How a New Player Copes with NC Weapons

To add to what Jrv said, having a forward grip on a LMG is kinda missing the point. If you're a HA you're not going in CQC with the sights out, you're firing from the hip. The COF on the TR/VS weapons at CQC for HA as an example are much smaller than the NC.

Second, the ammo clip size does help, but that's pretty standard for LMG. Now for other weapons, the TR/VS weapons (remember DEFAULT) weapons have larger clips. There's far too many stats to pour over right now, but you can go look.

Remember, I'm certainly not calling for any weapons changes. I'm only addressing the DEFAULT WEAPONS that a NEW player gets when he gets into the game. Period. I'm saying that it should be reconsidered in the case of the NC.

Putting a HA with a default EM1 does nothing against balance. That weapon is already in the game, what it does do is reduce one factor that may contribute negatively to the health of the game, and the NC. That is recoil frustration, again for the NEW player.

And on the SAW with Forward Grip, 1000% agree, it does jack to the recoil. The SAW has so much recoil after the first shot, it's nearly unmanageable beyond CQC, but as I said it's meant to be a hip fire weapon.

How is it remotely difficult to use?
I'm sure this isn't people's first FPS game.... The recoil is... tiny.
Don't add a 4x scope on it and say it is hard to use because it goes all over the place.

Is he European or something? No American gets that much vacation

I guess that what is meant by using spray and pray to win is standing pretty close to an enemy and hip firing at them. Hopefully without them seeing you.

Because spray and pray doesn't really work with TR weapons in ads at any range. The extra bullets can be useful but Gauss SAW has plenty and that gets the most complaints about being new player unfriendly.

I think the real problem is that it is pretty hard to learn to track players in this game with them jumping right through you and generally moving in odd ways. If you are given a weapon that is at it's best if you stand stock still with you just accurately hitting them before they can get you then it is a challenge. You want to just go by instinct and dance like around like a loon and fire in their general direction and hope you hit them while they are doing their crazy bullet dodging dance.

I think part of the problem is that HA is the best general class and should be the one that new players go to shoot at people. But stuff like nanoweave, med kits and shields take a while to upgrade. And the default guns, apart from Orion, are all about rooting in place and being better or equal at efficiently trading damage. Light assault should be the more spray and pray class and many people seem to go to it as a first choice but they quickly learn that they have to switch to HA main if they want to compete equally.

It's not necessarily difficult to use for a good player, none of the guns in this game are.

That being said, it's still the hardest weapon to manage in the entire game, certainly harder than any VS/TR weapon there is, and likewise any NC weapons for that matter.

Comparing-it to a Carv or an Orion, it is clearly harder to use.
And, I gotta agree on changing the SAW as the default gun, it's not versatile enough compared to the 2 other factions LMG's.
The SAW is nearly only good at medium to long range. It's like suicide if you're going CQC with it.

It appears that the post that tried to argue with me was deleted.

I have done a lot of looking at various weapons, and each factions arsenal has its own high points.

The NC factions is so very clearly its starter weaponry (Sans its assault rifle, which is more just a par for the course assault rifle,) and the LMG's.
Also the Carnage BR.

The VS also have a strange LMG focus, but have a starter LMG which isn't my, or most of the communities, thing.
After that, they have the single most versatile carbine in the game (Solstice SF: Feels like upgraded T-5 AMC, or a slightly weaker NS-11, but has no bullet drop, and has grenade launcher.)

The TR have solid carbines, and are basically the faction to play if you want to play a medic as something more then just a healer: Nearly every assault rifle is one of the best performing weapons in the game, causing you to perform far better then the average member of your class then virtually any other grouping of weapons (Only the gauss saw is as uncanny as the TRAR's, being a starter weapon which performs as well as many non-stater weapons, counting all the newbies who use it. The only reason I don't say its more uncanny is that HA weapons all perform on average 25% better then everything else.)

How NC players really cope;















And the end result;

The NS15-M saved my NC career. I love the NC, have done since my PlanetSide 1 days, but I cannot stand any of the NC HA weapons at all. The level of control just isn't there like it is for the other factions HA - or rather, the NC requires a higher level of control that isn't needed with the TR and VS.
My advice to your guy, if he really enjoys playing with your outfit is too splash some cash on the NS15-M and rock it because that thing is a beautiful weapon.

What this guy said. ^^^

The Mercenary is incredible, and the Gauss Rifle is the best overall AR in the entire game. The SAW is hands down the best LMG, and the higher level of control it requires is easily learned and once you do you're a NW5+resist+medkit monster who can one clip 2 MAXes. TR/VS guns are just so...samey and bland and do such ****** damage.

Get the Razor and a Cyclone and you're pretty much set for life as an NC, we've got some great guns. I do wish we didn't start out with a OHKO bolt action.

And didn't even have access to them.

And neither did anybody else.

And <6x scopes on the SARs didn't sway for the infiltrators.

**** you snipers go infiltrate something.

Holy **** dude. Screw you. I just laughed/coughed coffee all over my keyboard. Best post this site has seen in a while

best tip for the saw take a knee and breath holding down the trigger is bad. And @ 200 damage it takes very few rounds to kill markedly less if you hit them in the head @ least once which always seems to happen with me when I get into a gun battle with a Gauss saw.

If it's more than one Gauss Saw I have to pray they've eaten a grenade first.

I recently made an alt NC account and going from Vanu weapons to NC weapons was a big change.
I have only used the default assault riffle for the medic, seen as playing medic is the fastest way to earn certs to level up when starting out from scratch.

Anyway, I had a very hard time getting kills at first because of the much slower rate of fire. You have to lead your targets a lot more than you ever would with any of the VS weapons. Bullet drop isn't much of a prob though, the distances where it becomes a prob are further that you should be firing anyway.

Today I gave in a bought the GR-22 which fires at 800rpm and is much easier to use. It does less damage than the default AR but you are going to win more firefights with the GR-22 than you are with the default one.

It seems that as some one starting out as a new player as NC is at a disadvantage compared to a new player who is VS. I can't speak for TR because I haven't played as TR or used their weapons.

If you take the time to learn the NC weapons and manage the recoil and fire in 3-4 round bursts then they are good but with VS you don't have to take the time, the weapons are easy to use strait off the bat.

Usually I hate it when people try to suggest that there are large differences between weapons for each faction, but in this case you're almost certainly correct and have a very good point.

I have a BR61 VS, a BR79 NC, and a BR76 TR, and I have to say that the NC guns, particularly the starting ones, are definitely much less forgiving to use--especially for a starting player.

Here is also a little tidbit of knowledge that most people aren't really aware of: NC guns, more than others, are sorta balanced on their effectiveness at higher skill levels than TR and VS guns.

What do I mean by that? Well, the power of 167 damage rounds isn't at all apparent in the TTK charts until you factor in headshots.

In order for the AF-19 Mercenary (167 dmg) to be as good as the Solstice (143 dmg) or Trac-5 (143 dmg), you have to get headshots.

In order for the Gauss Assault Rifle (167 dmg) to be as good as the Pulsar VS1 (143 dmg) or T1 Cycler (143 dmg), you have to get headshots.

In order for the Gauss Saw S (200 dmg) to be as good as the Orion (143 dmg) or the T9 Carv (143 dmg), you have to be standing still AND you have to get headshots.



The NC weapons are very well balanced and are not underpowered in the grand scheme of things. That said, there is quite a lot of evidence to suggest that newer players have a harder time on NC than they do on TR or VS.

I've always believed that the default guns should be rebalanced and should all share certain traits that help newer players better determine how to upgrade their weapons. All the default guns should be balanced in such a way that allows them all to be low on horizontal recoil. The NC default guns should probably have 5 extra rounds in a mag (because mag size is really important for newer players). Furthermore, I believe that the moving cone-of-fire values for the default guns should be particularly strong so as to teach newer players the value of movement in this game.

For example, the starting NC LMG should be something more similar to the GR-22s than the Gauss Saw, the starting NC AR should be something more similar to the Carnage BR than the Gauss Saw AR, and the starting NC carbine should be the AF-19 Mercenary with 5 extra bullets in the mag, tightened cone while moving, and worse bloom per shot (for balance).

Now I don't agree with NS starter weapons but I do think the NC could perhaps use a bit of a bump across the board for RoF and accuracy. I just don't think there should be a 600 RPM carbine as a starter. Even though the AF-19 is not bad, I'd like to see maybe a 40-50 RPM boost for them (Adjusting other factors accordingly). NC weapons also suffer from bad hipfire because fewer bullets will hit center target in a set amount of time even if the Higher RoF gun has the same starting spread and bloom.

Asymmetrical balance is great and it's part of what sets PS2 apart, but it needs to be spot on otherwise it just doesn't work.

WTF NC Is already overpopulated and you just want more noobs? What is the logic here.

Excellent post, thanks for your insight, Glorin.

I still fail to see the "hardness" or difficulty of using an NC weapon.
You point and click... Move mouse down a TINY amount since there's nearly no recoil...(don't vullshiz me avout recoil)

There's more NC than any other faction....

I definitely agree on one point; the movement. The SAW makes a bad starter weapon partly because newbies have to learn how to trade off moving to avoid damage and staying still to improve accuracy. And since most newbies aren't going to dig into the weapon spreadsheets and game mechanics, they're more likely to think that the SAW is an inaccurate gun than that it has a huge movement penalty. I heard a lot about the SAW's 'inaccuracy' in the earlier phases of Forumside.

I'm *still* learning the SAW after a month of playtime.