Buzlok Makes Me Sad

[Siekier]

So, I got Buzlok recently.

I played with it a little today and I wanted to share some thoughts about this weapon.

 

First off, the idea behind this weapon is quite good.

It's well designed, it looks good, it sounds good. It feels like some sort of Grineer black ops gun.

 

The thing is, it's poorly executed.

Alternate fire function is really unique, but it feels very clunky and cumbersome, to the point where it seems that not using it is the better choice.

 

It's the problem that every weapon with alt fire has. I know it's because of limited amount of keys on console pads, but could we get some fix for it on PC? It would make Buzlok much more user friendly. It would make all of those weapons much more user friendly.

So simply put, give us a way to shoot normal rounds when using "fine aim". I really doubt Grineer put that scope on Buzlok just to fire tracer round.

 

The tracer round. Another issue. It consumes too much ammo and it's too slow.

My suggestions?

First, make it hitscan.

Second, make it use less ammo. 3 ammo per tracer round would be good I think.

 

I'd like to see some changes to this weapon because I think it's saddening that a gun with that look and firing sound is so clunky.

[Liverslices]

So, I got Buzlok recently.

I played with it a little today and I wanted to share some thoughts about this weapon.

 

First off, the idea behind this weapon is quite good.

It's well designed, it looks good, it sounds good. It feels like some sort of Grineer black ops gun.

 

The thing is, it's poorly executed.

Alternate fire function is really unique, but it feels very clunky and cumbersome, to the point where it seems that not using it is the better choice.

 

It's the problem that every weapon with alt fire has. I know it's because of limited amount of keys on console pads, but could we get some fix for it on PC? It would make Buzlok much more user friendly. It would make all of those weapons much more user friendly.

So simply put, give us a way to shoot normal rounds when using "fine aim". I really doubt Grineer put that scope on Buzlok just to fire tracer round.

 

The tracer round. Another issue. It consumes too much ammo and it's too slow.

My suggestions?

First, make it hitscan.

Second, make it use less ammo. 3 ammo per tracer round would be good I think.

 

I'd like to see some changes to this weapon because I think it's saddening that a gun with that look and firing sound is so clunky.

To me the Buzlok feels like a fumble. I was incredibly excited when I first read its description, but it went downhill from there. Oh great, it looks like a sausage. Oh great you have to mark an enemy... Oh GREAT....  You have to still be in the line of sight of the enemy to kill them.

 

Its really just not very good. *sigh*

[Racercowboy]

The problem I find with the buzlok is if you were able to mark an enemy, would he not already be dead if a different gun were in your hands?

[Liminal]

Make alt fire use no ammo and show enemy silhouettes through walls. Alt+fire marks an enemy.

I'd use it a bit more like that.

[TaylorsContraction]

+111 op. Everything you suggest has been suggested during buzzlock's original release. Every now and then players like you come along and make the same suggestions because you JUST got your hands on it. In fact not that long ago (maybe two months ago) I made a similar thread.

 

 

Dear DE this is what the players want to make this gun fun. It WILL NOT BE OP come on. It's hardly soma prime or boltor prime or synoid gammacor. Let us have our fun with an amazing weapon you designed. If these changes were implemented I'd recraft it in a heartbeat. Fingers crossed that this weapon will get these few changes implemented.

[00zau]

There's just no reason to use the alt fire as it is, and the buzlok itself doesn't give one either. Make the alt fire core to the weapons use, and make it free. My suggestion; improve the homing so you can shoot around corners effectively and give it a lot more damage, but make the projectiles slower and less accurate, Make the homing marker free (or cheaper, at least) and hitscan as well. Now you have a gun that has a lot of damage, but a hard time putting that damage on a target... unless you make use of its homing ability. Fun, unique, and effective.

Edited March 31, 2015 by 00zau

[Riot_Inducer]

There's just no reason to use the alt fire as it is, and the buzlok itself doesn't give one either. Make the alt fire core to the weapons use, and make it free. My suggestion; improve the homing so you can shoot around corners effectively and give it a lot more damage, but make the projectiles slower and less accurate, Make the homing marker free (or cheaper, at least) and hitscan as well. Now you have a gun that has a lot of damage, but a hard time putting that damage on a target... unless you make use of its homing ability. Fun, unique, and effective.

As someone who has used the Buzlok semi-regularly since it's launch I must say the LAST thing it needs is for it's projectiles to move even slower. I waited ages for Terminal Velocity to be usable on it to remedy it's sluggish projectile speed. It's homing ability is fine even with faster projectiles the tracer simply needs to be cheaper/easier to use.

[.Czern]

1. Increase bullet velocity and reduce the %#&(# spread

2. Allow us to separate zoom and alt-fire bindings, so we can ads with that thing (semi-auto mode in ads?)

3. Make tracer round cost no ammo and be hit-scan

 

Buzlok has great damage, design, sound and potential utility, but it's all ruined by extremely poor handling. For me Buzlok is unusable unless I run hip-firing at everything in shotgun range. So much pain.

[Siekier]

1. Increase bullet velocity and reduce the %#&(# spread

2. Allow us to separate zoom and alt-fire bindings, so we can ads with that thing (semi-auto mode in ads?)

3. Make tracer round cost no ammo and be hit-scan

 

Buzlok has great damage, design, sound and potential utility, but it's all ruined by extremely poor handling. For me Buzlok is unusable unless I run hip-firing at everything in shotgun range. So much pain.

Exactly.

 

I used tracer only 6 times since I got this gun. Rest of the time I was just hipfiring because it seems like the most effective way of using this weapon.

[Edgedemon]

i think it only need slightly faster tracer beacons.

 

The problem I find with the buzlok is if you were able to mark an enemy, would he not already be dead if a different gun were in your hands?

I used tracer only 6 times since I got this gun. Rest of the time I was just hipfiring because it seems like the most effective way of using this weapon.

 

true if your on close quarters and don't need to aim or got a really OP gun, Buzzlok is intended for Mid/Long range and Priority targets which would hardly go down with a bullet.

 

1. Increase bullet velocity and reduce the %#&(# spread

2. Allow us to separate zoom and alt-fire bindings, so we can ads with that thing (semi-auto mode in ads?)

3. Make tracer round cost no ammo and be hit-scan

1) why care about spread for a auto aiming gun.

2) with current recoil zoom wont help you.

3) i'm all in for no cost, after all its not a "normal" bullet, but i don't think hit scan is necessary at most i would vote for faster travel speed for tracer

 

your changes aim to make Buzzlok into another Latron, instead of improving its uniqueness you would make another gun altogether.

[Siekier]

1) why care about spread for a auto aiming gun.

2) with current recoil zoom wont help you.

3) i'm all in for no cost, after all its not a "normal" bullet, but i don't think hit scan is necessary at most i would vote for faster travel speed for tracer

 

your changes aim to make Buzzlok into another Latron, instead of improving its uniqueness you would make another gun altogether.

Zoom would be very beneficial.

I've been hitting enemies that were around 70 meters away or even further with short hipfire bursts.

Having ability to zoom would make it much more comfortable.

 

Buzlok would still be Buzlok, just more user friendly.

[Mxysptlik]

To me the Buzlok feels like a fumble. I was incredibly excited when I first read its description, but it went downhill from there. Oh great, it looks like a sausage. Oh great you have to mark an enemy... Oh GREAT....  You have to still be in the line of sight of the enemy to kill them.

 

Its really just not very good. *sigh*

 

Exact same experience here.

 

Also +1 OP's idea for more options for PC alt-fire/zoom seperate mappings.

[blasron]

there was a game i played long ago (i don't remember the name throught it was on ps1). It had a similar idea of warframe question melee and gun handling. When hip fire the melee button was (triangle) but when you did aim down that button became the secondary fire of the gun (throwing grenade, flame thrower, ect).

 

I am still wondering why more game don't have this idea. (probably a coding nightmare but it would certainly help this game)

[420degreequicksopeswag]

My fix:

 

The tracer round consumes 3 ammo, marks the target, and EXPLODES  for bonus damage. Also has infinite punch through.

[(XBOX)ShygalSadie]

The problem I find with the buzlok is if you were able to mark an enemy, would he not already be dead if a different gun were in your hands?

this

[jjpdn]

Am I the only one who wished that it was mixed with Halo's Needler?

 

Then, you can make enemies go boom and have tracing rounds!

[Insanityman]

As someone who's forma'd the thing a few times, I totally support making it actually usable. The tracer certainly needs to be hitscan to be reliable, there is no reason it shouldn't be.  The entire flavor of the weapon screams for a balance between power, usability and convenience.  Right now it has power in terms of available fire rate and damage, it's just near impossible to use nicely, let alone when you compare it to any other weapon.  

 

I'd make four changes to it: Silent tracer fire, reduced tracer cost (10 is absurd, mid game you can't kill much even with homing shots on one mag losing that kind of ammo), hitscan tracer.  

 

The last change would be a little out of the ordinary: make it interactive with the silencer mods.  If the silencer mod is equipped, lower the projectile velocity, so there is a second trade off.  We might need to have it's normal projectile speed increased a little bit, but we can look at that a bit after.  It might also need a little bit more innate impact only status chance (or stacking impact status chance per shot) so it can be used as a stealth weapon (keeps the unfortunate target staggering so he can't hit the alarms).

 

Now you get a weapon that actually feels like the spec ops grineer weapon it was supposed to be.  Ease of use : silent, reliable tracers to make normal fire more effective.  Realiable on the move : homing rounds continue to mostly hit the area of the target even on the move (especially useful to hit those pesky wall running tenno).  It would still maintain it's stopping power, as it already has fairly reasonable damage.  Finally you get a strange and unique effect that trained and familiar users could use (with suitable discretion) as a proper well rounded medium range support gun.

[Siekier]

As someone who's forma'd the thing a few times, I totally support making it actually usable. The tracer certainly needs to be hitscan to be reliable, there is no reason it shouldn't be.  The entire flavor of the weapon screams for a balance between power, usability and convenience.  Right now it has power in terms of available fire rate and damage, it's just near impossible to use nicely, let alone when you compare it to any other weapon.  

 

I'd make four changes to it: Silent tracer fire, reduced tracer cost (10 is absurd, mid game you can't kill much even with homing shots on one mag losing that kind of ammo), hitscan tracer.  

 

The last change would be a little out of the ordinary: make it interactive with the silencer mods.  If the silencer mod is equipped, lower the projectile velocity, so there is a second trade off.  We might need to have it's normal projectile speed increased a little bit, but we can look at that a bit after.  It might also need a little bit more innate impact only status chance (or stacking impact status chance per shot) so it can be used as a stealth weapon (keeps the unfortunate target staggering so he can't hit the alarms).

 

Now you get a weapon that actually feels like the spec ops grineer weapon it was supposed to be.  Ease of use : silent, reliable tracers to make normal fire more effective.  Realiable on the move : homing rounds continue to mostly hit the area of the target even on the move (especially useful to hit those pesky wall running tenno).  It would still maintain it's stopping power, as it already has fairly reasonable damage.  Finally you get a strange and unique effect that trained and familiar users could use (with suitable discretion) as a proper well rounded medium range support gun.

Those changes sound good, but I'm not so sure about this silencer tradeoff. Is it really necessary? Other weapons don't have this sort of mechanic.

Maybe in future, when stealth system is expanded enough such tradeoffs would be ok, but I don't see much of a point in adding it right now.

[[DE]Momaw]

I also find the Buzlok to be deeply disappointing.

 

 

My fix for it goes like this:

 

1.) No tracking dart mechanic

 

2.) While aiming through scope, gun stats are: ordinary damage, perfect accuracy, semi-automatic, 1 ammo per shot, fire rate halved

 

3.) Every successful hit while aiming adds a "bullet attractor" effect on the enemy struck, or increases the radius of an existing effect, by 0.25 meters.  This attractor only affects shots by the Buzlok.

 

4.) The attractor bubble is visible to the Buzlok user while looking through the scope.

 

5.) Shots fired from the hip will fire go straight without guidance, but if they strike the attractor bubble around your target, it will count as a hit.

 

6.) Attractor bubble is immediately dispelled on enemy death.

 

The intent here is that you can use your Buzlok as a kind of semi automatic rifle to plink away at distant targets, but if something especially threatening shows up, you can tag them a few times to get the attractor sphere's size up to a useful radius and then unscope to shower them with twice the DPS you could achieve while aiming.

[Siekier]

I also find the Buzlok to be deeply disappointing.

 

 

My fix for it goes like this:

 

1.) No tracking dart mechanic

 

2.) While aiming through scope, gun stats are: ordinary damage, perfect accuracy, semi-automatic, 1 ammo per shot, fire rate halved

 

3.) Every successful hit while aiming adds a "bullet attractor" effect on the enemy struck, or increases the radius of an existing effect, by 0.25 meters.  This attractor only affects shots by the Buzlok.

 

4.) The attractor bubble is visible to the Buzlok user while looking through the scope.

 

5.) Shots fired from the hip will fire go straight without guidance, but if they strike the attractor bubble around your target, it will count as a hit.

 

6.) Attractor bubble is immediately dispelled on enemy death.

 

The intent here is that you can use your Buzlok as a kind of semi automatic rifle to plink away at distant targets, but if something especially threatening shows up, you can tag them a few times to get the attractor sphere's size up to a useful radius and then unscope to shower them with twice the DPS you could achieve while aiming.

Sounds interesting, but I doubt it'll ever happen.

 

Though I'm still more for simply making tracer dart hitscan and making it use less ammo. That and giving us the abiity to shoot when aiming with the scope should solve the problems (or at least some of them).

[Holeypaladin]

Have the alt fire actually deal damage would be a good solution.

 

That way you can use it to snipe weak targets or drop tracers on strong ones.

[JCBeastie]

DE were actually taking feedback on weapons not long ago, the Buzzlok was the first they asked for feedback if I remember rightly.

 

I really like the flavour of the gun, I like how it looks, I love how it sounds, but the mechanics are a bit off.

 

The seeking rounds sound good in theory but really aren't that practical, realistically they don't manage to hit anything you don't have LoF with. Coupled with the clunky tracer round that you need to use first it really just ends up as a feature that goes unused.

 

Also while I enjoy hipfiring it as it feels like a meaty machinegun it doesn't work at any kind of range, trying to snipe with it is too long a process; zoom, try and hit with the slow &#! tracer, unzoom and fire at an angle that results with the shots landing... it's just not effective.

 

I feel like the weapon has to change mechanics in a big way. Seeking bullets is a unique feature, so we need a way for that to be practical, here's my idea:

 

We swap the functions...

 

Primary fire - Rounds always seek out the nearest enemy and can ricochet off walls and travel around corners to do so. You would have no control over which enemy is targeted (adding Punch Through would allow rounds to travel through, damage and seek to multiple enemies). These rounds would shoot about the same speed or maybe a little slower than they currently travel.

 

Secondary Fire - Zooming in now 'dumb' fires instead, shooting bullets in a traditional way in a straight line towards the center of the reticle. These rounds can have a higher velocity (they don't need to conserve propellent for turning).

 

I don't really see why this wouldn't be possible to do, since there are homing rockets used by the Grineer already and the Halikar also has some wierd homing logic of it's own too.

 

I don't know about you guys but I think this would be crazy fun.

[StickyBaseline]

DE were actually taking feedback on weapons not long ago, the Buzzlok was the first they asked for feedback if I remember rightly.

It was like 8 months ago.

[Vaskadar]

It makes me sad, too that they keep on pushing weapon fixes/passes/buffs/nerfs to the side as if they're not important to the game.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Vaskadar

[JCBeastie]

It was like 8 months ago.

 

Has it been that long? Jeez.

 

It makes me sad, too that they keep on pushing weapon fixes/passes/buffs/nerfs to the side as if they're not important to the game.

 

I would welcome a full content patch that was just adjustments and nothing new.