* [ Mass Testing ] Balance changes planned for the next update

Discussion
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Balance changes planned for the next update

Hello!

The next update in November will have a number of balance changes, and we would like to present them in advance and to invite you to test them on a special server and share your opinion.

We remind you that all the new features described in this news are not final and may be changed before they are introduced into the game or may not make it into the game at all. You can see all the planned changes in more detail on the special testing server!

Changes to weapons with the “hitscan” mechanic (those that deal damage instantly, without launching a projectile)

Why?

We decided to remove instant damage dealing from weapons with this mechanic for the following reasons:

  • Hitscan is not demanding on the player’s skills, as it does not force the player to lead the target even a little bit when firing, which is exacerbated by the high rate of fire of these weapons.
  • Hitscan is not the most fair mechanic from the enemy’s point of view, as it does not leave even a minimal chance to dodge.
  • Hitscan cannot work in conjunction with penetration ability mechanics.
  • Machine guns with hitscan use an unnaturally large spread and a fairly tight range limitation only for balancing reasons.

Hitscan will remain only for laser weapons (for which it is quite reasonable) and drones (since adding “real” projectiles to them will not change the game experience in any way).

For all other weapons, except for shotguns (because they would be minimally affected by the change due to the low range, which we do not plan to increase), we have added compensating changes related to maximum range and accuracy, which should improve the game experience while increasing the requirements for the player’s skills.

Changes

A number of the guns below have been switched from hitscan mechanic (instant damage dealing) to firing fast projectiles, and have undergone additional changes:

SM Hornet, LM-54 Chord, Vector, Sinus-0, Spectre-2, Aspect, Punisher

  • Maximum range increased from 300 to 500 m.
  • Min. spread reduced by 42%.
  • Max. spread reduced by 45%.
  • Rate of spread increase reduced by 43%.
  • Added 70% penetration ability.
  • Range upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

M-37 Piercer, M-38 Fidget, M-39 Imp

  • Maximum range increased from 200 to 350 m.
  • Min. spread reduced by 28%.
  • Max. spread reduced by 44%.
  • Rate of spread increase reduced by 43%.
  • Added 60% penetration ability.
  • Range upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

MG13 Equalizer, MG14 Arbiter

  • Maximum range increased from 400 to 450 m.
  • Min. spread reduced by 40%.
  • Max. spread reduced by 20%.
  • Rate of spread increase reduced by 40%.
  • Added 60% penetration ability.
  • Range upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

Gungnir

  • Maximum range increased from 350 to 550 m.
  • Spread reduced by 40%.
  • Added 80% penetration ability.
  • Rotation speed upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

Nothung

  • Maximum range increased from 350 to 550 m.
  • Min. spread reduced by 42%.
  • Max. spread reduced by 40%.
  • Rate of spread increase reduced by 40%.
  • Added 80% penetration ability.
  • Rotation speed upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

ST-M23 Defender, M-25 Guardian, M-29 Protector, M-32 Vindicator, ST-M26 Tackler

  • Maximum range increased from 300 to 500 m.
  • Min. spread reduced by 28%.
  • Max. spread reduced by 46%.
  • Rate of spread increase reduced by 38%.
  • Added 70% penetration ability.
  • Range upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

Lupara, Sledgehammer, Mace, Thunderbolt, Hammerfall, Breaker

Added 60% penetration ability.

Goblin, Gremlin

Added 65% penetration ability.

Spitfire, Leech, Rupture

Added 60% penetration ability.

Junkbow, Fafnir, Nidhogg, Jormungandr

Added 80% penetration ability.

Parser

  • Added 100% penetration ability.
  • Rotation speed upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

Corvo

  • Maximum range increased from 300 to 500 m.
  • Added 65% penetration ability.
  • Rotation speed upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

Caucasus

  • Maximum range increased from 130 to 200 m.
  • Min. spread reduced by 20%.
  • Max. spread reduced by 20%.
  • Rate of spread increase reduced by 43%.
  • Added 60% penetration ability.
  • Range upgrade replaced by projectile speed upgrade.

Limited ammo reserves

All weapons (except melee weapons and “Skinner”) now have limited ammo reserves.

Comment: currently some weapons have limited ammo reserves, and their owners have to control the consumption of projectiles and install additional modules to increase the reserve, while other players can shoot indefinitely without worrying about wasted damage. This difference is especially obvious in situations at the end of a battle, when two players are left one-on-one and one of them loses solely because they can’t shoot indefinitely, unlike the opponent. We think this is unfair and want to put all weapons on the same footing.

Cannons

Little Boy 6LB

  • Reloading time increased from 4 to 6 sec.
  • Damage increased by 45%.
  • Spread increase while turning reduced by 2 times.

ZS-33 Hulk

  • Reloading time increased from 4 to 6 sec.
  • Damage increased by 50%.
  • Spread increase while turning reduced by 2 times.

ZS-34 Fat Man

  • Reloading time increased from 4.3 to 6 sec.
  • Damage increased by 44%.
  • Spread increase while turning reduced by 2 times.

ZS-46 Mammoth

Spread increase while turning reduced by 2 times.

ZS-52 Mastodon

Spread increase while turning reduced by 2 times.

Avenger 57mm

  • Reloading time increased from 3.5 to 6 sec.
  • Damage increased by 71%.

Judge 76mm

  • Reloading time increased from 4 to 6 sec.
  • Damage increased by 50%.

Prosecutor 76mm

  • Reloading time increased from 5 to 6 sec.
  • Damage increased by 12%.

Executioner 88mm

  • Reloading time increased from 5.5 to 6 sec.
  • Damage increased by 9%.

Comment: rebalancing the damage and reloading time parameters should change how it feels to play with cannons below epic rarity inclusive, shifting the focus to dealing high but rare spikes of damage. Reducing the spread increase while turning will make playing with turret cannons more comfortable.

Other balance changes

Tempest

  • Damage reduced by 8%.
  • Cooling rate reduced by 9%.

Comment: the last change was too extensive, making “Tempest” too effective at a wide range of PS (3500–10500). The change will reduce the weapon’s damage output per battle, while leaving it higher than it was before the last change.

Hot Rod

The perk will now additionally increase spread stability by 25%.

Comment: low efficiency of the perk in comparison to other cabins.

Raijin

  • Energy consumption increased from 22 to 23 pts.
  • PS increased from 2970 to 3105.
  • Reloading time increased from 2 to 3.3 sec.
  • Base bullet damage increased from 25.5 to 82.
  • Base blast damage increased from 51 to 61.
  • Maximum accuracy is now achieved when fully charged.

Comment: an extremely effective and comfortable weapon. The change in power consumption will prevent the “Raijin” from being mounted on a “rare” cabin without the use of a generator, which, combined with the change in PS, should take it out of low PS battles. The reloading time change will reduce the damage output per battle and make the weapon more dependent on reloading modules. The base damage change is related to the increase in reloading time, and should keep shooting with no charge to stay relevant.

Varun

  • Energy consumption reduced from 14 to 13 pts.
  • PS reduced from 1890 to 1755.

Comment: the reduction in energy consumption should increase the variety of builds that use this weapon, most of which are currently represented by the “2 Varuns + engine” formula.

Astraeus

  • Damage increased by 11%.
  • Penetration ability increased from 55 to 70%.

Comment: low efficiency of the weapon.

Phoenix

  • Added bullet damage (50) and 100% penetration ability.
  • Added a perk that increases crossbow stability by 15% for each hit. Stacks up to 3 times, but completely resets on a miss.

Comment: adding bullet damage would give the projectile the ability to destroy parts before attaching to an armoured car, and the perk would help improve the weapon’s low survivability.

Yongwang

Slightly increased the height of the collision model.

Comment: high efficiency when mounted under the cabin. The change will barely change the weapon’s hitbox, but will remove the ability to mount other parts close to it.

MG13 Equalizer

Enlarged collision model.

Comment: the current collision model allows you to armour the minigun so much that it becomes almost out of reach of enemy fire.

Torero

The perk now additionally increases spread stability by 50%.

Comment: similar to the “Hot Rod”, the cabin perk looks weaker in comparison with other available options in other cabins.

Steppe Spider

  • The perk now affects all weapons from the “rocket launchers” category, except: RA-1 Heather, Clarinet TOW and ATGM Flute.
  • Also, the perk now increases the maneuverability of homing rockets.

Comment: the perk was too narrowly focused. The changes are aimed at expanding the list of weapons for which “Steppe Spider” will be useful.

Dusk

  • The perk now affects all weapons from the “rocket launchers” category, except: RA-1 Heather, Clarinet TOW and ATGM Flute.
  • The perk now gives +25% to damage, but instead increases spread and reduces projectile speed. Homing rockets have reduced maneuverability.

Comment: the perk was also too narrowly focused. The new perk is designed to be the opposite of “Steppe Spider” for close range combat.

Buggy wheel

The perk now reduces speed requirements to 30% instead of 40%.

Comment: the perk has too much efficiency, as it not only makes speed-related perk parts easier (redundantly) to use, but also makes them much easier to use on slow armoured cars.

Oppressor

The perk now additionally increases the speed of projectiles. Max. bonus is 15% at the speed of 80 km/h and above.

Comment: after increasing the rotation speed of many weapons, the need for the engine has decreased. To keep it relevant, as promised, its perk has been improved.

Swarm

  • Blast damage now does not decrease with the distance from the center of the explosion.
  • The rocket launcher now increases the enemy detection radius up to 150 m.

Comment: low efficiency of the weapon due to the small explosion radius. When hitting an enemy, the full damage was only dealt on the part where the rocket hit, and nearby parts took very little damage. After changing this dependency, the damage output will be more stable and higher. The addition of the built-in radar will keep the gun operational after an external module is destroyed and make it more self-sufficient.

Slaughterer

  • Explosive projectile damage increased by 10%.
  • Piercing projectile damage increased by 20%.
  • Perk now increases damage by 3% for every 2 parts hit instead of 4%. Maximum bonus reduced from 32% to 21%.
  • Durability increased from 525 to 629 pts.

Comment: weapon efficiency was too unstable and depended heavily on its perk. The changes should fix the situation and make the weapon more stable in isolation from the perk. And the increase in durability should solve the problem of low survivability.

Lucifer

  • Durability increased from 414 to 455 pts.
  • Perk now gives 3 projectiles for every 4 destroyed parts (instead of 6 projectiles for 8 parts before).

Comment: insufficient efficiency of the weapon. More frequent activation of the perk will make it less dependent on the durability of enemy parts, and increasing its own durability will increase survivability.

Destructor

  • Base damage increased by 20%.
  • Perk damage bonus reduced from 800% to 400%.
  • Heat bonus from perk reduced from 10% to 5%.

Comment: high weapon efficiency due to significant damage to a single part. The change reduces overall damage while reducing perk dependency.

BC-17 Tsunami

Durability increased from 821 to 903 pts.

Comment: compared with other weapons, the cannon’s survivability is noticeably lower.

Mars

  • Mass limit reduced from 22000 to 21000 kg.
  • Bonus to own damage reduced from 30 to 20%, to allied damage increased from 15 to 20%.
  • Perk recharge time increased from 20 to 25 sec.

Comment: high efficiency of the cabin in many modes. The mass limit was a bit excessive, considering its speed and its own mass. Perk changes will make the cabin less effective when used on its own, but more useful for allies.

Griffon

Perk active radius increased from 25 to 40 m.

Comment: the perk’s range was too small when compared to the perks of other cabins with team bonus, which made its implementation quite problematic.

Co-driver Grizzly

  • The talent is now activated after 3 hits on the armoured vehicle (instead of 2 on the cabin before).
  • At least 3 seconds must now elapse between hits from one enemy (instead of 1 second previously).
  • Talent charge starts to decrease 5 sec. after the last hit (instead of 10 sec. before).
  • The passive skill that reduces the penalty to the power of movement parts has been replaced by a 5% increase in their durability.

Comment: we returned the co-driver’s talent to its old mechanics, but significantly slowed down its stacking from hits from one enemy and speeded up its reset. The change restores the talent’s versatility in terms of building an armoured vehicle to suit its use, but at the same time makes it less useful in one-on-one battles.
The co-driver greatly increases the overall durability of armoured vehicles while also giving a bonus to mobility, which is redundant. Replacing the passive skill should remedy the situation by focusing all skills on increasing survivability.

Co-driver Yuki

  • The distance for talent activation has been increased from 35 to 50 m.
  • The passive skill that increases the durability of movement parts has been replaced by a 15% reduction in the penalty to movement parts power.

Comment: lack of efficiency of the talent, increasing the activation distance should make it easier to use. Changing the passive skill will increase the mobility of armoured vehicles with Yuki.

Co-driver Billie

  • The talent now additionally reduces spread by 20% and no longer increases the damage received by the weapon.
  • The passive skill that increases self-destruct damage has been replaced by a 10% increase in time to overheat.
  • The “Directional fury” passive skill now reduces the spread increase rate by 20% (instead of 10% previously).

Comment: unpopular co-driver. The changes should increase his relevance.

Co-driver Phobos

The passive skill that increases the speed of an armoured vehicle now also affects the maximum speed of movement parts.

Comment: the change will make the skill equally useful for all types of armoured vehicles.

Co-driver Atitlan

  • Active skill now increases damage by 15% (instead of 10% previously).
  • The passive skill that increases the radius of fire puddles has been replaced by a 25% increase in the speed of heating up parts with thermal damage.
  • The “Compact mixtures” passive skill now works with all ammo types, and the bonus value has been increased from 15% to 25%.

Comment: the changes to parameters will increase the co-driver’s efficiency, and replacing the passive skill will make the co-driver more useful for all fire weapons.

After you test the changes, please share your extended feedback and your thoughts on the changes you liked or disliked, and don’t forget to include the reasons why. Thank you!

How to get to the test server?

If you have already participated in testing on a special server, then it will be enough to start the Launcher from the folder with the test client and wait for the update to complete.

  • Create a new folder for the game on your hard drive.
  • Download the Launcher from this link. The file name should not contain numbers indicating that the file is a duplicate. Please note that you should launch the file that does not contain any digits (1), (2), etc. in its name. If, when starting the installed launcher, you get to the live game servers, you need to delete all downloaded launchers from the download folder and try again.
  • Start the Launcher and install the game to the folder you created (for example: D:\Public test\Crossout).
  • After the installation is complete, start the Launcher and enter the game with your username and password.
  • The whole progress of your main account will be transferred to the test server (including parts in storage and levels of reputation in factions).
  • After logging into the server, to transfer progress from your account, press the “Esc” key and select “Copy account data”.
  • Please note the schedule of the test server:
    • Friday, October 25, 2024: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Saturday, October 26, 2024: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Sunday, October 27, 2024: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
  • After the first phase of testing is complete, additional changes may be made based on the results of the first phase of testing. Testing will then continue:
    • Friday, November 1, 2024: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Saturday, November 2, 2024: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
    • Sunday, November 3, 2024: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT)
  • Any progress you make on the test server will not be transferred to the live game servers (INCLUDING ATTEMPTS TO BUY PACKS).

The public test server is intended only for testing of the upcoming update, and may not accommodate all players without exception. However, absolutely anyone can join the server, as long as there are free spots.

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ask and u shall receive… :saluting_face:

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they actually listened to some real feedback, i literally cant believe it. i thought theyre physically incapable of pushing out a good update. lets see if they fuck it up after the mass testing

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Now ALL of my builds are gonna go kaboom, instead of just most of them. :unamused:

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Oh ya! I bet they fixed it this time. Now it will be better.

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Wow, these are some big changes, and include some things players have been begging for forever.
No more hitscan (other than lasers, shotguns, and drones), and ammo for everything is huge, and will dramatically change the game. I wasn’t among those who thought it was needed, but I do agree that hitscan is too dominant and has been for too long. Does it seem like parsers may be projectile weapons now?

The codriver changes are another thing I didn’t think was urgent, but that others felt strongly about. It’s going to force me to swap co-drivers on some builds, but I mostly agree with the logic behind those changes.

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So… it obliterates EVERYTHING now?

When will it be 25 energy?

The nerf was immediately undone (although I’ll have to test it…)

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So… Cannons are better, Caucs are better, all weapons have limited ammo, and hitscan is a thing of the past (for machine guns)?

Sounds like a good change to me.

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The reload time increase is pretty significant. More than 60% reload nerf, unless my math is off. I like the idea of cannons hitting harder and reloading slower.

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um no, cannons got a nerf to reload speed. they are screwed.

eexcept for the fact they have low hp for what they are. cannons are all over the place in terms of hp but can easily be outdone by other weapons. they need the reload speed and hp to survive.

also these changes are terrible… so every one of my god damn builds will need to be scrapped, ill need to rebuild EVERYTHING that has mgs and all that because they want to add ammo to all of them which will require ammo packs. well ill be selling my arbiters and saying goodbye to my cyclones and everything else. fml.

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I dunno even tho the hitscan is gone mg’s is now also massively buffed in other areas. I say this could be a net gain for mg’s and I’m pretty sure the projectile speed won’t be any slower than auto cannons so I say this could be a bad update.

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I’m with Zarrurer on this. Increasing the reload time on a mediocre-performing weapon (cannons) will not make it suddenly worthwhile, and a pittance damage boost won’t even be noticeable.

I understand the issues with the unlimited-ammo thing, but machine guns and shotguns et. al. are now screwed as well. Having to add numerous ammo boxes will only increase the ps of the build, and make it more suceptible to blowing up when the ammo boxes get hit, while the overall firepower is reduced. Where is the balance there?

Like I said facetiously during the last round of “balance changes”, just have ONE weapon in the game, so that your need to rebalance things will be over with, and you won’t be pissing off half the players every other month. Stupid idea? Yes, but it makes as much sense as all this rebalancing developer-make-work and player-rework does.

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For some reason they chose not to simply dial back hitscan weapons, but decided to introduce entirely new game mechanics instead. Interesting move.

As sloppy as their game architecture is, with all the abandoned, forgotten, or long neglected features, I’m surprised they thought to make time for something like this that is sure to make things even more complicated.

I’m not sure how any of this update addresses this game’s lack of popularity. I see an opportunity to sell premium ammo packs though. Other than that, IDK. I feel like there’s more to it coming.

I think for a lot of people, this will be another excuse to lean into active melee. I know everybody loves that, right?

For me personally, it feels like they just nerfed everybody but me, so whatever. I do dread another rise in active melee META, but I’ll be glad to see ya’ll running out of ammo, getting de-gunned early, packing your frames with explosives, and not being able to take a second shot with that cannon before I can get across these tiny little maps to flip your tank upside-down or tear off your wheels.

I’m glad they are running a test server first.

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You really only need one for the Reaper, any more is overkill. 800 works just fine, and I have a feeling that it won’t be a small amount of starting ammunition.

And shotgun bricks need a weakpoint…

Hmmm… what if this is the next step in realism from a weapons standpoint and shotguns/machineguns become useless against APC plating?

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Helicopters:

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Making all weapons having an ammo mechanic is kind of an indirect buff to cannons and explosive weapons like rockets and grenades.
With builds running generators, ammo, and potentially other explosive modules (rune, genesis, that new module, etc), there’s a lot more potential for chain reaction explosions. And if cannons are hitting harder and easier to aim, they may start actually scaring the DPS players again.

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Except that now almost everyone is running ammo packs, so close range builds are more likely to lose their saws and/or flamethrowers when they take out a victim and eat through to the juicy bits.

Snipers are probably going to benefit the most from the changes, but I could be wrong.

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I don’t get why they felt the need to nerf the mars!! I thought it was pretty well balanced and I get the weight limit reduction cause the mars is a little on the small side for a heavy cab but with so many cabs of lesser rarity offering better buffs why did they need to nerf mars?

Humpback does 30%, Icebox does a flat but consistent 20%, echo does an insane 65% reload for 10 seconds that you can easily get very quickly with just having one enemy around let alone multiples, Omnibox does a flat 20% but mars a legendary cab gets a measly 20% buff for 10 seconds out of a total of 35 seconds which is utter non sense especially for a legendary cab. Stuff like this is why all my battlepass cabs just gather dust!!

2 Likes
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no it isnt.

with this update will come

arbiters and all mgs and any weapon that uses bullets will need ammo including cyclones to. this also includes shotguns like the fafnir and the nidhogg as well. literally anything that shoots needs ammo, what does that mean? you need ammo packs and needing to make your car go boom from the slightest nudge from a cannon shot like the typhoon or especially the executioner.
cannons like the fatman and mammoth will SUFFER for this, sure the enemy may have more explosives BUT SO DO YOU. not only that but mgs STILL outpace cannons in terms of damage. if you increase the reload time on cannons, guess what? yep youll lose that cannon before you get another shot off.

a simple solution to this problem would be to increase all the ammo for cannons and weapons that use ammo across the board and balance out the hp to weight ratio of all weapons.
cannons have low ammo and most times require you to run explosive ammo packs to compensate for that. look at alot of the weapons we have, they have stupidly low ammo counts and require explosives to up the ammo count to be able to defend yourself.
let me guess, some idiot was crying that he didnt have enough ammo in his gun and cried on reddit saying how unbalanced it was because he kept running out of ammo so the devs went ahead and decided to make everyone suffer?

the answer is simple, increase the ammo of all cannons and weapons that use ammo.

when a newbie player starts crossout what are they going to come across? “oh your hornet gun has an ammo limitation and you need ammo packs to make them stand any chance at doing anything.”

also this will raise the powerscore of alot of vehicles being forced to add a ton of ammo crates and whatnot just to compensate for the ammo needed to use the guns.
this will ruin the damn game!

also theyll still be stripped just as easy as they were before.

and alot more potential to make players leave. who wants to strap tons of explosives on their vehicle when they are running cyclones or even mgs?
this also has the potential to cripple someone in one shot. id rather not go into a raid and have some asshole bot with the aim of a god to tickle one of my builds ammo packs just to have my build explode and cost me a repair kit when its not necessary.

all of this means absolutely nothing if you dont have the speed necessary to reload in time to get off that second shot before they strip your cannon off like it was a turkey at thanksgiving.

yes… everyone will run ammo packs… you know what that means? more chances for people to die so quickly they wont have a chance to do anything when a melee build burries their face halfway up their rear and cause them to explode.
also you forget the master cabin exists. go in, eat the opponent, they explode and do damage to your harvester, oh no issues ill spend a few seconds hiding and healing off that damage, oh there we go im all good! off to explode some other poor shmuck!

edit: oh and their taking away hitscan so your arbiters and other guns need to be more precise in their shots thus you can waste ammo to.

edit 2: there is a reason cannons have limited ammo. normal guns can use unlimited ammo but reloading weapons use limited ammo because they require precision and careful aim to take advantage of their shots. they are powerful thus need ammo to compensate for that fact. also guns overheat and require radiators and coolers to fuction effectively. now we are going to have ammo on top of heating and cooling?! no! we dont need another past reaper situation!

20

I think your perspective might be different from mine because you mostly play PVE and I mostly play PVP. Not saying that makes me right, just that we’re coming at it from different angles.

Currently in PVP, cannons are always going to lose to DPS if they’re both just sitting there shooting each other, unless the cannon player is beyond the DPS player’s range (one of the reasons Cyclones are so popular in Confrontation).
But if a cannon player is good at peekaboo and aware of their surroundings, they can do better. However, many currently don’t do enough damage to even work well with that strategy.

With this change, hitscan weapons aren’t going to be as OP at closer ranges, while turret cannons are going to be better at hitting people when brawling.
And the damage buffs are significant. Many are getting around a 50% boost, which basically turns a two cannon build into three cannons worth of damage. Those are the kinds of hits that make people think twice before charging at you, and makes it dangerous to sit in one place long.

If you’re a cannon player dipping in and out of cover, the slower reload isn’t the end of the world. It’s a different situation if you’re getting swarmed by raiders though.

Don’t all raids feed you ammo drops though? I would think most players could get away without bringing any ammo to many raids. But you would know better than me. I almost never use weapons that need ammo in raids, other than Invasion.

Maybe they should make enemy corpses drop ammo in PVP? Even if it was just the unused ammo of the dead enemy.

1 Like