The Hyperblaster Thread.

[Alera]

For too long I've seen people use this baby wrong so I thought I'd give some advice on its use in combat. Who am I? Well, probably a good question. I'm primarily a no-one. I played W:ET in Clanbase and a few other leagues. Mostly as an MG42 whore, sometimes branching into the Faust. I've also had experience in several versions of TF as a minigunner, which some how makes me qualified to give you advice!

So here it is. Alera's Guide to the Hyperblaster.

The Hyperblaster

Overview

The Hyperblaster is probably a Strogg Soldiers best friend. Capable of a staggeringly faster Rate of Fire and High Damage, it truely is one of the more powerful weapons in the game. It's got a tighter spread than the GDF GPMG, faster Rate of Fire than the GPMG and doesn't have to be reloaded like the GPMG. It has its downsides though. The Hyperblaster requiers just under a second to "spin up" and start firing, it overheats and it leaves "tracers" which enemies can gather your location from. Through out this guide, I'll be telling you how to counter some of these downfalls as well as how to exploit the good points to your advantage.

Basic Stats

http://4newbies.planetwolfenstein.ga...perblaster.php

Movement
Non-Combat

The Hyperblaster, like most of the unique soldier weapons, is heavy. It makes you run far slower than you normally do. So the key thing to always remember when running to and from places, when there's no enemy contact, is to switch to your lightning pistol. This is probably the most obvious thing in the thread, but I've seen some people not doing it so...eh.

Combat: Doorways and Corners

This is where I see most people slip up. I'll be spectating someone and I'll watch them run round the corner they know an enemy is behind with their hyperblaster out and not spinning. The problem with this is that the Hyperblaster is a charge up gun, not instant fire like an Engineer, Medic or Covert Ops might have. So you've got to make up for that by doing one of two things:
1) Pre-Charging your Hyperblaster by tapping the fire button repeatedly really fast. Means when it finally does become time to shoot you have less charge to worry about.
2) Sprint Jumping. This one's a little more tricky. The basic idea is you start with your Lightning Pistol out, then you hold Sprint then jump round the corner or through the doorway and whilst in mid air, switch to your Hyperblaster and hold down fire. This usually confuses or disorientates the target, giving you a little extra time to charge the beast.

Combat: Close Quaters

Lets setup a scenario. You're running to your standard defence point (Lightning Pistol out) and as you turn a corner you notice a GDF Engineer standing there looking at you. If you were to just shoot him with your lightning pistol, you'd most likely die. Shotguns and Assualt Rifles do more damage than your Lightning Pistol. So what can you do? Well, here are a few things I'd do:
1) Do a sprint jump to the side and whip out my Hyperblaster, like in the above.
2) Run back round the corner and switch out your Hyperblaster (Leaves you at a disadvantage I find).
3) Sprint Jump AT the Enemy, Switch mid air and duck as you land. Stupid as this sounds, it does actually put people off guard and as we all know...A Hyperblaster is quite deadly point blank, providing you can aim.
What ever you do during combat, don't just stand still. Move! Jump! Duck! Frollic! It's all good, just make sure you're aiming at your target.

Shooting, Recoil and Defensive Positioning

"Charging"

As we all know, the Hyperblaster has a charge up time if you fire it from cold, how ever you can reduce this by repeatedly holding down the fire button and listening carefully for the point where it's about to fire, then release! Now what you'd do is tap the fire button repeatedly to keep it at that sort of level. This means, atleast from what I've deduced, that you can then shoot faster than if you were doing so from "cold". It takes some time to get down perfectly, but once you do it seems to help a lot.

Recoil

The Hyperblaster, being powerful and all, has a recoil. It's not a very big recoil, infact it's practically insignificant, but it should definately be noted. When firing the Hyperblaster for prolonged periods of time, remember to aim the crosshair slightly below where you want to hit (it seems to overshot my crosshair slightly for some reason) and to pull your mouse slowly down to counter-act the effects of the recoil.

Defensive Positioning

Out of all the things you could possible know about the Hyperblaster, this is the most important. Knowing how to position your self is quite possibly the most useful thing to you and your team. I often see people proning in the middle of hallways with a Hyperblaster or running around as if it were a Lacerator. The gun really isn't suited for that kind of play and the best thing you can do with it, is to sit back, find a good defensive position and let them come to you. Always remember to find a position that's difficult to hit with grenades and try and get a Techie to "group" with you (feed you ammo/health/spawnhosts), it makes the world of difference.

In the Sewers, you can denominate the best defensive position quite easily. The most commonly used entrance to get to the Sewer controls is the South Entrance. It's the closest to the GDF spawn and can be looked into from many different points (Catwalk, Platform and Water). This makes it GDF's prime choice when looking for an attack point. How ever, for these exact same reasons it's the best place to put a Hyperblaster. The gun is brilliant at mowing down people at medium -> medium long range, so just packing 4 - 5 people into that small tunnel makes it extremely easy to lock down.

My personal favourite:
http://source-dq.com/position.jpg

From that position alone I've managed to rack up 25+ frags in a match. You've got cover over the Balcony, The Platform and the Main tunnel. What's more, is you're actually quite difficult to spot since you're leaning. If you've got a Techie friend, get them to juice you up with the goods as often as possible, perhaps allow one or two GDF through with low HP so you can get a Spawn Host. Generally, just lock it down. An important thing to remember is that people are not completely stupid! They will eventually work out where you are and will attempt to counter that with Grenades, Rocket Launchers, Sniper Rifles, you name it.

Key Points:
1) Find positions with good cover, these are areas where you have a good view of what you're defending, but very little of your body is visible to the enemy.
2) Prone or Crouch when ever possible! It increases accuracy and "settling" time greatly.
3) Remember you can lean and shoot. This can reduce the amount of your body that is visible to the enemy, making you a harder target.
4) Scope up! It'll allow you to have a clearer view of what you're defending.
5) Get support from Techies. These guys will really help you out, specially considering the Hyperblaster chews through 12 rounds a second!
6) Watch out for Grenades! The biggest thing you'll be up against when defending a point is grenades, so you want to try and keep an eye out and avoid them when ever possible.
7) You've only got 70 rounds till you overheat, so use them wisely! Try to avoid prolonged spraying. You can easily monitor your Overheating status on the Crosshair stats element in the HUD. To enable this, go to game settings and set "Stats Opacity" to full.

Closing

The Hyperblaster is capable of doing what the Obliterator or any other gun the Strogg have is capable of doing. Locking down choke points against constant streams of infantry. Providing it's used well and the positioning is good, a competent soldier with a Hyperblaster can easily hold down one side of the grate alone, which is more than any other class could hope to achieve.

Really I wrote this out of bordem, but I hope this is somewhat useful to atleast the newbies.

P.S. The Dancing Stroggnana likes my music.

[S2]

Really nice.

I'm slightly worried you've just lit the fuse for a swarm of Hyperblasting maniacs though. It's a beast to come up against sometimes.

[Alera]

Originally Posted by S2

Really nice.

I'm slightly worried you've just the fuse for a swarm of Hyperblasting maniacs though. It's a beast to come up against sometimes.

Aye. Sometimes I believe it's slightly too powerful. The MG42 in W:ET had it's massive downsides, the Hyperblaster doesn't seem to have many in terms of a weapon of defence. Perhaps it needs to be weakened a tad, maybe making it overheat faster, give a longer spin up and less damage would help fix the issue of it being used as an offence weapon...Although I doubt many will actually adopt the soldier class as much as the Techie, it can be quite hard to get the hang of sometimes.

[RaVE]

Originally Posted by Alera

Aye. Sometimes I believe it's slightly too powerful. The MG42 in W:ET had it's massive downsides, the Hyperblaster doesn't seem to have many in terms of a weapon of defence. Perhaps it needs to be weakened a tad, maybe making it overheat faster, give a longer spin up and less damage would help fix the issue of it being used as an offence weapon...Although I doubt many will actually adopt the soldier class as much as the Techie, it can be quite hard to get the hang of sometimes.

Compared to the GDF weapon that doesn't overheat, doesn't have to spin up, and doesn't leave tracers that show your location? I think it's balanced. If anything you might just increase the cool-down time by a second or so. Other than that, the damage is fine, the accuracy is fine.

[PariahMessiah]

Originally Posted by RaVE

Compared to the GDF weapon that doesn't overheat, doesn't have to spin up, and doesn't leave tracers that show your location?

You left out also can't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside unless you stop duck and go into iron sights.

[Zeldor]

Beware of grenades! Always choose a spot where it is hard to be hit with a greanade. And well, technician is always essential [for ammo and protection from cov ops].

I don't know why but I really prefer hyperblaster over GPMG

[Alera]

Originally Posted by Zeldor

I don't know why but I really prefer hyperblaster over GPMG

Same here. GPMG just seems too...Sluggish. The one qualm I have with the Hyperblaster and all zoomable strogg weapons...Is the zoom. I'm all for pretty TV kind of effect zooms, but when it looks that pixelated and manky?! No ta! It takes 16xAA to even make it look reasonable.

[b0rsuk]

I'm basing my conclusions on Ifurita's 4newbies website.

Hyperblaster fires a bit faster than GPMG (0.08 seconds per round instead of 0.10).
When it comes fighting vehicles, it deals incredible 25*25 = 625 damage in space of 2 seconds. For comparison, handgrenade deals 600. Grenades fired from a launcher, and rocket launchers deal 800 damage. You can hunt vehicles with this toy. It takes 6 GPMG/Hyperblaster rounds to blow up an Icarus.

Assuming all rounds hit perfectly,
1.28 sec for Husky
2.88 sec for Armadillo
3.84 sec for Anansi
6.4 sec for Trojan (11.4 sec with overheat)
11.2 sec for Titan (16.2 sec with overheat)

It looks like mounted Hyperblaster is a clone of GPMG, though (slower rate of fire).

[mf-]

Originally Posted by b0rsuk

Assuming all rounds hit perfectly,
1.28 sec for Husky
2.88 sec for Armadillo
3.84 sec for Anansi
6.4 sec for Trojan
11.2 sec for Titan

It looks like mounted Hyperblaster is a clone of GPMG, though (slower rate of fire).

Shit that is some insane damage stats.

[b0rsuk]

Both GPMG and Hyperblaster seem to deal 19 damage to infantry, but 25 to all vehicles, even heavy ones. The difference is that Hyperblaster takes 0.08 second per round, and GPMG 0.10.

Similar stats for GPMG and Strogg vehicles (laboratory environment)

0.64 sec for Icarus
3.6 sec for Hog
4.8 sec for Tormentor
8 sec for Desacrator
18 sec for Cyclops (reload time not included)

[paZifist]

thx for the info! great to have the times

[[SD]BongoBoy]

Very nice : )

[b0rsuk]

Things to keep in mind:

• GPMG must be reloaded after 100 rounds/10 seconds. So Cyclops is actually more than 18 seconds. I don't know how long reloading lasts.
  
• Hyperblaster supposedly overheats after 70-ish rounds, and I don't know how long it cools down. Hyperblaster will most likely overheat when shooting Trojan or Titan.
  
• Damage decreases with range. (range is 8192, the same as lacerator/assault rifle)

Moral of the story:
Both heavy machineguns make short work of light vehicles. They can deal serious damage to heavy vehicles, but caution is advised. (heavy vehicles: Trojan, Titan, Desacrator, Cyclops). Trojan may be a bit easier. I can't tell if the GPMG on top of it is just for show (apha feature) or can be used by a gunner.

[Ifurita]

The GPMG on top of the Trojan is controlled by the driver

Here's the site with the weapons details:

http://4newbies.planetwolfenstein.ga...eaponslist.php

I'll eventually get around to posting the stats to the mounted hyperblaster. It fires more slowly, but has no spin up

[b0rsuk]

Ouch. This makes Trojan much, much more scary. GPMG, AA missiles, 2000HP, swims AND heavy armor.

[Alera]

Those stats are quite interesting. :>

[Ifurita]

Alera, if you'd like, synthesize the comments (you've already done most of it), I'll edit it and add some of my own comments and stats, and then I'll add it as an article in 4 Newbies under your byline. Borsuk also had a good comparison between the Hyperblaster and GPMG

[b0rsuk]

I need some extra info to finish those stats.
- how long does it take to reload GPMG ?
- is Hyperblaster (or any other Strogg weapon) fully cooled down after overheating animation is over ?

By the way, I've found something interesting. Lacerator, Blaster and Lighning Pistol have much higher DPS against heavy vehicles (Trojan, Titan) than their GDF equivalents. (Heavy armor takes half damage, rounded up, from assault rifles. Around 60 percent from shotgun and nailgun. Above 70 percent from Lacerator, Blaster, Lightning Pistol !). I'll save that for a detailed GDF/Strogg comparison.

[CarRamrod]

Originally Posted by b0rsuk

Ouch. This makes Trojan much, much more scary. GPMG, AA missiles, 2000HP, swims AND heavy armor.

Bah, just have a sniper take out a few tires. They aren't too scary after that.

[Alera]

Originally Posted by Ifurita

Alera, if you'd like, synthesize the comments (you've already done most of it), I'll edit it and add some of my own comments and stats, and then I'll add it as an article in 4 Newbies under your byline.

Uhh...Define synthesize.

[Ifurita]

Well, you did a real nice initial write up, others have since added other comments and suggestions. You could just added those comments to your original write up and edit/adjust it accordingly.

[Alera]

Originally Posted by Ifurita

Well, you did a real nice initial write up, others have since added other comments and suggestions. You could just added those comments to your original write up and edit/adjust it accordingly.

Will do cap'in. :>

[Alera]

Okay, I've updated the guide to have a little "intro" peice of text explaining the basic advantages/disadvantages of the Hyperblaster as well as linking to the stats page on ETQW4NEWBIES. Also added a few points and key points to "Defensive Positioning".

[RogerDandy]

I'd just like to throw in my two cents. I don't see any problems at all with weapon balance. I think that's one really balanced aspect of the game and I hope they don't change anything to do with the weapons at final release.

[space]

You can sprint while charging the hyperblaster. You do not loose any speed.