VS is not underpowered. Just powered by skill.

[WildEagle]

word

[Agent White]

I dont believe the Vanu are losing due to balance reasons at all. I believe it is because players are using the wrong weapons and wrong tactics.

Don't use a Quasar AI max to take out another AI max. Use a lancer. Don't take your AI max outdoors to fight TR unless you like seeing the words "Missile Lock".

Don't use Pulsar for indoor fighting, use Lasher or AI max.

Don't go toe to toe with a Vanguard in your Comet AV max. Jump on its roof. (I did this AGAIN today BTW.)

Don't fire when you get a lock on with your Starfire AA max. Lock on after your shots are already near the target.

Don't use your lasher for that guy half a continent away. Use a pulsar or Lancer.

Don't use a beamer when you're an infiltrator. Use an AMP.

Don't trade shots with a Vanguard in your Magrider. Run over 30 of his friends first and then collide into him.



The most helpful thing I did for my strategy as a Vanu was to make other characters on other servers in the different empires and try all their weapons and maxes out. This helped me figure out just where their weaknesses are. When to be afraid of them, and when to not be.

Vanu are superior only when played correctly... and when that happens. you have great advantages over the other teams who have become very comfortable in their "rush the CC" mentality.

[Madcat170]

If you think the Vs are underpowered in any way

Play on Werner they regularily win for multiple reasons such as : outnumber every 1 else 3:1, Kill as much as possible with lancer fire before moving on into the base. it comes down to organisation 3 guys with lancers can tear appart infrantry and Tanks from long range if they work together on targets.

The TR are the "spray n pray" empire
The NC are the "hit em with a big twacking stick" empire
The VS are the "tactical"

Tactics= Always the one that wins

whoever has the better tactics will always win probleme is people seem to think they can use the pulsar like the Jackhammer or some other weapon...it dont work you have to find its strength and use it...alot...

Edit = i know i cant spell

[NeoTassadar]

Originally posted by Agent White
Don't use a Quasar AI max to take out another AI max. Use a lancer. Don't take your AI max outdoors to fight TR unless you like seeing the words "Missile Lock".

Just going to point one thing out, here. That is a little hard to do while in a MAX. Run for terminals?
Nice job on the rest, though.

[Jarlo]

The main issue since release with Vanu is lag.

Lag effects everyone equally you say? Nope Vanu is hurt the worst. The Lancer is a precision weapon that requires some skill and practive to use as well as no warping of the bad guys. Lasher is not that much different. The TR weapons tend to spray bullets everywhere or lock in thus adjusting for lag automatically. The NC weapons tend to be close range spray weapons that also adjust for lag issues. The only people that REALLY need to hit a target directly to do damage are VS, and that is hard when servers are laggin out or network code is buggy.

As the netcode improves and the lag improves and people learn how to use vanu weapons, the vanu does better. Won JOhari yesterday.

[Arakiel]

The VS AA MAX is a mess. It's terribly ineffective against anything but air (even moreso of an issue than the other 2 empires' AA MAXES) and the projectiles against air are slow enough that any reaver pilot with half a brain can avoid them.

The AV MAX could use, say, a 5% projectile speed increase. Pretty balanced other than that.

AI MAX is probably the worst AI MAX at straight fighting, but I find that it's pretty useful if you stick to fighting solely infantry it's not too bad. Could use an increase in clip size to maybe 50 or so, especially considering AP mode eats double the ammo.

Lancer's still our best weapon, no argument there. I still think it's worse than the striker, but that's just me.

Lasher is decent. Horrendously difficult to use well, but in the right hands, it's very effective.

Pulsar is still crappy - the range damage falloff needs to be cut a little. Oh boy, it switches from AP mode to regular mode without changing ammo - that almost makes up for it doing absolutely nothing worthwhile at 50 feet or greater.

Beamer is nice for TKing people that block me into spawntubes. Other than that, uh..

The problem with saying that VS is the "tactical" empire is that it relies on the players. All 3 playerbases are still pretty green at the moment, and none of them seem to have really fit a niche of fighting yet - it's usually just a big deathmatch (feel free to claim I'm wrong by telling me how your outfit is teh pwnnn.) With the tactical aspect of VS, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

[NightWalker XI]

Don't trade shots with a Vanguard in your Magrider. Run over 30 of his friends first and then collide into him.

Me and my gunner took out a Vanguard today, I was at 75% health and he was at full (just come out of his vehicle pad) his gunner only hit me once (doing alot of damage) the other times all I got was splash damage, I was able to strafe all of his shots

Bless strafing....I love playing as Vanu

And to whoever said VS loose on every server you are wrong, on Werner VS kick ass every day, a few days ago we had 5 CL's at once.

[NeoTassadar]

Strafing tanks=win.

[Suzuka]

Hey I am glad to hear this and agree with ya Agent White but if they think we are underpowerd and want to make adjustments who are we to stop them??
Just think, explosive magrider beams, increased lasher whip range, more powerfull beamers, increased MAX clip size and power, maybe even increased zoom or refire rate for the lancer.

[Agent White]

Originally posted by Suzuka
Hey I am glad to hear this and agree with ya Agent White but if they think we are underpowerd and want to make adjustments who are we to stop them??
Just think, explosive magrider beams, increased lasher whip range, more powerfull beamers, increased MAX clip size and power, maybe even increased zoom or refire rate for the lancer.

I think once people move up the learning curve with Vanu, and once all the frustrated ex-Vanu begin to see how powerful we are when skill is applied, the battles will even out more.

I don't want any balancing of the Vanu because:

A. We already have the coolest looking infantry.. Especially at higher BR.
B. We have the most fun to drive vehicles.
C. We have the coolest looking MAXes.
D. We have the most fun to play MAXes. I'll take jumpjets over your stupid anchors and bubble wrap anyday. Ever park an AI max in a tree above an enemy AMS? Ever park an AA max on the top of the giant satellite dish? Ever go surfing on a Vanguard's roof?
E. We have the coolest looking and most fun to use heavy assault and anti vehicle weapons.

Besides, our infiltrators look cool while NC's look like a cheap boba fett halloween costume and TR's look like Scuba Steve. And if you can't even have cool looking infiltrators, then how good can your side be?

[gonnagetyou]

[Knuckles]

I don't want any balancing of the Vanu because:

A. We already have the coolest looking infantry.. Especially at higher BR.
B. We have the most fun to drive vehicles.
C. We have the coolest looking MAXes.
D. We have the most fun to play MAXes. I'll take jumpjets over your stupid anchors and bubble wrap anyday. Ever park an AI max in a tree above an enemy AMS? Ever park an AA max on the top of the giant satellite dish? Ever go surfing on a Vanguard's roof?
E. We have the coolest looking and most fun to use heavy assault and anti vehicle weapons.

Do You deem us, the VS, balanced because we look cool, Agent White???

Good Lord!

Your whole line of reasoning is just confused (read: totally up the wall) and have very little, if anything, to do with actual ingame balance.

- Do take a look at which empire that wins most servers (TR).
- Do take a look at which empire that gets the most kills (NC).

I play on Werner, which seems to be the one and only server that gets any VS wins consistently, and I just learned that his has to do with that it has a large american VS population that caps bases all night long (while we europeans sleep). It's true, because when i got to bed at just past midnight, I checked the current standing on Werner - VS were at 25%. When I got to work I checked again - VS were now at 51%.

Sorry for blowing off like this but this is just too much!

I'll try to soften it up a little by posting something that GamerGuru wrote on the official General Chat board. It's fun, it's witty, and I couldn't possibly have written it better myself:

I am a BR14 Vanu killing machine on Emerald. Fear the name Guru. It is your bane.
Ahem. Now that everyone has had a good laugh, on with my post.

After trying most everyvehicle and weapon in the Vanu arsenal, including ALL the empire-specific Vanu stuff, I have the following to say:

Lancer: Our baby. Our one saving grace. Our single gift from God. The only thing in the entire Vanu arsenal that can kill maxs, and kill maxs it does. From any range. They die screaming. Its beautiful. I love my lancer/sweeper combo.

Lasher: Probably the saddest excuse for a heavy assault weapon in the game. Any gun that can be dodged is... bad. Bad bad bad. I'd rather have a crossbow or something, at least those can't be dodged. And I make it sound like some sort of skillful kung-fu dodge. Oh no. Its more like an "old granny shuffling out of the way" dodge. All you have to do is walk half a foot to the right or left and the slowest bolts in the world won't touch you.

Pulsar: At some point during the development of the game, the Unpopular Guy of the dev team came up with the empire called the Vanu. The rest of the dev team, who never liked Mr. Unpopular anyway, decided to humiliate him by giving his proposed empire this weapon. It is the single greatest laughingstock of the game. I once killed a TR who had looted one, and I didn't stop laughing for weeks. He shot me and shot me and I had time to run up to him and gun him down with a shotgun. What a dope. Pulsar is humiliating. Moving along.

Beamer: Did I do something wrong in a past life? Is this one of God's tests of man? Shouldn't a gun... you know... hurt people or something? I have an infiltrator and I used this weapon for all of one day. I switched immediatly to the amp. I have forgotton the beamer. No love for the beamer. (And the AP mode? Oh my god, try it sometime. Its a laugh riot.)

Thresher: It takes damage from everything. It takes damage from the ground, from the air, from the rider, from the atmosphere, from the Republican Party, from cheese, from complex theories, from Barney, and, I SWEAR I am not making this up, from the launch pad that spawns it. When you pull of the launch pad, there is a bug that causes it to make a crashing sound and lose a fifth of its armor. But it crosses water, so I guess its alright. (WHAT?!)

Magrider: There is nothing funnier than running people down with the Kamikaze Tank of Death. Personally I favor the weak-but-accurate rail gun. I rule with it, and its rate of fire is rockin. Magrider good. It gets B+.

The Guru knows. Do not dispute the Guru's vast knowledge, or he will cry and tell on you.

Sorry for the rant.

Knuckles
VS BR15
Werner

[NightWalker XI]

I love the Thresher, its a great vehicle and I prefer it over other bugies, not for anything else because they are all the same really, but just for sheer coolness.

[Agent White]

Originally posted by Knuckles
Do You deem us, the VS, balanced because we look cool, Agent White???

Good Lord!

Your whole line of reasoning is just confused (read: totally up the wall) and have very little, if anything, to do with actual ingame balance.

- Do take a look at which empire that wins most servers (TR).
- Do take a look at which empire that gets the most kills (NC).

I play on Werner, which seems to be the one and only server that gets any VS wins consistently, and I just learned that his has to do with that it has a large american VS population that caps bases all night long (while we europeans sleep). It's true, because when i got to bed at just past midnight, I checked the current standing on Werner - VS were at 25%. When I got to work I checked again - VS were now at 51%.

Sorry for blowing off like this but this is just too much!

I'll try to soften it up a little by posting something that GamerGuru wrote on the official General Chat board. It's fun, it's witty, and I couldn't possibly have written it better myself:


Sorry for the rant.

Knuckles
VS BR15
Werner

The only thing out of balance in the game right now as far as I am concerned is the pounder. Not that everyone else is too weak, but the pounder is simply too powerful.

At long range I'll take a pulsar over a cycler. If you want to test me on that, let me know, I'll come to your server. Pulsar has 4x zoom and is accurate at it as well.

You seemed to have missed my original post. The pulsar was designed to be a long range complement to the Lasher. They use the same ammo.

Try dodging a wave of lasher fire indoors at close range and tell me its not powerful. Its one of the few guns you can fire close range indoors and lay down a spread of fire while moving side to side and have any sort of effectiveness.

The "looking cool" comments were tongue in cheek as I have already asserted my point that we are in fact balanced. NC and TR lead because of the mostly unskilled players. My counterpoint is that if you take a skilled Vanu player and put him against a skilled TR player, the Vanu player has the better arsenal at hand and thus the advantage.

Versatility.

The ability to use the Pulsar as long range and the Lasher at short range.

The ability to use the Lancer versus snipers, maxes, reavers, vehicles, and anything else that has the misfortune of being in its crosshairs.

The ability for the magrider to not only bullseye targets from long range, but be maneuverable enough to run over infantry like pylons.

Versatility is the exclusive domain of the Vanu. It is the reason I can take out a vehicle, a max, a sniper and a few infantry without switching weapons, or shoot a reaver with a tank, or take out jackhammer newbs from a distance with a pulsar and meet them at their spawn room with a lasher.


In the end, it is a bad musician that blames their instrument, and it is bad Vanu players that blame Vanu weapons.

There's only so good you can get with a chaingun. Vanu weapon potential is much greater.

[NightWalker XI]

Hey Agent White, wanna join my outfit?

I could really use someone like you