Let’s talk about reloading and the reload button

KXNG_TEARFUL · February 23, 2020, 7:25am

Fundamentally, reloading is broken in gears 5. Wait what? You might ask, I reload perfectly all the time, yes, the reload does work (but not always, we’ll get to that) but the fact that reload and rev up/charge, etc are both bound to the same button break the actually mechanic.
1), whenever we press our Rb button the game has to decided whether we want to rev or reload and this depending on whether we hold it or not, so if you just do happen to hold the button down a bit too long, well you either get no reload and then nothing; you rev your chainsaw; or you jam a reload and none of these options are what you wanted to do. Therefore this double bind system with the reload doesn’t really work often leading to doing something you didn’t want.
2) furthermore, you cannot any longer interrupt your reload with revving or bayonet charge like in other games, thus in an attempt to give the players more options especially in melee, the coalition has actually limited our options with our gun in any given situation. This can be particularly frustrating for automatic reload players, which I’m assuming is must of the population.
See I play with automatic reload off (we’ll talk about this later as well) but I still can’t interrupt a reload that I initiated with a bayonet charge or chainsaw rev. however imagine an auto-reload player who just emptied a clip and then wanted to rev or charge, well he’s shucked cause the game will start the reload whilst he tries to charge and then the game will think it’s a missed reload thus, he jams his gun and is left defenceless.
And this is because double binding these two options forces the game to always be guessing what action you mean and many times it will guess wrong and do the exact opposite of what the players intended, or at the very least feel like there is always a delay to reloading or simply not reload which is not fun. Any control scheme that doesn’t do what the player intended, is well, to put it bluntly, a terrible scheme.
So then you might ask, what exactly is your solution? I believe it’s very simple, free up the RB button exclusively for reloading so that no matter how I press it, if I press a little longer or hold, I know that I’m always doing reload and I’m doing it intentionally. Then for the three weapons that have special options bound to RB currently bind them to B as a hold. Listen, every gears before this you had to hold b for the chainsaw and the charge, it will already feel intuitive for players and then you can simply keep the regular melee to a tap on B which is much easier then the RB tap. Thus all melee is bound to b, such that if you do mess up you aren’t messing up with a complete opposite action, it would still be a melee.
In my opinion, the B button is more responsive to this kind of action (quick press and hold) plus it feel intuitive, tons of games use the face buttons this way (not the bumpers…)and I think it would be very natural and avoid any of the weird mix up or delays that people experience with the reload button currently.
Now, let’s talk just reloading, specifically having the automatic reload turned off. I’m my opinion this is a superior mechanic to automatic reload, i am always in control of when I reload and it has saved me many a jammed gun because of higher automatic reload starting without me realizing. I think we just need to have one simply mechanic in place to make it great, and that is simply some kind of audio que that my gun is empty.
See, it has happened to me way to many times that I’ve shot my six shots, maybe in several different fights, and then in the middle of another one I’m pulling my trigger like a mad man and nothing is happening and I think that my gun isn’t working because there are tons of times (I’m sure every player has experienced this) when you pull your trigger and your character model acts like he’s going to shoot but no shot comes out.
And in the middle of a gun fight I don’t always have my wits about me to realize that I have no more bullets, or at least not until I’m dead left wondering why I didn’t shoot.
So you have these situations when your just pulling the trigger and nothing is happening because you ran out of bullets, but for the automatic reload, your reload starts and soon enough you’ll have bullets in the chamber. In my case the game would let me shoot blanks forever without even the slightest indication that my gun is empty. In my humble opinion all that is necessary is the « empty gun » clock sound that the game plays when you try to fire a gun that has no ammo left at all. Just give me that sound when I pull the trigger and try to shoot, as if I had no ammo, to let me know, you have no more Bullets in the chamber, reload bro.
I believe that these two simple changes would greatly improve the reload mechanics and by extensions, some of the melee mechanics and make an overall greater and dinner gaming experience!

S_IK_O_IR_G_E · February 23, 2020, 11:36am

KXNG_TEARFUL:

Fundamentally, reloading is broken in gears 5. Wait what? You might ask, I reload perfectly all the time, yes, the reload does work (but not always, we’ll get to that) but the fact that reload and rev up/charge, etc are both bound to the same button break the actually mechanic.

1), whenever we press our Rb button the game has to decided whether we want to rev or reload and this depending on whether we hold it or not, so if you just do happen to hold the button down a bit too long, well you either get no reload and then nothing; you rev your chainsaw; or you jam a reload and none of these options are what you wanted to do. Therefore this double bind system with the reload doesn’t really work often leading to doing something you didn’t want.

furthermore, you cannot any longer interrupt your reload with revving or bayonet charge like in other games, thus in an attempt to give the players more options especially in melee, the coalition has actually limited our options with our gun in any given situation. This can be particularly frustrating for automatic reload players, which I’m assuming is must of the population.

See I play with automatic reload off (we’ll talk about this later as well) but I still can’t interrupt a reload that I initiated with a bayonet charge or chainsaw rev. however imagine an auto-reload player who just emptied a clip and then wanted to rev or charge, well he’s shucked cause the game will start the reload whilst he tries to charge and then the game will think it’s a missed reload thus, he jams his gun and is left defenceless.

And this is because double binding these two options forces the game to always be guessing what action you mean and many times it will guess wrong and do the exact opposite of what the players intended, or at the very least feel like there is always a delay to reloading or simply not reload which is not fun. Any control scheme that doesn’t do what the player intended, is well, to put it bluntly, a terrible scheme.

So then you might ask, what exactly is your solution? I believe it’s very simple, free up the RB button exclusively for reloading so that no matter how I press it, if I press a little longer or hold, I know that I’m always doing reload and I’m doing it intentionally. Then for the three weapons that have special options bound to RB currently bind them to B as a hold. Listen, every gears before this you had to hold b for the chainsaw and the charge, it will already feel intuitive for players and then you can simply keep the regular melee to a tap on B which is much easier then the RB tap. Thus all melee is bound to b, such that if you do mess up you aren’t messing up with a complete opposite action, it would still be a melee.

In my opinion, the B button is more responsive to this kind of action (quick press and hold) plus it feel intuitive, tons of games use the face buttons this way (not the bumpers…)and I think it would be very natural and avoid any of the weird mix up or delays that people experience with the reload button currently.

Now, let’s talk just reloading, specifically having the automatic reload turned off. I’m my opinion this is a superior mechanic to automatic reload, i am always in control of when I reload and it has saved me many a jammed gun because of higher automatic reload starting without me realizing. I think we just need to have one simply mechanic in place to make it great, and that is simply some kind of audio que that my gun is empty.

See, it has happened to me way to many times that I’ve shot my six shots, maybe in several different fights, and then in the middle of another one I’m pulling my trigger like a mad man and nothing is happening and I think that my gun isn’t working because there are tons of times (I’m sure every player has experienced this) when you pull your trigger and your character model acts like he’s going to shoot but no shot comes out.

And in the middle of a gun fight I don’t always have my wits about me to realize that I have no more bullets, or at least not until I’m dead left wondering why I didn’t shoot.

So you have these situations when your just pulling the trigger and nothing is happening because you ran out of bullets, but for the automatic reload, your reload starts and soon enough you’ll have bullets in the chamber. In my case the game would let me shoot blanks forever without even the slightest indication that my gun is empty. In my humble opinion all that is necessary is the « empty gun » clock sound that the game plays when you try to fire a gun that has no ammo left at all. Just give me that sound when I pull the trigger and try to shoot, as if I had no ammo, to let me know, you have no more Bullets in the chamber, reload bro.

I believe that these two simple changes would greatly improve the reload mechanics and by extensions, some of the melee mechanics and make an overall greater and dinner gaming experience!

I haven’t ever really found myself revving instead of reloading but I agree that it’s a weird choice to make something as important as reloading the same as a melee option.

And that it limits us greatly in that context.

NgN_Hypnosis · February 23, 2020, 11:47am

My shotgun randomly reloads mid battle!!

Anyone else’s!?

GB6_Kazuya · February 23, 2020, 11:59am

I skimmed over the paragraphs, mainly because I know exactly what you’re talking about and agree 100%.

I even made a topic about it when it was announced. I didn’t go into much detail then but have since mentioned it being a terrible idea many times beforehand. The option to return the chainsaw to B, where is should be, should be restored. It’s yet another one of TC’s many big golden to the older fans.