Rifleman Archive

You know, it has been stated before that the dev's really don't have time to play the game, and I wouldn't expect them to, but all you really need to do is occasionally follow people around with invisible avatars, not to interfere, but just to see what really happens. So far the change implementation process seems to be, have a dev who doesn't play or observe come up with some stuff based on generally inaccurate numerical data, plug in the change, destroy balance, and hope that there is enough of an outcry that the imbalances get punched in for a later fix, which doesn't work all that well because of the lack of observational data. Having said this...

Riflemen are doomed.

Seriously. Issue number one isn't even an issue. 3.0s speed cap? Was it reported somewhere that riflemen were actually able to do damage to something or someone, by accident? Yes, I'm sure that a special move combo chain that takes 24 seconds and cannot be completed anyway due to mind costs will make up for this nicely. Accuracy while in the Take Cover position? Even if Take Cover received some sort of benefit, nobody in his right mind would ever use it. It doesn't protect you from players, it doesn't protect you from monsters, they just charge up and now you suffer the prone penalty, PLUS the rifle melee penalty, PLUS you are unable to shoot anyway, so you stand up and now you may as well not be able to shoot, since you cannot hit anything in point blank. Of course since Take Cover is bugged and often will not let you run after you use it without a relog, you couldn't get away anyway.

The language "Once we add the speed cap, I will investigate improving damage output." does not fill me with confidence. Submaster riflemen are already suffering horribly through an insanely long grind (made worse by the difficulty of gaining rifle XP), all for the hopes of being able to do something moderately useful at master. There is no point to master anymore with a 3.0s cap. Hell, there's no point to rifleman at all. I surmise it would be very difficult to gain any data about damage output after a speed cap is implemented, since nobody will be playing a rifleman.

NONE of the actual rifleman issues were addressed. Our first set of issues received an abstract and unconvincing board post and no in game changes except to destroy the T21's usefulness beyond weighting papers. What are the big rifleman issues on the rifleman board? 2.5x melee damage, insane mind costs, horrible accuracy at ANY range, low DPS, T21 being useless, damage types changed to energy on the tusken and spraystick on 8/13, stutter step, specials that don't work, warping MOBs, doing more damage to yourself than the target, etc. What this post gives us as an answer is, yes you will still suck, and we won't fix any of your problems, but at least you'll fire really slowly now, and maybe after castrating the profession we MIGHT take a look at damage output. Gee this is encouraging. Yes I know no final decision has been made, but the mere fact that the combat developer made these suggestions in the first place tells me that you guys have no empirical data to work with, don't know what actually happens during play, and will go ahead and make sweeping changes anyway. For christ's sake don't even listen to us on the boards, GO SEE FOR YOURSELF.

Sashi, Master Weaponsmith and Curmudgeon. Shop is at -1171 -4268 SW of Dearic, Talus, on Radiant, the VIC-20 of game servers. Until I close up shop, which may be any day now.

-Please gift wrap this and, fax it, overnight mail it, to WHOEVER is in charge of combat or rifleman, it really cannot be said any better,