I noticed this new custom base construction deal in the update notes, how's that working out? Is the community still active? (Connery specifically) NC still woefully underpowered? Someone give me a rundown.
Construction is pretty cool, but there are a lot of issues that were simply unforeseen or bugs that the devs have been working on, like hoarding the VP cores or the continental population queue. Populations have been soaring recently, whether this lasts or not is currently unknown. Connery at once time was the most populated server, but apparently Emerald has that title now. Sadly, Connery got shafted with all the Chinese and Russian players. I have nothing against those nationalities, but what they usually bring with them is absurdly large pings ranging from 250 all the way to 600 in some cases. It makes dealing with them quite annoying to say the least. Devs recently released statistical proof that NC are simply worse as a whole then TR or VS. Basically, NC manage to TK more then VS and TR combined, and on Connery 25% of the entire damage the NC dealt was team damage. Beyond that, NC have some of the best weapons in the game, as long as you know how to use them. I can give you some guides if you'd like.
I always wonder why people complain about foreign players. I play on Connery at times when there are typically *only* Asian players, and I notice laggy players about once for every 40 hours played. The "curse" of having people that want to play the game with us actually come and play - despite their hardships - is way over-exaggerated, and frankly, a sad statement regarding the playing community. To the OPs question, yes, there are still people that cry about perceived under-powerings.
Well it seems like statistics back my assumption on this. From what I remember in the previous years, it goes like this: NC equipment hard/slightly underpowered->good players leave(small differences have an avalanche effect in the modern age where people seek optimal builds and have guides to achieve them)->NC loses more frequently. It's the player disparity that causes this differential, but it's the initial rock (underpowered) that starts the avalanche of skill imbalance. Sure you might be able to perform well as an individual on NC, but overall this pattern causes all the good players to switch to TR/VS (probably mostly TR at this point from what I've heard) which further escalates perceived differences. Regardless, no matter how good you can perform on an NC in Connery, that same player will always perform better on the other factions simply because this is a teamwork-based game and NC doesn't have teamwork-based players. At this point you need to boost NC equipment to give them some appeal so the avalanche effect tips in favor of NC and good players start coming back.
Tbh I'm not too sure what DBG could do any more without breaking the balance of the game. NC weapons hit the hardest and are the most lethal. In all honesty, that's a very solid faction trait they have going for them, unlike the VS' useless lack of bullet drop 'faction trait'. NC have received 10x more marketing and advertising than TR or VS factions, so the issue would seem to just be a leadership problem. Encouraging veteran NC players to take a more proactive role in squad and platoon leadership (rather than being high BR lone-wolves) will be the best solution for player retention in the NC.
Infantry weapons really aren't the problem, it's more a vehicle imbalance than anything. It's way more appealing to go on massive longrange killstreaks with a prowler or boost around the mountains on a magrider than it is to drive down the rodes at a snail's pace and fire the slow vanguard weapons. The game need something to attract good players back to the NC and vehicle balancing just might be it.
While the equipment has not changed much in years, i would like to dissagree that NC would have the hardest to use weapons. Infact the NC has the both easy and hard to use weapons and most diverse arsenal in the whole game. The starting guns... OUH YEAS those starting guns, Carbine is accurate and deadly in all ranges, LMG is the hardest hitting in the whole game and infiltrator starts with Bolt action sniper. All weapons that NC can buy (well most of them) are differend from eachother, NC has fast firing weapons, hard hitting weapons, accurate weapons... all kinds to suit your needs and vehicle weapons are very good. I would like to argue that VS and TR have the worst weapon divercity in the game, i mean look at TR arsenal, fast firing, fast firing, slightly slower firing, one slow heavy hitter and more fast firing weapons. However i still might say that the vehicles are much more versatile than the other factions. VS has good LMGs but carbines are pretty much the same thing as with the TR. Vehicles are decent and fun to use but lack damage output. Now, the NC biggest weakness however is not the arsenal, its the players, TK ratio is off the charts and platoons most of the time have no real leaders and NC moves as a mindless zerg towards the biggest fights, not caring about the objective.
I do agree that the Vehicle gameplay is propably not as good as the infantry gameplay. However Vanguard is not as useless as you think, well... it you have sertain ability called Shield then you have your self a tank that pretty much can charge in to battle and kill other tanks easily. I would argue that the weakest tank is the Magrider, sure its qnnoying when magrider climbs to the top of the mountain but it still does not deal as much damage as other 2 tanks do. There is reason why some people call magrider a scaled up harrasser and some times i agree while playing as one. However i also think that the Powler currently has bit too much dps over the other tanks and i also think that the Vanguard is bit too slow. I could say that the vehicle gameplay needs some big changes both with tanks and with the air.
Cröhöm... right... So what has changed: Costruction system launched, works pretty well but needs fixing and fixes are coming. Queue system, reducing the amouth of players that can warp to the continent if the faction they are in has more pop then other factions the continent. Victory point system has been revamped and now works hand in hand with the construction system. NS emissary (automatic pistol) and Gorgon (NS MAX machine gun capable of dealing damage to everything) were added. Spitfire Auto turret has certification line which increases the capacity how many player can carry (max 4) TMG-50, EM6 and Pulsar LSW got new skins. A lot more armor and helmets to buy. Wrel, (youtuber) joined to the Devteam and is working with most of the balance changes. In this month, there is coming the air balance update, changing balance of the ESF and other air vehicles weapons. Some balance changes that i cant remember. Community is more active now thanks to the construction update. NC is still team killing. TR is still having victim complex. Everyone still wants to nerf VS.
So, for the OP, what has changed is: Construction System NS Emissary was added. Fully-automatic pistol that is made for mid-range combat. Super steady, but low damage. MAXes now have the Gorgon. It's a HMG that does everything OK, and nothing well. It IS good against other MAXes though, but still not as good as the AV choices. Victory point system changed to work in tandem with construction system. Heavy Assault overshields were changed. (Or is this more than 6-8 months old?) Overall it was only a slight nerf, although some people say it's huge. Those are the only important changes made to the game. There were a few others, but none of them make a large impact. For the people arguing that NC have bad weapons, I'm willing to argue you have the best. Your guns have the highest alpha damage of any. This instantly means you kill things faster than others. That's the biggest advantage. You also have things such as the Pheonix, Ravens and Airhammer. Admittedly, Airhammer isn't as strong as a lot of people make it out to be, but in good hands that thing is crazy. With a Pheonix, you and your friend can sit in the spawn room of a small base and destroy every sunderer that comes near it without ever being in danger (except by TK, which is actually very possible with NC). Ravens are Ravens. They blow things up everywhere. Best ranged AV, because you can hit moving targets reliably. Yes, the NC guns tend to be harder to use than that of other factions, but that can be overcome pretty easily. I still think that replacing the NC starter gun is a no-brainer though. But OP, the game is still good. I have no idea about Connery population, but the game is still good. Now go shoot things.
From my experience of regularly playing all factions I'd say accuracy was the VS faction trait. I find VS weapons more manageable to use (and learn how to use quickly as a result) than the other two factions. The only weapon where I found no bullet drop was a noticeable and unique advantage was the Eidolon BR compared to the other faction BRs (I only use BRs for long range shooting).
NC players are exactly the same as any other player - the issue therefore must be the look of the models. Maybe from an NC perspective some of their skins look like VS or TR? It seems like the only real logical conclusion to make right now because statistically, all players should even out and even in the big wars they have I've seen on yortube, when populations are even, the battle rages for ages - therefore there must be something else going on to cause this.
As much as I hate to generalize, I really think it's just the NC are worse as a whole. Of course, this doesn't mean that individual players can't be skilled; the median is just lower. There may be some factors that excuse part of the NC's team damage. But no amount of high recoil, spread or bloom can justify the NC dealing 25% team damage out of it's total damage last month for Connery alone. But to say NC players are the same as TR or VS players? I'd beg to differ. The lore, the weapons, even the artistic style tends to appeal to a different playerbase. It's the reason the VS always has the super tight-nit techies, the TR gets the militaristic platoon guys and the NC are lone-wolf cowboys.
Damn is he still playing? I wonder if he still remembers me, we've met on quite a few occasions. His main is TR though, is his clan playing NC now?
I don't know. When I first started playing I didn't have a clue about the factions so it certainly wasn't reading about them that gave me a choice. I know it was going to be either VS or NC as the Vanu looked like a bunch of yoga people (lol j/k) but I'm not going to generalise and make a call with no supporting data.
Well that's just the thing, there is supporting data. In the form of the TK damage stats the devs gave us recently.
I suggest reading the patch notes and actually coming into the game and playing if you are really interested. They added a new mechanic to try to balance out server population which should help on some of the servers notorious for have lack of population balance.
