Lesmok 1.3.1

[awkm]

The new Lesmok surely does make aimming both the Light and Heavy Mortars a piece of cake. The projectile speed increase is crazy.

I do enjoy this change, but something needs to be done about the Flaks that are getting the short end of the stick with this change.

Heavy Flak, sure.  Lesmok was a crutch for an already sick gun.  Lesmok being its default ammo is bad.  1 option = no option = no fun.

Light Flak, really?  It's clip size is 4, a -20% and -30% have the same effect.  4 * 0.7 = 2.8 rounded up to 3.  4 * 0.8 = 3.2 rounded down to 3.  So... what's the real complaint here?

[Shinkurex]

I think that the reason why light flak got the short end of the stick, was due to the fact that with lesmok, it makes the Mortar a "Light flak" in a sense... with more ammo.... should be an easy balance though

[awkm]

Yes, easy balance.

[Sammy B. T.]

Perhaps this is crazy but what if the ammo reduction was 50%. We would still be seeing 1 shot for heavy carronade, flak, merc, and flare, and the high capacity weapons would be not so high capacity. People may still use lesmok on the light mortar, but there would now be large arguments to use other rounds.

[awkm]

Yes, I was thinking of that as well.  ALL THE TOUGH CALLS TO BE MADE. 

fml

[Imagine]

I think that the reason why light flak got the short end of the stick, was due to the fact that with lesmok, it makes the Mortar a "Light flak" in a sense... with more ammo.... should be an easy balance though

I'm not entirely sure that's the fault of Lesmok though, I mean in the past month or so almost everyone has switched to using mortars over light flak anyways.

[Sammy B. T.]

People were gradually seeing the mortar as the better brawler choice at the end of Cogs season 1. I was content with my flaks though as I was using a more precise timing system for my flaks. Then they specialized heavy (I refuse to call it a nerf). Light flak was all but killed by this as it generally needs heavy but only three shots is not viable except in certain long range situations (Polaris Company vs Raft cog match comes to mind). Along with the rest of the world, I switched to light mortar. However, now with the new lesmok, mortars can now shoot with almost the same accuracy as the light flak. Its not the nail in the coffin but instead the spit put over the grave.


Also awkm, as much as we hate your changes, we the community love you very much. Keep up the good fight. Let these otters holding hands keep your spirits up. They do this so they don't float away when they sleep.

[Echoez]

50% ammo reduction would be a bit harsh for the Mortar, I can see it working with 40% though.

50% reduction leaves you with 8 shots, 40% reduction leaves you with 10 shots.

[Sammy B. T.]

The mortar though is shooting with pinpoint accuracy, does it need ten shots? I think putting it to 50% would just allow for a larger variety of ammos to be used but I can still see people using lesmok. Regardless I think the best rebalance is to further decrease clip size and like your number as well

[Echoez]

Mmm. You might be right, I might have to look at the total damage caused by these shots. 50% might actually be better.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

This would change the amount of ammo in a Lumberjack too though - I don't think this gun needs a nerf.

[Echoez]

This would change the amount of ammo in a Lumberjack too though - I don't think this gun needs a nerf.

I did the math, even 50% would reduce the LJ's ammo to 3.5, which then rounds up to the current 4 with Lesmok, doesn't affect it.

[Rainer Zu Fall]

What about a banshee and the flamer?

Lumberjack has 6 shots, right? So 30% now would be 1.8 - leaving us with 4.2. 50% though would leave us with 3, which is one less. Considering one shot less per clip with the reload time does quite a difference, I think.

[N-Sunderland]

This would change the amount of ammo in a Lumberjack too though - I don't think this gun needs a nerf.

I did the math, even 50% would reduce the LJ's ammo to 3.5, which then rounds up to the current 4 with Lesmok, doesn't affect it.

The lumber has 6 shots base, so you'd get three.

[Captain Smollett]

2 separate thoughts here:

I think the way to reel back in the mortar is to decrease the speed boost from lesmok.  The 80% is what's causing the problem, further ammo reduction seems unnecessary.

...

The reason why the light flak has come out of favor is 2 fold.

The flak was used heavily in competitive play and emulated in pubs due to it's pinpoint precision killing power with heavy clip.  Though a mortar had way more power and was better in close range a flak was practically infallible.  If you buffed it and used heavy clip, any ship besides a goldfish or galleon would evaporate when the armor dropped.  Well timed light flaks could actually reload and finish galleons as well before they fully rebuilt and goldies easily had their armor brought back down.

Before the heavy clip was changed, light mortar lost its jitter.  This started the transition where about 20-30% of players actually started preferring mortar because it became possible to hit with.  Many older competitive teams stuck with the flak for its precision but newer teams started experimenting with the raw power of the mortar.

Then heavy clip caused light flak to lose a shot.  That was, as Sammy described, the nail in the coffin.  The flak invariably became obsolete since in a 1v1 brawl even if the flak ship dropped the mortar ships armor; it couldn't secure the kill, so the mortar ship would rebuild and kill the flak ship first even if the flak ship had the advantage.

So precision vs raw power doesn't become a debate if precision can't secure a kill with 1 clip.  So in a way heavy clip light flak has the exact same problem as lesmok heavy flak.  Guns that used to be very good due to their accuracy, lost their competitive edge due to the inability to 1 clip kill.