Old Player returning -- WTF happened to AK? -- OLD FOGEY RANTS

[soldatisntdeadyouare]

Can we talk about the AK? It was best when it had a very low fire rate, high damage, good accuracy, a 40 round clip, and a medium reload. Now it shoots like a trashy steyr. After coming back to Soldat after years off I was very impressed with the graphics, the general improvement in bugs, the physics, and game play of grenades. The weapon balance feels decent, except for the AK. The performance of this gun is lacking, which feels like the most glaring defect in the game play to me. Here's the comparison I've noticed over the last two months since I picked up soldat up again:

Long range: Minime has a longer clip and better accuracy vs AK. It is superior for camping. A quick retreat or lane change provides time necessary to reload
Short range: MP5 obviously better than AK--comparable damage with higher fire rate and reload
Medium range, or maneuvering around obstacles: Steyr shoots straighter, much better for dodging around corners/returning fire since the spread is low. Steyr is better at landing hits until the target enters midrange.

If I'm missing something here, someone please explain what the balance is trying to achieve here with the AK. What situation is it supposed to excel in? The only situation I've found it to excel in is supermanning within a midrange distance from the target.

I advocate decreased fire rate, greatly decreased spread, decreased movement penalty, 40 round clip, and moderately increased damage. The minime can function as a more defensive long range auto, and the AK could function as an offensive long range auto. OK, done ranting, thanks for reading.

[Petterkowski]

Since you were off for few years i will try to enlighten you a little bit on this and the current situation with the weapon mod because we've gone through this discussion million times for the past year. As anyone who nowadays plays Soldat knows, the only one weapon that is far too dominent is ruger, providing 2-hit kills regularly no matter what body part you hit. 2-hit kills give the ruger the edge over other weapons, which is bad. No worries though because as you might have read in the recent posts, the whole point of sonner-or-later incoming 1.8 is to even out playability for all weapons with fair and conventional damage distribution system for each mode, leaving none the easier preference. Some of devs and coders still plan to work so the hitbox registration code is finally re-worked and ruger shots are split into head and torso/leg in a way it guarantees 2 and 3 hit kill depending on the body part. That's all ahead of us.

As to your fears of AK's strenght; You have to understand that each weapon has got its own usage, and that is why Steyr is not any better than AK. It just has different usage. Let me give you more in-depth reasoning.

There has always been more good AUG users than AK users, not because Steyr was always a "better weapon", but because most Soldat players play mostly CTF gamemode. When you play on a 3on3 field, and there is one alt-route in most of the given maps, nearly every situation in game is 1on1, 1on2 or at the very best 2on2 fights. Because of that AUG is superb weapon as it is very good offensive weapon. And that is the usage for the Steyr; to be offensive.

AK, is better defensive weapon because AK is better weapon in 1on2 situations than Steyr, because of larger clip and few other things like more damage per one bullet. Yes, bullets are slower, but when you are defending and taking better place than attacker (above him and few other things like behind collidors and certain places on the map etc) that isn't a problem.

And as defending you can avoid Steyr strenghts by taking more distance so AUG doesn't make so much damage(not to mention about hk that is far weaker on the distance shotout than Steyr). So while defending AK can win Steyr and Hk in 1on1 situation. But only then (when defending).

So as you can see every weapon has got its own usage and is better at some point of the gameplay than other weapons. In this case, Steyr is better offensive weapon, and AK better defensive weapon. AUG is obviously more popular in the current gameplay because most of the people like more attacking than defending. The same thing happens in every real sport. Game becomes more and more aggresive. Either you adapt, or die. Most of the young guys want to be the next Ronaldo or Messi, and not the Paulo Maldini for instance. Humans are like that. We like to attack. You can't blame people for that. You may not see the difference in a crowded public server but you will sure mark my words when you play more advanced 3v3 play. Then the usage of certain weapons are more visible as the game becomes more skill wise.

And therefore it is very important to ask yourself; What kind of player you are? It's not about the weapon, it's about the role on the map. If you still have some suggestions or fears you can ask me about that or the leader of the weapon mod team - darDar(iRC #soldat). Cheers.

[Sigfrid]

I think it must be a deadlier weapon because I consider it the best weapon in the game and it has a lower firepower than the other weapons.

[ginn]

Yet again, petter has no idea what he's talking about.

AK is not a defensive weapon, and it's not good in "1v2" situations, or longer fire fights.
AK has a lot of self-bink, the the changes made to the bink system makes it impossible to control the self-bink. Previously it was controllable by having short moments of not holding the fire key between shots. However, with a patch, a long time ago, that was changed, and now self-bink wll keep going up.

That means AK accumulate self-bink quickly, and the only way to avoid becoming totally inaccurate is by shooting slower than it's fireinterval.

Every weapon does not have it's own disadvantages and advantages, that is because the wm team consists of complete idiots. Weapons are better in every situation, because they were "balanced" to be much stronger than all the other weapons.