Weapon Balance!
ThatOtherOtherGuy
Join Date: 2010-11-29 Member: 75340Members
Join Date: 2010-11-29 Member: 75340Members
So, I wrote a rather huge explanatory post for this topic. However, it took so long the forum <i>actually logged me out</i> when I tried to post it. So instead I'm rewriting a much condensed version.
Shotguns dominate marine game right now. They are cheap and hands down the best close range weapon. This is inherently a problem when both map design and the alien game is an almost entirely close range affair; one cannot have a perfect close range solution when almost every problem is a close range problem. Given that the developers do not want to give aliens long range solutions and the fact that the shotgun is almost necessary to taking down fades and helps immensely in taking down structures I propose that the other weapons are buffed and reworked.
Flamethrower: The flamethrower is currently a great support weapon. However, it takes no skill to hit something with it. Given that the best alien defense is not getting hit in the first place this isn't really that fair. I propose the FT becomes a flame launcher. It shoots powerful fireballs with a slower rate of fire. I'd also suggest that in this change the FT ends up with more DPS than it has now. This would lower its skill floor and raise its skill ceiling.
Grenade Launcher: The GL does amazing at its job, which is structure spam removal. The thing is that structure spam is a popular marine tactic, not an alien one, and if there's no structure spam, it's a waste of resources. To fix this, I propose it is given concussive rounds, leaving it as the only weapon with slow on hit for rines when that feature is taken out. This would give it a role as support in a squad even if it's grenades aren't called on. It would of course be given a very distinctive firing sound so aliens know when slow down is a danger or not.
LMG: The hardest weapon to balance and really the most important one. I propose it gets a small damage boost with an accompanying skulk health boost keeping skulk versus lmg the same while boosting its effectiveness against everything else.
Finally, I propose than an assist system is put in the game. Marines are encouraged to kill things in a squad but only one person can get RFK. This is especially a problem with the current flamethrower, which is great for helping the rest of a squad kill something but unlikely to actually land the finishing blow itself.
So, thoughts, ideas, counterpoints, retorts? The game is unfinished so any balance we can find here will have to be changed later, but I think we can at least get it rolling in the right direction.
Shotguns dominate marine game right now. They are cheap and hands down the best close range weapon. This is inherently a problem when both map design and the alien game is an almost entirely close range affair; one cannot have a perfect close range solution when almost every problem is a close range problem. Given that the developers do not want to give aliens long range solutions and the fact that the shotgun is almost necessary to taking down fades and helps immensely in taking down structures I propose that the other weapons are buffed and reworked.
Flamethrower: The flamethrower is currently a great support weapon. However, it takes no skill to hit something with it. Given that the best alien defense is not getting hit in the first place this isn't really that fair. I propose the FT becomes a flame launcher. It shoots powerful fireballs with a slower rate of fire. I'd also suggest that in this change the FT ends up with more DPS than it has now. This would lower its skill floor and raise its skill ceiling.
Grenade Launcher: The GL does amazing at its job, which is structure spam removal. The thing is that structure spam is a popular marine tactic, not an alien one, and if there's no structure spam, it's a waste of resources. To fix this, I propose it is given concussive rounds, leaving it as the only weapon with slow on hit for rines when that feature is taken out. This would give it a role as support in a squad even if it's grenades aren't called on. It would of course be given a very distinctive firing sound so aliens know when slow down is a danger or not.
LMG: The hardest weapon to balance and really the most important one. I propose it gets a small damage boost with an accompanying skulk health boost keeping skulk versus lmg the same while boosting its effectiveness against everything else.
Finally, I propose than an assist system is put in the game. Marines are encouraged to kill things in a squad but only one person can get RFK. This is especially a problem with the current flamethrower, which is great for helping the rest of a squad kill something but unlikely to actually land the finishing blow itself.
So, thoughts, ideas, counterpoints, retorts? The game is unfinished so any balance we can find here will have to be changed later, but I think we can at least get it rolling in the right direction.
Comments
only thing is i'm wondering if the flame idea is the best route or not. it needs to be changed, i agree, but is that the only path? how about a secondary explosions once the napalm splatters against a wall or something with an audible detonation warning with cluster bombs so that the aliens get outa the room in 3 sec or else etc. idk. anything but the current implementation.. its simply not fun in any regard.
p.s. dont forget noticeable damage indicators from said weapons, audibly and visually. currently a skulk only knows its being hit by watching it's health meter.
Thanks.
Increasing the Fire Delay would effectively require players to keep their aim on their opponent longer before dealing damage.
If there are any plans to implement a Chance to Catch Fire on damage (I vote that it should scale with Armor%), it would also decrease the frequency of <i>catch fire checks</i> to a more tolerable rate.
Skulks and gorges go down very easily, lerks are a bit of a bother, but there's room for everyone to grow.
And I doubt you are supposed to be able to take down a fade with LMG unless it's (he's/she's) standing still.
(Napalm FTs shoot jets of fire rather than a big spreaded stream of fire)
GL is fine, there's always something to destroy and when there isn't you can help your team using it as a LMG (every point of damage counts).
FT is w+mouse1. Maybe reduce the cone of fire a bit or something.
LMG is fine, it's supposed to be trash. In the hands of a skilled player it is still deadly.
Maybe they should nerf shotgun and bring a new second tier life form killer weapon.
Yeah, the fire delay is 0.0555! Unbelievable! I can't imagine this is good for servers, even if performance improves.
Actually, there appears to be a bug that prevents the Rifle from firing at the correct rate (18 rounds per sec), even on a server with the standard 30 ticks/s. In build 180, it appears to have improved, I clocked the emptying of a clip to be around 3.4 seconds , which is 0.068s per bullet, or around 15 rounds per second, which is still damn fast for a rifle.
<a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/topics/actual_kriflefiredelay_is_roughly_083_not_0555" target="_blank">http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/t...ly_083_not_0555</a>
<a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/topics/actual_kriflefiredelay_is_roughly_083_not_0555" target="_blank">http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds/t...ly_083_not_0555</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yup, I've timed these as well and definitely noticed some inconsistency.
Still, 15 rounds a second, at 10 damage each... I know the AR is considered pretty weaksauce right now, but would it do it some good anyways to make the rate of fire more reliable? Increase the delay and compensate with more damage per bullet?