Kempington

What Jelly Goo said. Imagine the spread as a quadrat (best way to visualize it). Each pellet is assigned a quadrant inside this quadrat. Then, when you fire, the pellet will land somewhere within that quadrant. Each pellet has this. It essentially allows the spread a little bit more randomness, without taking away consistency. For example, here is the JG's spread. Apologies for the crude drawing, but this is pretty much what a JG shot looks like. Before that, we had a "god pellet" (a single pellet that always hit centre of the spread), then a perfect circle around it. This worked for a time, but was a really lazy way of doing the spread. Especially when you could deliberately miss the god pellet and offset your shot just enough to land at least 50% of the pellets with a skim.

nah it was fumanchu's office Pretty sure it was just known as GM tower. I got teleported up there once, before the out of bounds nonsense. It's quite a view. We then promptly jumped off whilst priming a made (when your character would have their upper body act like they were sprinting).

But 23k, isn't that know as adapting? I mean the game has some great moments and is fun. What you're proposing is not just adapting to the current system and letting them sort out the remaining issues, but completely redoing everything from scratch which would take much longer, then forcing everyone to get used to that. You can't have it both ways.

I'm not quoting your whole post, since it's massive. However, right in the first few sentences, you mention "what if APB was reworked around headshots?" This is in contrast to what you were originally proposing, in regards to just adding headshots and upping grenade damage to one shot, also. Our argument was based on not being able to just add headshots for various, explained reasons. Do you know how much work it would take to completely revamp everything to incorporate headshots? Everything, like you suggested, would have to be reworked around headshots. Is this a bad idea? Well, sort of. It might work, but you'd have to undo everything that has been done up to this point and completely change the feeling of the gameplay and game's flow in order to do so. Not to mention the problems head shots would cause with the various character heights you can choose. It wouldn't be consistent and everyone would redesign their character to be as short as possible. Not only that, the complexity of the player's hitbox would increase, so a system would have to be designed around that, too. Furthermore, the maps would have to be designed to incorporate more cover and more complexity to ensure the open areas aren't completely barren, otherwise that part of the map will be down to who sees who first and who shoots first. That's not really that "tactical". It's just not a simple change, nor an improvement to the game.

That was a lot of fluff. Hypothesize some scenarios for me and how headshots would help, as opposed to annoy the losing player moreso than currently. You haven't at all given a valid point for the addition of headshots. You used buzzwords such as "spice up" "adapt" "outplay", but not addressed how headshots will actually benefit the game. For the small points you did describe, we've counter argued with valid points, which you haven't a valid rebuttal for, other than "you're wrong". Please amend these issues first, if you can.

Ok. Explain, without using teamwork buzzwords and assumed 50/50 chance (which it really won't be), how headshots will spice things up. You can only be so cautious and check so many angles before getting domed at an angle you can't predict or a random grenade thrown in over a wall 60m away. How will this help new players even the playing field, when the super experienced will have access to the same tools?

I feel like you think that adding headshots will make it 50/50 in a firefight on who will win. It won't. Not even remotely close. Inexperienced players will get destroyed left, right and centre. Their inherent lack of map knowledge, reaction times, lower frame rates, lesser teamplay will make the gap between these skill levels even greater. If anything, you'll be making it easier for more experienced players to stomp on silvers and lesser experienced players by giving them a one shot capability. The map IS relevant. That's why so many small tweaks and changes are made to the maps in CS:GO, the game you like to frequently refer to for these changes. Furthermore, this is a 3rd person shooter game. Corner hugging and using the 3rd person camera to line up your shots before presenting yourself will be easy. I know you may have quite a bit of experience with CS:GO, but this game does NOT play like it at all. There is far more movement and mobility in this game in comparison. It has a more arcade feel, as opposed to CS:GO's more methodical approach. Trying to incorporate some of the shooting mechanics from CS:GO will not work in a game as different as this. Furthermore, you rely your argument on one fact, teamwork. That would require a lot of co-ordination and timing. So.... what about the players who play solo and can't get that co-ordination from Joe shmoe? You see, Joe has no mic, plays at 15fps and doesn't really read the in-game team chat or give a damn who his teammates are. Hell, he doesn't even realise a mission is going on right now, he's just following the icons on the screen. Sound familiar? It should, that's a caricature of the average player in this game. It's exagerrated, but the point still stands. Unless you specifically ask (which quite a few players don't), you won't be grouping up and using communication. These changes will just annoy players more and won't necessarily encourage teamwork in the way you expect.

Ok. I've read through most the discussion here. There are several issues with adding headshots in this game, most of which have been explained already. However, I feel that some of the points have been misunderstood by you @23k. 1. The map design. Presently, getting from place to place orders varying levels of cover, from abundant to scarce. Especially in the park and wider roads. Having headshots be a one shot would make any breaks from cover practically impossible, as more experienced players will just pick you off before you can make a move or complete the run to cover. Even if you factor in everyone using cars to get ANYWHERE that doesn't have cover, this still doesn't resolve the problem. A well organised team with ranged weapons, especially in areas which overlook an open zone with an objective in, will have a huge advantage. 2. Weapons. Headshots will make all long ranged and precise weapons have an incredibly large advantage over the rest. Most of the precision weapons have 60+m effective range. The result? CQC might almost die out, resulting on the use of highly accurate pistols such as the RFP to dispatch close range opponents. 3. Grenades. You know, it wouldn't matter what you do to grenades. You have to partially reveal yourself for a short amount of time to throw the grenade at the opponent. Good players will be able to pick that player off before the grenade is thrown, or with enough time to move out of the way. Furthermore, how do you propose to counter players perched on a roof 80+m away? You certainly can't use normal grenades. The OPGL and OSMAW/AAEPD maybe, but that leaves you susceptible to anyone else taking shots at you. Conversely, if you make grenades one hit kill, what's to stop people from spamming them even more at every corner they can see and reach? 4. Objectives. A lot of objectives can take roughly 10 seconds to complete. During this time, you're stationary. Sure, you can move off if being shot at or you spot someone early, but what about those moments where you don't spot them and they get that headshot on you? Well, your team is down one player and you're also off the point. I was tempted to talk about random headshots occurring when the accuracy is low, but that doesn't really factor in. It's just be another random event that could win you a firefight if you luck out. I don't feel like you've thought this suggestion through enough and weighed up all the problems this would cause. Also, random headshots and people consistently headshotting with a weapon only available on armas would convince newer players that the game is p2w. This change would not affect that mentality at all.

OSCAR. It's satisfying getting min ttks on people with and the mobility you have with the range is excellent.

can we have a substitute for you? As long as you're never considered for it, since why would you be?

OSCAR. Accept no substitute.

Citadel was pretty smooth this evening. Hit registry does feel to drop shots quite often, however. That's just one thing I noticed. Other than that, substantially better than the last week or so. Great stuff.

Man, that was an incredible contest this time round. Was really close, all the way to the end! Congratulations to the winner, Schlepstein, with his incredible theme: please don't know- So, some slight rule changes will be implemented for the next theme scene! Rule Updates: 10 seconds MAXIMUM. This is the limit on how long the theme can be. I know it's longer than 5 seconds (which is the in-game max), but I feel that isn't long enough to have a full theme). I will be timing them. If it's longer, it's disqualified No Collaborations. I've seen a few themes get through where it was a collaboration between two individuals. This has to be ALL your own work. Voting Updates: A judge for Citadel and Jericho. I will try to have less impact on who gets through, since this is a community contest. I will try to get a judge from both citadel and jericho to help pick people to go through into the next rounds. I will still be having an input during the scouting and relegation rounds, however. Kempington's favourite. I will try to have a "Kempington Favourite" that will be announced at the end of the competition, even if said person doesn't win. They will receive a smaller prize, but I'll update here when I find out what that is.

THEME SCENE IS NOW. We're on Citadel at the moment doing the scouting round. We'll be moving to Jericho very soon!

Unless you can prove that, that's definitely a placebo. I sometimes feel like the vas-r2 "sword" recoils less, but I know it doesn't. You be surprised what the mind does in situations where visual and sound are different, but the mechanisms are exactly the same.

I wanted to make sure that this wasn't a power hungry competition where people make themes that they think I will like. I mean there will always be popularity votes, but I wanted to make sure people had some weight in how the competition proceeded. I'll do a test. For this time, I'll keep the polls open for the final few rounds. Next week, I'll try to get 2 or 3 people to judge with me, but not tell me or discuss who they're voting for and make their votes independently then reveal at the end.

It's a bit anecdotal, but you did prove the point about the OSCAR being rewarding if you can keep it on target perfectly. However, as others have said, you were shooting a stationary target who didn't react to you at all. This scenario is not as commonplace as people may be led to believe. In most cases, you're bound to drop 1 shot out of a burst or two, resulting in a 5 burst kill or even 6. Tie that up with it's inherent 0.84 TTK and add on the additional burst or two, you're hitting somewhere between 1-1.3s actual TTK. That's assuming you don't have a shootout scenario with cover. It's great if you catch somebody off-guard, since it can get the shots down range quickly and accurately, but if you're in a headsup gunfight, the opponent can do a few things to throw you off. However, not many will be shooting back. That's where the OSCAR comes into its own. At around the 25-40m mark, there are very few weapons that hipfire like the OSCAR does. Some can do it, but with less guaranteed success or consistency. Others have to rely on marksmanship mode and accuracy loss management. I feel the OSCAR is a run and gunner's wet dream. It's a slower TTK on paper than most other weapons, but it is definitely capable of pulling it off more frequently then said others. As many have said, this is one of the few weapons that has a huge skill requirement and rewards said players who do so.

Here's another thing which I feel people don't appreciate. How used a gun is. I feel there is slight bias sometimes when it comes to peoples' opinions of some weapons due to how much they see them, not how good they actually are. I feel the n-tec is slightly overrated in this regard. I'm by no means saying it's not a powerhouse, but it has plenty of counters that shuts it down. A great example of a weapon that's criminally underused but easily one of the best, if not the best SMG is the s1-na manic. @Eyepop yes, the OSCAR can do these things, but it has to be in the right hands. It's not a forgiving weapon. You're either on target all the time or you're dropping shots.

I'd say it's one of the most balanced weapons in the game. Easy to pickup and use, hard to master. This gun in the right hands can tackle most scenarios, but, it does have various weaknesses that can be exploited to give the OSCAR user a hard time. Maybe shaving 5m off its effective range may help, since it can do some pretty insane things at mid-range, but that might just kill its ability to counter n-tecs effectively. I'd say leave it where it is. It's a great mobile weapon with tons of potency, but can be caught out.

Fair point. I don't feel 5 seconds is enough to make a good theme, though. Limit should be upped to 8-10 seconds honestly. However, we'll leave this open for this week, then next week, we'll enforce 5 seconds only.

Kempington Incorporated Presents... The Theme Scene SEASON 2 EVENT OVER It was fun while it lasted, but sadly people have ruined this event for their own personal gain. I'm very disappointed in those individuals who saw fit to try and manipulate this so they could win the prize money.

Here's my main concern. You're introducing a lot of intricate mechanics to these weapons, that an average player in the game will have no knowledge about, because it isn't explained in-game at all. It's all well and good us knowing about these changes, in a brief sense, but what about the average joe who plays this game, but doesn't necessarily reads the forums. How will he know how the weapon behaves? Sure, you could argue that he could work it out as he goes along, but what if he gets frustrated by it and refuses to use the gun because it doesn't work like he expects? Just a thought. I'd say make sure these changes are documented appropriately in-game, not just in the intro-screen patch notes. Let's talk about the elephant in the room, the HVR. From a balancing perspective, I have to paraphrase what the previous weapon balance guy once told me. This was during a discussion we had to make the HVR-762 not have the ability to equip purple mods on. Essentially, changing the way one weapon behaves in a category with a limitation that the others don't have will confuse players when using the weapon, since they'll have certain expectations on how the weapon will perform. This suggested change isn't much different from banning purple weapon mods on the HVR. Since no other sniper is going to have this accuracy-damage penalty, the HVR will feel clunky and weird. Veterans won't really care, but newer players who expect the weapon to be dishing out tons of damage, won't understand why it's so inconsistent, if they choose to fire just a moment before minimum accuracy is achieved. However, conversely, this change might not do anything at all to the HVR. I would ask kindly that we know more about how this damage penalty will perform and what sort of damage will be lost when the gun isn't fully accurate. I admit, I'll be making an initial reaction to these values, but I will also make an additional post after testing, so you can see the before and after thoughts on this change. I don't want to condemn it now and say it's a bad idea, but it might be nice to see what our thoughts are from the way its described. My honest fix for the HVR is to make it behave more like a turret. It's a big, heavy sniper that can remove players from a gunfight for up to 15 seconds at a time. It's an area-of-denial weapon. In a sense, it can be compared more to the SHAW, than the Scout or other snipers. With this reasoning, make it take longer to setup and acquire accuracy, Let me jot this into notes: Take longer to acquire minimum accuracy when first equipped. Increase the delay from 1 second to 1.5 seconds? Increase the maximum bloom of the weapon. Since you can control its snap-in rate and accuracy recovery rate, this shouldn't be a limitation anymore. Larger accuracy penalty if the player moves at all, even in marksmanship mode. Focus the emphasis on being completely still when taking the shot. It's not a mobile weapon. Add a 1 second delay to the HVR regaining accuracy from any source. This includes, running, moving in marksmanship mode, jumping, etc. Maybe add a small accuracy penalty to the HVR when players change stance from standing to crouch? Remove the crosshair when hipfiring the weapon. Sounds harsh? It should be. The gun is the second most powerful hit-scan weapon in the game and can change the tide of a gunfight in a single shot. I feel the above changes would force players to play a little more carefully when using the weapon and would potentially allow players better options on closing the distance against these players. As it currently stands, it's risky to close the distance on an HVR, due to how mobile it is and how easy it is to snap-fire shots in with it. If you slow this process down and make it more defensive (like the SHAW), I feel this may encourage other long range options, without making the HVR completely useless. Now then, the shotgun changes. I don't know if this is necessarily a good idea. I understand that players may feel the weapons are inconsistent at times, but I don't think that's a fault of the design. I think that's more the hit-registry on the server that's screwing them. With this in mind, is this change meant to be balanced around the server's inconsistent hit registry with shotguns? I want to hear why you felt this change was necessary. Again, this issue revolves around not have enough information to go on. IF we could get an idea on how much extra damage we'll get from "grazing shots" (how much extra damage the initial first pellets will deal), that might be beneficial. As it stands, this will either make shotguns the kind of CQC again with very little options against them, or make no change to them whatsoever. I feel that the pump shotguns require the player to be skilled and keeping their target in the centre of their cross-hairs, but will still allow for some yield, due to the spread. I don't necessarily disagree with the change, but I'm more concerned about the repercussions that this may bring to some of the other shotguns. Let's take the NFAS "True Ogre" for example. The true ogre, in some cases, feels like it breaks the hit registry in the near vicinity. This causes opposing forces to potentially miss more shots than expected, while the nfas spams them down. If this "grazing shot" comes into effect, this might inadvertently buff the true ogre to silly levels, where trying to kill this guy will require out-ranging them. Let's not forget the CSG. The CSG and the JG I feel are pretty well versed against each other. The JG has a higher potential to 2-shot up close and is slightly more forgiving in that category, whereas the CSG has the ability to comfortably poke players slightly further out. This change might make the CSG's "poking" ability that much more potent, meaning SMGs might get short changed here when trying to oppose these players. I agree that shotguns are difficult to balance, but I feel that they're in a pretty good spot presently and this change isn't necessary. However, I'm still interested to see how much of a difference it makes. I will not make an intial thoughts post about the specific changes you're making to the list of weapons below. I'll reserve that for after I've tested them. However, could you clarify the H9-Curse change? It doesn't have any horizontal recoil. It has practically no recoil at all. Is this an error?

I don't know man, I heard top players have found a legendary immortality strategy. It's called "Just press 4"

Because it can do a number on your tracking, especially so when dealing with someone who wobbles or changes direction quickly.

I unfortunately don't remember the video. However, as you described it, the carbine missing shots could easily just be his inaccuracy or the RNG of the carbine, causing him to miss. It's not really good evidence However, there's no good way to prove that shoulderswitching has the effect you describe. But, I'm still extremely confident that after 6000 hours and not seeing a significant difference to shots hitting me or missing whether or not I'm shoulderswitching, that I can conclude that it serves no benefit other than to change the position of your camera.