easily as fire attacks, and now it will absolutely shred your armor if you get caught in the full brunt of its attack. Then being able to leave acid behind adds more unique behavior and lets it leave even more of a wreck behind when it fires than a normal Mancubus (plus it would help even more with making the aforementioned Mt. Erebus an appropriate challenge on UV/N! as they'll eliminate your amount of safe land to work with). It also gets a big increase to its melee attack and a big melee resistance, so getting in its melee range to prevent it from firing will be a very tough ordeal too, and I thought some knockback resistance would be fitting as well, so you can't as easily corner shoot it to death or just knock it out of your vision range like you can with normal Mancubi (but that can be omitted if deemed too obnoxious or if it's unable to be programmed knockback resistance without having full knockback immunity). Unlike other nightmare enemies that get a significant speed boost however, I think the Nightmare Mancubus should be even slower, to farther emphasize its tank design and to give some more counterplay against such a durable and dangerous enemy.

*Also a new assembly I just thought of: Laser Blade (or any other preferred legally distinct name)

How to assemble - Combat knife + BTN
Damage: 5d5
Damage type: Plasma
Accuracy: -2
Firing speed: 0.8 seconds
Alternate fire: Throw
Special: Counts as a blade for Malicious Blades. When equipped, any enemy plasma attack that deals less than 5 damage before armor and resistances will be reduced to 0 damage. Those that deal 5 or more damage will hit as normal.

So this niche assembly idea addresses the following; a means for melee builds to utilize a Nano mod on their primary weapon type of choice, a substantially stronger bladed weapon than a Chainsword for Malicious Blades, and most important to entice justifying spending a Nano mod on this over getting regenerating armor or Antigrav Boots, it gives a very strong tool against rapid-firing plasma enemies, the biggest bane of Melee builds (especially Malicious Blades, which can't get berserked easily to deal with them and whose mastery gives no defensive bonus against). The number of "less than 5 damage" is deliberate, as it's right at the edge of where it won't make you completely invincible against normal Arachnotrons (whose 1d5 plasma bolts will get through with a max damage roll), and it's factored before armor/resistances both so you can't gain effective invulnerability against all plasma attacks and to be more lore accurate (you're supposed to be deflecting the plasma bolts before they hit you). If this mechanic is too complicated to program, then it can alternatively just be a flat +50% plasma resistance when equipped instead. Also has 0.8 firing speed to reflect the Technical mod investment (while giving a bit farther of a DPS edge), and has -2 accuracy, since it is a weapon you're supposed to need to be skilled to use effectively (not like non-melee builds would ever make this anyway unless they're really scared of Spider's Lair and Arachnotron Caves).

[Omega Tyrant]

Maybe a bit overdoing these suggestions, but a couple more have came to my mind, and I thought I should get them out before 0.9.9.8's final push to completion:

*Nerf Hellrunner's dodging bonus to +10% per level

Hellrunner is already arguably the strongest basic trait independent of other factors with its combination of how much it boosts your movement speed and dodging rate. The +15% movement speed per level is fine, but the +15% dodging rate per level gets crazy high at cumulative levels, enough so to render Dodgemaster rather obsolete. With HR2, you get an 80% dodging rate before distance is even factored against most projectiles, and with HR3 it hits the cap of 95%, what is even the point of getting Dodgemaster when your dodges are working 95% of the time (while the harder to avoid hits are weak Former bullets, Arachno plasma bolts that getting only one guaranteed dodge on barely makes a difference, and VMR that you can't dodge through traditional means anyway). I used to swear by always getting Dodgemaster before the Cyberdemon, but then I learned HR2 alone was enough to almost never get hit by his rockets as long as I don't get caught in the splash, and that even just HR1 was enough to avoid getting hit the majority of the time. Nowadays I never pick up Dodgemaster in a standard game if it's not a prerequisite for whatever mastery I'm going for (and I find it to be a rather empty level to any mastery that does require it), and in A100 I only pick it up at the end as a filler trait. Not to mention that just HR2 + running lets you hit the dodging cap of 95%.

By nerfing HR's dodging bonus to +10% per level, it would end up being a +60%, +70%, and +80% dodging rate at each respective HR level against standard projectiles before distance is factored. Hellrunner would probably still be the best basic trait and I still probably wouldn't be picking up Dodgemaster if not forced to, but at least the math makes the guaranteed dodge on one projectile quite a bit more enticing.

*In Military Base, remove the Tracking Map on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare difficulties

When thinking of ways to have more parity between Military Base and Phobos Lab, one idea implemented was buffing the Elite Formers in melee, which helps a bit to make Military Base more difficult, but from testing, Phobos Lab is still way harder on UV. I then realized how much the Tracking Map you get in Military Base completely trivializes the second part of the level. Tackling the exit room could be an actually dicey proposition... if you couldn't see when the Elite Formers are behind the doors before opening them up, couldn't see them coming at awkward angles when setting up your camping spot, and couldn't see them going the opposite direction in the outer room's circle and sandwiching you. It also makes no sense that such a powerful powerup is available in a special level on UV/N!. The argument I see for keeping it is that it would be really frustrating to open the exit room's door and then get immediately Super Shotgun'd at close range by an Elite Sergeant or get Napalm Launchered by an Elite Commando, but aside from nasty surprise attacks being an inherent risk when opening any door with enemies around, you can mitigate that risk anyway (the doors unlock once you get one space away, so you can move to unlock them and then run away for them to come out instead of immediately opening the doors to a potential deadly barrage). Keeping the Tracking Map for difficulties below UV I think is fine however, as Phobos Lab is way easier below UV and Military Base is arguably harder even with the Tracking Map, since the Elite Formers (or regular Former Commandos on ITYTD) are much more dangerous than regular Pinkies.

*In Phobos Anomaly, have the ending teleporter work like stairs, as in you have to hit the action/descend/save command on it to advance instead of doing so automatically when stepping on it. Additionally in Tower Of Babel, don't have the level immediately end upon the Cyberdemon's death, and instead have a similar teleporter sealed off that opens up when killing him.

So something I find annoying is that after clearing Phobos Anomaly and Tower Of Babel, you are unable to save, due to the former's ending teleporter sending you to the next level automatically, and the latter ending immediately after the Cyberdemon's death. If you want to take a break after these natural end points or you can't continue playing, you are forced to play another floor before you can do so or must leave the game running. Another annoyance of Tower Of Babel is that you don't get the opportunity to heal yourself up, reload, and rearrange your equipment in preparation for the next floor after killing the Cyberdemon, which could potentially screw you over if you finished the Cyberdemon fight in a bad state and immediately get spawned into a terrible position on the next floor. As long as these aren't too annoying to program (I don't know if these levels' scripting would too annoying to mess with), this would be an appreciated QOL fix. A non-technical argument I see against changing Tower Of Babel to not immediately end after the Cyberdemon's death is that he could revive on Nightmare/AoD with him now having a corpse, but that is also the case for all the other bosses that leave a corpse, so just gib it or run like hell just as you would against the other bosses that revive (or the level could be programmed to disable reviving when cleared, like Hell's Arena does).