Man, it's a relief to know the others got to you first, but I'm still going to come back on that take.
I'll give you the hint--nah, the answer:
It's because Demo has 1) extremely damaging weapons that 2) can also spread the aforementioned high damage in wide areas, and 3) Demo doesn't really have to aim with its weapons compared to other perks except Firebug. (Even Berserker needs to land headshots sometimes.)
So asking for a bare minimum skill requirement of positioning--and including a punishment mechanic in the form of getting hit by your own AoE for failure to adhere to that rule of proper positioning and "not letting enemies get close"--is not a huge ask. That's basic game design 101: strengths should have weaknesses to counterbalance them out. Demo's weakness is poor self-defense and clunky weapons.
The Kaboomstick is an example of neither.
Think about Left 4 Dead 2 and its one AoE weapon: the Grenade Launcher. It's intentionally an unwieldy weapon that carries massive self-damage risks in exchange for being able to instantly delete anything within its blast radius. You just have to play smart while using it, not spam it everywhere and survive Realism Expert.
Let's not remove the one form of nuance that actually applies to Demolitionist. I know most players don't play this game for the challenge and play it for "Zombie Hallway Mowdown Funtime Simulator," but please, the non-precision perks have only gotten easier and more powerful as the game goes on.
And Firebug's AoE takes a different form of damage in the form of DoT rather than frontloading it into a single blast like Demo's weapons.
Also: turn off Fragmentation Rounds. I understand these days why TWI had a -30% damage originally attached to the skill: because they knew players would inadvertently kill themselves with the increased splash radius.
And for the record, Back 4 Blood already has my time and attention these days, partially because I can actually reliably find a game on the harder difficulties. Even if waaaaaaay too many players rely on melee builds.
You know, they already did an extra difficult weekly called "Abandon All Hope?" And do you also know that most people already beat it via AoE Spam and chaos perk stacking? Because those perks break the balance of the game so much it's not even funny.
A difficulty named "Suicidal" should not be something I play as a R&R from when I'm done carrying players through the hardest difficulty. And on that note, "Hell on Earth" should not be something any doofus picking up weapons that don't have to aim can just beat using the same strategies they used in Normal and Hard: spamming stuff in the general direction of the Zeds while sucking down Medic darts.
EDIT: Rewrote parts of my reply because some of them felt mean-spirited, even if they were accurate to how I feel.
Do tell: Why do you think Demolitionist has self-damage on their own weapons?
I'll give you the hint--nah, the answer:
It's because Demo has 1) extremely damaging weapons that 2) can also spread the aforementioned high damage in wide areas, and 3) Demo doesn't really have to aim with its weapons compared to other perks except Firebug. (Even Berserker needs to land headshots sometimes.)
So asking for a bare minimum skill requirement of positioning--and including a punishment mechanic in the form of getting hit by your own AoE for failure to adhere to that rule of proper positioning and "not letting enemies get close"--is not a huge ask. That's basic game design 101: strengths should have weaknesses to counterbalance them out. Demo's weakness is poor self-defense and clunky weapons.
The Kaboomstick is an example of neither.
Think about Left 4 Dead 2 and its one AoE weapon: the Grenade Launcher. It's intentionally an unwieldy weapon that carries massive self-damage risks in exchange for being able to instantly delete anything within its blast radius. You just have to play smart while using it, not spam it everywhere and survive Realism Expert.
Let's not remove the one form of nuance that actually applies to Demolitionist. I know most players don't play this game for the challenge and play it for "Zombie Hallway Mowdown Funtime Simulator," but please, the non-precision perks have only gotten easier and more powerful as the game goes on.
Absolutely not even the angle of approach here. This has nothing to do with realism, it has to do with game design and mechanics.
Because no other perk carries an arsenal that relies on one-shot AoE spam. In fact, there's only one other perk with AoE spam: Firebug.
And Firebug's AoE takes a different form of damage in the form of DoT rather than frontloading it into a single blast like Demo's weapons.
See my first point.
Also: turn off Fragmentation Rounds. I understand these days why TWI had a -30% damage originally attached to the skill: because they knew players would inadvertently kill themselves with the increased splash radius.
"Loony" has nothing to do with it; adhering to basic tenets of game design is what I care about. I have no problem with "wacky" weapons as long as they add something meaningful to the game and aren't just variety for the sake of variety. In the biz, we call that "bloat."
And for the record, Back 4 Blood already has my time and attention these days, partially because I can actually reliably find a game on the harder difficulties. Even if waaaaaaay too many players rely on melee builds.
I'm pretty tired of power creep making the game's initial balance and challenge obsolete.
Ease up on that poor strawman. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get straw and blood out of the carpet?
You know, they already did an extra difficult weekly called "Abandon All Hope?" And do you also know that most people already beat it via AoE Spam and chaos perk stacking? Because those perks break the balance of the game so much it's not even funny.
A difficulty named "Suicidal" should not be something I play as a R&R from when I'm done carrying players through the hardest difficulty. And on that note, "Hell on Earth" should not be something any doofus picking up weapons that don't have to aim can just beat using the same strategies they used in Normal and Hard: spamming stuff in the general direction of the Zeds while sucking down Medic darts.
EDIT: Rewrote parts of my reply because some of them felt mean-spirited, even if they were accurate to how I feel.
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