Rifleman Archive

I agree with Tek. I think it's easier to have them keep rifle range at 64m, change carbine max range to 50m and pistol max range to 32m.

Or even leave it as-is but change the accuracy such that a Master Pistoleer has a 1% chance of hitting something at 60m with any pistol. Right now he has, I estimate, about a 90% chance of hitting stuff at 60m with a pistol, and that's part of why rifles have no advantage that offsets their disadvantage.

I think it would be a good idea to at least consider increasing the max ranges on the guns (particularly the rifle) but as they realized in beta I think that it is going to remain largely an issue of load to increase it beyond any small amount.

In the event that they do increase the range beyond the 64m range, I would probably like to see some changes to targeting and combat notification to alleviate the client-side technical restrictions of rendering long distances.

I would like to see the radar become an alternate means of selecting targets because often times you can see the correct number/location of objects on your radar even when you cant see them rendered. This would allow those people who can't actually see a rendered object to still be able to target/attack it. I think this would be very necessary to facilitate long shots, because personally I think having to run closer just to see the rendered target (so that I can select it) and then running back to the 128m mark to make my shot would be nonsense and a pain in the ass. It would be much easier to just set my radar range to 128m click on the dot that I want to shoot, lay prone and go at it.

However this would bring on problems that would severely annoy players who were on the receiving end of these long shots. If I were a TKA being shot by something 128m away at an unknown location that my client wasn't even rendering yet, I would definitely be pissed. So with this problem comes the second part of my thought:

I would like to see better notification of where a target is attacking you from. You could make the attacker's radar dot flash rapidly to signify that they are the one shooting you, along with an on-screen overlay identifying the exact target (similar to the blue bracket thingies that come up when you have a corpse selected) in case they were standing in a group. Perhaps instead of blue bracket things, they could be red and bouncing inward & outward from the target to get your attention. Of course I’m sure some of us (including myself) would bring the "sniper supposed to be stealth and concealed" argument to this. However as a sidenote to the above idea, I would also vote for the special stealth attacks like conceal shot having the ability to confuse this combat notification. Normal attacks and other non-stealth special attacks (like posture-down, dizzy and headshot) would still give away your location to the notification system.

Just thinking out loud, what do you think?

I’m sure that the changes I’ve mentioned (particularly the radar changes) are nowhere close to an “easy” change, but its still something to consider if they bump the ranges a little bit… or maybe people would think they would be nice to have regardless?

Personally I woulden't mind seeing them.

-MrChee

Sorry buddy you are a little late we asked for this awhile back and got the cryptic answer....

"rifles and pistols have the same max range the differnce is WITHIN the max range"

yah, whatever that means. The devs have no idea what we are talking about, they dont' even play this game.

In response to sjrdriz.
I have reciently used an energy beam.
gravity and wind affect nill.
speed of beam.. 186000 miles per second.
it's called a laser. but it still uses a coherent energy packet.
same as a so called blaster.

As for range changes, I'm all for them. Will they work in the game mechanics? I doubt it.
I was expermenting with accuracy last night. With a laser rifle I had positive numbers for about ten meters. centered around 60m with both myself and the target standing still.

ElectricBlue,

I will re-post my previous post so that you dont have to bother reading it (or the dozen other solutions). God knows expecting you to actually read would be too much. Here you go:

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Aldeon and Great_Destroyer,

The devs have said that they cannot increase the range past 64 meters due to NPC's not being able to target. They have given other excuses as well. Getting SOE to change everything around just so we can have a 10-15 meters range advantage over pistols isnt likely to happen. Therefore, we must think about it from a DIFFERENT angle.

Since we've already established that 64m is the MAX range, why not make it so that rifles can shoot 64 meters, carbines can shoot 50 meters, and pistols can shoot 40 meters.

This will keep allow each proffesion to have realistic ranges while not requiring the devs to upset the whole AI system. The only thing that would really need to be adressed is making sure ranged NPC's obey these rules as well.

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See? Rubbing two brain cells together isnt as much work as you think.

Before this is pushed too far please hear me out because this can be a VERY bad thing.

Keep in mind that even tho this soundsgreat for Rifleman you are goining to also be set the range for EVERY npc in the game. not just shooting range but also how far out you can be detected by any agro Mob. this change will destroy novice artisans trying to sample anything out side of towns. I also know that I'm not the only one to go on a destroy mission to find there are multiple lairs of Mobs around it, do you want 16 agro's on you after your first shot?

As much as I would like to see the max range moved, I just dont think its going to happen. That being said there was a post that had a kwel sniper idea. Its kinda off this topic but....

It was the ability to target called shots. Health, Action, or Mind could be targeted. Here is a copy of the idea.

*****

#1 by TekDragon - "Precision eye-shot, Precision heart-shot, Precision knee-shot

These 3 skills NEED to be added to our tree, either down a branch, or at master rifleman. These 3 attacks would not only make our rifleman group friendly (without some BS flame-thrower attack) but actually make SENSE for a rifleman to have. In addition to being high-damage precision HAM pool shots, each should also offer an effect. Dizzy (or maybe blind) for eye-shot, stun for heart shot, and posture change (down) for knee shot. "

I have been in groups and I can attest to the fact that since rifles have a much slower rate of fire and our specials only attack the Mind pool, we can't REALLY make a differance in a group that has pistol users in it. They can usually shoot 2x as fast as we can for the same amounts of damage (somtimes more) at the same range with (usually) BETTER reliability. Which leads me to my next point...

****

I thought this was a good idea. In line with the "sniper" feel. Comments?

I don't think it would be a good idea to simply add extra range to the rifle, as it is now. At master rifle, that would be a ridiculous advantage given the 1s -AE- strafe 2. While master rifle isn't the only thing that needs to be balanced, it's still something that does need to be balanced. A range bonus would only be reasonable if AE ranges were cut (this should probably be the case for all AE, actually).

/agree

Have you ever seen a rifle that couldn/t shoot past 64m? please

Anything that makes it better has my vote.

Who cares about range - keep the range the same on all of them for all I care. I care about accuracy. Sure give the guy with a pistol a chance to hit me at 45m or 60m away, but it better be at a huge penalty (similar to one I have when shooting at anything under 30m away).

I have no problem with range - I have a problem with accuracy at different ranges. Also be sure to stick NPCs with the same modifiers - it doesn't seem to matter what weapon they use - they do the same dmg, same chance of hitting, etc

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StrattonJE wrote:

BTW - Gravity from planets can bend light. I remember hearing about people finding planets based on the shift of a suns light as it passesthe gravity of planets... pretty wierd stuff.

V'Losh

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I think you are talking about the "Wobbling" effect planets have on a Star. The gravity that the planet exerts on a Star causes it to wobble slightly, there by allowing them to detect the planet. You can caluclate the mass of the planet by the gravity of the "wobble".

Example: Try walking down a sidewalk with a two year old on a tether. While they are much, much smaller then you, they can easily modify your path by tugging on the tether.

Otherwise, there is a Prismatic/Diffusion effect from the atmosphere's.. but, that's extrodinarily difficult to detect. (Headlights in fog, sunshine through a rain drop, etc.. effect.)

...not that is has anything to do with the subject at hand...

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Temerarius wrote some other stuff and then he wrote:

And as others have called for, reducing the limit on the max range of the other weapons quite possibly involves a huge amount of work as I pointed out. They would have to change the aggro radii on all NPC's to be the max range of the shortest range weapon. Why? Well, if the NPC aggros at 45m (seems to be the average at which I can get aggro) but the Pistol has a max range of 40m that means the NPC has aggro'd before the person can even engage the target. Solo, it may not be bad, but, imagine trying to do a mission where you have to take out a camp of 4-6 NPC.. they would all arrgo on you before you could even geta shot off.

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I don't see any reason why they would have to change the aggro range. Aggro range should be set at "line of sight", not "distance able to attack". Aggro range should hover around 60m for everything, simply because I beleive that's the effective line of sight as implemented in the game. I'd like to see it even farther if possible.

Yes, this means as a pistol or carbine user you risk the mob aggro'ing on you if you step inside the range. As it should be. That's the purpose of the aggro mob - if you can "sneak up" on an aggro mob and initiate an attack, then what is the purpose of the aggro?

We need _harder_ creatures and more aggressive mobs. Not less.

My $0.02.

Borion, Sunrunner
Squad Leader and Rifleman

Well as most pistol users attack so fast they can take one 3-4 mobs at once. If the mobs are so social they can't be soloed then the pistol user should change tactics and get a partner. I think reducing max range on the weps to be more in line with their use is a good and neccessary thing. As an alternative they could also have the max range 15m past the ideal range. This would mean laser rifles would be 75m max and spraysticks would be 45m for max range. This would make each weapon suited to different situations.