[Suggestion] A long list of necessary changes for directives

It's literally been TWO years since the directives were implemented, and I'm fine with the weapons being slight downgrades for a time. But seriously. Two years. TWO. Half of the directive weapons are not worth going for, and some of the directive trees are wonky as hell. Having to auraxium 5 sidearms ? Or having to auraxium a grenade, or a knife, and not its variants, etc ... Do I need more examples ?

Things which could be changed for the directive requirements:

Objectives:
Reduce the amount of deployed sunderers by 100, or include non deployed sunderers, because they're a chore to find and destroy alone, especially with the "new" sundy cloak or deployment shield. Add killing people while on a control point/into a control point.

Engineer :
MAX kills, Vehicle kills, carbine kills should be added. ATM, you got to auraxium two turrets which turn you into sniper baits, and a grenade that is wonky at best. There's no way the most versatile class gets forgotten like that.

Infiltrator :
Sidearm kills have to be added, you can't say infiltrators don't use sidearms while there's a whole pan of the class dedicated to them.

Heavy assault :
Add heavy assault kills.

Sidearms :
Set the requirement to 4 instead of 5, that's too much to be done for weapons will lesser killing potential.

Scout rifles :
Give the infiltrator access to the battle rifles. How come you auraxium 3 scout rifles, and you got a reward that isn't available on your infiltrator. Alternatively, remove the scout rifles entirely, and classify them as battle rifles, make them available to the medic, engineer and infiltrator, then remove them for heavy assaults, since there are better options for them anyway. Also remove the TRAP-M1 from the sniper category and put it into the scout rifle category.

I'll leave out vehicles, considering I'm not experienced on that matter. But you got the point. There has to be more objectives that cater different playstyles, rather than a handful of them that include terrible grinding & farming objectives, like the deployed AMS kills for the Objectives directive.

Now onto the worst : the weapons.They don't need much to be competitive with stock weapons, yet they've been left in such a terrible state for 2 FREAKING YEARS.

President, Executive, Immortal : add special SPA to make them viable at longer ranges, rather than getting worse versions (without laser sights) of the standard pistols. The president could use less RoF, but much more accuracy (0.8 ADS and terrible hip fire is terrible). Also, on a general note, the rounds travel literally 20m/s faster than a crossbow bolt, this is a disgrace to lead targets that are farther than 10 meters with a firearm. Increase the muzzle velocity to make them viable at range, like planned originally.

TRAC-shot has to be changed, in some way. The horizontal recoil ***** the weapon at longer ranges, while the laser sight feels expendable, as the underbarel shotgun. Putting the old lynx's DPS (800 RPM instead of 750) and replacing the shotgun & laser with an advanced forward grip would make the weapon controllable at longer ranges, the weapon should be renamed, since it wouldn't feature anymore a shotgun. The other two carbines seem fine, according to the reviews and opinions I browsed.

The Sniper rifles : Why the hell have they got faster reload time, but less minimal damage range than the RAMS, Moonshot and Parallax ? I'm fine with the compensator being attached, if the range wasn't such a downgrade with the lesser OHK range. Also, allow us to use any optic on these guns, some of us would like some x4 scope or stuff like that for more close to medium range stuff. Remove the faster reload gimmick, INCREASE the OHK range and the chamber time (by 0.1 sec or 0.05s) to make the weapons worthwhile.

Sub-Machine guns : The SMGs have built in a special barrel which increases ADS accuracy and recoil (by a small amount), this one is pretty good. BUT, they got HVA, which increases the vertical recoil by a whopping 50%, and doesn't gives the benefits for close range that are present on SPA. Either get rid of this ammo type and replace it with SPA, or give 6m minimum range more to fit the massive recoil penalty. Then, onto the second point : the horizontal recoil is a chore to control, perhaps a grip could be added, and the mags could be increased only by 5 instead of 10. This would turn these SMGs more into harder to use NS7 PDWs than their current useless versions trying to be jack of all trades, but failing miserably.

Assault rifles : they're fine to me, but the 75m detection range is still here, and should be fixed. Yet I think they could use some different stats, or get some kind of feature added to them for TR and NC's. TR could get faster ROF (780) and get a spin up ROF gain of 20, with 0.2 seconds of firing. Just an idea.

Battle rifles : the DMR 99 should get access to 24 round mags, perhaps lose a damage tier (from 250 to 225 at 15m to 200 at 95 from 225), and gain access to 2-rounds burst.
The GD Guardian should get access to one more maximum damage tier, but 2 to 4 less rounds into the mag, which would make the weapon's damage at 15m be 275 instead of 250.
VS's version features no bullet drop, and very good reload time (0.5 seconds less than the Eidolon), they're fine atm, since heat mechanic shouldn't be given to infiltrators on such weapon.

Shotguns : simply increase their mags by 2, nothing else to make them competitive is needed. The smart choke attachment doesn't justify the lesser amount of rounds from extended mags, and the underbarrel attachement doesn't make for the lack of 2 rounds in the mag.

LMGs, they're fine as they are in my opinion, since they're largely used on the battlefield.


Looking at the clock, it took me roughly 30 minutes to give somewhat balanced ideas to make the directive system better. Couldn't you guys find 30 minutes to reflect about it ? I know some changes to directives are underway, which is why I made this thread to hope those terrible weapons/directive requirements get tweaked.
If I forgot something, I'm sorry. I tried my best to underline most of the blatant failures and give possible solutions to those.

I'd be happy with just having more and/or better rewards for completing directives.

For example, with the pistol directive, why not the ES directive sidearm plus a directive suppressed Commissioner? Or maybe just a shiny white skin/variant for the Commissioner?

More incentives to actually complete the directives would only improve them as a whole, in my opinion.

A silencer on the commissioner would be way op.

Then why not spring for the alternative? A shiny but otherwise identical variant?

Moar rewards are better rewards!

Still have zero clue as to how I can benefit from directives.

The ES Directive Pistols suck anyway....i would be Happier with an Auraxium Underboss with Silencer.

Ah, directive ARs... Gauss Prime was the 1st Directive primary weapon I got, and is was very disappointing. IMO directive weapons shound't be based on default weapons, but on the weapons, that reflects faction traits the most (in case of Gauss Prime - Tross or Reaper). 200 DMG weapon with 500 RPM and 30 RD mag would be the perfect reward for completing AR directive. Also, foced attachmets is a bad idea, we should be able to customize our weapons (ideally all of the attachments should be available).

Oh, and I forgot to say that assists should count as kills, right now, you're just trying to steal as many kills as possible to get things done, and it's even more the case with some weapons (like the crossbow for example).

Well, I'd like to have special weapons which are totally different weapons, the system is flawed atm, but it could be easily fixed by actually trying to tweak non LMG guns. Adding faction traits would be the way to go imo, not sure about removing the attachments, since it was the incentive to give the weapons good or/and versatile attachments, which was completely failed obviously. NC could get a magnetic charge mechanic, with a way smaller magazine for the batte rifle for example.

rocket launchers:
if you deal the majority of the damage to a vehicle you should get credit for destroying it.
i'm trying to grind kraken on one of my alts and i swear i'd have earned it 5 times over if it wasn't for all of the credit stealing.

people sit and watch you fire off rocket after rocket and then when the vehicle is at 10% hp they fire off their single rocket and steal it.

Directives are more frustrating than they have to be.

I think a lot of the problems could be fixed it they counted partial directive points.
For example if you do 45% damage to a vehicle it counts as 0.45 points towards vehicle kills.
Soloing something (dealing 100% of the damage) would still count as 1 point like normal.

The current system rewards and encourages killstealing. The new system would help against that, encouraging teamplay and helping eachother.
I often see players holding their fire until (especially) AMSs are at like 20% health, then suddenly it gets bombarded by 5+ rockets.
Which is not fun for anyone involved.

It could be either a system like this one, or a system which just counts assists above 50% for infantry and 25% for vehicles. I'd be fine for both, as long as it's not hardcore grinding anymore. I feel bad about getting the kill with an AMP's bullet after someone shot the guy 9+ times.

It would be more fair all around if instead of kills it was X damage done with the weapon type. There would be no kill stealing issues or stress over not getting any credit at all for damage done to target.

Replace # of kills with X dmg done with weapon.

The biggest problem with changing any of the directives is you're ******** on the players that have already put in the time and effort to get them. Yes, some of them really really suck. 1160 max punch kills or 5800 launcher kills is just insane.

But, here's the thing, people HAVE done it. So can you.

To quote George Harrison

It's gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It's gonna take patience and time, um
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right child

As for the directive weapons they have tweaked some already. My personal opinion is just make them shiny reskins of whatever the most popular weapon is in that category, which is kind of what they are. They should not have limited the attachments though.

sure they did it, that's something to be proud of even when they make it easier for people that haven't done it yet, as-is directives are a pain in the **** and everyone is actively kill stealing from you at every chance they get, another good example is a lazy gunner that waits till enemy vehicles are burning and then opens fire to steal the kill. (i kick those *&^$#%@ out of my vehicle).

changing the mechanics of directives so they aren't so grindy, lame and unrewarding for time spent won't take away anything from the achievement of getting directives when assists did not progress your directives.

I agree with pretty much everything here, especially re-classifying Scout Rifles to the Battle Rifle category and giving access of them to Infiltrator, Medic, and Engineer... this is just common sense, and Heavy Assault should never have had them.

Just replace the required kill by required xp so both kill AND assist would be counted. (of course, only the base xp will be counted)

Example :
Replace get the auraxium medal (weapon) by get 116 000 xp with (weapon)

No, it means you're giving out the same reward for less and easier work. Why not just get rid of directives all together and make Auraxiumed skins and weapons purchasble with DBC?

Oh that's right. It's a REWARD for doing something in game. If you change the requirements you have to change the reward. Otherwise, like I said, you're just ******** on the people that have already done it.

In 2020 the Olympic committee has decided that it's not fair only 1 person wins a gold medal. From now on anyone who competes or tries out for the Olympics will receive the gold medal in that event

Wow, you mean anyone can win an Olympic gold medal now? Gee I guess being the very best in the world and winning a gold doesn't mean anything anymore...

That's a dramatic version of changing the requirements without changing the reward. Don't do it. Change both or don't change it at all

The spotting directive is a total joke.

It was designed back when spotting had a whole different mechanic.

so you argument is reward = effort? if so it's flawed, because right now i can 'do the work' and melt down something like an enemy tank and someone else who has been watching, not helping can do that last 5% of the damage and get rewarded for far less effort kill stealing.

my response to this is simple enough two words: purple heart.

they devalued this medal giving it out so much, however that doesn't degrade the recipients (or their efforts) of the purple heart prior to it being devalued does it? after all they were awarded the medal when people thought it was worth something (and actually meant something).

this system isn't working because it wasn't put together right, it's a harsh grind made worse by people who hold fire until targets are almost dead so they can get that last 5-10% health down to steal credit when it otherwise would have gone to the player that was actually fighting it (and taking fire from it).

too few objectives and kill stealing have made directives a massive grind (max punch kills anyone, try getting 1160 of those, lets not forget engineer with two sniper fodder turrets to try and sticky grenades)

people kill stealing is like a runner in a marathon taking a cab ride near a checkpoint and running back into race again to get ahead of all other runners so they can unfairly get first place.

directives being adjusted so it isn't an uphill grind won't devalue people's efforts who went through that punishing design made slow by kill stealing and not enough objectives per directive to actually give you leeway in how you get it done.