Ahoy, everyone!
There is a high chance you might be recently addicted to the Blunderbuss while reading this, but keep in mind, its a suggestion to make the game balanced, if you are winning all the time due to using the same technique over and over again, that's good for you, but not for the game. It needs a balance to everyone, so PVP battles become dynamic and unpredictable, so feel free to read my suggestion and disagree afterward, I even made you a nice Meme.
All player encounters on the ship deck are close encounters. Within Arena sessions, Blunderbuss is used by almost every single player in the match, and the reason behind this increased usage is evident that it is overpowered. Even if it doesn't kill you, it knocks you back to oblivion; I remember when Blunderbuss was one shot kill at early days after launch, then it was removed, but now it is back again.
Every encounter I get with a Blunderbuss, I have to jump to open waters or stay at a significant distance to get them since their mechanic is always the same used by all players.
Scenario One:
They give you the impression that your sword lunge will get them.
They Move far the moment you dash.
You are resting from a missed Sword Lunge.
Boom, one shot kill you.
Scenario Two:
They Drop your anchor, at least one member goes to grab it.
Boom, one shot kill you.
Scenario Three:
Players that do not care about winning the Arena, They spawn Camp at your ship and Blunderbuss you the moment you spawn. One shot kills you over and over again.
I don't want to seem like I am incapable of PVP from this post. I still win most of my battles, I also sail with some of the finest PVPers in the seas from Rogue Legends and others like HitboTC, but some of them even noticed the same issues. Not everyone is capable of PVP as the waters have many casual players in the game, who do rage quit and never get back due to the reason of feeling useless or incapable in anything they do. Me as a Game developer, making the player feel useless is one of the top factors of driving players away.
Suggestion:
Keep the one-shot kill for Blunderbuss, but make weapons have weight. In terms of Coding, adjust player jump height and running speed when carrying each gun, not to forget cannon launch speed. It should be a straightforward code. This will give a higher chance for the Flintlock player like myself and many others to Evade a Blunderbuss player or someone with two guns. If someone is Carrying two Guns, he will deal very high ranged damage but runs much slower.
This will add Dynamics to Chasing each other on islands or while swimming, instead of a fixed running and swimming speed for all players going on an endless chase like a dog chasing his tail.
thank you,