I really want weapons in xT to be all about effort based reward, meaning you are depending on player-side skill to achieve progressive results. This isn’t asking for all weapons to involve the same skill sets, but that equally demanding skill curves need to exist on all weapons and this should be reflective in player performance; be it tracking, recoil, reflex, hit scan, etc. A lot of new weaponry is suffering from a lack of player involvement in the physical influence over weapon efficiency, which ends up generating weaponry that is too easy and too situational or too reliant on automated variables. I’d like to suggest testing alternate firing modes as a means of having both a user friendly (but very limited) mode and a high skill -> high reward mode, rather than getting stuck with something with very limited control or with little skill demand but high situational efficiency.
I’m not one to complain on impulse about a weapon and I take into full account how they cooperate with abilities, but I do complain when I see inconsistencies in design. A weapon like Fragger’s MG is a prime example of a low-skill based weapon simply because there is no clear skill curve to master. It’s a point in the general area and click weapon with little imposition on the player in terms of variables that need precise control or have punishment for poor control. Perhaps it has slight limitations in range or spread- however these are limits that are completely out of player control and so damage/clip size is slowly increased until the stats even out. So in the attempt to raise the proficiency cap you end up making it accessible to a broader range of players because the skill gap becomes smaller and smaller. It’s not to argue that you can’t kill Fragger as Sawbonez for example, but rather that the effort required to do so is incredibly askew.
The same consequences of design apply to the shotguns as well, though in a slightly different manner. In this case you have a weapon with little dependence on precision and high dependence on proximity. There is no progressive means for significant player improvement in this area when it comes to this weapon type. In most cases it becomes random chance or forced camping, which results in either low effort kills or complete debilitation. The sniper by comparison is something that only becomes potentially more efficient when it comes to proximity, but is not entirely dependent on it (and still requires incredible precision). This is what makes the shotgun feel so out of place in comparison to everything else.
In both of these cases only the lowest skill denominator benefits, while the higher denominator is held back by hard limitations. I wouldn’t doubt cross referencing stats would show overall higher performance on certain weapon types and overall lower proficiency caps on certain weapon types. These are things I hope are fixed and avoided. More recently the grenade launcher was viewed as too difficult to operate (which it was) and so it experienced the process of simplification until it likely fit into the stat chart. The proposed alternate firing mode (timed air-bursts) really peaked my interest as it suggested a means of a more realistic method of control. The idea of offering an easier yet much more inefficient method of use, and then a more difficult yet more rewarding method of use is hugely appealing. I could see the same idea applying to most of the aforementioned weapon types. For example having a buck shot mode and slug shot mode on the shotgun, or varying RoF/spread modes on the Rhino MG, or a burst mode on the Fragger MG. These would be much more fitting ways to provide appeal to all weapons without creating inconsistencies in the effort requirements of their use or max limits. Even if the easy method didn’t output results after a certain point or against better players, at least there would be an understanding of the next step in progression and at least there would be allowance for a real player influenced skill gap for these weapons.
