(Originally posted in the update feedback thread) Some thoughts on improvements that could be made to the crossbow: Make the bolts show up better in flight. Give them tracers. Make them glow. It's a hardLIGHT crossbow. Those bolts should be blazing like beacons as they rip through the air. They should not be nearly invisible. Explosive bolts should be even more visible. Like miniature Lancer rounds. Don't use the explosion visual or sfx unless using the explosive bolts. It doesn't make sense for normal bolts to use explosion effects on impact. Let them just use normal bullet impacts if they're acting like normal bullets. Let explosive bolts damage vehicles. This thing is supposed to be a primary weapon. Its explosive bolts should be more damaging to vehicles (and maxes) than the explosive bolts for the Hunter sidearm crossbow. Right now, the Seeker explosive bolts do no damage at all to vehicles. That's just lame. Edit: Oh yeah. Almost forgot a very important one: Make Flak Armor effective against the explosive bolts. No explanation needed. Give it a heat mechanic instead of ammo. This weapon throws bolts of solid light. It's an energy weapon if I've ever seen one. Using heat instead of ammo makes perfect sense. I don't see any reason why the Seeker can't be the first portable heat weapon available to non-VS. (Engi turrets are technically heat weapons, but they're stationary, so they don't count ) A 4 or 5 round overheat would really reel in the weapon's spammability while keeping the cool factor intact. The capacitor arms could increase the heat capacity by a couple rounds, while making a full overheat more punishing. Things that should NOT be changed: Lightweight Arms giving full-accuracy while flying around as a Light Assault. Before the Seeker was added, VS were the only faction that had access to a weapon with a small enough hipfire COF+bloom to be effective at range while jetting around on a LA. VS with their empire specific carbine are insanely effective at shooting infantry while Drifting around above their heads. The Seeker HLX is the only weapon that lets NC and TR do the same thing. Please do not take this capability away from the Seeker.
I did some calculations and on a per damage point basis each carbine equivalent on each faction has the same COF growth. Only a few weapons are different. I did not test the entire arsenal but with several random selections (including some LMG comparisons) you would expect to find some clues to one faction dominating in a particular field if it were true.
Check out the VE-C Horizon with Capsulate ammo. Pinpoint accurate hipfire while flying (seriously - the reticle is just one tiny dot) with very forgiving CoF bloom. It's simply godlike in the hands of a Drifter LA. No other carbine in the game is that accurate while using jumpjets. Which is why the Seeker's pinpoint hipfire accuracy is important to keep in the game. It gives a semblance of balance between playstyles across all factions. Without it, the Godlike Drifter LA playstyle is ONLY available to VS players using the Horizon. All other carbines (including the Tanto) suffer a significant penalty to their cone of fire while moving. And just forget about trying with shotguns or SMGs. The proposed nerf to Lightweight Arms tomorrow will mean that once again, VS is the only faction allowed to completely dominate with Drifter jets.
The Horizon is the only carbine (or weapon) in the game to be blessed by an absolute 0 CoF in all stances and an absolute 0 Bloom (in all stances) while aiming: you can jump, run, crouch, ADAD, fly, whatever and yet you will have zero CoF and Bloom and shoot all the magazine without pausing a millisecond. You have 0.11 Bloom per shot while hip-firing only.
The horizon has pellets though dunnit? I have used it VERY little as I've always thought of it as a close combat weapon akin to the Tengu, but I might be wrong ofc.. Seems to me that yes; you can hit stuff at range, but then you will be hitting like a nerfgun since only a pellet or two will hit.
Yes, 2-3 depending on what attachments you use, but it's basically a Tengu on crack and works very well with LA due to it being a Carbine and getting the walking CoF while jumping/jetpacking.
