If MAX were to be made freely available, what features, traits, and stats would it need to give up to be on-par with current infantry, yet still fill a niche that the others don't? I like the idea of the MAX... slow, hipfire weapons, tanky, low skill requirement for aim, high skill requirement for tactics, but I HATE the cost of 9 minutes of nanites, I just can't learn it with all the C4, rocket launchers, and archers itching for a MAX to round a corner.. Healing and repair support get incredibly boring, there's no interesting mechanics to it, so something that can get in on the action and last more than 500ms would be nice, especially since I have a condition preventing fine motor control, and don't always like the big bulky vehicles that are just a whole different ball game from infantry fights. I know some of you can do pretty well with MAX and would probably hate to see it nerfed to standard infantry status with all the certs you poured into it, but on the flip side you'd be able to use it far more often if the situation demands it, it wouldn't always be a wise choice.
They are built to cost nanites. Alone, they are literally sitting ducks or Cert-pinatas as they say. With any support \ supporting allies, they become incredibly durable & lethal. In order to be balanced, without a nanite cost... they'd become even more screwed. At present, maxes are easily killed alone - but have lovely firepower: However they have tons of hard-counters which are what usually kill them damn quick. The only reason to use it more, would be if it had any degree of the original power. Do recall, when Hossin reduced MAX nanite costs - there were basically swarms of MAXes. If it didn't have any of the original Max power, you'd be better off as any infantry class. A MAX unit is a slow, large target, without ADS - that is vulnerable to rams, Tank mines, Archers, Rocket Launchers, and other MAXes, requires an engineer to repair unless replacing resistance boost with auto-repair. In exchange, it has dual weaponry, reinforced armor, and the ability to be revived. How would you balance MAX units to be used like every other class? Likely by stripping them down to the point of being useless. How so? As MAX units are specialized, and lack adaptability in the field; Most infantry do not have such issues.
they're already pretty sucky and as LordKrelas said if they didn't cost nanites they'd be even worse. personally i'd move them further away from infantry, i'd remove the ability to get rezzed but i'd make them a hell of a lot tankier! finally let them survive a few c4 and rockets!
MAX were barely worth the bother before they axed the Hossin cost bonus. Now it's gone, and the good ol' "oh crap!" Charge ability is gone as well... That was their attempt at delicate balance with an infantry unit that has to be stronger because it costs nanites to pull. MAX "rebalanced" for no resource cost may as well have giant neon signs reading "SHOOT ME FOR CERTS" on them.
IIRC Max has twice the HP of other classes, resistence to certain infantry primaries and melee weapons and can fire AV and AI weapons at the same time. Balancing that as the standard infantry unit would be a bit of a ball ache I imagine. It is already hard if any other class finds itself in a 1 v 1 or general head-on fight with a bunch HAs . But if you reduce Max armour/weapons to bring them within reasonable balance/reach of other infantry classes what have you got? kind of a HA, no? I can't see the point tbh. AFAIK the Max is kind of niche right now, powerful in certain scenarios but vulnerable in others and frequently needing support - this seems to be about right to me.
The only way a completely costless MAX would work if is it had a lot less health. Say 4x as much effective health as other infantry (40% of what a true MAX has: 10x without kinetic and 20x with kinetic vs small-arms). That way you can still enjoy higher protection and dual weapons, but with all the disadvantages of lower speed and much easier death to enemy attacks. Although I would like to see some upgraded classes. Say you can buy an upgraded Medic for 200 resources, with more health and more ability energy or something.
