Collected ideas to balance the M99 + other fixes

[LightningBolt101]

So recently there's been complaint over the M99, specifically on Hell on Earth. While I'm willing to entertain other ideas, this is what I think most of the community would agree on as a whole.

1. Raise the price to 4000 or even 4500. This would make it more expensive off class and make it a bit more difficult to afford on harder modes as level 6 Sharp Shooter. Besides, I think it should cost as much as an AA-12 if not more. It certainly packs more power. (Optional) Make bullets more expensive as well.

2. (Optional) Raise the weight to 14 kg. This means no other possible weapon could be bought for it (unless you're running Support Specialist). Essentially it'd be most useful when running Sharp Shooter as your M9 can be very deadly.

3. Reload time. Apparently it's supposed to be around 4 seconds but is actually getting Sharp Shooter's 60% bonus applied to it for all classes by default. This is really just a bug that could easily be fixed with a few coding fixes. This means as level 6 Sharp Shooter you're getting a 120% reload bonus. Problem is obvious.

The reload bug also needs to be fixed. This is just universal, regardless if all these rebalances are applied. It really does break the feel of the gun and makes it too fast to reload off perk.

4. Reduce reserve ammo. 20 would be good, 15 being the extreme. 25 feels like too much for this weapon. It needs to be put in balance with the LAW.

5. (Optional, but preferred) Make it so you have to aim down the scope. This would make it much more like the LAW's aiming. This is a massive .50 cal rifle. It should be a bit more graceful than spamming it from the hip.

6. (Optional, but not preferred) Remove the gun completely. I like it, but if it really is breaking the harder difficulties this much, there may not be any other choice. It'll be back to the modded servers for this gun.

Other problems:

1. The LAW's weight needs to be reduced by 1 kg so a .44 or MK23 can be bought with it. It's not in Support anymore. You're asking too much for a Demo. At least allow them to have a useful back up weapon.

2. Sometimes when aiming down a scoped weapon there's a glitch where you'll walk just as fast as without aiming or sometimes even faster. This is just a bug that needs fixing.

3. The lever action's fire rate is increased when playing as Sharp Shooter. While I like this, it makes the gun fire too fast. I have a feeling this is an unintended side effect of the faster reload speed. It might be counting each lever pull as a reload, which is inaccurate.

Discuss.

[Aze]

Originally Posted by LightningBolt101

So recently there's been complaint over the M99, specifically on Hell on Earth. While I'm willing to entertain other ideas, this is what I think most of the community would agree on as a whole.

1. Raise the price to 4000 or even 4500. This would make it more expensive off class and make it a bit more difficult to afford on harder modes as level 6 Sharp Shooter. Besides, I think it should cost as much as an AA-12 if not more. It certainly packs more power. (Optional) Make bullets more expensive as well.

4000 sounds good enough. Having bullets cost more (Say, 35 per bullet) but giving the Sharpshooter's hidden 42% Xbow ammo discount on them as well (putting them down to 20 per bullet at level 6), sounds like a very good plan as well. That makes it the same for the level 6 Sharpshooter, but IMMENSLY expensive for offperk users.

2. (Optional) Raise the weight to 14 kg. This means no other possible weapon could be bought for it (unless you're running Support Specialist). Essentially it'd be most useful when running Sharp Shooter as your M9 can be very deadly.

This could also be a possible nerf for it, but i don't really see it as necessary.

3. Reload time. Apparently it's supposed to be around 4 seconds but is actually getting Sharp Shooter's 60% bonus applied to it for all classes by default. This is really just a bug that could easily be fixed with a few coding fixes. This means as level 6 Sharp Shooter you're getting a 120% reload bonus. Problem is obvious.

That bug certainly needs a fix. Imo, not only the M99 needs to have its base reload speed set to 4 sec or so, but the Xbow needs an increase as well (base of 2.4 would be perfect, imo, as it gives a reload speed of 1.5 secs as a level 6 Sharpshooter. The current base reload speed is something like 1.6 or 1.8 (some kind of animation bug or something allows you to fire it 0.2 sec faster than intended)

The reload bug also needs to be fixed. This is just universal, regardless if all these rebalances are applied. It really does break the feel of the gun and makes it too fast to reload off perk.

This should also be fixed with the other similar weapons (M79 and Hunting Shotgun for example)

4. Reduce reserve ammo. 20 would be good, 15 being the extreme. 25 feels like too much for this weapon. It needs to be put in balance with the LAW.

20 would be ok i guess, but remember: A miss with the M99 is more crippling than a miss with a LAW (due to having AoE damage). I personally think 25 is ok.

5. (Optional, but preferred) Make it so you have to aim down the scope. This would make it much more like the LAW's aiming. This is a massive .50 cal rifle. It should be a bit more graceful than spamming it from the hip.

I guess this would be a good balancing factor, yes

6. (Optional, but not preferred) Remove the gun completely. I like it, but if it really is breaking the harder difficulties this much, there may not be any other choice. It'll be back to the modded servers for this gun.

Not an option. It's better to rebalance it than be lazy and just remove it. It CAN be fixed. Start with the fixes proposed;
* Base reload speed ACTUALLY set to 4
* Price up to 4000
* Bullet cost to 35, but apply the Xbow ammo discount on it as well
* Weight possibly up to 14
* Possibly requiing ADS to shoot

All that sounds good enough imo. If it needs more, then do it AFTER.

Other problems:

1. The LAW's weight needs to be reduced by 1 kg so a .44 or MK23 can be bought with it. It's not in Support anymore. You're asking too much for a Demo. At least allow them to have a useful back up weapon.

Agreed. It's a little lackluster.

2. Sometimes when aiming down a scoped weapon there's a glitch where you'll walk just as fast as without aiming or sometimes even faster. This is just a bug that needs fixing.

There are TONS of ADS bugs. I dunno if those will ever be fixed :/

3. The lever action's fire rate is increased when playing as Sharp Shooter. While I like this, it makes the gun fire too fast. I have a feeling this is an unintended side effect of the faster reload speed. It might be counting each lever pull as a reload, which is inaccurate.

Actually, this was a bonus that TWI added long afterwards. It's not getting a reload speed for each lever pull, it's just a simple hidden Rate of Fire bonus they added to give the LAR some more viability for the Sharpshooter. It doesn't need to be removed at all, imo.

I'd rather that TWI showed all the hidden bonuses in the perk description, such as:

* Xbow ammo discount (up to 42%) for Sharpshooter
* LAR rate of fire bonus (up to 60%) for Sharpshooter
* Explosive ammo discount (up to 30%) for Demolitions
* The Demolition's handgrenade capacity bonus to have LAW added in the tooltip (as it does indeed increase the ammo of the LAW by the same percentage).

Meh, gotta go, will comment more later

[͡ °๏Rɐnɐ-Sɐmɐ๏͡°]

Originally Posted by LightningBolt101

5. (Optional, but preferred) Make it so you have to aim down the scope. This would make it much more like the LAW's aiming. This is a massive .50 cal rifle. It should be a bit more graceful than spamming it from the hip.

This is an idea i like VERY much. Firing an AT gun at the hip is preposterous.

[LightningBolt101]

I actually did not realize the LAR RoF increase was added later on. Ever since I bought this game two years ago it has always been there so I assumed it was a useful bug that got overlooked. Seeing as it was intentional, then no, it should not be removed. It would indeed be nice if they told you more hidden bonuses in the perk description.

Removing the M99 was really only if all the measures to balance it failed. This seems like plenty, and there was another VERY good suggestion that I saw.

Increase the base damage to 800 (from 770) and also the headshot multiplier (I believe it was from 2.25x to 2.5x or something of the sort). Apply the 65% Xbow resistance to Scrakes and Flesh Pounds for the M99 in more difficult modes. This would make 1-shot headshotting still achievable for Scrakes while removing the ability to stun them with body shots. I'm personally all for this change. Supports should not be able to do such things. Using this gun with any other class is just asinine.