Rifleman Archive

Here is klaw's post from the Q&A with the Devs thread. I hope to narrow these down to reflect our current state of the Rifleman profession. However, I'm not perfect and I hope you'll add your own constructive comments/ideas/criticisms. Thanks

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klawlegna wrote:

The development team istaking each profession and givingthe communitiesa chance to ask 10 questions. Please post what 10 questions you would like me to ask them. I'll shuffle through once we have a good list and pick the best 10 and combine them.

Updated: ****FINAL QUESTIONS****

1. Will there in fact be a speed cap coming to Rifleman?

Seems like a wasted question (to me)at this point. I'd expect a 'wait for the CB' answer myself, but it could be very interesting if they do actually answer it. What do you think?

2. How do you percieve the Rifleman class? Is it purely a sniper, purely a gunner, or a mesh of both? If so why is it so unbalanced?

From our Question 1, we know they view us as 'snipers', though it seems what realitydictates a sniper asand what the Devs feel is a sniper are two different things. Perhaps we could ask them to clarify what they mean for a sniper to be?

3. When are our weapon damage types going to get fixed? i.e. T21 (blast), Spray Stick (Acid), Tusken Rifle (Kinetic)

I'd not mind T-21 being Blast, but I can agree with those that say it's not neccesssary for us (especially with the new weapons added). The spraystick serves its limited purpose well enough without being Acid now that we have the DXR-6b, right? As for the Tusken rifle- do we really expect the Devs to give us Kinetic damage(back)?

4. When will our Concealment IV title be changed, and what will it be changed to? Can we get our "Hunter" title changed to something a little bit more fitting, and something we don't have to share with another profession?

This has been corrected, right?

5. Why is the bowcaster less powerful than a laser rifle even though it was said in the description its deadly in the hands of a Wookiee (rifleman)?

Bowcaster still stinks. I'd guess its fix lies in the CB, but there's only one way to be sure and I'd expect the answer to be little or nothingmore than 'this is being correct in the upcoming combat rebalance'. Shall we ask?

6. What is the Dev's vision for Rifleman with the upcoming combat system overhaul?

Got this one answered. We're '64m snipers'. HAM costs (other stuff too?) should make the mind pool no longer the determiningpool in PvP. Perhaps we could ask the Devs to further elaborate?

7. Will Rifleman be getting new weapons in the up coming weapon balance?

We've gotten the DXR-6b and Berserker rifle (and Lithanium rifle, whoo hoo ). Do we feel we need more weapons/damage types?

8. When can we get more range? Turrets will now be firing at 80 meters, is not the platform there?

I like this one. However, I'd expect the Devs to claim that 64m is indeed the limit, but maybe with enough support, we can get somewhere with this?

9. When will Rifleman ever be able to use our sniper tree and actually become invisible on radar?

Since we are snipers, is there anyway we can get the stealth of a Sniper in PVP, like not show up on Radars?

EDIT: Changed for Pysco I'll also add that it seems like this is a Ranger issue as well. I'm not sure what they expect exactly, but it's best we cooperate with them if this is something we really want so thattwo professions aren't asking for the same thing.

10. Cover, Sneak, Block all seem to be broken and/or useless. What are the plans for these skills?

Cover and sneak still broken, correct? Block was fixed, but is rather inferior to Dodge/Counterattack though the Devs have told thePikemen that it is working as intended. We also have several other broken/redundant specials besides just Cover (Marksman issue actually) and Sneak. Perhaps we could ask what the plan is for our non-working specials as well as any changes to improve Block to be on-par with Dodge/Counterattack?

** BONUS QUESTION
11. Why do we have +40 (or so) at 60m with a laser rifle, and then -50 at 64m? Will ranage modifiers be reviewed in the new balances?

This is still a pretty bad problem if I'm not mistaken. And from what I can gather, none of our new weapons have an ideal range like that of the T-21. Should we push for a change to make most/all rifles ideal at or around 60-64 meters?

Message Edited by klawlegna on 04-19-2004 03:01 PM

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What do you all think?

EDIT: Another option is to have a follow-up to our 1st question as proposed by Kel-jun:

If we are to be long range snipers, how can this be implemented inside the confines of 64m and if you add more range how does this impact the minimum requirements for computers, load on servers, and turrets in GCW battles, if you don't add more range how do justify long range sniper within a range of where melee users can hit you at 1/3 of this "long range", also Snipers are people that use accuracy, range, and concealment if we are to be snipers how do you address concealment where anyone can be seen on the mini radar with no skill requirements?

Message Edited by XaverriJade7 on 05-27-2004 04:04 AM

Message Edited by XaverriJade7 on 05-29-2004 08:50 AM

Message Edited by XaverriJade7 on 05-31-2004 09:10 AM

Although being a Wookiee I'd like some info on the Bowcaster and any changes to it, I think we should leave that question out as there's probably a small % of Wookiee Rifleman in comparison to all Rifleman.

The questions I'd really like to have answered from your list would be on the issues:

Range- if we're going to be "Snipers" will we get longer range than 64m

Accuracy and Modifiers on Rifles - Is accuracy going to be looked at and will the changes mean the modifiers on weapons will make them very inaccurate outside their optimum ranges.

Cover and Radar - Any chance of limited Invisibility on Radar ( sort of fits into the Sniper thing ) when using Cover

Speed - The big one and in my opinion shouldn't be as big an issue as it seems to be

Unfortunately I think most of those questions will get the "Wait for the Combat Rebalance" answer

Thanks for starting the thread though Xaverrijade7

/salute

I like 9, but would rephrase it like this

"Since we are snipers, is there anyway we can get the stealth of a Sniper in PVP, like not show up on Radars?"

The Bowcaster is another good one but they will probably say wait for the combat rebalance.

Thanks Onichi. I also think that many of these questionscould get the "Wait" answer and hopefully this will get the community talking about what we think is our best bet as far as some real information.

Pysco, I like the rephrasing of 9 to make it more specific. My guess is that anyone(or most people)who want to hide on the radarare looking to do so soley for PvP purposes. And we know we have to be specific as possible with these questions- last thing we want is the Devs interpretingit differently than we intended

Anyone else have ideas/comments?

The questions up there are all good.

Personally though I'd like to know if they are planning on makeing our majority of specials (posture change up) and /takecover more useful than they are now.

At the moment the only time I ever go prone is for effect because it looks cool and even then never if I'm acutally in danger because it would get me killed:/

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XaverriJade7 wrote:

I updated this to reflect the comments given thus far (my thanks goes to those who contributed) and am hoping for some more feedback from the community.

Lots of folks are very displeased with their answers from TH on this last round (Check the Dev Tracker if you haven't read them yet) and hopefully we can avoid such when our turn comes again next week.

Thanks!

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Hey Kezia,

This whole topic is good, you have some really good ideas and rpobable answers. What I personally think should be asked next is more of a follow up question to our question 1. Something along the lines of, If we are to be long range snipers, how can this be implemented inside the confines of 64m and if you add more range how does this impact the minimum requirements for computers, load on servers, and turrets in GCW battles, if you don't add more range how do justify long range sniper within a range of where melee users can hit you at 1/3 of this "long range", also Snipers are people that use accuracy, range, and concealment if we are to be snipers how do you address concealment where anyone can be seen on the mini radar with no skill requirements?

I really think we need a question along the lines of that, one that is very specific and has to be addressed without just wait for combat balance. This is just my 2 credits though, any input is appreciated.

Updated

klawlegna,

I know you don't have as much time as you used to, but if you see this, I hope it is helpful in determining our next question for the Devs(in 2-3 days?)

It'd be nice to get more feedback from the community here too. I don't want anyone to end up disappointed with our question since this is sort of a rare opportunity.

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XaverriJade7 wrote:

Here is klaw's post from the Q&A with the Devs thread. I hope to narrow these down to reflect our current state of the Rifleman profession. However, I'm not perfect and I hope you'll add your own constructive comments/ideas/criticisms. Thanks

---

klawlegna wrote:

The development team istaking each profession and givingthe communitiesa chance to ask 10 questions. Please post what 10 questions you would like me to ask them. I'll shuffle through once we have a good list and pick the best 10 and combine them.

Updated: ****FINAL QUESTIONS****

1. Will there in fact be a speed cap coming to Rifleman?

Seems like a wasted question (to me)at this point. I'd expect a 'wait for the CB' answer myself, but it could be very interesting if they do actually answer it. What do you think?

Wasted question I think. As you state we'll be getting the "wait for combat balance" generic answer.

2. How do you percieve the Rifleman class? Is it purely a sniper, purely a gunner, or a mesh of both? If so why is it so unbalanced?

From our Question 1, we know they view us as 'snipers', though it seems what realitydictates a sniper asand what the Devs feel is a sniper are two different things. Perhaps we could ask them to clarify what they mean for a sniper to be?

It's impossible to be snipers given the range limits. Also it would mean the loss of our AoE attacks. It would be better to push for an Infantry role instead. Making us snipers and giving us sniper like abilities would make us actually more powerful than we are now. The sniper is the single most cost effective casualty producer on the battlefield.

3. When are our weapon damage types going to get fixed? i.e. T21 (blast), Spray Stick (Acid), Tusken Rifle (Kinetic)

I'd not mind T-21 being Blast, but I can agree with those that say it's not neccesssary for us (especially with the new weapons added). The spraystick serves its limited purpose well enough without being Acid now that we have the DXR-6b, right? As for the Tusken rifle- do we really expect the Devs to give us Kinetic damage(back)?

We are doing fairly well in weapons and damage types right now. Some other professions need more help in this area than we do right now.

4. When will our Concealment IV title be changed, and what will it be changed to? Can we get our "Hunter" title changed to something a little bit more fitting, and something we don't have to share with another profession?

This has been corrected, right?

Yes. It was changed to "Assassin".

5. Why is the bowcaster less powerful than a laser rifle even though it was said in the description its deadly in the hands of a Wookiee (rifleman)?

Bowcaster still stinks. I'd guess its fix lies in the CB, but there's only one way to be sure and I'd expect the answer to be little or nothingmore than 'this is being correct in the upcoming combat rebalance'. Shall we ask?

I know this was the number two Wookiee issue. From the description of the weapon it should be beefed up some. But we can role the bowcaster into a more general question about other weapons such as the Spraystick, Tusken, etc. More than likely we will get the "wait for combat rebalance" response.

6. What is the Dev's vision for Rifleman with the upcoming combat system overhaul?

Got this one answered. We're '64m snipers'. HAM costs (other stuff too?) should make the mind pool no longer the determiningpool in PvP. Perhaps we could ask the Devs to further elaborate?

Ask them how we can be snipers when we can't hide, have AoE attacks, and are limited to 64m. It was because of the Devs statement about this that I did the Abriged History of Sniping.

7. Will Rifleman be getting new weapons in the up coming weapon balance?

We've gotten the DXR-6b and Berserker rifle (and Lithanium rifle, whoo hoo ). Do we feel we need more weapons/damage types?

Not at the moment. Let some other professions get some new toys. Besides, most of the new weapons aren't that different from the old. Other than the graphics.

8. When can we get more range? Turrets will now be firing at 80 meters, is not the platform there?

I like this one. However, I'd expect the Devs to claim that 64m is indeed the limit, but maybe with enough support, we can get somewhere with this?

The Devs lied. We know that they have increased the range for turrets and that CM's can/could throw over 64m. However if they want to limit ranges to 64m then it should be across the board.

9. When will Rifleman ever be able to use our sniper tree and actually become invisible on radar?

Since we are snipers, is there anyway we can get the stealth of a Sniper in PVP, like not show up on Radars?

You suppose that we are snipers. Something that we are not nor can we be. It's a supposition that I do not accept. We are infantry, not snipers.

A better call would be to call this a concealment ability instead of a sniper ability. Infantry do learn about camo and concealment.

10. Cover, Sneak, Block all seem to be broken and/or useless. What are the plans for these skills?

Cover and sneak still broken, correct? Block was fixed, but is rather inferior to Dodge/Counterattack though the Devs have told thePikemen that it is working as intended. We also have several other broken/redundant specials besides just Cover (Marksman issue actually) and Sneak. Perhaps we could ask what the plan is for our non-working specials as well as any changes to improve Block to be on-par with Dodge/Counterattack?

Block is working as intended. Per the Devs statement on the Pikeman board. They are looking at it to compare it's balance with that of Counter-Attack and Dodge both of which avoid all damage. Block reduces damage 50% and a status effect will still take effect.

Sneak was removed back in Nov or there abouts. It was removed since it was useless for the most part.

Broken special right now is SurpriseShot. It is unknown what exactly this is suppose to do. The description says you need to be using TakeCover to use it. However you can use it without it.

Redundent specials would be StartleShot1 and StartleShot2. These should either be changed or removed and replaced.

** BONUS QUESTION
11. Why do we have +40 (or so) at 60m with a laser rifle, and then -50 at 64m? Will ranage modifiers be reviewed in the new balances?

This is still a pretty bad problem if I'm not mistaken. And from what I can gather, none of our new weapons have an ideal range like that of the T-21. Should we push for a change to make most/all rifles ideal at or around 60-64 meters?

This is a serious problem. A rifle should not drop 90 point of accuracy for going 4m (12 feet). Most ranged weapons have a fairly nice accuracy curve. I did it a long time ago but I think it came out to about 1.7 points per meter on average for pistols (FWG5). Rifles followed the same curve from min to ideal. However the curve is 10X worse for a rifles ideal to max. It showed about 17 point drop per meter for rifles from ideal to max (Laser Rifle).

A better solution is to give every weapon an ideal range. Then have it drop accuracy at a specific amount per meter from ideal. That would be either above or below. So a weapon would say Ideal 64m +40. Then it would have -20 per 10m from ideal.

Those are just example numbers. Different weapons would have different ideal ranges and accuracy at ideal. They would also have different drop off rates. Higher level cert weapons would probably have overall better accuracy. Both at ideal and min/max.

It would solve the problem of some weapons actually being least accurate at ideal range. That makes no sense.

It's also a very simple system. It keeps rifles lowest accuracy at min range, pistols least at max, and carbines in the middle.

Message Edited by Waste93 on 05-30-2004 10:40 AM

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XaverriJade7 wrote:

EDIT: Another option is to have a follow-up to our 1st question as proposed by Kel-jun:

If we are to be long range snipers, how can this be implemented inside the confines of 64m and if you add more range how does this impact the minimum requirements for computers, load on servers, and turrets in GCW battles, if you don't add more range how do justify long range sniper within a range of where melee users can hit you at 1/3 of this "long range", also Snipers are people that use accuracy, range, and concealment if we are to be snipers how do you address concealment where anyone can be seen on the mini radar with no skill requirements?

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We can't be snipers. As stated. We would need much longer range. We would have to get rid of our AoE attacks. And we would have to have the a single target shot that is even more powerful than StrafeShot2.

The snipers motto is "one shot one kill". That is what a sniper is. It's also what the Devs have specifically said they don't want. They don't want anyone able to one shot kill other players nor high level MOBs. But that is what a sniper by definition has to be able to do.

Secondly the snpier needs distance. Their definition is long range accurate shooting. 64m is not long range. It isn't even the distance of the standard rifle range (100 yards). 64m is short range for a rifle. Even in Star Wars the range of the T21 is 300m. So our 64m limit is only 20% of the actual range. That is short range.

Thirdly concealment. The military sniper has to be able to hide themselves. Failure to do so can easily result in their elimination since they are typcially outnumbered. But with the radar it is impossible to hide in PvP. Also it is impossible to do so in PvE unless you use ConcealShot. However the damage of ConcealShot is not nearly what a sniper would be able to do.

Fourth ingredient of snipers is Observation. Snipesr are trained to observe the enemy. To find and single out the most important targets first. Not something that translates to the game. The closest to this would be IF snipers were able to hide on the radar. The best counter-sniper is another sniper. It would give a use to the Alertness skill at least.

So we can't be snipers. It would make us more powerful than we are even now if it was done correctly. We would have long range and one shot kills.

Since we can't be snipers. We have to disuade the Devs from this thinking. And push for something we can be. If the Devs push for Riflemen to become Snipers it will be badly botched.

Sniping has become a staple in shooter games. I don't think you will find any that doesn't have some kind of scoped weapon for sniping. This however is not a twitch based FPS. It's a skill based RPG game. Because of the limitaitons put in by the Devs we can not be snipers. We can have a few sniper like abilities but that still doesn't make us snipers.

So instead of asking this question, how about pushing to change their minds.