Weapon choice for every merc. (no loadout weapons)

(Glottis-3D) #1

I personally would like to have 2-3 wepons for every merc to choose from.

and and leave random-based loadout cards for other stuff.

-upd- plz correct the title for weApons, thnx.

(PixelTwitch) #2

If each of them 2-3 weapons where unique to that Merc I would agree…
However I am very much against mixing weapons between Mercs full stop…

I think the Default loadout card does an ok job really…
Not a fan of weapon selection really…

(spookify) #3

I do not no how to vote on this…

I put combo whatever that means haha!

I like some of the main gun on some of the other players but I hate the load out cards… I have not got a combination I love yet… Most are useless other then the main gun…

I can pick up a grenade and throw it back??? REALLY!!!

I can only see 2, 3 ,4 or even stretching it a 5 possible usefull loadout with the perks…

Anyone with AOE is going to want to need the 2X Damage or the 2X Area Damage… You can see the effect of this on Stokers Fire. It takes up an entire passable area… I would like these two perks on Fletcher!!!

As for the guns take it or leave it… Again merc Identity is crap right now!

(onYn) #4

I am pretty sure that there will be weapons that will be kinda equal in strength. Be it on mid, longer or short range. Basically every “class” should have there merc specific abilities I think, but be able to pick between 1-3 guns maybe, not all but some that equal the original one in overall gun power say like a shotgun, a rifle and a scoped rifle who are individually stronger on the different ranges but overall are balanced out. This would greatly help the merc diversity for any draft we may have.

(prophett) #5

While I would like more choice, I think it would result in less variety of weapons used.

The card system is ok, although I have about 40-50 cards I will never use and I have only received 1-2 cards for the 2-3 mercs I use.

(Violator) #6

Quite happy with the cards as they are, but choosing from a couple of weapons at the start might be nice - the weapons are the main reason for picking cards for me currently though (BR-16 when I can grab one!). The Drilled, extra clip and speedy disarm perks are good but not a lot of use for any of the others.

(tokamak) #7

Cards that give a merc a primary weapon of a different merc should be extremely rare. A scenario where players have gathered so many cards that they get to pick any weapon for any merc should not ever be a thing.

(montheponies) #8

I detest the card system.

Either fix mercs as set loadouts, or give them the flexibility to choose weapons and/or perks. Not sure how that fits with the monetisation policy, but really dont see the cards being a ‘thing’ that people will shell out for/collect/trade. Could be wrong though…who’d have thought hats in TF2 would takeoff.

(DJswirlyAlien) #9

I’m really curious about this third option of having rare non-standard weapons. Could be a cool way to bring some more out-of-the-box style weapons to the game.

(Szakalot) #10

I support the idea of one unique weapon for each (or most) merc, that no other merc can have, and a bunch of different weapons that are available between subsets of mercs.

So kind of what we have already now.

(Silvanoshi) #11

Smooth/Anti/Exedore can correct me on this, but the current design & implementation doesn’t allow for any Merc to have access to every weapon, and that’s not something that we’re looking change atm.

As we’re already beginning to see in this thread, different Loadout Cards are going to appeal to different kinds of players. With that said, there are a couple of points at play here that make some Augments a little less desirable than they could be:

1: Even before the latest update, balance passes needed to be made to buff and tweak the impact of some Augments
2: With the latest update Mercs, Weapons and Abilities changed; but Augments didn’t. We’ll be bringing a little more power to Augments further down the line.

As to the original post. There will indeed be a few weapon choices for each Merc. With regards to the random nature of the drops, if there’s a card in the game that you really want to get your hands on, but it just isn’t dropping; you will be able to craft it once that system comes into play.

(Glottis-3D) #12

this i like.
some minor choice at start
and not fully random loadcards (i.e. crafting)

(Mustang) #13

2-3 weapons was the target, not all.

(PixelTwitch) #14

I still beg that there will be one weapon per merc that only that merc could use!
I honestly believe its soo vital for a huge number of reasons.

(Mustang) #15

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;515598]I still beg that there will be one weapon per merc that only that merc could use!
I honestly believe its soo vital for a huge number of reasons.[/QUOTE]
To clarify you mean each merc has a unique weapon and a couple of more generic alternatives, but still inline with the mercs design, I presume.

Personally I don’t have an issue either way, but it would perhaps make more sense to go down one unique each route.

(Silvanoshi) #16

[QUOTE=Glottis-3D;515589]this i like.
some minor choice at start
and not fully random loadcards (i.e. crafting)[/QUOTE]

To avoid any miscommunication, that choice would be presented within Loadout Cards.

(spookify) #17

[QUOTE=Silvanoshi;515586]Smooth/Anti/Exedore can correct me on this, but the current design & implementation doesn’t allow for any Merc to have access to every weapon, and that’s not something that we’re looking change atm.

As we’re already beginning to see in this thread, different Loadout Cards are going to appeal to different kinds of players. With that said, there are a couple of points at play here that make some Augments a little less desirable than they could be:

1: Even before the latest update, balance passes needed to be made to buff and tweak the impact of some Augments
2: With the latest update Mercs, Weapons and Abilities changed; but Augments didn’t. We’ll be bringing a little more power to Augments further down the line.

As to the original post. There will indeed be a few weapon choices for each Merc. With regards to the random nature of the drops, if there’s a card in the game that you really want to get your hands on, but it just isn’t dropping; you will be able to craft it once that system comes into play.[/QUOTE]

Very Cool Post and as always thanks for the info.

I can not wait for another pass on the Augments. Stuff like nerfing, buffing and replacing… I will warn SD or give the suggestion that the #1 aka Default Load out card on ALL mercs should be a fairly strong one and possible highlight that mersc skills. Possible not the most useful in a 5v5 but ones that make the merc “feel” the best… A lot and I mean a lot of players might only give this game 1, 2 or 3 hours of total game play before making up their mind to stick with it or Leave it… It is free so leaving it is much easier then other games.

I personally can not wait for the crafting system… Mostly to give my feedback…

3 Mercs in Game is pretty much set in stone right? But what about changing Augments/Cards in game?

(Anti) #18

As stated above we don’t want to go the Brink route (any Merc with any weapon), simply because it’s confusing, you never know what enemy you’re facing off against.

We want Mercs to have an ‘optimal combat range’, so you know Proxy is short to medium range and Vasilli is long range when you face them. They can have side-grades within that, Shotgun Mercs might get SMGs or Machine Pistols for example, but we’re never going to willingly break a Merc’s preferred combat range.

A unique gun per Merc is a nice idea but he has a few down sides. For one it means we have to produce a lot more weapons, which can be costly. It also runs the risk of us ending up with 5-10 of the same weapon type (say ARs for example) that are barely different from each other and ultimately serve the same skill types and roles, we’d rather focus on new Mercs and abilities ahead of those minor side-steps.

I imagine as we move away from pure development towards ‘live operations’ we might have the time to be more unique with each new Merc, but only time will tell if things pan out that way.

(PixelTwitch) #19

I do understand the production problem with cost and time being major factors but I am still going to continue pushing for this.

I do feel its fine to not have unique weapons for Mercs with “Ability Weapons” like Rhino, Phantom, Nader, Sparks and Javelin. I do not feel like we would have too many side grades either. Right now you already have a decent balance with most Mercs.

If you was to switch Skyhammers default weapon to the 3 shot burst AR that was just introduced, you would have Skyhammer 3 shot burst, Stoker automatic, Arty Semi and Kira Burst but different body type. I would even consider having the new AR and the AUG having fire mode toggle. If this was the way forward then Skyhammers current default becomes a shared weapon. 2-3 more AR and you have that covered.

Sure, each new merc would be a little more work. Sure, in the grand scheme of things the extra work is actually not huge but yes you do need to draw the line somewhere. I just hope that this happens… I really do.

I know we are a long way from anywhere near the end of development right now and things can change wildly. However, right now and for as far into the future as I can see, knowing what I know and seeing what I see, I think a number of locked weapons to certain Mercs can increase Merc pick diversity. It can increase certain weapon usage rates and it can add massively to the Merc diversity.

Also, if we flip the production problem on its head for a moment, we still have the problem that having shared weapons could very well decrease the number of weapons used. The only reason I don’t feel that this is becoming glaringly obvious right now is because the current range of shared weapons completely breaks a Mercs combat range, role and feel. Once you reign in that consistency again I think a number of weapons could get left in the dirt.

EDIT: Also, the weapons do not need to be mega unique, I think most people here would be happy for reskins with slightly deviating statistics. The important thing is to make a weapon feel like it belongs to a certain Merc.

(tokamak) #20

I’m worried about that. I heard Inferno had a Arty with Stoker’s AK or something and was really digging it. I think such combinations should be rare to the point that you can only get them through luck or perhaps trading them with other players. Crafting your way to the ideal cards should only be possible up to a point that you get fairly uncommon combinations, not the extremely rare and unique ones.