• Please make sure you are familiar with the forum rules. You can find them here: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?threads/forum-rules.2334636/

Merc Report - Improving Field Conditions

Mercs,

As part of our efforts to continuously improve your in-field experience, the techs have lined up some enhancements across your perk abilities, arsenal as well as UI!

Starting with the Seeker Six and Mac10, two weapons that were not getting much field usage. The Seeker Six projectiles are getting a larger explosive radius as well as a slight damage increase combined with a reduced arming distance. This will allow for better trash clearing and nearer explosions, with some risk. The weight is also being reduced to see if this helps it better fit into loadouts.

The Mac 10 is getting a price reduction, sliding it more into a tier between 2 and 3 to better match its current performance against other perk weaponry. This should make it a good choice for Firebugs and Swats looking to step up their firepower a little sooner. As part of this change, we will likely be doing some minor upgrades to its damage and incapacitation power as well.

The following Perk skills are also being improved:
  • Field Medic - Acidic Rounds will have improved damage
  • Survivalist - Melee Expert will have improved damage
  • Berserker - Berserker Rage is being changed so Zeds will no longer flee, but stay rooted in their initial position

Finally, we have two UI changes to round things off. The Skip Trader vote has been added to the pop-up UI system, so after an initial merc has triggered it, other players will be asked if they want to proceed. This should make it easier for players to use and understand what's happening.


skiptrader.png




The last change also will help the team coordinate, by showing the Healing Over Time currently being done to a player in the in the world health bar. Medics will be able to see which players are on their way to being “topped off” and can better focus their attention elsewhere, such as their friend who somehow managed to get across the road and almost around a corner and is now somehow “needing a medic”.



Several new arsenal additions are on the way to help you survive in the jungle, and other ZED infested areas, and we’ll be sharing more over the coming days!
 
I work for Tripwire and run this stuff.
View all 245 featured items
These are very nice updates and I'm looking forward to using them.

I would like to suggest removing the chat spam for the Skip Trader votes in the chat area as well since it will be in the popup instead. That way player chat can be seen better during trader times.

It would be very nice to have an option to vote mid-game (at any time) for a new map/difficulty/game mode without having to have everyone die before voting. Also, to provide a better user-friendly way of displaying map names for those maps which are added to the list with startupline options. Making it more like the Mapvote mutator that KF1 has would make it so much easier on the Admin running the server as well.

Thank you so much for your hard work and adding new content!
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Berserker - Berserker Rage is being changed so Zeds will no longer flee, but stay rooted in their initial position

i'm not sure if its a good change for zerker, a fear effect really helped in tight-situations ( hallways/corners ) when you were overcrowded or when teammate was in trouble. It was very cooperation friendly perk effect, makes me kinda sad it goes away. As it breaks my unique build for zerker.
 
Upvote 0
I still want an option for Health Numbers instead of Health Bar.
Health numbers are listed on the scoreboard and I don't think it's necessary to have numbers over the player's head. This option you want seems more like it needs to be available as a client-side hud view and not to be added into the base game itself.
 
Upvote 0
Wow, lots to react to. After the previous update which seemed a bit light and the one before it, which was disappointing... This one is shaping to be quite good!

>I believe the real issue of the Seeker Six is that it competes with the RPG-7 which is a nuking machine. Yes, the Seeker may be a great PDW and overall more versatile weapon... But is it worth missing out on the RPG-7 and it's abilities to face the big zeds? That's doubtful. As such, I always thought the Seeker Six could be lowered to T3 instead of having such drastic buffs. But we'll see. It's definitely an underrated gem I love to use.

>Wow, actual changes to the Mac-10? Again, it's a gun I got used to like despite its flaws. I don't know if making it a T2.5 will make it worthwhile, but since it's damage will apparently get reworked too... I think it might be worthwhile after all! Similarly to the Seeker Six though, I think the problem is simply that the spitfires AND trenchgun are more effective. But I may be wrong.

>Acidic Rounds getting more damage? Meh... Even though I'm mostly a battle medic (since I play solo), it's honestly a perk I somewhat despise as it usually make the zeds stumble without dealing that much damage to them. I think it may be better if it was named "poison rounds" or something, and thus the poison could spread across zeds that gets very close to each other. Could make the perk more interesting. But we'll see. Maybe the extra DoT will be worthwhile?

>Melee expert getting more damage? Well, same thing! But with the addition that the survivalist is actually not that great of a melee perk at all, since that's the only skill that truly benefits this playstyle. I think it should have a little something more... Extra speed maybe?

>Berserker rage not longer makes zeds flee...As Kazaanh said, it was actually quite handy. Allowing you to get some time to breathe. I doubt it will ruin the skill (it will actually help you kill zeds more easily), but I feel it's unnecessary.

>The UI changes seems fairly simple, but are more than welcomed indeed. I do feel they could (and should) have been brought up sooner. But better late than never (plus I didn't take of them myself, so I can't blame the team)

Speaking of which... Congrats to you all. Can't imagine how tricky it must be to do all that from home.
 
Upvote 0
Seeker Six-
Are you certain this weapon needs to be buffed and the RPG-7 doesn't need to be nerfed? From what I've been hearing lately the RPG's ability to headshot Scrakes is too useful to go without and this could be a bigger part of why Seeker Six goes unused than anything to do with Seeker Six itself.

Mac 10-
Again, much like the Seeker Six and many other weapons AND perk skills, players are going to avoid using the Mac 10 because a better option exists- the Incendiary Rifle. In the cases I'm referring to the better option is almost always FUNCTIONALLY better, not necessarally NUMERICALLY better. Buffing the numbers on the weaker option isn't going to change the fact that the better option offers better functionality. To a certain extent it doesn't matter how much you buff the Mac 10 when the Incendiary Rifle can shoot Incendiary bullets AND lets you shoot grenades- it offers better functionality.

Field Medic/Acidic Rounds-
Again. Players are going to want Field Medics with a damage buff(Focus Injection) over the panic effect of Acidic Rounds causing them to miss their shots because that makes the team FUNCTIONALLY better. Even if Acidic Rounds no longer triggered a panic effect, players will still want the support perk to support them instead of trying to be a mediocre DPS perk when 8/10 perks in the game already specialize at DPS and do it much better than a RRRRR Field Medic. Even even if RRRRR Field Medic is on par with other DPS perks players will still want a medic to focus on being a medic because that's what a perk called medic should do because it's called medic. Field Medic's perk skills just should never have been split between support and DPS. If I want to use a few DPS perk skills I get flak from teammates on HoE when my healing isn't applying EVERY buff Field Medic can do. Each tier should've been split between a type of support OR a type of DPS so the player's choices don't incite the wrath of their teammates, warranted or not. For example, t2 would be Adrenaline shot vs Focus Injection, t3 would be Combatant Doctor vs Acidic Rounds, etc.

Survivalist/Melee Expert-
I don't play Survivalist. That said, why is he getting tweaks when we're still waiting on a rework? Or did I miss when that got thrown out or something?

Berserker/Berserker Rage-
Again... Keeping zeds stationary is an improvement to this perk skill and it may very well increase the number of players who use it, but Spartan is FUNCTIONALLY better. It doesn't matter if Berserker Rage heals me to full and stuns every nearby zed every time zed time is triggered(NUMERICAL buffs), Spartan is FUNCTIONALLY better. With Spartan I can chop down half a dozen zeds. I can inflict some serious pain on Scrakes/Fleshpounds, possibly killing them outright. I can heal myself in real time. I can switch to med pistol and heal two of my teammates. I can just run away if things are getting too dicey. I have so many options that this one perk skill lets me do. What can I accomplish with Berserker Rage? Heal myself a little bit more than using the syringe on myself with Spartan while not being able to reposition myself as well. Maybe scare zeds away from a teammate in danger that I could've healed with Spartan OR killed the threat outright with Spartan in the same time.

Skip Trader UI change-
Great change. I'm surprised to see this kind of change at this stage of the game's development. Wished we had it sooner.

HoT UI change-
Another great change. Same comments as Skip Trader UI change.

In Total-
Not a single nerf here. I'm of the opinion that things like the RPG-7 and Berserker's Spartan are too powerful and in need of being toned down but these proposed changes seem to be of the mindset that everything should be brought up to those levels of power. A mindset like this leads to power creep which leads to the game becoming easier. I definitely don't speak for everyone but I always thought one of the core pillars of Killing Floor's design was difficulty. These kinds of changes undercut the difficulty, lessen it. If the response to these kinds of changes is to increase the power of the zeds, well, that's where we see auto-enraging Fleshpounds, eDARS, teleporting zeds, and increasingly stifling spawn locations. We all should know what the playerbase thinks of those changes by now. Anyways, without increases to difficulty like those we see a Hell on Earth that's perhaps easier than Suicidal was on release and then there's calls for higher difficulty levels because the players aren't getting better. The game's getting easier.
 
Upvote 0
it would also be good, when the poison is spread, or when we launch a syringe in one of those specimens, to give much more damage and be stronger, this way of using to reduce the risks when a friend or teammate is caught, to be able to infect these monsters and die much faster, still another question what weapons will be included in the game I mean the weapons that will be put in the initial game, not in the bundle.
 
Upvote 0