Suppressors - could they use a buff or are they fine?

Just wondering, I have a hard time noticing when it's making a significant difference in enemies detecting me, you just have to assume. Yet the downside is extremely noticeable, and right now it seems it's only used on guns that are hopeless @ mid-long ranges anyway.

What do you think?

They should significantly reduce the weapon sound, but for some weapons they hardly reduce it, which is pretty annoying

I think a few barrel attachments need to be moved around a little.
The suppressor is quite obviously meant for a close range weapon; it limits auto-detection range on radar (normally 40m), it drastically slows bullet velocity (hurting your damage range considerably).

So why in the heck does the Pulsar C (a long-range weapon) have a full suppressor and not a flash suppressor?
There is no situation where that makes sense!

On topic; I personally never think a suppressor is worth it, unless you're an infil or a sneaky tower-climbing LA. The downsides outweigh the advantages in any stand up gun battle.

Suppressors reduce bullet velocity by something like 40%. I think even 20-25% would be a significant penalty but would make the suppressor much more viable. Right now it turns most weapons into paintball guns.

The one thing I definitely think needs a buff is their actual audio reduction. It's beyond ******** that a silencer on a weapon has almost no effect on the dB output, just a change in tone... I find their utility in close range stopping you from being detected is great, however it's frequently obvious when it has no effect as the opponent can actually tell exactly where you are despite a heated gun battle going on, because your gun sounds like the worlds loudest paintball gun.

Not showing up on the minimap can be a big deal but often, unless the conditions are just right, the gigantic tracers are going to give you away. The tracers are so apparent that they are basically just arrows pointing back to your face telling everyone where to shoot.

There are some times where I will use the suppressor but only rarely and pretty much never in a hex where there is ~24+ on a side because inevitably someone will spot your tracers and return fire from some other angle. In 12v12 hexs (or less) they can be effective but then only if you can take down the target fast enough to ensure that your tracers have not spotted you for the opposition.

Flash suppressor, if available, is something I found myself using more often in mid sized battles because since nothing gets rid of the tracers at least getting rid of the flash can help if you're a skirmisher.

Also, since suppressor operates against muzzle velocity then, unless I am mistaken, it is a different liability for some weapons than others. On the ACX-11, for instance, (a weapon that already has low velocity for the other seemingly long range stats) there is a noticeable drop and it can seem like you are tossing bullets rather than shooting them. On higher velocity weapons, like the Razor, I do not think the suppressor has the same effect. Since velocity is one of the biggest components to determining where you actually aim, making an already slow projectile slower seems like a bigger downside than making a fast projectile slower.

Just my two cents. As for what changes could be made that would be beneficial? I'm not really sure- personally, I would like for them to do away with tracers pretty much all together, or make tracers something you cert into (a special thing, like IRL) and then have them only trace every 3-5 shots (like IRL). I know arguments from real life fall flat in games but I do think it is annoying that tracers, IRL, are there to help the shooter walk a line of fire onto target but in PS2 (at least with most weapons) I feel like the tracers just help the the shootee identify the shooter and that is kind of lame.

i'd lower the velocity penalty slightly

Especially for snipers, suppressors are nearly useless with the bright tracers. Enemies can just see the bolt of light and know exactly where you are.
Suppressors should reduce tracers

Suppressors are good for CQC for 2 reasons:

#1: Tracers don't make a big difference, and
#2: Bullet velocity doesn't make a big difference.

They're balanced just fine this way so that they don't become the go-to-attachment for all situations.

Well the way I see it, SoE made it so if you equip a suppressor, you also [unknowingly] equip subsonic rounds. Hence the velocity reduction.

In that case, tracers should go, at the very least be minimal. Perhaps the last few rounds in the mag?

IMO.

Why does nobody talk about the max damage range reduction that suppressors come with? On suppressed SMGs for example, you need to be in nearly knife range to deal max bullet damage. That is by far the biggest downside to them IMO.

And it would make sense. Lower muzzle velocity, less energy.

The maximum damage on all weapons is so pathetic that this is rarely a problem. 10 Auraxian meters is nothing. Any weapon with only one damage tier dropoff will hardly feel the effects.

I think suppressors are mostly fine, some suppressed sounds need to be toned down, and non-suppressed weapons need to be made louder, relatively. If weapons were louder as a whole to both the player and from enemy/friendly sources, the lowered sound of suppressed weapons will be drowned out during bigger fights so there's no need to make them super quiet.

That's the first I hear about that. Source?

You should look closer re: suppressor hiding the player on minimap (making you harder to find). It really does work. Making suppressor stronger (as is true for every one of our weapons that have ridiculous effective ranges) would produce mega-tears in the forums.

When using suppressors or flash suppressors, it would only make sense to not use tracers either. I don't understand what's the purpose of tracers if you want to be as stealthy as possible? It doesn't matter much if you're a Sniper since the shots aren't as frequent and the distances may confuse the target as to the point of origin, but for SMGs and such it's a bit weird IMHO. In fact, using tracers at all should be an option(4Free), an alternative to normal rounds which should be the new default. We're not in training, this is not an exercise, and the less aware the enemy is the better - Suppressor or no suppressor. If it helps aiming like for instance with LMGs, let the players make their decision.

Other than that I find it good that almost all weapons have access to them- You could argue the SABR shouldn't be suppressed and say it'd do more bad than good but once you learn the drop and speed, even the reduced Dmg doesn't matter. If the target doesn't know where to fire back at, or where to run or where cover should be facing, they're done for.

I use suppressors on EVERYTHING(Paranoia), can't go back to appearing on the Map with every shot! Flash suppressors on the other hand... Bah.

For my bolt actions its more of a meta..
The NCC bolt action sound is instantly recognizable.
In a base at medium range the silencer turns your weapons sound so its more muddled with the rest of the sounds... people won't pick it up so well.
Sure you can 'hear' it but in the mind you usually won't tag that instantly, OH NC SNIPER IS THERE.
It for sure works for me anyway.
For automatic weapons I think it's only use is it does not ping you on the map.

Suppressor hampers semi auto sniper velocity significantly, quite unappealing to use.

The tool tip just ambiguously states "reduced effectiveness at range" but it's very easy to test in VR by shooting one of the target dummys at your weapon's max damage range with and without a suppressor. The exact amounts is -3 meters on SMGs and -5 meters on other weapons. It essentially cancels out the bonus you get from soft point ammo.

Only source I have is one of Wrel's videos. It reduces both max and min damage range.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Z-5JdVMJ4#t=3m54s

The most noticable effect, is that it means that you will need 1 more bullet to kill in CQC. For example, with the TRAC-5, its 143 damage bullets will kill an enemy with 7 shots (7 x 143 = 1001) until your damage starts degrading at 10 metres. With a suppressor, this shortens to 5 m. Similarly the range where you kill within 8 shots will be shorter as well.