Will flak alt fire be fixed in an upcoming patch?

[Vzur]

Flak is fine, Learn2play.

I actually thought this at first, too. Then I tried using it more, and realized, oh yeah, it's totally screwed up, no exaggeration. I can learn to adapt, and aim at the floor with it all the time, but that's really annoying.

I can't tell if it arc's way too high, or might even spawn too high, but pointing right at someone who's even a good distance away, to see the flak shell go clear over their heads all the time? That's not right at all.

I really don't think I should have to look at the floor to compensate. No weapon should require looking at the floor, that's just stupid.

[CaptainSnarf]

The new arc on the flak can be argued both ways. On one hand you can say the new flak sucks because you have to aim at your feet to hit someone in front of you. On the other you can say old flak sucks because you have to aim at the sky to hit someone at medium distance.

Ultimately all they did was change the effective range of flak secondary. If you are point blank you can either aim at your feet or you can simply do the logical thing: give up and use flak primary when point blank. I actually don't have a problem with that. If I wanted the same old game I'd still be playing 2k4.

[Mr Evil]

The new arc on the flak can be argued both ways. On one hand you can say the new flak sucks because you have to aim at your feet to hit someone in front of you. On the other you can say old flak sucks because you have to aim at the sky to hit someone at medium distance...

It's not about where you are trying to hit, but where you are throwing the projectile; the new one sucks because you need to aim down to fire straight, whereas the old one does not suck because you need to aim up to fire the projectile up. The fact that gravity pulls it down afterwards is irrelevant.

...If you are point blank you can either aim at your feet or you can simply do the logical thing: give up and use flak primary when point blank...

Using the secondary at close range is appropriate in many cases, for instance if you have failed to track your opponent precisely and therefore cannot hit directly, you can still get them with splash damage. You may also want to fire a shell down through a hole in the floor, which is all but impossible now.

[Vzur]

It's not about where you are trying to hit, but where you are throwing the projectile; the new one sucks because you need to aim down to fire straight, whereas the old one does not suck because you need to aim up to fire the projectile up. The fact that gravity pulls it down afterwards is irrelevant.

Agreed - needing to aim up to toss it farther only makes sense. Needing to aim at the ground to hit anywhere other than the the ground is not similarly intuitive, at all. IMHO.

[DireWolf]

I think changing the arc now would be stupid judging that ppl will have gotten used to it by now.
They made the arc like it is to make it more of a long range weapon as well as a short range weapon.

[Mr Evil]

I think changing the arc now would be stupid judging that ppl will have gotten used to it by now.
They made the arc like it is to make it more of a long range weapon as well as a short range weapon.

They could have an option for straight firing, like thay had for the old translocator, but I don't think the game has been long enough for people to complain if it was changed now. Note that the starting angle has no effect on the actual range of the weapon, just where you need to point to achieve that range.

[FolkUT]

They made the arc like it is to make it more of a long range weapon as well as a short range weapon.

Where the arc starts in relationship to the crosshair has nothing to do with the distance. If the projectile started from the crosshair then you would just aim a bit higher than you do now to get distance. The current implementation is analogous to holding the weapon over your head to fire.

I must say, the apologists in this thread are kind of funny. "I like aiming at my feet".

[Vzur]

Think the problem is that it's so easy to just not use alt-fire anymore. So, easy to make excuses for it, if you never even use it.

It used to be better for two other reasons, too.

The primary fire used to have a wider spread, so it was only good up close. At range, you could only kill someone who was too distracted to turn around and kill you first, with any other weapon, even an enforcer. So, you used alt fire at range, and it was way more effective, whereas now, with the smaller spread, primary fire does pretty good damage at mid range, too. Often just takes a few shots, making alt-fire obsolete.

Secondly, the flak shell seems to have had its splash damage(and/or?)range reduced. Only seems effective when I hit someone right in the head with it. Otherwise, it doesn't do much, when primary fire would have done a lot more, even from some distance, and even if my aim's a bit off.