Literally just add better knockback. If players give me overwhelmingly positive feedback in my FAs that implement HELD_KNOCKBACK then you need to do something with Open gunner balance. They've already applied higher attunement & blaster defense allowing for more extremely powerful and versatile anti-gunner jedi builds, which was harder to invest in pre-R20. A nerf to proj rifle (twice) and then pistol 3 becomes mediocre. On top of legends being so popular it takes from Open, open literally just sucks right now. It has been so refined in the competitive vacuum that it has sucked any value of casual worth out of the gamemode. Remember when hyper-competitive open was just something that happened on Serious Sundays? Now it's what the entire gamemode has been consumed by, and has taken roots into the entire development process.
It all started initially with the mass armor changes, and then the highly controversial mando update. Then the changes snuck in through hotfixes as totally "acceptable" changes, such as needless nerfs to speedlunge because scrimmers lost to it too much in scrims and whined to get it fixed. Everyone basically livelords on Open special classes, while forcing every casual player to play weaker classes with extra lives to be farmed just to stand a chance.
No wonder people prefer Legends over Open in it's current state.
Nowadays you have to play open if there's random spontaneous pop, barely even a 32 pop server, or conform to the highly toxic environment of the scrimmers. Keep implementing bad changes killing your game, or work to save it. The only indominable sin with this game in it's record lowpop, is allowing a percentage minority to negatively influence an entire gamemode beloved by many. Do some introspective.
