I'll preface this by saying I don't play all the classes, so I'm perhaps missing out on some NC gems that other players enjoy... (I hear the "God SAW" is pretty good, but I've never used it myself...) What makes you feel that NC is unbalanced? - Nothing. We do always lose, and I only really use NS weapons at the moment, but I don't think we're that bad. If you could change one thing about the NC's balance, what would it be? - Both Enforcers seem poor, compared to the other factions launchers. MAXes are also an issue, but it's beyond the scope of just NC. What's your favorite aspect of NC balance? - Nothing. I play NC for the theme/music/VAs/Space 'Murica/etc. You could swap all the NC stats for VS/TR ones and I wouldn't really miss anything. I suppose my problem with NC is that I've become quite attached to the faction, but remain completely indifferent to it's equipment. If every weapon was made common pool, I'd grab ZOE for my max, the Vulcan for my harasser, and probably one of TR's 40 round carbines, but I still wouldn't really use any NC stuff.
I don't play NC, but VS...I'd like to believe that I've learned and discovered many of the strength and weaknesses and how to make them work for me. I'm also certain, I've not discovered them all and might even be using weapons or vehicle incorrectly. Would it be to much to ask, to highlight some these asymmetrical balance points, so they stand out more? From some, these asymmetrical balance points are clear as water and are self explaining, for others, things are not that clear and gun is like every other gun, it shoots bullets... Seeing frequent official (names in red) posts touching up on several weapons, vehicles to highlight some of those asymmetrical balance points, may it be a battle scenario description, a fictional story or a dull summery and highlights, these posts will spark discussions and get people thinking, because they were posted by a planetside official it often is of more value, than a random helpful players sharing what he learned and is less likely to be buried underneath the many other posts.
What makes you feel that NC is unbalanced? Scattermaxes are still very powerful(more powerful then a ZOE at close-medium range), Vanguard default weapon OHKs, Vangaurd shield is a bit too strong, Harraser ESW projectile speed is to slow for Harraser vs. Harraser combat and finally ROF wins in the game of latency so low rate of fire weapons will feel underpowered. If you could change one thing about the NC's balance, what would it be? A tutorial on how to benefit from their strengths. What's your favorite aspect of NC balance? If your going to buff their weaknesses you better nerf their strengths.
Q: Can you give us any information about balance changes planned based around data gained from the past few months? I'm talking about WDS pre-season, analytics, all that stuff. Clearly it showed that the NC are under-preforming on more or less every server, are we gonna get some lovin? A: Higby: There are a lot of balance updates coming in the next couple weeks. While the majority of them are empire agnostic, there will be empire specific adjustments too. There are some areas where each empire has weaknesses, in a lot of cases this is okay, and helps add to the asymmetrical balance we're striving for, but there are some Specific weapons and abilities that put NC in a bad place competitively. One of the interesting things that makes it extra challenging is that among top players, a lot of those balance issues are significantly lessened, so by buffing for the masses we'd be overbuffing some of the best NC players. It's a difficult puzzle, but one that we'll continue to address over time. Im Pretty sure he is referring to like the phoenix/raven/aegis shield and im pretty sure they aren't gonna over buff any NC weapons. To me I feel that NC is lacking in those areas and not weapons but I am an experience NC players maybe I just got use to the recoil. ALSO /SMACK to all the VS/TR that told me I was wrong about NC empire Specific weapons/maxes/Abilities that needs to be looked at I win +1 .
1) High learning curve and minimum cert costs, combined with the worst cert farming ability, punishes new players harder than it should. 2) I'd make things easier to use, or easier to acquire, for new NC players. 3) My favorite aspect of NC balance is that even though our stuff isn't ever the best, it's still good enough to make other factions jealous.
-Bad hipfire, large COF penalties for movement while shooting, too many draw backs for a single advantage of higher damage per shot. Our CQC LMGs should be better at close combat at the cost of some range. -Our iconic 200 damage guns underperform, they should be the guns that make you want to play NC and feared by the enemy. They need higher velocity if they intend to be long ranged options. -Vehicle secondaries are less versatile than the other factions. -Reaver Vortek seems to miss a lot and with such a small magazine is quite unforgiving for this. It’s hitbox is the biggest, and there isn’t a balancing factor for this such as more hitpoints or an armor value. -MAX shotguns magazines are too small and reloads are too long, this only really becomes a factor when engaging other MAXs or larger groups of infantry. You NEED extended magazines just to compete with enemy MAXs. -MAX Falcons, instead of rockets, it would be cool if these were autocannons. Slow firing explosive rounds doing less damage but having more accurate faster shots for fighting enemy MAXs. (This would make the shotgun issue above more acceptable) -MAX shield needs to actually block all frontal damage and deploy quicker -Gauss Saw is a bad starter LMG, it turns off new players and limits our cannon fodder soldiers performance. We need a more versatile starter LMG. -Nanoweave, give NC a small nanoweave penetration bonus or increase damage slightly so it does not affect NC TTK the most. -love the vanguard and AP -love FLYING the reaver -love the jackhammer -love the Cyclone, our other close quarters guns should be more like it -mercenary, guass rifle and carnage BR are good
What makes you feel that NC is unbalanced? That the weapons are harder to use than the other factions. Balance has to be done around the average player and the average player has a harder time with the NC arsenal than that of the other factions If you could change one thing about the NC's balance, what would it be? I would make the NC less situationally dependent. The NC MAX is a great example, good in man hugging range, rubbish past 5 meters. TR and VS MAX are scary at all ranges, the NC is not even a threat past 15. A dual guass weapon i needed What's your favorite aspect of NC balance? Honestly at the moment nothing. If I hadn't put such a large financial investment into NC I would just play any of the other 2 factions - Gauss Saw is a terrible choice for new players, requires too much of a cert investment before being good for alot of players. I personally recommend changing the starter weapon to the EM-6 or the GD-22S - NC MAX is too weak in everything except man hugging range. Whereas both TR and VS MAX units are powerful at all ranges whereas the NC variant is simply too situational. Unless you are indoors a MAX as NC is bad. The MAX needs a longer range option. This can be slightly less powerful than the VS and TR AI weapons but there needs to be something to make the NC MAX scary past 5 meters - The Reaver is like flying a fridge and is harder to learn than the other equivalents - The ES vehicle weapons are weak. Shotguns as an AI option on a vehicle is not very useful. the C85 is considered by almost everyone as the worst weapon in the game, it's the one thing all 3 factions seem to agree on when reading through these forums. That fact alone says something - You say yourself that the NC has a plethora of situational weapons that are "good" when used in that purpose. Whilst I would agree the TR and VS both have more all purpose weaponry that simply makes them easier to use. This is not very good for newer players. If the NC weaponry is too be solely situationally based then these weapons need to be more than just "good" in these scenarios
Could the NC Shotgun MAXes be solved by adding choke selectors like they had in PS1? OR do they already have those? I haven't played an NC MAX in PS2.
My responses are in red above. I'd like to note that one of the factions was going to be unbalanced, no matter how much work went into balance. It happened to be NC. The devs will fix this over time. Finally, an appeal to Luperza: people are so dramatic on these forums. NC are slightly weaker vs. other factions, but do enjoy some nice things. I trust the devs to introduce small buffs and over time so as not to make matters worse. It's really not as bad as people are making it out to be, but could use some tweaks.
I thought they revealed during the AMA that they have sophisticated stat tracking systems and that they are aware that the NC needs some improvements to shore up their strengths?
1. What makes you feel that NC is unbalanced? Too many 'niche' weaponry difficult to handle by fresh/advanced players, not enough good balanced weapons. The little edge that we get at a very specific situation makes us loose the big fights, even that jackhammer user needs to run out of a building (even biodomes have too much open spaces to use it) or that NC6 Gauss Saw user needs to run into one, it's impossible to 'create' the situation that you speak about in a typical dynamic fight (or are we meant to be the camping/defending faction?). 2 .If you could change one thing about the NC's balance, what would it be? So many to choose... maybe Reaver - horrible, horrible ESF to learn; it's so hard to use compared to other ESFs that we rarely have any air dominance and people rarely decide to invest into it (and noobs that do decide to give it a try, are on average outpopulated by other factions), I'm sure there are some ace squads out there that can fly a broomstick, but in public play it just never happens (for the same reason you don't see maxes helping infantry). Also, I hate how RoF affects bullet CoF of the person being hit (should be damage dependent to balance NC slow rate of fire) 3. What's your favorite aspect of NC balance? Absolutely nothing - I liked the lore and liked the stock sniper rifle on the infiltrator (what can I say, I like bolt actions), 40+ levels later of exclusive NC play I realized how bad this faction is after playing other factions, the only things that keeps me in NC is a) station cash spent, b) certs spent; but I already made the decision of leaving NC if no proper changes are introduced - so warm up those chainguns, strikers and mosquitoes, I'm coming!
1. Empire specific weapons just don't match up to other empires, most obviously vehicle secondaries. Also Reaver has more disadvantages than the other ESFs. 2. Reaver model changed, as it's too big, too easy a target to hit from all angles (Mossy is hard to hit from any angle and Scythe has a really thin profile that a good pilot will use to his advantage). This is after all the other tweaks/fixes are needed such as making the nose gun fire at the cross hair. 3. Really enjoy using the Gauss Saw, as it takes time to adjust to and I enjoy a learning curve. But this is obviously the problem that NC have, as HA's are the backbone of the entire game (imo).
1. NC weapons feel like they have a higher skill check (Low RoF high damage punishes misses more) that requires players to develop a specific and ridged style to be effective that heavily restricts one's meathods, whereas other factions' weaponry that just feel more versatile by comparison without a significant detriment in any particular field. 2. Something to take the edge off the penalty low RoF weapons having in CQC, like a tighter hip fire CoF on lower RoF weapons or less growth per shot to allow NC to narrow the performance gap the lower RoF creates when NC inevitably has to move from mid into close range, without always having to pull a MAX or the few CQ niche options 3. I do actually like the accuracy demands on the NC weapons, it makes kills feel more personally satisfying, but it just doesn't feel like it brings quite the mileage it should at the moment. That all said, I'm hoping that if nanoweave no longer effects headshots in the future, accurate shooting will be more rewarded, so while this will effect all gunplay I feel like NC might get a slightly bigger bump out of it but that's largely just my impression. Also if there was a second, more specific thing I could change about the NC it would be to give the AC-X11 and the Reaper DMR more velocity. The 20 round mag doesn't quite feel justified given the slow bullet exacerbating the already steep NC accuracy demands.
What makes you feel that NC is unbalanced? Empire specific weapons/equipment that under-perform due to poor implimentation (ie; Enforcer-Modified, Phoenix, Ravens, Aegis Shield) or over-nerfing (NC MAX & Falcons) and the general problem of NC infantry weapons COF bloom while moving, moving = life in infantry combat. If you could change one thing about the NC's balance, what would it be? Remove the excess moving COF bloom on infantry weapons realtive to the other two factions' What's your favorite aspect of NC balance? I like the theoretical "hard hitting" motiff. Unfortunately, the way that motiff is implimented in PS2 currentlyit is a liability than a "feature". Too many drawbacks, not enough benefit. Compare that with TR's big mags/ammo reserve and ROF which is all benefits, no drawbacks.
1. We have harder to use weapons with the reward being lower dps and killing power even when we use them correctly. 2. Take the SAW from new players and give them the EM6. 3. Jackhammer and Cyclone good examples of NC weapons that don't give their right arm for some meaningless extra amount of damage. Also when you said you saw NC not using their stuff correctly or at the right time did you mean more or less then the other factions when you watch them? If we aren't using our stuff then it is for a reason as it is in any game. There are alot of people playing this game they tend to figure out what works and use the crap out of it.
1) in general, the early/ rapid dmg droppoff in this game 2) my ONE wish? Extend min-dmg range on all NC smalarms by another 15 or 20 meters. Would maybe not mean much for AR/LMG (they don't need any help) but would make NC carbines feel truly crushing midrange 3) power and precision. Stick with that
1). Tank shotgun still has no reason to be quipped in your loadout, ever; tank shield still has no reason to be un-quipped from your loadout, ever; MAXes need to get looked at - but that is not really NC specific really, they all need that. 2). Less shotgun in our NC, please. 3). A solid selection of dependable 167 dmg weaponry - or higher - in every class; also, Vanguard is THE tank, hands down.
The Jackhammer outperforms the other faction shotties. It also outperforms (by a large margin) the other empire specific heavy weapons.
