Each Faction is supposed to have a thing right? Vanu is accuracy, TR is dakka, and NC is power, but as far as I can see the ONLY LMG available that sports a 200dmg value is the default Gauss SAW. They did give us the Gladius but an inaccurate SMG that fires slowly and all over the place isn't useful when every enemy I come across is firing more accurately into my face 3x as fast. Then there's the Vanquisher AR which is also hard hitting, but it's a strict burst fire, punishing you for missing. Other than those why does NC has so many weapons with the same damage values as the other factions? The Promise should have been higher than it is, even if you have to cut the rate of fire.
Personnal opinion, but i believed nc "standard" ammo is 167. So most of their weapons are 167 dmg, with a few 200 and a few 143. The tr "standard" ammo is 143, that's why most of their weapons are 143 dmg, with a few 167 and a few below 143 (don't remember how much, but check the watchman or the lynx for exemple).
Yup. That's why VS and TR standard ammo is 143 and NC is 167 - slighter heavier than the other 2 factions. There are quite a few weapons in the NC arsenal that boast a 200dmg profile, however due to balance purposes it's pretty difficult to balance out such blown out traits like this. It's why you'll notice cross faction most weapons have their equivalents, and there aren't much choices that go full out on faction traits. Godsaw and Gauss saw are the two 200dmg lmgs for the NC. Could they add another? I mean they can't really buff the rate of fire for obvious reasons, and they've already got a high capacity/long reload and a low capacity/quick reload lmg. I don't really see what more they could tweak within the realm of balance that would provide diversity while actually being useful. I mean you say it yourself. Let's take the promise for example. Buff it's damage to 200. Lower the rate of fire to balance. And we've got another gauss saw. While I get where you're coming from, and I personally would love to see more faction uniqueness, especially in terms of vehicle appearance, you have to understand what's possible and isn't possible. I would personally let the nc have a 300dmg lmg if they want. The problem is that would make it a 2hk. No other lmgs have that model. To balance, they would have to add a new dmg model for those factions as well. The only reason NC are allowed 200dmg weapons is because it's theoretically the same effect as a 167dmg profile which all factions have access to on at least 1 weapon. That said a suppressed laser hva gauss saw is quite the beast. I would highly suggest running that on your main loadout for NC heavy.
That is not personal opinion, what you said is 100% correct. The TR's unique damage profile of 125-112 is their counterpart to the NC's 200-167 profile, but the balance of the weapons for both sides use common archetypes with a bias towards whichever profile their faction favors (ie: Anchor vs MSW-R). The NC aren't being forgotten, excluded or neglected by having only one 'SAW'* any more than TR is for having only one 'Watchman'. *Technically with the GODSAW you have two, but that's getting a little pedantic.
I'm a huge fan of 167- and 200-type weapons and it's a shame there aren't more. That said, I also completely understand why there aren't more. Similarly, it's a shame the TR 125 weapons are so wimpy (mostly due to the game's spaghetti code).
It would have been cool to see another unique 200/~500 LMG for the NC. Could raise or lower the RoF a bit here or there and match the recoil and magazines to create a more short-ranged LMG with those juicy headshots (just pretend the 200DMG model isn't worse than the 167DMG model) or maybe a more accurate and lower-recoil 200/450 with only 50 rounds in the mag or something. Room to play with experimental stuff too, as with the MGR line. Just make sure they don't suck as much.
The lower rof / high per-shot weapons generally have worse overall ttks than other weapons, so I'm actually quite happy that it is only on a few weapons! That said, perhaps for the ultimate NC flavor they could add a huge meaty bad boy with 250 damage per shot and a 300 RPM fire rate. Call it The Excavator, Bulldozer, Sledgehammer or something! (This is the same damage as gen1 battlerifles but 33 less RPM in return for being fully auto.)
