Dunno if this is meant to happen or not, but seeing as when guns were introduced they didn't hit boxes (that was a bug), i assume this is also a bug. As for what the bug is, laser beams don't seem to register hitting the targets.
One wep and marksman just dosnt work. If u get beam or quake u lose. Cant see how thats fair in any way.
Despite how much hate goes into one weapon marksman, it's probably (believe it or not) the best mode in the game balance-wise. Marksman in itself gives anyone a chance to stay in if they hit a target, which is a lot more fair than having to deal with the OP weapons in any other mode. The more weapons you unlock, the more likely (even though the chance is still low) of getting the "Game Over" weapon. It adds so much suspense to the game and creates so many tense moments, especially over many rounds... Even though it sucks to get that (I know what it is like), I say leave it because it gives the lower levels with less skill a better chance to win a game. And, as you most likely know, I support fairness for low levels. This is the one place where it is, so I hope we don't remove it.
I also support fairness, but this is more than likely a bug, so I posted about it. Honestly, I found this is a normal game when I saw a chance to use laser for 300 points and get the target. Needless to say, I died
Its not fair. Even if you are put into a situation where you get the bad weapons in any other game mode, you still have a chance of winning, just requires a lot of skill to do so. However in this case, if you get a weapon like laser you lose instantly and there is nothing you can do about it. You have a minimum 1.8% chance of instantly losing (when you have all the weapons) and that % is higher when you include rampage & shockshell tiers (because those will most likely miss the target) its too high of a chance to lose for no reason. Besides its not fun. Especially when it happens on your first turn. It just stops you from earning xp and cutting your game short so you don't earn as much if anything at all.
If it has a chance to happen to all players, it's fair longterm. On a game-to-game basis, you are right; it sucks for the loser. However, in longer spans of games- 10, 25, 50, 100, or more- it ends up even between all players. 2% is a little high, but I wouldn't lower it too much. 2% is 1/50 turns. Marksman normally lasts 10 turns if you have two highly skilled players, 5-7 if you don't. In a 1v1 Marksman scenario, this is actually completely fine. You have a good chance of sneaking in 3-4 games straight without any immediate deaths occurring. To me, that's perfectly fine and shouldn't be changed. Also, it's actually fun to die in that way, at least for me. Rather than "Shockshell! D: I shoulda won!", I see it as "Shockshell! XD I'll get ya next time." People are so focused on skill rating, a useless number, that they're not thinking about the fact it might happen to their opponent next time. It creates a tense atmosphere, which isn't really found many other places in the game. One Wep Marksman= Tension every round, which is a good thing. I honestly can't see why getting rid of that is a good thing. .-.
Like they always say, it's not how the game treats you, but how you treat the game. But let's be honest. Isn't it a little silly that a laser can't hit a target? Shockshell or rampage is fine with me because you can hit with them sometimes, but lasers can't hit under any circumstances. Leaving laser as it is under the premise that people should have a good attitude about it just doesn't seem quite right to me.
After reading your post, I have come up with a potential, fair patch for all lasers: All lasers can pick up targets on the condition that: A) The laser does not pass through the ground in advance of the target's location.. A laser that does pass through the ground in advance of the target won't pick it up. It may pass through the ground at any point after the target, but not before. B) The laser does not pass through any tank in advance of the target. A laser that passes through a tank in advance of the target will not pick it up. It may run through other tanks after the target. Why are these important? They look like random things, you might say. In reality, this makes the game more interesting. There are more strategies on the defensive side people could do to put themselves between the user and target, or force them into a situation where they can't shoot the target because they are forced to shoot through land. On the offensive side, a player might try to move in the final seconds to get better positioning and to avoid any blocking. What would be an automatic advance weapon for any round has now become a weapon of strategic value for everyone involved.