Does the TR have an identity crisis?

They haven't been saying that. People misinterpreted what they meant by more dakka, and having absolutely zero cases to show otherwise makes it a little more then because I say so.

The ROF advantage can only be seen vs. NC, and its really NC's ROF disadvantage. Compared to VS the TR really doesn't have any ROF advantage, and they aren't supposed to.

It is. We have no bullet drop, but its really only something that effects scout rifles and battle rifles. Still, its something, its just not as evident as a +25% clip size. NC's is evenwierder because their ability is balanced out over several things.
NC's ability (better word is flavor) for infantry weapons is. Slower ROF, more damage, nearly zero horizontal recoil, low first shot multi, and high vertical recoil.

Where the hell have you been getting your information?

This is straight from Planetside Universes page on the TR.

The Terran Republic (commonly abbreviated TR) is one of three empires waging war for control over the planet Auraxis. They are characterized by having the fastest firing weapons, with the lowest damage per bullet. They also have the fastest vehicles, with the lowest armor. Their faction colors are red and black.

Now I know the VS and NC are slowly trying to rob us of our MORE DAKKA but you have to try harder than that.

One thing I love is the old king of infantry farming (HE prowler) was replaced by the NS Viper, cheaper, faster able to kill flak armour users with just splash in one salvo. Its the new king of farm.

Come think of it...

TR ES MAX/MBT ability: The opposite of speed.
NC ES MAX/MBT ability: The opposite of hard hitting.
VS ES MAX/MBT ability: Uh... Faster death?

nah, some concept drawn from the games inception that was never even implemented isn't of interest to me. Majority of all those speeches aren't true across all factions.

But if it makes you feel better, I'm sorry, I forgot about all those stupid videos that started all these misconceptions. I mean, they are complete BS, and really should be changed by now.

Spreadsheets on all the empires weapons. Their are clear trends which show what the TR's flavor really is vs. misconceptions and concepts that were long ago thrown out.

If I've ever seen something worthy of a massive facepalm, this is it.

TR's flavor is high horizontal recoil, large clips, and slow reload. If legitimate research is worthy of a facepalm there is no hope for this forum. This is exactly what TR flavor is.

I hated the prowler when I first started driving it after going from magrider and vanguard, now it might just be my favourite. I don't need a close range I win shield and I can still flank in my prowler, the only difference being that when I get there I can dish out so much damage in such a short amount of time compared to the magrider. On top of that air is no longer something to fear whilst flanking, it's something I hunt. I love seeing a liberator on the horizon gleefully bombing the poor zerg, all I see is a cert pinata waiting for 4 AP rounds. I can hardly remember what I ever hated about it now. Besides the secondaries.

You shouldn't have to dive into spreadsheets to work out a faction's flavour.

Generally TR forum posters will agree with your description of how things stand, but we do not accept that is how things should be. After all we are "told" the flavour is highest rate of fire, so we feel naturally aggrieved when the evidence contradicts.

The real fly in the ointment is, of course, horizontal recoil. There are benefits to be gained from Vanu weapons ease of use, from NC's hard hitting bullets, you can manage mag size, varying levels of bullet drop and vertical recoil but unless I have completely missed the memo there is sweetFA I can do about horizontal recoil?

Would that not mean that the weapons need to be corrected, not that the traits need to be changed.

One option means that TR gets boned for life, the other means SOE dun goofed and simply need correcting.

No, there is good reason they changed it since beta testing.

I dont know why having an extra 25% ammo capacity translates to boned for life, but you can hold whatever prejudice you'd like.

Just like the guy above. IF you want to complain about what never was or will be, be my guest.

I'll restate again what I said about faction balance for VS and NC because your still off.

Vanu Soveriegnty- No bullet drop, High first shot multiplier, fast reload
Terren Republic- 25% extra ammo, High horizontal recoil, slow reload
New Conglomerate- Higher damage, slower rate of fire, less horizontal recoil, high vertical recoil, low first shot multiplier.

As you see, your horizontal flavor is balanced by the other faction's own flavors, and your can be largely mitigated by a foregrip. You can argue that one flavor is better, fine, but it all comes down to personal preference. I find that they each have their ups and downs.

Ironically the VS have the least interesting weapons when it comes to flavor. no drop only plays a role in a few weapons (scout rifles, and battle rifles) and apart from that they are pretty average all around.

About your fly in the ointment. The TR can mitigate their disadvantage with a simple foregrip, which is a pretty big deal. The NC and VS are largely stuck with theirs. (compensaters have a pretty big disadvantage IMO, nothing mitigates first shot recoil)

NOTE: I think TR has a vertical recoil reduction in general, but I don't remember off my head, so I don't want to state it as fact. It'd have to be compared against VS weapons since NC vertical recoil is way higher then normal.

ANOTHER NOTE: I think you should have to look in spread sheets to learn every detail about your faction's flavor. Modern games spoon feed us simple crappy mechanics, and its a breathe of fresh air to see a game that still has an aura of discovery. That there are hidden mechanics in the game you can test, and research, and learn about as you get more experienced. It makes the game interesting, and more fun in the long term.

(Is anyone surprised that I'm a statistics major? )

noone gets it... it's the most boring and pigeon holed ability of all, it's (almost) only usefull for render range sniping, and spawn room camping.
SOE really dropped the ball on it, and hasn't picked it up!
I'm not saying it's a bad ability, you can farm infantry very well and camp spawn rooms better than any other MBT (is second only to the lightning), it's just a REAAALLY boring feature to drive around in a glorified Mana turret

MANY valid points and I agree with your sentiment almost entirely.

However having an average anything being the highest and no clear peaks (like in carbines) are a surefire way to make a faction boring.

And making the discussion about the TR, or actually about prowler/max specifically isn't alienating other factions or their desires, if someone only has experience from one side of the fence (he should shut up) it is wisest of him to only talk about that side, and some day, some time, someone will have taken notice and it will suddenly be on "multi faction" complaint lists

(Lock-down/anchor/sitting-duck-mode is boring and sucks donkey balls)

Well look at the facts.

The fastest ROF weapons are not with TR.

We still get the ASTERISKS **** recoil but not the ROF.

A good point here, but remember this only happens in the case of carbines (iirc) and yeah, that is probably why the biggest complaints in this regard revolve around carbines specifically. Makes sense, this is the one (iirc) weapon class where TR cannot choose any different damage tier and likewise do not have "best in class" in ROF (though, they still have best in class in mag ammo).

I still agree that the 7F and Serpent are out of place. Although, I do find myself feeling more similarly about things like the Commissioner/Underboss undermining the NC the more I see this issue raised- though I do still see the differences. Personally, I never really like the 7F and would gladly trade 45RPM to one of the TR carbines for an increase in control or damge.

As for making the discussion TR centric- I do think this limits the discussion because, from what I can see, the discussion mostly regards longer term players and the feeling that there is not enough variety. This is true for the TR in many ways (lockdown and carbine selection) but it is also true for the NC/VS and many ways as well. My suggestion is that crafting a thread where these issues can be raised by all and discussed as a general issue could help avoid/mitigate faction bias, increase creativity, and allow everyone to support one another in a way that, I think, would have a greater impact on the direction the developers go.

Look at the facts, the fastest ROF weapon is TR.

Most, high ROF weapons are TR and the only case where other factions have something higher are the 7F and Serpent (1 for each faction). Now, while I agree that the 7F and Serpent are out of place- all factions have access to the highest damage per shot weapons in the game (all the sniper rifles are equal, BR equal, Scout rifles equal, then shotguns equal, and of course everyone has the Commissioner/Underboss, only after all these do we see the high damage per shot even distinguish whatsoever- and even then there are only 3 200 damage automatics that are inaccessible damage tiers for TR/VS.

How many TR weapons have inaccessibly high mag ammo? Virtually all of them. So, virtually all TR weapons have greater mag ammo, most weapons are faster, they do have the fastest, and in one case with one weapon they do not have the fastest. NC are "hard hitting" but if you notice, all the "hard hitting" weapons (the 3 200 damage tier weapons) are often the lowest DPS in those categories. So yeah, hard-hitting + least damaging. Many of these issues are there for balance reasons or, in the case of the 7F and Serpent, I think are residuals of much earlier attempts to aid in balance.

I mean, I get it that the 7F and Serpent upset a lot of TR but exaggerating this and repeating it over and over is getting tiresome and, IMO, is not the real underlying issues that many TR are trying to explain (diversity).

Everyone knows about the 7F and Serpent so no need to spread misinformation, most (I would bet) agree that these are ?! and that the devs should consider moving 45RPM from them over to a TR carbine and tweaking slightly some other values just so this is no longer some kind of battle cry or thorn in the side.