Flak cannon curiosity

[EpicFragMagnet]

I'm likely the only one who thinks this way at this point seeing as most people have already found the game to be second nature and all, but I thought I'd get it out into the open anyway to see if I can't get a bit of a following with any luck.

Basically I'm curious why the Flak cannon's trajectory just keeps getting higher and higher with every iteration of UT. It's just counter-intuitive the way that, even though you aim the gun straight ahead, the shell has to go sky high anyway instead of straight ahead.

While it does save on having to look up to lob nades at people most of the time, I think that looking up a little isn't as troublesome as having to look at your toes whenever you want to toss one a little closer than the regular trajectory allows.

Now I know what you probably think at this point. If the enemy's that close you may just as well use the buckshot rather than the shell - but I honestly find it easier to predict just where my shots are going to go. I just hate it when my aiming is just perfect, and yet the bullets all just had to go off to the right side of the shot cone out of pure coincidence. That, and I have a severely hard time placing point blank shots with the UT3 flak cannon's primary fire for some bizarre reason.

Is it just me who finds this just a wee bit troublesome? I'd like to hear the point of view of the other players out there, if anything to shut myself up and stop griping whenever someone takes me down before I can get a bead on them.

[bclagge]

Plenty of people agree with you. Just look through the forum. It was a hotly debated topic.

I personally don't really use the alt-fire so I don't care about the trajectory. Although I agree it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[EpicFragMagnet]

Oh! Well that's what I get for not running a search beforehand.

Thank you for your quick response, and hopefully it will get noticed by epic just like the other issues were. I tried to make an effort and give myself time to adjust before I started complaining about every little thing.. Though the shell trajectory still kinda stuck since then and I wanted to make sure.

[Vidiot]

It is strange as to why the alt fire goes straight up like that. What's worst though, is how the primary fire is "delayed". You press the fire button and about .5 second later it fires.

[Irondog]

yeah i noticed the delay too... I think epic decided to add it to tone it down a little. Takes a fair bit of adjusting to to lead a shot. Not too keen on it myself though :/

[Mr Evil]

Try the primary again. I can't remember what previous incarnations did, but this one launches chunks in an even pattern, making it impossible for them to all go to one side. Furthermore, there is always a single chunk launched in the centre, and it's slightly special, doing extra damage and imparting more momentum if it hits within a few tenths of a second.

[VerteX]

i didn't know that

[booshack]

There's really no reason to use the alt fire anyway. It's only 100 dmg with minimal splash - a full hit of primary fire is 180 dmg, and the ROF is the same.

[Mr Evil]

There's really no reason to use the alt fire anyway. It's only 100 dmg with minimal splash - a full hit of primary fire is 180 dmg, and the ROF is the same.

I believe the maximum damage is a little over 200 if you take into account the damage bonus for hitting dead centre. However, that falls off rapidly with distance, whereas the damage from a shell remains good at any range. There's also extra damage from chunks thrown up by the shell exploding (although if you get a direct hit with the shell then the chunks can't hit directly because they move the wrong way).

[EpicFragMagnet]

It's just over 200 as you say. A friend of mine and I were doing some number crunching to find the damage values of all the weapons (or at least, those we could without killing each other instantaneously) and the primary flak shot at point blank dealt 203 damage. Pretty impressive, although I think I've only ever done it about 6 or 7 times since I started playing.

Making it harder to perform is a good thing though, at least in my opinion - especially when you're dealing that amount of damage.

Anybody know how many fragments are shot out of the gun with the primary fire? We tried counting them, but... heh XD

[Mr Evil]

...Anybody know how many fragments are shot out of the gun with the primary fire? We tried counting them, but... heh XD

Fire, pause, type playersonly at the console, unpause, then you can walk around and count them easily. Or you can export the source code via the editor and look for the answer in there (it's nine).

[JUNGLIST MOVEMENT]

While it does save on having to look up to lob nades at people most of the time, I think that looking up a little isn't as troublesome as having to look at your toes whenever you want to toss one a little closer than the regular trajectory allows.

Now I know what you probably think at this point. If the enemy's that close you may just as well use the buckshot rather than the shell - but I honestly find it easier to predict just where my shots are going to go. I just hate it when my aiming is just perfect, and yet the bullets all just had to go off to the right side of the shot cone out of pure coincidence. That, and I have a severely hard time placing point blank shots with the UT3 flak cannon's primary fire for some bizarre reason.

Is it just me who finds this just a wee bit troublesome? I'd like to hear the point of view of the other players out there, if anything to shut myself up and stop griping whenever someone takes me down before I can get a bead on them.

i had a knack for planting shells into the other guys face.. but now they just see it pass over them. i even saw someone duck to avoid my shell once...
i guess it takes a little getting used to

[EpicFragMagnet]

i had a knack for planting shells into the other guys face.. but now they just see it pass over them. i even saw someone duck to avoid my shell once...
i guess it takes a little getting used to

But that's what I'm getting at here: It really shouldn't take any getting used to. Why mess with something that worked so well in the previous versions? I mean, both the first and second iterations of UT had somewhat low slung trajectories for the flak shell. Why change it now, just as they're getting things polished to a shine?

[JUNGLIST MOVEMENT]

yeah, do have to look at my feet when i shoot

epic nerfed so many things to keep the entire ut-pc gaming community from horribly owning console users back to the stone age (or earlier)
how would you button map weapon throwing on a controller?

[Kardinal]

Can we even play with the console gamers in the first place?

I thought it was them just being lazy and not differentiating between consolers and pc'ers by giving everyone the same package.