Dude, you just HATE splash, don't you? =)
that is true
It would be tremendously foolish to base map design around one thing, but in general, larger maps are more paced, and would achieve what you're talking about here. I agree that if nades become a problem, reducing the amount makes a lot of sense -- perhaps 5/4/3? I wouldn't want to stick an outrider with just 2, because you want to be able to use them for both offensive tactics and maneuverability.
I'd be down with 5/4/3. Like I said, I'd hate to reduce the # of nades people have, because they do add a few elements to gameplay that are useful/fun.
Nades right now are pretty darned bouncy. That bounciness creates chaos, and may well be related to the spamminess you feel is present, but it also creates difficulty. Increasing the fuse time for nades is an option, but that would just mean nades will have more time to bounce around in random directions, and thus, become even more chaotic.
I agree with this, not something I thought of as I was posting before. However, fuse time and bounciness are separate values and can be adjusted as such. So technically you could increase fuse time and decrease bounciness, but perhaps decreasing bounciness would be enough to decrease chaos.
I think this is the crux of your distaste for nades in their current form. As you admit, you were never a fan of splash.
A couple points need to be made.
- Grenades are splash damage weapons. It is their defining characteristic. Just sayin'.
- Given their high bounce and timed fuse (that is, they don't go off until that fuse it up or they've been shot), nades are very much air-burst weapons, and given the speeds at which we move through the air, having splash in the air is kinda critical to their usefulness. Otherwise they'd only be useful on direct hits, and if you're going to direct hit a player, you might as well do it with any of the other weapons. Nades are support tools; they're there to keep the enemy thinking or to drive your foes in certain directions, setting them up for MAs. If nades didn't have enough splash to make them worrisome, enemies wouldn't bother trying to dodge them as much as they do.
The way I look at it is that nades are easy to avoid in their current state, unless being spammed around a small base. So, decreasing splash would decrease the spamminess in bases, but, would not really change anything else, because in most other situations, they're avoidable with the current splash value.
Absolutely not. You completely remove their usefulness as mobility tools if you do that, and right now one of the best aspects of grenades is their enhancement to mobility.
From what I understand, damage and knockback are separate values. Thus, you could keep the knockback for close range combos, but decrease splash spam by not having any damage value until after a certain amount of time/distance. That would keep the mobility aspect but decrease the spam aspect.
#4 is out, and like you said, longer range combos become prohibitively difficult with reduces hitbox size.
Wasn't a big fan of reduced hitbox sizes in the first place, just an idea thrown out there.
Overall, bud, if you're having trouble with splash, practice your energy management so you can stay airborne longer, and back off from your targets. Whenever I get into close combat with someone, I invariably lose; if I remember to keep my distance and time my touchdowns so they happen during my enemies' reload periods, my enemy gets a much greater challenge out of me.
I think it's safe to say I'm pretty dam good at energy management. That's not really the factor here. Also, how much distance do you expect to keep on a base like nivo or moon? There is no distance. No matter how good one is with energy management, they'll die in no time when playing LO vs a competent D. Like I said here:
D is at home. They spawn right there, they generally have more D than the enemy has LO. LO will generally have much less energy due to the jet up to the base, whereas D is just waiting with a full bar of energy... need I go on? D has huge advantages already.
I'm noticing more and more people are starting to bind their nade keys, which is, as I suspected, greatly increasing the spam in bases. Add to that how extremely easy it is to combo... IMO Nades were an excessive buff to D. They are fun, but, I think they should be looked at more to prevent the game from becoming spamtardtastic.
The issue isn't going to be fixed by energy management.
Think of it this way: Before nades, there was a bubble over a base where splash would reach, but, that bubble was fairly easy to stay out of. D already had a huge advantage with this size bubble. Adding nades increased the size of that "splash bubble" which makes it much more difficult to stay out side of, thus, giving D an even larger buff. Think about it, before you could sit on the outside ledge of a base and be fairly safe. They cant splash you, they need to come around the corner to hit you. Now, they simply toss a nade over the side and combo it, splashing you, making you have to move or die. Of course, as soon as you move, you're opening yourself up to more fire. Also, where before splash was concentrated on the ground, now it's not only on the ground, but also quite widespread in the air around a base. It's simply made D super easy.
I would say just revamp the maps with small bases to have bigger bases. That would essentially solve the problem. But, I cant imagine the dev team wanting to do that. So, if not the bases, then the nades should be reworked.
EDIT: also, this guy got it right:
Easier skill curve, as you've just described it, would therefore mean it takes less time/is easier to reach the skill cap. Now if I can refer you to my previous post:
The way I see it, most of the players who get discouraged, and quit, are probably looking for a game like COD. In COD you can jump right in and start getting frags, because COD takes very little skill to play. I think that people should realize that this isn't a game you can just pick up and play. Maybe tutorials would help, and I know there are some out there, but blaming the game is not the answer in my opinion.
