Returning players with a few questions

[HoopleDoople]

I last played KF2 pre-Gunslinger so I've missed quite a lot of changes. I've been hearing good things about KF2, and my favorite KF perk (Sharpshooter) has been added so I'm back for more. I do have a few questions to help me get back into the game:

1. Is there a current test map somewhere I can use for practice? It is perfectly fine (and even preferable) if leveling is disabled on the map. If not, I'll utilize cheats to prevent experience gain while I practice.

2. What exactly are the new enemy resistances and how does this impact gameplay? What are the key strong/weak matchups for each perk?

3. What are the strategies for Scrakes and Fleshpounds with the Sharpshooter? How does stunning/flinching work? Please consider both a Railgun based loadout and an XBow/M14 loadout. Try to gear your answers to a low level Sharpshooter playing on 6 player hard difficulty rather than a lvl 25 Sharpshooter on HoE.

Any other general advice related to KF2 and the Sharpshooter are also welcome. Thanks in advance your help with this.

 

[Daar375]

1-http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/forum/killing-floor-2/killing-floor-2-modifications/level-design-ac/beta-map-releases-aa/115579-kf-sometestmap
2-They are so low that you can ignore them
3-Railgun: 2 shoots in the head to the fp and 1 to the sc is enough, get some off perk gun for personal defense(i use the p90)
Xbow/m14: stun with the xbow, finish them with the m14

 

[random]

1. look in the workshop map&mods for "sometestmap"

2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...wxZLiBKl9SyY/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=2068776317

3. hard to know how it is for low level but that map i mentioned allows you to change skills on the fly, so you can figure it out yourself pretty fast.

IMO sharp is very skill dependant, so check the effects of them in the body & head for your level on a weapon by weapon basis, also be sure to add dummies for the amount of players you usually play with, i'd be glad to answer a more specific question as long as i know. i was working on this but it was up to 1042, will update it soon:

http://forums.tripwireinteractive.c...a-sharpshooter-feedback-stats-ongoing-testing

 

[HoopleDoople]

Thanks for the quick responses, I'll let you know if I have more questions after my testing.

 

[HoopleDoople]

In my testing with a level 3 Sharpshooter vs 6 man Hard enemies, I have been unable to find a safe way to kill Scrakes with Crossbow/M14 and entirely unable to find a safe way to kill Fleshpounds.

For Scrakes it seems like the Railgun can stagger on headshot every time. If I soften the Scrake up with 2 Winchester headshots I need 3 Railgun headshots to finish the job. This only works if I am at sufficient range that I can get all these shots off.

With the Crossbow against Scrakes, I can stun on headshots but there seems to be a long cooldown before I can stun again. If the M14 can stun or flinch, I sure haven't been able to spot it. Considering how many shots it takes to down a Scrake (5 Crossbow headshots, for example) I'm not sure how to kill the Scrake without getting massively mauled in the process.

The Fleshpound... I can contribute decent head damage with either loadout but by no means would I ever kill this without assistance as it takes a whopping 5 Railgun headshots to dispatch.

I really hope I'm missing something here, and if so please point it out to me. But it sure seems to me that the Sharpshooter simply can't function in its role properly until it has a lot of levels under its belt for perk and skill damage bonuses. In reviewing the enemy stats I see that enemy health doesn't scale up nearly as much across difficulties as I would have suspected. While I see some advantages to this system, I far preferred how in the original KF Sharpshooter could properly function at lower levels as long as you stuck to lower difficulties.

 

[random]

not sure how obviout this is, but the railgun does something like half damage with auto lock on mode.

the M14 has been buffed so now its somewhat viable to kill something with just that.

the Xbow has been left somewhat behind in terms of damage and in practice can be equivalent to about 3.5 m14 shots.

a lot of the things you can and cant do depends on skill choice so i can give you specifics for other levels.

number of shots for big zeds is not very different between difficulties.

 

[Lorkenpeist]

In my testing with a level 3 Sharpshooter vs 6 man Hard enemies, I have been unable to find a safe way to kill Scrakes with Crossbow/M14 and entirely unable to find a safe way to kill Fleshpounds.

For Scrakes it seems like the Railgun can stagger on headshot every time. If I soften the Scrake up with 2 Winchester headshots I need 3 Railgun headshots to finish the job. This only works if I am at sufficient range that I can get all these shots off.

With the Crossbow against Scrakes, I can stun on headshots but there seems to be a long cooldown before I can stun again. If the M14 can stun or flinch, I sure haven't been able to spot it. Considering how many shots it takes to down a Scrake (5 Crossbow headshots, for example) I'm not sure how to kill the Scrake without getting massively mauled in the process.

The Fleshpound... I can contribute decent head damage with either loadout but by no means would I ever kill this without assistance as it takes a whopping 5 Railgun headshots to dispatch.

I really hope I'm missing something here, and if so please point it out to me. But it sure seems to me that the Sharpshooter simply can't function in its role properly until it has a lot of levels under its belt for perk and skill damage bonuses. In reviewing the enemy stats I see that enemy health doesn't scale up nearly as much across difficulties as I would have suspected. While I see some advantages to this system, I far preferred how in the original KF Sharpshooter could properly function at lower levels as long as you stuck to lower difficulties.

You are missing something, and it's kind of a shame TWI doesn't make it more obvious in game. The rail gun's alt fire mode removes the auto aim, but also does double damage. You can 2 shot scrakes and later with the right skills you can 1 shot them.

 

[Chyros]

The M!$ is really powerful. The trick is to whittle away at scrakes/fleshpounds and then when they rage at you, quickly pump the entire mag into their zed. Makes them go down like a sack of ****. It's also versatile enough to be quite decent against trash zeds.

The railgun is very powerful, and will mow down large zeds, but I find myself dying a lot more holding it.

The crossbow is a deceptively versatile weapon. You can quickly kill several trash zeds in one shot or deal pretty impressive damage against medium zeds. The recyclable ammo was very useful against bosses as well, but now, fortunately, ammo isn't such a concern on the boss wave anymore.

The recently nerfed the lever-action very badly though, it's now almost useless, especially without specific perk skills.

 

[HoopleDoople]

You are missing something, and it's kind of a shame TWI doesn't make it more obvious in game. The rail gun's alt fire mode removes the auto aim, but also does double damage. You can 2 shot scrakes and later with the right skills you can 1 shot them.

Well ****, that makes a huge difference. I didn't even realize the thing had an alt fire. And this is why I'm here LOL. Thanks.

 

[random]

i was doing some testing on hard too to get on the same page, the railgun once you know the manual mode is pretty straight forward, the other weapons are more heavily dependant on skills.

for example with the M14 offperk a FP can take 22 hits to the head, with a level 25 SS and picking the speed skills it only goes down to 17, and if you go for power it goes all the way down to 10 shots.

the Xbow can take down a FP with 3 shots, but only with the first 3 power skills, it can go up to 5 when choosing others.

----
on stun.

you can stun a scrake with the M14 without ballistic shock only when shooting at spam speed

 

[Zombie Overlord]

The changes are pretty amazing as of the SWAT update now. It is starting to feel enough like the original Killing Floor that it has me interested in playing again. On a small tangent, I am loving the new look of the TWI forums, very clean and easy to navigate.