Burst Fire, Macros, and Other Relevant Questions

[StephenNelson]

So I think I've found out when to use AP and when to use standard rounds, but I can't help but wonder when to use burst and when to not. I generally use burst since most xenos don't move fast enough to dodge the fire and I usually catch em with 2 of the 3 rounds at least. Having said that, I do get that it limits your ability to fire and then fire again in a different area longer than single shot does. It also makes FF 3x worse. Can someone who's ROBUST fill me in on when to not use it?

Also my macros are set up as:

Space: Unique-Action (Pump shotty)
/: Load-from-attachment

I play on hotkeys so that covers most of what I need, however I'd love to have a macro that takes a weapon from my suit slot and places it in my active hand without clicking via mouse. is this possible?

I guess this can be a general "Advanced tips and tricks for Marines" thread. All advice is appreciated.

[Zilenan91]

Generally you're going to want to use burst when you're out in the open and in the front of an attack, and single-shot when behind defenses so you can take potshots at your enemy without wasting ammo as you won't be able to move closer so you can be more accurate on single-shot. Important to note is that on single-shot your bullet spread and accuracy have no penalty as a baseline, while on burst, both are penalized. Both of these are important for several reasons.

Basically the farther you are from an enemy the harder it is to hit them, and for rifles anything 7+ tiles away from you is difficult or impossible to hit without accuracy-boosting attachments, and even with them it is nearly impossible to hit anything at all past your vision range. Accuracy penalties are bad on the defensive because you're less likely to hit at max vision range which aliens will constantly move in and out of to do damage, and the bullet spread is bad because you can hit other marines in your barricade line. All of this only applies to the M4A1Mk2 of course. If you want an attachment loadout that maxes accuracy so you can get complete bullshit outside of vision range hits, get an extended barrel a red dot sight and a forward grip. Your gunfire will be perfectly accurate and have zero bullet spread so your bullets will go exactly where you click nearly every single time, at a minor penalty to damage but it's worth it. Another cool thing about having extremely high accuracy is that it can possibly make your non-AP rifle ammo deflect off of a Crusher less often, though this is only a rumor. A point worth being made about bullet inaccuracy is that it is good against extremely fast castes like runners and hunters but having these attachments makes friendly fire impossible unless you fuck up rather than you just getting a bad roll on bullet spread RnG.

As far as macros you used to be able to use .click to pick up a specific weapon like an M4A1 but I believe devs removed the use of that macro so you can't do that anymore.

[StephenNelson]

Thanks for the advise! I'll definitely start trying to put a stock/extended barrel on my m41A. (I love the UGL too much to sacrifice it and the flashlight from the vendor is honestly like crack to me. Wish more people would take it.)

Unrelated, but which specialist... err... specialization do you recommend for a newbie? I have never played spec before but I'm getting to the point where I feel like I can start to play it competently. I was thinking about going sniper but I guess there are two main sub-classes to that? Having a camo tarp that blends into the ground and makes you invisible to sends sounds like a blast to use. The wiki says that it replaces your sprite with a grass tile... does it have to be grass? I feel like a lonely putting green would stick out on Solaris or Ice Colony...

[Jeser]

If you never played spec before I'd suggest you trying smartgunner first. Previously Spec weapon, it's the friendliest weapon for rookies to choose, because you are already unique squad member, but you don't have devastating power of FF and you will become familiar with ammo deficit pain. (until you find there is an option to switch smartgun IFF off).

After you got used to smartgunner, I recommend sniper loadout. This will train you to avoid FF. (also, don't forget NOT TO AIM AT HEAD, because sniper rounds can decap marines if hit in head) Scout - same as sniper but you can call CAS with tacticool binoculars. You can learn how to do that later, after you figure out sniper class itself.

After you will learn how not to FF on sniper, you can try SADAR. B18 + GL is last option to learn, honestly, because it has TWO pieces of special equipmet (armor and GL) that you need to adjust your gameplay to.

Ofc, it's just my personal opinion how to learn Spec in small steps one by one. Slow and steady, I'd say. Some people just go and take SADAR and this results in big amount of FF for fair big amount rounds until they learn how to play with it.

[StephenNelson]

Thanks for the advice! I take it the sniper's camo does in fact work on all the maps then? And I actually have played smartgunner before (as PMC) and loved it. I guess I'll start there.

[Jeser]

Sadly, tarp was taken away for some reason. Many people are saying it was useless, but, IMHO, it was situationally quite useful.

[StephenNelson]

Alas, I had the mental image of laying in the grass just north of hydro and throwing down my comfy tarp to shoot Ayys with impunity. Some things just weren't meant to be.

[Zilenan91]

If you feel like doing some construction Engineer is really fun and has a lot of depth. Though you should probably learn how to hack doors and the construction system in general, you can do some really incredible shit if you hack the equipment vendors and get an SMG with AP ammo. This is a decently advanced class and requires knowledge on how to design FOBs but if you feel up to the challenge then it's cool to see another Engineer player.

Personally my favorite loadout as an engineer is to get an M39, then give it an extended barrel, a red dot, and a forward grip, then hack the equipment vendors and load that shit up with AP ammo. Kills everything quickly, not just xenos, fires extremely quickly and since your AP ammo is only gained through the vendors that only you were likely able to hack you will never have competition for your ammo and can pick up your spent magazines and reload them in the equipment vendors forever. I've debated attaching a burstfire assembly to it to make it even more killy but I haven't tried yet.

I just wish there was a map that was more enclosed, kinda like Hadley's Hope with a significant indoor area that Engineers would be able to barricade up, weld doors, and hack them open but I think such a map would be a long ways away.

Edit: As for specs smartgunner is really really easy. If you have IFF turned on you literally cannot friendly fire so just have some cannon fodder squad marines stand in front of you while you blast away with a barrel charger. I haven't played a ton of smartgunner but your loadout has a decent amount of flexibility, though I see them getting M39s most often as a secondary weapon.

[Jeser]

Well, I mained smartgunner for... since smartgunners were introduced, I think. Barrel charger is good on smartgun. Secondary is vitaly needed. Best choice of attachemtns from RO is: BC, SMG M39 holster rig and RDS. Load SMG and take 2 more mags.

[Steelpoint]

RDS + Foregrip + Extended is great for sustained burst fire but you do lose out on your UGL. You can ditch the RDS for a Flashlight and it should work.

I would not recommend a stock since it forces the gun to have a very long refire time in between attacks, it works ok enough for a Shotgun but for a M41A the refire time penalty is too long imo.

[Dolth]

I heard you looked for someone ROBUST?

In terms of attachment you do NOT take the stock neither extended (unless you really need an underbarrel mod).
And you want rds and grip. Grip reduces scatter and rds prevent the damage loss from ext barrel. Stock lower your rate of fire abd you don't need the accuracy and spread reduction. Now if you want a flashlight. Get a backup rifle with UGL and flash, if you use backpack, pistol with flash at your belt directly and ammo in the backpack.

Also you need to click as far behind as you can, that way you get the least scatter. (Direct click only on crit or sleeping xeno).

Now that advice works with single fire too bit try at most to shoot on the same line than the xeno also burst.

And please keep in mind you have scatter and should not shoot 1 tile close from friendlies that WILL cause FF. Regarding AP don't bother using it. At all.

Sadly I don't recommend any spec as a newbie until you get comfy with the game.

Voilà.

► Show Spoiler

Now if we talking attachments you want a QF and EXT barrel. Keep in mind xeno are soaking damage which means you need to deliver the largest sustained amount of damage before they run off. QF EXT brings the highee rate of fire with epic accuracy AND underbarrel mod. (You can scratch that for grip and no EXT to save little damage per hit. I personallt disadvise burst unless cqc or tunnels/hallways WITH LIGHTS. Or if dual wielding.

[StephenNelson]

Recently my load out has been:

M41A with flashlight and extended barrel

9mm Pistol with 1 extra mag

6 mags of standard M41A ammo, 2 AP. ( 6 of which fit into the ammo belt, 2 into my bag)

An MRE

Two boxes of flares

Medical Analyzer (pocket)

Gauze (pocket)

2x tricord In my armor slot

Ointment in my helmet slot

And that's generally it. Any suggestions on what to change? I usually have a ton of extra room in my backpack but I kinda like that since it gives me versatility.

Edit: oh and a survival knife as well.

[Dolth]

What else in the backpack and where is the pistol? If in the suit, why not having a stronger gun AKA another M41A?

[Zilenan91]

Your loadout is alright, but keep in mind if you need more storage you can put stuff inside of your M3 armor as well. There's space for two mags, and I think you should probably take around 8 regular magazines as a standard and you're good. If you get lucky and you can get a webbing either from an engineer or from the RO you can store even more stuff in that by attaching it to your jumpsuit and clicking on your jumpsuit to access the three spaces of storage it gives you (you can clickdrag your jumpsuit into your hand with webbing attached to take it off).

Also isn't it not allowed to take more than one primary?

[Steelpoint]

You can take as many weapons as you can carry, but it's impractical to carry more than two primary weapons outside of very specific circumstances.

I always put a ointment and a bandage in my two armor slots so I always have a way to bandage minor wounds in the field.

-----------

For my backpack I oft fill it with one M4A3 Pistol, one spare Pistol magazine, two flare boxes and then I fill the rest of the spots with M41A magazines, sometimes I'll hold extra medical/engineering items for my squad if they ask me. For my belt slot I either get a machete for aesthetic purposes, or I take my pistol, slap a flashlight on it, and put it on my belt slot to act as my light source.

For my M41A I usually get a Red Dot Sight and Forward Grip, these let me burst fire reliably but I lose my UGL.

ALTERNATIVELY I ditch my backpack, place a Shotgun on my armor slot and a M41A on my back, then I put a flashlight on the shotgun and put a ammo belt on my belt slot. This loadout lets you bring a powerful Shotgun to the fore but you run into major ammo issues due to no backpack.

[gipsy1337]

Steel, is a red dot, ugl and supressor fine too? You get 2 nades and supressed shots, you even get less scatter from burstfire if you have a supressor, instead
of just higher accuracy.

[Steelpoint]

Suppressor results in a minor damage decrease and only a minor accuracy increase. The main utility of the suppressor is the fact it all but silences the weapons AND more importantly it hides damage logs (for players at least I think) of you firing the weapon or the enemy getting hit, this can help you get the drop on a enemy.

If you just want pure accuracy just get a extended barrel. The reason why Forward Grip is useful is that it all but eliminates accuracy debuff and the screen shake from burst firing.

Burst firing is a tricky thing to do since you don't want to always be on burst fire, generally it's good in a firing lane where the enemy is all in one direction AND you are in a open battlefield, single fire is mostly better in more fluid circumstances where enemies are all over the area, there are a lot of allied Marines running around or the combat arena is more cramped.

[Heckenshutze]

Simple enough, have a macro to toggle between single/burst fire, single fire when you're holding a point or advancing slowy and burst fire when you're point man during a quick offensive or you're alone.

[Zilenan91]

Suppressors hide your attack messages but don't hide the messages of someone being hit. They are pretty useful for when you really don't want to be heard.

Also doesn't the extended barrel reduce damage? If so, why? IRL they increase both accuracy and damage I think.

[Steelpoint]

Both supp and extended decrease damage.

[gipsy1337]

Does the screen shake when you burstfire? That hasn't happened to me, that screen sits still while burstfiring, so i sacrifice the grip for the UGL.

[Dolth]

Suppressors hide your attack messages but don't hide the messages of someone being hit. They are pretty useful for when you really don't want to be heard.

Also doesn't the extended barrel reduce damage? If so, why? IRL they increase both accuracy and damage I think.

It increases accuracy IRL but not penetration/range unless you get ammunition with an increased payload. (Also suppressor with regular rounds almost suppress nothing on an AR).

[Zilenan91]

yeah IRL suppressors aren't anything like videogames, guns are still really loud.

[gipsy1337]

Yeah, supressors overheat like crazy, unlike all video games(?). But i can imagine what kind op unbalance that would cause, so it's
lowering damage to avoid it being too OP in shooting games.

[Dolth]

yeah IRL suppressors aren't anything like videogames, guns are still really loud.

Suppressors WITH subsonic ammo isn't that loud, but definitivly louder than in video games. And with normal ammo that's just pretty much nothing.