Weapons balance, there have been multiple wierd changes for last few months that were unnecesary.

@entspeak what do you mean hipfire is always going to be much less accurate, same goes for the pistol and the blunder, lets not talk about how things work irl, if youre holding a weapon pointing at someone from your hip, the bullet will not magicaly fly sideways, it will go right in front of the rifle. Why exactly was it a problem, if you do 1v1 standing still, you will lose close combat to pistol, to sword and to blunderbuss even if its accurate, because blunder oneshots you, pistol can shoot 2x faster than you = dead, sword will kill you before you can reload twice, there isnt any problem at all, the only problem was that you could swap quick and kill somebody while they are flying back from the knockback.

@lioner-gerand But it isn't RL, but if it was, by the time you pull a riffle up I could close the distance and stab you dead. Hipfire snipers is a stupid mechanic and I am happy it was fixed.

@lioner-gerand The hipfire nerf for EoR was definitely overkill and bad design. Blunder also has a hipfire problem. The changes to swapping was all that was really needed. I don't mind the dmg nerf on EoR. I would buff the pistol and make the EoR do the same dmg. Make it so that their functionality is what sets them apart. EoR More accurate, shoots farther, and scope. Flint shoots faster, aims faster, and less accurate.

I’ve always thought that the guns should do damage over time, a bleed effect. Similar to the snake bite.

Flintlock shot when it hits does 20 points of damage then every 1 second does 10 damage for 3 seconds.

EoR shot when it hits does 35 points of damage then every second does 5 damage for 8 seconds.

Blunder could stay same or change the bleed points and times for each pellet.

The bleed status can stack. So multiple shots can cause a strong bleed. This bleed status cannot be stopped. However you can eat a banana to add heath similar to when drowning.

This could have kept the mechanics the same. Would just change how fast the time to kill would be.

@lioner-gerand also had a thought for cutlass gameplay. Obviously Rare will not revert back to the original cutlass so we may as well look to the future. What if we keep it the same but now we reward smarter play changing the interaction between combatants.

The Cutlass reach is actually far I suggest that you do 20 points of damage when the opponent is at the end of the reach. 10 points of damage if the opponent is in the middle of the reach. 5 points if the opponent is close in the reach.

To help players know which of the three hits they got on a swing have a audio cue. The current slash cutting sound for 20 points. Then less of a slash for the 10 point and even more less for the 5 points.

Similar mechanics can be applied to the block. If blocking at the farthest distance it’s the current three piece block with the push off on the third block. If a cutlass swing is blocked at medium or close distance there’s a push off.

This would help to stop the blind rushing and button mashing grass cutters we see now.

@entspeak said in Weapons balance, there have been multiple wierd changes for last few months that were unnecesary.:

@lioner-gerand Sniper rifle is a sniper rifle. Hipfire on a rifle is always going to be much less accurate than scoped. It isn’t a CQB weapon. And, yeah, it was a problem when people were using it like the Blunderbuss - which was a lot.

I came here to say this. The Eye of Reach has been rebalanced to be what it is supposed to be... a dedicated sniper rifle. Nerfing the hipfire was necessary to make that happen.

@Chronodusk I understand where you're coming from but when do players EVER need a long-range weapon???
Whenever I play SOT I never find myself needing a sniper in any situation whether I'm pvping or just grinding quests.
If I see a gunpowder skeleton it's close enough for my pistol, when I board another persons ship they're close enough for my blunderbuss, pistol, and sword. When I'm attacking another persons ship its impossible to hit them with a sniper so I just use cannons (unless you're a skeleton on a skeleton ship with aimbot). And surprisingly theirs not many times I find myself fighting people on islands where they're too far away for me to hit with my pistol, even though that's the one situation where I could see myself using a sniper in my mind, So please tell me when do I ever need a bad hitfire sniper rifle.
So unless they make combat more long range I think that they should revert the sniper so you can hitfire again. Please explain if you disagree.

I rather enjoyed the original sword with the more serve penalty for making a foolhardy miss... this current blender warriors run and sword ability really is a shameful de-skilling of the game.

@britishmango05

Well here are some times I use the Eye of Reach these days:

1. Camping an active fort in a tower, waiting for the crew to try and load their mega keg. Then BOOM goes the mega keg! The Eye of Reach is easily the best weapon for the job.

2. I'm chasing a ship, and I snipe their helmsman from my crow's nest

3. I'm being chased by someone with a keg waiting on the tip of their ship, I'm sniping their keg.

4. If I'm solo approaching an island that has a cannon skelly far away (Crook's Hollow, on the top of the island, comes to mind) I'm sniping him off the cannon with my EoR

There are plenty of situations where the Eye of Reach is the best weapon for the job. These are just some I've thought of off the top of my head.

@Chronodusk Very good points!
@lioner-gerand Here's me winning a PVP ship fight thanks to the sniper rifle (start at 4:18)

Sloop Vs Sloop - PVP Quickie 2

@chronodusk I use the EoR as my main weapon when I sloop about. I have plucked potential boarders out of the water many times, eliminated powder keg threats, taken out distant skellies, laid in wait for an irksome crew to drop their goods at an outpost before sniping the barrels I laid strategically for their arrival.

I love me some Eye of Reach.