(This topic is up to date with recent Accumulator nerf, don’t discard it just because “accumulator is getting nerfed anyways lol”, because despite that nerf, it will still be much better than Overdrive in most circumstances. Reasoinng below)
This is my idea for the Overdrive buff, but before I can get on that, first we need to talk a bit about it’s (and Accumulator’s) current place in the game.
- What are boosters.
Overdrive is a simple concept. You double click, you shoot 50% faster but also overheat faster. That’s all.
Accumulator is a bit more complicated. In an oversimplified way: you need to gain kills in order to charge it, so you can double click and shoot 50% faster while also suspending the heat from rising.
Accumulator provides more stable dps for longer periods of time, since you can go on shooting it longer without overheating.
Overdrive on the other hand provides short bursts of dps that overheat you quicker, but don’t require charging.
And everything would be fine. It’s important that they’re both distinct from each other and unique, so each of them has their own place in game. At least that would be, if not for the fact, that Accumulator is better in almost any situation
Even with the upcoming nerf, Accumulator will still provide better and more stable dps than Overdrive. Why?
- Why Accumulator is almost always better
Well, let’s break it down. Different things can be better or worse depending on circumstance, like the type of level, difficulty, etc. That’s why I’m gonna compare both Overdrive and Accumulator on most common circumstances.
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Hard Chicken Invasion waves: On most of them, you want Accumulator rather than Overdrive. Actually, if you have Overdrive, you probably won’t want to use it at all, and just shoot normally. Why?
Because on those waves, it’s better to have stable dps than to overheat and have few seconds of downtime, while chickens keep shooting at you. The longer chickens stay alive, the more you will have to dodge overall. More time in a wave → more opportunities to die. -
Well then, it would probably be better on Easy Chicken Invasion waves, since you can kill chickens quicker with it, right? Well, no. Not at all.
When chickens die quickly, Accumulator can be also charged quickly, meaning you have a lot more time you can spend shooting it than with Overdrive. Even with the upcoming nerf, Accumulator would still be much preferable, because getting 80 kills in easy waves will still be better than waiting for few seconds after overheating with Overdrive. -
How about competitive missions? The ones where score counts the most? Well, Accumulator is even better in that.
Current meta in comp missions are multi-kills. They grant you high bonuses, but they require you to constantly kill, with no downtimes. Something that can be achieved only with Accumulator. -
How about Boss Rushes?
That is one little niche that Overdrive is a bit better than Accumulator. A bit better. Because Accumulator can still viably be used on them without making the player feel hindered. Running out of Accumulator charge and shooting normally for a while while you charge back provides you with better and more stable dps than what Overdrive can provide you.
Overdrive gives you short bursts of dps that sometimes you can’t get with Accumulator. But even then,
- This short burst is only useful sometimes
- This short burst’s dps is same as Accumulator’s dps while making certain weapons worse
- Weapons like Vulcan, Corn Shotgun, Boron, all either get worse with Overdrive, or benefit more from Accumulator
And even in those rare circumstances that Overdrive is truly a better option than Accumulator (brushing asides that those rare circumstances are, well, rare), Accumulator is still a very viable option in them, while Overdrive most of the time is not a viable option in circumstances where Accumulator excels.
- What can we do about that
Okay, now that I went on a rant about it, how can we fix it?
Many people give ideas to make Overdrive overheat slower, or compensate it somehow with faster cooling down. I disagree.
As I said in the beginning, it’s important those two are distinct and unique from each other.
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Overdrive provides short bursts of dps (+50% firerate).
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Accumulator provides more stable dps increase (+50% firerate).
The issue is the dps increase. They both have the same firerate increase, which is the thing eradicating Overdrive’s purpose in most circumstances.
Let’s not make Overdrive another version of Accumulator, or more similar to it. That’s what Accumulator exists for.
Instead, let’s make it shine more in what it already can do. Short bursts of dps.
My proposed change is to increase the Overdrive’s firerate to a higher number, while keeping the overheating increase similar.
That way it will still have it’s own unique identity, while becoming better at what it already does well, but often still worse than Accumulator.
For example, on hard Chicken Invasion waves: now the downtime from overheating doesn’t matter as much, because you can kill chickens much quicker than before. Half of them, if not more, will be dead by the time you overheat, which wouldn’t be the case with Accumulator, giving a place where Overdrive will be a bit better.
Yes, Overdrive would still be worse than Accumulator in easier Chicken Invasion waves, but that’s alright. We don’t want to make Overdrive better than Accumulator. We just want to make it actually viable.
It would turn Overdrive into a high-risk high-reward type of booster, rather than what it is now, high-risk low-reward.
- Afterword
Anyways, those are my few cents on the topic. I’d love to hear what you think about it, and balance it a bit more.
As to certain numbers, I don’t want my entire topic to be discarded just because I provided too high/too low buff number, which is why I chose not to provide any. Let that be a topic of discussion in the posts below.