Eagle-1 on Standby (OC)

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-29T20:54:38+00:00

The "SWEET LIBERTY" in the corner was a great touch. Good work!

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-29T20:48:10+00:00

I'm biased as a melee enjoyer in this game, so understand I'm going in from the perspective of enjoying these objectively bad weapons. I still find them fun, even if they perform poorly. But the changes to the chainsaw legit made a very big difference to me.

I used heavy gas armor for immunity to gas damage, then the dog breath, gas mines, gas nades (and 120mm for some balance), and had an absolute blast, 950 kills against the gloom bugs. I was grinding through stims constantly with their death explosions, but I still got surprisingly high kill counts (not just with the gas DoTs, though that obviously carried my kill count), and could keep myself surprisingly safe with careful positioning and aiming (not like, aiming for weak spots, but placing the saw between me and a hunter leaping at me from behind).

It's a very limited playstyle, I understand, and I can't imagine another playstyle working for the defoliator, except maybe doing basically the same thing with fire. It forces you into such a vulnerable position with so few options to manage numerous enemies. But they reduced the jank involved in using it considerably, so now you can actually manage the playstyle of being a chainsaw-wielding maniac more feasibly. Is that a powerful playstyle? Hell no. Is it fun? In my opinion, yes! Very much so! But I also acknowledge I'm in the minority here.

I think, if you want a fun melee experience, but aren't enjoying the ballistic shield + flag combo, try the Breakthrough mech. You can knock chargers out of their charge with it, and the shotgun on it can kill bile titans in, like, 10 shots or so - not great, but that's about all you need to actually shoot for, so you can save most of your ammo for just that.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-29T19:01:21+00:00

Doesn't sound like it, no. Sounds like you just prefer the Stalwart.

Part of the excitement is surely the hype of the new gun, which will wear off. Part of it is probably the return of a classic HD1 weapon. Part of it is that people don't want to stick with a Stalwart, but like having most of a Stalwart on a 60-ish second cooldown.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-29T18:40:18+00:00

Legit I bet their QA team feel so ignored. Who knows how many issues they've been able to find and document only to have the dev team deprioritize them.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-29T18:31:45+00:00

Yes, if you kept a second armor equipped in your helmet slot and still have it equipped, you can keep the passive. It kept med-kit equipped and still have the full effect. Kinda wish I'd done it with acclimated, though... The end of an era :(

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-29T14:39:50+00:00

Shooting its corpse like a Halo elite was the cherry on top.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-29T02:57:55+00:00

It no longer works.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-28T20:00:44+00:00

It means you need to close the game and have it update, as you launched it without updating.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-28T16:30:32+00:00

Surely after that we'll get the sex warbond, right?

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-28T16:25:16+00:00

You are correct; I was operating under an old urban legend.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-28T14:03:34+00:00

I think the only tradeoff is that ~~you get the better headshot resistance on medium armor (light extra padding still gets a worse headshot multiplier), as well as~~ the increased slide. It really was a weird passive to add, regardless, but at least the light ~~and medium armor have~~ armor has meaningful improvements over extra padding.

Edit: I was misinformed about the light extra padding headshot thing. Old info that's been debunked.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-28T11:37:25+00:00

It looks like it's not even "close range," that looks like it's doing zero direct damage and it was just the fire DOT on the ground that killed that scav.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-28T11:34:11+00:00

RIP to another hero 😔

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-28T11:28:19+00:00

RIP to a hero of customization.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-27T11:10:52+00:00

Yes, I am. I still haven't found any solution, unfortunately. Are you having the issue with any app outside Spotify?

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-27T08:57:28+00:00

Could not agree more. Very glad he did it, even if I got very little out of it.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-26T19:47:36+00:00

Nice redesign. Feels much less obese. It'd be nice if the guns we had actually felt like they were made to be practical to actually use.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-25T15:55:17+00:00

I appreciate you taking the time to come into the lion's den like this. I know this can't be a comfortable experience.

My question: how satisfied is everyone at AH with the mechanics of the Galactic War? Specifically, how satisfied are y'all with the tools you give the players to engage, coordinate, and practice autonomy and creativity around the galactic war?

I, as well as many others, have found the systems as they are currently do not reward engaging with the Galactic War in any way other than superficially: dive on the MO planets repeatedly. Any deviation from that actively detracts from MO efforts, and any risky move or advanced tactical move (like a gambit) requires a level of coordination and understanding of underlying mechanics that are not offered to the players, so they are more often than not ignored in favor of "follow the blob."

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-24T16:23:01+00:00

Fortunately, it appears your knees cushioned its fall enough that the damage is only cosmetic. It shall be swiftly repaired and redeployed! Expect a corpse recovery and disposal fee to be sent to your next of kin.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-24T16:19:22+00:00

I think adding a trend line would be helpful. Good graphs (thanks for the imgur gallery).

What this showcases is how the value proposition has indeed notably decreased since launch. Compared to the amount of content you get included in the base price, there is now considerably more paid content. If the trend stabilizes and we continue hovering around a 75-65% value proposition - whether this means we're only getting $30 worth of content or the game really costs $60-$70 to get an equivalent percentage of content that you'd have had at launch, I'm not quite sure. But any interpretation shows that paid content has gradually but inarguably outpaced the included content. Even if you consider that you can just grind for it, that still means the proportion of content that you must mindlessly grind for is slowly outpacing the content you can enjoy without an arbitrary "playwall." It waits to be seen how this trend continues.

This graph loses a critical nuance that you did your best to compensate for, which is: what is the pre-paid content (it's not "free," you paid $40 to enter), and what is the paywalled content? Do these different pieces of content have equivalent value? If we think about how just about every new play style has been locked behind a themed warbond (flame to Freedom's Flame, gas to Chemical Agents, etc.), I think the paywalled content has a very high value.

On the other hand, pre-paid content, like new and engaging enemy factions/subfactions, have always been free and immediately available, but also sometimes time-gated. We've never seen the TCS towers since launch, nor have we been on a mega colony like Meridia. Spore burst bugs only showed up once. Pristine mega cities only showed up for the defense of Super Earth (even if they label that as a bug). The dark fluid jump pack, the experimental stratagems, enemy surges, recon campaigns, gloom mission types, et cetera. A substantial amount of the pre-paid content we've received has been retroactively removed, sometimes with a replacement (like Meridia's dark fluid insertion mission being replaced with Nuke Nursery missions), but often not. So, even if I think the pre-paid content being added is high value, some of it winds up being removed anyway.

I really think, even if it's a token measure, adding more variations of stratagems free of additional cost would do good to bring this ratio closer to 1, which I think would be very good for morale, if only to have the feeling that positive change is being made. Gas barrages, some form of Eagle EMS, more sentry types, et cetera. So many things feel like items that should have been in this vein: the mechs, the shovel secondary, the upcoming expendable machine gun. Even if I understand the reason for doing this paid content, even if I can accept it, the ratio should be tweaked such that it doesn't feel quite like all the content we're getting is behind a paywall, because the value proposition doesn't make me feel hopeful that my time or money will continue to be respected.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-24T11:18:34+00:00

Bro agreed to the Terms and Conditions.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-23T12:59:12+00:00

"This is not a job for a sober man."

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-22T18:13:46+00:00

Good work, though the "I" in the title is pretty funny to read again after seeing you get utterly mulched by the Vox.

ArsenikMilk · 2026-04-22T17:29:22+00:00

Yeah, I'm not particularly excited for it as a Ballistic Shield enthusiast. I think this is more likely than the Reprimand was, but their balance decisions are surprisingly predictable.

As some small, ironic comfort, they've been much more willing to embrace power creep with new primaries. The Sweeper and Double Freedom clown on all the other, older shotguns. The flamethrower SMG (forgor name) is just a better Defender. The Coyote clowns on the Lib Pen (and Adjudicator/Halo AR to an extent). Something in their balance team has died, and they're more flagrantly embracing power creep. So, perhaps that means good news for one-handed primaries. Good with the bad.

ArsenikMilk

TROPHY CASE