This is on the behalf of I and my friends, who once found enjoyment in the game but have been driven away with past updates.
Normally when we'd play your game we'd have a minimum of two people to a maximum of...say, four, if we're lucky. We play on normal difficulty because easy difficulty does not suffice for a challenging game, which makes it less interesting.
However, normal difficulty is unfair in many aspects for lower amounts of players, namely in the way of balance. For two people to sit down alone and play this game is a daunting task, although we've found ways to manage. But, Fleshpounds always cause trouble, as it's nearly impossible to take them down quickly when you've got a Support Specialist and a Commando at level 4 each.
Using the technique you all like to refer to as "kiting," we've managed to deal with Fleshpounds fairly and with only minor losses. It takes half a dozen grenades and plenty of bullets for each, but it was still managable.
Because you've removed the ability for this to be possible, by making a "set time before Fleshpound goes ape****" feature in your updates, the game is now unplayable for the number of people we have.
Easy difficulty is laughable with more than one player. However, normal difficulty is in many aspects tediously challenging unless you have the default player slot limit full. My first preposal is this: Make a game difficulty level that's between easy and normal difficulty so that players may have a fair challenge, but not tediously so when there's less than five or six players.
Originally, we held your game in high regard because most of the weapons in the game did not feel generic or like things we've seen many times before in other games. There was a wide selection of weapons, most of which did not feel out of place or common among many other games. The L85 (Bullpup), Benelli M3 (Shotgun), and especially the Winchester Model 94 (Lever-Action Rifle), made the game's selection feel more original and therefore made it more worth playing.
However, we've been left with a sour taste in our mouths because, frankly, the Avtomat Kalishnikov 1947 and especially the Katana don't make sense being added into the game, especially locale-wise.
First of all, you miss the important point that the UK is heavily restrictive with their laws on civilian possession of firearms. This means that whatever the military and police forces use is the only selection that's left that makes sense being in the game outside of the very limited selection that civilians can actually possess (bolt-action pistol carbines). So far, the weapons that already didn't fit to begin with were the Crossbow and the Desert Eagle pistol, because nobody in their right mind would have a crossbow for home defense and you'd have to be quite dense to think that a fifty-caliber handgun, which was invented for sporting purposes, would suffice as a combat weapon with intense recoil and extremely heavy ammunition without the benefits of any accuracy. Most of the other weapons make sense being in the game, because they're either common because of firearm regulation or because they're used by British military and police forces, or because they're painfully easy to obtain (the Fire Axe, Lever-Action, and Double-Breech Shotgun come to mind).
The next problem is that the balance of these weapons in-game relative to their classes is very shakey. As we normally play with two or three people, the differences between classes becomes more glaring, and we've taken notice that higher-level incarnations of the Support Specialist are much more powerful than the higher-level incarnations of the Commando or other weapon-specific classes. Because while the Commando gets damage output increases for the L85 (and the AK-47, I believe?) with the ability to see Stalkers easier (and the damage output increased for the L85 isn't very good in the first place considering the damage it does standard); the Support Specialist gets increased carrying weight (which at a certain point would allow him to hold BOTH shotgun weapons in his loadout at the same time), increased amount of grenades to be held, increased damage with BOTH shotguns (and with the Double-Breech Shotgun, that's ****ing insane as it already is, regardless of its laughably unbelievable choke pattern), increased shot penetration, AND faster welding time on doors.
The benefits of class perks is unfair and unbalanced, and as some reap heavy rewards from their efforts others are left with barely anything for their troubles.
My next proposal is this: Put weapons in the game that are unique across the whole genre and make sense in terms of locale; and give classes like the Commando, Berserker, and Firebug more benefit for their troubles. In terms of weapons actually used by the British armed forces, you could easily impliment weapons like the high-caliber versions of the Browning Hi-Power L9A1 or SIG P226 instead of the Desert Eagle; the L85 should be implimented as an assault rifle because that's what it actually is (and it's boggling to wonder why you chose the uncommon short-barreled version and gave it the power output of a pistol-caliber sub-machine gun). Because Britain is very close to countries like Austria, Germany, France, and Italy, it would make more sense and would be easier to pass off as plausable to impliment weapons like the FAMAS, Steyr AUG, or G3/G36 instead of the AK-47 (because they're actually used by the military forces, even special forces, unlike the AK-47) FN Five-Seven (to replace the Desert Eagle), Beretta M12 (because the L85 should be the game's primary assault rifle rather than the AK-47), or even the MP5 (you don't need to think too hard about that one).
And remove the katana completely. At least weapons like the Desert Eagle somewhat fit into the game. The katana does not fit the game's environment at all, and pretty much represents every action-media cliche that could ever exist. You put a traditional weapon used in feudal Japan into a game that takes place in modern-day Britain. That's like saying you should put the weapons from Mega Man 2 into Call of Duty 4. That's like trying to fit plasma cannons and laser guns with medieval knights and wizards. It doesn't make any ****ing sense at all being in this game and was a really stupid idea.
My plea? Fix your game. You took something that could have been wonderful and complete, cut off its arms and legs with a stupid update that made it impossible to play without modifications to balance, and instead of sewing them back on you decided to give it a bandage for its lost limbs by throwing new weapons into the game for a fanbase that doesn't actually seem to prominently exist.
Normally when we'd play your game we'd have a minimum of two people to a maximum of...say, four, if we're lucky. We play on normal difficulty because easy difficulty does not suffice for a challenging game, which makes it less interesting.
However, normal difficulty is unfair in many aspects for lower amounts of players, namely in the way of balance. For two people to sit down alone and play this game is a daunting task, although we've found ways to manage. But, Fleshpounds always cause trouble, as it's nearly impossible to take them down quickly when you've got a Support Specialist and a Commando at level 4 each.
Using the technique you all like to refer to as "kiting," we've managed to deal with Fleshpounds fairly and with only minor losses. It takes half a dozen grenades and plenty of bullets for each, but it was still managable.
Because you've removed the ability for this to be possible, by making a "set time before Fleshpound goes ape****" feature in your updates, the game is now unplayable for the number of people we have.
Easy difficulty is laughable with more than one player. However, normal difficulty is in many aspects tediously challenging unless you have the default player slot limit full. My first preposal is this: Make a game difficulty level that's between easy and normal difficulty so that players may have a fair challenge, but not tediously so when there's less than five or six players.
Originally, we held your game in high regard because most of the weapons in the game did not feel generic or like things we've seen many times before in other games. There was a wide selection of weapons, most of which did not feel out of place or common among many other games. The L85 (Bullpup), Benelli M3 (Shotgun), and especially the Winchester Model 94 (Lever-Action Rifle), made the game's selection feel more original and therefore made it more worth playing.
However, we've been left with a sour taste in our mouths because, frankly, the Avtomat Kalishnikov 1947 and especially the Katana don't make sense being added into the game, especially locale-wise.
First of all, you miss the important point that the UK is heavily restrictive with their laws on civilian possession of firearms. This means that whatever the military and police forces use is the only selection that's left that makes sense being in the game outside of the very limited selection that civilians can actually possess (bolt-action pistol carbines). So far, the weapons that already didn't fit to begin with were the Crossbow and the Desert Eagle pistol, because nobody in their right mind would have a crossbow for home defense and you'd have to be quite dense to think that a fifty-caliber handgun, which was invented for sporting purposes, would suffice as a combat weapon with intense recoil and extremely heavy ammunition without the benefits of any accuracy. Most of the other weapons make sense being in the game, because they're either common because of firearm regulation or because they're used by British military and police forces, or because they're painfully easy to obtain (the Fire Axe, Lever-Action, and Double-Breech Shotgun come to mind).
The next problem is that the balance of these weapons in-game relative to their classes is very shakey. As we normally play with two or three people, the differences between classes becomes more glaring, and we've taken notice that higher-level incarnations of the Support Specialist are much more powerful than the higher-level incarnations of the Commando or other weapon-specific classes. Because while the Commando gets damage output increases for the L85 (and the AK-47, I believe?) with the ability to see Stalkers easier (and the damage output increased for the L85 isn't very good in the first place considering the damage it does standard); the Support Specialist gets increased carrying weight (which at a certain point would allow him to hold BOTH shotgun weapons in his loadout at the same time), increased amount of grenades to be held, increased damage with BOTH shotguns (and with the Double-Breech Shotgun, that's ****ing insane as it already is, regardless of its laughably unbelievable choke pattern), increased shot penetration, AND faster welding time on doors.
The benefits of class perks is unfair and unbalanced, and as some reap heavy rewards from their efforts others are left with barely anything for their troubles.
My next proposal is this: Put weapons in the game that are unique across the whole genre and make sense in terms of locale; and give classes like the Commando, Berserker, and Firebug more benefit for their troubles. In terms of weapons actually used by the British armed forces, you could easily impliment weapons like the high-caliber versions of the Browning Hi-Power L9A1 or SIG P226 instead of the Desert Eagle; the L85 should be implimented as an assault rifle because that's what it actually is (and it's boggling to wonder why you chose the uncommon short-barreled version and gave it the power output of a pistol-caliber sub-machine gun). Because Britain is very close to countries like Austria, Germany, France, and Italy, it would make more sense and would be easier to pass off as plausable to impliment weapons like the FAMAS, Steyr AUG, or G3/G36 instead of the AK-47 (because they're actually used by the military forces, even special forces, unlike the AK-47) FN Five-Seven (to replace the Desert Eagle), Beretta M12 (because the L85 should be the game's primary assault rifle rather than the AK-47), or even the MP5 (you don't need to think too hard about that one).
And remove the katana completely. At least weapons like the Desert Eagle somewhat fit into the game. The katana does not fit the game's environment at all, and pretty much represents every action-media cliche that could ever exist. You put a traditional weapon used in feudal Japan into a game that takes place in modern-day Britain. That's like saying you should put the weapons from Mega Man 2 into Call of Duty 4. That's like trying to fit plasma cannons and laser guns with medieval knights and wizards. It doesn't make any ****ing sense at all being in this game and was a really stupid idea.
My plea? Fix your game. You took something that could have been wonderful and complete, cut off its arms and legs with a stupid update that made it impossible to play without modifications to balance, and instead of sewing them back on you decided to give it a bandage for its lost limbs by throwing new weapons into the game for a fanbase that doesn't actually seem to prominently exist.