Does anybody know the range of the Technician's Linked Laser Pointer? I've recently noticed that it's not pulsing more distant enemies, even ones that are well within effective rifle range (albeit at ranges that some might consider very long).
(This is making me further reconsider the Spotter talent, which is already restricting my weapon choice more than I'd like.)
Come join the cult of "BRRRRRRRRTTTTTT! and Glass Cannon" Leave your filthy long-distance sniping ways behind. ;DOriginally Posted by CategoryTheory Go to original post
Seriously tho...isn't it the same range as the normal distance for bullet hit detection? I know there are times when you can see a target, but bullets literally don't reach.
Lol. I will get around to trying this one day. I'm looking forward to being able to use an SMG without Unwavering on it.Originally Posted by Sircowdog1 Go to original post
I've seen cases where bullets don't reach, which seems to be something like 100 m, but that's a much longer range than where the LLP stops pulsing enemies.Seriously tho...isn't it the same range as the normal distance for bullet hit detection? I know there are times when you can see a target, but bullets literally don't reach.
It might also be worth mentioning here that the optimum range graphs in the weapon stats are a bit misleading. The Y axis starts not at zero but at about 40%, so even a pistol will do about 42% damage at 50 m or more. I can't say for certain what happens beyond 50 m because that's as far as I've tested, using the range, but the line on the graph is the same from about 30 m all the way out to 100 m.
I didn't notice the LLP's short range until recently because I wasn't paying too much attention, but I now notice somewhat spread out groups of enemies where it's clear that I'm pusling the closer ones, but not the ones further away. I'm damaging enemies with an Mk17 just fine at ranges well beyond that.
Yeah, it's definitely nowhere near that. I'm thinking something like 40-50 m but I'm pretty bad at estimating ranges. I suppose if nobody knows I'll have to equip a weapon with a range-dependent talent that shows the range on its meter while ADS, and go out into the world and use that to check it.Originally Posted by RichardOshea Go to original post
Well, shotguns probably do outrange the mortar; see my note above about optimum ranges. I've hit things with shotguns at fairly long ranges (albeit doing little damage), so I supsect that they work the same way as described above for pistols (though you're likely to have only one or two pellets hit). [Edit: I've since conformed that Sawed-off Shotgun pellets do the same damage at 50m as they do at 15m. I've never seen more than one hit at 50m.]LL is not the only item with suspicious ranges either; the mortar can be outranged by all weapons in the game bar shotties which makes no sense at all.
The mortar range limitation may not make sense from a real-life point of view, but it's probably been balanced for the game, regardless of real life. And that makes sense; the mortar is utterly unlike any real-world mortar anyway (you can use it indoors!).
Other weapons from specializations have range issues as well. The Technician's rocket launcher has a 65 m range (according to the stat) and won't lock on to many things I can shoot fine with my rifle.
Standing on the platform at the Sinkhole- the attachement will not reliably pulse enemies until they are past the concrete barriers bordering the sinkhole. Once pulsed the npc can run away without losing the pulse effect.
If I were to guess(badly) it would be around 150 m at most with an AR. With a rifle the npc will glow out of range--> the cross hairs/pointer does not turn red when on target but stays white.
There's loads of weird stuuf in the game e.g in bad weather the assault turret goes blind and can't target anything but the drone seems OK no matter the weather. A Legendary shotgunnner can cross map me and bring me too close to death for comfort but anything after 15m with ours (yes there are ways to increase that up to 25m) might as well be throwing wet farts at them.Originally Posted by CategoryTheory Go to original post
If you think mortars can't be fired in doors then you'd best go tell the IDF as they levelling entire apartment blocks off of the back of that argument... too soon ;p
Ok, my issue is perhaps only partially related to range. Here are some data points. The ranges were taken from the the range display (seen when aiming down the sight) on a pistol with Close & Personal talent. By "set a pulse" I mean that the enemy was glowing at the edges and this glow could be seen through cover. There have been instances of other things in the game where a status was set without being displayed (Negotiator's Dilemma tags, for example), but I've never seen the display take more than a second or so to appear after the status was set.
- I couldn't set a pulse at all on an enemy moving out in the open at 48 m, though I tried for a long time.
- On a guy 25 m away, mostly hiding in cover around the edge of a tall truck, it took me a long time to set a pulse; he poked out three or four times (with my reticle turning red on him) before he finally lit up.
- Chunga out on the open, could not pulse in two or three tries at 36 m; pulsed first time at 19 m.
- Four guys walking in the open at 25-32 m: pulsed them all with a quick sweep.
- Enemy at 78 m, standing with partial cover of his legs, unaware: could not pulse, even when shot. He then ran towards me and died around 58 m, I think without ever being pulsed (but I'm not at all sure, things were moving fast).
- Enemy at 30 m behind low cover: pulsed instantly when he popped head head up out of cover.
Sometimes it seems that if I'm aiming down the sights for a long time I can't pulse an enemy at all, but if I drop out of ADS and go back in (let go and imediately again press the right mouse button) the enemy immediately pulses. And sometimes it seems as if the enemy won't pulse until I shoot him.
For the other folks that are seeing the LLP pulse at long distances, does it always pulse immediately when your reticle turns red, even without firing? Or are you sometimes seeing that it takes a while for the pulse to take, or you need to shoot to see the pulse?
After finding a quiet situation where it was easier to experiement at a particular range, I now believe that there's a hard limit of 50 m on the Linked Laser Pointer. Here's where I was trying it out:
What you see at the right is a Sawed Off Shotgun with the range display from the Close & Personal talent. The figure on the right is 51 m away (as indicated by the C&P range meter on the weapon) and could not be pulsed with the LLP even with much trying. The figure on the left, which I confirmed with C&P to be 48 m away, was no problem to pulse. I tried this technique of measuring and attempting to pulse targets between 40 and 60 m over a dozen times, and the results were perfectly consistent in being able to pulse only under 50 m. (It sometimes took a few tries or spending longer on the target for targets closer than 50 m, but I almost invariably managed it within a few seconds.)
Note that the the 50 m limit is just for initiating the pulse; the target can walk beyond that range and still remain pulsed. (The pulse always wears off after about 30 s, though.)
I'm not sure what the deal is with it sometimes being difficult to pulse closer targets; it seems to be at least partially related to how much cover the target has.
Odd:Originally Posted by CategoryTheory Go to original post
I guess the best we can say is that it's variable as I managed this reliably at 97m. It may be dependent on weapon type too but I've not testsed a sniper-- that's an LMG.
How did you determine that this enemy is pulsed? Looking closely at the image it does not appear to be:Originally Posted by RichardOshea Go to original post
I see no glow around the edges of the enemy and, in particular, I cannot see his legs through the cover that seems to be in front of them.
Could it be that some posters in this thread claiming that the pulse works at longer range are thinking that the triangle over a target's head means it's pulsed? That's not the case; even without the LLP that will appear whenever your aim point crosses the head of an enemy, at any range. (Or at least any range up to 100 m.)
If you're absolutely convinced you're pulsing at these ranges, even without the glow, it could be proven with a sniper rifle. Test the rifle in the range to determine the damage without Spotter proc'd and then try it in game on something you think is pulsed and see if you get 15% more damage.
(BTW, great idea to put Close & Personal on the same weapon as the LLP when you're testing! I don't know why I didn't think of that.)