News: Bolt Driver

[SniperSteve]

awesome post Higby. I really like the direction you guys are heading with the side-grades allowing players to adapt the weapons to what they like and not feel like the other empire is always "better", but still retain a focus for each empire.

[Shotokanguy]

Well, I guess we don't have to worry at all about how weapons work in game yet. It sounds nice, and then when the beta rolls around we'll actually get to see how it works out.

All I have to worry about now is making my guns look cool.

[FIREk]

Originally Posted by Higby

Many of our weapons are built similar to the Chinese QBZ or German G36 where several weapons (carbine, assault rifle, LMG, sniper rifle, etc) are built off the same platform. We have a huge number of variant parts that can mix and match to create different unique weapons. A lot of the parts will be unique to certain weapon types, so a barrel on an assault rifle won't necessarily be the same as on your LMG so that we have distinct silhouettes and looks, each of these weapons also behaves completely differently in game from an ammo count, accuracy, firing rate, damage, etc. standpoint.

While I like the concept, the non-carbine Cycler looks pretty ugly now, with all the "missing" body parts. Please consider extending the body's external plastic bits (they can be segmented modules, to facilitate the concept of modularity) instead of leaving long, featureless empty spaces that seem to make no sense as far as weapon design is concerned.

And while we're here, how can the Cycler ARV's long barrel and added weight cause lower accuracy? :P

Originally Posted by Higby

So, if you want to be the high damage sniper guy, you don't necessarily have to play NC!

Please don't. This is a bad idea. It's like making MAXes TR-only, Light Assault VS-only and Infitrators NC-only, or something.

I can semi-survive the NS pump-action shotgun being weaker per-shot than the NC-specific pump-action shotgun (if there is one other than the Jackhammer). Still, I'm assuming there will be a decent pump-action shotgun will be accessible to everyone, and I won't be forced to play a faction that I don't like, just because 2/3 of them can't facilitate my playstyle.
Making the most powerful per-shot sniper rifle only accessible to 1/3 of the playerbase, however, means that 2/3 won't have access to a core playstyle. If you're using a slow, bolt-action sniper rifle, it makes no sense to go with anything other than the absolute most powerful one. The first shot must count.
This wouldn't ruin my game, since I'm an in-yo-face shotgun guy, but I've got friends who play snipers and I'm not about to tell them they're destined to be gimped if they wish to play with me, because "they don't have to play TR".

NC, TR, or whatever can have the most powerful semi-auto sniper rifle. No one will care. The most powerful bolt-action rifle, though, must be made by Nanite Systems. I'm hoping this is how it's designed right now, and my rant was ultimately useless.

[Figment]

...ehr Firek, he said that you DO NOT have to be NC for that rifle type, because you can customize your weapons accordingly as TR or VS...

[FIREk]

Originally Posted by Figment

...ehr Firek, he said that you DO NOT have to be NC for that rifle type, because you can customize your weapons accordingly as TR or VS...

The way I understand it, you won't be able to customize a weapon to match the dominant characteristic of a different empire's, equally customized, weapon.

What I mean by this is, for instance:
TR sniper rifle: default damage 100
NC sniper rifle: default damage 120 (let's assume it's the most powerful per-shot sniper rifle in PS2, so that's its dominant characteristic)

I customize my TR sniper rifle with the maximum +20% damage boost, at the cost of fire rate. Let's assume that the rate of fire is the same as the default NC one. I now have a sniper rifle that does 120 damage as well.

The NC guy, however, will apply the very same upgrade to his sniper rifle (and we know that all snipers will pick damage unless it affects accuracy; such a mod wouldn't make sense so it probably won't be in the game) and his rifle will now do 144 damage.

So at the end of the day all NC snipers would have the dominant rifle. At short and medium ranges fire rate will balance out damage. At long and extreme ranges, you either kill or miss. This is basically what I'm getting at.

I would prefer to be wrong, but this is how I understand "maintaining empire distinction" in "customize to fit their playstyle while maintaining empire distinction".

[Magpie]

Oops double post

[Magpie]

Originally Posted by FIREk

The way I understand it, you won't be able to customize a weapon to match the dominant characteristic of a different empire's, equally customized, weapon.

What I mean by this is, for instance:
TR sniper rifle: default damage 100
NC sniper rifle: default damage 120 (let's assume it's the most powerful per-shot sniper rifle in PS2, so that's its dominant characteristic)

I customize my TR sniper rifle with the maximum +20% damage boost, at the cost of fire rate. Let's assume that the rate of fire is the same as the default NC one. I now have a sniper rifle that does 120 damage as well.

The NC guy, however, will apply the very same upgrade to his sniper rifle (and we know that all snipers will pick damage unless it affects accuracy; such a mod wouldn't make sense so it probably won't be in the game) and his rifle will now do 144 damage.

So at the end of the day all NC snipers would have the dominant rifle. At short and medium ranges fire rate will balance out damage. At long and extreme ranges, you either kill or miss. This is basically what I'm getting at.

I would prefer to be wrong, but this is how I understand "maintaining empire distinction" in "customize to fit their playstyle while maintaining empire distinction".

Each emipre are gonna have better and worst things,

Let's say u have a vs guy running to into a base and u only have 7 seoconds to kill him

Now the NC sniper shoots an hits him in the chest and takes out lets say 90hp
He go's for the reload rushes and misses and the vs guy gets to the door safe

Now let's take the tr sniper he shoots and takes out 75 hp not as good as NC but the tr has 2 more seoconds pair coz he can reload fast boom hits VS he dies


Now does the big bad NC hard hitting sniper over powered? In this case no

Let's say you have a vs trooper with 90 hp left and he's waiting for somthink and u only have one shot

NC sniper boom hit dead

Tr sniper hits and vs runs away and then a Magrider hovers on your face

[Espion]

Originally Posted by Higby

This is precisely the goal of the design - allow players to customize to fit their playstyle while maintaining empire distinction. We don't want you to feel compelled to play NC to get the gameplay experience you want to have when all your friends want to play TR, but, we don't want all the empires to feel like nothing more than a color swap. So, we have blurred the edges to allow for personalizing your gameplay experience while still having each empire have a distinct overall feel and direction to what their soldiers can field.

It sounds like an absolutely nightmare to balance.

[Boogster]

Balance is going to be an absolute nightmare - and it's really important. You can't have a game that aspires to attract mainstream FPS players but brushes over issues of weapon balance. Sniping, in particular, always attracts controversy and it sounds to me like you're making things more difficult than they need be.

I predict carnage in beta.

[Hermes]

Thanks for the wall of clarity Higby

[Tigersmith]

Beta should help to work this all out. Make sure you guys post feedback every chance you get when it starts

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by Pillow

Ban the devs for trolling

^THIS.

I already bought a ticket to America just to burst in your office and start smashing things like a true Panda from that ad! But you preserved your lives. For now...

[Hmr85]

Originally Posted by Tigersmith

Beta should help to work this all out. Make sure you guys post feedback every chance you get when it starts

QFT

This is very important here. We want to help the devs out as much as possible so we can have a great game come release.

[RadarX]

I think the most important lesson is, all that needs to be done to get Higby to post is for me to misunderstand an email.

Glad this was cleared up and I of course plan to be a little more clear on our other weapons.

[Magpie]

Originally Posted by RadarX

I think the most important lesson is, all that needs to be done to get Higby to post is for me to misunderstand an email.

Glad this was cleared up and I of course plan to be a little more clear on our other weapons.

its all good fella, Shit Happens