Whitelist Changes: New Weapons!

Thu, Jun 26, 2014 by Chronohawk

Hey everyone, Chronohawk here hoping to give you some insight on the new weapons we've allowed in the latest whitelist change. This isn't exactly tradition for UGC, but hey, we've all got to start somewhere!

The important information in this post is thats we're allowing the ­Air Strike, ­Base Jumper, and ­­­The Classic ­­­in 4v4. So update your whitelists, people! For those of you wondering why this list is not larger, read on.

Banning weapons isn't something we take lightly over here at UGC 4v4. When a new chance comes to extend and improve the meta, we like to jump at the chance and allow players to mix it up a little. That being said, there are instances ­where banning and allowing new or even old items is not a good idea... For example, the Gunslinger has been banned since the early days of 4v4. When I first started organising 4v4 I was very adamant it should stay this way.

But not all bans are as clear cut, as we'll see.

The Love and War Update added several new toys to play around with. My immediate thoughts were for 4v4. And so, as soon as we admins could get together we held some experimental mixes (thanks to all those that turned up!), talked in great detail about what the new weapons did and tested them personally.

Firstly we focused on bugs. We did find a few: notably the crash bug with the BASE Jumper (since fixed), but nothing gamebreaking. Items with bugs are the items we are most keen to avoid. Even though it's technically against UGC rules to exploit said bugs, we like to ban them anyway to highlight the issue. For example, the Bazaar Bargain's headshot counter bug.

Following that was a lengthy trial and error playtesting period. This involved mixes, personal play, and even the use of some of the other competitive formats. It's quite possible to take things learned in ­6s and apply them to 4v4 for example.

All this testing led us to the following conclusions.

  • The Back Scatter:­­ was a really fun weapon to use. Not only is it useful, it promotes a new way of playing Scout and didn't seem to be a straight upgrade to the Scattergun. That being said, the Scouts in our experimental mixes highlighted that it may be too powerful in 4v4. Whilst we didn't see any huge imbalances in the weapon, we decided to err on the side of caution and decided that the Back Scatter is banned until we can do further testing in the off season.
  • The Air Strike: ­­the Air Strike seems to be a balanced 4v4 weapon. Whilst it is true that having eight rockets loaded at once is really powerful, the fact is a player has to get five kills to do so. That's the equivalent of killing the entire enemy team one and a bit times. We didn't see this as a problem for three reasons. One, the rockets are severly weakened compare to the stock launcher. Damage is hugely reduced meaning it's hard to get any kills to start the "chain" in the first place. Two, the B.A.S.E. Jumper must be used in order to use the Air Strike to it's full potential, denying access to Gunboats, Banners, and the Shotgun, all staples in 4v4. The third point is that even if a player does manage to obtain the legendary eight-rocket clip, team sizes in 4v4 mean it's relatively easy to focus the Soldier down and kill him. This being said, the Air Strike has many upsides if you can work together as a team to look after your Soldier. I for one look forward to seeing an Air Strike kritz in an official at some point in the future! So, as said, the ­­­­­Air Strike is allowed in 4v4.
  • The B.A.S.E. Jumper: this weapon is a new way of playing for jumpers everywhere. What you sacrifice in aerial mobility, you gain in height advantage, potential air evasiveness, immunity to fall damage­and graceful floating powers. The B.A.S.E. Jumper was going to be banned but thankfully the crash bug it was causing was fixed (see: buggy weapons). All in all, a really interesting unlock that we really did not want to deny Soldiers and Demos. Due to these factors,­­­­ the B.A.S.E. Jumper is allowed in 4v4.
  • The Tide Turner: as Demoknights everywhere reclaim the ability to turn whilst charging from previously "cheaty" methods, UGC 4v4 turns it's back on the new Tide Turner. Our mixes revealed that although a Pyro can completely hard-counter a Tide Turner Demoman, teams without a Pyro found the unlock "hideously unfun" to play against. That's an actual quote from the mixes! The Tide­ Turner allowed the Demoman to completely abuse corners: as long as the player had a vague idea of where the enemy team was, they could charge and secure a free pick. Coupled with the fact that we've already recieved complaints about shield-using Demos as a whole within 4v4, (and we'll be suspect-testing the Chargin'­ Targe and Splendid Screen in the off season), we decided it was a safe bet to ban the Tide Turner for the time being.
  • The Classic: the Classic was a weapon we quickly came to a decision on. There's no distinct advantage to using it over the stock Sniper Rifle. Both can achieve the same results.­It has the shortest writeup here for that reason and is ­­­allowed.
  • The Axtinguisher: this brand-new unlock for the Pyro has caused quite th- Oh, hang on, the Axtinguisher is not a new weapon. All the same, I thought it was worthy of an honorable mention. We'd always considered the Axtinguisher borderline in terms of what should be allowed in 4v4 due to the fact it is possible to pin and one-hit enemies. In fact, last season it was banned. The unban was an experimental idea for this season. And yet the Axtinguisher finds itself with a mini-crit where a crit used to be. Some are unhappy about this change but from a 4v4 perspective we consider the change a good one. A Pyro will have to use the Flare Gun or Shotgun for burst damage, and we feel that's good as they are easier to evade in close-quarters. As a result, the ­­­­­Axtinguisher will remain allowed.

That's about it from us here at UGC. We hope players will take the time to test the new weapons and hopefully you'll come to the same conclusions we did. If you don't (or even if you do!) let us know! Present your point and evidence and we'll take your ideas into consideration when considering what should and what should not be allowed.

Finally, the Conga taunt is allowed under the new whitelist. Don't party too hard, people!

- Chronohawk

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