7 replies to this topic

[Morquedeas]

It is my belief that the discussion of balance in the Hawken forums should never cease.  Developers will (hopefully) look at our discussions and augment their balance implementations with our conclusions, and as we saw from the buff to the machine gun turret, this is something they can do at this stage.  Frankly balance patches have always been the most exciting for me as they can fundamentally change gameplay, and make the game more enjoyable when executed correctly.  Honestly my hope for the first patch by reloaded games is that it will include something like nudging the TOW gently away from its current "master of all trades" status and something to help hellfires' viability against more skillful players, though this is just my hope and I'll leave that discussion for another time.  Instead I'm going to bring up something a little bit more obscure that probably hasn't been discussed much, if at all, but is something I'd like to see changed.

 

Shotgun consistency is poor.  Let me first throw some facts at you before I make my point and suggested change.  The miniflak shoots 4 pellets, the flak shoots 8, the reflak shoots 5, the breacher shoots 6 (though I'll probably leave this out of the discussion for the most part due to its charge functionality and its being on the pred), and the t-bolt shoots 5 uncharged and 8 charged.  The miniflak and the reflak both have reasonably tight spread, while the flak and t-bolt both have wider spreads.  I think the spread to pellet count ratio is too high.  The reflak suffers the least from this, having a small spread and a pellet count of 5.  The t-bolt suffers the most while being fired uncharged, it seems to have the spread of flak cannon while firing only 5 pellets.  What I would like to see is an increase in the pellet count of all shotgun weapons, making them more consistent and less random.  The possibility of outlier pellets that exists now will still be their, but with the damage spread across a greater number of pellets it will be less punishing and good aim will be more rewarding.  In my experience removing "rng" from games usually gives a positive result.

 

I know I am by no means I high level player, but hopefully my opinion will be taken seriously and fruitful discussion can follow.  More threads on other balance issues would also be nice since that's half the point of my thread here.  I should point out that I predominately pilot the raider (with a preference for the t-bolt) so my opinion may be a little biased, but I am also experienced, and I try to remain objective.  Anyways let me know what you guys think!

 

TL:DR Increase pellet count on shotgun weapons to make them more consistent.

[hoghead]

I read it all!  Its only 0530 here!    ahhhhhhhhh! Nice thoughts.   

[CrimsonKaim]

Balance changes, still missing. Josh said "more aggressive balance changes" in a dev update, still missing!!! ._.

Edited by FakeName, 15 July 2015 - 02:29 AM.

[Elite_is_salty]

Balance changes, still missing. Josh said "more aggressive balance changes" in a dev update, still missing!!! ._.

 

You, still here.

[Onstrava]

ABOUT BLOOD TIME someone has brought this up, lord knows how many times I've been screwed with by rng with the G2R's bolt shotgun. I just began to spam click the thing to get the right amount of damage sometimes. The spread on the t-bolt is such a bummer sometimes. How many times have people gotten away or have killed me with a sliver of health just because 1 pellet missed? It drives me nuts. I just had to get that off my shoulders, good post Morquedeas.

[hoghead]

You, still here.

hee hee.

[driedjello]

oh man, good post.  I dread the idea of changing the tow.  The tow really separates the men from the boys.  Landing a big percentage of tows is a matter of life (as an omnipotent member of the battlefield) and death (who spam).  I can't believe how many players would have me dead-to-rights if they were just more knowledgeable/skilled at detonating their tows and didn't already spam them away when we start a duel. 

 

There is nothing more satisfying for me than to kill that fleeing A class from half way accross the battlefield with an opulently timed tow detonation. 

Edited by driedjello, 16 July 2015 - 01:04 PM.

[cpeq]

Just giving this a bump because I used to play Hawken and was saddened by the design of the shotguns in the game. The T-Bolt wants to be a beastly weapon but it falls short.. last I played, Meta heavily favored the low spread smg and assault and it was getting a little bit dull! I think the time for a change to the shotguns is here. =)