Weapon group priorities need to be looked at

[Insert Name Here]

A couple of months ago, I wrote a report for a bunch of minor bugs, the last one of which regarded weapon group priorities. These priorities are used to sort the weapons within their respective categories, but due to some of the unusual values, this leads to ordering issues. A couple of examples I have heard of are:

• An MP7 grabbed from a pickup having priority over the M16-M203.
• The HM-101 Medic Pistol having priority over Tier 2 single pistols (1911 and Spitfire) and maybe even higher tiers depending on acquire order (Desert Eagle and AF2011).
• The SPX/Dual .500 Magnums loadout varying in group order depending on acquire order.

(Note: for the new weapons, the Helios Rifle is fine at 100 priority, but the Killerwatt has only 50 priority despite being a Tier 5 weapon.)

My suggestions regarding this issue:

• Go over the weapons listed, start them out at pure tier value (25 for T1, 50 for T2, 75 for T3, 100 for T4, >100 for T5), and adjust from there.
• Add a perk modifier to the default priority when initially adding the weapons and when changing perks. To throw out some arbitrary values, on-perk weapons get a +5 modifier, cross-perk weapons get +2, and off-perk get +0.
• (Optionally) add a +25 modifier per tier for upgraded weapons. Some weapons (like the 9mm/Dual 9mm) could opt out of this via a new per-weapon variable

The exact values and ordering probably won't matter too much, as the ultimate intent of these changes is consistency in loadouts.

 

[Insert Name Here]

Updated to add a suggestion for upgraded weapons.

 

[MarkoS98]

Thing is i believe medic guns have priority over other weapons even up to 4 tiers above them because its very common for people who have medic guns in inventory to quickly switch to them to heal teammates.
In my experience I've saved more teammates by quickly equipping medic guns than I saved myself by switching to a stronger gun.

As far as guns from any perk other than medic go I agree completely - it can be rather annoying getting the weaker tier if you have to react quickly to large zeds charging at you.

 

[Insert Name Here]

Thing is i believe medic guns have priority over other weapons even up to 4 tiers above them because its very common for people who have medic guns in inventory to quickly switch to them to heal teammates.
In my experience I've saved more teammates by quickly equipping medic guns than I saved myself by switching to a stronger gun.

As far as guns from any perk other than medic go I agree completely - it can be rather annoying getting the weaker tier if you have to react quickly to large zeds charging at you.

That is a fair point regarding the Medic Pistol. The only issue is, again, inconsistency. The single Deagle and AF2011 have the same priority as the HM-101 (25), which make inventory order dependent on pickup order, and the .500 Magnum has higher priority (30). This is why I consider this a bug.

Perhaps the Medic Pistol could get 26-30 priority and let my suggested perk modifiers do their work. I figure that a Gunslinger or Sharpshooter with their respective single pistols would want them to have priority.

 

[Azukki]

It's all pretty arguable, with priorities, so my suggestion is user configurable priorities, whether by .ini file editing, or through a proper menu ui.

Along with items' priorities, even their categories could benefit from customization, for example, the possibility of using 5 slots like KF1, instead of just 4. Spreading things out like that could be really nice for some survivalist and gunslinger loadouts, instead of four or five items you might want crowding the same slot.

 

[Insert Name Here]

It's all pretty arguable, with priorities, so my suggestion is user configurable priorities, whether by .ini file editing, or through a proper menu ui.

Along with items' priorities, even their categories could benefit from customization, for example, the possibility of using 5 slots like KF1, instead of just 4. Spreading things out like that could be really nice for some survivalist and gunslinger loadouts, instead of four or five items you might want crowding the same slot.

This is something I remember suggesting on the previous iteration of this forum. I just think it's unlikely that Tripwire will implement it. Maybe if enough of us request it, they'll consider it.

 

[s5yn3t]

This is something I remember suggesting on the previous iteration of this forum. I just think it's unlikely that Tripwire will implement it. Maybe if enough of us request it, they'll consider it.

You'd have to go to reddit for that to happen

 

[Insert Name Here]

You'd have to go to reddit for that to happen

Good point. I was considering mentioning this on the subreddit, so I just did. Thanks for the kick in the butt.

 

[Pharrahnox]

Two suggestions for letting the user adjust the priority during a match (allowing users to override any hard-coded priorities):

• A key to shift weapons up and down one spot in the inventory category. E.g. in the "primary weapon" category, you have the SCAR and the Varmint. If you wanted the Varmint on top of the list, you could have the SCAR equipped and shift it down, or equip the Varmint and shift it up (or down if wrapping is allowed).
• Newly picked up weapons go to the bottom of the list in the respective category. Currently you can shuffle the order of weapons sometimes by dropping them and picking them up in the appropriate order. This probably doesn't work for weapons with vastly differing priorities.

Both of these features would be nice, but even just one would do.