Change Terran Weapons.

Simple, straightforward, and possibly beneficial. Terran weapons are VERY lacking in the ES department. Sure, VS weapons may be the most repetitive, but Terran weapons do not FEEL traditional, top-of-the-line, or even effective.

Thus, Terran weapons should be using LASER technology. Why this is I will explain now:
Terran tracers are red, so why not use lasers?
Lasers are more effective than cartridges at sustained fire, something TR weapons should be good at doing.
Laser weaponry is more accurate than plasma, and in Beta, I believe that the accuracy trait was supposed to be a Terran thing.
Lasers dissipate over time, complying with the low damage profile Terran weapons are supposed to follow.
Many will say,"This is stupid, only the VS uses lasers!" Well, that's wrong, as we use plasma, which is ionized gas, not lasers, which are focused beams of light (I think, could be focused beams of energy, I'm not sure).

Unlike cartridges, lasers would allow for more accurate, sustained, and conventional fighting styles for the TR to adopt, at the cost of a damage reduction at range. All you have to do is make more weapons, and PLEASE stay with me, look like... like...
These:



We CAN make them look better, though. Maybe like...
These!


So, what do you Terrans think? And if you're not Terran, go ahead and tell me what you have in mind! Hope you like the concept, and do improve upon the idea if possible

Seems fair, lasers are not super deadly, or at least I doubt they will ever be.

And they can fire quickly.

But making the devs go back on a design never worked I think.

But fast firing lasers?

Or is the TR going to have to have a new gameplay style?

What about the Prowler? Mosquito? Vulcan, Marauder, etc,etc.

I like this post. Surely it will be approved by glorious supreme Terran Republic!

I vote no. Lasers are Vanu. Terrans are dakka.

My only complaint with TR infantry weapons is that our (usually) slightly improved ROF and larger magazine size does not balance out our absurdly bad COF stats.

I mean the LA1 Anchor is a straight upgrade to the TMG-50. When you're playing TR and you come across an actual good player who is using an LA1 Anchor, you just have to accept that your team has no answer to that gun. It's simply a better weapon in every meaningful way than anything in our inventory. (It even has a higher ROF, and that is supposed to be our thing!)


Give us a higher ROF and maybe consider a higher muzzle velocity and see how that goes. I don't need lasers, I just need dakka that's actually consistent and worth something.

Glad you like the idea!
As for the vehicle weapons...
HMM...
You have a good point. The Prowler with a laser... it just doesn't feel... Terrany. But then again, the Vanguard uses a normal 150 millimeter cannon, so it isn't that bad. Lasers on the Vulcan and Mosquito? I can't see why that wouldn't work! As for the Marauder, it is a grenade launcher in essence, so it doesn't need to change. And about the devs not changing, who knows? All they have to do is make the audio sound a bit more PEW PEW PEW (VS guns sound NOTHING like that, so still not invading VS territory), make the projectiles a bit more laser-looking and focused, and the models just need to look traditional with a hint of super-cooling tech.

I'll pass it by Uncle T but can't promise anything. See, he really likes bullets.

*EDIT* On a serious note, it's a kinda cool idea but not sure how it would even begin to be implemented. As well as the aesthetic being different the weapons themselves would handle completely differently, no? Traditional cartridges vs. mega-focused beams of light. Then that would probably mess with the high RoF thing, as having fast-firing weapons and manageable recoil would probably slightly too powerful.

As I mentioned in the OP...
Vanu does not use lasers. We use plasma, something entirely different. Also mentioned is how laser technology allows for a HIGHER rate of fire, plus higher accuracy as well. Sure, you might have less damage than you have right now, but that's only at medium to longer ranges. Just think of it as a more accurate TORQ with slightly less effectiveness at longer ranges. As for the Anchor part, 600 RoF, 167 damage. That's a LOT of potential DPS, but you do have the MCG, the T9, the MSW, all pretty good weapons if used well. Lasers will not only improve accuracy, BUT RoF as well, just for less damage at range.

Ah yes, I heard that your commanding officer loves his brass.
As for how it would be different, only aesthetics will differ. The guns would handle totally the same, only they have reduced CoFs and higher rates of fire. A buff to recoil could be considered, but it should be admitted that that WOULD be crossing VS territory in terms of controllability.

I think it does feel more Terran.

I mean you're talking about the Empire of HUMANITY.

It doesn't make sense to me that rebels(NC), use the same, and even better technology than the TR, an interstellar empire that's centuries old. In the what is it now...27th?28th? century?

It could work for the Prowler, I mean I really don't see how it loads shells in, pretty sure the box the guns are mounted on would warp after sometime anyway, that's why we put guns on the center of turrets.

Why not just make the Prowler guns work like those laser cannons from Star Wars?

Idk about infantry though, unless we're talking about something like Star Wars. Then it's probably really easy to do since you don't have to think of a way for them to work.

Since it's a sci-fi FPS it would make sense and yes - lasers are highly cohesive beams of light.
In fact L.A.S.E.R = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

It's 2015 and we pretty much know all there is to know about laser weaponization - a portable energy source is the only major problem.

Still, I'm ok with the current setup of Cartridge vs Gauss vs Plasma. I doesn't make perfect sense, but it works gameplay-wise.

Correction: It is the TWENTY-NINTH century, and the NC is using better technology

And you played Star Wars?
That's exactly how it could work! Vehicles in that game RULED! That is, if we're talking about Battlefront 2.
As for infantry, pretty simple. Higher RoF, higher accuracy, slightly less damage at range, but hey! Cooler looking models!

Well, bullet versus magnet versus gas is very interesting, but I thought about it:
After the centuries of scientific achievements accomplished by the Republic, why is it that they still use weapons created in the 20th century, excluding black powder weapons and 19th century rifles? I mean, sure, they do want to uphold their tradition, but considering how they should realize that they can use laser weaponry while still upholding their tradition of superiority in terms of weaponry and fire power, why wouldn't they take the opportunity?

It'd be perfect. Think about it.

Terran weapons already look like they could fire lasers.

The Prowler has an odd gun mount, that big box starts the lasers. Lockdown helps the Prowler charge up energy, and cool down faster to fire.

The Mosquito can stick to firing grenades from the Banshee, Missiles, rockets, and lasers from the others.

The Vulcan though. Changing the model and everything.

But then...the MCG.

Unless they go for like a Fallout thing, where the barrels stay still, but they fire lasers.

I think in that Star Wars cartoon series, the Republic used a laser mini-gun though.

But I wasn't talking about Battlefront.

I was talking about the movies mainly.

I'm excited for the new battlefront game though, Dice, the guys who made BF 4 are making it...so excited.

But still, it seems unlikely, the devs will probably never change the TR like this ;/

But what if we had lasers...eh?

Would be better. Think about it...Star Wars laser weaponry for TR. Glorious burning and pain for the rebels!

I think we have some laser that can shoot bombs out of the sky in the US Navy.

The first thing that stuck out is: how are lasers traditional? The flipside of "traditional" is occasionally "antiquated."

I dunno. I always thought that the TR did have a faction flavor, just not a very well-executed one.

Really it reminds me of the USSR back in WWII, which advocated mass infantry formations who took the mantra "close with and destroy" to its maximum extent. If I remember correctly, the Soviets relied much more heavily on close-ranged SMGs much more than other nations to support this level of tactics. The TR seem to follow this form of battle.



I think it's okay for the TR to be using conventional bullets or even caseless ammunition. There are simply two main problems with their faction flavor at the moment.

1) Game mechanics and balance- As PS2 plays now, RoF is one of the best things in the game, which is why the TR get upset that the NC and VS have high RoF weapons. Part of this is because of the game's hit detection which rewards firing more low-damage rounds at the enemy rather than a few high-damage rounds. But it's mostly because given the silly point-capture mechanics of the game, most infantry combat takes place at laughably close ranges; the very places where high RoF CQB weapons are rewarded. This is why the TR can't have as pronounced a RoF advantage over the NC and VS... it simply would not be balanced (same reason why the TR get OHK sniper rifles and shotguns, which are an NC thing). If fights were more evenly spread out between a wider range of environments (33% 0-100m, 33% 100-200m , 33% 200-300m), then the TR could have a greater advantage in CQB RoF because the other factions would have an advantage in their own environments. It's just that right now every base is a TR-esque one that favors high RoF/magazine size over everything else.

2) Gauss projectiles and bullets- There really isn't enough of a graphical or visual difference between NC Gauss/rail weapons and TR bullets. The VS are different enough with glowly plasma balls, but honestly the only difference between an NC shot and a TR one is the color of the projectile. But the trick to this isn't to change the TR from using bullets, but to change the NC weapons to be more Gauss-like. NC weapons don't feel like they're using magnetic technology... it just feels like they're shooting normal 21st century cartridges. This is how a real (granted low power) Gauss weapon sounds:



So if you fix the above two things, then the TR can start getting both aesthetically and functionally "different" things than the other two factions.

Lasers exist now, Plasma weapons don't, and rail guns are experimental.

We have Lasers that can take out aircraft, and bombs.

So if perfected, it could become tradition to only use Laser weaponry.

I mean traditional could even apply to old 19th 18th century weaponry too.

I'd love a 167 damage 600rpm or even a 632 rpm/167 damage weapon for the VS.
I know everyone QQs about the orion but I'd take a Godsaw/Anchor/etc. any day.

Any regular army (in fact any kind of armed forces with a hint of reason) would take the opportunity, which is why I wrote that the current solution doesn't make much sense, but it works gameplay-wise.

However - I don't think getting "realistic" with regard to PS2 weaponry is the way to go. Consider the traits of a laser weapon:

- no recoil
- no COF
- hitscan, as light travels at 299.792.458 m/s
- burst and beam variants

Considering all of the above lasguns ought to do no damage <chuckle>, which isn't all that realistic since there is virtually no upper limit to the destructive potential of a laser weapon aside from the output of it's energy source.

Yeah - good luck with balancing...

A nifty idea to consider should PS3 ever come to be, but for now I think we should just opt for *MOAR DAKKA*.

Plasma weaponry has already been prototyped - energy supply aside the problem lies with it's effective range: a few meters at most. Plasma dissipates immediately, it needs to be contained in order to be projected and the propelled *and* said containment needs to be maintained as the projectile travels towards it's target.

I like the bullet aesthetic for TR. We can still use bullets in the 29th century because eventually we would figure out ways to fire the whole bullet, getting an additional 65% more bullet per bullet.* That's what would keep conventional firearms relevant in the future, if they get deadlier bullets without having to resort to Gauss and laser tech or even much higher calibers.

*I'm not serious, its a Portal 2 reference, for those who haven't played the game yet.