New Weapon (Xbow) thoughts

Are suggesting to remove the Fire chaining for all weapons? You can't use that as an excuse to dispute a new weapon when we have three that already do that.

 

So you mean shooters and defenders will ONLY shoot it from far away and not from close range ? Btw Flare is AoE ?
The dmg has to be pretty low since I don't see this weapon shot to be dodgeable at all.

 

It could work like the LRM, unusable at close range, which would effectively nullify it as a fire combo weapon if that's what you are looking for. It would require more damage to balance it out then. The original point was to make an alternative to FB though.

 

That was like... yesterday... I can't remember that many posts ago!

 

That's why I suggested it to give it railgun like projectile stats.

My point is Firebomb and Flare gun are already quite op weapons although Firebomb misses and has a slow projectile and Flare gun has medium range and these are their only drawbacks. Imo the Firebomb edge giving 15 sec burns is what making it an easy to use/spam weapon and op. There are still some slim chances to dodge a flare shot.
But X-bow misses these drawbacks. 2 slot point becomes an issue mainly for yellow boats as they need to be pretty careful with their weapon loadouts because of their low firepower. Giving 30% heal reducing ability to a fire weapon that already burns for 20 secs and is impossible to dodge(even for yellow boats) is something I don't wanna see in the bay. No offense, I like the weapon idea but needs some balancing.

 

Pun intended?

 

I suppose the one thing I didn't explain is that this one of my solutions to help the game out - by bringing back the mid-range game.

In this meta, I'm doing very well ... but it's low-skill and it gets boring.

A shooter can be extremely successful setting up a mine field and spamming long-range mortars/FBs, especially with a fixer doing the same. It's easy enough to make speeder/defenders useless with enough mines, easy enough to slowly splash damage an enforcer to death, and easy enough keep the new ships from having a proper role. The biggest threat to me is another fixer/shooter team.


Do people enjoy playing this way or is it just the better strategy at the moment?


IMO, most shooters prefer the mid-range, fast-paced action but they don't trust the Flare. It's a slim chance to hit with it as a large ship shooting at one of the 5/8 nitro ships (or it's a slim chance that the hit will register). As an Enfo, Defender, or Speeder, it's difficult to get into an effective range right now. And it'll get worse as more people switch over to this long-range spam meta.

However, if Shooters and Defenders had a reliable fire-starter to get into the trenches with and speeders had the ability to harass spammers without exposing themselves for 2 shots, I believe you'd see a shift towards a higher quality of matchplay.


Of course, the alternative is to nerf every long-range weapon and the mine into the ground - a trend that's already started. But, with a lack of powercells and item progression at an all-time low, this would likely lead to many players being forced out of the game because they can't compete in the trenches (with the flare/grenade).


So, that's my solution .. Add something that's missing rather than balancing with a sledgehammer until you get the game you want.


Otherwise, the "can't miss" comments make it seem like the sniper is the ultimate weapon right now. It does 0 damage 100% of the time against tesla shields, shield walls, and takes a fair amount of skill to hit moving targets at longer ranges. It requires line-of-sight and knowledge of where your opponent is moving and at what speed. It's not a tap-hit weapon otherwise you'd see everyone running around with full sniper loadouts. It's not a weak weapon, but it's not overpowered.

As others have explained, if you wanted to sit back and spam 5 long-range "can't miss" weapons, the instant damage snipers would be a better option, not a damage-over-time weapon.


Anywho, as I've said, the balance should be in the burning per second. And if you think an xbow would be balanced at half the damage of the flare and can explain why you think so, I would have no issue with that. The only issue I have is suggesting that the ability to land a shot makes something overpowered regardless of the damage - because that defeats the entire purpose.

 

Yeah .. I'm hesitant to ask for any weapon or damage effects because it'll be harder to code and would likely be less reliable ..

But your reverse railgun effect (to a lesser extent) is an interesting idea - matching the weapon with how real crossbows work. Greater rewards for more risk is always a fun dynamic.