Concerning balance

[Fatalist]

As I'm certain all of you know, I am new to this message board ( and message boards in general ). Proven by the fact that I don't have a user picture or signature, but that is all aesthetic ( unlike the changes made to the rocket rifle ) and has nothing to do with the point of my post. The point of my post is game balancing relating to planetside. I have seen a plethora of posts dealing with this issue, and I figured I would add my input into this virtual zoo of angry Vanu players and "jackhammer experts".
I will start off by saying that I am a vanu player on the emerald server, however this will not bias my post in any way. I have played all of the three empires quite a bit in beta and final. My decision to play Vanu was based on my lone wolf style and the fact that it will never be very difficult to find a big battle as the underdog ( since Terran and New Conglomerate frequently have a sizable force to battle just outside of Vanu sanctuary).
Before we begin thinking about the balance of planetside, we must take into account all of the factors which can be measured in the game world and added into the ultimate equation that will determine if a weapon or vechicle is balanced or not. The most basic of these factors are as follows.
1. Armor - The total armor points of the vehicle or body armor.
2. Speed - The speed of the vehicle and the speed at which you are allowed to move in certain armors.
3. Manuverability - The handling of the vehicle and or armor (max suit).
4. Stealth - The ability to put yourself in positions of opportunity without being noticed (speed is also a factor in determining stealth ).
5. Projectile Range - The maximum range at which a projectile can travel.
6. Projectile Speed - The speed at which the projectile travels.
7. Rate of Fire - The length of time between projectiles in automatic weapons.
8. Cone of Fire Expansion - How quickly does the cone spread from shot to shot.
9. Projectile Damage - How much damage is dealt per projectile impact.
10. Accuracy - Sort of the same as COF expansion, but heat seeking missles are an example of a weapon that needs this extra catergory, also missles or grenades that have an arc trajectory.
11. Weapon size - Yes, it makes a bit of a difference concerning what will fit in your inventory.
12. Ammo size - Rockets are too large and leave irritating open space in your inventory enough said ( they should at least make them so that you can still have a full inventory without that irritating row of spaces that nothing will fit into).
13. Clip size - How many rounds can be fired before reloading.
14. Projectiles fired per shot - Concerning shotguns
15. Availibility - Can you get the weapon at any AMS? Or do you need an equipment terminal or vechile pad.
16. Impact Blast - How large is the explosion caused by the impact, and what % of the full projectile damage does it do.
17. Versatility - Is it effective against soft and hard targets.
As you can see, there are many factors that must be considered when deciding if a weapon is balanced or not. To determine if a weapon or vehicle is balanced, you must compare it to another weapon or vechicle of the same type utilized by another empire. There is also another type of balance, team balance as a whole, but we can't really get into that until we do individual comparison balancing. You also must consider that different combinations of the above qualities can produce an advantage in certain scenarios. For example, a gun with a high ROF, low projectile damage, and fast cone of fire expansion, will be terrible in field combat, but can work wonders on someone that turns a corner in a base and is standing 3 feet from you. So all situations must be taken into account also when deciding if a weapon is balanced. They can be lumped into 4 catergories for simplicity's sake. Indoor and outdoor. Close range and long range. Now we get to the math of it all. Basically you need to assign values to the effectiveness of the weapon under the different conditions and then sum them together, if the weapon is "balanced" then the number you get should be pretty close for all of the weapons or vehicles in the cert pool in question. Now I know some of you are thinking "what about player skill?". Well, player skill is an arbitrary quantity since it is relative only to yourself. A good player will have a very different idea of what "skill" is than a sub-par player. Adding skill to the balancing equation will taint the overall process of balancing with a subjective variable. I will now give my humble opinion on the different cert pools that are empire specific.

MEDIUM ASSAULT

The Cycler (TR) - An excellent weapon in short range and medium range combat, longer ranges require burst firing and crouching. I see this gun as a very effective medium assault rifle. Balanced in my opinion since its high ROF makes up for the fact that it does slightly less damage than the gauss.

The Gauss Rifle (NC) - Another excellent addition to anyones arsenal, the gauss rifle has the highest projectile damage of all the empire specific medium assault rifles I believe ( correct me if I am wrong ). It is just plain deadly at close range, and can still take someone down at medium to long range in burst fire.

The Pulsar (VS) - Well... This weapon takes a hit due to its "versatility". It is the only empire specific medium assault rifle with a secondary fire mode. In secondary fire, the ROF decreases and the shots are supposedly "anti vechicular". The only problem is that this anti vehicular damage is not substantial at all. Basically, if you see a tank, or hell, even an ANT, and you fire your uber "anti vehicular" rounds at it, you are pretty much screaming "Run me over ! Im shooting blue lasers at you from behind the tree !" Don't plan on killing any vehicles with this unless they have already been hammered down to near to no armor. Now, this versatility supposedly balances out the poor damage of the regular fire mode in comparison to the gauss and the cycler. This could be ALMOST be a balancing factor if not for one thing... People do not normally go running around with the medium assault cert only. Medium assault tends to be used as a secondary weapon for those players that have anti-vehicular or jackhammers and want either a anti personel or medium range weapon. The pulsar simply has no role to play once you are past medium assault, seeing as how both the Lasher and Lancer are more effective as anti-vehicular anti-max weapons than the pulsars secondary fire mode. This renders the secondary fire obsolete and you are left with a less than adequate anti personel option. Balanced? Maybe. Functional? Not past BR 3.

PISTOLS ( I almost forgot this one )

The Repeater (TR) - Decent ROF, good range, decent damage. It is the most average and least specialized of all the pistols. If the repeater were a street fighter character, it would be Ryu.

The Mag-Scatter (NC) - No range, but high damage due to its shotgun-like projectiles make this a deadly weapon in close quarters, however I would consider the AMP (common pool) to be a better choice for all purposes in which a mag-scatter would be effective. Still, it is a balanced option for a pistol slot.

The Beamer (VS) - I have the same problem with this weapon that I explained with the pulsar, but this is even more of a joke. Have fun killing a tank with your bb gun. I have seen people saying that this weapon is good for clearing mines, well, more power to you, but that still doesnt balance it as a pistol option. Its not a mine sweeper, its a handgun, and a poor one at that. Once again its versatility balances this all out supposedly, but the loss in objective functionality AS A PISTOL in comparison to the other pistols will have almost all Vanu strapping a AMP to their leg. On a side note, I am an avid AMP user, so I don't mind the beamer being a little below average.

KNIVES

The Chainblade (TR) - Just as good as all the other knives, secondary mode is fun since its basically a minichainsaw. The noise is a bit piercing though. Makes my ears want to bleed.

The Mag-Cutter (NC) - Another good knife option for those moments where you are either out of ammo and not a corpse in sight, or cloaking up behind someone and giving them a stab.

The Forceblade (VS) - What in the world were they thinking. This weapon is actually obviously worse than all the other knives. Who did they think uses the knives? Heavy assaulters that want a good challenge? No, its cloakers you morons, and we don't want a knife that GLOWS LIKE WHITE HOT PLASMA. If the enemy sees a glowing knife floating around I think your position may be compromised. Also it sounds like a bunch of frogs humping when you turn it on, fix this please, thx.

[Fatalist]

HEAVY ASSAULT

The Mini-Chaingun (TR) - High ROF, decent damage, HUGE clip size, but not very accurate. My only problem with this weapon is that it is rather similar to the cycler, in fact, its not that much better at all, and if I am going to spend 4 cert points on a weapon, I want it to be a big step up from my 2 cert point medium assault rifle.

The Jackhammer (NC) - Arguably the best infantry weapon in the game. It is very specialized since you have to be close to be effective, but when you are close, this thing rapes. Smart NC players that use the jackhammer will have a gauss on thier other back slot for long range tree to tree combat and a surge implant to quickly engage and tear apart their opponents at close range. I think that the jackhammer is a bit too good when used properly, but thats what you get when a weapon is overspecialized. If anything is done to this gun I would suggest reducing the close quarters damage so that you actually have a chance to turn around before you are filled with buckshot, and give it a long range slug fire option with the same slow jackhammer ROF and decent damage.

The Lasher (VS) - Like the jackhammer, this is a specialized weapon that does best in close quarters. The problem with the lasher is not that the player must be skilled to wield it. The problem is that your opponents skill also comes into play much more than with the other heavy assault weapons due to the lashers slow projectile speed. The weapon does massive damage if you can actually hit your taget with one of the energy balls, but good luck ! You won't be doing that too often unless your opponents are all lined up in a corridor. The lasher is an excellent weapon if you have psychic powers and you know exactally how your opponent will act. I think that they need to give this a fast projectile speed, but slow the ROF to a crawl, the same ROF as the lancer would be appropriate.

ANTI - VEHICULAR

The Striker (TR) - The striker is a nice, high damage anti-vehicular weapon. Its dumbfire mode is excellent when fighting maxes indoors and the lock on mode is great outdoors, especially for shooting down those irritating air vehicles. A very versatile weapon, and a nice choice for any terran player that wants to bring that extra anti-vehicular option to his or her character.

The Pheonix (NC) - Alright, now alot of you may flame me here, but I dont like this one. Reloading constantly gets really irritating, and the missles really don't do enough damage for how many you get. It is alot of fun though. Nothing beats guiding your own missle to impact. I just don't think it is as effective as the other empires anti vehicular. And when you want to take down a max indoors, it can sometimes get you killed that you have to stand still during your missles flight. I have been picked off more than once when in "missle view".

The Lancer (VS) - Anti-Vehicular? How about anti-everything. The lancer really stands out in the anti-v catagory. The only real problem is aiming it since it has a charge up time. 3 shots drops a reinforced exo, and thats really impressive. The large clip size makes reloading less frequent, although the projectiles do less damage to vehicles than the other empires, it makes up for this with attack speed and super fast projectiles. I would even suggest a slight nerf on this things anti-infantry properties. :: Hides from other vanu players ::

[Fatalist]

ASSAULT BUGGY

The Marauder (TR) - The marauder is a heavily armored 3 seat assault buggy that holds a driver, a chaingunner and a grenadier. The grenade launcher is very respectable against both soft and hard targets, and the chaingun is good against infantry. It is less manuverable than the other empires buggies, but the increased armor and firepower make this a solid balanced option.

The Enforcer (NC) - The enforcer is basically a harasser with a big missle cannon on the back. I really like the cannon on this since it has no arc to it and fires a fast moving missle that does good damage. I see more of these than any of the other assault buggies. People like the accuracy of that cannon. The enforcer is, in my opinion, a very balanced vehicle with a nice dependable cannon.

The Thresher (VS) - If you drive a thresher, Im sorry. Don't cry nerf the TR and NC. Just don't use the thing. Wooooooooo look guys, I can cross rivers on my hovering DEATHTRAP. Oh oh , and my cannon can kill someone, unless I bump into a tree and take 40% damage and he finishes me off with a knobby stick that fell to the ground. Yeah, you see where I stand on this thing. It is a crime to drive this thing when you could be in a magrider.

ASSAULT TANK

The Prowler (TR) - The worst of the 3 tanks IMO. The prowler lacks manuverability and its main cannon suffers due to the addition of a third position, a machine gunner who cant even point his gun low enough to kill half of the targets he sees. The main cannon has an arc to it, which I think needs to be removed to balance this thing. Remove that arc, and this would be a good balanced option.

The Vanguard (NC) - This things main gun packs a HUGE punch. You can hammer through vehicles like theres no tomorrow if you have an engineer with you to do the occasional quick fix. It also has a secondary fire mode that is supposedly anti infantry, but I prefer shelling them with the main cannon. The vanguard is an impressive addition to the new conglomerate arsenal. They don't need to change this one at all.

The Magrider (VS) - This is the most deadly vehicle in the game. The driver can litterally outkill the gunner by running people over. The driver also gets a gun, but this is little more than a novelty, it might as well shoot confetti and party streamers. The main cannon is insane. It fires fast, the projectile travels at sniper rifle speed, and it has NO ARC. I have shot down about 50 reavers with this abombination of a main cannon. The magrider is not balanced, and I know I sound like a race traitor ( since I am usually behind the gun of one of these ), but honestly, if 4 or 5 of these things are driving around a field between the enemy army and your base. They are NEVER going to get by you, it will be a bloody hit and run war. Lots of mag pilots dont even bother to get a main gunner cause they know that they can get a huge kill ratio as a battering ram.

MAX SUITS

I never use max suits, so I suppose this is the end of my post

[kidriot]

what the hell was all that

[Fatalist]

I got bored

[kidriot]

move this "Arguably the best infantry weapon in the game." - under Lancer

then change "Arguably the best infantry weapon in the game." - to - "The most efficient CQB weapon a grunt can wield." under Jackhammer

[The_Ham]

Originally posted by Fatalist
I got bored

no kidding. wow

[Fatalist]

CQB??? I don't believe I've seen that acronym before, whats it mean?

[Fatalist]

And I think your outfit name is the same as an evil guild on sullen that my cousin was in, I dont know if you guys are a break off of it?

[Alacatel]

Even though it took ages to read i can only agree with you!
Nice post and nice research
Lancer all the way