Items/Weapon balance

LOL i remember thinking that as a sniper user. Feels like being handed an empty gun, tbh.

 

My long response....
I organized the items a little differently so they can be discussed comparatively.
Disclaimer: I've not used all of these items, so please feel free to comment and I will modify.
I main an mk5 Speeder with Sniper Cannon, Explosive Cannon, Tesla Bolt, Nitro, Overboost, Big Shield and Turbo. I've used Fixer and Enforcer lots as well.
I have not used Mortars, Flares, Torps, Mines, Missiles, Railgun, or Napalm extensively. Most of my judgements of these weapons comes from viewing other players and comments I've read.

BLUE ITEMS

• Standard Shield: Balanced. Used frequently by ships that don't have slots for Big Shields.
• Big Shield: Balanced. 1 Big Shield is just under 1.5 standard shields (with all perks selected for each).
• Turbo: Balanced, but greatly overused. Do NOT nerf Turbo, just buff the alternatives of gear lube and rudder.
• Bandages: Balanced.
• Gear Lube: Needs to be buffed. Simply not useful enough to justify using instead of turbo, shields or bandages.
• Rudder: Needs to be buffed. Simply not useful enough to justify using instead of turbo, shields or bandages.

YELLOW ITEMS

• Frost Blaster: was just nerfed. Probably need to let the dust settle before we judge it. I'd say it is balanced though. The no curvature is fine because it is different than the bolts or a weapon.
• Frost Launcher: was also just nerfed. Probably balanced right now.
• Tesla Bolt: very strong, but not OP. I would say balanced, but it is close to being unbalanced (I use Tesla Bolt).
• Tesla Shield: Balanced. This is the only item that keeps Enforcer relevant. If you nerf this, Enforcer will sink.
• Nitro: Balanced. Not seen as often at higher tiers once max speed is reached. Still very effective in its own way.
• Overboost: Balanced. Does exactly what it is supposed to do without being overpowered.

GREEN ITEMS

• Duct Tape: Balanced. Starting to see much more use.
• Repair Box: Balanced.
• Repair Pulse: Balanced, but this is the only green item that is even close to being overused. Cannot nerf this without destroying fixers.
• Repair Bolt: Balanced.

RED ITEMS

• Cannon: Balanced at lower infamies, but nonexistant at higher infamies. Needs a top end buff.
• Blast Cannon: Balanced. Highly used at every infamy.
• Sniper Cannon: Overpowered. I main a sniper cannon. I will explain this further below.
• Explosive Cannon: Balanced (barely). It might be slightly overpowered. I would fix the hit recognition on it and then see if it is overpowered. It might could use a range decrease to be closer to blast cannon.
• Carronade: Underpowered except at very high levels. Just simply outclassed at every range except melee distance. The training is the biggest problem.
• Grenade Launcher: Balanced or slightly underpowered. It is underused, but pretty strong. Extended fire duration or increased chance would be a good buff.
• Standard Mortar: Balanced at lower infamies. Similar to cannon. It is outclassed at higher infamies. It needs a top end buff.
• Long Range Mortar: Balanced. Sniper nerf will indirectly buff this.
• Ballpark Mortar: Balanced.
• Big Bertha: Balanced.
• Big Torpedo: Was just nerfed. Might still need a splash damage reduction, but I would wait for awhile.
• Swift Torpedo: Slightly underpowered. Was also just nerfed. It might need a slight buff to speed or a reduction (removal) of minimum range.
• Triple Torpedo: Underpowered. This has been touched on above, but it needs an arc angle reduction.
• Railgun: Balanced. It is very powerful. If sniper is nerfed, railgun will be indirectly buffed.
• Missile Launcher: Balanced. Much better at higher levels with the necessary perks, but that is how it is intended to be.
• Mine: Balanced.
• Flare Gun: Balanced. Was just nerfed.
• Napalm Launcher: Balanced. Has a purpose and it serves that purpose. If buffed, I'd like to see it catch a boat on fire if they sit in it too long.
• Fire Bomb: Balanced. Was just nerfed.

SUMMARY
Items to buff:

1. Gear lube and Rudder: both are severely outclassed by turbo and need some extra features. E.g. "Gear lube decreases frost effectiveness", "Rudder increases acceleration", etc.
2. Cannon: Needs a top end buff to make it more usable at higher infamies. I'd say swap one or both of the decrease cooldown perks for a damage, fire or crit chance perk.
3. Carronade: Probably one of the weakest weapons now except when highly leveled and trained for it. It is also only really usable on 1 ship. Needs a pair of buffs. First, I would move around the training tree. Right now, there are 10 perks that are on the same row as other, very important perks. This means that you have to sacrifice something unrelated to the carronade, and very important to Speeder, in order to use it. Secondly, it needs a reduction in spread. The shot pattern needs to not be an arc, but rather a shotgun blast in a circle. This way you can land all of the projectiles.
4. Grenade Launcher: Increased fire duration or increased fire chance. It is already pretty strong, but is just outclassed by Flare Gun.
5. Standard Mortar: Needs a top end buff to make it more usable at higher infamies. I don't know if a radius increase is the right thing, because that moves it closer to Ballpark, but it does need a small buff. Maybe swap the cooldown perks with damage perks, similar to cannon.
6. Swift Torpedo: I think a good buff to this would be to reduce or remove the minimum range.
7. Triple Torpedo: I'd like to see the training perks for reduced cooldown change to reduced arc.
8. Napalm: Needs a small buff. I'd add a perk: "Enemy ships catch fire if they sit in the flames for 3 seconds"... or something like that.

Items to nerf:
Sniper Cannon: This is the only obviously overpowered item in the game. Every other overused item is overused simply because the alternatives are not as good.

• The sniper cannon needs a change of identity. Right now it is not a sniper, but rather a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-all weapon. The definition of a sniper rifle from Wikipedia: "A sniper rifle is a long range tactical precision rifle."
• First, the sniper cannon needs to be less effective in close range. I would set a minimum range for the sniper and reduce the crit chance the closer you get to the point that anything within melee/carronade distance you have 0% crit chance.
• I would NOT reduce the crit chance at long ranges, yet. The purpose of the weapon is to punish people from long range. I would first make the above change and see what happens. Making many small changes is better than making few larger ones.

Thoughts? What did I get wrong? What would you change instead?

 

Sorry to do this, honestly not trolling, but I would choose BC over SC any day. I don't like the way EC feels, SC is a "been there, done that" weapon which never crits in a 1v1 when you want it to. The cannon you say is "nothing" was used by Blacktail for ages.

Why? I'm starting to understand. The hitbox of this cannon is less than the excannon, so those "skimshots" come easy. Second, it doesn't share the gimmicks of the excannon, and thus, requires much less thought to use, since it is binary. Shoot if you can, hold if you don't. Also, it does CRAZY damage. My favorite gun in this game.

 

Railgun is already one of the most used and powerful weapons. Buffing it is dangerous. I would wait to buff it until after sniper has been put into a good place. 1700 damage is a lot, btw. And the railgun fits its description and purpose. It gains power the further the enemy is away.

 

Just because YOU would choose a weapon in order to not follow the beaten path, does not mean that it is the better option. You can play with whatever you want, but Sniper is objectively better and more used than Blast Cannon right now.