Anyone else feel guns are a tad on the weak side?

I feel there really are some significant problems with the way guns work right now.

Firstly, the energy requirements. Usually I've found that, no matter what gun I use, it's taken me near enough a full energy bar to kill one enemy. And that just won't do when you're being chased by more than one. Add on top of this that techs use energy as well, dramatically reducing the overall effectiveness of guns.

Secondly, I was dismayed the other day when I found out that my shotgun didn't so much as cause my opponent to flinch. A point blank burst from a shotgun should really knock something back a little way, and a sniper bullet would stop it in its tracks for a moment. Maybe this is just the shotgun I found, though. Even if that is the case, all guns that do significant damage should really have a degree of knockback as standard, more for the shotguns. Maybe tie the knockback attribute to damage in some way?

 

Yes. Guns are terrible, at least for the first four sectors. With a crafted hammer in the delta sector I can murder an endless number of enemies in two hits, often in the same swings. Guns, meanwhile, have half the DPS of melee weapons in my sector and it takes a full energy bar and 8-ish seconds to kill two enemies who I am forced to run away from then entire time I'm shooting while using no tech whatsoever. I'm *probably* more likely to avoid damage but it's far from guaranteed and I often have to switch to melee anyways if they get too close. It's so bad I actually started trying to mod it myself.

The spawned melee weapons themselves could use some balancing too, it's like they're all the same DPS even though 2 handed swords have way more coverage than axes and spears and 1 handed swords way more range than daggers.

 

the only complaint i have is that they take too much energy to shoot.

 

Almost everyone. I don't really like the whole... "scifi use medievil sword" trope.

 

I don't like the guns in starbound at all really, they're not that fun to use and they're annoying to fight against when NPC's carry them.
Sure hope they find a way to make them fun.

It's beta after all.

 

they should remove flame ammo, it's utter garbage that serves no purpose.maybe redesign it so it actually shots a bullet that will set enemies on fire on impact?

 

"A tad" is a bit of an understatement. All of the guns I've seen have had less than half of the DPS of melee weapons in the same tier, and even less direct damage. The only guns that I've seen that can match the DPS of mid-quality melee weapons are legendary grenade launchers, and even then they still do less damage.

It's funny, because the trailers and early gameplay videos make it seem like guns are supposed to play a large part in the later tiers and were the logical progression from swords and hammers. Instead we're using clubs made out of bones and exploding swods to fight monsters because guns are useless.

What is this, Final Fantasy?

Edit: And don't even get me started on their rarity. For their very limited use, it's utterly impossible to find guns even in Sector X.

 

Wouldn't know, still haven't found one. Even enemies with guns drops swords and axes.

 

The weakness of guns is made worse by how annoying it is to find one before the later sectors as you have to find an airship. I do wonder if they are just like normal npc gear and just the ones you buy are worthless. its funny that guns make the bone dragon trivial though i just stood under him and shot him for a few in game days.

 

Let's compare!

Melee:
+No energy required
+Generally higher DPS
+Easier to use
-Close range

Ranged:
+Ranged
-Lower DPS
-More likely to miss shots
-Requires a tenth of damage per shot of energy.


At threat level 10 enemies tend to have ~5000 HP, which requires you to empty all your energy into an enemy, if you don't miss. As a melee fighter, you can use your energy to blink/ash to the enemy and hit them, resulting in you having mos of your energy to use techs to dodge/flee/reach targets.

So if you are in cramped room or against multiple enemys or want to kill fast melee is the way to go, while ranged is useful when you have a lot of open space to snipe your targets (useful =/= superior). Shotguns suck either way.

 

Guns are only ultra powerful if they are sniper rifles wielded by your ennemies.

On the serious side, guns are something to tamper with caution as even a slight buff done wrong could turn this thread into "Anyone else feel melee weapons are a tad on the weak side?", even if it makes more sense given the reality it's still not really the best way to end either.

Now, with nearly a week of gun practicing I'd tend to say that melee and ranged weapons are closer in balance than what people might think, and that hammers are blatantly overpowered due to the general melee gameplay including knockbacks.

 

The only effective way I've been able to use guns so far is to use my pistol/machine-pistol du jour in conjunction with a competent shortsword, or cheese the hell out of enemies by getting them stuck and ratatatting them to death with an assault rifle. Even then the damn thing is often reduced to a pitiful "put... put... put..." when the energy runs out.

Absolutely we need to be careful with what we do with guns in terms of balance, but right now it's very difficult to justify rolling with an assault rifle or shotgun as a primary weapon (which they would be in reality, given that they use two hands and switching would be cumbersome) when they are just so feeble in the game's current state.

Whether it be a large one or a small one, guns most certainly do need a buff of some sort.

And as people have said, it has felt a bit misleading - guns seemed to feature quite prominently in the trailers and developer blogs. Right now they're a sideshow at best.

 

Yeah, they were a huge part of why I got into the game and was looking forward to combat. They're under performing substantially though.

 

They also just started to balance them because snipers were stupidly overpowered in the last update. They also just introduced plasma guns to go with them. I'd have to say that gun balancing will come in due time.

In the mean time, I'm going to keep trying to find a shotgun so I can go rant on exactly how bad they are and where they need to be improved.

 

Honestly the knockback is the biggest deal-breaker for shotguns. I mean, the mediocre damage is one thing, but that fact that they don't have any kick to speak of is quite another.

 

That disappoints me because a shotgun needs that kick to FEEL like a shotgun.

 

Shotguns should be the melee weapon of ranged weapons, if that makes any sense.

 

Have you checked an Avian airship? Finding useable guns in chests is pretty uncommon from what I've seen, but you should be able to find decent guns in an airship. The gun dealer always seems to reside in the upper left chamber. This is just my experience, of course. This page is pretty useful for finding what you're after: http://starbound.gamepedia.com/Coordinates

 

I already know about the gun dealers. I'm just trying to see if I can't find an uncommon shotgun from an Elite Monster.

 

Gotcha. From your post I thought that you just hadn't seen any shotguns at all. I'm not really into them. I'll use one if I'm on a low tier planet and I'm just trying to avoid combat. From what I've seen of the shotguns, the spread is way too wide for my liking. If I'm close enough to an enemy to get even half my shot BB's to connect, I might as well be using a 2-hand sword/hammer.