Disclaimer: This is my subjective opinion, which may differ from yours. I described my feelings and thoughts about the developers’ approach to changing weapon balance. I wasn’t trying to belittle or single out specific weapons. If you feel that way, take the information in context.
Hi all, before they close the forum I want to write this article. The monologue will be about another possible reason why people stop playing. About how the “here and now” approach to solving problems with so-called “fast food” solutions just to get the crowd on the forum to stop whining destroys the credibility of the game and developers.
And this problem is superimposed on the technical problems of the game, which the developers are in no hurry to solve. The scarcity of content, which the developers are in no hurry to solve. On the optimization of the game, which, if the developers are solving, for some reason is not the first thing to do. This is a problem with server stability, with unstable rtt and latency. For example, recently, for a long time I saw players from Uruguay complain about the huge delay on the server and it affected so that players could not normally play. But the developers rush to do fixes “patches” or quick “here and now” solutions. Let’s go over recent fixes of those weapons that are discussed the most and about which the most whining. I think you guessed right away what we’re going to talk about.
Musket. The musket really pissed a lot of people off. It pissed me off, too. It really breaks from the general idea of combat in this game: Hitscan, shoots without delay, can shoot from a distance where you can’t even see the enemy, x3 zoom. But the way the developers fixed the weapons was just disastrous for the musket. With the recent patch there was a relaxation of the nerf, but there are still reports that it’s still unplayable. I won’t get clever and try to tell you how it should have been done, but I will say that it’s definitely not so that the weapon stops playing. That’s the first point. Let’s move on.
The bow. It’s hard to disagree with the fact that the bow is a very strong weapon. Definitely needs attention with balance and some nerfs. Of the good changes recently, in my opinion, is the reduction of damage after 40 meters. Also a decrease in damage from some passive abilities. All other changes are simply ruinous. The infamous constant reduction of the hitbox. Why? To technically complicate the game on this weapon?
I’ll explain what I mean. Bow has no hitscan, projectile flight takes time, awkward in combat aiming mode. The bow is sensitive to fps and latency. Coupled with the fact that the game with these parameters frankly bad situation, then for players on an average computer, with average fps and with average rtt and latency and average level of play this makes the game on the bow just technically more difficult. Because your game now depends not only on your ability to hit, your skill, but also depends heavily on technical components, which are mediocrely implemented in the game. I note that there is an concessions for melee weapons. “Autocombat” and pulling to the target from 3 meters nicely level these problems. Also, everyone knows that even a very good computer build does not necessarily provide you with excellent fps (in case anyone was thinking now that you should just buy yourself an expensive computer)
So, a “fast-food” change in the form of another hitbox reduction makes this weapon technically harder to play. It is possible that this quick “temporary” change may be aimed at keeping the forum crowd quiet. But there is nothing more permanent than the temporary. So I doubt the developers will go back to this and redesign the weapons as required. Mind you, the bow has a passive in the left talent tree that is just garbage and no one uses it. It’s useless. And instead of redesigning the bow’s playstyle, abilities, and damage calculations, they put it on a path to destruction. Like they did with the musket. If anyone thinks that this is really a temporary solution and then the developers will take up weapon design again, you are very optimistic. Although, if they fix it after a year, you can also say that it was temporary. It only lasted for 1 year lol.
This approach to change already seems to be a trend. And, at the moment, the current changes cause the number of players on these weapons to decrease. A few more changes like this and players will stop playing these weapons. These kinds of populist decisions are bad for the game. As for me, you can come to such decisions if you don’t play the game and don’t consider or even check what other factors affect the gameplay on this or that weapon. In the end, with this approach will get to every weapon or do it with every weapon in turn. Please write, do I alone have this opinion or it still resonates with someone from the community?
P.S. A huge request, or even a wish for the players who are always whining about the ranged on OPR. Guys, understand, it’s not specifically in the ranged, it’s in the map. The current OPR map is designed so that it is more convenient to play the ranged. And there’s only 1 battleground map in the game… Don’t be a herd of sheep that whines about the same thing. The problem is not the musket or bow, by the way, which only “shine” on OPR. The problem is the map and the modes for pvp. It feels like you’re only need one point capture mode and no more. Seriously? So think about spamming posts about new pvp modes and new maps. And here if there will be several different maps, several modes, and everywhere will be dominated by ranged, then you can talk about that ranged is OP. And at the moment the whining isn’t about what’s needed. Not something that will help the game become better.