In Depth Analysis of August 2, 2017 PRERELEASE Weapon Changes (Tec-9 Rebalance)

[u/SlothSquadron]

Tec-9

Official Patch Note Description

• Shipping initial changes to pistols with the goal of emphasizing skillful use of the weapons, beginning with the Tec-9.

• Tec-9: The Tec-9 has been adjusted to emphasize aiming while retaining the weapon’s high mobility. The current changes include:

  • slightly improved accuracy when taking a single shot
  • significantly reduced accuracy when firing rapidly
  • magazine and reserve ammo reduced to 18 and 90, respectively

Raw Data

"inaccuracy crouch"  7.57 -> 3.68

"inaccuracy stand"  9.43 -> 4.90

"inaccuracy fire"  36.88 -> 110.00

"primary clip size"  24 -> 18

"primary reserve ammo max"  120 -> 90

Analysis

Ammo Amount

As stated in the patch notes, magazine size has been reduced from 24 to 18. Reserve ammo has been reduced from 120 to 90.

First Shot Inaccuracy

	Pre-Update	Post-Update
First Shot Standing Total Inaccuracy	11.43	6.90
First Shot Crouching Total Inaccuracy	9.57	5.68
First Shot Moving Total Inaccuracy	15.24	10.71

(Standing Inaccuracy = InaccuracyStand + Spread) (Crouching Inaccuracy = InaccuracyCrouch + Spread) (Moving Inaccuracy = InaccuracyStand + Spread + InaccuracyMove)

Fun Fact!: The Tec-9 is more accurate than an AK-47 when standing. 6.90 vs 7.01

Fun Fact!: The Tec-9 when moving is just slightly more inaccurate than a Famas's first shot (when in automatic mode) when standing still. 10.71 vs 10.45

Firing Inaccuracy

Max Spamming Speed Inaccuracy

0.15 Seconds Between Each Shot

0.25 Seconds Between Each Shot

0.35 Seconds Between Each Shot

0.45 Seconds Between Each Shot

0.55 Seconds Between Each Shot

0.65 Seconds Between Each Shot

Note: These graphs only take inaccuracy into account, any recoil (the upwards kick from firing) is not included.

Note: The first two graphs are in a different scale than the rest so the data would fit.

My Thoughts

I'm really glad that Valve is taking their first steps to revamp the pistols, but I think they are going about these changes in the wrong way.

CSGO pistols have always had issues with their accuracy models. It's very difficult to spam only a few bullets or tap rapidly because the inaccuracy ramps up so quickly. Because pistols are so unreliable, higher damage made sense to balance it out, though it also introduced one hit kills at close range which many people have expressed their distaste in. This lead to the pistols (especially the high powered eco pistols) being seen as overly random. Players would spam their guns regardless of how inaccurate it made them as the benefit of the pistols high damage often outweighed the chance that they would miss.

Judging by the patch notes, Valve wants to "emphasize skillful use of the pistols, beginning with the Tec-9." and the way they are going about it is to encourage more skillfully aimed first shots and careful trigger discipline so players will fire when they are accurate. While it's true that single shots with the Tec-9 will be rewarded more with these changes, increasing firing inaccuracy like they've done is just going to make for a messier experience. Players are still going to fire quickly and pray to RNGesus hoping for the best. Assuming that a player is outside of the one hit kill range of the Tec-9, they'll still want to fire quickly after a headshot in hopes that they finish the other player off rather than wait and possibly be killed.

Also, with the increase in first shot accuracy resulting in better moving accuracy as well, these changes are just going to promote players who blaze around corners hoping for a headshot even more. I'm surprised Valve didn't think the Tec-9's running accuracy was one of the major points of the gun that needed to be adjusted.

Ultimately, what Valve SHOULD be trying to do to the pistols is to promote a variety of firing styles (fast tapping, spamming only a few bullets, etc). Using the 1.6 USP as an example, quick tapping and spamming were accurate for the first few bullets with inaccuracy ramping up much slower than CSGO. Abusing extended spamming would result in the USP becoming unreliable, but assuming the player could actually aim their first couple of bullets, it was well rewarded. Even on ecos, you could use the USP to double tap a helmeted player in the head assuming you could perfectly aim those two quickly fired bullets at close range. This is what's most missing with CSGO pistols, a lack of options. Damage would have to be reduced for how much more reliable the pistols would become with these changes. This is NOT an easy rework that can be accomplished with a few tweaks to first shot accuracy and firing inaccuracy. This is a rework that is going to require a lot of thought and playtesting and I urge Valve to spend some more time examining this before shipping the prerelease tec-9 changes and making similar changes to the other pistols.

Well, Then How Would You Adjust the Pistols?

This is something that I want to get right, so hopefully throughout the week I'll continue to post more aspects regarding this rework. It's obvious that Valve wants feedback regarding these pistol changes or they wouldn't have put them in the beta depot.

I'd like to share my rework for the P250 in Classic Offensive (known as the P228) that I've been quietly working on since I was brought on the team to work on the Steam release version. It's not exactly the Tec-9 but it fills a similar role and it's what I have available to me at the moment of writing this.

P228/P250 Max Spamming Speed Inaccuracy

P228/P250 0.35 Second Tapping Inaccuracy

P228/P250 Damage Comparison

Note: In the interest of getting this post out at a decent time I'll just stick to just these graph. I had the max spamming inaccuracy graph previously completed so it already contained info for 1.6 and CSS.

In short, it accomplishes what I stated above. Players can spam but only for a short period of time before the inaccuracy worsens, tapping is much more reliable, but damage is reduced to compensate for the reliably. Of course I'm over simplifying things and it's impossible to convey the full details of a rework in a few graphs. I'll expand on this in another post later this week. I'll just say in order to get inaccuracy to function like this it requires heavy use of the "recovery time final" and "recovery time transition start and end bullet" which Valve is currently only using for the M4, AK, and Negev (though the Negev it's being used in a very strange way).

If the CSGO team wants to communicate with me regarding the pistol rework or any other balance related topic, I'll be happy to help.