High Velocity and Pristine Emblem to flat velocity increase (with chart)

[newbienice909]

This has been brought up before: https://forums.playdeadlock.com/thr...d-have-a-flat-bullet-velocity-increase.43102/

I want to echo the suggestion, and add some suggested numerical changes. They could be altered, but this seemed to be a good middleground.

Instead of High Velocity Magazine giving +20% speed, it gives a flat +100 m/s.
Instead of Pristine Emblem giving +35% speed, it gives a flat +200 m/s.

Currently
- High Velocity Mag adds +20% bullet velocity, and Pristine Emblem adds +30% bullet velocity
- These items can be critical to gameplay, especially during the laning phase, due to the denial system
- The lowest velocity characters need this benefit the most.
- The highest velocity characters benefit the most from these items
- For many characters, Pristine Emblem is valuable even without bullet velocity

After Change
- High Velocity Mag adds +100ms bullet velocity, and Pristine Emblem adds +200ms bullet velocity
- These items can be critical to gameplay, especially during the laning phase, due to the denial system
- The lowest velocity characters need this benefit the most.
- The lowest velocity characters benefit the most from these items.
- For many characters, Pristine Emblem is valuable even without bullet velocity

The chart below might help compare and visualize - the distribution is still quite similar, but now it is weighted to the slow velocity characters a bit more. Vindicta remains the fastest shooting character in the game, but now everything has been equalized a bit. The people who need it most, get it, and it doesn't push the already hitscan-y characters even further ahead of the lobby.

The white text is just the values above 1000 m/s, where it started to become difficult to read.

 

[Vofi]

I love that so many people are paying attention to such important balance issues!

 

[supremejester28]

Post it here too

General Gameplay

 

[Rosgath]

I love this. This is absolutely a thing that should be implemented.

 

[gibnewitems]

I actually posted in that thread. Quite a blast from the past.

Still, I'd be a little cautious with flat bullet velocity. The low velocity heroes already do pretty well (at least in solo queue). The ones that don't (pretty much just kelvin) tend to be weak in solo queue mostly because of issues with his kit and scaling into the late game, and even then he still performs pretty well with basic coordination. Adding flat bullet velocity would just make it so an archetype of heroes that are already leaning towards the stronger side to become even more of an issue (especially after all the direct and indirect changes to denying and soul orbs).

 

[BedlessSleeper]

Although I agree with the OP to change it to a fixed increase instead of %, something to realise is that after a certain bullet velocity, it just doesn't matter. Just because Vindicta can get 1200 bullet velocity doesn't really make much of a difference in game compared to other lower bullet velocities. So it's technical lie to say Vindicta benefits more than other characters when that benefit becomes negligible after a certain velocity speed since the world just isn't big enough for it to matter and the distances you shoot at.

 

[newbienice909]

@gibnewitems @BedlessSleeper I think those are fair criticisms when looking at the current game state, but I also think that it is shortsighted to balance this around the current roster and balance in an alpha state game. Being at a huge disadvantage when securing souls is a problem that affects _any_ hero with slow fire rate, including any that would come in the future.

Without changes, bullet velocity will always be flawed - no matter what happens to individual hero balance, it will always have the problems I listed. It will always be a statistic that just doesn't really serve anyone very effectively.

With changes, there might be an initial buff to gun using roster, it's true. But the core issue with the bullet velocity statistic will be improved, and the individual heroes balance, scaling, and numbers can be tweaked. This is especially necessary for lower and medium skilled lobbies, where soul capture will probably determine a large chunk of balance for slow firing heroes. Those lobbies will simply be more fun if they can have a tool to help them with securing if they are struggling.