Author Topic: Mercs  (Read 39863 times)

Offline Pickle

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #30 on: April 06, 2013, 07:59:57 am »
But your Lumberjack-Merc Galleon is vulnerable to Squids, unless you have closer range guns on the other broadside and you can cover your back with a wall.

It's what makes the game interesting, it's rock-paper-scissors where there's always a counter that's vulnerable to something else.

Offline Connor Mc.

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #31 on: April 06, 2013, 11:33:30 am »
So Goldie vs Merc Pyra should have a lumberjack over a Hwacha?

Offline N-Sunderland

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #32 on: April 06, 2013, 11:40:25 am »
So Goldie vs Merc Pyra should have a lumberjack over a Hwacha?

I find that the Goldfish's front gun is way too easy to take out for it to be effective against a merc Pyra.

Offline Connor Mc.

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #33 on: April 06, 2013, 12:06:32 pm »
So Goldie vs Merc Pyra should have a lumberjack over a Hwacha?

I find that the Goldfish's front gun is way too easy to take out for it to be effective against a merc Pyra.

Very true, so no Goldies at all? Or only Goldfish's when I become the greatest Pilot in the universe?

Offline Pickle

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #34 on: April 06, 2013, 12:35:01 pm »

So Goldie vs Merc Pyra should have a lumberjack over a Hwacha?

I find that the Goldfish's front gun is way too easy to take out for it to be effective against a merc Pyra.

Very true, so no Goldies at all? Or only Goldfish's when I become the greatest Pilot in the universe?

Rock, Paper, Scissors..

If you're opponent has Paper and you persist in trying Rock - it doesn't matter whether you polish it or roll it in glitter, it's still a turd.

Offline Connor Mc.

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #35 on: April 06, 2013, 12:36:01 pm »

So Goldie vs Merc Pyra should have a lumberjack over a Hwacha?

I find that the Goldfish's front gun is way too easy to take out for it to be effective against a merc Pyra.

Very true, so no Goldies at all? Or only Goldfish's when I become the greatest Pilot in the universe?

Rock, Paper, Scissors..

If you're opponent has Paper and you persist in trying Rock - it doesn't matter whether you polish it or roll it in glitter, it's still a turd.

so rocks are turds? you'll just stain the paper

Offline Pickle

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #36 on: April 06, 2013, 01:18:38 pm »

So Goldie vs Merc Pyra should have a lumberjack over a Hwacha?

I find that the Goldfish's front gun is way too easy to take out for it to be effective against a merc Pyra.

Very true, so no Goldies at all? Or only Goldfish's when I become the greatest Pilot in the universe?

Rock, Paper, Scissors..

If you're opponent has Paper and you persist in trying Rock - it doesn't matter whether you polish it or roll it in glitter, it's still a turd.

so rocks are turds? you'll just stain the paper

Wipe'n'flush.  And don't forget to wash your hands.

Offline Helmic

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #37 on: April 06, 2013, 10:14:03 pm »
Mercs can be beaten, but beating it with special builds and OTHER snipers isn't the best way to go about it, this is why snipers are so hated in many other games and so much time is spent designing new mechanics to make it easier to counter snipers (like TF2's kill cam showing you where the Sniper's hiding), you don't want the game to consist solely of snipers and those trying to kill them.  Rock paper scissors is actually a horrible thing to compare a video game's balance to for anything that can't be changed mid-game, I mean when's the last time you had real fun playing rock paper scissors?  It's an example of something that's balanced but not fun, you're just as likely as your opponent to pick a hard counter but its mostly luck whether you pick what your opponent's weak to, you're at a disadvantage over something other than skill.

It's more tolerable in a game like TF2 (the engineer/spy and spy/pyro relationships) because you're one of many players and you personally dying to one person on the other team doesn't matter much, especially since you can swap your class whenever you die.  There's enough players that the rock paper scissors relationship become a contest to see which team can better balance their team to fit the situation.  In a game where you're committed to a choice for the duration of a match or save file (RPG's are the worst place to have rock paper scissor balance by far) it feels cheap, that the player who just beat you won because of something beyond your control.  You just kind of accept that you're going to lose to worse players because you picked the wizard at character creation and they picked the witchhunter, not fun stuff.

That being said, I think the issue is more with the maps than any real fault of the Merc.  We're flying huge, relatively slow-moving ships in the sky where you generally aren't going to find much of anything other than clouds and the occasional mountain.  Those are the perfect conditions for sniping and if military airships were a real thing they probably would be all about the range, we see this in science fiction with starships all the time.  The only thing working in our favor is the setting's limited technology and low altitudes.  On Dunes you spawn in the open with nothing to put between you and the enemy snipers.  It'd be nice if there were more maps like Canyon, with lots of cover and little opportunity for sniping.  Things are densest in Desert Scrap but I've yet to meet anyone that actually enjoys that glitchy campfest.  If it weren't for that achievement...
« Last Edit: April 06, 2013, 10:22:11 pm by Helmic »

Offline Machiavelliest

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #38 on: April 07, 2013, 03:59:08 am »
With the max range of a Lumberjack quoted (as per the Wiki ... I can't find the forums post since gun stats went to graphical display in-game) at 1200m, it's roughly 1/3 the range of the Merc.  This is why I think clouds and such are the important parts.  If I put max range between a Merc and a Lumberjack, it will take the Lumberjack nigh on a minute just to close the gap head-on, full speed.

Offline Moriarty

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #39 on: April 07, 2013, 08:34:41 am »
think your looking at old data or something info on the website says its something like 3800 no i have no clue if that's practical range or distance traveled before the shell explodes.

Now i am a lumberjack fan BUT they need to work in conjunction with another gun, this is the reason you rarely see a double jack on a galleon, but often see the Flakjack.

The merc has no such limitations

Offline Phoebe

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #40 on: April 07, 2013, 09:36:38 am »
With the max range of a Lumberjack quoted (as per the Wiki ... I can't find the forums post since gun stats went to graphical display in-game) at 1200m, it's roughly 1/3 the range of the Merc.  This is why I think clouds and such are the important parts.  If I put max range between a Merc and a Lumberjack, it will take the Lumberjack nigh on a minute just to close the gap head-on, full speed.

I can hit lumbers well past 1200m - I've taken balloons down on opposite spawn on Dunes and Fjords within 10 seconds of either ship moving;- the range is far beyond massive - the "practical" range of a lumberjack isn't set in stone;- it's a variable that differs per gunner

Offline Moriarty

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #41 on: April 07, 2013, 10:06:27 am »
I can hit lumbers well past 1200m - I've taken balloons down on opposite spawn on Dunes and Fjords within 10 seconds of either ship moving;- the range is far beyond massive - the "practical" range of a lumberjack isn't set in stone;- it's a variable that differs per gunner

By practical distance i don't mean accuracy. I mean the distance the shell can travel between points A and B assuming perfect gunning.

Obviously since it arcs a lot it'll loose at least a 1/4 of its paper range, probably even more. I say this on the fairly save assumption that the range of the shell is measured by the total distance traveled in the parabolic curve.

Offline N-Sunderland

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #42 on: April 07, 2013, 10:41:31 am »
By practical distance i don't mean accuracy. I mean the distance the shell can travel between points A and B assuming perfect gunning that Morblitz is shooting.

Fixed

Offline Piemanlives

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #43 on: April 08, 2013, 12:45:46 am »
I played a match where I loaded a double merc prym. my team mates would close in while me and my crew would hang back and disable them or pound their hull into oblivion.

Offline Moriarty

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Re: Mercs
« Reply #44 on: April 08, 2013, 02:50:52 am »
actually just seen that the light motor out ranges the Artemis rocket launcher on paper, anyone that's even thought of comparing the relative ranges knows this simply inst true, and just means the light motor will very  rarely (if ever) air burst.

I'd propose the lumber/merc dynamic is exactly like this