Quickswap - a whole-hearted plea

I do feel for competitive players that largely kept to competitive play

but the ones that have spent years trying to (and succeeding in some cases) get "tools not rules" altered to serve their win conditions...not so much.

People are lucky it's lasted as long as it has imo considering out of all of the long existing and interesting things taken away recently it's the only one that was clearly unintentional and clearly an exploit (the entire time, not just after it gets put on the naughty list).

Personally I've never cared that people use it, I'm just too aware of how little it will change in random adventure, but overall it's an appropriate and necessary change because of what I mentioned above imo.

The anchor change happening before quick swap is wild to me. The anchor play was as tools not rules as tools not rules gets in a game like this and changing it literally just lead to more camping. Something people that quick swap pushed for, yelled about, and laughed about when changed, just like the red sea change.

The plea should be for new weapons to the armory. Holy cow.

We could have an axe, a dagger, three different sword types of varying damage and speed, throwing knives, a crossbow.

We could have a double barreled flintlock, we could have dual flintlocks, we could have muskets, we could have different versions of the crack in the glass of the scope of the eye of reach.

New throwable: smoke bomb

I’m sure other people can think of even more cool stuff to add.

I also like to CQC. I'm really excited about the changes as a member of the PvPvE community.

@goldsmen I think you might have slightly misunderstood. I accept that the delay between shots will be longer, and I'm not bothered about doublegunning becoming less viable/less fair because of this.

It might be tough to understand as a non-tdm player but using quickswap is just a technique which all tdmsers use and love. it makes the game flow well and makes combat feel smooth and clean.

My plea is that they fix the timing of shots without butchering the animations. The reason I quickswap is because if you shoot, swap, stand still, it breaks the flow of movement and combat. Quickswapping means there isn't a jarring gap between the animations for changing guns. If they made it so you can still animation cancel but just have to wait longer before you can shoot, the change wouldn't be that bad.

My concern currently is that they will put a harsh, artificial delay between the animations. If you can't see how this would ruin the game for me, watch a TDM montage (there are thousands on youtube) and imagine any of the 2 tap clips with a forced gap between switching guns.

I think removing quickswap the way they're talking about it now will not make a noticeable difference to balance (double gunning will still have a higher skill ceiling than sword), but will just make the game less enjoyable for certain players. If a change is only neutral for most players and negative for some, then I think it should really be reconsidered.

TL:DR, they can change the time between shooting guns (I don't care about that), but forcing full animations when switching guns will make the game feel clunky and ruin the flow of play for many people.

@tesiccl I am not complaining about the "nerf" that this will be to doublegunning. That will be negligible.

I think doublegun will be just as viable afterwards.

Maybe you misunderstand what quickswap is. It's not like gallylaunch where you just press a button and gain an extra advantage for free. It's a skill you need to learn to use and apply. Maybe it is still unbalanced, fine, but it also made doublegunning extremely satisfying and rewarding to play just from a visual and game "feel" or "flow" perspective - the animation cancel FELT really good, regardless of quicker shooting. This is what drew myself and numerous others to this playstyle - it's got an amazing flow of gameplay where combat and movement blend together in a really amazing way.

I am saying that they should try and keep that smooth transition while fixing the reduced shooting time. This way they can achieve the balance they want while keeping the "feel" of doublegunning.

What worries me now is that they say something like "if you try and quickswap after the change it will take longer to shoot than if you don't quickswap" - it makes me think they're adding some kind of hard gap between switching weapons which will break that "flow" of combat and movement. I really hope they don't do this. Quickswap is not just a "crutch" to get a free advantage, it's a way of making play feel smooth and I really hope they can keep that aspect of it.

@sweetsandman There is a whole debate to be had over what an "exploit" really is and if a game should be considered only how the developers intended it to be or if it should be seen as a construct of player culture and how the developers' creation - intentional or not - evolves and changes through players' use of it. Not a debate for today, though it's an interesting one.

I do agree with you on your second point. We can only hope they have made the change a nuanced one that has kept the good aspects of quickswap while removing just the ones which they consider "unbalanced". My original post was really intended as a plea for them to do exactly that - keep the "smooth" feel of doublegunning which quickswap brought it.

@triheadedmonkey really disappointing response.
dismissing an entire way of playing the game because you do not play the same way is truly a shame. I could say that all the sot streamers who do pve stuff and chat are "all the same" with slight variations in presentation. And I'd be wrong and be dismissing a diverse area of the game's community because I do not have any experience in it.

I think certain parts of this change (making it so you can't shoot faster tham they intended) are inevitable and understandable.
But I think purely "how the devs intended" is not a steadfast argument here. If they just changed the timing and left the ability to cancel animations, it would remove the harmful 'unbalanced' aspect while leaving the smooth, clean aspect which people so love.
The change as it stands now has unnecessary negative consequences.
As I tried to demonstrate above, it's not just about "muscle memory", it's about a flow of play which is only possible by sprinting between shots, regardless of how quickly you shoot.

I think a really important part of game development is evaluating the game based on its current state rather than some "vision" you have for its' ideal state. If there are things in the game with no negative impacts, which people have come to love and cherish, then they should be considered a valuable feature of the game. This is organic growth!

That is what I was trying to articulate with my mention of Rare's talented design team; we have here an unintended game behavior which turned out at least partially improving the flow of gameplay for some - it's an opportunity to look at this and try to polish the good parts of it, keep them in the game, while removing unbalanced, unfair parts of it. I know if rare put their minds to it, they could create a solution for blending switching weapons with movement smoothly without an exploit.

As it stands now, it sounds like they will not do this, and will make a more ham-fisted change which will remove all aspects of quickswap, even the good, ENTIRELY harmless ones! I really hope they can use a more creative solution here.