Rifleman Archive

I know if I change weapons to a CDEF I get easier missions, but not all the way down to newbie level. Someone told me it had to do with armor also. He said when he wanted the toughest missions he would equip his highest level gun and don his armor. There is something going on there, because we would both go to the rebel mission terminals (I am novice rifleman + 3 boxes), he was similar, and he would get level 21 missions and I would get highest of 14 or 16 with my T21 or Laser equipped.

I thought it went by your skill level of the equiped weapon class. If I have nothing equiped I get newbi missions since I have no unarmed skills. If I have my T-21 or Spraystick equiped, I seem to get the same level missions. Same with my alt with a laser or spraystick.

I do know that it does take into account the specific weapon, not just your total skill. I don't know about armor. For example, I'm low on the rifleman skills, but if I have a T-21 or E11 equipped, I get difficulty 11 missions, my laser rifle, I get 10, my DL20a I get 9s...

I bet the range of difference is higher at higher levels...

Apparently it's less at higher levels.

With a CDEF rifle I get difficulty 25. With a laser rifle I get difficulty 25. With a T-21 I get difficulty 25.

/ramble on

Recently I picked up Advanced Pistol from the marksman tree so I can use a scout blaster. This is SOOO much easier to level than rifle marksmanship was.

I do faction missions. If I do them with my rifle (4424) I get a level 25 mission that can have a general and 2-3 other high ranking rebels. These guys are a real problem, I couldn't do them without using either pets or a doctor, and even then I have to watch my mind pool or they'll get me. They're worth about 18 faction each, and about 40 faction for the base. This can take a couple minutes and get me killed.

So I picked up that advanced pistol skill. With that skill and a scout blaster, I get level 10 missions. These generate camps of "Novice Creature Handlers" and some rebel resistance guys. These are all super-easy to kill and give me 15 faction each with the base being worth about 15. This takes a few seconds and is risk-free.

So if you want to do faction missions, put your rifle on the shelf, get Advanced Pistol, get a scout blaster and go wild. (Don't get Expert Pistol because the more skill you have, the less faction you'll get per hour.)

What really annoys me about this is that these camps tend to have tamed rebel animals in them that run REALLY FAST and about 50% of the NPC's are meleers. With my pistol, I just spam Point Blank Area Attack and mow them down while they beat on me. If I was a newbie rifleman trying this with a rifle I'd be getting my butt kicked due to the damage bonus. Pistols > Rifles.

Anyway, that leads into why things warp. Warping is lethal to riflemen.

Whenever a camp spawns, all of the NPC's associated with the camp spawn at the same altitude. So when a camp spawns on a hill or a hillside, the NPC's will spawn with it at the same level and be floating over the ground.

Any melee NPC that's floating will warp when it wants to attack you.

As a pistoleer, this is no real concern. Asa rifleman, this means you're dead meat.

The level of the mission depends on the weapon you have equiped. You'll get easier missions when equiped with a CDEF than with a T21.

I'll have to check that out. I believe it's based on the weapon skill, not the weapon.

So a Master Rifleman would get the same difficulty with a CDEF Rifle as with a T21.

But he will get a much easier mission with a Scout Blaster, assuming he's not also a Master Pistoleer.