Something that's been low-key rolling around in my head needs to get off my chest, because it's one of the fundamental design problems with regards to this game's difficulty scaling, or at least in its current state.
Over the past few years, there's been an increasing prevalence of incaps, or "crowd control"/status effects, on weapons that have made players increasingly harder to kill for no real input on the players' behalf.
To wit, let's take the perks on the official release of the game:
Now, this wouldn't be as much of an issue in most games, but KF2 has an interesting feature: unlike health damage and decaps and such, incaps do not get any harder to inflict regardless of player count or difficulty setting.
So spamming the Freezethrower is just as effective on Solo Normal as it is on 6P HoE.
And since incaps are mostly afflicted in equal measure regardless of weak points (some exceptions), aiming doesn't matter in most cases. In fact, with weapons like the Frost Fang, aiming not for the head is what makes them good, because otherwise you'll pull a rage condition before freezing the Zed.
My question is: why was the decision made to give so many free incaps to so many players, when the incap system is already as strong as it was? The incaps trivialize a large part of the game across all difficulties and water down the skill level that would otherwise be required.
EDIT: I forgot to mention how stupid the Hemogoblin is now.
Over the past few years, there's been an increasing prevalence of incaps, or "crowd control"/status effects, on weapons that have made players increasingly harder to kill for no real input on the players' behalf.
To wit, let's take the perks on the official release of the game:
- Field Medic
- Poison panic
- Usually seen as bad except for chaotic team comps.
- Poison gas
- Very powerful; no aim necessary
- Limited to 5 charges per round; more with Demo
- Bleed
- Hemogoblin only
- Was considered useless because it didn't help good against Scrakes, and triggering bleed on Fleshpounds means you raged them, then they became invulnerable to bleed's effects due to rage mechanics
- Poison panic
- Commando
- Stumble
- Only through Impact Rounds and the 401.
- Stumble
- Demo
- Knockdown
- Only available via certain precision hits or through the "Concussive Rounds" skill.
- Precision hits needed to deal with Fleshpounds; Concussive Rounds is mostly annoying to other teammates except for chaotic teams.
- Knockdown
- Gunslinger
- Nothing, really
- Sharpshooter
- Freeze
- Arguably the most powerful incap in the game
- Limited to 5-6 grenades (or more if Demo is on team)
- Stun
- Very powerful for any team
- Requires Ballistic Shock (giving up DPS and reload) or running Ranger (giving up DPS; did not stun raged Fleshpounds in original incarnation)
- Freeze
- Support
- Fire panic
- Bad incap on a bad weapon
- Stumble
- Half of the weapons; even more with Concussion Rounds
- Very for Support's purposes since it allowed Support to stumble even raged Fleshpounds for takedown
- Fire panic
- Firebug
- Fire panic
- Usually seen as an annoyance except for chaos teams
- Stumble
- Guaranteed with Heat Wave; considered integral to Firebug not being a wasted slot
- Fire panic
- SWAT
- Stun
- Very powerful
- Limited to 5 uses per round
- Snare
- Solid incap; slows down HVTs for easier hits
- Stumble
- Stun
- Berserker
- Stumble
- Integral to 0-100 combos
- EMP
- Good incap
- Limited to 5 uses per round, more with Demo
- Stumble
- Survivalist
- lol
- Field Medic
- Incision -- EMP on demand
- Poison gas (501 -- 10 uses; Healthrower -- too many uses)
- The Hemogoblin has been buffed to the point where it needs one dart to guarantee a bleed while also being one of the best weapons in Medic's entire arsenal from a pub standpoint: bodies most trash in one headshot or bodyshot, buffed dart recharge rate, etc.
- Commando
- nothing, really
- Demo
- The Husk Cannon is bad, so no notes
- Gunslinger
- Winterbites -- Freeze on demand
- HRG Disrupter -- EMP on demand
- Nail Bomb was broken for a while with guaranteed stun
- Sharpshooter
- Compound Bow -- Freeze on demand
- HV Storm Cannon -- Freeze on demand
- Ranger is now a guaranteed stumble on raged Fleshpounds with headshots no matter what weapon is used
- Support
- Frost Fang -- Freeze on demand
- HRG Ballistic Bouncer -- High innate stumble; not practical in most teams but it's there
- Firebug
- Not much in the way of CC, but it got much spammier; that's for another topic
- SWAT
- no notes
- Berserker
- Static Strikers -- EMP on demand
- HRG Teslauncher -- EMP on demand
- Frost Fang -- Freeze on demand
- Survivalist
- Freezethrower -- Freeze on demand
- Frost Fang -- Freeze on demand (kinda broken in general)
- HRG Arc Generator -- EMP on demand
- Killerwatt -- EMP on demand
- Reducto Ray -- Shrink infliction without needing to aim
- Doubles damage taken; extremely useful in the right comp
- Used to instakill Fleshpounds without raging them but that is no longer the case
- Lockdown is a guaranteed stun on anything as long as any attack hits anywhere
Now, this wouldn't be as much of an issue in most games, but KF2 has an interesting feature: unlike health damage and decaps and such, incaps do not get any harder to inflict regardless of player count or difficulty setting.
So spamming the Freezethrower is just as effective on Solo Normal as it is on 6P HoE.
And since incaps are mostly afflicted in equal measure regardless of weak points (some exceptions), aiming doesn't matter in most cases. In fact, with weapons like the Frost Fang, aiming not for the head is what makes them good, because otherwise you'll pull a rage condition before freezing the Zed.
My question is: why was the decision made to give so many free incaps to so many players, when the incap system is already as strong as it was? The incaps trivialize a large part of the game across all difficulties and water down the skill level that would otherwise be required.
EDIT: I forgot to mention how stupid the Hemogoblin is now.
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