How do you interpret NC getting buffs from: "It's a difficult puzzle, but one that we'll continue to address over time" ? Its been a year. Both internal & private data suggest NC is trailing in one aspect or another. What metric are they even using to evaluate said balance? Because judging by his description its "NC's Top Players". How about the WDS event? How about the dozens & dozens of threads providing concrete numbers on how your average NC player is performing on the field everyday. These aren't enough?
That's totally not the message here. The message is 'If you practise and 'skill the **** up', you'll finally get to be on a par with someone who either hasn't needed to practise as much to '1%' it, or even if not, someone who didn't have to suffer for absolutely no reason through the 99%. That's not a message that promotes faction balance. If you have to work harder, the reward should be better. This is common sense. The game isn't about ****ing MLG 4v4 (it's the logical conclusion atm ), it's about 600v600v600, and at that point, NC having a competitive disadvantage for 99% of its players should amount to a pretty massive advantage for 1% of its players.
How did you interpret that I was saying that NC was going to be buffed? I'm mocking you for your knee jerk reaction in assuming the very worst possible interpretation of what someone else said simply because it seems to back what you want to believe. Of course, I suppose I COULD have pointed otu that addressing something over time means they're planning on some sort of buff, but one that won't unbalance the game. But to merely mention such a thing would be a gross insult to your intelligence, for surely you would have picked up on that yourself. Ooooooops.....I mentioned it, didn't I?
If you think the NC arsenal doesn't come on par until you reach god tier then I guess you're still yet to reach the mid tier and climb out of the pits.
The OP reminds me of what every News agency out there does when even a smidge of facts are released: they warp them to mean what they want them to mean. One of the problems I've noticed in NC is that the starting equipment just blows unless you're good with it and have it certed. The SAW is god awful until you put a compensator on it, for example. Once you cert the gear, it almost instantly becomes better. For the new players, the guns you have to unlock would actually be better for them but they don't know that until they unlock said guns. Reason I say this is because, early on, many can't land a shot to save their life so many people rely on high rate of fire to more or less spray and pray for their kills, or at least do damage. The slower RoF of most starter NC guns punishes you for missing, which as a new player, you'll probably do a lot. What they're afraid of is those that have learned that gun, those who rarely miss. If they raised say the rate of fire, or the hip accuracy, or damage done per bullet, their fear is that you'd see a lot of the skilled players wiping out squads and squads of enemies from a safe distances. So, they have to be careful what they do with the NC weapons for that reason. I think if they want to fix NC, they need to change what the starting weapons are. In fact, I think all starting weapons across all empires should be relatively the same. In a lore sense, you'd want to give surplus items to give the newest recruits as those are cheaper to come by. As they gain experience, then they get better and different guns. The faction traits of weapons should come in later on when you unlock them.
Two guns prove this point: Carnage and Cyclone. Giving the compensator to the SAW brings it to mid tier by itself. NC unfortunately needs a bit more cert investment than the other factions.
What an exaggeration. You don't need to become a demigod to do well with NC weapons, it's just not something a complete newbie is going to be able to pick up right off the bat. A few hours of practice is enough to be on par with someone starting on the VS or TR weapons. Now consider that TR and VS players reach the skill cap for their weapons by the time they reach "mid tier". At that point you gain nothing by improving your aim because the weapons can't be controlled any better. They're bullet hoses, and while that helps you in the beginning it hampers you in the later game. That's why NC weapons have the potential to become more powerful than TR and VS in the hands of experienced players, which is why Higby says they have to be careful about changing them.
As soon as I read this I was like WHAAA?! They are concerned about the experience of previously OP faction players? Of course the top NC are better. They have to be. And according to the DA stats NC have higher accuracy and headshots as well so that means that the average NC has at least better gun skill than the average TR/VS. Sure it will be hard at first, now that you can't farm us like you used to. But then you will "skill the **** up" and the playing field will be more even
So what Higby is saying is "Top NC Players did overcome the weaknesses and limitations of their weapons and if we buff the NC weapons for the remaining %99 NC playerbase, the %1 will become OP because they are highly skilled."
This is what I got out of this. They are actually balancing around the fact that the top end NC players can utterly annihilate the other two factions. Or basically that the TR/VS players are noobs. I could see that. At least on Connery. The written (not unspoken, not spoken, actually written down and signed) alliance between VS and TR is already resurfacing. Oh well it'll be fun to have the three cap again. Though hopefully the alliance can put up more of a fight this time around rather than having us farm them at their warpgates again. Without their ability to ghost cap due to lattice, I see a ton of frustration coming out of this from them.
Well if taken literally: " One of the interesting things that makes it extra challenging is that among top players, a lot of those balance issues are significantly lessened " Isn't he saying the top players " nearly " overcome the weaknesses ?
Ever thought about that the upcoming Nanoweave revamp will indirectly buff the 200DMG Nc weapons? Cuz it doesnt apply on headshots anymore, they will 3 hit headshot everyone.
I think the NC weaponry is pretty good actually. The only "adjustments" I can tell from experience that they need is to reduce the vertical recoil slightly and to give the NC Maxes other options than just shotguns. Also, give them a couple of guns that have 40 ammo clips to make it even with the TR. The slower rate of fire but with a slight dmg increase is faction specific. Other than that, they are pretty good. The VS weaponry...well..I haven't played a VS too much to give an accurate description, but the no bullet drop is already godlike. In all honesty, the TR weaponry needs to have their "Faction Trait" re-evaluated. They are supposed to have the Highest RoF, but both of the other factions have faster firing weapons. If we are supposed to be the fast firing weapon weilders, then give us that. If you don't want to give us the exclusive Highest RoF weapons, then give us a Gauss Saw 200dmg LMG. Also, the Chaingun needs to be redone completely. It should be an underslung belt fed weapon. I don't care if I have to "jump out of cover" to fire it. Thats the downfall to having/using that powerful of a weapon. Also, the CG and the Vulcan need to have their bloom removed, especially the Vulcan. If anything, make it to where the chaingun has a barrel heat meter. No ADS with the CG and it should fire immediately. There should not be a spin up time...it is an instant fire weapon. And the Certs for the weapon will increase the belt ammo size, maybe 50 ammo per rank with 4 ranks, but have it start out with 400-500 ammo automatically. I also feel like Horizontal recoil needs to be removed all together. If you don't want to remove it, make it really really really small.
If we can have a 750 RoF LMG then sure ... Because if anything LMG's isn't where the faction traits are being blurred ( In regards to TR/NC )
Actually that's the exact opposite of what Higby is saying. If he was saying that, I'd say fine. He's not, and all I was doing is bulking out his statement to its logical conclusion. He's saying that they can't buff NC weapons, NOT because NC weapons are already too good, but because 'among top players, a lot of those balance issues are significantly lessened' NOT reversed. Lessened. Frankly, not even necessarily balanced. Just lessened. This means that those players that have reached skill cap are performing equally (or not quite equally, but well enough) well with NC weapons as with VS/TR. With that in mind, the rest of your post is actually exactly the point I'm making; things OUGHT to work the way you've explained. They don't though. Also, as to your first paragraph, again, this is not what he's saying. He's saying there are balance issues except for the 'top players' - I hardly think that means players with a few hours practise. Your anecdotal opinion of the skill curves (or mine, which is actually largely the same as yours) isn't what Higby is saying they are observing in the actual data.
No, they're balancing around the fact that top end NC players are balanced with top end VS/TR. NOT that they outperform. Just that the balance issue is 'lessened'.
If at BR100, you're not understanding that the whole point he's making is that you won't see an imbalance but less experienced (and less good) players will... I'm really not sure you're going to fair well in this debate...
Well, what we're being told is that for 'top players' the balance issue is 'lessened'. Not even eradicated. Just lessened. So your anecdotal experience, theorycrafted opinions, and L2P attacks really aren't going to fly here. I haven't stated my opinion at all. Just what Higby's saying, and why (if his numbers are accurate), he's being an idiot about the logical conclusion to them.
Funny I have seen no evidence that high br TR/VS suffer detrimental effects from skill cap maybe you can name an example.
