Higby Tweets Weapon Changes

[Dragonskin]

Originally Posted by Miir

This patch for the VS has been pretty good so far. Guns definitely feel more useful at range.

Nice work. ♥

Yea, I was able to get a few kills last night on my engie. The guns feel much better.

[Lonehunter]

Originally Posted by Miir

Best rate of fire and low recoil? I'm trying to see some draw backs to playing TR and I'm not seeing them.

Seriously? Some put a lot more value in accuracy and cone of fire, TR aren't good at either lol.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by Miir

TR

Best rate of fire and low recoil? I'm trying to see some draw backs to playing TR and I'm not seeing them.

ROF by itself isnt an advantage. Because they have lowest damage per shot, they have to land more shots and fire more shots just to break even. If they did not get a lower recoil then ROF would be a disadvantage. Because they have to fire more shots and the damage is lowest they need larger capacity magazines, and more overall ammo.

The result is highest sustained dps and throughput. It does this at the cost of burst damage and needing to fire many shots accurately in order to realize that advantage.

VS while lower dps on paper have more accurate weapons, which means the actual dps should be competitive, because they will miss less than TR and NC, especially at range. Thats why it is hard to balance VS...people who run numbers run theoretical dps, not actual dps when accuracy of the weapon is factored in. Less shot deviation, no bullet drop, and faster projectile speed all amount to a more accurate weapon which should more easily land shots than a TR spraying full auto and having reduced accuracy.


So all of the "advantanges" of TR are really a requirement in order for ROF to be a meaningful empire advantage. The downsides are lower alpha strike (burst dps), and less accuracy than VS. Those are the other empire strengths. TR should have highest sustained dps, most ammo and a reduced recoil to compensate for that higher rate of fire in order to realize that advantage.

[Miir]

Do you think having a higher sustained DPS and a larger clip size works in battles as large as we have seen in Planetside 2?

I'd be curious to know if SOE balanced the weapons based on a 1 vs 1 encounter or something larger.

I feel the scale of Planetside 2 is really what is causing the "appearance" of balance issues.