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HRG Locust still too powerful - Suggestions

GigaBowserX

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Jun 10, 2019
81
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I have some suggestions. I mean, this weapon makes any big zed into a joke. No need to carefully aim or anything, just upgrade it, fire it in the general direction of any zed and watch everything from trash to Fleshpounds die. The AoE and DoTs take care of anything that's left standing. It makes it unfun to play on a team where someone is using this thing, especially in a holdout spot. All they have to do is sit there and spam left click, and they get all the kills while the rest of the team is basically useless because everything's already dead. I've used it a number of times, and it's very boring - but it's so strong that it's kind of like, "Why should I ever use anything else when this thing guarantees my survival?"

Suggestion 1: Take down the damage even further. The damage numbers were supposedly tuned after Beta 1, but I didn't notice much difference. Good old simplecat posted some stuff about the intricacies of the damage, and it seems kinda broken.

Suggestion 2: Increase trader price. This thing needs to be 1100 dosh at the least, not 900.

Suggestion 3: I don't know if this is possible, but it should do less damage against big zeds compared to trash zeds. The scaling is just crazy at this point.

Suggestion 4: Have it apply fewer damage types and effects. Giving impact/explosion damage, poisoning/insects, AND a bleed effect is way overkill imo. I think we could definitely do without the bleed, for starters. That kind of effect is just too strong and should be restricted to Hemogoblin and HRG Vampire.

Anway, if any of you admins take a look at this, thanks for your time.
 
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Are you happy with this?

Hmm, since it's a major rework, it's something that would have to have been done in Beta 1, given that it would require feedback and tuning.
 
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I have some suggestions. I mean, this weapon makes any big zed into a joke. No need to carefully aim or anything, just upgrade it, fire it in the general direction of any zed and watch everything from trash to Fleshpounds die. The AoE and DoTs take care of anything that's left standing. It makes it unfun to play on a team where someone is using this thing, especially in a holdout spot. All they have to do is sit there and spam left click, and they get all the kills while the rest of the team is basically useless because everything's already dead. I've used it a number of times, and it's very boring - but it's so strong that it's kind of like, "Why should I ever use anything else when this thing guarantees my survival?"

Suggestion 1: Take down the damage even further. The damage numbers were supposedly tuned after Beta 1, but I didn't notice much difference. Good old simplecat posted some stuff about the intricacies of the damage, and it seems kinda broken.

Suggestion 2: Increase trader price. This thing needs to be 1100 dosh at the least, not 900.

Suggestion 3: I don't know if this is possible, but it should do less damage against big zeds compared to trash zeds. The scaling is just crazy at this point.

Suggestion 4: Have it apply fewer damage types and effects. Giving impact/explosion damage, poisoning/insects, AND a bleed effect is way overkill imo. I think we could definitely do without the bleed, for starters. That kind of effect is just too strong and should be restricted to Hemogoblin and HRG Vampire.

Anway, if any of you admins take a look at this, thanks for your time.
I offered the same changes as the first two suggestions, but instead the S3 and 4, I simply suggested for the gun to have less reserve ammo (and possibly less ammo in its mag as well? Maybe they could change the model a little bit to have a square box instead of a revolver one...)

Hell, maybe ditch the lock-on altogether? It's overkill, especially since the locusts are already a fire-and-forget situation that nullifies a small zone for a while.

But honestly? Applying fewer debuffs would also be a good way to start looking.
 
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It is utterly ridiculous, yes.

Molly has gone on record in the official Discord as saying the Locust was designed as a CC machine but was intentionally tweaked so that it did not rage large Zeds. The forethought for that was appreciated--not because it's fair but because it just makes the game less aggravating as someone who prefers precision weapons--but as it turns out, that was accomplished by making the gun so powerful they don't have a chance to fight back on a regular basis, to say nothing of how it turns out when up to five other teammates are also pouring the heat on.

Making matters worse is that it's the pinnacle of everything I hate about weapon design and the current trend of the game's design direction these days:
  • It's an explosive weapon (check Cat's google doc) which has the distinction of not having a dud impact range, meaning it will always explode at any range. On the Demo this would normally be bad so you don't kill yourself at point-blank range, which was part of the design of explosive weapons...
    • ...but the explosion also doesn't hurt the player. If you get surrounded you can literally shoot your feet and come out in the black.
    • This means bad spacing is not punished and that any nuance or limitation on how the thing should be operated is gone.
      • To make another point, I know that weapon design has been blatantly trending towards not punishing the players for bad plays (the Kaboomstick being a prime example of this downward trend in design philosophy), but this gun is a whole other level of that. At least the Kaboomstick didn't create lingering blast clouds that stayed on the field.
  • Lingering explosive damage (yes, the only one of its kind) that adds to the fire-and-forget nature of the weapon. Explosive damage is good against everything but Scrakes, and unless they're already close enough to pants you, Scrakes don't matter because they're vulnerable to every kind of CC when raged.
  • It's another CC-heavy weapon but this one does several types of CC on its own:
    • Knockdown in the same vein that Demolitionist's Concussive rounds works, although this one is less annoying in regards to the sheer area it can cover with one blast. This is the big one: remember that anything that falls down while it's in the cloud will still take DoT damage when it's knocked over, assuming it doesn't die.
    • Bleed that ensures any Zed which survives the blast and knockdown and lingering explosive DoT is weakened and slowed, further trivializing them as threats since bleed slows Zeds and means they do less damage while also taking another additional DoT.
    • Panic, which screws over precision perks yet again, but of course spam perks don't have to care because they're spam perks and outside of a Firebug trying to single-handedly tackle a Fleshpound via
  • The weapon's unique properties means that it synergizes and combos insanely well with other spam weapons--notably itself.
    • Of particular note is something like the Freezethrower, where you can isolate a Scrake or Fleshpound or even multiple QPs by freezing them in a crowd and then showering the immediate area around it with Locust bombs, ensuring it and anything near it will die, because all of the individual rockets stack.
  • Trash Zeds just either die outright or will die soon after falling over in the cloud. One good cloud can take out up to a Gorefiend even in 6P HoE.
  • Medium Zeds take a little longer but will still die because looping explosion DoT.
  • Large Zeds get CC'd to death and can be combo'd with other weapons while they are stunned, and anything that survives the initial assault is weakened.
  • The end result of all this is that it's an extremely powerful weapon with very little nuance required and does a whole lot of everything except contribute to headshot-based teams, which isn't surprising as of late, just disappointing.
  • This thing costs 900 dosh at the trader yet punches well above its cost and weight tier and is currently yet another example of an extremely broken weapon, which follows suit with the Reducto Ray and the like.
  • To top it all off, it's yet another extremely powerful tool designed for the Survivalist, which has gotten an insane number of buffs in the past couple of years alone.
    • Survivalist was fine back when it was extremely weak because it served as a way to push players into learning a specialized role (the point of the game), but over the past couple of years Survivalist has received a number of base kit buffs that have made it an extremely attractive pick.
      • I suspect that Survivalist and its associated buffs have brought in a number of players, which makes it more likely that Survivalist will keep getting buffs and weapons in a bid to attract more players.
      • Problem is, the players who pick up the game under this condition aren't usually the best kind of player. They don't want to learn strategies, breakpoints, perk interactions, team synergy, and the like.
      • Then again, they don't have to, because the perk does so much already.
    • The weapons that Survivalist has gotten as of late compared to its original weapons like the Killerwatt have been extremely spam-friendly. The Reducto Ray in particular was outstanding and justifiably nerfed in the beta before it could finish wrecking the game, but if things keep continuing like this.
    • Survivalist in general has become laden with CC-friendly weapons to compensate for its lacking damage, allowing players to circumvent proper takedowns where other perks would have issues.
So it's safe to say I'm not a fan.



Aside rant: I hope one day we can get some official statements from the devs on why it was decided to stop focusing on headshot-oriented perks and skill floor/ceiling balance. There's been this clever thing where they haven't weakened the precision perks directly, per se, but the entire tide around the rest of the game was lifted so that the other perks that don't focus on headshots have an equal opportunity to do well.

Problem is, the effort required is completely imbalanced: those perks are far, far easier to play for almost the same amount of effort, and that causes issues. I cannot believe they'd release a weapon like this in the same game where SWAT and even Commando have to reliably chain headshots together to accomplish a fraction of what this thing does.

When the primary basis of skilled vs. unskilled players is "can you headshot," taking that requirement away from the game leaves a lot of players feeling disenfranchised and the perks feeling unbalanced.
 
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I offered the same changes as the first two suggestions, but instead the S3 and 4, I simply suggested for the gun to have less reserve ammo (and possibly less ammo in its mag as well? Maybe they could change the model a little bit to have a square box instead of a revolver one...)

Hell, maybe ditch the lock-on altogether? It's overkill, especially since the locusts are already a fire-and-forget situation that nullifies a small zone for a while.

But honestly? Applying fewer debuffs would also be a good way to start looking.
I really like the lower ammo pool idea. I mean, anything to nerf it would be great at this point, though. Just...something. 😆 I think it might be too late to truly fix it, though. If I could have my way, I'd take the whole thing back to the drawing board.
 
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S
It is utterly ridiculous, yes.

Molly has gone on record in the official Discord as saying the Locust was designed as a CC machine but was intentionally tweaked so that it did not rage large Zeds. The forethought for that was appreciated--not because it's fair but because it just makes the game less aggravating as someone who prefers precision weapons--but as it turns out, that was accomplished by making the gun so powerful they don't have a chance to fight back on a regular basis, to say nothing of how it turns out when up to five other teammates are also pouring the heat on.

Making matters worse is that it's the pinnacle of everything I hate about weapon design and the current trend of the game's design direction these days:
  • It's an explosive weapon (check Cat's google doc) which has the distinction of not having a dud impact range, meaning it will always explode at any range. On the Demo this would normally be bad so you don't kill yourself at point-blank range, which was part of the design of explosive weapons...
    • ...but the explosion also doesn't hurt the player. If you get surrounded you can literally shoot your feet and come out in the black.
    • This means bad spacing is not punished and that any nuance or limitation on how the thing should be operated is gone.
      • To make another point, I know that weapon design has been blatantly trending towards not punishing the players for bad plays (the Kaboomstick being a prime example of this downward trend in design philosophy), but this gun is a whole other level of that. At least the Kaboomstick didn't create lingering blast clouds that stayed on the field.
  • Lingering explosive damage (yes, the only one of its kind) that adds to the fire-and-forget nature of the weapon. Explosive damage is good against everything but Scrakes, and unless they're already close enough to pants you, Scrakes don't matter because they're vulnerable to every kind of CC when raged.
  • It's another CC-heavy weapon but this one does several types of CC on its own:
    • Knockdown in the same vein that Demolitionist's Concussive rounds works, although this one is less annoying in regards to the sheer area it can cover with one blast. This is the big one: remember that anything that falls down while it's in the cloud will still take DoT damage when it's knocked over, assuming it doesn't die.
    • Bleed that ensures any Zed which survives the blast and knockdown and lingering explosive DoT is weakened and slowed, further trivializing them as threats since bleed slows Zeds and means they do less damage while also taking another additional DoT.
    • Panic, which screws over precision perks yet again, but of course spam perks don't have to care because they're spam perks and outside of a Firebug trying to single-handedly tackle a Fleshpound via
  • The weapon's unique properties means that it synergizes and combos insanely well with other spam weapons--notably itself.
    • Of particular note is something like the Freezethrower, where you can isolate a Scrake or Fleshpound or even multiple QPs by freezing them in a crowd and then showering the immediate area around it with Locust bombs, ensuring it and anything near it will die, because all of the individual rockets stack.
  • Trash Zeds just either die outright or will die soon after falling over in the cloud. One good cloud can take out up to a Gorefiend even in 6P HoE.
  • Medium Zeds take a little longer but will still die because looping explosion DoT.
  • Large Zeds get CC'd to death and can be combo'd with other weapons while they are stunned, and anything that survives the initial assault is weakened.
  • The end result of all this is that it's an extremely powerful weapon with very little nuance required and does a whole lot of everything except contribute to headshot-based teams, which isn't surprising as of late, just disappointing.
  • This thing costs 900 dosh at the trader yet punches well above its cost and weight tier and is currently yet another example of an extremely broken weapon, which follows suit with the Reducto Ray and the like.
  • To top it all off, it's yet another extremely powerful tool designed for the Survivalist, which has gotten an insane number of buffs in the past couple of years alone.
    • Survivalist was fine back when it was extremely weak because it served as a way to push players into learning a specialized role (the point of the game), but over the past couple of years Survivalist has received a number of base kit buffs that have made it an extremely attractive pick.
      • I suspect that Survivalist and its associated buffs have brought in a number of players, which makes it more likely that Survivalist will keep getting buffs and weapons in a bid to attract more players.
      • Problem is, the players who pick up the game under this condition aren't usually the best kind of player. They don't want to learn strategies, breakpoints, perk interactions, team synergy, and the like.
      • Then again, they don't have to, because the perk does so much already.
    • The weapons that Survivalist has gotten as of late compared to its original weapons like the Killerwatt have been extremely spam-friendly. The Reducto Ray in particular was outstanding and justifiably nerfed in the beta before it could finish wrecking the game, but if things keep continuing like this.
    • Survivalist in general has become laden with CC-friendly weapons to compensate for its lacking damage, allowing players to circumvent proper takedowns where other perks would have issues.
So it's safe to say I'm not a fan.



Aside rant: I hope one day we can get some official statements from the devs on why it was decided to stop focusing on headshot-oriented perks and skill floor/ceiling balance. There's been this clever thing where they haven't weakened the precision perks directly, per se, but the entire tide around the rest of the game was lifted so that the other perks that don't focus on headshots have an equal opportunity to do well.

Problem is, the effort required is completely imbalanced: those perks are far, far easier to play for almost the same amount of effort, and that causes issues. I cannot believe they'd release a weapon like this in the same game where SWAT and even Commando have to reliably chain headshots together to accomplish a fraction of what this thing does.

When the primary basis of skilled vs. unskilled players is "can you headshot," taking that requirement away from the game leaves a lot of players feeling disenfranchised and the perks feeling unbalanced.
Some people need sense of empowerment to enjoy the game, others need challenge
 
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I'm not going to quote your entire post, Onion (for obvious reasons, haha), but know that I read the entire thing and agree with almost everything you said.

I think the only good thing that's come out of this major shift in the weapon philosophy, skill ceiling, and perk effectiveness is the fact that you can actually go Survivalist and not just get kicked within 10 seconds of joining. (Seriously, that happened to me WAY too many times over the years, because people assumed you automatically sucked because "Survivalist sucks".)

I actually just avoid using the Kaboomstick and Locust altogether because they're disgusting, but at least the Kaboomstick is sometimes fun to use. The Locust, like you say, has pretty much no drawbacks and is effective at literally any range. It's both disgusting AND boring.

The only time I take the Locust is if I'm playing on Suicidal or HoE with a team that is struggling big time. Then I can just use that and/or the Kaboomstick as an auto-win. (Well, not always, but it helps.) But outside of that, if our team is doing fine and someone else takes those weapons, I just have to roll my eyes.

Speaking of which, if I were to run my own server at some point, I wonder if I could set it to where the Locust wouldn't be available to use? (In the highly likely event that it doesn't get nerfed/fixed properly, of course.)

And as a parting thought, I'm sure most players are not as hardcore as those of us who post here, so I imagine a lot of people actually enjoy using stupidly overpowered weapons that require no skill, just for the memes. It's likely to draw in or retain new players, like you said.

The funny thing is - and I hesitate to say this, because I don't want to give them any ideas - the funny thing is that Saber/TWI made this a free weapon, instead of a DLC weapon. I've seen plenty of games that would've exploited that p2w aspect like no other. But it's nice to see that TWI/Saber are at least sticking to their guns - pun intended - as far as their original statement about the DLC weapons not being pay-to-win.
 
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Some people need sense of empowerment to enjoy the game, others need challenge
That's true, and it's not easy to strike a balance between the two.

In theory, the solution should already be there: adjustable difficulties and varying perks.

Challenge seekers should have Suicidal and Hell on Earth, with Suicidal being the beginning mark for those trying to take the game a little more seriously, and Hell on Earth ideally being the domain for those who are looking to squeeze out the ultimate challenge the game has to offer.
Those looking to "chill", have a pure power fantasy with no effort, or to not be pressured to try as hard/"sweat"/etc. have Hard and Normal.
And that's not even counting the fact that there are varying perks that don't have to put in as much effort as others (Firebug, Demo, Berserker, Medic) that should be less effective in theory, but in practice really aren't.

If Sharpshooter and Demo were different courses at the same university, Sharpshooter is like going to tutoring and three different kinds of cram schools to get a 110 on the final exam, whereas Demo is like showing up on the first day of class and skipping to play video games for the rest of the semester, but showing up can still get you an 80, and any amount of study can get you a 90 at bare minimum. 100 isn't that much harder.
Ditto for SWAT and Firebug.

But trying to bring easy-mode/high-skill-ceiling-low-skill-floor playstyles to the point where everyone can clear 6P Hell on Earth with relative ease is a mistake, because at that point the balance is tipped. Not helping this is the general playerbase expectation that the longer the game goes on, the more content should be in the game, and that always, always entails power creep going with it.
Then if it comes to a point where something has to be nerfed to bring it back in line, people get upset that their favorite thing got nerfed, even if the nerf in question was justified. See: Berserker.

I could go on about Firebug and such being homogenized to the point of blandness but that's due for a separate topic.

The funny thing is - and I hesitate to say this, because I don't want to give them any ideas - the funny thing is that Saber/TWI made this a free weapon, instead of a DLC weapon. I've seen plenty of games that would've exploited that p2w aspect like no other. But it's nice to see that TWI/Saber are at least sticking to their guns - pun intended - as far as their original statement about the DLC weapons not being pay-to-win.
Some of the paid DLC weapons definitely skirt the line on "too good." Not so much "raises the perk's collective power level," but definitely "pay 2 raise skill floor."

The Glocks on Gunslinger are probably the biggest culprit on that front. The Reducto Ray would've been the definitive example but mercifully the part where it killed Fleshpounds without raging them by just holding down Mouse1 was greatly toned back.
 
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Some people need sense of empowerment to enjoy the game, others need challenge
Not really... Most games should have BOTH. And that counts for nearly all levels of difficulty, except maybe the easiest.

The only counter-example I can think of would be horror games, where it's common to be fragile and underpowered throughout the whole game.

But outside of that... No matter if you're a casual or hardcore gamer, you need both to have new challenges, new situations, new elements to spice your game up and keep the experience fresh and rewarding (what better feeling is there than finishing a daunting task?)

Nonetheless, if you're only meeting challenges upon challenges, you might feel burned out if you ain't someone willing to always be on their toes. It's the easiest example, but not everyone is fond of souls-like ! You might also just play for fun or to relax. But even if you aren't, I believe it's an equally important feeling to FEEL CAPABLE. To realize you KNOW how to handle the situation. And that maybe you just got put in a situation that not only you can handle, but you can STEAMROLL because of the tools you have. It's common for games to have such moments. A popular archetype would be giving you a machine gun, tons of ammo and plenty of targets !

Both are important to keep a player invested, to keep a game interesting... And to prevent multiplayer games from being too one-sided. If it's too challenging, nobody will continue playing except the most ferocious players. If it's too easy (as KF2 is turning out to be), it will get boring. And that's why "some need empowerment, some need challenge" is invalid. It's a TEAM game. Why would you purposely play in a challenging way, if it endangers the wellbeing of the team? On the flipside, how fun is it for others if you can handle everything the game throws at you by yourself?

Really, you need both in great game design.
 
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IMO, i would probably adjust the following:

New damage type: HRGLocust (DoT clouds)
Scrake/Fleshpound: 0.35
Quarter Pound: 0.5
Bloat: 0.2
Rioter: 0.4

New Damage Type: Ballistic_HRGLocust (Rocket impact)
Bloat, Husk: 1.2
Rioter (excl. armor): 5

Rockets would definitely need to have their DoT lowered so as to not deal 60 damage every 0.5 seconds (a zed standing in the zed cloud for 3 seconds would take a total of 360 untyped damage). I think to make things fair, it'd probably be better to lower the DoT tick down to 35 per tick so as to lower the total damage to 210, which can still retain its area denial utility against trash, but will have a harder time to kill mediums, and the reduced damage against larges can prevent accidental enraging.

To compensate for this, I think the rockets would need to actually deal impact damage (I guess 25 Ballistic_HRGLocust would be pretty fair), so as to allow the weapon to three-shot bloat heads/Husk backpacks and two-shot Gorefast heads in 6-man Suicidal games.

Still, even with the suggestions I've mentioned, the price would probably need to be increased to at least 1000, but I wouldn't say that the Locust in its current state is worth the higher-end price of a Tier 3 weapon

EDIT: appended the suggestion to also include a bonus damage to Rioters, so as to enable leg shots with this weapon while simultaneously punishing armor hits.
 
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Still, even with the suggestions I've mentioned, the price would probably need to be increased to at least 1000, but I wouldn't say that the Locust in its current state is worth the higher-end price of a Tier 3 weapon
Well yeah. It would definitely be a worthy T4 actually... considering you got plenty of spare rockets, a generous mag, and tremendous damage to boot. Right now it's pretty much a T2.5 price-wise... Definitely a bargain considering how ludicrous the gun is.

I think your ideas are pretty neat, but let's also remember it's a SURVIVALIST gun. How and why it suddenly became the garbage bin for broken weaponry is up to anyone's guess. But I believe it should have kept it's "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" trope and receive somewhat subpar weaponry... Possibly geared more towards teamplay and support rather than pure offense. I guess I'd be even harsher than you are and lower its reserve ammo AND rockets per mag, in addition to a lower amount of damage. Especially considering it's still very lenient in regards to aiming (you can just launch a rocket in the general vicinity of zeds), and makes a whole zone hazardous for a few seconds.

Really, I believe the weapon is just too good at... everything.
 
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I agree wholeheartedly with GigBowserX. This weapon is over the top too powerful and kills the big zeds far to easily. I would like to see the damage dummied down and the price increased such that it is no more effective that say.... the flamethrower in the hands of maximized perk firebug. When the locust comes out the game stops being fun for the remaining five players.

Also... ammo pickups are two mags. Why not reduce to one?

Please nerf this weapon.
 
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While I'm not going to dispute any of the previous points, I agree it does rob the thunder of an experienced team.

On the other hand, I'd like to say that when you play with players who play like headless chickens on suicidal (I get that a lot on console), this thing is a lifesaver if your team is really really bad. (Locust + SMG Medic + Sentinel = Team Savior)
 
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While I'm not going to dispute any of the previous points, I agree it does rob the thunder of an experienced team.

On the other hand, I'd like to say that when you play with players who play like headless chickens on suicidal (I get that a lot on console), this thing is a lifesaver if your team is really really bad. (Locust + SMG Medic + Sentinel = Team Savior)
Well yeah, but that's not the point. It will save your bacon like a get-out-of-jail-free card and no game should have that. At best, it should have a little something that allows you to breath... temporarily. Think of the cryo or EMP grenades for example. They can get you out of a hairy situation, but you gotta make them count because you clearly don't have many grenades at your disposal. The locust has a very good amount of reserve ammo as well after all...

Veteran players keep saying this, but we really beg for inexperienced players to really hone their skills in normal or hard (considering normal is REALLY lenient). Jumping straight in the harder difficulties is bad for everybody : you'll die very quickly so you won't partake in the fun, and the rest of your team will have to make up with your mistakes. Don't get me wrong : it can happen to the best of us ! Of course I already died a few times because I truly wanted to kill the zed in front of me instead of healing and died because a zed snuck up on me... But it should be minimal. If you die every wave, you're a disservice to the team.

And it's even worse if you PURPOSELY play in a suboptimal game with randoms. Even if it ain't a competition, it's obviously more rewarding and fun if you can all win instead of dying a wave 5...

We had a pretty lengthy discussion about it not too long ago : should we play the fun police for the sake of winning, or let people enjoy the game how they want? Honestly, I'm all for having fun and trying underrated weapons... But do so either with your friends or in solo. Random players shouldn't have to make up for your selfishness.

A game should always offer challenges and the tools to conquer them. If you avoid them altogether because the game offers you something to get you out of every difficult times, then the devs did something wrong.
 
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this thing is a lifesaver if your team is really really bad.
But shouldn't the outcome of an inadequately-performing team (in a team-based game) be that the team loses instead of being able to fall back on a solution that guarantees them a win no matter how poorly they perform, regardless of the difficulty?

Back in my day we called those "cheat codes."

*chef's kiss*

We had a pretty lengthy discussion about it not too long ago : should we play the fun police for the sake of winning, or let people enjoy the game how they want?
So this is going back to that "player's choice" vs "meta" thing again. Ugh.

From the perspective of someone who plays games for the challenge: if you're going to make multiple difficulties, then that should carry an expectation that you're supposed to master the game's primary skillsets by the time you hit the hardest difficulty.

In KF1, that was headshots. Headshots = things die faster, ideally before they hit you. Firebug's usefulness falls off towards HoE (it can still be useful but you have to consider the rest of your team) and Demo can still be very useful with proper communication and taking care not to rage large Zeds or obscuring your team's sightlines. With occasional exceptions like the Flare Revolvers (which most players agreed was major power creep) that remained true throughout the game's lifetime.

In KF2, that was headshots. Headshots = things die faster, ideally before they hit you, and that technically still applies to this day. There was an expectation that players learn to not pick Firebug or Demo when teams are kitted for precision takedowns, and since that was the best way to play the game, well...
But somewhere along the line, the devs decided--and realize I only have conjecture in some cases to work with, because they are notoriously bad about communicating their vision of the game and corresponding player expectations--that apparently that wasn't very good in some form or fashion?
The skillgap/crutch perks like Firebug and Demo come with an additional problem that by doing their job they can actively screw over the team in many ways, so players are encouraged to learn how to play the precision perks to get the most out of the game. If they would rather not do that, well, they can always go back to lower difficulties (that's what they're for, after all) OR learn to work as a team so that those players can cover each other with perk skillsets (Firebug gets trash, Demos get large Zeds). Y'know, team-based game design?
Survivalist, a perk that was added at the last second on the game's official release, was mediocre at everything. This would point to a perk that was designed for lower difficulty levels and thus one of the many ephemeral "player choice" elements: you can pretend you're a jack-of-all-trades at lower difficulty levels, but if you want to actually be a team player and contribute at higher difficulties, you have to stop playing the perk that doesn't do anything well at all and master one of the harder perks.

My primary point of reference is the baseline mechanic where Zeds have independent health bars for body and head. The head health--AT FIRST--for Zeds is smaller compared to the body health. This encourages learning headshots, which means players are enticed to engage with the game's shooting mechanics to become efficient with headshot kills in order to master the game and beat the highest difficulties more effectively.
See, that's the interplay between requiring the devs' originally intended skillsets at work vs. player choice.
Lower difficulties = your choice, but if you want to consider yourself a master of the game's mechanics, then some of that choice must be forfeited.

So, going back to KF2:
The headshot skillset originally intended by the game's design has not only been dissuaded, it's been actively walked back in many ways.
The skillgap perks have not only gotten stronger at basekit to avoid the TTK and raged Zeds issue, they've gotten so strong they can singlehandedly carry the game on their own in many ways.
Survivalist has received nothing but buffs and "QoL updates" that are just buffs by a nicer name over the past few years.
The game has seen the introduction of numerous enemies that actively violate the "headshots = META" design:
  • EDARs were explicitly advertized as being unkillable through headshots (remember when they didn't have any actual weakpoints and the only solution to them was to pump 20 rounds into their feet? I remember.).
  • Quarter Pounds, a FP subspecies which was originally just introduced for a weekly, were forced into the main game (making them an unavoidable element) and do not have the usual head/body health ratio that other tanky Zeds have, meaning they are supposed to be killed through body spam. Don't believe me? Their official stat sheet states that they are supposed to be handed by the chaos perks.
  • Elite Alpha clots were reworked and brought back as Rioters, which had body armor and a helmet. This is funny in that Rioters--which carry over Alpha Clot weaknesses as a fancy trash Zed--become a nuisance for the trash-killer precision perks (Commando and SWAT), as Sharpshooters can blow through their helmet with the starter weapon, and Gunslingers can do the same with a Winchester. Firebugs don't have to care because lol Ground Fire.
And the worst part of it is that the game's weapons post-2018 are reflective of that shift in priorities. Even the precision perks have received an excessive amount of spam weaponry (don't @ me saying stuff like the Glock for Gunslinger and the HRG Beluga Beat for Sharpshooter isn't spam-friendly).
The Locust is arguably the worst of it that made it through a beta unscathed because it's a weapon that, while it technically doesn't do everything, is damn near close.

So my point is: the focus on "player choice" has ruined the nuance and challenge of this game both at a micro- and macro-level mechanical perspective. There should not be an expectation that players who want a challenge as originally intended have to seek out customized difficulty servers that restrict weapon and perk usage. That's ridiculous.
The game's hardest of four (five if you count AAH, which I don't; it's only available once every 20 weeks or so) difficulties should not be beatable by using the same "spam AoE and Medic holds down Mouse1 with the Healthrower" strategies that even a hamster could learn on Normal or Hard.

EDIT: To head off stuff saying things like "it's not supposed to be that hard":
Just because the game doesn't require six players on voice comms landing perfect 100% headshot-accuracy takedowns doesn't mean the game is better for completely disregarding its original setup.
If Doom Eternal kept getting patches over the years that meant you no longer had to worry about anything but spamming the Rocket Launcher and the Super Shotgun, players would cry foul because it would go against the game's original intended design.
 
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