http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1020297
It seems that a lot of complaints over the past two years have stemmed from critical hits. And to be fair, some of the complaints labeled against thus far have been valid: They can destroy any semblance of balance in a split second, and no one knows for certain (outside of a Kritzkrieg or Sniper/Spy) when they will get a much needed critical hit. To put it simply, critical hits just need to be removed from the game. Permanetly. They have hindered the game for far too long and I feel that the time has come for them to be removed. But first, it probably needs to be said as to what critical hits actually do and how they are determined.
Critical hits are percentage-based - Melee weapons start out at a base of 15% and ranged weapons start out at a base of 2%. Both of these scale up to 25% and 12% respectively. Melee weapons always roll for critical hits every swing. Ranged weapons roll for critical hits based on one of two properties: If the weapon is automatic (Sasha, Pistol, Syringe Gun, etc) then for the next two seconds, all attacks will be critical hits. If the weapon is non-automatic (Shotgun, Revolver, etc) then each single shot rolls for a critical hit. Critical hits do three times the average damage of each weapon, give or take a few damage points. Of course, each one has a OOOHH AHHHH SPARKLY team color to it.
As of now, it can be said from some that critical hits are actually balanced because everyone starts off with the same chance of garnering a critical hit. Bad players will find themselves still having a chance of generating a critical hit and not always getting beaten by veterans, and good players will find themselves having a greater chance of generating a critical hit, and thus, continuing the kill streak or what-have-you. This is pretty much wrong on all accounts because critical hits do so much damage, and it isn't exactly fair to those that didn't happen to get a randomly-generated critical hit at the time. Why should I be the one to suffer just because I didn't roll the right number on a however many sided die? Why should he reap the rewards of a random number system? Life isn't fair and if I'm the better player, I should always be able to beat those less skilled then me. This is just another reason why critical hits need to be removed.
Now, if critical hits were abolished, then this game would be for the better. For one, skill will finally determine the winner of each fight. What's that you say, random damage? Great! Let's remove that too and just average in the damage. Well, when I think about it, I guess it wouldn't really make much sense since close, medium, and long range battles are going to get screwed since damage is scaled up and or scaled down depending on how far away you are from your opponent which means that it would actually be hindering balance. Oh well, as long as critical hits and random damage are gone. Regardless, skill will determine the winner of each fight. Stalemates would not occur since if you're really just not TRYING hard enough to win. You obviously don't want to win since you're not trying hard enough. I think I'm getting a bit off topic here though.
So, since critical hits are abolished, will Sniper and Spy be nerfed? The answer to that is a resounding "No." Even though they're still technically critical hits, it would be best to keep them in the game. Snipers will still be able to gain critical hits on headshots and Spies will still be able to instant-kill with their backstabs. And yes, even though this is the exact same as being a hypocrit, I can assure you, it is not. Look, the bottom line is, they NEED to have these critical hits in place or else they would become completely useless classes. Critical hits serve to BREAK balance, not enforce it. You may think I'm confusing the word "balance" with "stalemate", but I'm not.
Everyone will pretty much agree that critical hits were a pretty poor decision on Valve's part. If I give them one thing though, it's that the removal of grenades was a smart move on their part. I just don't think that grenades would really fit well with Team Fortress 2 and its heavily stylized art style. Can you imagine if every class had grenades in addition to the spamminess that exists now? Demomen and Soldiers would have a field day if grenades existed today. I guess to compensate for this, they gave the Scout a double jump, a throw-back to the concussion grenades of Team Fortress Classic. Regardless, think of how much more we could accomplish if critical hits were abolished across the board.
Ending that little tyrade I just had, I'll bullet-point as to why critical hits are further bad:
-You cannot determine when you'll get a critical hit
-Only those who are doing bad truly benefit from critical hits (or it just SEEMS like that anyways)
-Underpowered classes such as the Pyro are pretty much...Who am I kidding, STOP W + M1ING!
-All classes would get an overall boost in damage with the removal of random damage.
-Really doesn't feel you EARNED that kill, just "Oh hey, I got a lucky crit!"
-Ends up working AGAINST you, critical hits, that is.
-Easily destroys balance, as previously stated.
All in all, critical hits are ruining balance and destroying Team Fortress 2 (Besides hats LOLOLOL. Yeah, because pixels atop a pixelated head is srs business, amirite? I mean really, why are people SO mad about something that DOES NOT AFFECT YOU OR ANYONE ELSE IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER AND ARE JUST A NOVELTY ITEM)
Someone needs to contact Valve about this. Someone needs to stand up to the terribad idea that is Critical Hits. Removal of critical hits and spread random weapon damage needs to be done ACROSS ALL SERVERS AND BE MADE MANDATORY.
I hope that somehow this will reach Valve, but I sincerely doubt...That, and I really don't think Valve wants to read this long tyrade of sorts about critical hits. They mostly want short, concise E-Mails anyways. Isn't Robin's E-Mail:
[email protected]? If someone could provide an E-Mail address, that would be great...I'll...be sure to cut down on the long post.
Look, I know I'm going on and on and on and on, but it really bares repeating:
You do NOT benefit from having critical hits in the game. They only further destroy balance, which pretty much doesn't need to be said, since this is a TEAM game called TEAM FORTRESS 2. BALANCE IS CRITICAL.
Finding yourself on the receiving end of a critical hit when you KNOW you could have won isn't exactly fair.
Only bad players benefit from having critical hits, not good players.
Overpowered classes have a field day with critical hits (CRITICAL STICKIES ANYONE?)
Lauding yourself over someone else because you killed them with a lucky crit is just plain laughable.
Enforces the use of stalemates, which is always a bad idea considering that Valve considers stalemates to mean that EVERYONE loses, not EVERYONE wins.
