Question To Veterans: How Was The Game Before Soma?

[Monolake]

Im just curious how different this game was when you couldn't  acquire the best gun simply by reaching rank 6. Was there more diversity in weapons used? Did people mostly use energy research guns, spent a week making fielderons for Supra or worked hard for all the mutagens to make bio weapons? Thus was there more incentive to be in a clan?

Was the game harder overall, especially pub games at top missions, where majority of people are not likely to have good clan weapons? How did game progression felt overall. Maybe something else that changed because of new easy-to-get best rifle. 

Edited December 29, 2013 by Monolake

[BrotherIcarus]

Well as far as I remember clan weapons were rare to see and if you were not in a clan and didn't now about those weapons you didn't even notice clan weapons. Also this was when the strun wraith was released after the event so they were everywhere.

 

Its just the meta it changes all the time, personally I don't see many soma anymore at least not as many as there used to be.

[alchemistjkt]

i remember a time when the gorgon and hek ruled all the games.

good times yo.

and xini... all day every day...

...

and now im feeling nostalgic.

Edited December 29, 2013 by alchemistjkt

[Mortarion]

Heck you still don't see that many research weapons. With damage 2.0, some of them have simply become another weapon. Honestly the Soma is a bit over rated, sure it's got great crits, fire rate, and mag size, but its unforgiving with nearly pinpoint accuracy and huge ammo drain. There are other weapons perfectly as viable, you just gotta try em and figure out whats best.

[noelpilled]

Acrid.

[emptiness]

i cant tell the difference and i have soma but prefer dera

[LukeAura]

Soma...really didn't change that much. 
It was the big thing for a while.
Kind of the big fad of "OMFG, such powerfulz.", and now it's back to the mediocrity of being just another weapon. People used it for a while because it was strong, and then realized what else still worked, didn't become any weaker, and they liked using it more, so they went back to it. 
It was no Acrid, that's for sure, and the Acrid wasn't even really the Acrid until it took over two seconds to kill enemies with regular weapons.

[VoidPunch]

Not really, before the soma there was acrid. Which was way stronger and everyone had one. Now you don't ever see and acrid and soma is not as common. More guns are viable now which is good. Soma isn't the best gun in the game anymore, only when you have a crit build it becomes the best for dps but has drawbacks, mainly the huge ammo consuption. I rarely use it unless I am going to a T3 void. Other then that I have other weapons that outclass soma for faction specific weapons.

[rhoenix]

Im just curious how different this game was when you couldn't  acquire the best gun simply by reaching rank 6. Was there more diversity in weapons used? Did people mostly use energy research guns, spent a week making fielderons for Supra or worked hard for all the mutagens to make bio weapons? Thus was there more incentive to be in a clan?

Was the game harder overall, especially pub games at top missions, where majority of people are not likely to have good clan weapons? How did game progression felt overall. Maybe something else that changed because of new easy-to-get best rifle.

Around that time, there weren't as many clans who had built up research, so you didn't see all that many Deras, Supras, Acrids, or Flux Rifles - but there was certainly more diversity in the weapons you'd see people use.

Edited December 29, 2013 by rhoenix

[DiBBz]

i remember a time when the gorgon and hek ruled all the games.

good times yo.

and xini... all day every day...

...

and now im feeling nostalgic.

those were the days :D

[Gremmy]

It was Hek. Hyuk hyuk. =P

[ZzVinniezZ]

those were the days :D

yeah....good old days.

[Kiteless]

Gorgon, Hek, and Boltor were dominant, but Braton was secretly god tier if you knew what you were doing. All told, that's more weapon variety than Soma and Penta offer this current meta. The Lato was actually a really decent weapon, and Aklato was a gun that could carry you to late game if you so desired. Mag was garbage, and Ember actually had difficulty doing much of anything, let alone AoE (and then she became a tank that made Rhino piss himself). Trinity was ridiculous. There was literally no reason to go above mastery level 4, and none of this silly 'forma' junk. Enemies were bulky to the point that offensive skills were even more useless than they are now, and the entire game revolved around Frost sitting on top of a defensive marker. Rhino was a god. Nyx only had one skill, as she does now, and Volt was just as confused about what he wanted to do with his life as he is now.

 

Bows were just as worthless as they are now, and the Grakata was even more worthless than that.

 

You take the good, you take the bad, and there you have, the facts of life.

Edited December 29, 2013 by Kiteless

[Brynslustafir]

Flux Rifles and Acrids everywhere. EVERYWHERE!!!

[Vector88]

Flux Rifles and Acrids everywhere. EVERYWHERE!!!

I remember before the implementation of the Clan Research weapons, people commonly used the Boltor and the Bolto because those were pretty much the only weapons that ignored armor and had high DPS

 

Also, the Latron was used quite a bit and it was actually more effective than sniper rifles such as the snipetron and vulktar back then.

Edited December 29, 2013 by Vector88

[Archistopheles]

Ogris/Acrid

 

Boltor/Kunai

 

Gorgon/Akbolto

 

Hek/Lex

 

(Your experience may have varied)

[LazyKnight]

Was there more diversity in weapons used? Did people mostly use energy research guns, spent a week making fielderons for Supra or worked hard for all the mutagens to make bio weapons? Thus was there more incentive to be in a clan?

 

Supra was never good or popular independently of soma existences. Acrid/Ogris/flux rifle were the only weapons that were worth the resource to make or be part of a clan to acquire. Lanka might have been a decent sniper rifle, but it was a niche weapon at best.

 

There was never weapon diversity in the time I have played before soma. Before soma: I used despair and before that I used Hek/Akbolto. Most people I encountered in On-line before soma used Acrid, despair or Akbolto along with -insert random unused primary-.

[ZeeGermanCrossbowman]

I remember when D.E. first released the Fragor and Scindo and how heavy weapons were all the rage for a time.

[Dipstick]

No one mentioned how the soma originally didn't have a mastery requirement. EVERYONE had one and it was really frustrating to have some mastery 3 chewing up Pluto content relying on the soma.

Also Kunai and Despair EVERYWHERE, these where king of meta, and very annoying to see constantly.

[Chaz_Darkbane]

The fact of the matter if the soma wasn't in the game there would simply be another "best gun" to take its place like there always has. The Gorgon and boltor were extremely popular weapons before I took my break from the game.  When I came back it was Soma and Synapse, in the end nothing has changed but the names at the top of board. If you want to use the top tier weapons then go for it, but there is nothing to stop you from using the other guns because most of them can still compete relatively well when fully modded out. I don't see why another players weapon choice should really bother you at all, you can still play the game and if you wanted you have the same resources available to you as they have when it comes down to it, just do whatever you have more fun with.

[zergla]

This topic made me realize just how long I've been around. Update 7 seems years ago.

[Kickboxing_Banana]

Before Soma? I liked Hek and Flux Rifle a lot. I still mostly play with shotguns, I never liked Soma that much.

Edited December 29, 2013 by GalliumGD

[LordofTibera]

Honestly it wasnt too different. Rainbow elemental builds+Armor Pierce mods were the standard build on every single weapon. Nowadays soma IS good but mod choice is better rewarded now.

[Ishki88]

I guess I'm a hispter for using Lanka Ogris Grat and BratPrime

[Blazer-X]

Ogris was very powerful even back then, and still is. It wasn't a DPS king like Acrid or the throwing knives, but it was the only reliable AOE weapon for a long time (remember when Ignis was a crappy Flux Rifle?), giving it a unique niche that was still very powerful at high levels (T3 Void Defense). Granted, its been somewhat overshadowed in AOE utility by the Ignis buff and the Penta. 

 

I still remember early on in the game how I was working towards the Hek right as it got the damage fall-off nerf, which had been disappointing, to say the least. By the time I was far enough in the game for "end-game weapons", Latron Prime, Hek, and a good half of the clan weapons took the spotlight.

 

That said, none of them had the niche that Soma had: High damage, high RoF, high accuracy, high range. Yes, the Acrid was powerful, but it was semi-auto, which relied on frame-rate. It was also a projectile with travel time, so leading targets were necessary at long ranges. Throwing knives had range limitation due to gravity. Ogris needed to charge up each shot. Braton/Latron Prime didn't do enough damage. Soma kind of gave everything at a very high level. Not the highest, mind you (Acrid out DPS it, Latron and Snipers were still slightly more accurate, etc.) but more than high enough that it was just more versatile than any of the other weapons on their own. Especially when compared to the other primaries at the time.