I'd like to thank everyone that has come together and shared their input on the MD, defended the weapon, mourned its nerf or simply posted about the good old days when we could troll AR users. But, I think it's time for me to throw in the towel and move on. Having a weapon that's literally broken and unreliable in a high stakes FPS and it not being a top priority has put a lot of things into perspective for me and has discouraged me from playing. I don't think I've hit my weekly cap, let alone, put a dent into it since Uprising and honestly, I don't care enough to anymore since all I'm going to do is get frustrated over that one MD that went through my target instead of killing him or reminiscing about how I used to be able to make my squad better players through the now gone tactical aspects of the weapon.
So with that said, this will probably be my final post on the forums and I'm contemplating biomassing my toon to eliminate temptation to want to come back. It's not worth playing anymore if a broken weapon on a FPS isn't a #1 concern. Farewell fellow massholes, maybe we'll meet again in another game that can get the grenade launcher right.

PS: Yes you can have my stuff... once trading gets implemented.

Have to agree, this is some serious "I'm taking my ball and going home" whining here. Despite the initial nerf CCP has acknowledged the problem and are working on a fix. The only thing holding it up appears to be the testing and deployment policy. I don't know how PSN handles things but I remember reading that XBLive's policy only allowed a set number of deployments a year. I couldn't imagine PSN operating much differently.

Plus look how long the TAC nerf took, I think CCP may have learned their lesson and are finally moving ahead more cautiously as to not make things WORSE.

Yeah, sorry about that. I literally just got finished rage quitting a skirmish where I was getting killed by militia ARs because of... what else? ghost rounds going through them. Adding insult to injury, it was my favorite map, the city where B is next to the CRU and I used to lob rounds in that little room and flush people out for my squad to deal with. Even with flux grenades, I was getting people down to slivers of armor, and just couldn't finish them off. Not because I have crappy aim, but because the hits just weren't registering. I didn't even see the news of the MD getting an expected fix and posted my laments like some spoiled brat. For that, I'm sorry.
I wish the MD can get fixed sooner than Uprising 1.2, but I guess I need to Adapt or Die, or HTFU in the meantime, right? At the same time though, we still need to address the actual nerfing which has put the MD in just as worse shape as the laser. Rounds just don't deal enough damage to threaten anyone, it takes almost an entire clip to kill someone in a proto suit... with the Freedom, which deals around the same damage as the EXO-5 back in Chrome, splash radius is non-existent for area denial, the arcing trajectory ruins the tactical aspects of the weapon, and the nanohive nerf starves the MD more than any other weapon in the game. Something has to give to make people want to use this thing. Blob tactics are actually viable again with so many assaults in conga lines as if they're mocking us. We need some, if not all of what made the MD a proper area denial weapon back. And if I'm not mistaken, that those issues could be easily resolved with hotfixes similar to the TAC AR, right?

Yeah, sorry about that. I literally just got finished rage quitting a skirmish where I was getting killed by militia ARs because of... what else? ghost rounds going through them. Adding insult to injury, it was my favorite map, the city where B is next to the CRU and I used to lob rounds in that little room and flush people out for my squad to deal with. Even with flux grenades, I was getting people down to slivers of armor, and just couldn't finish them off. Not because I have crappy aim, but because the hits just weren't registering. I didn't even see the news of the MD getting an expected fix and posted my laments like some spoiled brat. For that, I'm sorry.
I wish the MD can get fixed sooner than Uprising 1.2, but I guess I need to Adapt or Die, or HTFU in the meantime, right? At the same time though, we still need to address the actual nerfing which has put the MD in just as worse shape as the laser. Rounds just don't deal enough damage to threaten anyone, it takes almost an entire clip to kill someone in a proto suit... with the Freedom, which deals around the same damage as the EXO-5 back in Chrome, splash radius is non-existent for area denial, the arcing trajectory ruins the tactical aspects of the weapon, and the nanohive nerf starves the MD more than any other weapon in the game. Something has to give to make people want to use this thing. Blob tactics are actually viable again with so many assaults in conga lines as if they're mocking us. We need some, if not all of what made the MD a proper area denial weapon back. And if I'm not mistaken, that those issues could be easily resolved with hotfixes similar to the TAC AR, right?

To be perfectly honest, I'm a little baffled at what's happened with the Mass Driver. The reason for the splash and blast range nerf was that in playtests we found the MD to be so effective that at one point almost half the people in the office were using it in battles. Clearly, that's not been the case with Uprising and after getting the engineers to go elbow deep into the code it appears there may be a few reasons beyond dry numbers that are contributing to the MDs underwhelming performance.

One, there appears to be a de-sync between client and server so that (more often than it should) the server and client think the projectile exploded in different places. They're not far off, but enough so that shots you *think* are spot on are off the mark enough to do only minor splash damage. And two, I'm told splash occlusion is getting blocked by a single player character more than it should, contributing to the "randomness" of the damage dealt and the sometimes smudgy feeling of the weapon.

I'm hesitant to rebalance the weapon until we get these issues looked at (which is happening right now).

First off I'd like to apologize for not being as active as I used to be, went on vacation and then returned and needed to have my fix of dust. But i'm back now and that's what matters. With me I bring the weekly update news they have in the link below for those of you who don't have the time or don't want to dig too deep.

WEEKLY UPDATE SECTION

No mass driver mentioned this week in the weakly update section either. Weekly updates on dust 514

Discussed this week:

1. Templar Manhunt Event
Update: The community team and the CPM were discussing this event in general and we are looking into improving this further.


2. Adjusting the low-value secondary weapon skills
Update: Great info from the player base, we are reviewing this and working on fixes to address this.


3. Shield > Armor and detailed explanation why
Update: New armor modules being introduced in the next patch should address this issue.


4. Planetary Conquest
Update: New armor modules being introduced in the next patch should address this issue.


5. Laser Rifles in Uprising
Update: There are more laser rifle variants coming, and we are working on fixing ADS issues.


6. LAV "death taxis"
Update: We are working on resolving this issue.


7. Suns and moons
Update: Soon! The community team will ask the dev working on this feature to comment on the forums.

Still no word on the mass driver or any evidence of our Thread being fully acknowledged as REAL ISSUE apart from what we already know. Seeing things said about the MASS DRIVER in other threads that are not nearly as long as this one, have not been half the time in the first page as this one has nor directly related to MASS DRIVERS, I can't help but think that we might never get a solid answer apart from the ones we already have. Even if they manage to fix desync issues and what not, I worry that that's as far as the fix is going to get and we will continue to get the silent treatment afterword and a nice "look here's a bone go play with it before it goes to the garbage again".

PERTINENT QUOTE SECTION

For those of you new or fairly new to this thread this quote is an outright acceptance of how unnecessarily the mass driver was nerfed. This quote shows puzzlement over it being nerfed in the first place and acknowledgment that it was nerfed due to internal testing. This has a angered the mass driver community simply because months of beta testing were not taken into account, instead internal play testing was used, which did not reflect how the mass driver was used nor the very small number of people that used it.

** The quote below is linked in red letters as the pertinent quote section title




NEW SECTION: OLD VERSUS NEW STATS

In this section I will post only the changed stats of the weapons which are area of effect and damage. Please note that I am not aware if the page rearranges text if viewed on devices such as tablets of phones so if it does the following pseudo table will not view correctly.

ODD = Old direct damage
NDD = New direct damage

OSD = Old Splash damage
NSD = New Splash damage

OSR = Old Splash radius
NSR = New Splash Radius


STATS--MASS DRIVER--"TSUNAMI"--BREACH---EXO-5---"CYCONE"---EC-3----EK-A2---FREEDOM---BOUNDLESS--CORE

ODD-------- 225 ------------ 247.5 ------- 315 ------ 247.5 ------ 270 ----- 148.5 ---- 346.5 ------ 270 -------- 162 -------- 378
NDD-------- 242 ------------ 242.0 ------- 338 ------- 254 ------- 254 ----- 152.5 ----- 355 -------- 266 -------- 159 -------- 372

OSD-------- 115 ------------ 126.0 ------- 80.5 ----- 126.5 ------ 138 ------- 75 ------ 88.6 ------- 138.0 ------- 82.8 ------- 96.6
NSD-------- 116 ------------ 116.0 ------- 81.0 ----- 121.8 ----- 121.8 ----- 73.1 ----- 85.3 ------- 127.6 ------- 76.6 ------- 89.3

OSR--------- 4 --------------- 4.4 --------- 3.0 -------- 4.4 -------- 4.8 ------- 6.6 ------ 3.3 --------- 4.8 ---------- 7.2 --------- 3.6
NSR--------- 3 --------------- 3.0 --------- 2.2 -------- 3.1 -------- 3.1 ------- 4.7 ------ 2.4 --------- 3.3 ----------- 5 ----------- 2.5

As we can see by the information above, the nerf of up to 39% of some of these, the reduction to splash damage of all but the original MASS DRIVER,the shield buff to most dropsuits and the reduced efficiency this weapon has against shields has made it obsolete for the battlefield.

you should go back a few pages and read the newest development.. they wont touch it.. wait for the next update

There has been no new development. This we know. This we know to be wrong. They want to fix desync issues because they don't want to admit they did something wrong. Like I've said before. they prefer doing something more complex instead of actually accepting that they are wrong. That means making changes to how the server and client communicate in next patxh instead of making a simple tweak to the stats the fubar'd. CCP has this reputation. Make a change, it suck,,, then make a complicated solution just so they don't end up loyoking bad.

If i where to make a wheel for a car which is supposed to be round, then decide i prefer making that wheel square. After that someone tells me that it's not working. I don't want to be wrong so I just add a couple of more sides to the square and make a hexagon. This hexagon doesn't function quite as well as the wheel but it roles better than the square. I don't get to say i'm wrong because I told the person i fixed it and now this pseudo wheel roles somewhat but the problem is not fixed. It was just me trying to not be wrong.

his is classic CCP behavior and to be redundant... They break it, then make a complex solution just to say they weren't wrong.


And just to be clear, I have been following this thread. My last post before this the one you commented on was in page 21. So no. There is no new development That i don't know of. The post was to be thorough and to show all the info that has not been presented in a tangible and digested manner in all the time we have been in this thread.

No big issue, I just don't like what's happened to the mass driver and get a bit passionate about it. Apologies if it came out as me being a but rough

NEW SECTION: OLD VERSUS NEW STATS

In this section I will post only the changed stats of the weapons which are area of effect and damage. Please note that I am not aware if the page rearranges text if viewed on devices such as tablets of phones so if it does the following pseudo table will not view correctly.

ODD = Old direct damage
NDD = New direct damage

OSD = Old Splash damage
NSD = New Splash damage

OSR = Old Splash radius
NSR = New Splash Radius


STATS--MASS DRIVER--"TSUNAMI"--BREACH---EXO-5---"CYCONE"---EC-3----EK-A2---FREEDOM---BOUNDLESS--CORE

ODD-------- 225 ------------ 247.5 ------- 315 ------ 247.5 ------ 270 ----- 148.5 ---- 346.5 ------ 270 -------- 162 -------- 378
NDD-------- 242 ------------ 242.0 ------- 338 ------- 254 ------- 254 ----- 152.5 ----- 355 -------- 266 -------- 159 -------- 372

OSD-------- 115 ------------ 126.0 ------- 80.5 ----- 126.5 ------ 138 ------- 75 ------ 88.6 ------- 138.0 ------- 82.8 ------- 96.6
NSD-------- 116 ------------ 116.0 ------- 81.0 ----- 121.8 ----- 121.8 ----- 73.1 ----- 85.3 ------- 127.6 ------- 76.6 ------- 89.3

OSR--------- 4 --------------- 4.4 --------- 3.0 -------- 4.4 -------- 4.8 ------- 6.6 ------ 3.3 --------- 4.8 ---------- 7.2 --------- 3.6
NSR--------- 3 --------------- 3.0 --------- 2.2 -------- 3.1 -------- 3.1 ------- 4.7 ------ 2.4 --------- 3.3 ----------- 5 ----------- 2.5

As we can see by the information above, the nerf of up to 39% of some of these, the reduction to splash damage of all but the original MASS DRIVER,the shield buff to most dropsuits and the reduced efficiency this weapon has against shields has made it obsolete for the battlefield.

To be perfectly honest, I'm a little baffled at what's happened with the Mass Driver. The reason for the splash and blast range nerf was that in playtests we found the MD to be so effective that at one point almost half the people in the office were using it in battles. Clearly, that's not been the case with Uprising and after getting the engineers to go elbow deep into the code it appears there may be a few reasons beyond dry numbers that are contributing to the MDs underwhelming performance.

One, there appears to be a de-sync between client and server so that (more often than it should) the server and client think the projectile exploded in different places. They're not far off, but enough so that shots you *think* are spot on are off the mark enough to do only minor splash damage. And two, I'm told splash occlusion is getting blocked by a single player character more than it should, contributing to the "randomness" of the damage dealt and the sometimes smudgy feeling of the weapon.

I'm hesitant to rebalance the weapon until we get these issues looked at (which is happening right now).

To be Honest about a lot of things I have played eve since 2007 This patch was quite a let down

There is a lot of shiny new things in this patch here is a list of things done right and wrong please add to it people so CPP get the message

To be perfectly honest, I'm a little baffled at what's happened with the Mass Driver. The reason for the splash and blast range nerf was that in playtests we found the MD to be so effective that at one point almost half the people in the office were using it in battles. Clearly, that's not been the case with Uprising and after getting the engineers to go elbow deep into the code it appears there may be a few reasons beyond dry numbers that are contributing to the MDs underwhelming performance.

Half the people in the office?
Do you make all your decisions based on how people play in the office? Cause back then most ppl who actually played for playing not for testing or developing the game were NOT using MDs

Due to other annoying reasons I stopped playing several months ago
I start playing again and hay presto, Im much better with the AR then I was before
Cool lets use my earned skill points and go back to the MD
After I used my skill points on MD and started using it again I was thinking OK you guys have stuffed the MD somehow and made the AR better.
Way to go for variation, youve just decreased the ppl using MD from about 5% to about 1%.
NEWFLASH CCP the MD was never a popular weapon before and its even less popular now

This is another one of those illogical things, like hand held guns are more effective then vehicle or turret mounted guns. It's a bag @$$ gun mounted on a structure, a single round should kill or do serious damage

You guys do realize there has been a projectile bug fix already made but its waiting for a code deployment?

Also, how hard would it to be to work on rebalancing the splash radius, damage, trajectory, clip size and ammo capacity in the meantime. Even with the desynch, the MD is sub-par at best right now. I scare campers more by swinging the MD at them.