6 replies to this topic

[DEN_Ninja]

I was playing some borderlands 2 and i had this shotgun with high accuracy that I noticed fired in a specific pattern every single time I fired it. I had a bit of a light bulb moment because it was easy to apply to MWO.

The LBX is a pretty good CQB weapon relative to mechs but it suffers a lot and is never seen in competitive play and rare in regular matches.

I wondered the cause of this. Was it the damage or was it the spread? The damage was fine as tested with a dual LBX jager a few times. As I played I noticed my tendency to get close to the enemy than normal. Why do I need to get closer? The range is not terrible its roughly optimal at 540m and I realized why when I missed a shot and had all my shots spray into a rock.

Shotgun spread, the terrible RNG shotgun spread. Unlike other direct fire weapons this is the only weapon with significant spread. You can not just shoot and spray at 540m even though it is optimal range because the spread allows for the individual pellets to actually miss completely. The weapon system is invalidated because the costs of accuracy and hit potential are not out weighed by the promise of a critical or spread damage.



Right now the LBX fires a spread that is inside of the cone of fire. It can fire and have the pellets randomly travel within the cone and never out of it.

Why not make it so the pellets travel on the surface/outline of the cone. The LBX will fire in a circle of pellets. As the distance increases so does that circle. It is specific and yet retains the shotgun effect. You could even just have smaller cones as long as they fire in a circle pattern.

Why a pattern in the first place? So LBX stays as a direct fire weapon with hit potential. The Weapon system doesn't depend on a random spread but the users Aim. It retains the shotgun effect and the critical chance making it unique. At longer ranges you can still snipe at internals but makes it a beast in closer ranges.

By lore this thing would punch through armor and blow up internals. At closer ranges this is a possibility.

Anyways back to class for me.

[Curccu]

or give ammo type option like it should have.
"The most notable feature of the weapon was its ability to fire both standard HEAP rounds and a specialized anti-'Mech cluster round."
this would make standard AC/10 obsolete ofc.

[fandre]

I think the idea of a LBX firing in a circle is realy bad because on distance even less pellets will hit the target (if it has the same cone). If you reduce the cone the difference to an AC will be negligible. An improvement will be the option for different types of ammo but it should come at some kind of cost (more weight, slower loading time ...) so that the standard AC10 will not be obsolete.

[DEN_Ninja]

Any form of flexibility of ammo is a heavy advantage over the AC/10. The ability of having different ammo sets is currently not even available.

Doesn't really matter if it is slower cycles, more weight, or less ammo per ton because you get the advantage of firing Standard rounds then firing a bunch of shotguns. It obsoletes the AC/10 in range, flexibility, and damage potential when you allow for mixed ammo sets.

Perhaps instead of a shotgun spread it instead it fires the cluster rounds and does splash damage that totals up to 10 and leave the crit chance when it damages internals? In this way it is a dampened AC/10. It still has the higher range and damage potential but the disadvantage compared to the AC/10 is that it spreads the damage.

However the hit potential on both is the same and the LBX does not rely on RNG hit mechanics.

Edited by Tichorius Davion, 18 November 2013 - 08:30 AM.

[Sadist Cain]

I usually pack 90odd round into my dual LB10 Jager. I think people underestimate this weapon greatly, faster firing rate, cooler, and lighter than the AC/10 guarenteed to do damage at most ranges even if some pellets miss. Far more effective against lights, again, hard to miss.

I like to think of it as a direct fire, ecm proof lrm20 at the 400+ mark. getting within tht folk are in trouble, all that spread, the shake and the explosions in your face are more off putting that a few more points of pinpoint damage, besides, in under 350/300m shell still hit one part

[The Black Knight]

I personally think the LBX is perfect the way it is. It has a realistic randomness to the spread. The weapon can be used at range but it suffers, as you say, because it is intended as a close quarters weapon. Its spread can still be useful at hitting light mech legs at range. I know LBX are supposed to be able to fire standard AC rounds in CBT, but as said above that would make the standard ac/10 obsolete so I understand why that feature of the LBX was left out. The current form and function of the LBX is the best it has been from closed beta to now and I for one don't want it to change.

[DEN_Ninja]

My opinion to the matter has now been changed due to the above posts. Thanks for the constructive discussion guys.