[FoF] Explaining the deep gameplay changes of recent

VaultBot

I'm Vintage's pet bot, I can't reply to PMs/posts.
Howdy! Around October 22 update things started to change, quite a lot. Let me list the meaty part of them:

  • Hammerless pocket revolver was introduced (fast firing, low damage, 5 rounds)
  • Schofield, Smith carbine and portable whiskey jug not available as stock items
  • Yellowboy included in loadout menu (along -30% damage decrease)
  • Deringer was left as secondary only option but cheaper
  • several weapon balances: Mare's Leg, sawed-off shotgun and bow
  • no speed slowdown while walking backwards, lesser slowdown after jumping
  • no duck-jump possible when charging forward, less impulse gained from multiple hops
  • notoriety scoring system revamped: rewards got re-scaled so difference among smaller and biggest is double than triple
  • carried physic props may drop easily when jumping or touching other solids
  • Tracking skill: footprints from enemies are visible for a short amount of time. This one replaces Gentleman perk
  • walking mode gets a big accuracy decrease
  • handgun skills revamped: increased accuracy for ambidextrous, small decrease for left-handed, right-handed gets a "sharpshooter" mode that replaces fanning
  • fanning handgun skill: improved handgun secondary fire mode (increased accuracy, speed while moving, fire rate)

OVERVIEW
These changes focus mostly on Shootout/Team Shootout and their variants. If they could be summarized, I guess the intention here is to bring some more diversity to the table while limiting certain underlying issues. Predominant tactics make games stale, more predictable, over the time. These defects could be appreciated in FoF in the form of: all over jump-kicking, left handed revolvers and 1-shot weapons.

WHY JUMP-KICK IS AN ISSUE
This maneuver isn't wrong by itself, it's just bad because lag and how internet things work. Multiplayer games try to convince you that other players are where you see them on your screen, but they aren't, they are generally closer than they appear so they can hit you from relatively far away due lag and false perception. Duck-jump makes this issue worse, by making you completely defenseless while the other player gets a minimal risk at doing this action.

So these recent changes made things a bit harder in this regard by limiting forward push and giving players the option to back at higher speed. Do you think it is too much, too little, well, I tried to make my point.

LEFT-HANDED, WALKING AND OTHER ACCURACY RELATED STUFF
Left-handed gave a 30% accuracy bonus at the expense of having terrible dual-wield accuracy. The thing is accuracy is mostly preferred over dual-wield, so other handgun skills were irrelevant for the most part. The changes make things less white-black, as left-handed still gives the quickest time to stop and shoot, while right-handed can be used for a more fluid movement, and fanning skill gives a sensation of uncontrolled power that I personally like to use from time to time.

Walking allows you to move without stopping completely. I think it simply was too good, too easy, too limiting in the diversify department. Changes make it only usable for very close range, but still is feasible.

NOTORIETY
Previous scale gave 4 points to top tier weapons and 15 to fists. The gap was simply too wide, if you wanted to score there wasn't much of a point in getting even mid-tier weapons. I don't even thing top tier weapons were so "over the top" anyway, even Walker isn't invincible.

New scale starts at 9 points and ends at 20. So the respective order doesn't change much, it's just stock tier weapons may give a 50% bonus over top tier instead 100%. There are a few attacks that got lower or higher compared to previous scale, for instance: kicks reward less, smaller guns and melee throws reward a bit better.

WEAPON RELATED CHANGES
Removing Schofield and Smith from stock selection on teamplay modes was a hard decision, not because they belong there but there was a point in making certain mid-tier weapons more available as there was some initial concern regards how players could rearm over the game. Since chest system was revamped that concern isn't there anymore, so I think getting easily weapons that present such advantages impact gameplay negatively, for the most part.

Sawed-off shotgun got a small boost, in this case feels like a very problematic weapon since when it's a tad underpowered no one really uses it, and once you bump it a bit then becomes an annoyance. Well, I've seen it worse.

Bow got a tiny fire of rate boost and higher damage from close, nothing huge but it felt like a small boost would make it better.

Removal of whiskey jug is easy to explain. Team Shootout may feature teams but isn't a mode for teamplay, jug didn't offer any significant advantage for the player using it and I couldn't see one other than self-healing. So it was a bit alien among other perks.

And Yellowboy, this is a major change that is aimed towards those who like to snipe. The problem with Smith carbine was that it was good as basic sniper but also pretty good for close combat. The weapon in itself fills a niche that is alright, it's just there shouldn't be such stock weapon that offers this wide range of attacks. Yellowboy as is now allows some decent midrange options, but it gets lot of riskier when moving into rooms and small corridors. So it feels better, a small gripe is its excessive clip, it would be better with 10 rounds max let's say.

CONCLUSION
Fistful of Frags never got stale in its 11 years history I don't think it should get as long it stays alive. This recent changes made the game richer in many aspects, and more fair too. Your complaints may be right too, and things may still change over the time to alleviate future issues.

Continue reading...
 

Funding Progress To Date

VaultF4 on Steam


48186 Members
(6457 Online 340 In-Game)
Join the group
Back
Top Bottom