IMMMEEEEDIATE feedback on the harpoon gun (and a COMMUNITY BRAINSTORM on an alternate "Tools not Rules" means of balance in the comments.)

Alot of places arent obvious that you cant grapple to them, and still it uses up an arrow if you successfully hit them

Thing just got released. It a time for trial and error. Learning what is and isn’t.
So what it breaks, it a powerful tool when used.

I wouldn't mind if there was some kind of visual indicator if you were scoped in on something that was non-harpponable. Crosshairs that change colors, or even just some little pop-up on the side of the screen similar to the merfruit timer. Then, a pirate makes the choice to shoot at something they theoretically know will waste a harpoon.

The harpoon is just bad, people were so worried about it being over powered that it seems it was nerfed into the ground, it has nearly no range so you cant harpoon some items that is well with in range of ship harpoons, nor pull your self to the island while seemingly in range. And i dont understand the point in nerfing the ability to swap weapons for the sake of locking people in to the harpoon if it is now useless for boarding in most cases.

When something is changed for the sake of balance and that change is deemed balanced, then why change the other thing so the first change was pointless to begin with? Its just too overly nerfed before it even launched, they should have launched it a bit stronger, and then adjusted it down from launch, not the other way around.

I'd be fine if Rare decided to make ships totally immune to the grapple gun, no boarding or pulling in close from the water. In exchange I'd like to see a drastic reduction to these "exclusion zones", a large buff to the harpoon distance, and unlimited ammo.

@oolnokk we already have hit markers, player/NPC names, chat boxes, ammo indicators, health indicators, mermaid respawn indicators, prompts with button symbols, and commendation/treasure/rep pop-ups.

The sniper has crosshairs in the form of a cracked lens. I imagine something similar that would maybe "catch light" and change color when looking at something un-harpoonable.

From a personal standpoint, I would struggle a lot with zoom changes, although if they weren't extreme it wouldn't be too bad. I struggled a lot with motionsickness when I first started playing and avoid the sniper because the zoom disorients me.

While using the grappling gun, I have noticed two things that I would consider problems:

1. I find myself often trying to harpoon to a surface I think is in range, but actually isnt.
2. Ammo usage frustrates me often.

Example: Youre on thieves haven- top of the island. You want to cross to the big stone beam in the middle, solid and clear surface. You shoot your first shot- you lose a harpoon cus its too far away. You aim to a slightly closer rock, or move forward a few steps, harpoon again. You shoot over to it. Your hop wasnt high enough- time to shoot another harpoon making sure its right at the lip, and you vault up. Perfect. Except, you only have two harpoons left, and then youre off to your secondary. AND youve only actually used the harpoon to traverse one area where it is needed, despite using 3 harpoons

This, of course, is a subjective issue. Some people may be able to gauge the distance needed perfectly, and it all comes with experience using it. And after awhile, you know exactly how the tool works. But its not fun to "learn" in its current state, while trying to traverse an island large enough to warrant using it.

My solutions to the problem would be:

1. Remove the ammo limitation entirely, making it infinite ammo.
2. Every time the harpoon is fired- if it successfully lands on something valid- it operates as intended. If it lands on an invalid surface, it makes a distinct sound that it didnt stick- and leaves you with an empty harpoon.
3. "Reload" would make your player wind the harpoon back, maybe a 3 second long reload animation of the player cranking it back in like a fishing line. (Think of this harpoon gun more like a spring-loaded, reusable, tool rather than an actual gun loaded with harpoon "rounds")
4. Increase the range of the harpoon by about 2/3 meters. Right now its simply not taking me to ledges I think it would be designed for.

I think this version of the harpoon gun would be a lot more in-line with the traversal identity that Rare have stated they envision for it. It truly would be swapping a weapon out for a tool when you think youll need it.

I also think this iteration of the harpoon gun would be much more fun to use as a new player, or even a seasoned one. You would take more shoots, and be excited to actually use the tool to get around, instead of a sad walk back to your boats ammo box when you ran out of harpoon ammo in the middle of exploring something interesting.

They shouldn't have added it. No one was asking for it. The way it was (when they initially advertised it) would've created balancing issues. To counter these balancing issues, they locked the armory. Then they nerfed the gun anyway, but kept the armory locked.

Creating their own problems and then failing to solve them prior to launching the update. Nothing surprising.

I remember when the game was new(er), players were asking for a boarding axe. This could've been a fun alternative melee weapon; would have given boarders other options than grabbing ladders (climb up the hull), but could have been slow and obvious enough to be countered by crews that pay attention. Some folks suggested using it to break repair-planks, giving it even more utility.

The knives make sense. Double barrel flintlock makes sense. Boarding axe would've fit right in...

Instead, they spent however much dev time on a grapple gun that doesn't work as previously advertised, and barely works as it should.

It's a grappling hook.
It should not have ammo, it should not need reloading, and it should work whenever it hits anything.

Shoot, retract, shoot again.
No ammo, no reload, and always pull or get pulled no matter what it hit.

Either Infinite ammo high range and armory changes revert. or being able to grapple ships but armory is still locked

@sharkfire75 said in IMMMEEEEDIATE feedback on the harpoon gun (and a COMMUNITY BRAINSTORM on an alternate "Tools not Rules" means of balance in the comments.):

Either Infinite ammo high range and armory changes revert. or being able to grapple ships but armory is still locked

They definitely need to do something to make up for it if all of the nerfs for it were made specifically for boarding balance, only to make it pointless for boarding. If they dont want it to be any use in boarding, they need to make it much more versatile everywhere else and revert the other boarding aspects that were nerfed so the harpoon would not be too strong.

A big issue i have as well is the simple claim that the only ship they allow to be boarded directly with the grapple is the galleon while claiming it would be too strong on other ships. But at the same time the sloop is single handedly the tankiest ship with the brig being second in that line, while the galleon is already the most easily overwhelmed ship in the game. Throw a little fire, punch a couple holes and then use a curse, the sloop will recover in moments, while the galleon is going to spend quite some time with all hands trying to recover.