Small thing that's bugged me since I started playing despite starting on VS. There's not a lot of heat-based weapons, and almost all of them are VS exclusive. From a lore perspective I guess that's cool, but gameplay should really come first for these kinds of things. With the Shattered Warpgate happening, the NSO revamp coming up, and players already having heat-based pseudo-weapons in the mining pistol, I really think now is the time to consider NS heat-based weapons at least in the sidearm slot. It's a justifiable step forward that would address a long-time sore spot for TR and NC mains, particularly those that have had the pleasure* of pulling Cold Heart. It would be a nice alternative for Stalker Infiltrators if it's a pistol, and (most importantly) it will give everyone a chance to experience the pros and cons of heat ammo (usually it's just attachment limitations or bad weapon stats; it should probably be more). Now is the time to push the envelope. Killer cutting-edge weapons being common pool is already something we see on live inside the Commissioner, NS-15 (somewhat) and NS Baron (stretching it here); in my eyes, getting a heat weapon on the level of the Baron or Pilot would be fantastic. Opinions? Counter-arguments? Would love to know the reason why they haven't done so already, and if that reason is still in line with the current game direction.
Heat-based infantry guns shouldn't be in the game, and this is coming from a guy who loves asymmetrical balance and faction identity.
Changes could be made to make heat-based weapons balanced, but right now since there's nothing remotely similar for other factions it's poorly implemented.
Doesn't the VS have access to almost every Empire Specific ability of the NC and TR in one way or another? Also doesn't the VS have access to it's Gimmicks on more weapons and items than the NC and TR? We should really start balancing that out to be more equal between the factions. HEAT isn't a gimmick but a powerful tool while most of the other ES mechanics available to the NC and TR are definitely gimmicks with only niche applications.
TR "empire specific" mechanics: Auto pistol: T4 AMP - NS61 Emissary Spin up: T7 Mini-Chaingun - VES Canis NC "empire specific" mechanics: Guided launcher: NC15 Phoenix - NSX Masamune Antimateriel ammo: NC6A Godsaw - AM7 Archer - Spiker VS "empire specific" mechanics: Splash ammo: Lasher X2 - AM7 Archer - MG HBR Dragoon from the top of my head, feel free to expand. Lore wise it could be done to fit other factions, to shoot non-material projectiles; TR Laser hit-scan with very low DMG / high RoF / medium recoil (lasers have recoil) / warm up time to focus lenses for shooting Laser being the oldest non-material technology, overheat causes lenses to crack NC Gauss plasma launcher (stretch) medium DMG / slow RoF / high recoil / warm up time to create plasma Magnet magic creates plasma out of thin air, overheat destroys electro-magnets
Pretty much, the starting VS weapon is a significantly more accurate carv with extremely short reload at the expense of 50 rounds.
I feel the NC could get bullet magnets that they shoot, and then inverse the polarity to attract them back into the gun. TR could just have belt fed guns that never need to reload, and have insanely large ammo pools.
Just checked it, and it's both true and false. The differences that I could find were: +Orion has faster reload (3s short, 3.4 long versus 5.4 short and 6.2 long. +Orion has the same aim accuracies, but much better hipfire accuracies (2.25 lowest 3.25 highest versus 3.5 lowest 4.5 highest). +Orion has lower bloom per shot but only when ADS (0.04 versus 0.05) +Orion has faster COF decrease (13 versus 12) -Orion has slower muzzle velocity (540 versus 600). -Orion has worse First Shot Multiplier (2.25 versus 2). -Orion has less bullets per magazine (50 magazine and 250 reserve versus 100 magazine and 400 reserve). I would overall say the Orion would be better. Which seems supported by the stats: https://voidwell.com/ps2/oracle?sta...79,80&startDate=2019-05-19&endDate=2020-11-20 Orion scores better per player. Yet if we look at the amount of actual uniques: https://voidwell.com/ps2/oracle?sta...79,80&startDate=2020-02-25&endDate=2020-11-17 Orion has about the same amount of users. There is a higher amount of Q4 users, which is to be expected with a weapon that is superior. https://voidwell.com/ps2/oracle?sta...79,80&startDate=2020-02-25&endDate=2020-11-17 However there is also a higher amount of newbs that score kills with the Orion: https://voidwell.com/ps2/oracle?sta...79,80&startDate=2020-02-25&endDate=2020-11-17 Which means that it's statistically almost impossible that the users are the cause of this difference. There is one caveat: Q4 KPU. https://voidwell.com/ps2/oracle?sta...79,80&startDate=2020-02-25&endDate=2020-11-17 Here the Carv and Orion get closer together. This can be attributed to the Carv having a higher skill floor to be equal to the Orion, but a similar skill ceiling. The Orion is easier to use by newbs.
I think its good that VS have exclusive access to heat weapons, the mechanic should be added to more of their weapons, What DBG need to do though is give TR and NC something equally as good. (And then please don't give it to VS like every other "faction specific" mechanic that TR and NC have...) That being said, I could see NSO having faction specific heat weapons, They already have the "grenade printer" for Defector, and they seem to embrace the experimental Vanu technology (looking at you hoverbike!) Just had a cool idea, NSO should get a heat weapon with spin up and anti vehicle bullets!
