What if you designed the VS?

Cmon now you cant just give Vanu maxes the shield that NC maxes had in ps1. And ALL factions could use AP ammo for any bullet type infantry gun to harm any vehicle. Vanu just didnt have to switch ammo or carry two types like NC and TR did. Heat mechanics are nice but make balancing harder. Should they be depleted after one kill or two or 20? Other games that have a recharge mechanic make the weapons have low ammo counts and low damage as you basically have infinite ammo over time.

Vanu max jump was fun! I loved raining comets from the sky. And jumping up a mountain to do surprise AA. The open nature of bases in PS2 makes good concepts like jump jetting maxes overpowered and game-breaking. If we brought back doors and locks we could have more fun toys!

TR and NC generally have higher damage per magazine already but have longer reload times. A heat mechanic would just replace our faster reload times with essentially a variable reload timer. It would be balanced around the amount of damage dealt vs the rearm time. In single engagements it would be superior as you'd only have to wait a fraction of the time of the other factions reload. In engagements where you empty most or all of the energy it would take much longer unless you had an engineer ammo pack nearby.

I thought the using your HP pool to deal damage was a fairly unique mechanic. Basically you're trading survivability with damage output. I suppose the NC shield could be similar, but the NC MAX isn't losing HP to fire. It would be both the easiest to kill, say you fire away half your energy, a single rocket would kill you, or the hardest, if you don't fire at all you'd take more damage to put down then any other MAX but an actively shielded NC.

Magrider is simple, it's a light weight maneuverable MBT thats special allows it to increase its damage output when under heavy fire. Giving it kind of a last stand ability to offset its lackluster durability and damage.

Personal weapons
Downsides: same damage as TR and same ROF as NC.
Upsides being no bullet drop, lower recoil, and a higher damage against vehicles while purpose-made anti-armor weapons have a higher anti-infantry damage
Concept: Greater accuracy and versatility at the price of raw damage.

MAXes
As others have said, bring back the jump jets from PS1. Doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) on par with the LA, but enough to carry one onto a rooftop or slow a descent.

Magrider (since someone forgot to add the Thresher...)
Instead of a fixed forward gun retains the PS1 magriders top-mounted turret with the gunners weapon on top of that. Important because the major change would be greatly increasing its speed, acceleration, and turning ability. Ideally a tank that survives by using greater accuracy to engage at long range or constant maneuvering to flank other tanks to take shots at the side and rear.

ESF
No idea. I avoid air like the plague it is and will continue to do so until air ****** have to exercise the same care that tank drivers do when around prepared infantry.

I'd make them more purple.

On a more serious note, bring back old saron.

As a PS1 vet I'd still give the VS the Magrider but what I would advocate for changing the continent structure and allow water that isn't death to everyone. That was one of vanu's best advantages in PS1, being able to hover over water and avoid bottlenecks like bridges. Not to mention asymmetrical continents are bland, boring and i'll admitted it doesn't work well with lattice (lattice still a good thing).

The Scythe I really like in terms of visuals but sadly even TRay back in the day admitted wanting to remodel it as it was too easy to hit from the ground (same with Reaver). So i'll refer to what he said wanting to shortening the wing span a tad. That andthe Magrider could be slimmer by like 5%. (So could the prowler).

WTB Thresher, come on devs.

In terms of visual styling I think the devs did right by the VS. We could used more of that chitinous sort of look in our armor that PS1 had but other than that we look pretty damn good.

Weapons, oh boy..
Ever since Beta started I and many other hard core VS have been asking as to the purpose of no bullet drop as our weapon trait. Most of us just couldn't understand until Higby basically said VS design was rushed. VS weapons themselves over the year have been one of the most controversial topics in this game. But I and the other veteran players have been looking at others and asking should it be this controversial??

The thing is I like the no bullet drop mechanic but I do resent Vs being considered the "middle ground" when thats what NS weapons are. I really hate that no bullet drop is primarily used on weapons that don't need it and that it has this perception as being so OP even by the devs (only pre-release). The fact that it gets a ton of negatives with it just compounds feelings of empire aversion. But at least the devs did give the VS something interesting eventually, the heat mechanic. Now I know it itself ***** on engineers and many have a problem with it but I think those that hate it have never even used it and compared it to its ES equivs first hand (talking aurax weapons mainly).

But anyways lets look at no bullet drop and other benefits / why its inherently flawed.
What it does: Pros...
+Bullets have no drop allowing long distant hits with need of adjusting for drop (Primary benefit)
+overall lower reload times (but not the lowest in every case) (Sub benefit)
Cons:
-Lower damage over distance/higher damage drop off over distance (shots hit their max damage earlier an do less than ES equivs)
-1.0 to vertical recoil (depending on weapon instead it gets a much higher first shot recoil). Yes an entire integer added to the vertical recoil value of every VS weapon basically making long range follow ups harder. In game stats DO NOT reflect this as they should.
-Lower muzzle velocity, about 5-15% less muzzle velocity on all guns.

Remember the cons affect every gun even when they dont get no bullet drop, the main benefit.
This is where many people get confused as to why the cons directly counter the purpose of the no bullet drop.
Sure the damage drop off that makes sense but why make it even harder to hit long distance when that is supposed to be the benefit, to have an easier time hitting long distance? Not to mention why have it primarily affect small arms where below 150m it doesn't matter?

Just to quickly list guns that get no benefit but should considering the other teams get theirs
-MBT MAIN weapons (this being a big one as it has always created a power gap between the MBTs, its mainly cause they have DPS traits and we don't)
-shotguns (well they did, that changed but the negatives are still there)

Some have proposed we use the heat mechanic as our main benefit and that engineer packs just increase the heat pool and let it dissipate faster when near it. While the balancing negative is lowered magazine Example 30 clip goes to 22ish. I'm kinda for this idea but its drastic and no one knows how it could really affect the game.

This nearly made it to PTS for the new ES weapons and all current Magrider MBT main weapons but was shot down before it even got tested due to public uproar (correct me if i'm wrong).

Other ideas were shield piercing or armor piercing rounds by default.

Back in the day I found myself able to choose one of these ideas but my views have changed a bit. If anything as a PS1 vet having an armor piercing fire mode on the weapon would be awesome again but then the other factions need that available too. I'll need to give this more thought for a good idea that doesn't break the game or the current play model.