Barrel Bombardier and pay-to-lose cosmetics

  • I love the look of the Barrel Bombardier set. It's chaotic, piratey, and reminds me of fun characters from other properties like the Krimzon Guard from Jak 2, the bandits from Borderlands, the pirates from Rayman 2, and of course Junkrat from that old game whose name I forget. It also has the very peculiar psychological property of compelling me to stack gunpowder barrels aboard my ship, which is... just great.

    But the weapons. The sword, blunderbuss, and Eye-of-Reach all work fine no matter how they look. But the way we aim with the pistol means that its performance is greatly affected by its cosmetic appearance, and it is the only thing in the game, besides sails, that is really impacted in this way.

    We all know that certain pistols, in particular the Mercenary and its variants (Ebon Flintlock, Aristocrat, Cultured Aristocrat, Silver Blade, Sapphire Blade) are easier to aim with, they essentially have iron sides and a very tidy barrel, and I applaud Rare for not locking these behind a paywall. Most others lack these benefits, but are still useful enough if you aim well with your remaining eye.

    Then there are the pistols that totally block the view of the target. They don't simply lack sights, they obscure your site completely: if you can see you target while aiming with these pistols then you will absolutely not hit it. The parrot pistol and its variants are particularly bad at this, which is a shame because they look really fun. But the Barrel Bombardier pistol is the absolute worst. I can stand right in front of the Weaponsmith's practice target and I have to obscure the entire board to actually hit with a shot, and where I hit will not be revealed until I lower the weapon. I've also practiced with pigs and skeletons, and while I can sometimes hit my unseen targets it is an absurd situation. And against other players, forget about it. They bounce around like Daffy Duck and aiming with this weapon is the equivalent of shutting my eyes and thinking of England.

    This is a real shame, since pistols with flared barrels can very often be the handsomest, or just OTT fun. But essentially impossible to use in practice. When it's an Emporium cosmetic, it becomes "pay-to-lose" which is a very curious business decision on the part of Rare, they can hardly be expected to shift many of these once people start discussing that fact. And again, it looks really cool, except when actually using it. And with a single spiked stud on the barrel that could have been centred on top like a makeshift iron sight, well, that's just taunting me.

    It would be great if pistols whose flared barrels wholly obscure the bullet's trajectory to this degree, such as Bombardier, Parrot, and any others I have not tried, were simply held slightly lower in our first-person view when aiming so we can actually see what we're aiming at. With such a change I think these kinds of cosmetics would see more use, and I for one would very happily drop money on this set, or better yet, on a recoloured version based on the Athena Treasure Keg of Ancient Black Powder.

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  • Most of the emporium sets are pay to lose. Only some of them offer offer non-detrimental gameplay, especially for ship’s cannons and wheels. Both the eternal freedom and cursed ferryman ships offer good gameplay on top of being cool ships.

  • This is not correct.

    All classes of gun shoot the same as their class. The cosmetic doesn't matter.

    An ebon flintlock does not fire differently than say ocean crawler. The shot comes from the same source and direction. Players only think they don't because the cosmetic block the barrel but once you learn how to shoot the guns, they all shoot the same

  • @personalc0ffee said in Barrel Bombardier and pay-to-lose cosmetics:

    This is not correct.

    All classes of gun shoot the same as their class. The cosmetic doesn't matter.

    An ebon flintlock does not fire differently than say ocean crawler. The shot comes from the same source and direction. Players only think they don't because the cosmetic block the barrel but once you learn how to shoot the guns, they all shoot the same

    Yes, I know they all shoot the same, but when enough of your screen is blocked by the barrel of the cosmetic is doesn't matter where your shot is going, because you can no longer see your highly-mobile target. Are you still aiming at them? Did they move within your new blindspot? Who knows? By the time you find out it could be too late.

  • @personalc0ffee sagte in Barrel Bombardier and pay-to-lose cosmetics:

    This is not correct.

    All classes of gun shoot the same as their class. The cosmetic doesn't matter.

    An ebon flintlock does not fire differently than say ocean crawler. The shot comes from the same source and direction. Players only think they don't because the cosmetic block the barrel but once you learn how to shoot the guns, they all shoot the same

    This ☝
    Just learn and practice more with the cosmetic of your choice

  • Lunar festival sails have a advantage like da sails.

  • [mod edit] I can see where you are getting at. The pistol is large and clumsy and you cannot see properly with it. However, if you are an experienced player with the pistol (not to flex but that's me) then you have no problem hitting your shots.

    So while I can see that the complaint will come from players who do not always use the pistol, and no that is not meant to be offensive, you can be good at the game without being good with the pistol. But those with pistol experience have no problem with it whatsoever.

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