KronKrian
Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2022
- Messages
- 16
Before I get into the nitty-gritty part of this post, I'd like to make some things clear. I acknowledge the fact that plenty of discussion regarding knockback in VSH has been had on these forums already, mainly revolving around Sniper. The topic has been, as far as I understand, very much thoroughly discussed and remains a controversial issue among members and the developers. I'd also like to say that, GENERALLY, I do not have a problem with knockback. Aside from Pyro (and Sniper), which I will talk about now, I find the other classes to be completely fine in terms of knockback.
That being said, I find the lack of a pyro measure totally bonkers. What do I mean by this? Well, despite Pyro being one of the weakest classes in terms of damage output not related to stomping, which any class can do under certain conditions, the class is incredibly annoying to play with and against due to a certain mechanic that even a fully lobotomized ape can grasp and use effectively.
I can't explain the frustration of having a single Pyro hold me back with his constant uninterrupted airblasts which, even though generate Hale rage, throw a Hale off quite a bit and make him pull his hair - chest hair or otherwise, out from frustration. If that wasn't enough, that same single Pyro can deny a Hale's super-jump by just flare-jumping into his face and airblasting him away, singlehandedly denying him air and changing his direction of movement, usually in some degree towards the ground. Hell, some Pyro players have taken to doing only that. There are literally players who go entire rounds without dealing a single point of damage and instead just push around the Hale and deny him Super-jump. Sniper also has that same issue of easily denying Hale super-jump by just a single shot from his Sniper rifle, regardless of whether the shot in question is scoped or not.
The point I am trying to make here, if not clear by now, is that Pyro (and Sniper) has an overpowered influence over the Hale through the potent knockback of his airblasts, with said influence manifesting itself in the Hale being pushed around like a ragdoll on the ground and the effective nullification and denial of his Super-Jump (or wall climb in Horseman's case), a key tool for all Hales.
And don't get me wrong, other classes also have the ability to deny a Hale's super jump though knockback, however a Hale can also make use of knockback to boost his momentum and air time and deliver a fast and unexpected swift attack to the enemy. Pyro's airblast (and Sniper's shots) also give an insane amount of knockback, which however cannot be properly utilised or played around because, for some reason, whenever the gust of a Pyro's flamethrower (or the bullet of a Sniper's rifle) hits you, it stiffens you and almost completely removes the ability to control one's movement while in the air, with the effect persisting until Hale touches ground.
Even if you are skeptical of my claim of a single Pyro having the ability to exert that much influence on a Hale, consider the fact that Pyro is also uncapped in the gamemode. Now take what I said about a single competent Pyro being a huge annoyance for the Hale and multiply it by 3 or more. Now you have Pyros running around and playing volleyball with the Hale while also shoving him into tight spaces and corners, denying him basic mobility, slamming him to the ground from the air, you get the gist. And let me say right now that none of these scenarios and examples I give are purely theoretical or made-up for the sake of argument. All of this is a common occurrence in the server.
Pyro exerts on Hale enormous influence through airblast. That airblast is far too effective, even with the aforementioned rage gain as a "deterrence", which frankly I think is not enough as it is.
Now, on to the solutions I propose. To start off, I don't think a Pyro limit would solve the problem, since as I said, even a single Pyro can darken a Hale's day significantly. The changes I would propose are 3.
1 - The Hale becomes less susceptible to knockback and/or getting a fixed increase to rage gain from airblasts.
2 - Pyro to have a sort of "diminishing returns" on his airblast - the more a Pyro airblasts, the less potent said airblast becomes (with the potency resetting either after a certain period of not using airblast or after the round ends). Don't know how feasible this is, if at all, but I am sure there are well versed people who can tell me.
3 - Another solution is to attack the source of the problem directly and just nerf the airblast a bunch on different fronts - ammo consumption, range, general potency, delay between airblasts etc.
What do you think?
That being said, I find the lack of a pyro measure totally bonkers. What do I mean by this? Well, despite Pyro being one of the weakest classes in terms of damage output not related to stomping, which any class can do under certain conditions, the class is incredibly annoying to play with and against due to a certain mechanic that even a fully lobotomized ape can grasp and use effectively.
I can't explain the frustration of having a single Pyro hold me back with his constant uninterrupted airblasts which, even though generate Hale rage, throw a Hale off quite a bit and make him pull his hair - chest hair or otherwise, out from frustration. If that wasn't enough, that same single Pyro can deny a Hale's super-jump by just flare-jumping into his face and airblasting him away, singlehandedly denying him air and changing his direction of movement, usually in some degree towards the ground. Hell, some Pyro players have taken to doing only that. There are literally players who go entire rounds without dealing a single point of damage and instead just push around the Hale and deny him Super-jump. Sniper also has that same issue of easily denying Hale super-jump by just a single shot from his Sniper rifle, regardless of whether the shot in question is scoped or not.
The point I am trying to make here, if not clear by now, is that Pyro (and Sniper) has an overpowered influence over the Hale through the potent knockback of his airblasts, with said influence manifesting itself in the Hale being pushed around like a ragdoll on the ground and the effective nullification and denial of his Super-Jump (or wall climb in Horseman's case), a key tool for all Hales.
And don't get me wrong, other classes also have the ability to deny a Hale's super jump though knockback, however a Hale can also make use of knockback to boost his momentum and air time and deliver a fast and unexpected swift attack to the enemy. Pyro's airblast (and Sniper's shots) also give an insane amount of knockback, which however cannot be properly utilised or played around because, for some reason, whenever the gust of a Pyro's flamethrower (or the bullet of a Sniper's rifle) hits you, it stiffens you and almost completely removes the ability to control one's movement while in the air, with the effect persisting until Hale touches ground.
Even if you are skeptical of my claim of a single Pyro having the ability to exert that much influence on a Hale, consider the fact that Pyro is also uncapped in the gamemode. Now take what I said about a single competent Pyro being a huge annoyance for the Hale and multiply it by 3 or more. Now you have Pyros running around and playing volleyball with the Hale while also shoving him into tight spaces and corners, denying him basic mobility, slamming him to the ground from the air, you get the gist. And let me say right now that none of these scenarios and examples I give are purely theoretical or made-up for the sake of argument. All of this is a common occurrence in the server.
Pyro exerts on Hale enormous influence through airblast. That airblast is far too effective, even with the aforementioned rage gain as a "deterrence", which frankly I think is not enough as it is.
Now, on to the solutions I propose. To start off, I don't think a Pyro limit would solve the problem, since as I said, even a single Pyro can darken a Hale's day significantly. The changes I would propose are 3.
1 - The Hale becomes less susceptible to knockback and/or getting a fixed increase to rage gain from airblasts.
2 - Pyro to have a sort of "diminishing returns" on his airblast - the more a Pyro airblasts, the less potent said airblast becomes (with the potency resetting either after a certain period of not using airblast or after the round ends). Don't know how feasible this is, if at all, but I am sure there are well versed people who can tell me.
3 - Another solution is to attack the source of the problem directly and just nerf the airblast a bunch on different fronts - ammo consumption, range, general potency, delay between airblasts etc.
What do you think?
