[Suggestion] Dual Duster Changes

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Medlen, Jun 23, 2014.

  1. Medlen

    With the new changes to liberator weaponry the roles of each of the weapons have become much more defined. I'll start by listing them off.

    Shredder- This is your versatility, the TTK may be slower against most targets but it can be used effectively against just about any enemy in the game give the right situation.

    Dalton- Anti armor, you can direct hit infantry but its very difficult to hit such a small target, particularly if both are moving. High skill cap, can be effective against aircraft in the hands of an experienced player

    Zephyr- Anti infantry, nothing special medium bullet velocity, accurate and decent splash. Can be used against both aircraft and vehicles in an experienced players hands but not to great effect.

    Duster- Low accuracy, low bullet velocity decent splash damage. Supposedly effective in anti infantry combat.

    I would like to preface my ideas by saying that all of my suggestions are based off ~2.5hr session with the duster last night. My friend hit cert cap and needed to spend them on something so he maxxed his Duster and we took it for a spin. Whilst I realise this is by no means a large amount of time I'm willing to bet its quite a large amount when it comes to this particular weapon due to the fact that it is, well, horrible.

    During this run last night we were operating with a group of ESF's who could come to our aid whenever we called. We engaged all targets from Tank to infantry to ESF and during the course of the night our kills were (roughly) as follows

    ~10 tanks (in conjunction with TB)
    ~ 5 ESF's (First kill ever with duster was quite a notable pilot on Briggs, made my night)
    ~3 Libs (in conjunction with TB)
    ~4 Gals (in conjunction with TB)
    ~ 120 infantry
    Total~ 150 kills
    Now why this may seem like a fairly decent run i can only assume had we had the Zephyr equipped we would have done significantly better as these run were preformed under what can only be described as 'ideal' conditions. The server was relatively low pop, we engaged only 12-24 fights or, on the odd occasion when we entered a 48+ it would be a Bio lab landing pad hit and run style bombing. I must also admit we had incredible luck. The number of times we were hit by 2 Dumb fires and failed to die to any follow up simply boggles my mind.

    Given this experience I few a few suggestions as to how to make the Duster a Viable choice when selecting an anti-infantry weapon for the liberator given that 10/10 time i would personally choose the Zephyr.

    The main issues with the duster that I noticed while using it were the accuracy and the Bullet Velocity. Again i would like to iterate that everything here is just my opinion gleaned from a short session but i do have quite a large amount of experience gunning liberators having auraxiumed the Dalton twice, the Zephyr once and the shredder Once across 2 characters.

    The biggest issues with the Duster as opposed to the other lib weapons is that, not only does it have zero versatility, it also blows at its supposed defined roll. Sitting 20 meters above an infantry player on full auto there is a chance you wont get the kill due to its ridiculous COF bloom. The combined with appallingly slow bullet velocity (100m/s) makes it essentially useless within Planetside. TO put this in perspective, making a pass over a completely packed VS/TR landing pad as NC (target rich environment) at ~20m i failed to score a kill.

    There are 2 obvious ways to fix this.

    1- A change to its accuracy. Anyone who has used the duster for even the smallest amount of time will tell you that its hard to aim, the fact is that on full auto you are luck to hit a biolab from directly above but with measured, slow firing it is accurate out to about 40 meters. Obviously it shouldn't be pinpoint accurate, i would suggest something along the lines of burst fire.

    The firs shot would be pinpoint, the second slightly off centre and the third somewhere around where the reticle currently sits. It would then bloom to the level it's currently at. This would give the option of slow, measured firing at long distance, im talking ~60-80m and still using it like it currently is if you wanted to get up close and personal.

    Whilst this would make the Duster much better i believe this suggestion puts it too close to the Zephyr in terms of functionality, this is where my second suggestion comes in.

    2- A buff to bullet Velocity
    The Velocity on the Duster is so mind-bogglingly bad it has to be seen to be believed. to really put in perspective though 100 meters per second is just over 350 KPH. This means the Dusters bullets travel slower than an ESF. If you fired a duster bullet and an ESF moving away from you it will literally not catch up, ever. I realize this analogy is kind of pointless because it's so horribly inaccurate that you have no hope of ever hitting that ESF unless he's literally filling the entire target reticle (if your lucky) but lets try and picture that shall we.

    All that said, a drastic increase in the bullet velocity may make this weapon use-able, not by increasing its effective use against infantry, but by making it a more viable all-rounder. Hitting a target moving at any kind of speed with the duster is akin to catching a fly with chopsticks that you're holding between your toes Miyagi style. This makes it completely useless against all but the most stationary vehicles or aicraft.

    I'm not talking Dalton/ AP round level speed here, just mid range, something along the lines of a Zephyr

    Lastly, i think the projectiles need to be more visible to the gunner, i dont know if everyone has the same issue but i cant see them at all. the only way i know im on target is the hit markers.

    Any, that's my 2 cents. Let me know what you guys think.

    Character here- To check Duster stats https://www.planetside2.com/players/#!/5428095401457493505

    All the best
    Medlen
  2. Sagabyte

    I was thinking that decreasing its maximum CoF and CoF gain would make it better. At the 6th shot in during a barrage it should be fairly inaccurate but not inaccurate enough to miss 90% of the target.
  3. Spectre 694

    With any Liberator belly-gun:
    Sitting 20 meters above an infantry player on full auto there is a chance you wont get the kill due to not aiming.
  4. MacavitySWE

    Yeah the bad accuracy is the main problem, projectile speed could also use a buff of course.
  5. ExarRazor

    the duster sucks at it's main role?

    welcome to the skyguard and burster max's world! enjoy your stay
  6. Sanguinary

    I'll just throw this in real quick - you said you had issues with the visibility of the rounds.

    Have you by chance turned on* bloom in the UI settings? This seems to make a huge difference to the visibility of the rounds, at least to me (ultra/high settings). *Edit to re-word, bloom = more visible.

    What are your thoughts on: Limiting the angles to a narrower view, more so than the shredder, and to compensate adding either a combination of velocity or reducing it's CoF (either max, gain or a bit of both)? You could even throw in some extra gravity to make it less viable against air but still viable against soft targets.
  7. dstock

    The problem is the Duster 2-shots ESFs. If you buff the projectile velocity significantly, it'll be too effective at AA. I've already played with 2 gunners that have no problems nailing planes, I don't want to see it getting worse.

    Take the CoF from 4 (current value), to 3, and let's see how it goes. The bloom per shot is also still too high, I don't have numbers or suggestions for that, though.

    lmfao, skyguard? OK, guy.