Rifleman Archive

Oh yeah, no power-up on the DLT. It was 120-204 5.0 from the smith. Vigo on Bria, paid 8K for a **edit** good gun.

Khyras, On Bria.
Doctor/ Wannabe Rifleman
"The nerf of God is coming!!! Pistoleers Repent!

FIX HAM COSTS
FIX HAM COSTS
FIX HAM COSTS

I could have written a well thought out, well balanced and enjoyable to read post. But this is really all you have to do. Drop the HAM costs on rifles. Period.

im glad that someone noticed that for novice's - rifleman look good with t21's, but basically we have had "fear the sniper" nerfs from the dev's, sure theres alot of kids in this game who think sniper is "uber" - but its also a very popular profession for us older gamers +25, accuracy - big guns etc over the spam spam spam of pistols and poor mens rifles, the carbine.

i guess this post spawned from the reduction in numbers starting out in novice since the last 2 weeks.

most can live with the horrible reduction in damage in new T21s - but as most rifleman that were tested were already masters - its the novices who pay the price, by having max damage of 340 on new T21s with horrible hams (unsliced and unpowered up) since the resources to make the max dev limit of 370ish is not possible.

less sucky:

1) HAM : reduce the ham costs and the reduction on the mind pool for all riflemen (since most of us rifleman actually hunt for exp solo - causing huge amounts of downtime and many waffers in between)

2) RANGE : the damage modifers for range really need to be looked at for the other classes - stop tweaking ours. its pointless making improvements and adjustments to our class when the other combat classes are still unfixed ranges to keep player interest. envy of pistol and carbineer ranges and lack of negatives in comparison to rifles are stopping new rifleman joining our ever decreasing band of warriors

3) ACCURACY: since the latest patch 4th Sept our accuracy is a joke - miss miss miss hit etc , for a sniper thats laughable.

inndo jagged - eclipse (looking forward to master sharpshooter and still missing)

I thought i add my 2 cents worth as a new novice rifleman!

There are clearly lots of things broken in the proffesion that need fixing, conceal for BAF Mobs etc and they have & will continue to be listed for months to come. However I think the balancing of the proffesion, including making novice more effective, can all be done by increasing range! sniping is a ranged sport, if you could start shooting from 124m (with the speed, max range pens, accuracy pens, all as they are now) you could at least get a few shots in before getting your nose is chewed by some crazy bunny rabbit. It would give you a chance to get in a shot even when your first one misses. I am not even suggesting changing the ideal range of weapons, just let us shoot from further away.

Even in PvP this would help balance out us with pistoleers, they would have to close us down before they can own us. Fine when they are close, they may kick our butts but we get the chance of fighting them at our range rather than being permenantly in theirs. The same would be true for the melee fighters they may come & chop your hands off but make it a challenge for them to get to you first. The increased distance would give us a chance to stand up & run away if we miss.

And after all, would this not also make the role of a sniper a little more realistic? (or as realistic as you can be playing a wookie on a computer, in the star wars universe :smileyhappy This change would mean you could fill a more defined combat role at any level of the proffession.

/off soapbox,

May all my future posts on these boards be happier ones!

OB

Novice Rifleman - at last & getting there was the easy part.

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Schnokt wrote:

that must be why we see Luke Skywalker whipping out his Rancor on the Death Star.

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Denzien, Bria server


Artisan 3/0/0/4          Scout 4/0/4/2


Brawler 4/0/0/0         Smuggler 1/0/1/0


Marksman 4/4/0/4      Rifleman 4/1/3/3

All rifleman and especially novices could benefit from the ability to hit all three HAM bars. It only makes sense that if we can hit a creatures tiny little head (ever try to shoot a butterfly in the head) that we should be able to hit it anywhere on it's body with great ease. make the shot do the same damage as an auto attack and cost very little HAM. the ability to target any areaof a creaturewould make a novice rifleman much more useful in group situations.

Well maybe they could increase the attack range for rifles? I can't count how many times i've taken 2 shots and before I can stand up my target is on top of me and im incapped before I can change weapons...Also the ham cost for using a rifle is alittle steep in my opinion..here's how it plays out--> see target -- hs1-hs2-supress-ms---run to safe distance if you can : ) -- resume fight --warning shot- hs1,hs2....and after you kill that crazzed durni--- /sit for 10mins...oh the durni thing was a joke.. but it's close : )

Del'Faan

Bria.

Several problems, and fixes..at least imo.

Problem 1:

My best weapon right now is a Laser rifle.With a 30 percent dmg slice it's 28 to 436ish 6.7spd. With a +15 min +30 max it's 38ish to 567. Now, in a good setting, I outdamage everyone in my group, even the commando I think. Or we equal out. I'm a novice, with 3/1/ 2/ 2.

The problem is I have to be between 54 and 60m to have my best chance of hitting. So any target I'm on has to stay in a pretty fixed position. Since our max range is 64m, it doesn't really leave alot of wiggle room, especially when prone (best bonus). So we're out fighting Krayts, and sometimes stuff on dantooine, and folks are runing the mob every which way. I have to always run away from the group (they all run to the mob and shoot, while I runaway to set range).I set down around 60m and start using flurry. Great dmg. Then a pet runs or someone moves 5 meters, and my accuracy is off, or it's out of range. Or in 3 seconds they move towards me and the mob is now at 34 to 20m, and I'm missing like crazy. I then have to stand up, move back 30m, consider kneeling or going prone (since I'll have to get up anyway), and repeat. This happens over and over and over. I even have other mid range weapons, but with AR, resistances, etc..they're pretty much ineffective.

Solution: We need a considerable range increase, and then, when thats done, our ideal range needs to be static or pretty much non changing for at least 25m (imo). It may seem overpowering but that gives us at least a little room to keep firing on our target without changing position. Say our range is 128m. That's a long distance, but double the norm, which makes since. Our Ideal range should be anywhere beteen 100m to 128 on weapons like the Laser rifle and T-21. I've never had a T-21, but since it's a high powered weapon, it should have the best range out of them all.

2nd Problem: BAF'ing mobs even when conceal shot is successfull on the initial target. Also, I've used conceal shot on an PC or mob, gotten no aggro. Then I go off and do something else for 10 minutes, and I then happen to pass by that mob later, and it's aggro on me. Similar in PvP, although I don't PVP much. Riflemen are generally snipers at least at highly trained levels. The conditions they shine in aren't ever favorable to the target..ever.

Solution: Radar presence. When using medium range weapons..and if the above change were made, I'd consider medium weapons anything from 40 to 65m..we need an ability to go into the bush, or use true stealth to not only pop off the radar, but lower our presence when dealing with BAF mobs. The skill should totally drop a sniper off the radar at Master, but when in this mode, you can't move, and all shots do maybe 50 to 60 percent of their normal dmg. At novice through master, firing a shot could trigger a chance for you to appear on the radar, but at Master there'd be no chance. Or they could add a suit (i think somoene already suggested a ghille(sp?) suit on other threads) that completely camoflages us or let's us add actual terrain to our clothing. I've never heard of a ghille suit before that post, so I'm assuming it's its the stuff snipers wear to hide in foliage, bushes, etc. I think its a great idea.

Argh, there were other problems but I'm tired and forgot them. Hope these suggestions don't upset folks.

Here are my suggestions. Some of which I've mentioned before elsewhere in this forum.

Range Mods : This are badly tilted against the rifle. My laser is ideal +20 @ 60m. -50 @ 0m, and -70 @ 64m. That is a -90 for 4m (12feet). My pistol is also a -70 @ 64m. So my rifle and pistol and the max range are equal. Change this to the following system which would also increase max ranges.

Set an ideal range and mod for each weapon. For each 10m beyond idea, plus or minus, it would lower by a set amount. Example. Laser rifle 60m ideal +20. Each 10m plus or minus is say -15. So at 65m and 45m it would be +5 and so on. The max range is when the weapon is -100. This would give rifles a much longer range than pistols yet stillbe poor at close range. Carbines would be in the middle. Each weapon could change different. Say -15/10m for laser rifle and -10/10m for the T21. The higher level weapons should naturally have better range mods on average.

T21 : I think the major problem with the T21 isn't necessarily it's base stats but the resource requirements. I think it requiresfour or so specifically named resources. The laser rifle requires only one. Remeber that the quality of these resources effects the stats. Weaponsmiths are naturally turning out T21's once they have the resources even if the resources are poor since the resources are hard to come by and there is a demand for the weapon. So you end up with poor quality materials being used which lowers the stats. So change the resource requirements like what was done for the heavy weapons. This should probably be done across the board for weapons. Higher level weapons should naturally be more powerful.

Creature Warping / Stutter Step : Major issue that needs to be fixed. Combine this with the 2.5X melee penalty (which I personally don't have a problem with) is causing way to many incaps and deaths.

Line of Sight : Make this actually work. Noone should be able to shoot thru mountains. I would like to be able to use the terrain to break contact, avoid contact, or get into a better shooting position. Right now terrain only effects movement. Add in the warping (see above) and it meansterrain only effects PC movement.

Conceal Shot : You're dead on in regards to this. Why can I shoot something that won't see me but his buddies, that have their backs turn, instantly know where I am and attack. Change this so it's similair to mask scent. Every time you shoot using it the target and those withing a certain radius have a chance to break the conceal and detect you. I would also naturally make take cover and mask scent bonuses stack. They are related. Yes, this would make a Rifleman / Ranger a very dangerous hunter. But that is what that combination should be against animal MOB's. I would make it so that conceal is instantly broken for something that is close. Say 10-15m. In PvP conceal would keep you off the radar when you take cover. However the same instant break range would apply and they would have a better chance of detecting you. If they are smart all they have to do is look to see where the shot is coming from and go in that direction. You would either be detected once they got in range or have to run away breaking cover anyways. So it shouldn't be to exploitable. In larger battles it would naturally be harder to spot the sniper but of course this is how it should be. More confusion naturally makes it harder to detect a single concealed shooter.

Among some of my fellows I've seen posting, I am also an active duty military man. Having said that, anyone who has been through basic training can tell you that your rifle is actually a very deadly close range weapon as well as a nice way to shoot people.

"What makes the grass grow?"

"Blood, bright red blood drill sergeant!"

That was our chant as we practiced bayonet drills for a full day, followed by another day of basic combat moves which included a good "butt stroke to the head and hold" series, along with a couple of other special close-hand-combat moves using your rifle to choke people, smash heads, or simply knock them on their ass.

Why has all this basic brutality escaped the devs by them imposing a 2.5 close range penalty? You think pistol whip is a hard-core move? Wait till you get your skull smashed by a rifle butt...

Add close-hand combat moves with rifle to the tree along the lines of the pistoleers "pistolwhip" skills. You'll make me a very happy camper.