Balancing INT Builds - Crafting
With the changes in A18 to crafting, I think there is an easy way to balance INT builds - specifically in regards to crafting. With combat, the Junk Turrets are almost OP - especially with maxed skills, so they hold up just fine there. But with the crafting side of things, you only get access to INT Specific schematics, and you can only build up to T5 items from the INT tree. In regards to crafting, INT builds are treated the same as every other build - which is a big mistake imo.
While this change greatly helps the other builds: Perception for Rifles, Agility for Bows, etc., it gimps the crafting focus of an Intelligence build. I really like that people who focus on their specific builds can create T5 items from that tree. As a perception marksman, I like that I can create a T5 Marksman Rifle without having to touch the INT tree at all.
What I'm proposing, however, is to keep the system exactly as it is, except allow INT Builds to create up to T5 items for any schematic they have. The limitation would be that you would still need to learn a schematic for something that is not native to the INT tree, but once you have it, as an "Advanced Engineer", you should be able to create a T5 Marksman Rifle, or shotgun, Baseball bat, etc.
This would allow anyone focusing on a specific tree to craft items they want, up to the quality they have access to. That's a great idea and should be kept, but making the change to Int builds would allow crafting focused builds to "keep up". I realize that without some perks in the late game, the gun wont be nearly as powerful as with perks, but as a crafter, I would like to be able to build stuff for all of my teammates (or even myself if I want to branch into another tree).
I just think it's a complete waste to have an entire build focused on the crafting aspect of certain things, but I can only create a T1 rifle unless I drop 5-10 skill points in that one tree.
Thoughts?
TlDr: Allow INT builds to make up to T5 quality items from any schematic they've learned as long as the Int build is high enough/appropriate skills are bought
Posted Nov 6, 2019, 6:47 PM UTC
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True, I'm not saying they're perfect, but they've worked fine for me so far. I haven't used them yet on the highest difficulty yet though. The thing is, being able to pop a turret for support (eventually 2) and use my rifle at the same time - works perfectly for me.
We lucked out and found a lot of them. So I hand them out like candy on horde night
On our recent server restart, I had already planned to spec INT with a Turret build for combat. Found a lvl3 first day - I almost cried lol. Used that thing for the longest time too.
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The issue isn't that it's op, all guns are op early. The issue is that the guns really scale well into the late game and get means to deal with hoards. Junk turrets....do not. Even with investment, they remain woefully subpar against heavier units.
I know what you mean, but if you use the turrets, and only the turrets, that becomes an issue. I've always ever seen turrets as a support item. Drop 1 (or 2) and whip out your other gun. By the time you start getting masses of heavy units, you should already be a high enough level to have spec'd into at least 1 other primary weapon.
Also, having 2 turrets firing non-stop on horde nights is awesome. Even if they don't kill the zeds as quick as you do, they still provide those mini-stuns to slow their advance. They're also hyper accurate with the (neck?) shots. I havent been able to tell if they are really getting headshots the whole time as it appears the laser is pointing at the zed's neck.