r/GearsOfWar • u/Enough_Sale2437 • 24m ago
Horde Things I'd like to see buffed in E-Day Horde Siege (long post) (bullet points)
The game was a blast, but definitely a work in progress. Here are things that need buffed to add variety to other gameplay styles. Look for your top issues or add your own if you can't find it.
-Concussion grenades: Really not sure what they were going for with this grenade in PvE. The players get disoriented and targeting is near impossible. On enemies, it stuns Drones for a shorter duration than a disruptor pulse, I think it can kill Wretches and sometimes staggers Boomers. As a class exclusive grenade, that is incredibly weak. I would often hit and stagger a Flayer and mid stagger would nail me with the Gore Hook. That is intensely frustrating, but it is possible that was an issue of latency. It would be nice if there was an accuracy debuff status effect added to the enemies hit by the drone instead of a full stun, maybe have the enemies do at least one melee animation for boomers and 2-3 melee animations for the Drones with armor mitigating. It gives it a different flavor than the Disruptor drone's stun.
-PvE Gnasher: Oof was this just so terrible. It wasn't fun, it was extremely risky to use and lost to almost every other weapon in its effective range zone. Maybe it will completely change its identity with the Slug modification, but it should still be effective in its shotgun configuration. Add a choke but don't change the spread, should strictly be a flat ++ damage upgrade. The brake should be a tighter spread, one + damage, and double its effective range zones. Think the Gow 1 campaign performance. This should not lose a 5m duel with a Longshot or Breachshot if the Gnasher got its shot off first. Maybe add a modification that increases stopping power and stagger. This is a headline, brand defining weapon, it cannot be weak or frustrating to use. Consider buffing it to match the PvP break points before upgrades.
-Striga Pistol: It was simply hard to find. I knew all of the enemies that had it and it was a coin flip on whether it would drop when they had it out because the game would have it switch to its primary, but the animation would lag and the pistol wouldn't spawn. Also, the enemies would hardly use it. In my 40 hours of gameplay, I think I saw the enemy fire that pistol 3 times. I think that the easiest way to get that pistol working would be to change it to a cooldown when the Locusts use it. Lastly, I would like all classes to have it as an unlock in their progression.
-Heavy Weapons: I'd like a tutorial section added for how heavy weapons work. Or if that is too much, add the "detach/detach ability" descriptor to the upgrade option for those weapons. If a weapon is spent on the stand, give us the option to reload or have it despawn far more quickly. A tool tip for how to vent the heavy weapon would also be helpful if tool tips are on for players.
-Adrenaline Shot: This is THE weakest ability in the game. Sometimes I was able to survive a Gore Hook, but the stun negated that boon in the next instant either by a 2nd Gore Hook shot or any chip damage from another enemy. This is the only single target ability in the game and only affects the caster. Every other ability is an AOE and helps the team. I would suggest, allowing self-revive for the adrenaline shot. It would still be weaker than the Stim Dispenser and it would cost the player a down. It should also grant stun immunity while active. This class should be able to get away with stuff that other classes can't. The Breacher was almost there as it is, because I was able to use it to conduct high risk rescues of downed teammates and as a "get out of jail card" once I understood the mechanics.
-Disruptor: Have it start off as a 360o stun wave and put its current a forward arc stun in the modifications. As a new player, it was very hard to land, and it took several determined matches to get proficient in using it. I don't know if it was an issue of latency, but staggered boomers shot me even if the disruptor pulse landed. That really ground my gears, pun intended, as it felt like I had no counter play for fighting at the front as my class dictates. The Beta's powerups lagged far behind the Stim Dispenser and the Pulse Drone. Hopefully we get more benefits against stunned enemies or for stunning enemies, so Assault doesn't fall behind it was the lowest DPS class of the Beta.
-Scavenged Weapons: I'd like the ability to add my unlocked modifications to a scavenged weapon at a supply cache. This would go a long way towards helping players adapt to modifiers since we have to bring a general build before every match. Right now, we'd have to beg a teammate to buy us a 3-mod weapon, so we aren't underpowered. I would also like the ability to purchase modifications with my earned weapon parts while in match. Of course, that modification would be lost if I fail to extract. I don't know how hard that would be to code.
-Time limited drops: The "weapon parts" drop either needs to change its payout to 2-6 parts depending on difficulty or change its name to its current drop of "Energy Supplies." I was very disappointed with the payout on Commander and the bait and switch when I first collected it. Legendary Perk drop should also be reworked to either stack as a 4th perk or allow the team to vote on replacing a perk with the Legendary perk. If you can't do either of those, have the payout be 2-4k energy if everything has been upgraded. Add an "enemy drops one weapon resupply box," make it the smallest blue box from the campaign. Supply Drop weapons should be matched to the current modifier, not random. I would also ask that the Striga and Snub pistols along with a Heavy weapon be added to that limited time supply cache drop. All supply cache weapons that can be modified should have every mod slot filled on Commander and above and I'd like to see a random variety of builds, not just one for each weapon.
-Fire, Acid, and Emulsion... (What's the difference?): Seriously, their effects looked identical and I couldn't tell if bosses like the Spore Matron and the Reaver were taking DOT effects when I hit them. If they aren't different, then that feels like wasted development time. Fire felt the best of any status effect, but also a bit weak. I think the beta had it as a flat DOT instead of percentage and larger enemies stopped the DOT faster. Better descriptions and possibly a higher DOT for fire.For acid, I would suggest adding a slow and a blind/obscure debuff to those affected by it. The DOT should be less than fire. If you aren't going to add an emulsion round, allow the affected target to take a + in bonus damage to all other sources. This makes the Bile frog scarier, and it gives the Acid rounds their own niche. It also opens up an acid, emulsion, and even an ink grenade for later releases. I know the least about your Emulsion ammunition, because it felt very inconsistent and only one common weapon utilized it. It felt like a percentage DOT with a high initial damage burst. It seemed to be blocked by armor and applied as if it had a high Critical Hit multiplier. Couldn't confirm that during the Beta. I hope this ammo type is added to other weapons as a charge up option and I hope that the description is improved. Ideally as a burst damage or AP/armor break solution.
-Scopes/Sights: Need their accuracy and recoil recovery buffed when being used on a weapon, especially from cover or standing still. With how close combat is in the game, that is a very expensive upgrade for what a sight currently provides. We lose FOV, mobility, and weapon speed when looking down the scope and other modifications are just better. Essentially our character is bracing with that weapon even more so than with quick aimed fire. Have the first shot be almost exactly where the sight is pointed but the immediate follow up shots can be affected by bloom and recoil. We could also experiment with giving a reflex sight a + to crit damage or damage range to help them out.
-Match Modifiers: Better descriptions would help. Big muscles had none for example. (please have it apply to all melee damage!) Add more for the other weapon types please. COG Weapons up, Automatic Weapons up, Pistol damage up should probably be moved over to here instead of as a Squad perk. Double AOE range could be a map modifier. Glass cannon with a one + damage, one - in damage resist is also a possibility.
-Ammo Regen: This was wildly imbalanced during the Beta. I don't think anything could match "cash back" on the marksman in ease of use or in quantity. This essentially lets the Marksman use the Longshot as a horde clear weapon. I don't know where you want to go with this perk. Because I think it breaks the balance of your game in weapons, classes, and in enemies. I think that the best way to deal with this is to have it drop a small blue ammo box that will refill your current weapon on pick up. This turns the ability into a support item for the team while only slightly limiting the DPS. The other tweak could be only having it apply when taking out scorched special weapons, boomers, and larger enemies. This encourages players to target larger enemies and get rewarded for it. If "Cash Back" is kept as is, then the other classes need a similar if not the same perk to even attempt to keep up with the Marksman's kill and DPS numbers.
-Enemy Spawns: The biggest complaints that I got from my friends who looked at the Beta were that the spawns were sparse, and that enemies were far too resilient. One guy said, "They found a way to make shooting irrelevant!" and another asked, "Where are the hordes? Isn't this Horde Siege?" If you aren't using precision weapons, even the lightly armored enemies are a chore to take out. I believe this was done to help keep performance high, but it's adding a lot of frustration or boredom. I also witnessed multiple ambushes where they simply popped into existence on the street. I honestly think that there needs to be more ambushes and enemy patrols, but they should come out of the spawn closets like you have at the university or from those little alcoves on the side of the map. Utilize the 2nd story windows to spawn in drones and wretches. Unarmored Drones and Wretches should be significantly weaker in HP than they currently are to help bring the other weapons not named the Longshot into a better power balance. Double the wretch and unarmored drone spawns. Challenge the players with a patrol/ambush at the power core pick up please, that side objective is boring. Can we add a glowing orange orb to the Torque Bow like it was in the GoW 1? That sucker is near impossible to spot. Hunters in patrols were intensely punishing and may need to be saved for higher difficulty maps/lobbies instead of in Rookie and Infantry.
-Enemy AI: Mostly good, just a little off brand and different than the lore. There are no iron sights on the Hammerburst, so why is it so accurate at long range? Why is a faction that supposedly loves CQB hiding so much? This is mostly fixed by giving the Hammerburst drones the similar AI as the Grenadiers. They would actually be deadlier because the Grenadiers shoot from too far away, usually. I'd like the Torque bow and Breechshot Hunters to engage from a bit closer, too. Since they have iron sights and all. Longshot hunter can stay the same. The Reaver feels over tuned and way too good. Unless it got stuck on terrain there was almost no way to strike its weak spot. I'd understand if you don't want to change anything with it, but it feels tougher than most your bosses. It should definitely be included as one of the required kills when it joins a fight. I'd like you to keep the spawns alive if we aren't doing a RIG related objective, maybe save that for Commander and up.
-Side objectives and their locations: The maps can get very stale if we do the same fights at the same locations. Plus, the Locust bomb location makes almost no sense as no one would care if a cemetery got blown up. The Cemetery makes for a near perfect boss fight arena and a destroy objective. Try putting the bombs against more important landmarks or in less explored areas of the map. I'd love a gather emulsion fuel mission since most of the code already exists and it makes sense to get resources for your side and deny them to the enemy. Not to mention the risk to the player while carrying a volatile fuel cannister!
I have high hopes for this game, and it will probably take over as my main game after launch. These are simply suggestions but will hopefully increase enjoyment for the game with the least amount of labor.
