On Guns

Very impressed with this update, performance has been flawless, enemy AI is engaging to fight even if their animation plays too fast for their run speed sometimes, the gunplay & audio feels fantastic overall and I’m a huge stickler for those so it’s high praise from me. The following is all about the AK-20 & 1911 because that’s the only kit I’ve played with so far. A teeny bit of the MX-18.

Guns absolutely need to be rendering something for their chambered state. It’s fine if the movement isn’t precise (although much cooler if it is), just a static bullet in a place that obviously means “loaded” at a glance is the #1 missing piece.

Barrel grip zone should be disabled when a grip is installed bottom rail.

Magazine grip hitbox feels a little awkward on a built up AK, I have to be very intentional. My speculation is that the mag hitbox overlaps with the angled grip’s. I’d like to see an option in settings to use the index finger trigger for magazine interactions, I think it’s a natural solution to that issue and enough of a genre convention that lots of other users might prefer it too.

Another solution to that issue is to change the way the magazine release button works on guns with that function. Currently the magazine drops when the button is released after a momentary press. The ideal process would be the press event triggering the magazine to become interactable and travel down the well, then at the end of the well check the button state again, if it’s released let the mag fall, if it’s held, keep it at the end of the well. This becomes doubly useful if you decide to implement a mag with a window, or some perk upgrade for a UI overlay, but I think it’s necessary for administrative reloads.

From the 1911, I would like to be able to lock open any gun with a slide lock by holding the slide release button while I rack it. This is entirely novelty and current functionality is fine.

For the MX-18, I noticed a round only ejects on the first cycle of any given grab of the bolt. Might be the smallest nit I’ve ever picked.

I’d understand if you wanted to keep the ammo interaction arcade style, but I figure the gunplay is already so good that an option for a slightly more involved system would fit right in. My idea is to keep the ammo pool pouch, but make magazines a vest item; Mags held to the ammo pouch reload one round per 0.6 seconds with audio feedback. Spare mag slots give more character and weight to the player’s choice of armor vest. Downtime reloading gives something to do during a beat between the action, and it emphasizes the value of team play under pressure. But really, it’s about the cognitive load of knowing the states of your magazines and choosing between them in a firefight.

The loadout screen is only slightly unintuitive, it took a little bit for me to find where to change attachments. I would like to see the save data represent the last known attachment config on a per-weapon basis - rebuilding my AK because I clicked on the MX-18 to check it out wasn’t ideal. The menu option is nice but I think it wouldn’t be a waste to add a series of kiosks to the hideout, one for each player, with the same functionality. At the very least, somewhere to see your entire squad’s loadout at a glance.

Keep it up, this is good shit and I’m excited to get back to playing it. Just bought another gift copy last night.