on paper the suppressor looks like a straight downgrade, you deal marginally less damage in exchange for making your gun sound different. so obviously nobody takes it and it sits in req collecting dust every round. except i’ve been running it consistently for a few days now and i swear to god something weird happens with xeno players when they hear suppressed fire. they don’t retreat on time. like at all. the audio cue that tells them “you are being SHOT you are going to DIE” is completely different and i genuinely think it messes with their threat assessment on a subconscious level.
suppressed fire sounds “weaker” and they sit there for like a full second longer than they should before deciding to disengage. that one second is enormous. that’s the difference between getting a kill or watching the lurker retreat alive.
i can’t prove this scientifically and maybe it’s confirmation bias but the pattern is too consistent to ignore. xeno players are tuned to respond to the standard audio profile of marine weapons and the suppressor breaks that pattern just enough to buy you a second or two. the damage tradeoff is basically negligible anyway.
I can confirm this as an acid runner player it genuinely does fuck with me and make it harder to notice I’m being shot. It’s to the point I started speculating about it changing the noise for getting hit too, but I was too lazy to ever test it.
Surpressors only good mechanical advantage is that you can only hear the gunshot if you are on the same screen as the one shooting. So it pairs well with scouts shooting you from a screen away, and HvH.
I’ve always felt like they have some mysterious power that makes them shoot faster and further then without. But I’m just coping. They do sound much cooler with them on though. It’s why I added the new sounding one to the small one. Love that stuff.
The damage falloff on the M41A using the suppressor is pretty much negligible. What you are really trading is the ability for both your allies and your enemies to hear you firing off screen or not. In my opinion, I think they should simply remove the falloff negative, because the double-edged sword effect is really cool in itself. Overall, I think it is an underrated attachment, and I enjoy using it when I go backlining especially when I get NVGs.
everytime i grab a floor gun with one my brain psyops me into thinking its shooting more accurately and faster like some sort of sleepy extended barrel
