Mobius Kaethis
Molon Labe.
General Tso's Alliance
1583
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Posted - 2014.08.03 09:51:00 -
[1] - Quote
While doing some work on pistol balancing I was looking at the bolt pistol today and noticed that its operation skill bonus is rather strange. The skill provides -5% to weapon kick per level.
After playing with the weapon for a two games, popping snipers in the head and ambushing lone assaults, I failed to observe any recoil at all even though I had no sp invested in the gun. For those of you wondering how I was using it, I still had a single aurum variant in my stash from when we were given a bunch of bolt pistols. At any rate, I had already started declaring this the worst skill bonus in the game, decrying the fact that it did nothing when I happened to hip fire the gun and notice that it actually experienced barrel climb.
Let me explain a bit more here. When aiming down sites the gun always reset to its original position automatically prior to another shot being fired. This was tested while moving and while perfectly still, as well as against stationary and moving targets. When firing from the hip though the gun will climb a couple of degrees per shot.
The skill actually does something hooray!
It got me thinking though. How often should I be aiming down sites with a pistol that is intended for long range engagements. The answer should be rarely. If I'm using this weapon well it should be to finish off targets from a distance where its high alpha damage and accuracy make it formidable. In CQC the bolt pistols low RoF and .25 second per shot charge time are a major hinderance. Even though it is a pistol this gun is not intended for CQC.
Having realized this the question becomes, "Does this bonus really benefit users of this weapon," and the answer seems to be no. If I'm using the weapon well and staying out of CQC than I should have no need nor desire to hipfire the bolt pistol. Players who are good with the weapon will, in effect, receive no bonus.
Okay, so what would make a better bonus?
How about something along the lines of:
15% reduction in charge time per level
While 15% is a large number this would only reduce the firing time for a magazine from 16.5 seconds to 15.375 seconds. The charge up time would still exist keeping this weapon from being a noop sniper pistol (if you were skilled you could be headshotting from a ways off though) but be reduced a bit making snap actions with the weapon more practical.
TL;DR
Change the bolt pistols opperation skill to reduce charge time by 15% per level instead of the current 5% reduction to kick per level.
Fun > Realism
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