Extraction UPDATE: Version 24597 - September 27th 2013

[Hundopercent]

Haven’t played Soldier in awhile I can test it. Which one do you guys think is UP? I usually run conker.

[attack]

hmm i think they mean fragger

[INF3RN0]

Haven’t played Soldier in awhile I can test it. Which one do you guys think is UP? I usually run conker.

Both are noticeably less effective at lower skill levels now imo. I’d say most people will dislike Fragger now (at least in hipfire) at higher levels of play just because it’s less reliable in that mode. I still expect Fragger to be very popular for new players.

[Ashog]

Yes, Fragger. Conker was indeed more headshot-oriented but in my feeling his spread creep was quite a bit higher than Fragger’s. Conker’s weapon (haven’t played it this patch yet) was a typical burst fire weapon which was on the borderline of usability at close range and only its big punch was saving it.

I think the headbox, headshot and bodyshot changes are not bad for now. SD now should concentrate on tweaking individual weapon specs, especially SMG, AR and MG specs.

[Violator]

Its definately easier to score headshots now, which is a good thing. My current gripes with the game is the amount of airstrike spam - in a game earlier we had 6 enemy Arty’s and it was just random airstrike death. Need to limit concurrent airstrikes like we had in ET / QW. I also find the warning lights hard to spot a lot of the time. Gunplay is pretty random for me, one map it will be 2 or 3-1 k/d then the next the reverse, usually the reverse when defending for some reason.

Not tried Conker’s main weapon this patch - at the start of the alpha it was great but last patch it was nerfed to a water pistol :(. A lot easier to headshot with than Dazzler’s MG though. Dazzler’s magnum seems to be the hardest to master but it does a lot of damage it you are lucky enough to land a shot but the recoil is massive.

[Angrim]

[QUOTE=Ashog;473986]
I think the headbox, headshot and bodyshot changes are not bad for now. SD now should concentrate on tweaking individual weapon specs, especially SMG, AR and MG specs.[/QUOTE]

That’s how I feel as well.

SD already told us they are aiming for asymmetrical balance and I can see how giving different characters weapons of varying effectiveness - balanced around their toolkit and other perks and weaknesses such as movement speed or size - could end up being good for both teamplay and the character system.

However, I don’t think any weapon or weapon class should be as universally good as ARs are right now in relation to every other weapon in the game. They are easily the best weapons in nearly every situation. The differences in weapon effectiveness should also not be quite as big as they are right now. While at a disadvantage, a “support” character should have a reasonable chance to win a firefight through slightly better aim, positioning, reflexes or movement. I don’t think that is the case with the current build. At least not against ARs.

[attack]

i would say mps should have an advantage in close combats and should be effectiv on medium range too.mgs and field ops weapons at loong and medium range.for me i feel at the moment like the sniper is very strong dont know which one yet

[INF3RN0]

Scratch what I said on Fragger. Hipfire is actually perfectly fine. The MG bodyshot damage however appears to be lower, but if you land headshots it’s not weak in the least bit. I still think Fragger is a really low skill weapon for how effortlessly you can hit headshots.

It also appears fall-off damage was tweaked on MGs, and possibly all other weapons??? Headshots seem to have a separate fall-off counter now.

[Ashog]

SD already told us they are aiming for asymmetrical balance and I can see how giving different characters weapons of varying effectiveness - balanced around their toolkit and other perks and weaknesses such as movement speed or size - could end up being good for both teamplay and the character system.

That’s a good point here. I’d like to add that, as my best suggestion to SD on tweaking weapon balance, the first question they should ask to themselves before doing any change is

What should be the attraction of this particular character to a gamer to select it?

Now that we got agnostic objectives, this attraction is less on abilities, but more on weapons carried.
This means, for most characters, their weapons should be the attraction and this is achieved by fair and precize balancing of them and by making these weapons by far distinguishable. This will not be easy and will take many patches methinks (I remember the sacle of patching in starcraft1 as analogy). So we need to be patient, but it is hard to when we have no idea what SD is planning there. I wonder if there is a plan or all these changes are more a kind of spasmatic responses on the run.

[rookie1]

I like the simplicity and clearness of characters descriptions and switching option …pretty neat

[Mustang]

Hope the weapon bank plan is still on it’s way to an Extraction near you.

[Hundopercent]

Tested both soldiers. Nader or whatever his name is now, is not terrible. You need pretty good tracking in order for him to be decent. For me, 4 HS is a too long, he needs 5. A 2 damage bump on his primary might be all that he needs. It would be 10 Body 4 Head which with his rate of fire would seem perfect. For some reason, using that MG I felt like where I was shooting is where my bullets were hitting which I don’t think I ever experienced in XT before. Maybe it’s because the RoF is so high I dunno (or the sounds are more in sync than Lt/Medic.)

Conker - Still a champ. Not as OP as he used to be since the reduction of his base damage but still a 2 HS to body warrior. He may need a slight RoF tweak (buff) to keep him in the “soldier” status because the conc nade is weak but other than that he’s still a solid merc. I would not want to buff his base damage again since that’s what his problem was before, he could body shot as fast as you could headshot it was too much.

[Jonny_Hex]

There definitely needs to be a way to see the 3 mercs each of your teammates have selected on the pre-round character selection screen.

Here’s an idea for how the pre-match/lobby UI could look. Mock-up created by Sven (our VFX guy) in his own time, because he’s awesome.

[Protekt1]

[QUOTE=Jonny_Hex;474083]Here’s an idea for how the pre-match/lobby UI could look. Mock-up created by Sven (our VFX guy) in his own time, because he’s awesome.

[/QUOTE]

Yep, something like that. Maybe make each character more identifiable at a glance so if you’re trying to make sure your team has an engineer you don’t have to check each picture individually and recognize which is engineer.

[INF3RN0]

[QUOTE=strychzilla;474066]Tested both soldiers. Nader or whatever his name is now, is not terrible. You need pretty good tracking in order for him to be decent. For me, 4 HS is a too long, he needs 5. A 2 damage bump on his primary might be all that he needs. It would be 10 Body 4 Head which with his rate of fire would seem perfect. For some reason, using that MG I felt like where I was shooting is where my bullets were hitting which I don’t think I ever experienced in XT before. Maybe it’s because the RoF is so high I dunno (or the sounds are more in sync than Lt/Medic.)

Conker - Still a champ. Not as OP as he used to be since the reduction of his base damage but still a 2 HS to body warrior. He may need a slight RoF tweak (buff) to keep him in the “soldier” status because the conc nade is weak but other than that he’s still a solid merc. I would not want to buff his base damage again since that’s what his problem was before, he could body shot as fast as you could headshot it was too much.[/QUOTE]

Not sure if you were getting the right stats there.

Fragger 20dmg hs, 8dmg body (didn’t notice any fall-off). 5HS, 13BS.

Conker 40dmg hs, 16-14-8 body. 3HS, 7BS.

[Mustang]

[QUOTE=Jonny_Hex;474083]Here’s an idea for how the pre-match/lobby UI could look. Mock-up created by Sven (our VFX guy) in his own time, because he’s awesome.

[/QUOTE]
Yea something along those lines is what I’m talking about.

What are the green triangles meant to represent?

[Hundopercent]

[QUOTE=INF3RN0;474099]Not sure if you were getting the right stats there.

Fragger 20dmg hs, 8dmg body (didn’t notice any fall-off). 5HS, 13BS.

Conker 40dmg hs, 16-14-8 body. 3HS, 7BS.[/QUOTE]

My stats are fine. I’m suggesting that Fragger get a base 2 damage buff on his primary in order to remain a “soldier” class. He doesn’t exactly pack enough punch. The 2 damage buff will put him at 4HS/10BS which seems like it would be perfect for his RoF.

[INF3RN0]

My stats are fine. I’m suggesting that Fragger get a base 2 damage buff on his primary in order to remain a “soldier” class. He doesn’t exactly pack enough punch. The 2 damage buff will put him at 4HS/10BS which seems like it would be perfect for his RoF.

Oh I was just confused then. I actually think it’s good as is. I just consider the weapon to have such a low skill ceiling in its general use considering its RoF, lack of recoil, and huge clip size. If you scope with it you can land those 5hs incredibly fast from all distances, and at closer ranges you can do the same in hipfire as well. I’m mostly happy that it has such weak body shot damage now because before you used to be able to spray and pray without getting many headshots and get consistent kills. Now you at least have to score headshots to do well. Just my opinion though.

[BomBaKlaK]

[QUOTE=Mustang;474109]
What are the green triangles meant to represent?[/QUOTE]

the already selected mercs I presume

[Smooth]

It also appears fall-off damage was tweaked on MGs, and possibly all other weapons??? Headshots seem to have a separate fall-off counter now.

Fall-off damage has been tweaked based on Echo data but it’s the same for all types of shots, regardless of the multiplier applied when it hits the target.