Scab shooters without the gas mask not being highlighted by Veteran's Counterfire is "not-a-bug"

Counterfire is a Veteran Sharpshooter level 30 perk:

Currently, despite saying it designates all shooters, it seems to very glaringly omits highlighting one of the basic shooter enemies:

Despite being reported as a bug a few times, the threads have been repeatedly been marked as “not-a-bug”.

Despite being a designated short-range fighter, they act pretty much the same way as the other shooters, where when they detect you they scatter into cover and try to pot-shot you. They also have very similar silhouettes to the other scab gunners and share the same style of vox callouts. Most of all, they shoot and are not ogryns, and that alone should have them be counted as shooters under Counterfire.

If they want to keep that design for Counterfire, either they should change the tooltip to indicate that actually, it doesn’t highlight all the shooters like it says, have their AI be a lot more aggressive in coming into close-quarters, or be more visually distinct (especially the silhouette) to set them apart as “not a shooter”.

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This change should be made quickly and decisively. They shoot you in a pile together with the other ranged. They are a ranged special with a gun, so them being marked is prudent and entirely logical with the feats description.

A firefight is no time for a strange exception to the feat meant to aid in these situation.

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Fatshark has lost their mind lmao

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Noticed this as well.

Pretty terrible.

If it quacks like a duck…

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It does feel a bit strange, wonder what the reasoning behind it is

Noticed this early on and it grates every time. I wonder if there is any reasoning at all.

They also have more hp than normal gasmask shooters.

I guess fatshark consider these more badass because they’re sleeveless + wear ammobelt, I think of this like that scene in predator where arnold put mud on body to avoid detection, here - the “badass” shooter has all that tattoo or something that might grant some blessing from nurgle that prevent highlight, player being the predator.

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I was wondering about this as well. It’s annoying because they will just shoot you like the others until you get close, but that shouldn’t mean they’re excluded from the ability. Thanks for posting this.

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This just screams to me that those that made this choice have not actually tested how this all plays.

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I noticed they were excluded and that’s extremely goofy seeing as they pose the same general threat as other ranged enemies. IF they aggressively advanced into melee, firing at you along the way, I think it’d be fine, but they will set up in cover and sit there like all the other shooters.

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This is exactly why I called out the CM/CS’s whom have replied to the myriad other threads with the “Working as intended” cop-out. The developers of this game have utterly lost their minds, and every single person whom has reported this, and other bugs, can see this is not functioning in the verbiage’s spirit as implied.

Change the description, or actually make the ability work for the player, rather than against them.

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It’s actually funny because These dudes 90% of the time are just sneaking in point blank range and absolutely butt blast me while kiting if I try to close the range. Since this game has insane hitstun from ranged attaks sometimes I can lose like 40% of my Zealot hp just like that.

Love these enemies. (I don’t)

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According to a post by a community manager ( @FatsharkQuickpaw ) in several threads in the “Bugs” subforum; Apparently this is intended. The Scabs armed with Lasrifles and Dregs armed with Autoguns are highlighted, but Scabs armed with Lascarbines are not.

Allegedly this is due to Scab Lascarbiners being a considered a more “Close-range” threat than the others. Dregs (Currently?) don’t have an equivalent enemy type, which is why this only affects Scab encounters. (Though the layout of the enemies in the Psykhanium suggests that they ARE the equivalent of Lascarbiners, and we havent yet seen the “long range” dreg variant. Long rifle users, perhaps?)

I’d ask that the design team rethink this decision, Lascarbiners (Do these guys actually have a name?) are functionally equivalent to Las/Autogunners in that they are ranged threats that the Veteran is best suited to dealing with. They really ought to be highlighted in the same way. You are presently penalised for dealing with Lascarbiners during a “Counterfire” Volley Fire, despite the fact that they are the first non-elite shooters you should be dealing with.

I would genuinely prefer a reduction in the weakpoint bonus afforded by “Counterfire” rather than the omission of Lascarbiners if balance is a concern here, though I don’t think it would be gamebreaking regardless.

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What? I have never noticed a difference in their effective ranged between helmet-bandolier guy versus guardsmen or the yellow shirts. What are they smoking?

I understand that they’re trying to have a greater variety of distinct enemies, but the fact of the matter is that helmet-guys pose basically the exact same threat as any of the other non-elite shooters. If they prefer to stand a little closer or are more reluctant to pull out their melee, I have never noticed.

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but they do take cover, have same AI profile of any ranged AI.

but yet not highlighted as ranged.

i call it “Lazy to Fix”

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it’s actually laughable to call these guys shorter ranged than the others. What nonsense, they shoot at you from just as far as the others lmao. It’s even grouped into the same category as the others and the feat says “shooters” which…these guys are.

What are these devs talking about? Lmao imagine giving that response instead of just going “oh man whoops, yeah that’s not right”

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I agree that it’s an utterly baffling decision. Even if they do act somewhat differently to other shooters (Not that I think they really do. They might try and move a little closer than Lasgunners, or stand out in the open slightly more?), they’re exactly the same type of threat, and 100% should be highlighted.

I like the additional enemy variety, but they are absolutely not distinct enough in function to avoid being highlighted.

What a coincidence, I was just about to make a thread about this on the bug reports. This should be a relatively easy design decision: if an enemy is using guns to shoot, then they are a shooter. There are subvarieties of shooters, like shotgunners, snipers, and gunners, but they are all still shooters. Making this kind of an arbitrary exclusion in what is and isn’t considered a shooter is purely bad game design.

I think I might still make a thread about these guys on the bug-reporting forum. I invite everyone else to do the same. Clearly something has to change. Maybe when they’re seeing the same issue pop-up time and again someone gets the message? Not that I have much hope, knowing fat shark.

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Classic ClownShark move.

If they’re intended to be short ranged enemies, they need to be short ranged- but they fire away, often with lasguns, as much as anything else. They absolutely fire at the same long ranges as other gun enemies, and they should absolutely be in the highlighted group.

The designers need to understand that this is such a glaring omission it feels like a bug to absolutely everyone. Feels horrible.