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Perfect weapons, HDR Bloom, a little boasting, & a few thoughts

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nutterbutter

nutterbutter

Grizzled Veteran
Feb 8, 2010
2,010
1,212
#1
The MP5 and the MK23 are absolutely perfect. Perfect. Could not have been happier when the MK23 was made a proper weapon.

From what I understand, the MK23 has a single target penetration. Last night, I shot a gorefast once, then popped him with a headshot. With that HS, I also decapitated 2 more gorefasts that were behind him. That was weird.

Made it to 21 specimens left on wave 8 on Biotics Lab on HoE as a pure commando (commando only weapons).

Does anyone use HDRBloom? Way too bright and bloomy for me.

FNFAL's model looks a little skinny to me. Love the .44 magnum, I may be the only one, but the pistol's model looks really tiny.

M99 ruins games. Absolutely ruins them.

If you ever want to see me leave a game early, join as a zerker and run off to solo.

Playing sharpie with the .44, HC, MK23 is great fun except having to constantly switch over empty weapons. Easier and faster just to dump them when empty and buy new ones.
 
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#2
As a (graphics) programmer I tend to play games with things like bloom turned on and see how it could be improved.
I'm unsure on KF's pipeline, but from what I can tell, the issues are in the bright pass stage and the blending mode used for the bloom texture. Screen blending is recommend as opposed to additive blending. This preserves saturation and colours won't wash out to white, so it doesn't seem as in-your-face bright.
I can't really comment on the HDR/tonemapping/lack of screen-space light adaptation, but I think the tonemapping (w/ low image key) is only used to calculate which pixels will be used in the bloom stage, and doesn't actually tonemap the scene? This can lead to ugly results, such as the overkill blooming in Biotics Lab.

In any case, I'd be interested in a rewrite of the HDR+bloom code :D
 
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#4
I think the mk23 should have the same weight as the hand cannon.

Most of the time it's a superior choice to the handcannon anyway, and with weight 2, you can carry the magnum and crossbow (and a PERKED 9mm) along with it. It just seems to give sharp an unnecessary spam cushion ammo pool with such a low weight. Other than that I think it's a pretty nice weapon. It has double penetration, that is it will go through to 2 specimens behind your original shot for a total of 3 headshots - at least that's how it was working for me all today.

I find bloom to be distracting too so I've had it turned off pretty much since I played for the first time.

As for pure commando on biolab - that's a tough job. It took me quite a few tries to get it done all the way. I think the biggest hump is the double FP on wave 10 and not letting husks throw you off too much along the way.

Never thought about the FnFal or Magnum models much but now that you mention it, they would look better if they were a little beefier.

A solution to your moving over empty (or unecessary) weapons in the cycles might be setting yourself some custom binds. I have a friend who keeps pipes on 6 to avoid cycling past every other 3rd tier weapon to get to them. I keep what I call a 'fudge' button, 'f'.

As support, I bind it to the hunting shot gun
As sharp, I bind it to the mk23 (don't have to cycle past magnum)

Other things as they pop up too - medic carrying lar and 2 med guns - i'll put one of the guns on F so I just go back and forth between 3 and f for fast heals. It seems like it might be a hassle to change all the time and sort of workaround-ish but it works, and once you get used to it it's not really that much of an issue to type things into the console on-the-fly.
 
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#6
nutterbutter said:
Does anyone use HDRBloom? Way too bright and bloomy for me.
Click to expand...

HDR+bloom is some of the most silly effects/unless effects that I know of. So, no, I never use them. They do more harm than good to the overall graphics, simply, imho, in most/all games. Bloom is the worst of them, though, by far. It makes textures way too saturated (colour-wise) in many cases. HDR is just rather useless, I feel.
 
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#8
I do also not play with Bloom/HDR. They are not worth it to be turned on. :)

I also love to play with the MK23, even off-perk. It is a very good addition to the game, but I think the HC suffers from it. Most sharpshooters don't use it anymore as the MK23 has enough damage to one-hit trash and has much more ammo. Either remove the penetration or lowering the ammo may have a positive effect on the game.

As we talk about pistols, the weight system seems a bit odd to me:
- 9mm (1 weight unit) -> dual version (+4 weight units) -> 5 weight units in total
- MK23/Magnum (2 weight units) -> dual version (+2 weight units) -> 4 weight units in total
- Handcannon (4 weight units) -> dual version (+0 weight units) -> 4 weight units in total
Why is dual 9mm the heaviest loadout?! :confused:

As mentioned 10000 times, yes the M99 makes the game too easy. Drastically increasing the reload speed seems a good start to me.
 
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#9
I have never liked the Mk23, however think it's the best pistol.

Offperk, it deals enough damage to decap any little zed. At a stretch it can kill sirens or husks, but it's extremely rare that you'll want to use it for that situation, so I figure the damage lost compared to the HC/Magnum is acceptable.

Onperk, it 1shot kills anything under a siren/bloat. It's a bit worse to kill sirens/husks compared to a HC, but only by a couple of shots.

In addition, whereas with a HC you'll have enough ammo for the wave, a Mk23 has shedloads of ammo, and a larger mag as well.
In addition, it's half the weight meaning that most builds can afford it as a kind of '9mm that can decap in 1 shot', and builds which normally take the handcannon can instead get a MP7M/katana (normally), or possibly stretch to an M79, which are all wonderful weapons for the weight they take up.
 
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#12
TheMutant said:
As we talk about pistols, the weight system seems a bit odd to me:
- 9mm (1 weight unit) -> dual version (+4 weight units) -> 5 weight units in total
- MK23/Magnum (2 weight units) -> dual version (+2 weight units) -> 4 weight units in total
- Handcannon (4 weight units) -> dual version (+0 weight units) -> 4 weight units in total
Why is dual 9mm the heaviest loadout?! :confused:
Click to expand...

I think it would be best set out with something like this:

Dual 9mm - extra 1 or 2 kg (not extra 4)
Magnum/MK23 - 2 kg single and 3 kg total for dual
Handcannon - 3 kg single and 4 kg dual

This sounds like a much more balanced system in relation to the strength/size of the sidearms.

But, you know, it's really up to Tripwire :p

TheMutant said:
As mentioned 10000 times, yes the M99 makes the game too easy. Drastically increasing the reload speed seems a good start to me.
Click to expand...

The M99 is obviously overpowered. No one can really argue. However, I do feel like too many members on here get butthurt over it and complain about it needing to be removed entirely.

I think they should lessen the power just a tad. If nothing else, AT LEAST lower it to take 2 headshots for Scrakes on HoE (Maybe increase the ammo to 30 from 25 to compensate? I don't know). However, before anyone starts complaining about Fleshpounds being easy, like TheMutant stated, I also think it needs a slower fire rate. Preferably at a speed where the Fleshpound is already charging by the time you get a second shot. This would give people a real reason to have to CHOOSE between the Crossbow and the M99, without one being TOO overpowered than the other.

This seems like a somewhat fair compromise, to say the least, no?
 
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#15
Helifano said:
...However, I do feel like too many members on here get butthurt over it and complain about it needing to be removed entirely.
Click to expand...

*cough*indecipherablenames*cough*

Helifano said:
I think they should lessen the power just a tad. If nothing else, AT LEAST lower it to take 2 headshots for Scrakes on HoE (Maybe increase the ammo to 30 from 25 to compensate? I don't know). However, before anyone starts complaining about Fleshpounds being easy, like TheMutant stated, I also think it needs a slower fire rate. Preferably at a speed where the Fleshpound is already charging by the time you get a second shot. This would give people a real reason to have to CHOOSE between the Crossbow and the M99, without one being TOO overpowered than the other.

This seems like a somewhat fair compromise, to say the least, no?
Click to expand...

2 Headshots for Scrakes would make it a heavier, more expensive crossbow with less ammo that removes your ability to hold an extra pistol or two. Adding some percentage of M99 headshot resistance for Suicidal/ HoE Fleshpounds (making them 3-headshot kills) would be an option. That was you keep the 1-shot Scrake kills, but Fleshpounds can actually charge the player, not die hilariously during the rage animation. ( <3 those ragdolls though )

Definitely increase the time between firing off shots though. :] The mod M99 took ~4 seconds while official takes ~2 seconds at level 6.

Then of course you could also increase the base price of the rifle along with the ammunition, which I would completely support. But then we get into the whole "spawn-selling weapons for money" issue and whether or not it's a feature/ exploit/ whatever, and we've all been through that song & dance multiple times. :rolleyes:
 
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#16
Spicy said:
*cough*indecipherablenames*cough*



2 Headshots for Scrakes would make it a heavier, more expensive crossbow with less ammo that removes your ability to hold an extra pistol or two. Adding some percentage of M99 headshot resistance for Suicidal/ HoE Fleshpounds (making them 3-headshot kills) would be an option. That was you keep the 1-shot Scrake kills, but Fleshpounds can actually charge the player, not die hilariously during the rage animation. ( <3 those ragdolls though )

Definitely increase the time between firing off shots though. :] The mod M99 took ~4 seconds while official takes ~2 seconds at level 6.

Then of course you could also increase the base price of the rifle along with the ammunition, which I would completely support. But then we get into the whole "spawn-selling weapons for money" issue and whether or not it's a feature/ exploit/ whatever, and we've all been through that song & dance multiple times. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I definitely see your argument about it being just a heavier crossbow with less ammo, but.. I was kind of hoping that the trade-off between the two would be taking out the FPs easier at the cost of an extra sidearm. I think the idea of a real sniper rifle is great, but the one we have is just kind of crazy.
 
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