*Stares back blankly, a core locus beeping in each hand*

One for you one for me.... Friend.

Greetings

read a few pages back, last time I looked in it was at the 1000 page mark...

I see you are discussing a few things that I can clarify

Cloak is not going away, we will keep trying to patch it up with further testing. I would rather not remove content.
I'm sure we all know something has to be done about it. Be sure to come back to us when you want/have ideas for it.

Shotguns, lack of progression is one thing, it seems militia SG's are almost as useful as proto. Second, it's the lack of awareness, I don't know about you guys but the 3rd person sound from a shotgun is a whispery "thip, thip", to me. It doesnt sound anything like the "BLAOING" 1st person sound. It's basically "was that a shotgun, yes, it was, respawn"
I can get this, I've seen a bunch of people using militia shotguns on prototype suits. I rarely see any using proto, but I do see the occasional advanced

I know I get killed by SG scouts all the time, but it's usually carelessness rather than OP, I'm just running over open empty space from a spawn point to the next red dot and there is a lurker who is doing nothing but camping people like me between spawn and the action. I usually don't survive two in a medium.

This is of course all pub, I can't speak to PC viability.

And to my last point on the SG, the data I'm referring to is not just FOTM, look how many people are using it. I am studying Kill/Spawn ratios and it is well above the other light weapons, right up there with Scrambler Rifle. Dividing by spawn removes FOTM aspect, it's just I get more kills on average for SG than AR f.ex.

Anything else I can clarify? Any insights/requests on the Charlie meta and balance?
Two questions: It seems to me that the aCR is the top dog out there, what do the statistics say?
The second question deviates from the topic a bit, I hope you don't mind. Back in Chromosome when charging a weapon there was a ring that filled up around the crosshair, would there be any chance that could make a return? Perhaps as an option?

Delta threads are hitting the forums imminently as well.
Look forward to it, remember, Burst flaylock and improved Ion Pistol

Scrambler rifle is by far the most efficient rifle out there, Shotgun a close second, well below are the rest and the ACR doesn't break from the herd at all.

Now picking their target with shottyscouts, sure, but it seems to me that that logic applies to anything. You could also one-shot me with a Plasma Cannon in the back instead of a Shotgun, and only go after militia frames with an assault SMG.

I am not convinced at all by these theories.

Now Scrambler may be OP because the Amarr dropsuit is so well suited to using it and better Gallente bonuses would fix AR's quicker than just boosting their damage. A thought.

Nova knifes got a really nice buff in Charlie and it is very noticeable in the data.

Now picking their target with shottyscouts, sure, but it seems to me that that logic applies to anything. You could also one-shot me with a Plasma Cannon in the back instead of a Shotgun, and only go after militia frames with an assault SMG.

I am not convinced at all by these theories.

Nova knifes got a really nice buff in Charlie and it is very noticeable in the data.

Hello guys!

Minja scout over here. We are supposed to be assassins not doing recon.


Try again please.

I don't really feel that shotguns themselves are OP so much as the ability to see people through walls including the direction they're facing in, while having reduced visibility and being potentially unscannable yourself.

It was noticeable immediately post 1.8 that shotgun usage skyrocketed. The shotgun wasn't touched. The scout class was.

I may be alone in this here but I think the wallhack-esque permascans you can get generally vastly increase the effectiveness of the weapon more than anything else. Try using a shotgun on an assault (maybe with kincats) and see how that goes, for instance.

One thing that depresses me is that the best counter to a lot of scouts is a scout. Some here will pretend it's a Gallogi, but when comparing a short, narrow angled burst scan that tells me when it's scanned me to a permanently on, strong precision scan that's undetectable to me, I know what I am more concerned about. Although, of course, any scout now can dampen up to the point where it's completely unscannable by anything.


On the Amarr assault - the heat reduction bonus is, IMO, the single most powerful bonus in the game. I used to use the SCR on unbonused suits and it was powerful, but it was genuinely prone to overheating. Then I moved to the Amarr assault and I barely needed fire discipline anymore. It is no accident that my highest scores have come from using the Amarr assault bonus.
I think the effectiveness of the Ak.0 + SCR combination dropped a fair bit after 1.8 and the damage nerfs, proficiency changes, and damage mod nerfs, but the buffs to the Amarr assault and a small increase to damage mods have made it quite a bit more powerful once again.

We were assassins long before there was a cloak. I'm sure you remember those days.

The role is not defined by the cloak, and in this case the proposed change would still support an assassin role, but a little more player skill and a change in tactics would be required.

Scrambler rifle is by far the most efficient rifle out there, Shotgun a close second, well below are the rest and the ACR doesn't break from the herd at all.

Now picking their target with shottyscouts, sure, but it seems to me that that logic applies to anything. You could also one-shot me with a Plasma Cannon in the back instead of a Shotgun, and only go after militia frames with an assault SMG.

I am not convinced at all by these theories.

Now Scrambler may be OP because the Amarr dropsuit is so well suited to using it and better Gallente bonuses would fix AR's quicker than just boosting their damage. A thought.

Nova knifes got a really nice buff in Charlie and it is very noticeable in the data.

You could also one-shot me with a Plasma Cannon in the back instead of a Shotgun

Hey guys... havent played for a long while now, i guess, but the newsletter got me to peek back in here, and...
whattheheck?
Regular Dev posts in here?
Nova knife BUFF? + Anti tank usage?
All kinds of good stuff going on, looks like!
Methinks I'll have to actually log in again....

(PLC/NK scout squad, anyone? :D )

Quil!
Welcome back :-)
Are you Rattati's alt?

Hey guys... havent played for a long while now, i guess, but the newsletter got me to peek back in here, and...
whattheheck?
Regular Dev posts in here?
Nova knife BUFF? + Anti tank usage?
All kinds of good stuff going on, looks like!
Methinks I'll have to actually log in again....

(PLC/NK scout squad, anyone? :D )

I'll never tell...

Regular Dev posts in here?

We were assassins long before there was a cloak. I'm sure you remember those days.

The role is not defined by the cloak, and in this case the proposed change would still support an assassin role, but a little more player skill and a change in tactics would be required.

Regular Dev posts in here?

Yeah they finally all pitched in and got one of them a PS3.

As others have pointed out, the problem lies with cloaks and not shotguns. Cloaks allow for players to easily get close to their target where the shotgun excels. Without the cloak, it takes skill to close the distance with a shotgun. It's not right to punish non-cloaked shotgun users. Please re-attempt to balance cloaks instead.

If the Amarr assault suit bonus to heat build up must change, can it be replaced by "replenish __% of laser ammunition every ___ seconds". The idea being that laser weapons use batteries for munitions and that the Amarr assault suit can use its power source to recharge those batteries.

Still on the fence on the topic of scrambler rifles being OP. The gun was considered balanced for a long time. And now, without receiving any buffs, its OP all of the sudden? I'm going to have to see some data or read more arguments before I can reach a conclusion.

I would also like to recommend implementing tiercide to make these hotfix efforts at balancing easier.

Since when has the scrambler been considered balanced, to my knowledge a majority of players thought both versions too strong for quite some time but didn't stress it because of their rarity on the field, not trying to argue just trying to see where you're coming from.

This happened to the scrambler back in 1.6 where it suddenly surged in popularity and then died off.
I'm not sure what it was, there wasn't a buff then either if I recall. It just kinda happened and died off again with 1.7.