New Vehicle Weapons Changes - Enforcer, Saron, Proton PPA, Marauder, Etc

Just starting up a topic to discuss the changes being made to various vehicle weapons on the MBTs/Harasser.

Enforcer ML - the vertical recoil is just way too extreme, making it quite unusable full auto and even going one shot at a time, having to readjust after each shot just makes it really annoying and rather ineffective. Given the drop on the weapon already, I have to wonder if the vertical recoil is even needed/warranted.

Saron HRB - the Thermal Capacitors (ammo) doesn't really do much - it doesn't even allow for an extra shot to be fired quickly before you overheat. Also its spelt capacitors, not 'capacators'? Seems like an afterthought having them rather than them doing anything useful.

The lack of readjustment for the enforcer is something you'd expect from a sloppy weapon mod. SOE is purposely adding unnecessary annoyance.

-On what i have seen i fear that the new enforcer at the PTS state have too high dps in cqc (3.5s second to kill a tank from the front)
No tanker can react that (it's instant if you add the ap canon); People already complain on the vulcan....
-Vs side It look balanced, the PPA isn't as powerful as the others but you can have more range. I like the new saron, it's more accurate with the tradeoff of being less powerful in CQC (one less shot per mag). the heat mechanic is nice but the reload time need to be tweaked. Finally the infinite ammo need to be removed, it's useless and other factions will complain about it.
-Finally i can't say too much on the marauder, but i fear SOE make a monster even more powerful than the old PPA.

See the thing is this Enforcer is going to turn out like the OLD Vulcan - which killed things too quickly up close (even the current Vulcan takes at least 7-8 seconds to empty its 90 rounds), and is just bad at anything else. They've obviously added the vertical recoil to try to compensate for this, but all it makes for is a really strong but pure CQC only weapon for the most part. Seems a bit messed up really.

Infinite ammo - yes, I agree, keep the heat mechanic in place of the old reload mechanism, but keep the old ammo pool so shots fired will count against your ammo pool.

The PPA feels much improved over the badly nerfed version, but not too strong. I can't tell if the Marauder will be too much, but it does no damage to heavy armor which puts it in line with the other AI secondaries and it doesn't feel like a Fury clone anymore with the 2 shot burst firing. Its definitely trademark TR spammy so from a faction flavor perspective, seems to be spot on the money.

I really fear the marauder to become more effective at range than the ppa (I'm already more effective with my furry). IMO it should have medium range role with sustained damage. PPa have less damage but the trade off of it should be accuracy.

The Sarons charge mechanic makes it do less dps then the enforcer making the enforcer still the supreme secondary mbt weapon as always(however it does look like the vulcan may have caught up, so the saron does need to have its charge speed slowed down so that it does not overheat as quickly but allows for at least 2 more shots before overheating. As a main tr player I do think the mauraders vehicle damage is a little to strong, just needs to be toned down a bit to make the vehicles die by 2 hits more. The splash damage looks like it kills in 2 hits so make it 3 to 3.5 and that will be much more balanced. No need to make the TR the next "PPA" spammers with that thing.

The Saron change is awful, it offers no benifit over the current model, if you dont watch the overheat you get completely punished. We dont need unlimited ammo, on the Magrider the main cannon has to rearm well before the Saron runs out and on a Harasser your never more than a minute or 2 from a ammo tower.

Ive no idea why they are changing the Marauder, its already the best AI out there.

Also the Enforcer is ridiculous in its current form.

Absolutely love the changes.
Well, minus the balance. The heatsink mechanic is right up my alley, however.
Still, that shotgun... damn.

I like the heat mechanic on the Saron. It doesn't really change the weapon, but it does make it feel a lot "vanuer" (if I may say so). The ammo certification, however, is not really my thing. It doesn't really help, and it only start to be slightly helpful at max rank only. It would be good to have something more progressive that would end up with two more shots at max rank.

Haven't tested anything else yet, but as a Vanu player I just wanted to give my opinion on this.

PPA
Feels a lot better now. Heat mechanic is alright, feels more Vanu. In general I dislike how this game does heat (including MANA turrets) because of the weird delay before cooling down. It punishes people for burst firing. Really wish there was no cool-down delay after a shot...for every weapon with heat gauges, really.

Saron
Heat mechanic feels really bad on it, because as stated above it discourages burst fire which the Saron needs at longer ranges. If you reach max heat it's just way too punishing, maxing should simply cause the weapon to be unable to fire until completely cooled (including any over-heat from the last shot). Remove that delay for the cool-down.

Enforcer
Feels really bad. Reload is extremely awkward. Kick is extremely awkward. What advantage does this reload system have? It takes less time to reload if you don't empty the clip, but how often are you only throwing a couple rounds off before killing an armored target? I'm not sure what the point of having this reload like a tube-fed shotgun is unless we're just doing the 'ol NC=Shotguns thing.

Marauder
Okay, so now it's a...fully automatic burst fire? If it fired them in a tight spread in one salvo maybe it'd feel a bit unique, but as-is just feels like some sort of malfunctioning re-fire mechanism. But sure, why not? Just keep the power roughly the same.

Vulcan and Canister
Seem mostly unchanged. Give the Canister back light vehicle damage. Do it, SOE. It would give it a little more versatility in exchange for range compared to a Kobalt.


Harasser Handling
Feels really good. REALLY good. I tried for a while and couldn't get the thing to flip no matter how many rocks and tree roots I tried to clip. I don't know what you did, but that thing is much more fun to drive, now.

Tank Handling
Feels really bad. Not just because it's new, this is terrible for tank combat. I don't care if this is meant for the PS4, it would still be bad there, too. You lose way too much control over the vehicle with this new scheme. Try driving forward. Quickly try to look at something behind you, then look back forward. How fast are you going when you look back forward? Shifts in direction or scanning with the turret cause you to practically come to a standstill as the treads rotate, even if you adjust your movement you still get snagged up a bit in rotation. Do not like this at all.

Thermal compacators is vanu for Ammo capacity

The new Enforcers recoil is fine, and PLEASE do NOT make it auto-center. Making it auto-center will make it annoying for people who are able to repeatedly twitch-aim the crosshairs before firing the next shot because the camera will nosedive when they stop firing. Also for people who cannot twitch-aim the crosshairs as easily, it will encourage them to wait for the crosshairs to reset which will lower the DPS of the weapon dramatically. This both lowers team effectiveness and widens the gap between low skill and high skill players. Please do not make that change. The Enforcer is a bit too strong as it is in damage, but its mechanics are fine IMO. Needs a visual/auditory confirmation of each missile being loaded though, but I'm sure this is in the works.

The new Saron is ok, but isn't really that fun to use. I think its accuracy could be tightened a good bit, and maybe add 1 more shot before overheat on both MBT/Harasser. As mentioned before, the overheat delay is a bit too extreme, and could be lowered to about 50% of what it is now. Again, this creates too large a gap between more experienced players and newer players. Damage wise it is fine, fun wise it is almost there, but I think 1 more shot before overheat could increase the fun level, as it's a bit too restrained currently. May need its damage docked a slight bit if accuracy or shots per heat cycle are improved.

PPA seems better than live. Again the overheat delay is a bit too high, but doesn't need to be lowered by as much as the Saron does. I can imagine this being a fun and rewarding weapon to use otherwise.

Marauder burst fire is a nice touch, I like it. Don't have much else to say about this one. Have to see how effective it is when it releases.

One thing I do wonder though is that following these changes, what will become of the Halberd/Fury? It's already rare enough to find either of those in game being used over the faction weapons, and now the faction weapons are being upgraded to be even better. I wonder if we'll see some treatment of the NS versions as well?

Come on raise kobalt damage tier one step and rof to 600.

The damage isn't what puts me off the Kobalt, it's the blooming CoF, low velocity, and bad accuracy. Blooming CoF in a vehicle weapon is just a bad idea IMO. I don't like it on the Basilisk, I don't like it on the Saron, I didn't like it on the Vulcan, and etc. Just makes for less than ideal vehicle gameplay IMO.

the new enforcer has to much rof it needs no rof changes the reload mechanic is good it promotes smart play and coordination between driver and gunner that's cool the vertical recoil as a way of balancing the rof and slower reload also attributing to it is unneeded the nc is about big hard hit's or just generally more damage the enforcer already does this and can't become more damage oriented without becoming the halberd

the canister needs the single shot reloading FAR more than the enforcer imho it would make the canister more versatile and make the canister a more interesting weapon with zero balance tweaking required when making the change.

played with the ppa and saron ppa feels good, saron feels wrong with it for some reason probly just me.

also it might just be me again but if you could have the heat bar closer to the center of the screen so it can be easier to watch and keep track of, effectively how the centralized hud works with ammo that would be great.

marauder is very powerful right now

what is with the way the tanks drive right now this system is like the one in halo games and such please tell me there is an option to turn it off.

at the end of it all more vehicular weapons need incremental reload and heat mechanics the current reload mechanics for secondary weapons for vehicles are clunky but effective what i would love to see is incremental reloads for more weapons my first suggestion is the viper.

I'm kinda bored.

I buyed the Enforcer when it got released. It was originally like a Halberd (when looking at stats). It got a big change one day and became that 8 round precise thing. And now you again want to change that ? You wanna add more DPS at the exchange of recoil ? Well, is it actually OP ? UP ?

Why the hell do you always want to modify things, to change their gameplay when it's not NEEDED !? Why don't you just release new weapons that fill the holes in gameplay for each empire ?

I'm not only bored, I'm angry.

Wow that new Enforcer. I can't imagine this being live for long. The thing is...there's nothing wrong with current Enforcer. Lower DPS is equalized with extreme range versatility. I have no idea why they need to make it into Vulcan 2.0

Also I noticed one thing.
Tank Enforcer - 8 rounds. Harasser Enforcer - 6 rounds.
Tank Saron - 6 shots before overheat. Harasser Saron - 5 shots before overheat.
Tank Vulcan - 90 rounds. Harasser Vulcan - 90 rounds.

HMMMMM??? For what reason are TR excluded from nerfing mag capacity on Harasser versions?

When I tested the Saron the PTS, it drew the exact same conclusion. Whats the point of the Thermal capacitor, if it doesn't even provide you an additional shot, like you could with the old one and where you had to reload after 6 shots.

And thats just it... "You had to Reload at some point"... You don't have to with the new Saron and that`s where it's strength will be and infinity supply of shots fired at a stead fire rate.

You only had need to burst fire at close range, for the Cone of Fire would bloom to much risking missing your target and with a limited clip size of 6 rounds, you would learn very quickly the optimal rate of fire and not to waist ammo by shooting to fast at distant targets.

Even with the limited of 5 shots without overheating, you can have quite a lot of freedom to increase your rate of fire and playing with your cone of fire, yet maintaining and managing heat levels and here the extra capacitor storage comes in to play as well as the improved cooling.

I'm a dedicated Saron Gunner and I'm really looking forward to these changes.

ok i re-tested the weapons:
Saron: Definitively DON'T change current Saron, it was not needed at the start. It suck with this mechanic. this change will make the magrider weaker. the cost of the infinite ammo (useless since you have to take main cannon ammo) Is too much. i already know that the cert line will be expensive (something a new player can't afford), and the cooldown time is WAY TOO LONG. Since our tank is already weak in lot of scenarios we HAVE to avoid head to head fight and we NEED these 6 shots when we strike from the rear with the ap.If there is something to change on the magrider it's not the SARON, it's the fact that we MUST have stealth equiped+magburn. It's the only effective loadout and that suck.
PPA: At least they buffed the incredibad COF, It's still bad but at least i can kill one guy before waiting the rezet. the reload mechanic is manageable but, same as above, infinite ammo is a big NO NO. Vanu player's don't like being nerf for a no drop/infinite ammo(insert useless mechanic here) our weapons need to be as competitive as the other factions.Also i don't like the fact that no-one will cert ammo sunderers.
Marauder: And finally with have a winner The old PPA version TR, not one ball but 2 at the same time...!It's op as **** buy it now!