Auraxium weapons should offer a powerful weapon that requires mastery of the class to use well.

In other words, if you can control their shortcomings, and they should have them, it would be flat out better in most, if not all, situations. Other weapons of the class would offer their own benefits with less detriments.

It's also an opportunity to introduce new iterations of weapons that wouldn't be acceptable under the sidegrade principal. Some different versions per empire would also be nice, keeping in mind the factional traits: TR is firing fast and long. NC is hitting hard and feeling like it. VS is versatility and mobility (which admittedly the latter of which is overpowered on infantry weapons).

Some ideas:

Shotguns: The smart choke is added to all normal shotguns. Each faction is changed:
TR version loses 30-40% damage overall, gains a clip of 20. They get the automatic roomsweeper we've all wanted for awhile. As fast firing or faster then the automatic shotguns, its spread is much improved initially, though its degradation is much similar.

What you get is a high capacity roomsweeper that isn't punished by poor inaccuracy unless you're holding down the trigger indiscriminately.

NC get a doublebarrel shotgun. Two pump powered shots. That's all. They fire in very rapid tandem, but need to reload very often. Said reload is very fast, as it needs to be a factor in its use but not so crippling that it makes it a once and done trick pony.

The underbarrel shotgunned shotgun was funny, but it's really not effective. Maybe if the auraxium shotguns had access to slugs, it'd be a nice advantage, but until then? It's a sad but funny thing. The new gun would be a powerful ambush tool, and would likely ensure a kill...but you're going to get slammed if you miss. Or hit the wrong group of enemies.

VS shotgun can charge up to...just kidding. It gets to swap between slugs and buck with firemode change.


On the auraxium battlerifle, enable it to be all class. It requires all classes but LA to get it, why can't they all use it? Silly.

As for the BR itself, halve its recoil and COF bloom, and damage. Double its velocity. Give it special headshot bonus: 4x damage.

What you produce is a powerful, accurate weapon...but only for headshots. Would be useful at range, and in CQC you'd need to hit dem deadshots or you'll be dead. Suits a precision weapon.

The godsaw. Oh, man, the godsaw. A shadow of what it could be. As it is, pretty pathetic. No real reason to use it.

Reduce clip to 50 rounds. Keep reload the same. Add its advanced foregrip but not comp. Keep HVA. Increase all its movement state handling statistics to be much improved.

What you get is a sort of...abomination of SAW and assault rifle, where moving doesn't basically screw you hard. Its clip and reload make sure you're gonna be careful, since you're stuck with your pants down if you're caught. With HVA and no comp, too, it's not going to be easy to control. The SAW's horizontal recoil isn't horrible, so the advantage of the foregrip isn't monumental.

The Butcher:
Increase its reload to the Godsaw's length. Give it increasing firerate with the current base it has. Double its COF bloom maximum limit.

The gun fires faster the longer you hold but more inaccurately. The reload serves to give downtime between DAKKA storms.

The Betelgeuse needs no significant changes, to my knowledge. The orion but better. The only consideration, perhaps, is adding more 'ammo' to its clip but drastically reducing how fast it cools down and reloads. Maybe.

Carbines aren't horrible, but there isn't much 'unique' you can give to one. They do, however, need a little more. Give them a flash suppressor with no downsides. Why? The LA needs to not be noticed and the engineer isn't a direct combat class. It also meshes with smokescreens that the LA or friendly engies can toss up.

Rifles...I dunno what to do with these. I have neither gotten one nor seen them used much, so I can't really offer and suggestions to them. Maybe give them poor hipfire handling characteristics and excellent ADS ones, to emphasize the role of a longer ranged support class, the opposite of the carbine auraxium.

SMGs...again, not really something you can reinvent without drastically changing everything. I think I'd like to see an underbarrel smoke launcher on them, to give infiltrators and heavies mixup potential. Beyond that, I got nothin'.

Sniper rifles: Just a better T3 rifle. Lame. Also suffers from the same problem as SMGs. The wheel can only be reinvented so many times. Even so...

Give it the 100 cert BA velocity, and a faster rechamber then the CQC rifles. Reduce damage to 250. Increase headshot damage to x6.

A headshot machine that allows for better follow up shots...but useless if you don't nail the head. High potential for sweeps if you hit the moneyshots.

Pistols: They're terrible. Poor velocity and forced to use a suppressor? Maybe if the suppressor was free. Or they had no/massively reduced damage falloff, they might serve as a replacement. Barring either, they'll continue being inferior to basically every other pistol.

What is "mastery of a class?"

Understanding the roles of the class and its weapons. The auraxium is a reward for it, and should reflect.

I believe you should remake this thread into "make faction specific weapons actually faction specific" type thread. I think you'd get more takers as wanting to make Aurauxium weapons more useful will be less appetizing for the casual players. And your examples better fit that topic.

No. Auraxium weapons should not be more powerful

"But why? I grinded for countless hours to get it!"
That's exactly the problem... something with such a lengthy grindwall shouldn't offer such an advantage.

It should be status symbol only, and if anything, weaker so someone doing well with it stands out as a better player even more.

You know, exactly like they are.

The idea isn't to make them flat out more powerful, which is wrong. It's to make a powerful weapon with heavy skill elements and detriments to balance it out. Not so much that a few high players break the game, but you should feel rewarded with familiarizing yourself with the weapon in question. Skill doesn't just boil down to 'hit the headshots', it's knowing the terrain, enemy placement, and your placement, among other things. Think...like a PA shotgun. Once you learn to force or pick the situations where it's powerful, it's a useful weapon.

Something like my suggestion for the battle rifle would make it useless in the hands of your average infantry player, as hitting the headshots would be improbable. But with care, it'd be potent.

Betelgeuse is not a better orion. Its a different Orion for more larger engagements.

Trade my ****godsaw any time to betel. You like to hold **** in your hands and you it - you can get it.

High skill ceiling implies with requisite skill (which if we're talking about auraxiuming 5 weapons to achieve is more than likely capable) that it is more powerful to warrant the higher skill floor.

Didn't say they couldn't use some tweaking.

EDIT: Honestly, I think they should just be special weapon skins you can apply to any gun of it's class.

Give the Beatlegeuse splash damage.

It seems to me that the Orion + unlimited ammo already fills this role. The other two factions need something similar.

And by similar I mean something that sets it apart from their own weapons but still keeps the identity of the faction in mind.