Melee upgrade is OP! Just fucking running circles in a an enemy rax slapping people before they even get to turn around is a fucking joke.
Actually, now that you mention it, that's a good argument for the shotty. Since we already accept the absurdly OP insta-kill-is-this-cod?-melee, it's not much of a stretch to think that the shotty is ok.
Personally, I honestly don't think the shotty is "OP" (it could use more falloff, but IDK), but to be fair, melee upgrade is a lot harder to use in the shotty, considering that this is Empires. Not to mention that melee upgrade requires you to actually take it as one of your upgrade slots. Like you like to say, it's about opportunity cost. With the shotty, you can either take that or the p1, and many people like to take the shotty over the p1. With melee upgrade, you could take that instead of running faster, having more health, having more ammo, detecting enemy tank armor, slowly regenerating your health, or not worrying about mines, and it is no wonder then that meele upgrade simply isn't comparable to the shotty.
I believe the reason melee upgrade isn't considered OP is because of the "melee" part of it, especially combined with what we all know to be terrible melee hit detection.
Melee upgrade is retarded. It goes out way too far, all you need is a bit of lag and someone with melee & speed upgrade and they can appear to one hit you from 1/3 barracks length. I get that it takes more skill though.
If you should not run directly parallel to the melee-er, but instead strafe left and right whilst kiting him, you would probably find that 9 times out of 10, he won't hit you. Unless the person in question happens to be Mashav.
The difference between the shot pistol and melee upgrade. Is the fact one is a gun, and the other isn't Melee upgrade requires hugging, where the shot pistol can murder you a few feet away. Melee hit detection is not good, where shot pistol is a point and click adventure. Melee upgrade requires taking a skill slot, where the shot pistol is a gun. So lets do a combination. NF rifleman Speed upgrade Shotty pistol Rifle 1 BE Rifleman Melee upgrade Magnum Rifle 1 Now from my understanding melee upgrade means you can usually 1 hit kill people with your bear hands. But this requires you getting close, and seeing as you don't have speed upgrade you are at a disadvantage when it comes to hugging. Where the NF rifleman, can just juke left or right and kill people including speed upgrade without getting in hugging range. Does anyone see the problem here? The only thing I can suggest is make the reload longer. So if people use it they cant keep constantly using it as their main weapon. The point of the pistol is so you have a weapon to switch too when your main weapon doesn't have anymore ammo.
Alright, you play with only melee and charge people who have the shot pistol without speed upgrade. Tell me your results. I also want you to keep track of how many times where you punched somebody more than once and they still murdered you.
ITT people who don't know how to abuse the living fuck out of your rates so you can melee round corners.
There are other maps besides district and escort. You tap them and run away. Aiming for the head usually helps.
Or your getting punched through a fucking wall in escort. A BE was in the bunker room last flag in the corner of next to the crates and I got killed 3 times walking by the corner.(I have an idea they used the camera glitch to get into the wall, not sure though)
Honestly, I don't understand the complaining about the shotty pistol. I don't often get killed by it *shrug*.
It was better before melee prediction was added. I could get real range on my punches then, probably equal to the (at the time very low) shotgun pistol range.
Something is OP and existed for years, this doesn't mean we accept it and it's GOOD to remain. I never accept them sincerely(OP SMG2, shotty, melee upgrade..etc), I was forced to.