Before I begin: This is not a post asking for quickswap to return - the Developers have made themselves clear that this is not something they intend. So I don't want to see any arguments about why quickswap should stay or go because that is not what this thread is about. This thread is about how post- qs patch has effected gunplay for the worse, and how we could improve it to make it more fluid, consistent, and feel natural instead of the clunky mess we have currently.
Quickswitching was removed last year to try to improve the consistency of gunplay, and making sure one player doesn't have an unfair advantage over another. Everyone can shoot at the same time right?
However, I'm going to explain how swapping between 2 guns is arguably more unfair now than it was pre-quickswap patch and what the developers can do to fix that.
It has been stated in the Release Notes 2.9.1 that the intention of the developers is to allow players to move a short distance, without being forced to suffer the full wield delay. In this post I will prove that this patch has not been effective, and there is still an unwanted delay which results in unexpected, and unfair behavior.
----From the developers at Rare:----
Gunplay in Motion
- The removal of quick switching in October’s update created an unwanted wield delay during regular gunplay, preventing players from firing quickly after moving.
- While preserving the original quick switching fix, this update now readdresses the change to ensure that when firing a weapon and switching, players who move a short distance are no longer forced to use the full wield delay and can fire much more quickly.
Source: https://www.seaofthieves.com/release-notes/2.9.1
[Point 1]
A player that sprints and stops too quickly after firing is penalized with an additional wield delay/second wield animation. This means that even if you fired the first shot, your second shot maybe SLOWER than another player due to sprinting for a short duration. The inconsistency which makes the weapons feel CLUNKY to use. (You will be able to see examples in the videos at the bottom of this post.)
Technical explanation why this happens:
The developers intend for a 1 second delay (1000 ms) after shooting your first shot before you can ADS your second weapon and fire. The ADS animation accounts for another 1/4 second (about 250-300 ms) meaning the fastest you're intended to shoot both shots while aiming is ~1250-1300 ms
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If you shoot - swap - sprint for less than 1000 ms since your first shot: you will play the full wield animation causing an additional 1000 ms delay.
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If you shoot - swap - sprint for longer than 1000 ms since your first shot: you can ADS and shoot right away.
This means that even if you shoot first, and both you and your opponent sprint - ending your sprint just a few ms too early, and your opponent ending their sprint perfectly timed - They will shoot their second shot up to a full second faster than you do. Is that fair?
Solution:
The simplest and easiest way to make the guns feel really nice and smooth again is to no matter what- allow ADS / shooting after 1000 ms has past.
This means that if you shoot - swap - sprint for less than 1000 ms since the first shot, you will begin the wield animation, but as soon as the 1000 ms has past the wield animation will be interrupted by the ADS animation.
This is the intended delay, and would 100% get rid of the clunkiness and inconsistency which is currently felt, while ensuring that all players can shoot the same speed.
[Point 2]
Before the quickswap patch, everyone was capable of doing a quickswap (provided they knew how) - however since quickswap was patched it has become something cheaters can enable in a mod menu. Something we all once were capable of and able to compete with has become exclusive to people that cheat. Leading to greater unfairness when coming across cheaters.
Solution:
This is a call to action. I am making Rare aware of the problem they probably already knows exists. Rare is able to combat some cheats in the past such as the cannon teleport, instant ladder, instant repair, etc. We need Rare to patch out the methods cheaters use to quickswap.. because now that quickswap has been removed - no legitimate player is capable of it as we once were.
With these two fixes in place we can have a more level playing field, and a fluid gaming experience. Because even though Rare has made attempts to fix quickswap - it's inadvertently created more problems than it's solved and I hope this post can help bring light to these issues that have gone on for too long.
Example of different forms of delay:
https://youtu.be/ViV3WYz9-4g
Video proving the current system is unbalanced/unfair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8gYHFhnMss
EDIT:
-------From the discussion amongst players in the pages of this thread-------
To save time from reading deep into the pages of this post - there was a long discussion that the wield animation should play in full 100% of the time because otherwise it would be an "animation cancel".
- I would like to point out this is not the developers intentions as stated in the patch notes referenced above.
- If this is the case that animations should not be interrupted in any way, then why is this not the case with other weapons such as the sword - which can attack before the full wield animation completes? (See example in the link below)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT4QUzCykmM](Example video showing the sword does not need to complete the full wield animation before being allowed to Attack)
Furthermore - it is proven that animations can be interrupted/blended in a way that looks nice and is coherent to the player. Once your weapon is in a ready state - every time you sprint and your gun is beginning the wield animation you can aim and see how nicely it transitions. As my recommendation is to allow players to sprint after firing, and they may begin the wield animation, but once the Ready-To-Fire timer has expired between the first and second shot allow the player to interrupt/blend the animation into an ADS action. Meaning that everyone can shoot at the same speed and there is no imbalance between 2 players that choose to sprint. (See example of animation blending in the link below)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMc-8pjs58Y](Example video of blending the wield and ADS animation)
