So, I’ve been running around with braced autoguns since they unlocked on my Vet, and have been using mostly them from then to 30. Mostly difficulty 3 and 4.
I like the run and gun playstyle, but two things stand out to me about them that seems … odd, or just not quite right.
1 - the visibility of the crosshair, the center pip specifically. It gets lost in the clutter way too easily. Should maybe be made more distinct somehow.
2 - it doesn’t really feel like bracing has a point - it’s supposed to make the gun more accurate, but somehow it feels like it’s doing the exact opposite, with the crosshair and rounds going anywhere but the initial targeting point after going sustained fire. I can put burst on target using hip-fire more accurately than I can while braced, so (possibly discounting the Graia which actually seems to have an increase in fire rate if you brace it) bracing almost seems counterproductive.
Still, the above is entirely subjective. Anyone else having the same experience?
I’ve been having a blast with it as a zealot in tier 5. It’s sometimes super accurate, and sometimes the bullets go everywhere.
Bracing seems to increase DPS somehow, but not accuracy.
Love the ammo capacity, very rarely run out, and can still pick off the off scab that’s outside of melee range!
Handling speed is great as well, no turtle bolter animation when swapping.
True to point 1, but at least it is in line with other guns. Still, braced autoguns are a lot trickier in this regard!
Point 2 is… complicated. I also think it makes not much sense to brace it, true, but I think it works fine for the weapon overall.
What I mean: I see the braced autogun as a “Light Support Weapon”, aka a small machine gun. This is view reinforced because of the missing ADS and the big magazine.
Also it is one of the only weapons in the game which reliably and fast suppresses enemies. In this regard its crazy.
Because of this, I think the bracing fits, if I try to fire “braced” shots with my machine gun it also does not make “much difference” compared to firing it to suppress (and “aiming” with the tracers).
So yeah, I would let it be overall, but would hope to get more Autogun variants, so it makes more sense in comparison with them overall.
Mayhaps give them definitely a fire-rate boost (or if Graia really has it, just give it to all) when braced, so it feels more consistent and worthwhile.
Graia defnitely has increased rate of fire while braced. Tested point blank with mutants in the Meat Grinder (from behind, to minimize weak point hits). Examples below (I did more tests than than that, but for each gun and firing type the damage was within 50-100ish of the numbers below):
Graia, hip fire:
Graia, braced:
With every round on target it comes out to roughly 15%-20% DPS increase for bracing. Sound and graphical effects (muzzle flashes) also clearly indicate an increase in fire rate.
Columnus, hipfire:
Columnus, braced:
roughly identical damage for both modes, allowing for variation in incidence of ‘yellow’ crits.
Agripinaa, hipfire:
Agripinaa, braced:
Again, negligible difference in damage indicating no difference in fire rate.
Edited to reclip the Agripinaa hipfire, accidentally posted Columnus shot there.
So, like the OP posted on point 2 something felt off when bracing the gun ( in my case the Agripinaa MK VIII) so I went to the meat grinder to test just shooting at the wall and looking at the bullet impact patterns from the same distances, bracing the gun not only made the recoil bounce all over the place compared to normal hip fire, but the cone of fire was larger too, something is definately off and I encourage others to test this in the meat grinder.
