[Suggestion] Charger Revamp

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Campagne, Apr 20, 2019.

  1. Campagne

    The recently added MGR-C1 Charger is not very good, nor is it very useful. As it currently stands it is in all practicality a flat downgrade to the NS-11C, featuring considerably worse recoil, almost no attachments, way lower versatility, and a host of small stat penalties.

    [IMG]

    In exchange the Charger gets a minor damage bonus to the first five shots per each magazine, increasing the damage tier by one. This does not have an incredibly significant impact on expected shots to kill, with about a 50/50 split on STK reductions. (Also that swag bonus).

    [IMG]
    [Shots to kill assuming perfect accuracy with bodyshots, starting from a fresh magazine. Effective heath point values are derived as follows: Stock infiltrator, stock non-infiltrator, non-infiltrator with auxiliary shield, non-infiltrator with nanoweave armour, non-infiltrator with nanoweave armour and auxiliary shield, overshielded heavy, overshielded heavy with nanoweave armour, overshielded heavy with nanoweave armour and auxiliary shield.]

    I feel there are a number of potential directions the Charger could take. Here are three of mine:

    Option A: The Bandit Competitor
    • Remove the magazine-damage link mechanic
    • Increase base damage to 167 at 10m/125 at 60m
    • Increase strafing CoF to 0.3
    • Increase bloom per shot to 0.06
    The Charger becomes a direct competitor to the AF-4A Bandit as a CQC-short ranged 167 carbine with 20 RPM higher and greater damage at range with slightly stronger strafing accuracy but more recoil, worse hipfire, worse stationary accuracy, smaller magazine, reload trade-offs and much worse attachment selection.

    Option B: The NS-11C Competitor
    • Remove Smart Feeder attachment
    • Greatly reduce recoil
    • Increase projectile velocity to 550 m/s
    The Charger becomes an NC-styled NS-11C featuring a much smaller magazine with longer reloads, higher muzzle velocity, superior recoil, and the magazine-damage link mechanic. In exchange it has access to next to no attachments, is incapable of stealth, and relies much stronger on accuracy with the smaller magazine and long reload times.

    Option C: Suppressed Long-Range Rifle
    • Remove the magazine-damage link mechanic
    • Remove Smart Feeder attachment
    • Reduce magazine size to 20
    • Slightly reduce recoil
    • Add a built-in suppressor
    • Increase base damage to 167 at 10m/125 at 60m
    • Reduce rate of fire to 550 RPM
    • Increase all hipfire values by 0.5
    • Increase hipfire bloom to 0.12
    • Increase bloom per shot to 0.06
    The Charger becomes a powerful, hard-hitting stealth weapon with great range and versatility at the cost of maximum DPS. Paring nicely with a jetpack, the Charger would be an excellent outdoor stealth weapon perfect for shooting from trees or atop roofs while still requiring skill in aiming and holding all the disadvantages it had previously. If it were needed, reduce the RoF down to 520-530 RPM.

    The Charger in its current form needs changes. I'd even settle for a literal NC clone of the NS-11C. Suggestions are always welcome.
  2. DarkStarAnubis

    May I propose something heretic?

    Leave the Charger numbers exactly as they are, but make the first shots leaving no tracers at all. That would really set the Charger apart.
  3. Zpoc

    Agreed, speaking from not theoretical numbers, in practical terms the damage model would fall in as a 143 damage type anyway, as 5 shots at 167 isn't enough to down an opponent without headshots. I'm thinking remove the mechanic all together, and give NC a 750/143 carbine to use.
  4. Scrundle

    I agree that the weapon isn't impressive but if you take away the damage mechanic and the shot tracers in order to turn it into a slightly different Bandit or NS-11C then what's the point in the first place? Just use a bandit or an NS-11C and let the ones that want to use the Charger as it stands do so.
    We really don't need yet more of the same and fixing the weapon shouldn't involve gutting the very point of it, I for one am extremely glad that they're finally starting to work on weapons with interesting mechanics rather than just pumping out more boring weapons that are just minor variations of ones we already have.

    Rework the weapon by all means, everyone would be happy, don't stop the charger from being the charger though.
  5. Liewec123

    The funky thing is, at the same time as they released charger, they also released kindred,
    Kindred had a "several bullet" bonus, but theirs was reset by reclicking.
    But for some reason they decided to make kindred useable, while lolling at the meme that NC spend all of their time reloading,
    Its like they took the meme of NC spending all of their time reloading and made it a faction flavour, "

    so you spend 7.5 seconds reloading your gauss saws,
    Now have reloading as your totally hilarious past time!"

    Now you can reload every 5 bullets! Har Har NC Har Har
  6. Demigan

    How about this:

    The charger starts 100% charged dealing its 167 damage per bullet. Each shot takes 20% charge. If you fire and dont have any charge left you deal the 143 damage per bullet.
    Every time you stop firing the gun immediately starts recharging. For example it recharges to full in 1 to 2 seconds (that's 0.2 to 0.4 seconds for each bullet). Now its an actual charger. When hozing down the weapon retains its abysmal performance, but during any engagement with trigger discipline it'll use a higher damage model for most bullets.

    Option:2: It becomes semi-auto and each time you hold the trigger it charges up. It charges to max in 0.25 seconds and deals 250 damage maximally charged, 143 when uncharged. That means that using charged shots you have a TTK of 1 second or more, plenty punishment there. This makes it a ranged weapon primarily.

    Option 3: Make it a shotgun/Carbine hybrid. If you "charge" it, it'll actually load up to 3 or 4 bullets simultaneously and fire them in a tight pattern. Or you can fire it normally as a weaker gun. Preferably you would start with a charged shot and finish with the weaker Carbine setting. Great trade-off.
    • Up x 2
  7. DemonicTreerat

    Not going to happen. This is Daybreak - they don't have any coders or developers and certainly none with enough knowledge to make truly new effects. Not to mention a profound inability to admit when they've massively screwed up (see: NC MAX changes) and even less will to make the changes required to fix said screw ups (again see NC MAX changes). Really all they do is change a few numbers in a spread sheet and call it good. Forget

    Now a fix they could actually pull off without (hopefully) breaking something else.
    Keep the rate of fire, make the base damage 167, and have the first 5 shots deal 200 damage. Still has a smaller magazine, worse recoil, and a profound lack of options compared to other carbines but at least its not totally useless.

    Will it happen? No. As long as the coward called Wrel is in charge the NC are going to get nothing that actually compares to the TR (hello getting the "OP" original version of the vanguard shield without time limits in exchange for staying still with all attendant bonuses) or VS (free Magburn because "reasons" while the Vanguard has to pay to be balanced..). Not until this new Samhayne gets fired are we going to see real improvements and by that time this game will be dead.
    • Up x 1
  8. Campagne

    Well the point would be to make it actually useful. :p

    The game is built around supposedly having "sidegrades," I figure offering up some fits nicely. But the mechanic that sets the Charger apart just isn't that helpful even in ideal scenarios, while still coming at a greater cost than it's worth at the best of times. Fair to say keep the Charger the Charger, but in my opinion that has to mean something valuable.

    I know it won't ever happen, nothing anyone ever says is even read by the developers on here. I'd post it over on Reddit, but my mom got cancer a while back and it didn't seem like fun. :p

    Really just a sort of "here is a problem, here are some legitimate alternatives, don't say I was ever happy to sit and watch the problem idly" kind of post.
    • Up x 1
  9. Hegeteus


    Well, you could still trace the shots by sound since we're talking about the loudest thing in the game's existence. If a teammate comes to fire it next to me, I'll **** my pants.

    For OP: I think the point of these guns is to have at least some sort of a gimmick. So I don't think devs would turn them into just guns with good base stats without some kind of gimmick feature affecting them.