MoA and FEL-IX balance idea

(ProfPlump) #1

[Long story short - we take away the MoA’s insta-gib ability, meaning that only the FEL-IX can insta-gib]

We all know that the MoA is statistically and practically superior to the FEL-IX in every way (except a puny 5% extra damage per bullet), and that it’s very difficult to increase the FEL-IX’s damage without making it too OP versus low health mercs, and that it’s very difficult to nerf the MoA without taking away Vassili’s best weapon and making him even less competitive than he already is (which isn’t very competitive - he’s rare in pro games).

My suggestion is that we take away the MoA’s insta-gib ability from headshots, just like it was done for the PDP-70. That way the MoA is still a perfectly usable weapon, but only the FEL-IX can do that 1 shot kill and insta-gib. That way, it’s a trade up between a generally more effective MoA and a generally harder to use weapon that relies much more heavily on accuracy (since it has a slower firerate, you can’t spam shots as fast as the MoA, meaning you need to be slightly more accurate) BUT if you are good enough to make those headshots with the FEL-IX, you can actually do a lot better than if you were using the MoA.

I would also suggest to increase both the MoA and the FEL-IX’s firerates by 5-10% each, just to balance out the nerf of taking away the MoA’s insta-gib.

This would open up a LOT more of Vassili’s loadouts too. Whereas right now the only competitive ones are the MO11 (MoA + MP400) and possibly the P13 if you like the PDP, we would instead open up the F12 (FEL-IX + MP400) for consideration by players who want to be competitive.

(And if the Tolen MP [firerate by about 10% ?] was buffed a little we would also see the MO22 and F23 loadouts being used a bit more)

I’m a big fan of variety in games like this, and if these changes were made I think we would see a larger variety of mercs (Vassili being used more often), a larger variety of weapon variety (less MoA-only Vassili players) and a larger loadout and augment variety being used by Vassili players.

(DMaster2) #2

That’s actually a not bad idea. There need to be a reason to pick up the FEL-IX other than how it feels.

(Tannimun) #3

The problem with Vassili is, as you say, that he’s not viable in competitive play. His heartbeat sensor is nowhere nere as strong as some of the other mercs abilities, making him pretty much only have his rifle to bring to battle. Another thing is that there are no other competitive fps games where you can’t kill an enemy with a sniper shot to the body. That’s the whole point of a sniper rifle. Now Dirty Bomb is a bit more complicated than, say CS, because all the mercs have different amounts of health.
My suggestion is to increase the movement speed with the MoA, and to keep all the other stats, making it more aggressive and risk rewarding. Then increase the damage of the FEL-IX to 100. That would make it a 1-hit kill to all females (except for Nader) and to Vassili himself, and a 1-hit headshot to Rhino. Then bring down the mag size to 4 and the rof from 37.5 rpm to 29.5 rpm. This would make the the MoA and FEL-IX still have a dps of 54 and 49 respectively, but make them completely different.
They should also reduce the recoil on the PDP and make it auto fire, like the auto-snipers in CS.
To balance him they could lower his health to say 90, and increase his speed to maybe 430-440, then give him the Mechanic augment, making him more of a glass canon but also a good merc for side objectives, as his only role at the moment is to farm frags.

(ProfPlump) #4

Tannimun if even if they lowered the rate of fire as much as you have suggested, the 100 damage per shot from the FEL-IX would definitely be too overpowered. Rate of fire on bolt actions is only a small factor compared to lowering the amount of shots required for a kill.

And for the record, Vassili is an amazing objective player if situated correctly - he can pick off people as they try to plant/disarm with absolute ease if he is in the right spot. Although I would like it if they gave him the Mechanic augment in 1 or 2 loadouts.

But no, he shouldn’t have his health/speed stats changed to that of Proxy/Kira. That would make it far too easy for him to fire and run. At the moment, getting pushed by Proxies and Auras is Vassili’s biggest nightmare (because they’re small targets, very fast targets AND you can’t outrun them). If you upped Vassili’s speed he would lose this weakness.