Summer 2020 beta: My thoughts

[flashn00b]

The new map
It's actually one of the better maps I've seen so far. While we're no longer killing evil clowns in steampunk environments, I think this map works extremely well with the game's pacing, and the combination of spacious and claustrophobic areas really works in its favour.

Balance changes

Mac-10
I can definitely see people not being all too impressed at them and while I haven't really noticed much of anything with its increased damage, I can personally appreciate having a stopgap towards the HRG Incendiary Rifle. Again, I don't expect people to pick the MAC-10 over the Incendiary Rifle, but if you need that extra dosh to buy a couple magazines and some armor, I think the MAC-10 can do well enough at zed killing until you can sell it. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing IMO

Seeker Six
I'll be honest, i was expecting to get disappointed with the weapon's performance though I.. actually like it this time around. From my experience, it's a pretty well-rounded weapon for a Tier 4 weapon and I think its strength actually comes in its synergy with the newest addition, the HRG Kaboomstick, which i will get into detail later. However, I would not recommend using the Kabbomstick+Seeker combo for the boss wave.

HRG Weapons

HRG Kaboomstick
I can see why Tripwire made this thing a Tier 3 weapon and also made it slightly heavier than the original Double-Barreled Shotgun. With the double-barreled shotgun blast, the Kaboomstick can make short work with a lot of threats and is for the most part a much better version of the HX-25 Grenade Pistol, which is already a powerful weapon in its own right.

The only complaint I really have is that its killing power against gorefasts feels inconsistent a lot of times, especially when compared with shotguns and the HX-25 Grenade Pistol. IMO, i think Gorefasts and Gorefiends should have a 1.15 weakness to the Kaboomstick's projectiles. Otherwise, this gun and the new map are tied to the best additions to this update.

HRG Teslarifle
While I have been saying for the longest time that the Berserker needs a ranged weapon due to KF2's focus on ranged combat, I don't think this weapon was very well thought out.

First off, the fact that we're giving the Berserker makes the perk overpowered thanks to the weapon not requiring any amount of skill to regenerate your health.

Second, the intention of making it a late-game weapon isn't really that much of a good idea since by the time a Berserker can afford this thing, money is already a non-issue for him since he has most likely bought a Hemoclobber, Zweihander, Static Strikers or Bone Crusher.

Personally, I think the ideal implementation for a ranged Berserker weapon would be either dual pistols or some other form of medium range semi-automatic weapon. At the very least, a pair of pistols counting as a Berserker weapon would require him to still go into melee range as he can't rely on the sluggish reloads of non-GS dual pistol reloads.

I think the best course of action would be to rework this gun entirely for usage in the hands of either the Commando or Survivalist. Either way, I think it's back to the drawing board for figuring out how to give the Berserker a ranged weapon for a ranged game.

Seasonal objectives
After my experience with the Yuletide Horrors and Neon Nightmares updates, I think the following text requires ALL CAPS to be used:

NONE OF THE OBJECTIVES ARE LOCKED BEHIND RNG. THANK GOODNESS FOR THIS.

However, the generator objective can be a bit difficult given the frantic nature of this game, so I guess it's not a wasted objective slot. My biggest complaint with the last two events is that folks that try to get the achievement items were punished for not participating in the betas. This is not the case with the current set of objectives.

 

[Aze]

Just gonna comment on one thing:

The Teslauncher REALLY doesn't fit for the Berserker. They could've done an a lot more thematic ranged HRG weapon than that. Example:

HRG Seal Shock - Take the Seal Squeal. Make it weaker, but a bit faster, slightly bigger mag and with some more ammo. Make the explosions deal light EMP-damage and status. There ya go. Fitting with the "big metal projectile" theme of the perk's other ranged weapons (Nailgun, Eviscerator) and the perk's EMP grenade.

Or if you wanna add new melee weapons:

HRG Goreshard- Take the Gore Shiv. Extend the blade to the full Gorefast-blade's length, and extend the handle so you can give it twohanded animations. Attach some gadget on it which makes the the blade have a slight freezing effect (so it fills a new niche), or maybe electrical effect (if you wanna make it an alternative to the Static Strikers).

Or utility:

HRG EMP Explosives - Take the C4. Make it explode with EMP (maybe even a lingering field of it).

 

[Aleflippy]

Agree with everything besides the new map and kaboomstick !

IMO, the new map still appears very generic...The assets are mostly to blame. I'm tired of visiting military installations and labs. But the layout itself is pretty good indeed.

The Kaboomstick has become one of my favourite gun in the whole game, but it doesn't really have any drawback in my opinion...Even with only two shells loaded, you reload fast enough for it to never be a problem. And it's so powerful that you rarely need more than two shells anyway. It's great against trash due to its increased spread. It's great against big ones due to its raw damage... It's just good against anything.

And yeah, I believe a single, highly-damaging pistol would be waaay better than the Teslauncher... The zerk should have something to take care of crawlers and ranged-zeds. Not be a one-man-army.

(Oh and the generator objective was ridiculously easy IMO ! Don't know how you can find it difficult... You can simply rush there during trading time?)

 

[Aleflippy]

The problem with the Seal Shock, is that I don't really see how it would behave differently from the Eviscerator... I mean, it would probably be a T3 and have the EMP effect to make it stand out. But otherwise, it's just another "highly damaging gun", when it would actually be better to have a fast-firing gun, available early-on, to defend yourself against crawlers, sirens and edars.

Similarly, "EMP Explosives" would probably never be used at all... Just like the C4 is never used. It's just not worth the price.

And finally, the Goreshard (while mighty cool in appearance!) would probably be just another blade... Something already filled by the katana and zweihander.

 

[Aze]

The thought with the HRG Seal Shock was to be something between the Nailgun and Eviscerator in terms of power/speed. Like, think doubled magsize and rate of fire compared to the Seal Squeal and more ammo, but EMP instead of explosion and obviously weaker per shot.

Yeah, the HRG EMP Explosives was a weak suggestion. But I felt it was less "out there" than the HRG Teslauncher for Berserker, at least.

HRG Goreshard being "just another blade"... Isn't that kind of true for most existing melee weapons though? At least this one could have freezing status as a clearly niched and different utility in the Berserker arsenal. If you put aside the melee Berserker weapons which actually have some special effects, you have a whole bunch of "non-special" weapons: Crovel, Katana, Fire Axe, Road Redeemer, Zweihander and Battleaxe. All of those hardly do anything other than alter speed and damagevalues (ok Battleaxe has some mild pushback on bashes, and Fire Axe has stun on heavy hits, but I digress). So, a blade with freezing properites sounds far more special than any of those, imo.

 

[Aleflippy]

Well... You kinda answered to yourself right there. The only truly bland weapons in the zerk arsenal are the crovel and katana... Fairly understandable since they're the first two weapons available. The Road Redeemer is nothing to brag about either, but it's only natural since it's a cross-over weapon. But I do get your point with the freezing effect. It's mostly that it probably wouldn't change the perk's gameplay that much.

But that's the opposite problem for the Teslauncher : it doesn't fit the zerker at all. Finding a middle ground would obviously be a little bit better. I don't think your Seal Shock idea would be THE ONE, but it would definitely fit the perk better. And be useful. And offer a new take. So mostly qualities really.

 

[Aze]

Yeah, that's the main issue really. While the Seal Shock or Goreshard aren't "woah, amazing new idea!", they are at least new-ish, and more importantly, FITS the perk way better than the Teslauncher ever would.

While I can see how TWI maybe had a bit of a hard time to make a HRG-weapon for the Berserker from the other perks' arsenals, the Teslauncher is still a massively farfetched stretch of the imagination (in a bad way, mind you).

 

[Aleflippy]

What I had in mind was more or less to tackle his main weaknesses: ranged zeds. It is dangerous for the berserker to deal with crawlers, sirens , bloats, husks and EDARs. Mind you : he has a lot of speed, resistance and health to back that up. Nevertheless, while most perks are only weak to one or two zeds, that's a whopping EIGHT for the zerk, not counting the bosses.

Now of course, he has the eviscerator to make quick work out of most of these. But let's be real : it comes far too late into the game to be truly relevant. It makes the first half of the match a real hassle if you're playing solo (and even playing multi, you need to rely on your team to take them out... Or be very very careful!).

As such, the idea would be to get a gun that you can acquire earlier, to make those early waves easier without overpowering the perk the way the Teslauncher does. My best bet would be somewhat of an accurate weapon that wouldn't deal that much damage and serve as a secondary rather than a primary. As such...Having an HRG pistol would make sense in my opinion.

That was, you could dispatch hordes of crawlers much more easily. Meanwhile, you could strike the weakspot of husks and EDARs without putting yourself in danger. Sirens and bloats wouldn't need you to kite forever to get them with a few quick headshots. And at the same time : you couldn't just replace your pulverizer/katana/pickyourfavourite as they would still inflict much more DPS.