balancing the pulsar

[Smokingrabbit]

assalt rifles in PS2 have 3 traits. Rate of fire / damage / bloom
the problem in balancing these 3 traits is rof and damage are fixed, and bloom is not.
That is not a big deal at any one range. however as soon as multiple ranges have to be accounted for balancing bloom as a trait becomes problematic. At longer range bloom would dominate and at point blank range bloom as primary trait will always be inferior.

So to balance the pulsar another variable trait must be added. The devs have said the pulsar loses damage at range. Does this mean after medium range damage tapers off of does it mean that at point blank range the pulsar does high damage and begins to taper off in proportion to the damager vs. range equil to the gauss and cycler?

can a dev answer this plz?

[Kilmoran]

Originally Posted by Smokingrabbit

assalt rifles in PS2 have 3 traits. Rate of fire / damage / bloom
the problem in balancing these 3 traits is rof and damage are fixed, and bloom is not.
That is not a big deal at any one range. however as soon as multiple ranges have to be accounted for balancing bloom as a trait becomes problematic. At longer range bloom would dominate and at point blank range bloom as primary trait will always be inferior.

So to balance the pulsar another variable trait must be added. The devs have said the pulsar loses damage at range. Does this mean after medium range damage tapers off of does it mean that at point blank range the pulsar does high damage and begins to taper off in proportion to the damager vs. range equil to the gauss and cycler?

can a dev answer this plz?

Since damage used to be mitigated over range in PS 1, I assume it will be the same. Closer = more damage and further away = less. Good luck getting a Dev to answer this directly though.

[Malorn]

I don't think the assault rifles are that trivial in terms of characteristics.

There are a lot more than the ones you list.
- bullet drop
- velocity
- damage degradation over distance
- deviation from center, and the change in deviation with each shot (recoil)
- number of shots before deviation kicks in
- max deviation
- deviation modifiers while moving
- rate of fire
- base damage

When we talk "Accuracy" of a weapon, it can have a lot of meanings, both in terms of velocity of the round, the bullet drop, and all the different deviation characteristics. They will certainly differ per empire. For example, I expect the cycler with its high rate of fire would likely have low deviation per-shot and possibly a lower max deviation than say a guass rifle or pulsar. The pulsar might have lower base deviation and allow a few shots before any deviation kicks in at all, but have a moderate growth in deviation per-shot after that.

Many options there.

I don't think we can discuss the pulsar or any weapon balance until we play the game.

I hope the PS2 devs show us the weapon statistics during beta so we can understand how they are supposed to behave vs how they actually handle.

[Smokingrabbit]

well i am using "bloom" to describe the same factors as you are in reguards to deviation recoil and kick.

I will agree that i am over simplifying to show my point.

the game rarly boils down to 2 soldiers with equivalent weapons standing still just shooting eachother like some old timee duel...lol admittedly

[Malorn]

I don't think you should expect the weapons to perform equally in all situations. The only way they could do that is if they weapons were identical. They aren't going to be identical, so they won't perform equally in all situations.

I expect each weapon will have situational strengths and weaknesses. For example, TR with high RoF, good recoil control, and ammo capacity are likely to be at an advantage in CQB. It wouldn't surprise me if the cycler had the highest TTK in that situation too, assuming all/most bullets hit. At long range, probably not so much. The Gauss may be very good at medium ranges with controlled burst fire where their recoil isn't a factor but the high damage per shot and decent accuracy can synergize. I expect the pulsar might end up being decent in most situations with better long-range accuracy but not at any significant disadvantage in other situations.

The weapons aren't equal, but how you customize those weapons to either enhance strengths further or help compensate for the weaknesses that your play style might expose will make all the difference.

I think we really need hands on time before we can do more than speculate.

[Smokingrabbit]

not all weapons are equil in all situations granted. however all assalt rifles should be and can be atleast very close.
the simplification above is how i felt the original ps showed and played. I admit differant game different mechanics.
balance is the number one issue for me and i dont want to see the VS under preform again.