We have: -high velocity -soft point We also need: -armor piercing ---- could be bolt action sniper rifle only. Or sniper & LMGs only. Specifically designed for taking out maxes and light armor. Slow speed, high drop. Could be simple or could be something special: NC version, looks like fast smaller RPG (300m/s) laser guided. TR version, looks like 3 small RPGs 1 meter apart following each other (400m/s), no drop, not guided. VS version, continuous laser beam which melts armor. Weapon overheats. No m/s almost instant (speed of light). Lasts 3 seconds. Cool down 3 seconds too.
Planetside 1 had normal ammo and armor penetration ammo (did less damage, but punched through armor, which all classes had beneath their health meter). Unfortunately in this game there is no inventory, which means we can't switch to different ammo types in the middle of combat. Soft Point and High Velocity ammo has literally no downsides compared to normal ammo (the one you start out with). Perhaps AP ammo for infantry weapons could mitigate some of the nanoweave, but ultimately do less damage. Would likely mix things up a bit.
Nanoweave would make no sense, MAYBE flak armor. I don't think it should affect infantry based on armor type at all tho, just do more damage to MAXs, HAs using their abilities, and vehicles that already take some type of damage from small arms fire.
AP vs. normal rounds was also a balance feature in PS1 for the vanu. :\ They had one size fits all ammo in PS1. The same rounds that powered your sidearm powered your lasher or pulsar, and switching from AP to normal was just a tiny flick of a switch. Unified ammo was a big point for the vanu. (Of course vanu AP modes had a slower RoF.) We didn't just have flavors of purple spandex, blue legos, and red leather. -------- I like the idea of being able to swap out AP and AI rounds though on the fly. It it used to be part of MAX balance in 1. Normal AI rounds tickled a little. Special AP rounds did not.
Automatic and semi-automatic weapons should need between 1 and 2 magazines to kills a MAX. BASRs should need 1 headshot and 1 body shot (so that's more or less 3 shots).
A suggestion I read was to make the NC's Auraxium 'thing' be AP rounds at the cost of a short chargup before firing. Just like VS get that infinite ammo.
