Therefore nerf them? Honky please. Let NCMAX have a massive advantage in bio labs in exchange for being hosed outdoors pretty much.
NC Maxes are good anyplace there is significant CQC - That's pretty much the entirety of a BioLab, but also includes most of the insides of a Tech Plant, the Generator or Cap Point in any base, any Air Tower, and pretty much inside any building. With Slugs they perform decently anyplace where close to medium range is an issue, which huge chunks of most bases and outposts. That's hardly gimpped outside of a BioLab, just slightly more situational than TR/VS Maxes. As for "getting hosed" outdoors, that happens to TR and VS Maxes as well. Their accuracy sucks while HA Rocket and LMG accuracy doesn't, because TR/VS Maxes can't ADS. Any max outdoors is slow and attracts gunfire, explosives, and tank shells like mad. So, yeah, whatever. It's not like I believe I could possibly convince you that NC Maxes are OP and TR/VS Maxes are UP and they need some serious rebalancing.
I only see NC MAXES in DOMES with op shotties and outside with BURSTERS. I also see newbies in the dome with TR maxes getting owned by NC MAXES. Most TR players, with common sence, only play's TR maxes with bursters. This is the only use for them. Side note: I have not spent 1 cert on my MAX for TR (Cause I dont play with the useless thing). I just find it to be pointless.
I agree for the most part, maybe surprisingly given my use of them. For me - it's the slug element that unbalances the NC max because with them equipped you can kill people up to 50-60m away ... which is quite daft considering you can still kill people at 5m just as fast as when un-slugged. No one should really be surprised that in a game with really low ttk, a 6 shotgun mechanised unit kills you quickly point blank ... but it does seem that the ability to extend range shouldn't be penalised more heavily (even a slower rof as per PS1 maybe?). I would argue though that for a tech plant cap pt. and generator room, the max is totally redundant; you've got the base by the time a max has waddled up to these areas. Outdoor gen rooms; the max can only defend these - they can't attack them as you can't touch the gen - and you're easy meat for anyone who thinks to throw a concussion or flash grenade before going in. Air tower; fair enough - but no more OP than pump action LA's. It'll be interesting to see the changes they bring. If anything, I think only now I'm seeing TR use their maxes effectively (in twos and threes these things are unpassable) but then again, who wants to have to rely on teamwork in this game when a solo max is more fun.
Clearly you don't know what your talking about. Tr ai maxes are nowhere near useless. Yes nc maxes are better CQ but tr maxes can drop infantry in under a second, have a much longer effective range and can sustain a higher DPS over a longer period of time.
I wonder how many people realize that it's not that expensive to get a couple hacksaws with slugs. They make fantastic mid to even nearing long-range weapons. On NC MAX I see some smart players roll with a Scatter normal in one arm, and a slug hacksaw in the other, providing them the ability to slaughter at close and mid range. They have slug ammo for a reason. And it works fairly well if given a chance. That said, at mid-range TR with dual Mercies and VS with Dual Cosmos, or VS with dual Comets at max range (I've lost track of how many foolish infantry trying to snipe me or gun me down with other weapons at near render distance have been one-shot by them) are all very viable platforms. But not as dominate at their chosen range as a Scat max is at CQC. Which is I imagine what they are tweaking. No one build for one single empire should be so completely dominate at a certain type of fight, or balance just falls apart. By the way, if you're really having that much problem with Scat MAX's there are many ways to get around them instead of throwing yourself bodily into their waiting arms: LA from above with C4, LA with a flash grenade and pump action or full auto shotty, HA with conc grenades and decimators or faction dumbfires, infiltrators sneaking up behind and dropping a couple prox mines, and many more I'm sure.
Pulling out a MAX to farm (or like you would say: "Not farming, I'm helping my team") is not for me. I prefer playing as infantry. You know... the guys that repair your a s s and actually attacking an objective etc...
It doesn't mean anything when in any base taking OP its all about CQ combat and NC max has a ridiculous advantage forever. Huh no? Nobody cares at long range, there are many options at long range. At CQ the king is shotguns and NC max is the only unit with TWO of them, their existence alone makes all bases many times harder whenever its NC max involved and it shouldnt be like that.
It is so sad that NC MAXes domination is now limited to wherever there are spawn rooms, teleporters, generators, control consoles, terminals, jump pads.. wait... everything that is important.
The problem with the NC MAX is that they make NC have the upper hand in any fight in towers or bio labs while there's no faction holding a clear advantage in every other base, that's why they're overpowered, and no, the TR/VS MAX is not good in open fields, as the NC MAX, it's only good in closed areas, but nowhere as good as the NC. The VS MAX is so bad in open areas that if I pull a MAX in an open area I always get more INFANTRY kills with the dual bursters (that is, not counting the air kills) than with the AI setup In my opinion the solution to the MAX balance wouldn't be a strong nerf to the NC, I would only slightly nerf them (and only to make the other 2 MAXes more resistant to them) while giving a buff to the TR/VS MAX, I don't know what's wrong with the TR one, but for the VS they could start by tightening the COF, I can't count the times when at point blank range aiming directly at the face of an enemy I missed every single shoot.
And I thank you for healing my posterior. I was responding to you calling tr ai maxes useless. I have no issue that you don't like/want to play one. I am surprised that you only see them as a way to farm and not as a driving force/bullet sponge when pushing towards or defending an objective.
I spend most of my outfit time as a tr Max and I think there is nothing major wrong with them (ignoring the bugs that appear now and again) only The ai weapons could be made to feel more unique.
This might be a reasonable argument if VS/TR MAXs were good at long range. Truth is they are at their BEST in the same ranges that the NC are at their best. The difference is that NC MAXs way out perform the others in the ranges they were all designed for. Why this happened is because they gave EACH NC MAX arm the same power as an equivalent infantry weapon. Hacksaw had identical damage and rate of fire to automatic shotguns. The Cosmos has less than half of the damage output of the VX6-7 carbine and a worse cone of fire. So when you say that NC MAXs are no good at range, just remember that the other MAXs have worse range than a hip fire carbine without a laser sight.
Ideally this is the point of a fun game. Asymmetric competence. Each empire is slightly better in some situations and worse in another. Go ahead and nerf NC Maxes at mid-to-long range. Or boost TR/VS maxes at mid-long range. But don't make every empire a clone of every other empire. In fact I found it more fun to fight magriders before they were nerfed.
Asymmetry is good, but not when one faction has the advantage in most important situations. As MaxDamage said above "spawn rooms, teleporters, generators, control consoles, terminals, jump pads". All these are in close spaces where shotguns (and therefore NC maxes) are the most effective weapons. This is the reason behind the "shotguns are OP" cries, you can't go in those places without getting oneshotted by the bloody things. If only more objectives were in open areas or in places where a shotgun user isn't able to sprint towards you and oneshot you before you kill him, then we could have asymmetric balance and shotguns wouldn't be the perfect weapons to assault the most important places.
NC MAXES are fine EXEPT the funny part where they can drop an enemy MAX in a second. Lets wait and see when these abilitys kick in.
