Rifleman Archive

fellow riflemen,

what if once u reached master rifleman.. and say u keep master for an 'x' amount of time your HAm copst reduce? i mean u are a master rifleman after alll.. i dunno random thought while here at work.. tell me what you guys think.

Sound Idea in theory but will never be.

*cough* balance, Limited attacking power.

With those changes even a 20-30% reduction in ham costs on a stat migrated rifleman on a moun high would be beyond INSANE.even with out a moun high.

I'm all for lowering the cost of specials ACROSS the board, but anything that makes us even start to get close to other professions for sustainable combat is just asking for a lynch mob.

It would be nice if there were ways to reduce HAM costs through leveling, but there are already a lot ofways to mitigate the costs, and the HAM costs are there to balance the various professions, so I do not really seethis as being something that would be ever implemented. I would expect that some of the weapons may get reduced HAM costs to fix some balance problems (I believe Carbinesare universally recognized as being too expensive with regard to HAM costs, for instance), but from a character basis, there are too many ways to overcome HAM issues. You can migrate your stats. You can get various temporary stat enhancements (doctor and entertainer buffs,spices, and foods, the latter of which need fixes). You have different weapons choices and modifications (powerups) can be purchased to reduce the higher HAM cost weapons.

You should always migrate your stats to maximize (i.e., minimize) HAM usage for your profession and your race. Buteven without migrating stats, you can get a mind buff from an entertainer (or take muon gold) and get a doctor buff for your other pools then go out and fire an advanced component T21 continuously without a noticable effect on any of your HAM pools. Just Muon Gold and a few stims will allow you to fire almost continuously (stoping only momentarily to heal your health and action usage).

Even without that, you can get a lower HAM cost version of the T21 and reduce the mind costs even further with a mind cost reduction powerup. You can put a mind cost reduction on a Laser, or you can get an E11, which has a mind cost of only 40 without powerups. Use these weapons for most situations, pulling out the Muon Gold and high HAM costs advanced T21 for special circumstances.

With these kinds of choices, I do not really see the Devs deciding that a Master would not only get to fire faster, do more damage, and have it cost them less with regard to HAM costs.