AMR Mechanics & Bugs [Updated To May 28th Hotfix]

I'll talk about nearly everything about the new AMRs added to Sandstorm. I'll have a video talking about this, as well, since it's easier to just show some parts than others. I'll add in some timestamps when needed.

(Ya'll know the drill. Bolded text is used to show any updates I've made to the OP.)

Youtube Video

-> Damage is pretty solid. It was actually buffed since the CTE, so shooting someone in any body part is now fatal.

-> The stats still don't make any sense:

  • The length of the Caliber bar for the AMRs is less than the length of the Caliber bar for 7.62x39 weapons, which really doesn't make any sense at all. (.50 Cal > .30 Cal). The Caliber is now shown to be much higher, but I still think the bar needs to be maxed or even just extend off of the fucking screen.

Here's the caliber of the M99 compared to the Mosin:

1yeet.PNG
2yeet.PNG

Last time I checked, a 12.7x108 round dwarfs the 7.62x54r round.

  • The fire rate is grossly inaccurate. It says the rifle can only be fired at 32 RPM, which immediately raised a red flag for me as even the shotguns and bolt-action rifles fire faster. As I expected, this stat isn't accurate at all. The actual firerate seems closer to 80-90 RPM.

  • The AMRs have less penetration power than a Mosin-Nagant, which... really? Do I need to talk about this? With the caliber now fixed, it's apparent that this was actually a fucking intentional design choice. If you're gonna add a .50 BMG anti-materiel rifle and not have it outperform every other firearm at shooting through walls, then why even bother adding it? That's the entire purpose of an anti-materiel rifle.

-> Supply Cost is pretty steep, but I don't think it needs to be higher. It might even need to be a tad cheaper. In hindsight, I feel like the ten-round mags should just be standard-issue for both AMRs. Without it, it's basically just a more expensive, harder to use bolt-action rifle. No modern anti-materiel rifle uses five-round mags. Don't balance it the same way you "balanced" the MP7 (AKA made it dogshit without attachments, which invalidates a key component of Insurgency's design where all guns are good even without mods).

-> I didn't talk about this in the video, but the aim-down-sight and reload speeds are solid.

-> Sway is strangely high. The AMRs weigh a ton, so the laws of inertia say that it would take more effort to move around. How your character is capable of moving the gun that much and that fast doesn't make much sense. If your character is somehow strong enough to move the gun that much (especially while suppressed) he should also be strong enough to hold the damn thing still. Still exists, but it's not a huge nerf.

  • That being said, Focus pretty much removes the issue and I doubt you'll be firing this thing while moving, anyway. This is why the sway isn't horrible.

-> The AMRs have a trigger delay of about 0.4 seconds, which is absolutely horrible for a Marksman weapon. It exists on the LMGs as well, but it at least makes more sense with those weapons since accuracy isn't the biggest concern.

  • With a Marksman rifle, however, accuracy is a big concern, and this delay causes the player to have to lead every single moving target, even at hitscan ranges. Once ballistics takes into account, you have to lead to account for the bullet velocity, the distance, the speed of the moving target, and an additional 0.4-second delay. As someone who loves sniping and is generally decent at it, this sounds like an absolute nightmare. I honestly think this delay just needs to go, ASAP. We spoke, NWI delivered. The delay seems completely gone now.

-> Recoil is still a huge problem. In fact, it's actually a worse problem now because my suggested strategy to consistently counter it now no longer works.

-> The recoil is absolutely terrible. By that, I don't mean it's too high or it's too low; it's just shit. I start testing this stuff at 4:06 (and ignore my mic seemingly having a stroke):

  • At 4:18, I do a quick double-tap five times. The clicks weren't exactly perfect, but the general idea here is that the recoil looks somewhat consistent.

-> There's this kind of viewkick thing that happens each time you fire the AMRs. Whenever you fire an AMR, your screen jumps up, but then actually lowers itself down for a bit. It's strange behavior, and it's tricky to describe with text. Just watch the video at 5:07 to see what I mean.

Here's the real problem. The duration of this downward travel after each shot is literally picked at complete random. It seems to pick any value between 0.5-1.0 seconds.

  • Backtracking a bit, this is why the sprays at 4:18 look consistent, as I'm firing about two shots a second.

  • At 5:49, I do the same two-shot test, but with one second of downtime between shots. This time, the shot placement is all over the place, with some two-round sprays going high while other sprays have very little deviation.

  • It turns out that Insurgency: Source actually has a similar mechanic. However, in Ins2014, this viewkick reset seems much more consistent. Your screen travels downward for longer if you're firing single shots pretty slowly, but the duration lessens as you start semi-tapping faster, leading to more recoil. This at least makes sense to me, because the player can at least learn to compensate for this.

  • At 8:11, I finish up a four-shot test and show off what happens when RNG takes the wheel. The last spray has a high deviation, but the one just before had shots land next to each other.

-> This mechanic, if you know how it works, actually makes spraying with the M82 and M99 easier than firing single shots. Because the downward viewkick is randomized, firing at 60 RPM or slower will make you want to shoot yourself with the AMR instead as you have to compensate for a random amount of downward screen travel.

  • The downward travel always seems to last for half a second. Knowing this, you can essentially use this downward screen travel to actually help you compensate for the recoil if you fire at 120 RPM (two shots a second) or faster. Just don't forget that tinnitus will kick in if you fire more than four shots (see 8:41). This no longer works as the new max firerate doesn't allow you to fire at 120 RPM, so now there is no way to consistently control the AMR's recoil without deploying the weapon.

  • This seems completely counterintuitive to what NWI was likely going for; a firearm that rewards accurate shot placement and not mindless spraying. Well, now you can no longer do either of these things! Hooray for RNG!

-> This entire mechanic means you're at war with RNG if you're trying to use the new AMRs correctly. This all might be to encourage the use of a bipod, but there are far better ways of doing that as-is. Hell, I'd use a fucking bipod just for the recoil decrease alone. Destroying the consistency of anything is never a good balancing route IMO. Again, there are better ways of encouraging the use of a bipod than adding in RNG. Just get rid of the fucking viewkick and that'll cause the firearm to have more recoil, anyway, as the downward screen travel actually causes the rifle to have less recoil. The gun is now harder to use while undeployed without RNG punishing you.

-> It would help if you could actually deploy the AMRs faster. It's not like you're gonna have a problem setting that thing down considering how much it weighs.

last edited by MarksmanMax

I would love to see some dirt/dust fly up whenever you just set the rifle down on a bipod, and the same thing for whenever it’s shot.

@Mr-Rain said in AMR Mechanics & Bugs:

I would love to see some dirt/dust fly up whenever you just set the rifle down on a bipod, and the same thing for whenever it’s shot.

I thought this was actually added in this patch? Something similar to it, anyway. Lemme check the notes.

Yeah, found it: "Dust kickup particles now play when weapons are fired while prone on appropriate surfaces." Would be neat to see bipod deployment do something similar.

Gonna tag this with "bug" actually, since there's definitely bugs here.

Updated OP to account for the hotfix changes. Now, my only real issues with this gun are the lack of pen power (compared to other weapons) and the RNG recoil.