Random ammunition spawns create uncertainty around ammunition consumption and efficiency.
Suppose a player spends a run mag dumping their bolter at random hordes and crushers. They might put up really good numbers and they’ll certainly have fun (bolter goes brrrrr), but in reality they’re being extremely inefficient with resources. So long as the rest of the team is efficient enough (psykers, melee focused builds, etc) magdump Marty will feel like they’re playing great and might be pumping big numbers on the scoreboard. But as soon as the rest of the team starts to use their ammunition at a standard rate, it starts to cause issues for M. Bolter. This can cause friction and feels bad for everyone involved. Do I give them ammunition in the knowledge they’re just going to dump it into a horde that we could kill for “free” using other means? Or do I deliberately let my team have a member who’s unable to contribute meaningfully?
If ammunition was a fixed recharge system based on class that could be further modified by talents, perks, weapon family, blessings, etc. then it becomes extremely easy to see when you are and aren’t making effective use of your resources. This also fixes the forever issues caused by the vet aura. Instead of adding ammunition based on kills, the aura can just be a modifier on the ammunition creation “stat” of other players.
The loss of a reason to “explore” maps is a potential pain point. But I think that can be solved via other means and that it’s more important to the player experience to be able to tell when you are and aren’t meeting the expectations the devs have for you. (ie; “playing wrong”)
Except Havoc where playing a ranged weapon is limited to few choices, there are so many ammo in Auric and under that we don’t need changes.
What you describe as friction does not exist. All the times, there are plenty of ammo everywhere that players do not pick. Every mission I loot really a lot of ammos
About bolter… the problem is that a lot of players don’t use it correctly.
You should aim and use semi auto most of the time… except if you go for cavalcade, but then, here, you should understand that you cannot dump mags on every enemies.
The volatility of enemy spawns /modifiers makes this unreasonable, IMO. Players eventually learn how to manage their ammo which includes the unrealistic consumption of others. A good trick I learned if im out is to try and reload every few minutes so your character obnoxiously says “Out of Ammo”. The other solution is to give your teammates items and ping ammo for them, most of the time they return the favor.
I also don’t feel like the missions should be changed into a structured single player missions, with ammo checkpoints but it would be interesting if a modifier event introduced this to see how players react. (think big piles of ammo like L4D ever 25% of the map)
If you point Havoc, I would agree IF I would be sure it would not kill the fun of Havoc for the ones that appreciate it.
If you point Auric / Regular… you must play the typical gameplay that makes me hitting esc then “Leave Mission”. I hope you’re not this kind of guy that never stop to move forward without even looking chests.
as it should, punish bad gameplay. if someone is selfish in a co-op game why shouldn’t it affect the rest of the team? thats the consequence of not cooperating
removing negative consequences for bad gameplay is not the same thing as improving the game
Please don’t AH. A tiny bit of randomness is one of the few things that still adds some variance to this super stale and static game. Don’t make it even more boring than it already is. It needs MORE randomness, not less.
You want some certainty about amount of ammo you’ll find? Be certain it will be not enough, you’ll rarely be wrong about that.
It is a source of many complaints when someone takes too much ammo.
Next person sees what they’re doing, they do it themselves and zip ahead. Becomes PvP ammo hunt game, zipping ahead creates additional aggro. Hyper focus on ammo and reduced awareness and coherency because ones too slow, go separate pathing to find.
New players utilising it as a means to overcome resistance at ranged from safety. Just grab more ammo is their go to solution for all. But not consider their team mates.
Fixed ammo allocation per person at each stage then it is easier to judge their own consumption than rely on potential ammo pickups. Target priority, stop shooting trash mobs.
It is more positive if fixed per person and not rely on sharing. Sharing hardly happens in Quickplay.
Actually it does. Sometimes you’ll have to spam the need ammo command, but they do listen. This is just one of those things that is fine on lower difficulties and an absolute hindrance on higher ones. Like not having any way to deal with specials or carapace because you’re used to playing on malice.