If I could wave a magic wand...

July 21, 2020

Most bullets from all guns would kill in one shot on an unarmored thorax. It is absurd to expect a person in a t-shirt to swallow a rifle round to the chest and not be immediately incapacitated. At the same time, the protection of low tier armors would provide that - 79 damage M62 - survive with 1 hp left - that currently exists.
Face taps, as a mechanic, are too strong. Wait, what did you just say, after that first bullet point? Yup, I did. Head-Jaws need to be protected by the chest armor's Gorget and Head-Ears needs to be covered by the helmet. The only legitimate face tap ought to be the Head-Eyes. In addition, the deflection % of all helmets needs to be tripled, if not quadrupled. The availability of AP ammo means deflection % - which is not tied to armor level - is our last hope for any defense against head taps.
- Bottom line - the risk vs reward is completely out of balance. Players are entering raids as glass cannons, able to inflict instant kills on million-ruple kits. And if that player gets killed, so what? He's out 60k.
- To consistently threaten players who bring into the raid a substantial investment - that opposing player ought to have ante'd in - and right now they don't have to.
- I want to say at least a third of all PMC encounters are players with no armor, no helmet, no backpack, just a chest rig to hold spare loose bullets. Killing and looting these players is tremendously disappointing. But because of how the combat is structured, they're playing smarter than I am by acting in this disposable manner.
More reliable loot spawns.
- I need Bleach and Clin Spray for a quest. My brain tells me I ought to be able to knock that out in 1 raid by going to Interchange and visiting the several (four off the top of my head) janitor's closets on the map. Nope! But I sure am glad I found this box of nails. Great janitorial staff that can rehang a fallen picture frame, but can't mop a floor or wash a window.
- I'm not saying more loot - I'm saying that some loot ought to just be at some locations with something near to 90% reliability.
- I ought to be able to see "I need this" and then I can remember in game "ok, this is where I need to go" and not have to play a RNG lottery that where I will find an item will make sense.
More useful interactions with dealers
- I ought to be able to "give" damaged or low tier armor vests to Ragman, and he gives me "points" which I can later redeem with him other items that I would normally have to pay rubles for. Right now, it makes no sense to ever loot a damaged lvl 2 armored vest - for any reason other than a quest requirement. All these items - completely wasted - not even worth the rubles to carry out as loot.
  - For example, 30 points gets you a Camelback Trizip, and you can earn points by giving to Ragman armor vests through the following equation:
    - 2 points per level of the armor + 2 points if durability is between 0-50%, +4 points if durability 51-75%, and +8 points if durability 76-100%.
    - So a looted PACA at 27/50 would be worth 8 points (level two x 2 + (durability check, 27/50=0.54 >> 4) = 8 points.
    - This same PACA - you can't even sell to Ragman. Fence would give me 8,215 rubles.
    - Later on, I can buy Camelbak Trizips for 40,194 rubles - or I could have traded in 4 damaged PACAs
      - The PACA trade - in the context of this example - would be cheaper ruble-wise for the Trizip, but would have taken more effort
      - The PMC is exchanging rubles for convenience.
      - If this exchange is more worthwhile than selling to Fence, why would you ever sell to Fence? The answer is if you needed the rubles now rather than "points" with another dealer later.
  - For that matter, I ought to be able to "fold" armor so that it occupies a quarter the number of slots, so I can pack them away for just this purpose. Folding takes 5 seconds to complete, unfolding takes 5 seconds and automatically ejects the unfolded armor from your inventory.
- Completing quests and progressing with dealers ought to be a pathway towards progression. Quest rewards, in addition to unlocking items to buy later on, ought to also provide Keys to high value loot areas that are otherwise unobtainable.
  - Absolutely - players that quest and complete those quests ought to have more game to play than players who don't complete those quests. Absolutely.
Fast-acting and expansive smoke grenades. I find it incredible that the game has 5 different exploding grenades but none that create concealment. The current smoke grenade that exists is so pathetic, it is not worth mentioning - and indeed, no one equips them to bring into raids.
- Compared to how it currently exists, the smoke grenade needs to have 3 times the cloud size and 5 times the deployment speed. Look at Squad - they do smoke grenades very very well.
Weapon sway while ADS'ing.
- It barely exists - and exists even less whilst moving - the notorious ADAD dance. If you played this game - and had never shot a rifle in real life ever - you would NEVER THINK TO TRY AIMING WHILE PRONE. Because you'd have no reason to, because in this game you're able to go from a 10 second sprint to a full stop and make precise aimed shots in one second. If you only played this game and then saw a soldier taking his time to stop, aim, breathe, and shoot 3 rounds in six seconds, you would think he was a moron.
  - The idea that you could be out of stamina from running BUT THEN HOLD YOUR BREATH TO AIM is absolutely laughable.
  - At a minimum, the expectation should be to hipfire if standing, and to take a knee if making aimed shots.
  - This business of crouching primarily being used to make less noise is ridiculous.
- Strafing while aiming down the sights - and staying on target - has to be one of the most challenging exercises an adult can undertake, especially given:
  - PMC is starving/dying
  - Is probably intoxicated from alcohol or painkillers (or both)
  - Moving outdoors, on uneven surfaces with lots of gravel/loose rock/ dirt or scrub brush - but you never trip
  - Being shot at by someone as hungry/terrified/desperate as you are
  - And yet... able to make repeated aimed shots without difficulty while walking sideways without looking
Secure Container - remove it entirely. Just get rid of the damned thing.
- The player just has a secret keyring that cannot be looted, it starts as a 4 slot, and expands as the player levels. By level 40, it is large enough to hold every key in the game.
- The player just has a secret healthbag for storing medical items. It starts as a 2x2 and when you get to lvl 4 with Therapist, it becomes a 2x3. On PMC death, this health bag can be looted - but instead of looting from the PMC, it acts as a general lootable Medbag like what you'd find anywhere else.

In some ways, the game needs to be made a lot harder to play - less forgiving of reckless / risky plays, and more rewarding to a slower, more deliberate playstyle.

July 21, 2020

Unarmoured: if everyone is unarmoured, just run max DMG rounds instead of max pen. People opting out of armor seems more like a reaction to high pen ammo than ruble-saving as most people probably have all the rubles they could ever need. If you don't know what ammo other PMC are using you would probably bring midrange armor, but we pretty much know everyone has max pen. People see no value in expanding high DMG rounds, only high pen, the complain no one uses armor. High pen needs to come with some disadvantage other than cost and right now I can't see any viable option other than lower dmg on unarmoured.

Traders: personally I don't see the use of another interaction system like you describe.

Weapon sway while moving sideways: yas plz

Safe containers: I would think ppl don't put many items in except things they are going to use, like keys n meds with the new FIR system.

Smoke: I'm not sure about smoke, would just be a tool to cheeky heal I'm fully exposed terrain.

Quest: it's already the main way to progress?

Meds: painkillers need more balancing, too fast acting, no real downside. I think I remember that for a while you could not perform surgery while on painkillers. Obviously that didn't work out sins it was removed in that case. Painkillers are not working sins it's basically mandatory to pop before combat, and it's trivialises limb dmg. Playing even harder into the high pen ammo meta.

Edited July 21, 2020 by chrisragnar

July 21, 2020

I generally like those ideas - the removal the secure containers is something I can live with, but it would warrant rebalancing the economy , and maybe some of the RNG quests (which is indirectly addressed by the "Reliable loot spawn" part above).

While it will effectively kill the dreaded hatchet runners, it will also eliminate an income stream for the more unlucky players, which has to be considered. A lot of people may (rightfully) complain that their inventory space would be reduced as well - so perhaps simply remove the "secure" status of the container, and make it lootable? That way the Edgy editions won't all go up in arms that they only got more stash space out of the deal.

I also like to have more ways of interacting with traders. We should at least be able to "bank" items - for example, who keeps 3 UNTARs in their stash just to swap them for a new one? It would make more sense to be able to give them to Ragman one at a time, and collect the new armour once we have given him enough.

+1 for better smoke grenades. That would also solve a lot of the extract camping problems, and open more interesting options in a fight. A bit of a tangent, but I never really appreciated how useful and multipurpose those can be, until I played AA3.

+101010 for more weapon sway and harsher full-auto recoil. It is utterly ridiculous that the current meta is going for facials, unless you are hard enough to pen any armour.

Edited July 21, 2020 by WarTraveller

July 21, 2020

2 hours ago, WarTraveller said:

I generally like those ideas - the removal the secure containers is something I can live with, but it would warrant rebalancing the economy , and maybe some of the RNG quests (which is indirectly addressed by the "Reliable loot spawn" part above).

While it will effectively kill the dreaded hatchet runners, it will also eliminate an income stream for the more unlucky players, which has to be considered. A lot of people may (rightfully) complain that their inventory space would be reduced as well - so perhaps simply remove the "secure" status of the container, and make it lootable? That way the Edgy editions won't all go up in arms that they only got more stash space out of the deal.

I also like to have more ways of interacting with traders. We should at least be able to "bank" items - for example, who keeps 3 UNTARs in their stash just to swap them for a new one? It would make more sense to be able to give them to Ragman one at a time, and collect the new armour once we have given him enough.

+1 for better smoke grenades. That would also solve a lot of the extract camping problems, and open more interesting options in a fight. A bit of a tangent, but I never really appreciated how useful and multipurpose those can be, until I played AA3.

+101010 for more weapon sway and harsher full-auto recoil. It is utterly ridiculous that the current meta is going for facials, unless you are hard enough to pen any armour.

No need to remove the pouch, just make it one way. Only able to take things out of it during raids.

July 21, 2020

This guy wants static loot and I’m hoping for dynamic soon.

also you can craft most quest items in the game. Upgrade your hideout.

most of the rest was meh or why bother to me except the sway/recoil.

July 22, 2020

4 hours ago, Na0cho said:

This guy wants static loot and I’m hoping for dynamic soon.

also you can craft most quest items in the game. Upgrade your hideout.

most of the rest was meh or why bother to me except the sway/recoil.

Great contribution, thanks.

I did end up crafting the Klin. I suppose I should have checked Kiba - because "muh dynamic loot". Yea I must be a small brained neanderthal to thing cleaning products could be found in a janitor's closet.

Edited July 22, 2020 by etra_kurdaj

July 22, 2020

Well I may be small brained, but I’d check the office upstairs in the white queen building for those items since they spawn there all the time.

or admin building in shoreline.

also I did not find your contribution very good at all bud. The ideas were mostly bad and pointless, no matter how long it took you to write, or how many bullet points you have. Was just saying my opinion (same as you) which is kind of the point of forums.

Hope you have good raids today and it raises your spirits.