Do Not Nerf the New Conglomerate MAX Unit, Fix the others Instead

People often call the NC MAX overpowered or imbalanced. In a sense, this is true. However, the NC MAX is the only MAX which currently fits the philosophy of what a MAX is supposed to be.

I do recall one of the developers of this title stating that MAXes were supposed to be 'indoor tanks'. While MAXes are not currently such a thing, as they're easily dispatched by the explosives that nearly everyone carries in this game, the NC MAX is the closest thing to that 'indoor tank' philosophy.

I propose that:

1. The NC MAX (on all weapons) gets double the ammunition it can currently carry, and double ammunition that can be held in its magazines while keeping the same reload time.
2. The Vanu Sovereignty's MAX weapons are all converted to short range variants of the lasher. This would involve fixing the lasher to NOT do AOE splash damage to friendlies, and lasher damage not being mitigated by flak armor. For example, the nebula would be a fast firing version of the lasher and the cosmos a slow firing hard hitting lasher variant. These weapons would not be as powerful as the NC's scattercannons in direct combat, but they would be more versatile as well as dish out a lot of damage to MAXes.
3. And finally the Terran Republic's MAX. I suggest that all of the Terran's MAX weapons get a fire rate of 800+ and possibly less damage to compensate, giant magazines (150 starter, extended mags 300) as well as having very inaccurate sustained fire, along with extreme damage dropoff (IE past 20 or 30 meters these things will be like trying to kill someone with a tank's AP round splash damage)
4. The reticules for all MAX unites are refined to accurately display the accuracy of the MAX. So if you equip extended mags on a Mutilator, by the time your 300 rounds run dry the edges of your reticule will be near the edges of your screen.
5. MAXes are given a base resistance of 94% (can be upgraded to 99% with full kinetic armor) to small arms and a 30% resistance to all non-vehicle explosives to improve survivability drastically.
6. For their increased survivability, MAXes will cost 500 infantry resources with a cooldown longer timer.
7. All MAX weapons are made to actually LOOK like their empire specific heavy weapon. So a TR MAX would look like it's actually be carrying two MCGs on its arms.
8. Put some kind of cert barrier in to stop absolutely everyone from having these new and improved MAX units. It would need to be something kind of extreme (think 500 plus).
9. Add travel mode

What I feel these changes would do: Overall improve the viability of playing a MAX as a full time or near full time class, change MAXes into what they're supposed to be, indoor tanks and balance out the MAX units.
Questions, comments and critique are welcome. If you're going to just say 'No', go annoy other people.
I'm certain I made many spelling and grammatical mistakes as well.

Agree. The other maxes could be made a bit more scary/powerful. Say a 5-10% increase in power.

Although even as it is I run away when I see one (unless I'm in a group lol).

The large amount of resources seems silly to me. I think it would have to be more in line with other vehicles or bring them up to be around the same. Also requiring certs to be invested to even use it seems like a bad idea because people who have all their certs/real money invested in MAX units may then be unable to use them until they reach that 500 certs. Besides that I don't think I really have a problem with these ideas.

i get annoyed at how pathetically weak my anti infantry max weapons are. TTK vs an infiltrator is higher with my max chain guns at point blank than hipfire spraying my pistol at a heavy at 40 meters. it's like you're shooting airsoft pellets.

i've had to reload my chaingun trying to kill an afk before. i think each bullet only does 1 damage, maybe 2.

I don't want to nerf the NC max. It's ungodly, but I'd rather see VS/TR maxes buffed that it nerfed.
PS last night I walked up behind one in my max suit with dual mercys and emptied 1/2 a mag of each into it's back. It turned around and killed my full health max in less than 2 seconds. On my kill screen, the top bar of it's health was not even 50% reduced. Gotta love it. lol

/shrug

I'm pretty happy with my VS MAX, they DO need to fix the Blueshift though.

As a TR I support NC max as it is. It adds faction flavor to the game and doesn't mess with overall balance too much. Short range MAXes are pretty situational. I like the OH**** feeling I get when I run into a scatmax.

This is funny.. since day1 NC have been crying for nerfs to everything.

Now we get to Maxes and they say "oh no no, no nerfs, just buff EVERYTHING instead".

What was that line again? oh right "if you need to rely on it being OP, i can't help you" wasn't it?

Even right now NC crying for prowler and mossie nerfs.. Even after it's now exposed that most of your issues and getting pwned on Indar was due to your warpgate position and all those Nerfs to everyone else are now showing just how clueless SOE has been to this fact.

As for the changes stated above.. double ammo capacity? lolz.

SOE balancing has always involved a nerf to OP faction with simultaneous buffs to the others. Expect it and shut the traps.. Otherwise SOE needs to own up about previous "balance changes" and put some things back to the way they were.

There shouldn't be any of these game changing patches until a full revolution of warpgate switches have occured.

North gate - open flat land - grab some air.
Southwest gate - lots of tankable hills, trees, obstacles - bring the tank zerg
Southeast gate - be balanced on all fronts (ground, air, infantry) simultaneously on all altitudes (valleys, clifftops, midlevel areas), utilize choke points - the hardest goal for any faction is to remain balanced overall hence this is the hardest gate to succeed from.

Give the Vanu Meltagun type weapon from the 40k universe.

Dont know why its Nerf this Nerf that when it should be Buff this Buff that.

I know last night I spawned the VS MAX, I managed to kill ONE guy with its stock weapons load out. ONE! I did more damage to myself than to him with the AT weapon.

I know the TR MAX is only marginally better than the VS MAX, which is why I have more kills with the dual burster than anyother weapon on a MAX. I personally cant stand that thing I often think, oh I need to break through the enemy, let me get my LA. Why because it does the job better than the MAX.

I dunno, I feel like there's a few too many ways to get "one-shot" in this game as it is. If you bring the other MAX units up to the level of the NC scatter max, I think there might be a few issues with that.

I know what you're saying, they're supposed to be bad *** units who devastate everything they see! Well, hear me out... Right now an NC scatter max can blow through infantry targets very quickly, taking people down almost instantly. The only real way to stop them is to bait them into a C4 which will then take the max down instantly.

This isn't terribly fun for all the infantry getting instantly killed by the max and this isn't terribly fun for the max who gets instantly taken out, nor is it fun for the engineer who is trying to be a team player and keep the max repaired. About the only person it's fun for is the max who is alive, mowing down infantry.. but in terms of game balance and long term fun, it's a bit detracting.

This is why I'm of that while MAX units should be powerful, taking a lot of hits and dishing out a lot of damage, none of them should have the ability to kill someone in a single "shot" (be it a shot from one gun or a double fire from both cannons). Likewise, I don't think C4 should be able to take out a MAX with just one either.

A MAX will continue to be a tough front-line unit, taking the hits and providing protection to the regular infantry behind it, and it will continue to be a high source of damage, but it will be comparable to other sources of infantry damage. In order to counter a MAX, people will have to coordinate their shots and focus damage on it as it can absorb a lot, and they can still make use of explosives, but a single player doing a suicide C4 run won't be able to circumvent the MAX instantly.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts... I'd imagine many won't agree. I'm just not really a fan of all the insta-death involved here. If the OP is NC, I commend you suggesting other people have the same power as an NC MAX, but I do feel that you can't really appreciate how un-fun insta-death is until you've been on the receiving end of an NC scatter max that you just can't take down 'cause the instant they see you, you're dead. If every faction was like that, I think you'd have just have more people complaining because NC wouldn't be enjoying it either.

Or VS and TR could get those tasty, tasty Scatterguns. I've had my toon's insides painted all over the walls from those bloody Scats and I think that'd be sweet if the NC and VS had their own version of 'em. The TR could have a variant on the Scat and the VS could get like a big plasma shotty or something.

Agreed, the hackmax's "OPness" is less its own problem so much as the other two being sub-par. Honestly the max situation is the same as why the NC are still demanding Reaver changes, except here it is the other factions who are missing their faction traits.

The NC max has its shotguns, the shotguns do what shotguns do. Wrecks things at close range, passable but inconsistent at range with slugs. I could live with a slight RoF nerf to hacksaws though, would help with ammo waste.

The Vanu need their accuracy(and possibly a dmg boost). Their max seems to be in the worse spot at the moment from what i've seen.

The TR need their bullet hoses. Why are the max weapons lower RoF than the HA ones? The accuracy should be crap but we should be breathing bullets if there are multiple TR maxes around.

Also: how about a new cert line alongside flak armor that reduces dmg taken from Inf weapons? Choose to take 25% less dmg from explosions or bullets.

TR and VS MAX weapons share similar accuracy mods but TR cone of fire spreads earlier than VS does, if you go with dual mercies you should do better, mercies are the same as the VS cosmos. Quasar and cycler aren't half bad either but if you're a dedicated AI MAX, always go with cosmos or mercy.

Last night I gave up on the TR MAX. I have Kinetic 4 and Dual Mercies. I ran across three NC at close range, I fire, they fire, I died, they didn't. Three NC with a SMG, and two class standard weapons took down a TR MAX. If I was a hacksaw, all three would have died. Not balanced at all.

First, I do not play NC. Second, what is wrong with the idea of an empire having something that is GOOD? I get plenty of kills in my TR Max so am I envious? No. When I see a NC Max do I know I am in trouble? Yes! But I don't care. It's all part of the challenge.

First issue: You think its cool that all 3 MAXes are able to instagib infantry AND other MAXes?

Thats my only issue with HackMAX, it instagibs EVERYTHING close range, infantry sure, but a MAX in 1 second is a tad... Extreme.

Dont touch NC's AI MAXes, for sure. Fix the TR/VS AI ability of MAXes, of course! But the Anti-MAX potential of all 3? Currently, TR/VS are alright, NC is a beast of all beasts right now.


Edit:

Yeah, that I can agree with.

It's one of the things I've been asking about for a long time.

But, I'd just do it in a more simple manner, like:
- Give the VS MAX a pair of Super-Heated Plasma Dischargers to act as CQC weapon.
- Give the TR MAX a H-ROF shotgun with bigger magazine(Kind'a like NC Hacksaw, but more bullets, more shots, and slightly lower theoretical DPS)
- Give the NC MAX a decent mid range weapon. Like a Guass Railgun maybe?
- Give the VS MAX a decent mid-range weapon. Maybe buff the Nebula to match the Mercy, and buff the accuracy on the Blueshift?

Done; All MAXes are just as capable, except now its strengths will be determined not by your faction choice, but by your own personal choice!

If you want a challange, simply don't bother using any certs/use the most UP weapons.

Let everyone else play the game fairly.

94% small arms resistance (MAX weapons would count as this) should solve the TTK issue.

What you are suggesting is actually a nerf to the TR max. Firstly, increase fire rate while also reducing damage = same DPS and TTK, how does that change any thing? Then you increase the mag size = with the increased fire rate and the reduced damage, you will reloading just as often as before and also each mag will have the same potential total damage. Add in inaccurate sustained fire (especially to the extent you are suggesting) and extreme damage drop off that would make the TR MAX about as effective as a spit wad. All this would result in is people seeing a TR MAX, having a chuckle while enjoying the free kill.

Apart from the VS suggestion for weapons, everything else is beyond belief and would most likely break the game for infantry play.