Balance of power... did NC draw the short straw?

NC having best music in PS2? You call that hillbilly plonking music?! Sheesh...

Eh, the Chaingun is a novelty weapon, it's low accuracy and low head shot multiplier give it a skill cap that means someone with an LMG who can aim will easily win, and the Magrider's mobility comes with considerable penalties and has seen significant nerfs to its weapons (MBTs are overall fairly well balanced).

• NC probably have the best overall small arm selection (Carbine, AR, LMG, SMG), likely upcoming VS LMG nerfs will solidify this. TR and VS have a lot more "dud" weapons.

• NC MAXes are possibly overall the best due to their AV weapons filling in the limitation of their powerful shotguns.

• With the increase in cost of tier 1 snipers (100 -> 325 certs) and removal of class quiz, NC have best access to OHK snipers.

• With ES vehicles, Vanguard is best 1v1 MBT & best against air and Reaver is fairly well balanced (high nose gun burst, v thrust and powerful ABs make up for other limitations).

The PS2 soundtrack is ****. But their theme, the original NC theme, is fantastic. Not only this but the current version of their theme is the closest thing we have in Planetside 2 which is from Planetside 1, specifically the 'space violin' theme which made up a ton of PS1 soundtracks.

Specifically, listen to everything after 0:50 to hear something close to the original Planetside style of music. Which, imo, is far more alien and fitting for Auraxis than anything in the game currently.


Example of PS1 music:

True. The PS1 version is leaps and bounds better. It does have a sci-fi touch to it and I like it. Thanks for linking.

Edit: There was an awesome thread here somewhere asking to sum up your faction with one song and one picture. Must find.

And since you seem like a TR player...especially 45-seconds in, omfg. So good.

u have the best sig ive ever seen

Very well done indeed. When I'm thinking TR this is what comes to mind (including the lyrics):

It has a lot less recoil and higher muzzle velocity. The obvious downside is that it has less DPS, but the lesser recoil hopefully translates to more headshots.

NC are fine..

OP's just getting caught up in the martyr soapboxing Fad by certain TR / VS players who feel they have it bad ...

On paper it seems like an awesome choice to me, especially since I know how those extra rounds total can be boon. It also looks and sounds awesome. While the recoil is slightly less, it has an undeniable right-hand pull which can be somewhat off-putting when firing downrange.

IIRC it has also been proven that the A-Tross is less accurate after the second shot than the DMR, recoil aside.

VS travel themes are moody as hell, and the deploy theme is amazing. TR have a nice deploy theme but don't have much else going for them in the soundtrack department. The NC soundtrack is entirely bad in my opinion, though I did recently discover that it sounds amazing at 1.5x speed.

NC character selection screen music is the only good NC music. :L The rest is boring mush and the deployment music makes me want to turn off the sound. It's a strange thing when I play with my TR alt and have the phenomena of enjoyable music. Vanu's travel/idle themes are very good too.

Arguably the best LMGs in the game.
200dmg guns.
The best SMG in the game. Cyclone.
0TTK AI MAXes that can also reliably kill other MAXes in CQB.
Vanguard shields can screw up C4 faries and Libs who lined up a perfect pass on you.
Enforcer doesent have dmg falloff (afaik)
Double Falcons is the MAX equivalent of fast firing RL primary able to OHK.
Although bland, they have the (in my opinion) best ES sniper rifle.
Merc and Kommando voice packs are badass.
Auraxium guns are pretty good.
(In my opinion) Best carbines.
Airhammer.
Infil Lumi looks awesome.
Ravens

NC did most certainly not "draw the short straw".
Sure, they have their downsides aswell, but overall i would say they have the "best" stuff of the 3 factions.

Well, if you see the NC standing on that soapbox all the time, you kind of want to try it out as well.

i've auraxiumed both pump action shotguns, the starting shotgun, the extended mag shotgun, the auto shotgun and i'm well over halfway to my second jackhammer auraxium (and i'm working on auraxium for mag-scatter and Brawler), and i've really gotta disagree!

jackhammer has the standard shotgun damage, but also the 12 shot magazine of the extended shotguns, mixed with the tiny CoF of baron, but without the sloooow pump action reload, and the ability to toggle it and make it function like a pump action (but hitting far harder) for when you need massive fast damage just makes it amazing
it has all of the strengths of every other shotgun, without the weaknesses.

Well yeah but - apart from those - what has the NC got that's any use ? ;-)

(Reminds me of the 'what have the Romans ever done for us' from Monty Python...)

...should have added - the Vanguard is the only MBT with a (slight) chance of hitting air.

There is nothing more frustrating than sitting in a lone MBT and dying a slow death to an ESF or Liberator with no realistic way of retaliating. Well, at least with the Dalton, you are soon out of your misery...

The NC Have a bigger damage short range cqc
Most bases are CQC based therefor NC have more advantage in small bases and 99% of bases are cqc
The nc have so many shotguns that can 1 hit you i dont understand what is your complaint
-Max with shotguns medic with shotguns,light with shotguns,heavy with shotguns,infis with secondary shotguns ffs

-they have the most resilience and the most power in the game and you comaplint cause u dont have chain guns? are u kidding me

Nope. Sadly this has a reputation far better than its actual performance. There have been stats floating around showing that the Prowler AP has a far better VKPH and KPH than the Vanguard AP.

Yep. Ravens are ridiculous, and the shotguns are situationally amazing.

This appears to be a matter of preference. Of course - all three empires claim that the others have an easier time in the air. The only real issue with the Reaver is that it needs to go on a diet.

I agree with the 167 carbine. That is extremely useful and a very shiny thing to have. However the SAW is kinda poor for newer players. Handing it to them is a bad idea. Unless you have spent a lot of time with the SAW, it basically sucks.

Yep, they're pretty shiny. Only really useful in numbers though.

Really.

Well... Kinda. The NC are fine for the most part. But the only thing which is particularly powerful that you listed is the MAX weaponry. The NC are not overpowered, nor are they horribly underpowered. They have a lot of stuff that's pretty mediocre, very few crap weapons and a few things which are too good.

This is unlike the Vanu (for example) who have very few mediocre weapons, rather a lot that are too good, and rather a lot that are trash.

I think the VS win the dud faction award

No defining faction trait,
Bullet drop - have no bullet drop except on the following weapons, tank shells, sniper rifles, rocket launchers
Accuracy - same overall accuracy stats as the other two empires, VS guns are as inaccurate as the NC / TR
Maneuverability - Slowest tank but it can go sideways, our max special is a cheap charge knock off but with a 30% reduction in health and the only advantage in LMG's is going so scratch maneuverability.
Heat mechanic - only applicable on 3 weapons, guess it isn't that then.

LMG's - mostly trash with no outstanding weapons once the SVA88, Orion and Betelgeuse lose the only advantage they have.
SMG - not as good
Carbines - cheaper knock offs that are largely sub par
Assault rifles - see above
Pistols - we have one pistol that is any good and its still a cheaper copy of the rebel, NS are an upgrade, but then NS for pistols always will be.
Max AI weapons that merely are cloned versions of the TR
Max AV well the Vortex came prenerfed and is still largely a pile of well lets just say is a sub par lancer, thus leaving the comet for AV...
Empire specific sniper rifle - well Railjack (NC) users 2408, Phase**** (VS) 782 kind of sums up how good they are, just because the mechanic is not unique doesn't mean its bad, so who wants a weapon that the charge up time is equal to the time a sniper can hold their breath, with no option to hold the charge, one hit kill within 200m with a slow projectile, but no bullet drop vs a one hit kill weapon with next to no bullet drop, but a 0.25s delay on fire?
Empire specific AV - TR win the most useless option, lancers are useful for once (but it still came prenerfed, imagine having 3 separate CoF's for the level 3 projectiles).
MBT - Lowest DPS, slowest, but it does go sideways and can get to those inaccessible places that mean it gets killed by air very quickly as it has the slowest turret, most drop, smallest turret angle set (Prowler and Vanguard turrets go up more), only works with stealth and a competent 2nd gunner, and Mag boost is so useful (max level = 1 second of boost) I have it equipped instead of fire suppression (an extra 20% health) not... Fire suppression / Smoke all the way.