HA's balance in PS2

[cryosin]

What I'm going to say is probably going to butt heads with many others, but I feel I need to let it out.

Every weapon in the game should serve a purpose. The idea that one weapon is "simply better" is not something that's entertaining. Even if one weapon is used more, as long as there is a reason for it to exist I feel it has its place.

Let me use planetside 1 examples:

Suppressor: No reason to use this weapon. Its sole purpose was you spawn @ a base with no access to equip terms and you can shoot. It should never be in your load out. 2 cert points gets you medium assault and weapons that are significantly better. Id take 2 cert points out of using a suppressor any time.

My main gripe:
Function of HA's.
The HA's where extremely hard to balance because they all served roles that made no sense.

The MCG was all purpose meatgrinder. It was very good in skilled hands and allowed heavy spray and pray.

The jackhammer was a souped up shotgun.

The lasher was basically a plasma rifle from Unreal Tournament, except really slow and clunky and hard to use(I got used to it, but its got a high skill ceiling unquestionably).

I don't like this design. HA's should be powerful, but having HA's that replace the purpose of another weapon is not good game design. If i'm playing NC and I love shotguns, I am never going to use one. Im probably going to play NC in general if I love shotguns. I personally DONT play NC because I don't like shotguns.

The TR have the MCG, which is about as good as the cycler long range(in the right hands), and significantly better at medium to close range.

So, in reality, the VS are the only faction that had an accurate design. The pulsar was very powerful medium to long range, whereas the Lasher was very good close to medium range. Many people dislike the lasher, but in the right hands it was still potent in close quarters.

Here is my opinion, which im sure will cause disagreement:

The NC heavy assault should not be a shotgun weapon. I feel that a heavy hitting slow rate of fire weapon is fine, but not a shotgun. Maybe design it around a shotgun, but don't just make it a better shotgun. I think some kind of high powered gauss rifle with slow rate of fire would be awesome, but maybe a flak cannon would work too. A flak cannon is "like" a shotgun, but its shots are less controlled but do more damage.

For the TR, I think the minigun is fine. EXCEPT, it needs to do more damage but have higher recoil. Make it an indoor weapon. In planetside 2 the mini chain gun was very close to a cycler, and that is not good design imo.

The VS, as I stated, are just fine. However, I feel the Lasher should feel more powerful. it doesn't have to be more powerful, just feel like it is.
"Wait, that doesn't make sense.."
Let me explain:
The lasher shoots a stream of orbs that fly at slow speeds. Essentially they are giant paintballs. At close quarters, you miss one or two of these and you are toast 1on1. While at long range, it's basically meaningless since they can be dodged like slow moving paintballs. While playing planetside 1, here are my feelings of how the lasher should feel. I have two ways I think the lasher could be tweaked to feel more powerful yet remain balanced:

A) Reduce the damage of each orb, but increase the fire rate and travel speed. The way I see the lasher is more like a Link Gun from unreal tournament(yes I know, lots of UT references but bear with me). The link gun is very fun to use and rewarding. You might miss the first few shots but it nails and you land a kill. Its hard to dodge because there are so many projectiles heading your way, but missing too many shots will still cost the user.

B) Leave it the same, except increase the size of the orb. The orbs on the lasher are way too small and a slight miss will cause you to not do any damage. This is very unforgiving compared to the other empires. The NC have a shotgun(or flak cannon), so a slight miss still does damage. The TR have a minigun, so a few missed shots will hurt but your back on track in no time. The lasher is harder to use, easier to miss, and has a slower TTK than the other weapons. In my opinion it should "feel" fair. This is more of a buff than a change, but It would help newer players adjust to the game without being forced to play a different faction.

Sorry for the long post, I had to get it off my chest. My biggest gripe about PS1's infantry combat was how these weapons where designed. Hopefully people at least see what im saying and take a look. My ideas are just blue prints.