CQC: Rework or Remove the Damage Power-up

[Frenotx]

The damage power-up is one of the main things keeping me from enjoying CQC. Whoever has it has a huge advantage over anyone else, and can safely just "face tank" their opponent and count on their overwhelmingly higher DPS to secure the win. Since the weapon power-up always spawns in the same place and lasts about as long as it takes to respawn, matches seem to always turn into this:

1. Players that know what they're doing all race to the weapon power-up. Less-informed players wander around looking for targets
2. Whoever gets the weapon power-up first uses their huge advantage to kill the other people nearby
3. The person with the weapon power-up lurks near where the power-up will respawn, killing anyone that gets close.
4. Less-informed players have no idea of the huge DPS disadvantage they're at, and are easily killed
5. Players that know what's up have to try and force them away from this point, but have to deal with the less-informed players on the way there, then the powered-up player (with their huge advantage) once they arrive.
6. The powered-up person generally successfully defends the spot where the power-up spawns, and grabs it as soon as theirs wears off
7. The cycle continues

The weapons power-up is so strong that it becomes the absolute central focus of the match. All the fighting revolves around trying to get that power up, or defending its spawn area if you have it. This could potentially make for an interesting game mode (king of the hill meets juggernaut), but since they're nothing in-game indicating what's going on, new or uninformed players just become fodder. I propose the following:

1. In normal modes, SIGNIFICANTLY tone down the weapon boost percentage. I'm talking all the way down to +10% or so. When a player has the power-up (or any given power-up for that matter), make sure other players can clearly see they have it.
2. Make the spawn location random. When the power-ups first spawn, the damage power-up shouldn't be anywhere. Instead, whenever a power-up is used, have a random chance that a damage power-up will respawn in that position instead of the power-up that normally goes there.
3. Add a new game mode: Juggernaut
   1. Keep the weapon power-up as strong as it is now
   2. Make its spawn location random. At the beginning of the match, a random power-up is replaced with the damage power up.
   3. Points are gained by holding the damage power up, almost like king of the hill. Ever second with the power-up is another point.
   4. Kills against the juggernaut give you a bunch of points too, but kills against regular players don't matter.
   5. When someone grabs the weapon power-up, a message pops up on everyone's screen saying "So-and-so is the Juggernaut!", and their location becomes permanently visible on the scanner

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The damage power-up is one of the main things keeping me from enjoying CQC. Whoever has it has a huge advantage over anyone else, and can safely just "face tank" their opponent and count on their overwhelmingly higher DPS to secure the win. Since the weapon power-up always spawns in the same place and lasts about as long as it takes to respawn, matches seem to always turn into this:

I think the thing is, it's not too bad in a balanced-skill match. In an all-beginners match, it provides a bit of extra firepower that lets people get kills at all.

In an all-experts match, everyone knows to focus the person with the weapons powerup, knows how to draw them out of the line of fire so they can't just hang around it, etc. Similarly, you can't just hang around waiting for it because that makes you an easy target - you have to time your approach to it and not get dragged into a fight at the wrong time. Most of the times I've won an all-expert DM, I've never picked up weapons once.

It's - as you say - where some people know how to use it and some don't that the problem comes in. In those situations it means someone who was going to win anyway can kill everyone in seconds.

So rather than this

[*]In normal modes, SIGNIFICANTLY tone down the weapon boost percentage. I'm talking all the way down to +10% or so.

I'd suggest making the damage powerup be less effective the better your placing - if you're in 1st place, it only does +10%, if you're in 8th place it does the full 100%. Similarly in team games it gets less effective the further you are ahead of the other team. Reducing the duration, so that like Stealth you can't permanently have it, is good.

When a player has the power-up (or any given power-up for that matter), make sure other players can clearly see they have it.

Yes. Shields show up on a scan. Stealth shows up because you can't scan. Speed lasts so little time if you didn't just see them pick it up they don't have it. Weapons ... they have so many amazing weapon visual effects in the main game that would look really good in CQC and make it very clear that someone had the powerup.

[*]Add a new game mode: Juggernaut

This sounds great - though like all "new mode" ideas it would need some work on how mode selection and queuing is done to stop it being a "we don't have enough players to spread across a 4th mode" issue.

 

[Frenotx]

This sounds great - though like all "new mode" ideas it would need some work on how mode selection and queuing is done to stop it being a "we don't have enough players to spread across a 4th mode" issue.

An "any mode" queue would be very helpful.