TR Flash Flamethrowers

I'm really looking forward for this summer's event. All three ES Flash weapons looking extremely interesting but the TR Pillage flame thrower looks like a lot of fun. I finished the VS Flash aurax and I've been slowly working on the NC & TR. With the TR, I'm currently looking at having to grind away with the Kobalt but now I'll wait to use the Pillager.

Tier 3 (Gold) Reward
Flash Empire Specific Weaponry
We've introduced three new Flash Weapons as summer event rewards. These items will go into the Depot later in the year, but for now you can unlock them early and without a cert price.
LA7 Buzzard (New Conglomerate)
The Buzzard converts the flash into a makeshift artillery platform, using heavy high explosive shells with a large blast radius. NC use only.
V30-F Starfall (Vanu Sovereignty)
The Starfall fires a quick 3 round plasma barrage, meant to strike at unsuspecting vehicles with lighting speed. VS use only.
M4-F Pillager (Terran Republic)
The Pillager lays down a field of flames which ignite infantry caught within. TR use only.

I'd be curious to see if they worked out the bugginess with the flame throwing animations and damage profile.

i'm looking forward to my NC main getting a bulldog for flash

ES weapons are always awesome, and this is a great suprise,
but i wonder why they never went to PTS beforehand?
same with the implants coming soon,
it'd be good if we could test and review stuff before it gets to the live servers.

All the more reason to remove weapons from cloaked flashes.

Buzzard could be quite overpowered, at least more so than wraith flashes already are. Last thing we need are FPS-tankers which deal lethal DOT by just catching a player in a light spray too. Skyshield's bullcrap fire mechanic was bad enough, it doesn't need to be portable and cloaked. And any weapon designed to do well against vehicles probably shouldn't go onto the invisflash either.

'Course, there's no guarantee all or even any of them will be good or useful in any way.

since when was a weapon EVER in ANY game ballanced once introduced?
just wait and see ..

To me that sounds like NC and TR are getting something useful and possibly overpowered while VS just gets some flashy "here I am, shoot me"-stuff that does exactly what other weapons already do(I at least don't think that it will be a huge buff compared to the fury and flashes are way too vulnerable to really hunt down other vehicles).

sounds like TR and NC are getting AI thingies and VS is getting an AV thingy
we'll have to wait and see before we can decide who got the shot straw,
you never know, it could be better for ambushing tanks than fury!

I wouldnt be surprised if its just a strategy to avoid crapstorms. Looking at the recent buff to the Prowler for example had many TR reach for their inhalers as they went nuts, only to discover that with the exception of people who almost exclusively fight without moving it was one absolutly huge buff. Better just spring it just before and hope they marvel at the new toys.

Although even now someone made a complaint about hoe OP it would be for the VS, only to end with "or it could end up very weak". So its actually already started and the idea "this could be good" doesnt seem to register with some people.

I don't really see the point to be honest. It's gonna be a mess either way and no one can even buy them until after the nearly two-month-long event.

Why can we see if they're even worth trying for, or if they're something to avoid playing over. As is the only way for anyone to know is to wait till patch day and deal with whatever they find.

Ill be a mobile skyshield

You dont see.the point of either system and complain anyway? So you are just complaining for the sake of the complaint?

You can see what they are worth the moment the patch goes live, check it then and see that moment if it might be worth it. Yiu dont need 3 weeks and some trial runs to get an idea do you?

I don't see the point of hiding it in a surely futile pursuit of avoiding a crapstorm from releasing one or more extremely overpowered weapons. We as players ought to know what we're getting ourselves into.

The test server at least shows the player base the developers care at least a small amount. Has the added bonus of being able to fully understand a weapon beyond what hovering over it in the Directives screen can tell a player. And any and all bugs have a chance to be discovered and fixed before being pushed to live.

For example the Buzzard according to the patch notes is supposed to have a 20 meter arming distance. The description of the weapon claims it shoots "heavy" shells. Will players have a very small effective range with the drop and velocity reducing the maximum distance, or will it live up to the term "artillery platform?" (And will a high speed invisible artillery platform be extremely abused and absolutely terrible to play against?)

Seems like a futile pursuit, considering you already said that the VS weapon would deal a lethal DOT attack... Even though it's an AV weapon and the TR have a flamethrower. They could overload you with every speck of data and several video's but it looks like you'll latch on to anything and mix-and-match it so that you have something to complain about.

Considering 99% of the playerbase never test it out on the test-server and gauge it's effectiveness on the stats/what others experienced, I don't see a big problem here. By the time it releases for good the people who just wanted stuff have already tested it out and the stats can do the rest.
And looking at the responses so far and looking at the history of responses when they did give it tons of time to be tested, having it just randomly pop up on the server without testing seems a better option than giving any warning whatsoever. I think they even jumped the gun on this one! A 4rth of July surprise 3 Flash weapons would have gotten people excited! If the stats of the weapons would look bad then... Well you might still want to grind just for the hell of it or you might not want to. Your choice. If the weapon was more powerful and you decided you didn't want to grind for it then you should have had a better insight in the game, and your complaints would have been bad anyway. If you decided you did grind of it and it's bad, then you would have complained it was too good and you would have been wrong again and shouldn't have complained. I don't see a flaw in this system .

"I don't know anything about this weapon so I'll just create a scenario in my head where the weapon is useless/OP and now that scenario is what I'm going to complain about!".
That's what I just read.

Going by other artillery platforms in the game like the OS that has an exclusion radius, you would have a far larger effective range than minimum distance. Also the "minimum 20m arming distance" will undoubtedly mean that you'll have to arc it a lot, making accuracy harder and reducing your effectiveness as a stealth high-speed artillery platform allowing players to defeat you.

Do all the new flash weapons work like mini mortars or is it just the NC weapon? This will kind of shift me in one direction or another. I've been looking for a portable mortar for a long time with this game.

Sad. I do better with TR vehicles but better with NC infantry.

*TR, but it could deal a lethal DOT effect. I've literally no idea, same as you or anyone else. Wouldn't you like to know anything about the weapons?

Any effort expended to show the player base they care (or at least pretend they care) about the balance of the game and the feedback of others not in direct control of the game's development would really go a long way, in my opinion.

I don't know if the distinction was ever made, my original post wasn't very clear. I initially referred to each of the three weapons independently, but only bothered to name the Buzzard as I assumed it would be clear enough.

The issue is that not even the 1% of players using the test server will know, nor all the people they show the stats to. We're all going in blind and we have no idea if it'll be like the Canis or ZOE or an underpowered mess. Not going to be fun to find out.

A surprise would have actually been okay; A legitimate excuse to not tell the players anything. But I fear they're only keeping things secretive so more players will come back to the game to check it out, and I fear if anything is slightly amiss it'll be worse than just openly telling us all how blatantly awful things may or may not be.

Feedback exists for a reason. And one way or another it's gonna come flooding out, only instead of a moth or whatever ahead of time it'll be day one when it's all too late.

I don't know anything about the weapon but an accidental slip of information which had to be listed as a known bug.

My point exactly, ish. Maybe with the heavy arc and large deadzone it will be a steaming pile of trash. Maybe the drop is exaggerated and "heavy" means a flat trajectory until 20 meters, where it arcs.

Point being here, there will not be any way to avoid the crapstorm so we ought to go through it all before it hits live.

Honestly, so long as the devs considered the idea that there can be whole squads of flashes with these new weapons things should run swimmingly.

Unless, of course, that wasn't considered. Then we're looking at hordes of flashes running around setting a new vehicle meta where as few people play infantry as possible.

Allright, and who do you listen to? The people who will immediately call it either OP or UP (or in your case, both?). If you go for one team, the other will be unhappen and say "that the devs don't listen", if they go for the other they get the same reaction, if they go for something they think is right they still get that reaction. So why bother with all the crap?

Now I would love it if they could simply release things and have people be objective about it. But unfortunately there's people who will automatically call it OP or UP regardless and make a scene. These people are the reason the devs can't really do that, as no matter what they do someone will make a scene and claim they don't listen.

Even so, I don't really see the difference between someone launching a DOT attack to kill the drivers compared to something like a Fury/Renegade/Kobalt/Basilisk attack that kills the drivers quicker. Oh wait there you go, DOT is more over time than the other weapons, where's the problem exactly?

It's going to be mightily fun to find out what the weapons will do! And rather than on the live server, you can test it in real-time! No doubt that many people will misuse the weapon at first and get no results, but that's the wondrous magic of live-play: Someone is going to find a viable strategy assuming the weapon is any good somewhere, and if you buffed/nerfed the weapon prior because 1% of the playerbase tested it in a blank environment... You might miss your mark. Test server is there to get bugs out, in many cases it's not for objectively testing how powerful the weapon actually is.

Even if the weapon is absolutely perfect we have such a jaded community that they'll complain! Case in point for people who don't even have the stats yet and claim it's either OP or UP!

Feedback exists for a reason, but how to get the objective feedback out of the cesspool that our community has become? This isn't exactly the communities fault seeing the early days... But the formation of this absolute horsecrap community that will complain about anything is something that has seriously hurt the game, especially since the devs have been pumping out a steady stream up overhauls and updates that have at least tried to bring the game back. They've had a relatively good success rate too.

We're just running in circles now. Someone is always going to be unhappy with any change, but often enough it's for a good reason. Listen to the facts and the stats, hopefully opinions will give reason to action or understanding. Objectivity would be great but but still all too often terrible design choices are made and broken content is pushed through. Would you rather get a surprise ZOE buff which rivaled the original or have it sit on PTS for a bit first? Personally I'd rather state my opinions and avoid that hot mess for another six moths than just one day login to see the world on fire.

We do live in an imperfect world full of less than helpful people, but that doesn't mean everyone should just be disregarded even if a majority weren't doing any good.

DOT in PS2 is very not fun, if the skyshield effect is anything to go off of. It could be a death sentence if it just glaces the player's model, or it could be worthless and give nothing to the weapon. I personally sure as Hell hope it's at least not the former. But without anyways of knowing before getting hit by it, we go back to step one.

It'll be more fun trying to do the directive to get them, no fun failing to kill anyone if the guns turn out bad and very unfun if wraith flashes with shiny, new, OP as **** toys are spammed from Indar to Hossin and back. Since you mentioned it, think there will be any bugs with them? I don't have high hopes for a flamethrower, that went over so well the first time. Maybe they'll not cloak properly, already quite a few guns which don't.

Even 1% of the playerbase is fairly large. Even then it'd constitute for nigh 100% of the feedback.

Imperfect world! But to be fair, the platform and each weapon's mechanics have different ways of clashing, some just are inherently at an advantage at times just due to their very natures.

Well they just have to sift through everything same as anyone else I suppose. Only real way to do it. People are horsecrap, that'll never change as long as mankind walks the Earth. You gonna let that hold you back?

I don't think populations have been raising by any means, had to truly call it successful if measured in players. They're trying though, gotta appreciate that even some don't agree with the direction.

Just unlocked the M4-F Pillager aka Flamethrower for the Flash earlier today. Interesting and fun weapon however ammo will probably be an issue even when I have max ammo purchased plus having max rank ammo printer. The Pillager does burn down infantry fairly quickly. For me it behaves like a Renegade that can hit multiple foes in a straight column. Pillager does show up as part of the Flash Directive which I like because I don't want to redo Kobalt-F again.


Some Quick Tests in VR Against Vehicles
================================
1-Clip Flash
2-Clip ESF
3-Clip Harasser
3-Clip Lightning in rear
4-Clip Vanguard in rear
4-Clip Magrider in rear


*** Edit***
I forgot to mention that I saw the VS Starfall in action. So far it looks like a mini-wrecking ball. I haven't seen the NC version out in the field yet. I'm hoping someone can share their opinions on the VS & NC versions.

i have the Buzzard, it is pretty much a Pounder but with more drop and the splash only works after (i think) 15m,
within 15m it can't even one clip infantry. (dealing 900 direct damage total)
also due to the drop you can't really use it in 3rd person,
unless you're looking up it will shoot the ground infront of you.

here it is:



i can see it having a niche in point defence though, aim at a doorway and spam spam spam. (like pounders)