Tasers are in wierd place

[Valor]

Problem:

I think tasers are too strong in current iteration. Hit is guaranteed, AP cost is low and stun chance is very high.

I think tasers dont scale well enough and there is very low incentive to ever make a good taser. Most players make basic taser from like q30-40 components and never touch it again, the 8-16 damage it deals is enough to bypass DT of basically any enemy encountered.

I think tasers are too exclusive. They cant be bough, found and NPCs never use them (dont crucify me).

Overall give all that, for most builds tasers are hard to pass, you dont need any skill to use them. You need low electrician skill to make them, and with low AP cost they nearly always work.

Solution:

1. Make quality more relevant.
A) Either make them deal way less damage so even low electricity DT will block low quality ones (like 1+ (0,3-0,6) per 5q, ie 100q is 7-13, quite reliable, but can be sometimes blocked by good galvanic component)
B) Or make the stun duration scale with quality. 0-50q == 0-1T stun. 51-100q == 0-2t stun, 101-150q == 1-2t stun and 151+q == 1-3t stun.

2. Give some random human enemies (about 10% of population) chance to have taser and use it. I will be pain to fight against. I know. We will hate it. But it makes sense they would have such a simple tool at their disposal.

[Orthrus03]

I would say that their chance to stun, as opposed to a guaranteed stun (like Electrokinesis) already stops them from being overpowered. That's just my opinion, though.

P.S. Sentrybots will occasionally use a taser, and one of the mechanics in SGS also has a line of dialog that alludes to this before you run into any.

[Valor]

Their chance to stun is so high its basically guaranteed. I would say its between 96-99%.

As for sentry bots, yes, they are the only enemy that has them and I think human enemies should have them as well.

[Orthrus03]

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I think that enemies with tasers would need their own name (i.e. Ironhead [Class]). And on the topic of parts quality and chance to stun, I would say that you're definitely on the right track.
I would wonder, though, what would be the point, in that case, of parts over a certain quality? Would it be similar to Electroshock Aura or Electrokinesis in that it could damage (or have a lowered chance to stun) adjacent enemies?

[Vokial]

Tasers are great. Not OP as I rarely use them, but it's nice when you take down a few enemies with one left standing that you don't have any AP to deal with, so you just taze them. It was a godsend against the Black Crawler. Can do it even before any offensive action just to improve accuracy as it won't break their stun opposed to the Flashbang. As for the quality, now that might need a rework - see, the damage coming with the quality of the material used is still not significant to make a difference. That's how it should be, this is a stun gun after all.

But because of that, I actually search for the LOWEST quality possible, just so that it won't consume too much power.

[harperfan7]

Ive said before that the chance to stun needs to scale.  A low q taser should require a low fortitude score to beat, or low-ish anyway; you should err on the side of the taser.   It's dumb that they auto-hit, but tasers and dirty kick are somewhat opposites of each other:  dirty kick can miss but not be resisted, tasers can't miss but can be resisted.  Regardless, I would be in favor of them having to roll vs dodge like other melee attacks.  Given that they are such a simple item, and common irl, they really ought not be crafting-only.  At the very least, they should be as available as cloaking devices.

[Orthrus03]

I'm pretty sure that Will does this, but a general stun-resist stat could be really good.