Borne Velvalor
BLACK-DRAGON-SOCIETY
791
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Posted - 2013.10.20 04:37:00 -
[32] - Quote
Oswald Rehnquist wrote:
1) I'll help you out here, I'll give you numbers that say represent power (the higher the better)
A) 10, 12, 9, 6, 15, 8, 11, 14, 50
Gets you a medium of 11, a mean of 15
Bring that 50 down gets you this
B) 10, 12, 9, 6, 15, 8, 11, 14, 12
Medium 11, mean 10.77,
Now lets say we balanced it the way you suggest
C) 56, 48, 59, 41, 52, 59, 45, 49, 50
Now we have a medium of 50 and a mean of 51
Now, A) to B) goes from 11/15 to 11/10.77
And, A) to C) goes from 11/15 to 50/51
Now tell me which one preserves TTK fidelity? You would have to re-balance armor/shield stats again based on your suggestion
2) It only feels good because of the vast discrepancy, even if you went with your idea to buff everything else, the AR wouldn't feel so good anymore because it lost its advantage, the "feel good" is entirely due to its opness relative to other weapons.
1) First, I can do basic math, thank you. The first problem is that the power discrepancy is not that large. In raw DPS, we're looking at -¦25% most for most weapons. Factoring in how versatile it is changes this, but nerfing the AR doesn't make other weapons less situational. How do you measure "power." Assault Rifles have fast TTKs, but the bigger issues are the things holding the other weapons back. For instance, the Laser's optimal span of 19m and optimal span placing is what makes it harder to use and less effective on average. Within the optimal span, it's in a good place versus normal Assault Rifles, but hard to maintain. I'd be doing 10% damage 3m out of optimal range no matter what you did to the AR because there are flaws that need to be addressed with other weapons. If you have six mechanical pencils and five are rendered useless in different ways, you don't break the remaining pencil to bring them in line; you fix the other five. Otherwise, the feel of the game will be all off. This is not just "here's the DPS of the guns completely ignoring everything else, and here's the one that is too high."
2) Once again, you assume that it only feels good because of the power discrepancy. I would argue that the weapon simply handles well and drops the enemy's health at a satisfying rate within its effective range, with a solid clip size and accuracy, regardless of how fast this is compared to other weapons. If the niches of the other weapons were improved, the AR would still be satisfying to use in general while the other weapons would be more satisfying to use in their niches, as well. Sometimes the niche is not big enough and sometimes the weapon does not fulfill its niche.
I agree that in scenarios like the one you mentioned that "nerfing" would be most effective. However, this has to do with how you view the power of a weapon. The different ranges at which the weapons compete and interact and their unique mechanics, from heat build up to projectile drop and speed to regular stats like range, they all matter. It is not comparing numbers that are all affect the guns in the same way because they aren't all variants of one gun role. Not all the guns are supposed to be as effective as Assault Rifles in Assault Rifle range. They are supposed to be more effective than an Assault Rifle within their role, during certain situations, which some are and some are not, for a VARIETY of reasons. The AR doesn't need to be less versatile. The other weapons need to be less situational due to the map design and general flow of the combat.
The TTK for the AR could use some tweaking and maybe also shortening it's optimal range by 5m could help. However, when you have HMGs that can't hit the side of a barn beyond 20m, Plasma Cannons that fire a slow shot off once every 3 seconds, Shotguns that shoot through people, Novaknives that need several mods to even kill people 1m away, Laser's that drop from 120% efficacy against shields to 12% efficacy in 3m, Forge Guns that can 1 shot anyone half way across the map and several Breach variants that all are worse in almost every way than regular weapons, nerfing the AR substantially first won't do much except make everyone swap to Assault Scrambler Rifles.
Note that I do not generally run Assault Rifles, so I am not just saying these things to "stop a nerf" on my "precious" rifle or anything. I die to them all day long. The truth is, all of the weapons need to be rebalanced in respect to each other. Sticking fingers in holes as they appear doesn't do anything when you don't repair the hull. Since there's more wrong with everything else combined than the AR (which admittedly does have some problems), I would prioritize that and then see how if the Assault Rifle needs nerfing once everything is sufficient in its niche and not so situational.
Kane Fyea wrote:
You can balance any weapon without effecting the DPS. Example changea weapons range, mag size, ammo capacity, recoil/dispersion, and many other things.
My point is that the Assault Rifle is the bland vanilla weapon and the simplest. You have the stats every other gun has with no unique features. You've got your optimal range, drop to effective range, DPS and Damage Per Clip, then Accuracy, with headshot modifier. It's a simple weapon and there are only so many ways to nerf it and no matter how you do it, you won't get its performance alongside every other weapon type to be satisfactory without examining why the other weapons were not performing to begin with and balancing them all together. |