I used a boosted Clarinet car for around 2 years and was able to ignore all the nerfs to the Cockpit, with the latest putting boosted damage at 96% of that with the Harpy. But without Hans, I could no longer reach snipers, so I gave up the weapon for a few months. Now, with the Barrier IX’s energy reduced, I’ve been able to combine a Barrier car with a Clarinet car, which is working out nicely, if not for all the trash on the ground:
- New vegetation added with the reworks of several maps. But I can learn that, just as I had to learn the new maps in custom battles before going into PvP.
- Debris from the bridge, as shown in the video. Now I know, and will try to remember. But if we can drive over it, it shouldn’t be a problem for Clarinet missiles. It’s negligent development. Another aspect is that even if I were able to fly missiles over it, the debris obstructs vision, so I won’t see what’s behind it. This addition is very bad for the weapon, overall.
- New graphics effects, i.e., bigger explosions and billowing black smoke - that’s bad and obstructs vision with any weapon. It’s a problem even in raids, because it can disorient momentarily, and you need to think fast in raids these days. Remember how raids used to be relatively chill, predictable? Then, in early 2021, raiders began following players even if they cloaked. And sometime in early 2022, they started targeting weapons - which supposedly intensified later that year. I have a theory that these new effects may have been intended to make gameplay harder, so we’d lose more often and would be more inclined to by some crosscrowns, to buy coins, to buy any resources we lack. I do like these new effects, but therey’re a problem.
- Vehicle wrecks - now, this is the worst. I can’t learn that in custom battles. I can spend hours learning every map in a brawl with bots, perfecting my tactics (which is crucial for a boosted Clarinet car, but also important for any vehicle), but I won’t be prepared for a pile of scrap spontaneously appearing when piloting a missile. Especially if it’s obstructed by vegetation. I accept seeing barely anything with a missile that flies just above the ground, I’ve worked out methods to work around that. But even with strategies for avoiding vehicle wrecks, they’ll still be blocking some convenient passageways for the missile. And without Hans’ +2 sec. flight time, I won’t be able to reach certain targets by going around such blockages.
- Another nerf could be considered in the form of the Icarus VII flying at 95 km/h. Now, a Clarinet pilot has less time to get away from an advancing hovercraft. I may have found a way to mitigate that by upgrading another Clarinet for +10% blast radius and combining it with the Harpy, with Jay in the other seat. When a missile hits, I can see that it hurts. So I may not be able to run away as effectively as in a boosted car, but I can try to stop a hovercraft before it can reach me. Which is helped by continuous Barrier shielding.
I’ve calculated that with the Icarus VII flying at 95 km/h, the Clarinet needs to have its base flight time extended by 3 seconds. And with this new trash on the ground, it could be even more. But would the Clarinet then be balanced against ground vehicles? It alrady is a ‘cheat’ weapon. With Hans, it worked just fine and felt balanced. The buff to the Icarus VII may have unbalanced gameplay in a number of ways. In a recent Q&A, Goth Princess Yuri explained that the reason for it flying at 95 km/h was intended to make it more different from the Icarus IV. I can understand how that can make sense just in that limited perpective of an interaction of two modules, but the Princess seems to have ignored the implications of such a change for a whole lot of other elements of the game. But I’m not surprised, after the subtitles in the Mr. Twister dev stream showed me what Yuri thinks of players’ opinions (there was only a Russian version of that stream).
The recent change of the Bridge map, as well as the buff to the Icarus VII just show the developers don’t know much about the Clarinet, which would be because they don’t use it (but in one dev stream, Alex said he was using Spikes on hovers at the time). I’ve taken Clarinet gameplay to another level, and was doing it for around 2 years, with numeorus videos demonstrating how cool and devastating the Clarinet car can be, in new, unexpected ways. But I can’t get that info to the developers because my videos are being ignored by the moderators, who, as I suspect, are the ones selecting clips sent in for the Crossout Show. And that’s only because I’ve repeatedly reminded them to follow the chat rules when I saw them breaking those. That’s primitive and harmful to the game. Or when in 2021, in a Garage episode it was announced they needed a high-PS Clarinet car. I quickly pasted together a cool compilation and linked it in a PM to Sipovec, who was then in charge of the Garage. The title said, “The high-PS Clarinet car that you need.” Nothing happened. Five weeks later, in another Garage episode, they featured a Clarinet tank with Goliaths and two Caucasi. The narrator rightfully commented that it wasn’t an effective vehicle. How am I supposed to promote innovative, game-changing gameplay, when what I’m trying to show is ignored by those in charge of vital aspects of the game, sometimes on purpose, other times due to incompetence?
Here’s the Crossout Show submission no. 3, to illustrate:
BTW, anyone interested in the Barrier IX, but not the Clarinet - they can grab the pre-upgraded module in the event workbench. With the -17% recharge time upgrade, you only need 3 modules for continuous shielding. With 3 energy in the Doppler, the Verifier and a Chameleon, you’ll have 7 energy left for weaponry. For the Clarinet, you’ll need 4 Barrier IXs with the extended duration upgrade, which adds 2 seconds, now for a total of 11 seconds, after the recent buff reducing the activation delay by 1 second. The base duration is now 9 seconds. My latest Clarinet car can be found on the exhibition:
Now that I’ve started using Omnis, I bought a Corsair Scimitar (found a brand new, unopened, for just EUR 19.49, I’m not crazy), which has conveniently placed thumb buttons, for Omni strafing. Though some other mice, with just 2 thumb buttons, would do, such as a Corsair M65 (which has a great sniper button that can be used for precise sticker placement).
Oh, and it’s 1550 lighters with the basic BP.
