I just want to make a topic about these specifically - about how to rework them.
My opinion is that they need a fundamental change, because if you simply tweak the base stats too much you won’t need to activate them, and if you buff the activation it does not solve the inherent problems they bring.
So - my thought is just that the special attack just turns on the chainsword; full stop. It’s not for one hit, it’s just for as long as you leave it like that. Every attack is then a chain attack, which has very poor cleave. Leave the base attacks alone; perhaps they need some tweaks, but in general I don’t feel they are lacking against groups.
The chain attacks themselves still need a change; I would reduce the total time they cut by about half, but keep them doing the same amount of damage. If this is not enough (though I think it’s worth a try), then you could also change it so the damage is not back-loaded (a bunch of weak hits followed by a strone one), and spread that damage out over every hit - or at least normalize them to some degree. This would mean that even if you have to cancel an attack, it doesn’t mean your last hit was functionally useless, you just didn’t get the full potential.
If Chain weapons could be reworked from the ground up, I’d love to see a rev meter.
Where the weapon has attacks that will consume revs and deal higher damage and possibly latch on the enemy if revved enough, and other that instead generate more rev till they’ll deal more damage and latching.
With the special being able to boost rev generation and cost for a temporary time.
Make them saw like the old Doom chainsaw from 1993. You hold it, it saws. It doesn’t stick, but only hits 1 target in front of it. Pretty simple to get value while still being able to dodge and live.
Couple of things that may (or may not) need addressing first: sound design, motion sickness, hit detection.
Mk XII chainaxe deserves better. Those unrevved lights and its hit sounds are not good. Evis and the Mk IV chainaxe I think are in a great spot with sfx, I think chainswords could be better.
I really want the camera jitteriness addressed. For a primary weapon, having the camera taken away from you and violently shook is too much. I think the camera should be smoothed so you see your weapon and crosshair shaking violently, but not the whole screen.
Hit detection drives me up the wall sometimes. Specifically while fighting ogryn enemies, despite having overhead swing patterns, I’m always latching onto limbs and shields. I would understand if it was user error (like don’t attack them when the enemy has their arms up), but Bulwarks are out here gobbling my attacks up even when their guard is open and I’m unsure how I’m missing their big fat heads.
Beyond that, I like the mk IV chainaxe. Like I actually don’t find anything truly wrong with how it functions. I think chainswords could stand to have some of its features, by either latching on some attacks or perhaps making first target hit take multiple instances of damage.
Evis are good, mostly.
Both revved evis and chainswords need to stunlock the target like chainaxe
Revving needs tweaking. Maybe having a weapon latch onto a target until it’s dead would be too much, but in my point of view that seems like a fair trade off for how defenseless you are when animation locked.
Other necessary additions:
A bigger Eviscerator. The biggest Eviscerator possible. I want to cut the plague ogryn in half
2-handed Chainaxe. Priority 1. More important than Veteran mains. The most important content update that could ever happen
Ogryn approved Chain Cleaver or Heavy Rocksaw Cutter or Chain Hammer.
This I can help with. If the sweep passes through the head and the shield the game will allocate the hit to the shield.
This kind of prioritisation happens with all attacks. Body parts have a priority order and it’s the only reason you get headshots despite clipping through the shoulder etc.
In the bulwark’s case the shield has to be the priority or it will never come into play. Your eviscerator’s hitbox is always going to make contact with multiple body sections even when it passes through the shield first.
(confirmed all this in the meat grinder and then later learned about the priority system by looking at weapon code)
The ideas you put forward aren’t the same as mine, but to be honest, it doesn’t really matter — it still highlights that there’s a problem with how chain weapons feel in gameplay.
Hopefully, Fatshark finally decides to take the gamble and rework the chain weapons.