Well, the server's unavailable right now...so I haven't gotten a chance to try out the Terran Republic and New Conglomerate's rifles just yet. So, I won't be making a very detailed post in the main thread on the entire update until I've had a chance to do that...but because I'm bored, theory crafting, and like to annoy DeadliestMoon; here are my thoughts on the Shade. It's an interesting weapon that could use a few tweaks. There have been several on the test server who freaked out over the complete lack of ammunition, but I can only remember two times where I've depleted my ammunition while sniping. Essentially, this feature does little more than take a huge psychological burden off the Infiltrator...so I see no real issues with this design when you take into consideration the huge cooldown upon overheating the weapon combined with the inability to cancel charged shots. The charging mechanic itself is a bit unforgiving, and I initially hated it entirely; however, upon charging the weapon and stabilizing my scope simultaneously, when roughly aiming towards my target, things began to run a bit more smoothly and I assume that they will even more when I have a 12x scope. Still, these aren't moving targets so I question just how frustrating this mechanic might be in a realistic scenario. Here are my proposed tweaks to the weapon... - Decrease the heat cost of charged shots to 50% - Grant the ability to hold a charge at the cost of additional heat. - Increase the effective one-hit-kill range to 300m - Keep the long cooldown. By decreasing the heat cost of a charged shot, we are now capable of making two charged shots or engaging in semi-auto fire after the initial. Granting the ability to hold that first charge will make the entire mechanic much more forgiving, while the increased heat cost for doing so will reward quick and accurate decisions. Keep in mind that you'll only be able to hold the charge of that first shot because, upon overheating, you'll automatically fire off the weapon. This means that, with the second charged shot, you won't be able to hold it once fully charged...but you'll be able to effectively cancel before overheating just by letting off the trigger and discharging the weapon before it has reached maximum heat. This lets us reduce the cost of these charged shots in the case of a target having moved or become otherwise nullified before we can take that shot. The graphics would need fiddled around with a bit to show the weapon heating up while you're charging in comparison to the heating upon firing that displays when using semi-auto. With that said, and I believe this was stated before, throw in an overheating visualization where the weapon discharges a little steam or something interesting like that.
I totally agree. I get where SOE is coming from, the lack of ammo is a huge boon. You may not run out of ammo, but I have... Many Times. If the rifle had half the cooldown time, and you could fire 1 headshot OHK, and still fire 1-2 shots before overheating (thereby expanding what you could do close up)... I think this one would be Perfect. Oh, and as to the TR and NC: TR isn't bad, the NC one though... Heh
Thanks, I understand that the lack of ammunition is a perk, I just don't believe that it's a huge boon. Granted, I'm speaking from a long ranged perspective rather than aggressive sniping. As for the TR and NC, I really want to try them out. I was one of the individuals who suggested a fully automatic with burst option for the TR, but I suggested high damage so that they could pull off three headshots in one breath IF they were quick enough. Otherwise, they would waste ammunition and expose themselves through the missed shots in that burst.
They need to add some watercooling to that shiz, right now it's overheating from ONE charged shot? And it takes 10 seconds to recover? WHAT. Does SOE think that everyone who plays VS are mlgpro720noscope-good at using BASRs? Scenario; you see a huge infantry zerg pushing up towards where you're at, and so you figure you can pick some of them off before you retreat to a safer location. Haha not if you miss a few shots, because by the time you've fired 6 shots at least one whole minute would've passed. ONE MINUTE. And that's just counting the cooldown time, not the charging up for the actual shot or aiming. So in practise it would be significantly longer, more like 80 seconds to fire 6 shots. 6 Shots/1½ minute is the penalty we pay for having a semi-automatic firemode? Well, at least if this stays how it is I won't have to buy more SC . Oh, and we can't even hold shots. How could I forget that? It's not like long-range sniping relies on precision & timing, which is near impossible if you cannot choose for yourself when to pull the trigger.
I sure hope so. The cooldown period, in my opinion, ensures that this weapon doesn't tread upon the Parallax...it's a specialty rifle that you need to be efficient with. I wouldn't mind if we received a lower cooldown, but I'd rather obtain everything else that I listed above and feel that the cooldown ensures that this can be done. There's no reason this weapon shouldn't one-hit-kill at 300m because it's not an upgrade to the Parallax due to that extremely long cooldown period. Especially not when you add the bolt-attachment to the Parallax.
I didn't say it was great, I think it should get a 3 shot burst. As is, I'd still at least Use it though. It would be good to release it a little on the UP side like it is, and let it get buffed later after the whole game has had time to provide feedback.
I'd rather have a 200m limit for OHKs & a significantly better cooling system. Not to mention that would enhance its capabilties as a closer range weapon as well.
I think it's semi-auto capabilities already provide nice closer ranged utility, it can deliver a fair share of ammunition in semi-auto mode before it overheats.
While I know this was a chance to bring up BRs again... Because we hadn't heard about it a million times already... I'm thinking more towards the ESF weapons, which were released in what everyone called an UP state and have since been worked on slowly. That seems a better system, than releasing something, and then having to nerf it into the ground.
That's only for the NS weapons from the ESF update. The ES Locust noseguns have not been touched since they were released, despite being inferior to and more expensive than other options. They seem to be very gunshy about weapon balance for ES things, now. The problem with the TRAP is that it suffers from the same lack of "fun and interesting" factor as our other ES stuff. NC and VS both have unique modes to their new weapons, while the TR option is functionally identical to other weapons, except for an inaccurate burst mode, so it's either going to be OP or UP because it goes into an existing niche. From what I can tell, the NS SMG is also a watered down Hailstorm with lower mag size (and slightly overall lower stats) with better recoil and faster suppressed bullet velocity. Haven't played with it much, but on paper it seems like another TR-like NS weapon. Could end up being wrong there, though.
I have heard good things about the ES Locusts tbh. Pretty much spray and pray cannons, but the pilots I had talked to didn't mind them as much. As to the TRAP, I'm sorry but it works. I've said numerous times the only thing I would do, would be to make the burst 3 shot, so it could do OHK headshots. Beyond that, I really think the Trap has the potential to be a great gun. The VS gun is unique, but it also blows (Hence this thread) and the NC gun... Yeah that thing can't be final. That said, it's "Unique" mode is to recycle another gun's mechanics into another class of weapon, just like Ours. The NS SMG is naturally silenced, has a higher ROF, and faster TTK. Honestly considering getting that one.
