A rant about Burstfire

[Renomaki]

I don't get it.

I suppose it would be good to start with an explanation of what Burstfire IS and how it affects the game.

See, a large selection of weapons have a burstfire ability, which allows someone to fire off a trio of bullets in rapid succession in the direction they shoot, allowing for the possibility of dealing a large amount of damage in a sudden moment. The downside is that doing so reduces your rate of fire considerably, but thus is to be expected if you want to deal more damage in a single click.

The problem is, burstfire is useful in a limited number of situations, yet everyone seems to believe that the only way to FIRE is in BURSTFIRE, 24/7. This odd habit naturally leads to a number of problems that are quite prominent.

1: As mentioned earlier, toggling to burstfire allows you to unleash more pain, but you trade off your RoF to do so. Some weapons (like the smartgun) seem to be less affected than others, but weapons like the Pulse Rifle tend to be more affected by a loss of RoF. What this means is that you have less CONTROL over your weapon, so leading targets becomes more difficult when you are unable to quickly adjust your aim on the fly, instead having to hope that the flurry of bullets you sprayed hits SOMETHING that isn't friendly.

2: Taking the Pulse Rifle again, note that the average Pulse Rifle has 40 rounds per mag. A default rifle has a burst of 3 shots. If you take a pulse rifle and only first in bursts, that means that your normal magazine of 40 has, in a sense, been reduced to a distressing 13 (rounded down). Seriously, take a calculator and divide 40 by 3, and that's pretty much the outcome you may get. You go through way more ammo with each shot, and missing shots means you WASTE more ammo than you'd want. When fighting xenos, you are bound to miss a lot, but burstfire speeds this up considerably. If you ever wondered why your smartgunners are already screaming for ammo so early in the game, it is because they are only firing in bursts (which, when rounded down, means their ammo packs only have 83 shots instead of 250).

3: Remember how I mentioned that using burstfire reduces your control over your rifle? This really starts to show when friendly fire is involved. I swear, at least 70% of all FF incidents are due to people not just shooting friendlies, but BURSTING them with a flurry of bullets by accident. At least with standard fire, an accidental shot or two won't damage a fellow marine as bad, but if you burstfire someone in the back by accident in the heat of combat? Chances are you just fucked him up bad, AP or not. A recent round I had, I watched as a clumsy marine accidentally shot the sniper in the face with a burst! He was lucky to not have broke any bones, but you can imagine our shock that the marine had his gun set to burst despite not being in a combat situation (Bravo was on guard duty that time and we haven't even come across that must resistance).

4: Not only does having burstfire active reduce your rate of fire, it also makes your gun less accurate as well. Unless you got a lot of mods take keep your bullets flying true, it is going to spray all over the place and hit what you don't wanna hit, be it a friendly marine, a sentry, or even a fuel tank. This means at longer ranges, getting all 3 bullets to hit is even harder when they don't all agree to go in the same direction.

Now, I can already hear you go "But Reno, a lot of guns are shit unless you have them set to burst! Otherwise their DPS is garbage!" and you know what? That can be true at times.

The Sentry, for instance, is rubbish when set to single fire due to its depressing RoF (it's like an automated bolt-action rifle more than an intelligent defensive machinegun unit). That is why it is often best to set it to burst fire first thing. There is also the fact that is mainly a support weapon than a dedicated killer (just like landmines), so marines are expected to stand nearby it and take advantage of its abilities.

And then there are weapons like the Heavy Pulse Rifle and the Mar-40, which have dreadful RoFs that are awful for suppression and leading targets, so you often toggle on the burst in desperation to make it somewhat useful.

But then there are weapons that can kill just as good on standard settings than on burst-mode, such as the SMG, Pulse Rifle, Smartgun and heavy MG... These weapons have great RoFs that allow for easy control of your aim in combat, the ability to suppress targets and spray a steady stream of fire into an area, and most of all conserve ammo for extended conflicts in wide open battlefields.

Now, I'm not saying that Burstfire is bad... it is just poorly used. People may disagree with me on how you are supposed to use it, but how I believe it should be used is like this:

Burstfire should be best used in situations where you are in places where laying down a large amount of firepower would be difficult, such as tight hallways and tunnels. It is a weapon for short range combat that is better for indoor situations than outdoor situations. If only two marines can be side by side and you are going down a hall where xenos wait, having those two marines burstfiring down the hall will allow you to simulate a group of 6 marines much more easily and make it harder for xenos to charge upwards.

Really, I suppose the best way to treat burstfire is to treat it like a shotgun with buckshot. It works best at short ranges, and the high amount of damage it can deal at a moment's notice is sure to scare any threat away from you.

TL;DR

Stop using burstfire 24/7, holy jeez.

[Sleepy Retard]

You're preaching to the choir, buddy. The people who use burst fire 24/7 don't use the forums.

[Dolth]

Gotta agree what Defaultio said, people burst firing all day long aren't on forums.

But then if I can slide my word, I'd agree what you said, burstfire should be used in certain situations and not all of them, which is why I recommend people to use a macro .click toggle-burstfire to lock/unlock burstfire. As an example, regular smartgun with no BC but BFA swaps to burst in case of close quarter (like 1 tile or 2).

Though, I still advise getting a QF, amount of damage is sensitivly higher and I say BF should be avoided, in any case.

► Show Spoiler

Don't forget to click furthest tile to avoid insane scatter.

[Challenger]

I use burst 24/7 with the pulse rifle, modded or not. Generally only use single fire if I downed a target and need to finish it quickly, or I'm at the back lines and want to contribute a bit. Kind of fun squeezing individual shots in between the gaps of people towards the aliens.

For all the fake math and vacuous arguments you provide, bursts are really just slower-paced, stronger individual shots - the bullets are generally packed close enough together in time and space to act as one, even correcting for the third bullet that will either miss or just veer off course. Landing two bursts on a young runner is easier than landing four straight shots. I don't run out of ammo and I don't FF so I don't care about either of those points.

Or maybe I'm just too used to a red dot suppressor M4 with rail light pistol on my belt.

[Dolth]

You're an exception regarding FF and accuracy with BF. It's not user friendly, unless you have a good experiance of CM as a marine previously stated points works.

[Marcus Jackson]

I've more or less removed myself from all weapons with BF kind of because of this, as I'd like to avoid running out of ammo at hilarious (for xenos and ghosts) times, or constantly worrying about FF'ing someone and putting them out of the fight for more than a few seconds.

Really I have kinda started using only a flamer and maybe a pistol sidearm nowadays, but before then I was all about the shotty. Since I find it easier to keep count of the weapon over the sound of the others all firing at the same time, and also because of the fact that the weapons are usually wielded by people who strictly use that, so I'm pretty confident that when I pick it up off a dead bro (RIParonni and cheese) it's probably at least half full and pretty modded out.

I've never actually tried using a spec weapon aside from a few random WY or Bears scenario awhile back, and don't feel like having to get accustomed to the Smartgun's unique system to actually try it out, so really anytime I am offered one due to a crazy ass firefight going down, or just playing SL and a Spec suggests such a thing I pretend I didn't hear them and just keep walking.

[Casany]

I use BF most of the time. I just don't like clicking a million times to kill something. Thats just me though

[4thsurviver]

I use burst if I'm point man or need to lay down some suppression fire. It seems to scare Xenos off a lot more than a few single shots. I'll also use burst fire to chase off a queen if I'm the only one that is still standing after a screech. Lastly I always toggle burst on when I take the old pulse rifle as a SO since ammo isn't a concern. I agree though burst fire is what I use in close encounters.

[Jagermann]

Burst fire is good IF used correctly: form a line shoulder-to-shoulder with other fellow marines, spray and pray. It usually works.

[Dolth]

That's not user friendly, most people will just FF with that AND not deal enough damage or waste ammo for attempting shooting a dancing xeno, or one moving perpendiculary.

[NGGJamie]

You're preaching to the choir, buddy. The people who use burst fire 24/7 don't use the forums.

What this guy said. Most of us have hair here sir.

[darkwahn]

Burstfire all day erry day with my red dot suppressed rifle.

I'm positive I ff less than the majority of marines too.

[caleeb101]

I believe in using burst fire 24/7. One thing I've got to say first is that there actually seems to be a lot of people who use burst fire 24/7 on the forums. Second thing is, single fire on the M41A is horrid. Especially when there are hunters prowling around. I can't even count the amount of times I'd be on what I like to call 'Hell Lane' from Nexus to Hydro and a hunter is there waiting for me.

If I hadn't put on burst fire, I wouldn't have been able to hit it as fast and as much as I did. It really matters in those few seconds before the pounce. I've been pounced and then had them KO'ed on top of me. Single fire just doesn't cut it at that moment. You would be able to get off maybe 4 single fires in the amount of time you can get off 2 bursts. That'd mean bursts still had more shots. Also, when you use single fire, it depends on how fast you can click too while burst doesn't which is a massive advantage.

My kill count definitely increased when I began to use burst fire instead of single fire. The only weapon I won't use burst on is the SMG because it looks way slower and feels way slower.

Burst fire helped me make that jump from bad to decent.

[Rataca100]

In fairness, its not jsut burst firing, combat lines get screwed and fast, especially when people go charging after Xeno's. Granted it does make FF more deadly at the start of a burst. But at the same time, i dotns ee a problem, i usually get a RDS or foregrip anyway. I also do what you ar emeant to do and load up on magazines, i usually take two AP's and aim for the chestand the rst in my inventory is standard if i use a rifle. But i ahve issued with people egtting in my LoF usuing flamers and shotguns anyway. smartgunners ar emeant to scream and spray through the lines anyway. :P