NC low win-rate - where is the balance?

New update on Cobalt (NC): Where is the sense to continue playing on NC side?

Territory (Hossin):


Territory (Indar):


Server-Population:

Leadership, idiots, uncoordinated, all bull-**** excuses people say about why NC is bad. The main reasons NC started to be bad back when PS2 launched was because of shotguns and hard to use starter weapons. The main reason why NC is bad now is because all of that has snowballed over 3+ years. This has been a problem for so long that people have taken it as truth and just don't see anything wrong with NC being the worst faction by far.

NC always had a high turnover rate because it wasn't worth the effort to play NC for the most part.


The Gauss Saw should have NEVER been a starter weapon, EVER. That alone ruined NC heavies even before the weapon price hikes. That right there made it harder for NC to fight back as their main class had a much harder time than TR/VS. Plus the NC MAX was effectively pigeonholed into a locked niche thanks to SHOTGUNS! Shotguns are a weapon type that has never worked in Planetside 2. Limited ammo means you can't fight groups, limited range means you can't cover open ground, COF/Pellet spread was RNG on RNG to make shotguns unreliable at best, and on a MAX it all means that faction was ******. NC fields the least MAXes for a reason, shotgun MAXes suck as shotguns don't work in PS2. And with less MAXes NC can't effectively fight TR/VS MAXes who are used everywhere infantry is and have weapons made for PS2 fights. Good ammo, decent enough range, and a controllable COF.

Then you have ES vehicle weapons. More shotguns. How many times had the Canister been buffed? I in truth lost count and that made NC vehicles much less of a threat compared to TR and VS vehicles. No way in hell could that have gone in any other way.

And now I can talk about how NC is the ONLY faction to not have a stupidly broken weapon for months without end! ZOE, Striker, Magrider, Prowler HE, the list just goes on.


If SOE wasn't so damned set on shotguns for NC, maybe the factions could have been a bit more balanced. But SOE couldn't do jack **** in balance anyway as seen for months and months at a time.

DBG is doing much better, the Gorgon is a huge start, but the damage SOE did is done and without some massive amounts of work. I don't see faction balance changing any time soon if ever.

People say NC guns have the highest skill ceiling, but this really isn't true. When you start talking about the very best players, NC weapons actually lose out. If you have two players with extremely good aim face off, the one with the MSW-R or Orion will always beat the one with the GODSAW or the Anchor because the NC guns' recoil and bloom make bursting mandatory to land the most hits, which reduces your DPS, on top of the fact that the NC trait guns like the SAW already have lower DPS even when they're fired outright. So the skilled TR or VS player will simply out-damage the skilled NC player, and there's nothing the NC player can do but switch to an NS weapon. I've run into a few uber-vets (7+ k/d) as NC, and, even in the (few) instances where my aim was perfect, my GODSAW was hilariously out-DPS'd by the MSW-r and/or Betelgeuse. The only way I could beat them was with the NS-15, which actually lands shots consistently when the reticule is on the enemy.

I was always wondering about the bursting verses dps of a weapon. I just never did the math on it.

NC could win 0% of alerts and shoot paintballs instead of bullets, and VS/TR players would still insist that they're "perfectly balanced". You could make every NC vehicle auto destruct after a random amount of time and you'd still hear people talking about how NC doesn't win more alerts because of their players being uncoordinated and whatever other nonsense.

Stats are stats, though.

Anyone who thinks for 1 second that NC are somehow less intelligent than the other two factions is just a insult to me and others devoted to NC. We are pretty crazy for excepting our role as the whipping boy I guess. When tr and vanu can start the game and use their starter weapons for every single situation in the game and still beat NC weapons its obvious why we are so much harder. Just off the bat our saw is 200dps lower than vs or tr I don't mind slow hitting weapons as long as the balance is there and it isn't.

Now add the ridiculous bloom and recoil and you have a slow firing gun that shoots bullets like a sparkler on 4th of july while our counterparts have awesome accuracy and smooth fire to go with 750 rpm and you wonder why we are being killed like dominos in a fair fight. Its exactly why we have to have higher numbers or we don't win. Has nothing to do with intelligence or tking cause all factions tk. Now add vanu get best default camo and you have a trio of pros that we cant beat tr at least stand a chance cause their weapons have similar stats and their vehicles.

It is quite interesting to see how much attention is given to the NC starting weapons, as this grand difference maker.

I think I might have figured out NCs problem, they apparently rely on completely new players to win them alerts, not established outfits with veteran players

Odds have always been against NC, part of this leads from PS1 era.

While NC has many tools that are superior in 1v1 sitiations IF utilized properly, they have very low amount of tools that will work in huge firefight. This is why NC shines in server smash but sucks in general gameplay.

High damage per round is kinda useless benefit due to server tickrate where high RPM just does equal amount of damage over the tick. TR/VS has the edge here also with the more forgiving recoil. Also most NC guns have stupid recoil patterns where the gun pulls up and right. If you dont know how to compensate this, you will not hit a broadside of a barn. Compensating this on a target that is moving sideways is even more difficult.

Biggest flaw in NC however is vehicular gameplay. Vanguard can win 1vs1 with other MBT IF utilized properly with the help of the shield. But it has high skill requirement and you cannot miss a single shot. If your shield is on CD, then you will lose if your opponent knows what he is doing.

I have never got into the airgame since PS1 so i cannot go into details here. However i do know that reaver is the least agile plane out there and it also wont shine as a CAS duty, thanks to the person who decided to give it a shotgun as AI weapon.

Also NC has other perks that shines when used with military discipline like Pheonix. Unfortunatly when used uncordinated, those ppls could as well AFK in the spawnroom. It has abysmal DPS when used uncordinated.


TLDR: NC is good in most 1vs1 fights, but it leaves the person winning that 1vs1 as a free kill to the next person. NC is just bad in mass combat and abysmal in uncoordinated mass combat.

I play the 3 factions on Cobalt. My NC character was the 1rst one and is my favorite one. I'd like to be able to keep on playing with this character, but i don't plan to. I have 3 questions :

- Why should i keep playing with dummies who keep on firing at me while i'm pushing or retreating ?

- Why NCs are constantly acting in stupid ways with dumb TK (on my server), while TRs and Vs rarely TK (i could say that Vs never TK) ?

- Why do you ask for a new balance when the NC weapons are the strongest infantry weapons of the game ? (i'll not make a list, l2p).

NC weapons are not that hard to use, please stop with this excuse. You just need a bit of trigger discipline. If people can't "LMGsetTheWorldOnfireOmgSoPro", just get the GD-22S...even a 3 years old kid would be able to use it in effective ways. I mean, please...There's no "balance" issue.

HAHAHA
Realy? A Cobald NC complains about being underpopped? Dude maybe you shouldn't play at 5am. Come back prime time and enjoy the 35+ % NC population. Yes, the TR is the faction with the highest population for like half a year now, but was the NC really so used to the 38+ % you had regularly on the server before that?
Maybe try playing Vanu for a while. A sub 30% world pop on prime time is the norm for us. That is why you wont find any Cobald vanu in the forum who is complaining about the new queue system.

To the rest. It amazes me how you can still bi**h about vanu stuff after all the nerfes. After Magrider, ZOE, PPA, LMG nerfes, now it is our spandex that is too OP for you to handle. I bet after giving the VS a bright orange camo with a rotating arrow above our heads, you'll demand nurfes to the beamer, because it tickles you too much.

What time was that ?

Very curious as I was playing NC last night (prime time) and we had a very comfortable victory on Indar.

I just wanted to show some statstics. And the NC doenst have that many "prime times" how you are saying. if it would be like you are describing it, then the NC would have every day a good day, but even the stastics are showing that you are wrong

strongest weapons? shows why the TR and VS are more popular, "because they have harder to use weapons and weak too" (LOL good one)
and I can play thx.
you should rethink your argumention and maybe your behavior too. You should bring more constructive arguments and not just your opinions because YOU think they are right without any proofs. I mean just look at the statistics on the first page, they explain all what daybreak needs, but I see that they dont even care about it otherwise they would answer on this thread. I think this thead can be closed now, because the discussion is going to be unconstructive and useless.

New point to explain the stats:

Less cheaters in the NC!!!

No overlays , AHK, macros, grafic-tweaks, gamefile-manipulation, BUG-using, FOV-tweaks, lagswitching and all the other MLG-stuff.

The 'prime time' is when the server is the busiest - for the European servers like Cobalt, that is generally between 5:00pm and 23:00pm GMT. Take a look at http://www.therebelscum.net/world-p...&zoom=1&daterange=1462187700000,1462274100000

You will also see the VS underpop at that very time - yet they win many off-peak alerts so look good in the overall stats.

Read Taemien's post on page 1 as he's got it spot on - but i'll quote his last comment: NC wins when it matters. VS wins when it doesn't. TR is the only one who wins and loses consistently throughout all time zones. However the time that doesn't matter makes up 75% of the day.. and skews the stats.

Hence why I asked what time you were playing. Can I suggest you go onto Cobalt during European prime time and you will see a very different overall picture and a very different NC.

I dont know from which NC you are talking about, but they are not on this earth. And the NC in the prime time is not a "different NC", its the same like I am describing, "weaker" than the other 2 factions, disadvantaged and still losing like the statistics are showing. I cant understand why people insist saying that the NC is something else that the proofs are showing. But like I said, this discussion is pointless because it seems that Daybreak is not going to change anything or even interest whats going on planetside 2. The only possibility to enjoy playing this game is on TR or VS ( I play both, too) or search alternatives. The time when I am mainly online is on my first comment, but not only on this time. Sometimes I play on night too.

For me the discussion and the conversation ends here. thank you for your participation to all of you. bye

NC do have some good awesome weapons like the "Cyclone", "GD-7F" or "AC-X11" (at least imo).

But...

Im still hunted in my dreams by magriders who can climb MT. Everest on good old earth, fly above all the little ***** on hossin while my "glorious" vangard hits them all. Even saw Magriders @ A-Points from techplants... imo they are either to good armoured, have to much hp or are way to maneuverable. Prowler and Vanguards are okay how they are i guess.


Next: Air supperiority does not exists. Some KAINs from Cobalt (im watching all of ur vids ) for sure will disagree with me, i know^^ but usally there is no friendly esf in the sky to protect the groundtroops from above. Whole lot of my deaths comes via Lolpod-Moscito (less Banshee-ones xD) or these still anoying Light-PPA (most hated weapon of mine -.- (okay, will be maybe close decision between PPA and Orion/Betelgeuse)).

Im still trying to flight with Reaver, but when ever i try to go in for dogfight, i have nearly no chances. there are very good pilots out there on every factions, yes. but i have the feelings like most NC weapons the reaver is hardest ESF to learn. not only because u cannot learn cause u get rekt in secs in dogfights with better players, u get ganged by noobs who cannot do anything else, or u dont get even near to a fight (but last one is optional xD) or caught with lockon-AA.

What is red and bad for ur teeth? - A BRICK! just for the motivation to go on xD

Reavers got:
- huge Hitboxes, in german i would call it a "fliegender Ziegelstein" - a ("blue") "flying brick"
- slowest topspeed
- lowest maneuverability
- biggest turbobooster
- the Airhammer (sometimes fun - but strange xD )


Like someone else allready said - NC never gets awesome stuff via updates - no Gatekeeper, no Beetlejuice and so one :/
even when they get nerfed later, they still give for this space of time a huge amount of moment for the other facions.


Why not give the easier controllable Gauss SAW S as default weapon for example?

just my simple thoughts in a couple of seconds xD

PS2 have not weak factions. All have +/-. Imho, Vanguard best tank in game, NC1 Gauss best start weapon for Medics (after u get Carnage and yr k/d up easy and fast). Boltdriver - for sniping u no need other rifles. About some other write before.

Why NC have small wins against other? Coordination. Vanu get wins in small with good coordination, TR with overpop. NC havnt overpop and coordination, dot. loose. delete game. SMILE xD

NC good deadly and nice looking faction, best regards.

This thread is filled with agenda biased players. They avoid the facts and points I made earlier like the plague. Why? Because they know I'm right.

Its cute, some of them say the stats don't lie. And they're right, they don't.

Server Smashes: Led by NC.
World Record Event: Won by NC.

What does that say? Competent players acting in a coordinated manner means TR and VS don't stand a chance. They don't, they really don't. I remember being in ADK back in 2012-13 when we sat in Crater Firing Range for 3 months because the TR wouldn't come out of their warpgate. I remember getting tired of never fighting east of Vanu Archives when facing the VS. Beating the piss out of Future Crew while in Recursion, both in the air and on the ground.

Or how about that Alliance between EXE and DPSO that still has some remnants to this day (EXE kinda needs it, all 6 of them left). It was needed just so the VS and TR could get SOME territory. VS only jumped up in alerts because this time last year they got an influx of Asian population and held a crazy overpop at odd hours (which DID NOT help them during primetime). That's right. 30% NC pop beating the tar out of 40% VS and 30% TR.

Its a great faction with a solid weapon loadout, and even better vehicles. But you can't run solo. You can't zerg. You've got to run as a team. With the way VS is setup, it works well to run as a mindless hoard. Sure.. many VS are coordinated.. they have to be. But it doesn't give them a clear cut advantage over NC or TR.

The Organized Play stats back this up.

So, by your own admission, NC takes more teamwork to succeed than the VS working as a mindless horde. THATS A BALANCE PROBLEM. You don't base game balance off of a handful of players that play a few organized events a year. You don't base game balance off a one-off promotional event like the World Smash. You base game balance off the THOUSANDS OF PLAYERS THAT PLAY THE GAME EVERY DAY.

Let me ask you this, Taemien, why would it be such a bad thing for the NC to win at the same level as TR and VS? Why is that such a problem?