I used to have bots to test with but they dont work any more. Regardless I thoroughly number tested all the guns and they're all basically working exactly as I want in terms of damage output, I might do some tweaks to damage based on feel but mainly atm I'm changing handling. It's funny, I changed every single weapons properties, damage, spread, falloff, recoil, everything, release that, everyone loves it. Release a patch where I make rifles too innacurate and everyone loses their fucking shit.
Some changes were okay. Okay = Shit's not fucked up. A few changes were just plain bad, like the new SMG1 and HE grenade in last patch. I will say this for the last time, SMG2 is just better than SMG1 in most of the ways, this has to be fixed. Handling scripts is just like comming in game. The comm inside the CV usually isn't the best commander on your team, but he is the one who's willing to spend his time inside CV.
I got lots of useful or positive feedback last patch, this patch all I've got is whining and spam and borderline harassment. Most of which is either unintelligible, unhelpful, or comes from sources who are unwilling or incapable of learning new weapons.
"When's last time you saw Empty in game?" I got a lot of this in the past few weeks. Basically, people doubt that you know what you are doing. We have little to none test resources anyway, it's probably not a good idea to release too much changes in a single patch, as I said, it's not much different from tossing dices. Also, tell me your comment and thoughts on SMG1.
I've been on 2 days a week for at least 3 hours each for the last month+ SMG1 I think is working great and I really enjoy using it. It was mostly a buff and it's still very powerful, though the current rifles are weaker than I thought so smg1 is probably a bit too good. It's super good when you drop walls or a turret and smg1 over the top, but I think it's a little bit too weak at close range. I also think it's a bit too hard to tap fire due to the vast rate of fire, so I plan to make it lose accuracy a bit slower so a 2 round burst will still be pretty accurate. It's role has remained the same, I still think it's the better smg for ranged combat, but you have to use it more defensively. It's definitely not for charging forward, if you want to charge, use smg2. Comparing it to the SMG2 and the SMG3, I think it underperforms slightly at mid range compared to both, but I like it better at long range than SMG3. The reason I changed it is because I wanted to give engineers a unique, powerful weapon, with a heavy downside (sucks vs more than one enemy) The goal is to give engineers a great weapon to defend themselves from an ambush or a single guy, but not so great for turning around a corner and mowing a squad down (that's assaults job with a shotgun or smg2) but I didn't want to make engineers suck at mid range, so I made it very accurate with a really flat bullet (it loses basically no damage to falloff) so it should still work really nicely as a squad support weapon. The SMG1 is less of a general purpose laser, and more of a defensive/support engineers tool. The engineer focused on repairing, reviving and dropping walls will appreciate the SMG1, whereas the engineer focusing on assaulting a base, walling in a CV or attacking a wall entrenchment will prefer the SMG2 EDIT: And on top of being present regularly on fridays and saturdays I've been discussing changes with everyone who asks me. I'm getting rather tired of the "You haven't played" excuses, I have probably 4000+ hours of empires. I fucking know how infantry works.
And here is where I'll have to completely disagree. There is currently no reason whatsoever to even think about using the SMG1 - SMG2 is far superior in pretty much every way. Can't tell you the number of times I've spawned with default loadout (SMG1 etc.), died three times, and then remembered I needed to use the SMG2 if I wanted to actually kill anything and have a chance of not failing my team. SMG1 just can't kill anything. One-on-one, it has always failed me. If I wanted a super shitty support sniper I would use pistol1 - which is still better than SMG1 at the long ranges its supposedly useful at. Look at your description: you basically said it's working great and you enjoy using it. Then you went on to say it sucks at close combat, its inferior in mid range combat, and that you prefer to use it in long range combat. My point is - it sucks at all of them. BTW: I am the engineer focused on reviving and dropping walls, and I now use SMG2.
I believe they were talking about your general activity, not recently. Once again, there's basically nothing you can do with SMG1 while SMG2 can't. As I said, SMG1's long range capability, precise accuracy and the sustainability are all nerfed. You can say SMG1 is now efficient at close range but even so the sustainability is retarded and don't forget we have SMG2 already. SMG2 >> SMG1.
i have not played enough with the new scripts, but for me smg2 was always better due to it being more efficient in close quater. as soon as you know how to empires its a nobrainer to avoid distances on most maps. if its open like duststorm or cyclo you just use vehicles to get to the enemy main since open maps allow to drive around any frontline, if its chokepointy like canyon or slaughtered the average distances are low anyway since it stalemates in the chokes. (as long as you didnt get pushed back to your main at least) also smgs are no distance weapons. why not distinquish them mainly by their rate of fire and clip size? this way you have engis and scunts at close-med, rifle at med-long. mortar is too special to put it into this equation but it works best at the closer medium distances, so it still kinda fits somehow. also id wish all weapons would be more accurate over time (or rather regain accuracy faster). after firing a few shots in rapid success (tap fire) your aim is off similar to like it would have been if you would have fired full auto and bullets go off in really strange angles. and even your first bullet often hits anywhere but not where you aimed at ...
By my stats smg1 is good, however I can't incorporate accuracy into them so I won't say that the stats are the true indicator, as always gameplay is important and the ultimate test of whether it's working. I think people are having trouble with the rate of fire being so high, which is why I plan to make the smg1 more forgiving in 2 shot bursts, at the moment in theory, if you tap fire it as fast as the previous smg1, it will behave identically. But the problem with that logic is sometimes you fire 2 shots by accident, so I'll make that less punishing since the second shot tends to fly off. I think it's strange that people think it's been significantly nerfed when I mainly pushed it's rate of fire up. I was pretty wary about increasing it's damage but I might end up giving it a little bit more to compensate for the small clip. That said, I think smg2 is basically perfect at this stage, whereas smg1 is kinda in it's prototype phase, I did a big change to it and I'm unsurprised it didn't work as well as I hoped. I was very cautious with it since rate of fire buffs can be insane if mis-managed, it's getting a small buff for now and over time I think it's a likely candidate to get more buffs, but that doesn't mean I think it's weak, I think it's very effective if used right, but not quite as good as the other guns. To clear up some confusion I'll just go over the weapons real quick. Slightly underpowered, might get buffed in future Underpowered, getting a buff next patch Possibly overpowered, may get nerfed Overpowered, getting nerfed Not sure or I'm happy with it. NF44 BE9mm BEMP Tundra Falcon NFSP Shotguns SMG3 (not sure yet) SMG1 -- Will possibly be buffed again after next patch, maybe damage increase SMG2 HMG -- I'm making it more accurate but with more falloff BEASt -- Rate of fire might be too high, dunno Assault Rifles -- Accuracy way too low. Might get an additional damage buff after this patch Combat Rifles (nobody uses these so really dunno) Scout Rifle
I actually really like the SMG1 since it's more effective at close/medium range now rather than being a jack-of-all trades. I have not found anything that I strongly dislike yet.
Until a new patch comes out fixing smg1 and the ARs, I'm just playing Gren. Rifleman is pointless as the assault is simply more useful on infantry maps, and neither class gets used much otherwise.
I'd rather SMG1's ROF was reduced, it's a bigger problem than the accuracy loss imo. (not being able to hit shit is something I learned to live with after crosshairless games recently)
Keep in mind that the BE SMG's and the NF ones have different models which have animations that make them feel completely different. BE SMG1 has almost no recoil at all, while NF SMG1 has. BE SMG2 has huge recoil while NF SMG2 has not much. Or at least they did. Now it feels a bit better for NF SMG1 compared. The gun actually still moves though, unlike the BE SMG1, which really doesn't. Those differences also extend to the rifles, so they're something you might need to take into account. Honestly, I feel like some of the weapon models don't have proper recoil animations for, not something I would know about but it just feels that way. Also, there's a bug. On class loadout, Rifleman have Binoculars for their 4th slot and Assault have Armor, but neither class actually has a binoculars. Even if no one needs the binoculars now, it's a bit of a GUI mistake.
Yeah that's strange, I swear it was working when I was playing with spike like a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't seem to work now though. I tried changing the number in the class_preset script to the binoculars but it didn't seem to do anything.
whatever armor that was which regenerated faster then i could reload my rpg - WHAT THE FUCKING HELL? are you nuts?