Reloading is boring

[Tremuska]

I didn't liked this mechanic from beginning.It would be nice to have an auto reload system after a big combat or atleast when we die, i don't want to wait for reload.

[Borington]

Hey, that's a good idea. I've been experimenting with an out-of-combat ammo regeneration already. Is the quick time event aspect of it problematic, or is it just the time wasted?

[stretch]

For me it was simply too hard to concentrate on mid fight. I tried to start with full guns and swap between them until all were empty.

Mid fight - it takes too long. That's the nub of it I think. You cannot sprint away while reloading can you? I don't know that many people would have the focus to be able to hit the mark(s) spot on while being hit. Honestly while I do get what you are trying to do with it and the times you are not in any danger it's kind of cool at first, when you are dying and cannot get away and you are then dished up with a minigame to reload. One where even if you get it perfect it still might not give you a full reload. Well..... it's irritating to say the least. My pet hate with shooters is that you usually have to reload all the time. I am not sure of the exact mechanics but it seemed I was interrupted often reloading or maybe it's just because I missed the marks but often mid fight if I was trying to reload it just took so awfully long and I usually gave up. Tried to swap guns but then it's all just too busy for me so I often had to run. Running away to reload was pretty much the only viable option most of the game.

Thing is that it's not an awful system really since reloading mid fight should be hard. Seriously you are being hit so it's gotta be tricky. I get that. And it does encourage a more deliberate and controlled approach to a lot of the combat. I often resorted to the javelin which could recharge itself over time and with a bit of running around with that I could usually finish enemies off OK. You get grenades, itty bitty spiders, a melee weapon and multiple guns so usually to be fair you have the equipment to get through most places. I think if you tweaked the recharge on the javelin a little and put the timing system out with the crosshairs while using it then that would be the go to weapon for ranged fans when out of ammo with guns. It's a powerful little weapon when you get the timing right. Better than most guns in fact. It's just tricky to actually get right.

Towards the end of what is there so far I had maybe 4 guns with like 23, 54, 13 and ??? not sure... but anyway I could reload them all and then get into some good fights and use them all till I had to run away to reload. You get a bit done usually. Thing is that a reload session which might need 3 goes just to fill the one gun with the 54 round magazine, then my pistol always took a couple and the BFG was usually 2 goes.....even when hitting the perfect marks regularly. It's becomes a fair chore. And for a self confessed hater of having to reload at all it's simply tedious. That said I accept it's the norm for gun games to need reloading and I knew that going into this game so it wasn't exactly the end of the world but still it's not a joyful part of the game for me.

My thoughts on adjusting it would be to halve the length of the reload bar. Have one mark only at about 1/3 to 1/2 way along. If you hit the mark = full reload. If you miss the mark and it takes twice as long to do the full timer - still full reload. Not the partial reloads taking as long as they do now. Maybe even add a skill or ability to increase the size of the sweet spot or to simply shorten the length of the full timer bar as well??

Thing to remember is that it is a game and juggling your weapons and ammo and running away if you have to and all the rest of it is all part of the challenge. Having god mode with unlimited firepower to blow through everything and instant reloads would be silly so most of what is there is fine in normal difficulty for myself but I cannot speak for others. Powder gets thin on the ground later in the game when spells gobble it up fast even with powder regen but it was enough for me with frequent use of the javelin.

Please don't make reload irrelevant by making it too easy. It's part of the balance and forces you to use other things at times but it is probably the hardest thing to do in combat as it is now.
You don't get decent sized magazines till a fair way through the current content so you need to reload lots at first. If you are only a fan of guns and don't like to use the melee or javelins then I can well see it's pretty frustrating early on and like the OP says once the novelty wears off it's not real exciting.

[Tremuska]

I guess you want player to use all of weapons. My design suggestions are;

1 - Gun powder doesn't make any sense. You either drain to the bottom or always have full. There is no sweet spot. I would suggest you to change it to random ammunition. I am not sure if we are able to run out of ammunition. Or maybe if you want to keep it. Don't drain it in mid fight. Give us chance to choose our ammo and use it as craftable currency.

2 - Please remove QTE completely. Ultra boring mechanic. And you put this in the most stressed place.

3 - We definitely should be able to break reload cycle and shoot. This is very much like a zombie game. I am surprised how you missed this.

4 - Melee combat is pretty weak. There is no combo, splash damage, dual handed weapons (that we choose one by one from inventory), extra damage, perry or defence with player input. You can't add ammo mechanic without a boost on melee

5 - Weapon selections is overwhelming. 3 weapon of choice is enough. Throwables can be stored as button

6 - I never ever had 0+ skill. You should lower some of them's gunpowder consumption

[Borington]

Thanks for the details.
1 - I've purposefully removed random ammo drops, because it left too much to RNG. Powder is basically your mana. I'm constantly tweaking the system, I will take another look at it
2 - Still thinking about a better alternative.
3 - You can interrupt a reload with quick weapon switching or E (rum), but you are correct, there should be a clearly explained way to interrupt
4 - Agreed. Though melee-focused builds were never planned for the game, I would like to change this. The parry system is not random, but it is hard to see when an enemy is striking.
5 - Throwing items on a separate button are a good idea.
6 - All runes are at skill 0. I should remove the number, that's an oversight on my part. I've been slightly lowering their cost since release, but I'm also trying to keep the balance for the late game. There's certainly room for improvement on that front.

I also made reload times for Repeater and Blunderbuss type weapons shorter, and added out-of-combat ammo regeneration to powder and pistol ammo in the last patch.
EDIT: patch 1.2.4c also simplified pistol reloading.

[Tremuska]

Thanks borington. You are the king.