AxTng1 on 27/8/2006 at 22:54
I just finished another DX runthrough - encouraged by the "red dot pistol of doom" I tried to use the "red dot assault rifle of doom", and my god does this thing own. Just aim at someone's feet from 3 miles away and hold down the trigger - it even works on bots! It's quite funny when they have an AR as well, because their bullets spread all over the place and rarely hit you even when you are getting pixel-perfect shots.
It's not so good on MiBs or Commandos, and the Tiffany rescue got kindof ballsed up, but it was fun.
I also tried to kill the bosses in the best way I could think of:
I left Anna alone and kept the objective in my vault all through the game.
I toasted Maggie with a Manna round from Jock's apartment, as described in (
http://www.it-he.org/deus.htm) http://www.it-he.org/deus.htm
I persuaded Chad to give me the key, then AR'ed him in the head as punishment for becoming an asshole in the sequel
I scrambled a bot outside the cathedral and then led Gunther to it. "I AM NOT A MACHINE!" "no, but this is etc."
I accidentally blew up Tiffany with an MiB corpse
I got a Karkian to start eating Walton, then I got them both with the electrified tracks
Howard Strong got himself with a LAM
I lay LAMbushes for the daddy-killers
And Bob Page was xploded in a similar way to SHODAN.
Because you all wanted to know.
Pyrian on 28/8/2006 at 04:59
Any weapon combination that suffers from not being so great against MiB's and Commandos does not qualify as The Win!
Otherwise, cool. :cool:
Ultraviolet on 28/8/2006 at 05:42
AR sux. If it had a 45 or 60 round clip at its base and if ammo pickups had more in them (how is it you pick up a clip and it has just a few rounds in it? same with the pistol ammo boxes that look like they should have about 20 rounds in them), then it would be acceptable, but how is it that 7.62mm rifle ammo does less damage than 10mm pistol ammo anyway? Yeah, I understand it's about balance, but the AR takes 4 inventory squares and the pistol takes 1. The extra 3 inventory square cost should be WORTH something, like, say, versatility. And no, the 20mmHE ammo is not frequently occuring enough to make the AR versatile. The AR damage is so low, infact, that your skill multiplier can't even increase the damage value -- 3 + 10% = 3.3, which gets rounded down, making the first skill upgrade USELESS. If it were 5 at base, then the first 10% upgrade would make it 5.5, and the base damage would still be about HALF of that of the pistol, keeping balance. Versatility could also be increased by reducing the trigger to tri-burst rather than five shots. I'd like recoil to be more like that of the AR in SS2, not being exclusively upward, but there being random movement on both axes.
Kuja on 28/8/2006 at 09:37
Quote:
AR sux. If it had a 45 or 60 round clip at its base and if ammo pickups had more in them (how is it you pick up a clip and it has just a few rounds in it? same with the pistol ammo boxes that look like they should have about 20 rounds in them), then it would be acceptable, but how is it that 7.62mm rifle ammo does less damage than 10mm pistol ammo anyway? Yeah, I understand it's about balance, but the AR takes 4 inventory squares and the pistol takes 1. The extra 3 inventory square cost should be WORTH something, like, say, versatility. And no, the 20mmHE ammo is not frequently occuring enough to make the AR versatile. The AR damage is so low, infact, that your skill multiplier can't even increase the damage value -- 3 + 10% = 3.3, which gets rounded down, making the first skill upgrade USELESS. If it were 5 at base, then the first 10% upgrade would make it 5.5, and the base damage would still be about HALF of that of the pistol, keeping balance. Versatility could also be increased by reducing the trigger to tri-burst rather than five shots. I'd like recoil to be more like that of the AR in SS2, not being exclusively upward, but there being random movement on both axes.
Obviously you haven't used the AR at all in your games of Deus Ex. It's not about damage values, it's about skill in handling the weapon and dealing with the recoil straight-off, and also the sheer challenge of not spamming the pistol throughout the game. I've typically found that people using the weapon statistics to claim a "pistol victory" usually haven't used the AR at all ingame - where the challenge really lies. Also, would JC Denton really go through the game using just the pistol ? Of course not.
And while 40mm HE ammo IS rare, a grenade shot in the right place can decimate a horde of enemies in a short second. That can make the difference between life and death in certain places ...
Ultraviolet on 28/8/2006 at 21:35
YES OBVIOUSLY I HAVE NEVER USED THE AR EVAR. I use it to save 10mm ammo, and I use it frequently. However, in places such as the 'Ton UNATCO raidI can't wait for the piece of shit to reload -- and it's out of ammo after no more than six kills (30 rounds divided by 5 round bursts = 6), or at most 9 if fully modded (45 / 5 = 9), whereas the pistol can be modded as high as I think it was 11. I switch to the pistol rather than waiting for a reload, and I end up staying with the pistol.
Then, once you get the rifle modded up to where recoil is more manageable, you're firing too many rounds, wasting a few per headshot-kill.
Just because the SS2 AR is a bit overpowered doesn't mean that the Deus Ex AR is perfect.
As for what JCD would REALLY do in the game, he wouldn't use an assault rifle if it were in reality a piece of shit that is not as good as a pistol.
AxTng1 on 29/8/2006 at 05:40
I agree with the damage argument, but it misses the point of being an AR. Unlike the SS2 AR that fires normal ammo really fast or the one in Anarchy Online that is just a normal gun that happens to use the "Assault Rifle" skill, the DX AR is an interesting weapon.
When you press fire, the AR begins to shoot 5 rounds. You can still aim the gun during the half-second it takes to use the 5, and with careful aiming you can take out two targets per click. The red dot ensures that every shot goes on-target. Or if you are far away and shooting into a crows (like the Outdoor NY parts fighting NSF or MJ-12 outside Osgoods), I turn the red dot off and just hold down the button, using the bullet spread to do the work for me. Admittedly you do need to reload frequently, but it is rare that you get so many enemies at once. And if you do, well.... that's what the 20MM rounds are for ;)
Also
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Any weapon combination that suffers from not being so great against MiB's and Commandos does not qualify as The Win!
It's only not so great because I suck. If I could maintain aim on their heads, I'm sure it would work fine.
TheGreatGodPan on 29/8/2006 at 19:51
Quote Posted by AxTng1
I lay LAMbushes for the daddy-killers
And Bob Page was xploded in a similar way to SHODAN.
I'm completely confused by the first line. It's been a while since I've played. For the second, are you saying you did the "Dark Age" ending? I think I remember Shodan getting shot at the end of SS2, which you can't really do to Page.
AxTng1 on 30/8/2006 at 00:15
Quote Posted by TheGreatGodPan
I'm completely confused by the first line. It's been a while since I've played.
Heh.
Bob Page: Near the end of Area 51 sector 2 (I think)
blah blah blah parents, killed, MiB.. blah blah
I'm sending up the man who did the job.
So I planted LAMs on the wall next to the elevator, then hit the call lift button, then ran behind some handy crates.
Tick..tick.. BOOM!
Bob Page: You're a little faster on your feet than your daddy was...
I went with the Illuminati ending, because pressing the Everett button drops Bob's sparkly shield, allowing me to shoot a LAW and 2 clips of AR ammo into his unprotected body before the game realises it's over.
Pyrian on 30/8/2006 at 00:19
Quote Posted by AxTng1
So I planted LAMs on the wall next to the elevator, then hit the call lift button, then ran behind some handy crates.
There's some explosive barrels in that room. I didn't see any reason to waste LAM's.
Quote Posted by AxTng1
I went with the Illuminati ending, because pressing the Everett button drops Bob's sparkly shield, allowing me to shoot a LAW and 2 clips of AR ammo into his unprotected body before the game realises it's over.
Interesting, does that actually
do anything?
ZylonBane on 30/8/2006 at 02:30
Quote Posted by Pyrian
There's some explosive barrels in that room. I didn't see any reason to waste LAM's.
Waste is a matter of opinion.
That generic MiB is the one who shot my Pa! Blow him up reeaal good!
