Spread changes will drive noobs from this game.

So we've been playing 5.0.1 for a couple of days now, and I feel like giving a small review on current AR changes. Before I begin though, keep that in mind - I'm totally against these changes. They make gunplay feel a lot worse, make overall gameplay a lot more unpredictable since you never know if you will get laserd by LMG or see 40 bullets fly around you from an AR.

That said, these changes will make the game a lot harder than before, especially for low-skill players. I've already observed in multiple forum threads and in chat people complaining about "Bad netcode" and ARs being totally unusable. This is true if you have no idea what tap firing is and how current spread works.

I see people spraying their ARs and missing every shot. This creates a lot of confusion among people who don't care to read every patch note since nobody expects gunplay to be reworked for no reason.

I on the other hand got a huge advantage over lower-skill players now. I know how weapons work from previous games, and how to properly set up my attachments for each gun. This has led to the top >5% of players having even higher k/d compared to the pre-5.0 patch. I now often see top players on each team with 5 - 6 k.d pretty much every game, while other players are struggling to keep neutral k.d while getting 15-20 kills per game.

This will get even worse as for now, low-skill players have LMGs and SMGs that are still using the old spread model. If what Dice said is true and SMGs and LMGs are to receive even harder nerf, it will create an insane power vacuum. It will be just like in BF5 days when top players were cutting through 80-100 kills a game like yogurt while the rest of the server is crying "Cheats" because you simply cannot stop them. Only in BF5 there was a fairly complex (For a Battlefield game) recoil system that took quite some time to learn, while in 2042 it will be spread system that will be countered by people who mastered the art of tap firing. I say "mastering" because it's not about stopping firing every so often. Its about stopping firing after a very specific amount of shots unique to each gun and ROF to maximize accuracy.

TL;DR - Its a system that makes gunplay feel worse but also sends the skill ceiling on an Orbital rocket into the freaking space, making it unreachable for a lot of players.

What are your thoughts?

discussion

20 Replies

Noodlesocks
2 years ago
Haven't played in a while. The gunplay was the only good part of the game. Did they really make it bad like in Battlefield 4?
YourLocalPIumber
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@Noodlesocks Even worse. Not only tap firing in general feels bad in this game, but some absolutely genius at Dice decided that if you use single or burst fire modes, they should also suffer from an insane spread increase per shot.

This made weapons like AC42 absolutely unusable. Single fire mode is also useless for long-range stationary targets since bullets go off target.

There are only a handful of ARs that are decent now. Rest are practically trash.

Dice said that LMGs and SMGs are getting even bigger nerf. So I have no idea how is that going to look like.

They only way to play ARs now is to burst fire 2-5 shots depending on a weapon with short stops in between to reset the spread.
Alethes
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@UP_LordPlumber wrote:
Single fire mode is also useless for long-range stationary targets since bullets go off target.

There are only a handful of ARs that are decent now. Rest are practically trash.

Agree on both points.
ATFGunr
Legend
2 years ago
@UP_LordPlumber The only thing bigger than the current spread on ARs is your ego. Holy cow man, is the post about helping new players ease into the game and grow the player base, or about how good you are? I know new players love being called a noob, that’ll make them feel welcome. We all agree that the new spread on ARs is awful, and you’re right it’s not going to make new players feel great, it sure doesn’t make the experienced players feel great either. Like most updates / balances Dice does, it’s been a miserable failure. Reversion to pre patch spread is urgently needed.
UP_Hawxxeye
Legend
2 years ago
@UP_LordPlumber wrote:
@NoodlesocksEven worse. Not only tap firing in general feels bad in this game, but some absolutely genius at Dice decided that if you use single or burst fire modes, they should also suffer from an insane spread increase per shot.

This made weapons like AC42 absolutely unusable. Single fire mode is also useless for long-range stationary targets since bullets go off target.

*record scratch*
Wait, wait wHAAAAT ?!
They bloited up single fire and bust mode ?!?!
GrizzGolf
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
Some of the ARs still feel fine but I wish they would revert it back and just keep the gunplay as is.
X-Sunslayer-X
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
i have a slightly different opinion. 2042 had severe issues in its gunplay even before the changes... it was very laserbeamy and the sheer numbers of angles you had to not only think about but respect in terms of lethality was mindboggeling.
a headglitch qithin 10m was just as deadly as a headglitch at 100m on some maps. ARs and LMGs were grossly overpowered with their only distinguishing factor beign CQC draw time... i mean the LCMG and Avancys were essentially 200 round M5A3s for the most part...
increasing spread was the most easy and sensible way of trying to reign in these insane engagement distances with these full auto weapons. the issue is that 2042 is a spaghetti coded mess and i doubt it will ever not be. Burstfiring is stil not feeling intuitive and with persistent input issues make the needed micro adjustments nearly impossible.
what these changes did achieve is put in the tiniest skill gap in the game. instead of having said skillgap be measured in nanometers we have achieved micrometers!
Kunstula
Rising Adventurer
2 years ago
If it drives noobs from the game, then so be it, if they are too lazy to practice in order to get good then they shouldn't expect the developers to dumb down the game for them just so that they can get a false sense of being skilled. It should take time and effort to get good at a game, that philisophy was the norm for many years until developers adopted some communist-like philosophy of flattening the skill curve in order to make it "accessible" (read: too easy). At least this introduces a greater degree of challenge to the game, that's what makes a game more interesting.
Now more about the change itself, I think that they made the wrong choice by going for spread and dispersion, as this simply results into the tap-firing "skill", which in my opinion isn't that much of a skill but more like a habit or getting used to it. Once you figure out how it works, then it's just a matter of clicking with a certain interval. They should've gone for much more recoil, preferrably dynamic recoil patterns to keep the challenge of controlling recoil fresh otherwise it will become a habit like tap-firing and anti-recoil scripts would work that much better with static recoil patterns.
The result however is definitely something good, because of the simple fact that assault rifles were way too accurate at ranges where they shouldn't be. People had gotten so used to it and now they think that's how it should be, but it should've been fixed long ago.
Alethes
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@Kunstula This.
However note that if a game does not cater for casual players then we'll be looking at a developer going out of business. Do you genuinely believe EA would accept BF bringing in say, 10% of what CoD makes? Just how bad was 2042 upon launch when EA/DICE decided to clone CoD?...

It's about striking a fine balance. Loyals who'd prefer a skill-curve with recoil and spread mastered for a rewarding kill vs. casuals who'd prefer laser-beaming opponents from 50m off. It is what it is. I do not envy those working at DICE: being swayed by who speaks the loudest; the former or the latter group.

IMHO, I would defend SMGs and Shotguns with minimal recoil and spread—to please new players (I find "noob" to be incredibly derogative), with the inherent demand that they push closer; and ARs and LMGs with plenty of recoil and spread to please the rest of us.
YourLocalPIumber
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@Kunstula I agree that certain change is good. But as with most drastic changes in BF1/BF5/BF2042, its a little too much and in a wrong direction.

BF4 had a good example of a TTK nerf where they touched the numbers ever so slightly to increase BTK by 1 to counter the major netcode and hit registration improvements since players were able to kill each other way too fast after hit reg fix.

I would've preferred BF5 style of recoil is predictable patterns unique to each gun.

We will see what happens next. Dice has opened an insanely large can of worms and will spend entire Season5, and probably Season 6 fine tuning and balancing the weapons.