Rifleman Archive
Thread: How do the rest of the longer term rifle users feel about...
DVader539 wrote:
250% damage for holding a rifle is stupid. I'd encourage a 250% accuracy bonus. That at least makes a little sense.
Actually that is a very good idea. The 2.5x damage modifier really didn't make sense it only made it so we died fast in melee range (which is what we need) well giving us incredibly low defense and the ability to be hit much more often (which will result in us dieing faster) will work the same and make sense. After all if you're trying to point the end of a 2 meter stick at someone who is closer to you then 2 meters you're probably going to get hit more often. Plus if we get an almost garunteed hit by TKA's winning is solely based on the equipment. Great armor for us and bad weapon for low lvl TKA we can still possiblywin, no armor for us and a good knuckler=
I agree we need something though, the 2.5x isn't a big deal now that warping has been more or less fixed.
And please noone bring up using the rifle to block in the marines because, guess what, those people are solely using the rifle to block at that point and aren't trying to shoot. We are trying to shoot the person and aren't transforming the rifle to a melee weapon.
While I'm not a long term rifleman (just rifle IV for along time 
)by any stretch of the imagination, I have played this game for a while and here are my thoughts.
I believe the original thought of the 2.5x melee damage modifier was the devs way of meshing real-life with game mechanics. The idea that a sniper who's nest is invaded by a knife weilder or martial artist comes to mind. The sniper concentrating on their next long distance shot would be totally caught off guard by someone suddenly so close pummeling them. Thus while they are fumbling with their huge rifle trying to counterattack the close threat they would be taking increased damage.
However, in game balance terms with skills like burst run, terrain negotiation and the fact that riflemen/snipers have no skill that allows them to remain off the radar while they snipe, the 2.5x melee damage modifier was unbalancing. It takes what? 2-3 seconds for a melee combatant to run up to a prone rifleman that is spotted shooting at him/her. In that short time the rifleman barely has finished the prone to stand animation. Also, with the recent increases (especially to TK melee damage) to melee damage and accuracy the 2.5x modifier would become an even greater penalty.
I propose a few other changes..
1. Melee Defense in the Rifle Ability tree should be removed. Two reasons; one,no brawler skills are required to be a Rifleman (meaning we have no inherent knowledge of defending ourself from a brawler) two, the scenario in the first paragraph, our weapons are so large (for distance accuracy) that they should theoretically get in the way of defending ourselves when we are being attacked up close.
2. Ranged Defense should be moved from the Concealment tree and into the Rifle Ability tree.
3. After steps 1 and 2 are done, a change to conceal shot and the cover abilitywould be needed for both PvP and PvE. My Idea: You "Take Cover" (Marksman Rifle II ability), after success you disapear to all enemies offtheir radar. Conceal Shot, and Sniper Shot (Sniping IV) are the only shots you can use in this state. Your ability to remain concealed is determined by your cover ability (a pass/fail check is run after every shot), however say if an enemy is within 10m cover is almost always blown. At Concealment III you gain the ability to move while in the "take cover" state, but must remain prone. If you change your posture at any time your cover is immediately removed.
I really think this ability would give Rilfeman a strong defining role in PvP. Imagine how fun it could be to have your faction enemies running around in circles trying to uncover you. "Search and kill, we are taking fire from a sniper".
Some of you may define Rifleman as Heavy Gunners (machine gun support), however I think that would be a better defining role for Carbineers.
4. After all these changes go into effect Rifleman should be madeuseless against melee/pistoleers in terms of accuracy. Except of course if we are using a Spraystick or the new DXR-6R.
Personally, i think we should sacrifice some speed mods. Doing 2k-3k dps (which is easily achievable) is kind of extreme for our limited skill pt expenditure.
i'm not in favor of a hard cap at 3s... but i would be in favor of reducing speed mods a bit.
Let's face it.. the secret's out, and has been for a while. Rifle went from being a cool niche kind of killer PvP profession to near FOTM status. I've been a Master Rifle for quite some time (on 2 servers also), and done a ton of PvP as well as PvE. I'm not saying we need a hard nerf, but a small adjustment is warranted in my mind.
If you let a TKA get that close and you don't have armour on, you SHOULD be getting killed in 1-2 hits.
The 2.5x Melee penalty is bareable now in PVE because the Mob warping problem is pretty much sorted, in PVP it would make things a bit harder against the Melee profs but I could live with it. I think we should get smacked around at Melee range by TKA / Fencer / Swordsman etc...
But they do need to fix the Melee-to-hit chance.. it's seriously screwed at the moment.
I sure hope they come up with a better solution than a speed cap for this profession, something a bit more creative would be nice. There are a plethora of superb suggestions in the IC thread.
Putting it back would be okay - but the big misbalance with it before is that there was never a way to keep a target at range.
Pistoleers are supposed to run and gun, we are not. Melee'ers are supposed to close as fast as possible. It follows therefore that we should have some way of keeping our targets in our ideal range from a stationary position.
I'd suggest the addition of a "crippling shot" (I know that's actually a carbine shot - bear with me) that halves the movement rate of the target - same effect as a phenecine dart has on creatures.
In an ideal world the simple act of us firing should make people want to hit the dirt and take cover. Rushing a prone rifleman should be suicide - unfortunately it's the most viable tactic the way this game is set up. I guess a movement penalty is the best option I can think of to offset the melee weakness.