I've yammered on about this elsewhere, but thought I'd post here as well. I want railguns to be changed in two ways. First, I'd like them to have some considerable pdamage dropoff at range. Second, I'd like the size of their projectile to be reduced.
I'm not advocating this because I think railguns are completely OP. They're not. But I do think that they are too good at certain things, and that they cause a lot of needless frustration for the opposing team. I say 'needless' because we could remove these frustrations while also preserving the essential roles that railguns are now serving.
The main frustration that I have in mind, though not the only one, comes from railguns' ability to one-shot (or "one-click") lerks from across the room. Given the size of the railguns' projectile, it's nearly impossible for a lerk to effectively dodge the rail shot of a decent shooter (let alone one with a high ping). The result is that lerks simply can't take engagements in the general vicinity of a halfway competent railgun; it's just not a reasonable risk/reward calculation. This alone is frustrating - a railgun essentially denies a quadrant of the map to lerks - but it becomes pretty crucial during hive pushes. Lerks are key to an effective defense against coordinated pushes, and the presence of a railgun completely nullifies a lerk's ability to contribute. This is annoying, unfun, and also ruins some of the most entertaining ns2 engagements for lerks - those big teamfights where everyone is participating at a critical juncture. You might as well go bite res, because otherwise you're almost sure to lose the 21-27 res you've invested in your lerk by that point.
Railguns are usually presented as playing two key roles. The first - which to my mind is actually secondary, even though it is often touted as the most important role - is providing a source of structure damage. The two changes I mentioned - pdamage dropoff, and reduced projectile size - would have no impact on this. The second role is lifeform sniping. This will be more difficult given the changes I'm suggesting. For example, if you reduce the projectile size it will become more difficult to land shots on far-off dodging lerks. But this seems completely fair to me. Second, even with the pdamage reduction that I'm imagining, railguns would still be quite good at killing lifeforms at the close-to-medium distance (just as they are now). The major change would be that, for instance, a lerk spiking exos from far across the room (e.g. a lerk spiking from the back of cargo while exos are near the Y-junction entrance) would not be within one-shot range of a railgun. Taking down a full-health lerk from that distance require something like 3 shots (where after two fully charged shots, lerks would have almost no health left). In this case, railguns would still be extremely valuable during hive pushes, because they would be effective at pushing lerks out of the room, or forcing them to continuously hide and heal up. But this would also allow lerks to participate in the hive defense - the risk/reward calculation might now make sense. This seems more balanced, less frustrating, and (on the whole) more fun.
Of these two changes, I think the pdamage drop-off is more important. I could see someone arguing that new players *already* have a hard enough time aiming with railguns, and making this even more difficult will only harm them. I personally don't find this argument persuasive, but we can argue about that if you want. However, I really don't see a good argument against pdamage dropoff, and I'm curious to hear what people think.
I'm not advocating this because I think railguns are completely OP. They're not. But I do think that they are too good at certain things, and that they cause a lot of needless frustration for the opposing team. I say 'needless' because we could remove these frustrations while also preserving the essential roles that railguns are now serving.
The main frustration that I have in mind, though not the only one, comes from railguns' ability to one-shot (or "one-click") lerks from across the room. Given the size of the railguns' projectile, it's nearly impossible for a lerk to effectively dodge the rail shot of a decent shooter (let alone one with a high ping). The result is that lerks simply can't take engagements in the general vicinity of a halfway competent railgun; it's just not a reasonable risk/reward calculation. This alone is frustrating - a railgun essentially denies a quadrant of the map to lerks - but it becomes pretty crucial during hive pushes. Lerks are key to an effective defense against coordinated pushes, and the presence of a railgun completely nullifies a lerk's ability to contribute. This is annoying, unfun, and also ruins some of the most entertaining ns2 engagements for lerks - those big teamfights where everyone is participating at a critical juncture. You might as well go bite res, because otherwise you're almost sure to lose the 21-27 res you've invested in your lerk by that point.
Railguns are usually presented as playing two key roles. The first - which to my mind is actually secondary, even though it is often touted as the most important role - is providing a source of structure damage. The two changes I mentioned - pdamage dropoff, and reduced projectile size - would have no impact on this. The second role is lifeform sniping. This will be more difficult given the changes I'm suggesting. For example, if you reduce the projectile size it will become more difficult to land shots on far-off dodging lerks. But this seems completely fair to me. Second, even with the pdamage reduction that I'm imagining, railguns would still be quite good at killing lifeforms at the close-to-medium distance (just as they are now). The major change would be that, for instance, a lerk spiking exos from far across the room (e.g. a lerk spiking from the back of cargo while exos are near the Y-junction entrance) would not be within one-shot range of a railgun. Taking down a full-health lerk from that distance require something like 3 shots (where after two fully charged shots, lerks would have almost no health left). In this case, railguns would still be extremely valuable during hive pushes, because they would be effective at pushing lerks out of the room, or forcing them to continuously hide and heal up. But this would also allow lerks to participate in the hive defense - the risk/reward calculation might now make sense. This seems more balanced, less frustrating, and (on the whole) more fun.
Of these two changes, I think the pdamage drop-off is more important. I could see someone arguing that new players *already* have a hard enough time aiming with railguns, and making this even more difficult will only harm them. I personally don't find this argument persuasive, but we can argue about that if you want. However, I really don't see a good argument against pdamage dropoff, and I'm curious to hear what people think.