Platform: XBOX.
Description: Following the update that added the Augmentation feature, it seems like some experimental ammo types have gotten broken (again?). Explosive Ammo no longer works the same as I was familiar with before, and Radioactive Ammo also seems to range from horribly unreliable to completely broken, useless.
BEFORE that update, I was familiar with Explosive Ammo working like so: when not fired directly at a machine, but instead at an object in the environment, the round would hit…and set a small proximity mine, which would have a red blinking light. If an enemy or a player approached the mine, it would detonate. The duration for these mines was about 30 seconds. At the end of that time, the mine would explode. If a machine or player approached close enough to a mine at any point before that time elapsed, the mine would explode.
This behavior was the same whether the player was playing solo, or in co-op, regardless of where a co-op partner might be—they could be out of the region, all the way across the world, your explosive ammo would still work as described. This was consistent with the first part of the description for the explosive ammo, which mentioned the proximity mine function.
This was useful for tagging cars or other reactive objects in the environment for trap purposes, like say shooting a car ahead of a Hunter’s patrol path…and then the mine and car blowing up and destroying the Hunter, when they got within range. It could also be used to lay minefields in record time by spraying a field with a 9mm SMG, to then lure groups of lesser enemies through. It was also useful for completing ‘Destroy X-many Cars/TVs’ FMtel Assignments, using the time delayed detonation, without need for an enemy to approach the mine.
AFTER that update, some time back now but retested several times since then with each following update, Explosive Ammo no longer behaves consistently as previously described.
When playing solo, or if a co-op partner is more than 1.5km away or so, if Explosive Ammo is fired, it will hit, set a mine…the light on the mine will come on and blink…roughly five seconds will pass, five blinks of the red light…and then the mine will disappear. No time-delayed detonation.
If playing co-op, with the partner close enough to observe the shot, the mine will set, start blinking, and the previous full 30 second duration can pass, and time-delayed detonation will occur, as previously described. It is as if ‘proper’ (or, ‘previously normal’) functioning of Explosive Ammo is purely reliant upon another player’s observation, rather than being apparently based on the user’s own observation as it appeared to be before.
This horrible inconsistency in how Explosive Ammo works makes it somewhat less useful in solo, in particular for setting certain sorts of traps or for FMtel Assignment completion.
As for Radioactive Ammo, it doesn’t seem to blind machines like it claims it is supposed to, and sometimes it seems to do absolutely NO damage at all. Not for the initial impact of the projectile, nor for the damage over time Radiation effect. Radioactive Ammo might work for a while when you get on and start playing, but get broken after about an hour or so—I’m not sure if there seemed to be a timing to it, or if it was purely random, or what.
Steps To Reproduce: Get on and play, test, may need to play for about an hour or a little over. Explosive Ammo, the behavior inconsistencies should be tested in solo play, then in co-op play with the partner CLOSE BY, and then again with the partner FAR AWAY (across the map). Radioactive Ammo, the issue may be time-related, might get broken around an hour play time…or it may be totally random. It may work normally for a while, and then stop doing any damage at all, but I’ve never had it blind any machine since the update that added Augmentation.
Images / Videos: Sorry, I’m lazy or inept at the moment, so I don’t have any handy to show.
Host or Client: Host, Client, doesn’t seem to matter.
Players in your game: Solo, co-op in different conditions, to see the different inconsistencies with Explosive Ammo especially.
Specifications: Plain old XB1, in my case. This has been observed and confirmed across several users, two of which I know are on the plain old XB1. Other users I spoke with, who did eventually confirm these same issues, were on various other XBOX consoles.
I reported this issue to somebody else as part of an XBL Club, with several videos, but I don’t think he ever followed through with the bug report he was supposed to make—that, or he made the report somewhere else, or through some other avenue. Perhaps he reported it privately, by email or something. I do have videos saved away, I think showing both solo and co-op (close) behaviors for explosive ammo, and broken radioactive rounds, but I don’t know how to go about sharing them to here.