Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

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Snow Job
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Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby Snow Job » Sun May 11, 2014 4:52 am

Flak I: 2 reactor power, 10sec wind-up, 3 projectiles.

Flak II: 3 reactor power, 21sec wind-up, 7 projectiles.


Call me crazy, but I think both of these might be too strong. Their weakness, the projectile spread, doesn't seem to matter very often. They tear through shield layers and 4-tile rooms without issue. Flak shots can miss their mark when shooting at 2-tile rooms, especially on Auto Assaults, but that's where every other weapon in the game can come in to help. The way these weapons are now is, in this forum poster's humble opinion, bad for the game.
Levgre
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby Levgre » Sun May 11, 2014 5:38 am

There are a number of weapon offenders other than Flak Cannon. I'd rate Flak II below all these. Flak I however fits right in with this group.

Burst Laser II
Dual Lasers (although can only start with it)
Small Bomb
Ion Bomb
Halberd Beam, or Pike Beam as long as you have enough support.

I'd basically prefer these weapons over the several dozen others, every single game. I suppose you could put the breach bombs in this pool, Small bomb is superior but the breach bombs still get the job done. Chain Vulcan is also op but a bit more situational.
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RAD-82
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby RAD-82 » Sun May 11, 2014 6:32 am

The next patch will have Defense I drones firing at flak debris. Currently, they only do it for the Adv. Flak Gun on The Shrike. I don't know how much of a nerf it will be, since Flak shots have harmless projectiles that can distract drones from the damaging projectiles. Given the slow speed of the flak, drones will have extra time to shoot multiple pieces of debris.
Elhazzared
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby Elhazzared » Sun May 11, 2014 1:53 pm

I consider the FLAK 2 pretty OP myself but I don't consider it that much OP. The disagvantage of the flak is not the projectile speed in my opinion, that hardly matters as no one uses the defense 2 drone nd the defense 1 ignores it anyway. The disadvantage is that it's a highly inaccurate gun... This doesn't just means spread. This means an actual higher chance to dodge teh shot than normal. They usualy still manage to get 4 hits on the shields but it can be dodged on a high dodge chance. I've managed to dodge 6 of the 7 shots once with an engine at 6. Not only is the dodge chance for it higher, but it gets even higher after the shields are down. This means that dodging shots about to hit the hull is extremely easy and it rarely gets hull damage in.

Now yes, it's a great weapon to down shields and then put shots in. but you only down the shields ever 21 seconds, all your other weapons will then be waiting to firing as the enemy recovers shields and repairs weapons, maybe even get shots into you before you can do it again.

So yeah. It's really good weapon, slightly on the OP side but I don't find it that offensive.
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ain
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby ain » Sun May 11, 2014 1:55 pm

RAD-82 wrote:The next patch will have Defense I drones firing at flak debris. Currently, they only do it for the Adv. Flak Gun on The Shrike. I don't know how much of a nerf it will be, since Flak shots have harmless projectiles that can distract drones from the damaging projectiles. Given the slow speed of the flak, drones will have extra time to shoot multiple pieces of debris.


That would be an incredibly stupid decision. Who wouldn't want to use a weapon that can disable Defense I drones temporarily? Are the devs out of their mind?

That said, Flak are far from gamebreaking. All they're good for is tearing through shields. They're really bad at dealing system damage so you pretty much always have to support them with lasers or beams.
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Sleeper Service
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby Sleeper Service » Sun May 11, 2014 2:41 pm

Suggesting that decisions are "stupid" and people are "out of their mind" is pretty rude. I think you should not go around insulting you fellow men here, regardless of how valid you believe your point to be.
Last edited by Sleeper Service on Mon May 12, 2014 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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5thHorseman
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby 5thHorseman » Sun May 11, 2014 3:25 pm

This topic came up in beta testing, and we were pretty much told that yes, the flak guns are a little OP and that yes, it's the intent.

And I have no problem with it. This game isn't about balance, it's about scrapping by with what you get handed and sometimes you get handed nicer stuff.
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Snow Job
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby Snow Job » Sun May 11, 2014 6:45 pm

RAD-82 wrote:The next patch will have Defense I drones firing at flak debris. Currently, they only do it for the Adv. Flak Gun on The Shrike. I don't know how much of a nerf it will be, since Flak shots have harmless projectiles that can distract drones from the damaging projectiles. Given the slow speed of the flak, drones will have extra time to shoot multiple pieces of debris.


Sounds more like a nerf to DD1 than Flak. DD1 itself is obscenely good, so that's fine.


5thHorseman wrote:This topic came up in beta testing, and we were pretty much told that yes, the flak guns are a little OP and that yes, it's the intent.

And I have no problem with it. This game isn't about balance, it's about scrapping by with what you get handed and sometimes you get handed nicer stuff.


Perhaps, but also consider that Flak 1 tends to show up in stores and random drops often enough that it steals the spotlight in very many games. Unless it's very rare and I have unusual luck, but I doubt that. Anyway, I don't intend to turn this thread into a petition to the devs. Sorry if it came off that way. If Flak continues to aggravate, there's always modding.
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Twinge
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby Twinge » Mon May 12, 2014 11:26 am

The only major issue with Flak is how common Flak I is. The rarity should be increased one or two notches. (Currently it's a '1', the most common; compare to Burst II, a '4', the 2nd least common.)
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Levgre
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Re: Flak is kind of overpowered you guys

Postby Levgre » Tue May 13, 2014 3:44 pm

Kleckas wrote:Slightly off topic, but talking about overpowered guns, Vulcan is at the top. 4 power for killing weapon that only needs to be given a minute to "warm up"? But it's balanced because it's hard to come by it. So as was said by Twinge, rarity of the weapon is quite a good way to balance it out.
And coming back on topic, Flak is good at taking shields, but on anything else it falls behind, so in my opinion such specialized weapon is not OP at all, considering there are Burst laser Mk. II which very universal and quite cheap to get runining.


Nah, I'll almost always take 2 burst laser II's or 2 Flak 1's over a Vulcan. If the Vulcan gets damaged, it resets completely. It also doesn't synergize well with other quick to get going weapons.

Vulcan is super good against the boss, but for traveling through the sectors and finishing battles quickly with minimal damage (which is generally of more importance), Vulcan isn't at the top.