Heavy Flak is Dead, Long Live Heavy Flak!; or, the day lochnager died...

[Atruejedi]

Hi,

I'm sure most of you have heard of the impending Typhoon heavy flak changes or have even experimented with them yourselves. And now there are changes planned for lochnager ammunition. The glory days of super-satisfying lochnager flak kills are about to become legends we tell our newbchildren in the weeks ahead. But does it have to be this way?

I'll be the first to say the Typhoon heavy flak changes are MOST WELCOME! The gun actually FEELS like a flak cannon now and will be used much more often in the game! Huzzah! Variety!

But what of these lochnager changes? I didn't know there was a problem with lochnager. Yes, it's a niche ammo, but aren't most of them? Not all ammunitions work well with all guns. Greased mercury? Heavy mortar? Lesmok hwacha? Burst flare? The list goes on...

This all being said, I began to wonder... why not add a new ammo type instead of change lochnager ammo? Certainly it wouldn't be difficult beyond creating a new name for the ammo, an icon to represent it, and statistics to go with it. So I ask you: what would you propose, considering the changes Muse has proposed to lochnager?

Honestly, I have no dog in this fight. I just wish to keep lochnager in its current state. I'm only interested in adding a new ammo type to prevent any changes to lochnager ammo as it currently functions.

Further, but much less likely... why not add a new heavy weapon? The Typhoon heavy flak cannon now works as it always should have (IMO), but it used to work like a howitzer... so let's add a howitzer that performs the old flak's function! This new howitzer could function as the Typhoon has for years: wait to strip the armor, take your shot, hopefully connect with the enemy, and do massive damage. The one problem: it would need a new weapon model and animations. Do you think Muse has anything sitting around? Can we crowd-source this?

I think the old "two shots normal clip, one shot lochnager" was pretty much perfect. Hell, you could even make it fire one shot. Or make the shot arc more. I just want that satisfying BOOM! KILL! when the lochnager flak hits an enemy. I'll miss it! Give me a Howitzer!

I'm eager to hear your thoughts on both a "new lochnager" ammo to be added to the game and an "old heavy flak" to be reintroduced into the game!

[The Djinn]

I know many of the gunners I fly/flew with regularly took pride in their ability to hit mid-long range Lochnager Flak shots at the right time, and it felt great for both my crew and myself as a pilot when we got that perfect kill.

I'm fine with the Flak changes but I think they come at the expense of one of the highest-skill gunning moments, and one of the highest "crowning moments of awesome" the game offers, so I'm all in favor of giving us a full howitizer or some other high-skill, high-risk, high-reward weapons.

[Solidusbucket]

I was actually thinking the same thing. Though, to be honest your comparison of a howitzer is a bit off. The weapon we want is a  destroyer of ships with one hit.

[Crafeksterty]

Yes, it's a niche ammo, but aren't most of them?

No, thats why lochnagar is great, because it is probably the 3 or 2 few Niche ammos.
The new Loch waters itself down to the rest of the not niche ammo (sort of).

Having a new ammo type for the new change doesn't change much in terms of usability and a variety of options and makes for more choices, ergo more thinking, or confusion if you are not familiar with them.

[Atruejedi]

I asked Muse in last week's developer chat if they had any assets lying around to make a new "old heavy flak," but they didn't. However, they didn't seem opposed to "re"introducing a gun that performed its old function... anybody wanna cobble together a new model and animations to send to Muse? Even though I'm really excited for the new flak, I'm going to miss the old flak very much... and the old lochnager ammo...

[Richard LeMoon]

They would have to release one of their gun models with it's assets and a tutorial on creation so people could see how they are done first.

[Dawson the Wizard]

I'd like to see a Shrapnel ammo, turning 20% of a gun's primary damage as Flechette.  This would allow Flak and other guns to effectively target balloons, without also minmaxing more Flechette value to Flechette-centric guns.

[Omniraptor]

Though I can sort of see the reasoning behind heavy flak nerf, my hear and soul rebel against it. It's the most fun gun in the game dammit! It's like that cranky mad scientist that is difficult to work with, but once you do figure it out and get good..  holy shit.. A well-designed and fun game needs both http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/PlayingWith/DifficultButAwesome and http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SkillGateCharacters .

However I cannot for the life of me see why they need to change lochnagar. Loch mines already work. Loch lumber/carro already works and is reasonably fun/effective. Why the fuck do you need to touch them? Adding a new ammo type requires recoloring an existing lochnagar particle effect to red, and drawing a new icon (you have a couple unused icons floating around on devapp). That's it. Way less art effort than modeling and animating a new gun. I don't get why muse doesn't just add it as a new ammo type.. It's not like all the ammos aren't niche already. When was the last time you used a charged gatling gun? Heavy clip flamer?

Come on muse! Add a the new loch as a separate ammo type! https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZXsQAXx_ao0/maxresdefault.jpg