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Hopefully the goddamn bot lets this one through.
So let's preface with my credentials, like all good internet whining posts should, I've been playing DRG off and on since 2 weeks after it came out in Early Access back in Feb 2018. In that time I've logged over 250 hours and had quite a lot of fun with it.
My original love in this game was the driller. Not only was the flamethrower a lot of fun, but so were the near-infinite landscaping opportunities of the drills. Those drills meant I was beholden to no one. Totally unlike the other 3 classes I could go anywhere I bloody well pleased and mine what I bloody well liked.
But I have been troubled this past year by what has happened to my boy. I feel simultaneously ignored and jerked around by many of the changes that have hit the driller and it's bloody annoying. So much so that I now actively try to avoid playing the drilldozer in favor of the engi or gunner.
So this is my attempt to enumerate all of the things, great and small, that I feel deserve some improvement on my ex-lad of choice. I'll try not to offer too many demands or suggestions, since I'm sure the devs at GSG will be able to come up with better solutions than I if they want to.
Or, in the words of George Carlin, "This is just a series of things that are pissing me off."
We'll start small of course, so as to not get too salty out of the gate.
Cryo Cannon
Even now, a year-ish on from its introduction and with improved tooltips, I still have to stop and really think about what most of the upgrades on this thing do. All the references to repressurization and such are very unintuitive, to say nothing about the ambiguity of "freezing power." This makes it difficult for me to really envision what good a given upgrade will do me.
The recent nerf to the first tier upgrade "Stronger Cooling Unit" feels more punitive than a normal nerf. Since that extra point of "freezing power" was effectively moved off to a bloody overclock instead of elsewhere. Now my full freeze build feels weak and anemic since I haven't lucked into any Cryo Cannon overclocks.
Cold Radiance is still an awful upgrade purely because it's so difficult for the player to see if they are getting any value from it.
Subata
Worst thing about this gun is it's just kinda dull. It's always been that way, but prior to Update 19 it was mostly offset by the novelty of the flamethrower. Ever since the EPC was introduced the Subata looks really dull by comparison. Maybe the overclocks can kinda fix this issue, I dunno. It's not even entirely a bad thing, but it does irk me sometimes. Even the Bulldog has gotten some love with interesting mechanics now with its explosive round & toxic round options.
While I quite enjoy the Volatile Bullets upgrade, I also dislike its lack of synergy with the Cryo Cannon. This becomes especially galling when looking at the GK2's new balanced overclock that increases damage against enemies suffering any kind of status effect.
Satchel Charge
My old friend the C4 brick has seen a death by a thousand cuts. While it was never nerfed directly until the recent restictions on placing multiple bricks, it has still suffered a lot of knock on effects from other changes. Praetorian's had their health buffed so as not to be one shot anymore and groups of praetorians are less likely to spawn together, so C4 is less useful to sling around as a general damage tool. Dreadnoughts had their speed massively buffed so its much more difficult to utilize C4 on the go against them. The nerf to resupplies rounding down instead of up means that taking only one ammo upgrade is basically useless. And I'm sure there's some things I'm forgetting about even now.
Point is, these days I mostly see people use satchels to blow up dirt or carve out bunker rooms instead of tossing them into hordes for the satisfying explosion of flames & bug parts. That makes me sad.
Gunners and I used to compete with each other with who could rack up the most praetorian kills without getting killed by friendly fire. Now I don't even use my satchels in 90% of my missions.
EPC
Now we're getting to the meat of my bugbears. I loathe the constant jerking around with this weapon. In fact, the latest changes from Hotfix 5 to remove the base projectile velocity buff that was added in Update 25 + removing the charged projectile velocity from "Overcharged Plasma Accelerator" is the straw that broken the camel's back and finally motivated me to make this topic.
It's so bad that I honestly kind of wish the developers would just wipe the slate clean with this weapon and remake everything on it. Make up your bloody minds about what this weapon should be capable of. Every. Single. Time. I settle on a new build for this stupid thing it gets changed and it cheeses me off.
CRSPR Flamethrower
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This is neck and neck with the EPC complaint really. I hate what Update 19 did to this weapon. Specifically I hate how utterly awful sticky flames are. Update 19 utterly gutted the sticky flames on this weapon.
Prior to Update 19 this weapon had 5 seconds of sticky flames at base and 7 seconds + the slow when fully upgraded. Now it has 2 seconds at base, upgradable to 6 seconds at max (unless you happen to find this
piece of sh*t). But upgrading the duration to max also sacrifices the slow.
Why are so many of the sticky flame options on this weapon piss weak in addition to being mutually exclusive? I don't bloody get it. Why are there two separate upgrades for +2 seconds each? Both are awful on their own. And taking them both precludes taking the slowdown. And how can anybody possibly tell if Sticky Flame Ignition or Sticky Flame Damage is better?
There are zero tier 5 upgrades that synergize well with sticky flames. Targets Explode only triggers off of direct damage. It Burns! makes enemies take less damage unless the player also has Sticky Flame Slowdown, which as previously stated has a hellish opportunity cost of not taking another duration upgrade. And who the hell even knows what Heat Radiance does?
I also cannot fathom a reason why Sticky Flame Ignition is a separate upgrade from Triple Filtered Fuel. Why are there two separate upgrades for such moderate effects?
Please, just consolidate some of these bloody upgrades if nothing else. Even if there's nothing to replace them. Just let me actually play with a modestly improved version of my old flamethrower again without playing silly buggers.