Everyone knows that nobody uses battle rifles. Its a fact that they arent widely used because so many guns outclass them in almost every way. Why is this? 1. Battle Rifles are a very limited weapon class. There is one battle rifle right now as each faction simply has a reskin. Obviously there is no variety or choice within. You better like the warden or you will hate battle rifles. 2. Battle rifles are not in a definite niche. Many long range carbines and assault rifles are able to compete with battle rifles at their specific range and do well in other situations as well. Where they excel is not unique to other guns. Their competition works at all their specific ranges and then some. In essence, the battle rifles are losing on what is intended to make them unique. They are likely built to be an alternative option to combat rifles at longer ranges especially, but the rifles/carbines are much more well rounded than the battle rifles, in addition to being equally competitive at BR range. So what can we do? My solution is to amplify their basic statistics for ranged combat and merge them with scout rifles. What will this do? 1. Diversify the said merger class: 4 classes capable of utilising a wide arsenal of scout rifles would be awesome to build the usefulness and flexibility of the weapon class, making it a much more attractive option for players. 2. Grant the weapon class a much-needed niche that automatics surely cannot fill. By extending the range much further than typical long-range automatics, we can build a true niche for the scout rifles. Scout rifles as a whole will provide better ranged performance than long-range rifles, but continue to be less effective at closer ranges/cqc. Battle rifles as a whole dont seem to fit right now. They were built as scout rifles and should work fine as them. If the merge could happen it would be awesome and could clear the confusion around the weapon class. Thoughts?
If they don't make the Battle Rifles behave like Battle Rifles (Burst and maybe even fully automatic mode) I would like to see a merge with scout rifles.
I think Battle Rifles are in a good spot mechanic-wise. The ranges I use them at, carbines, assualt rifles, ect are no danger to me. The only weapons capable of being a threat are Sniper Rifles. The issue with Battle Rifles is the range they are niche'd into are non-existent in bases. Bases need areas where there's 50-90m distances between cover and are NOT susceptible to vehicle fire. So the issue with Battle Rifles is base design. If base design isn't going to be changed, give them burst settings alongside burst weapon type accuracy when bursting with them. Will they be OP like that? Probably, but let them be OP for a bit. I doubt they'd still see widespread use.
Personally I think the problem is battle rifles have too high recoil for the damage they deliver. The need to control this huge recoil restricts Battle Rifles in niche of long range fights. There are many ways to fix this: - Increase damage. - Reduce recoil. - Reduce FSRM. - Add SPA and / or Advanced Laser Sight as attachments. Btw this would be a great opportunity to differentiate those weapons by applying buffs asymmetrically.
I'm fine with the semi auto function of the BR and the range advantage over auto weapons. But in real life they tend to have stopping power so awesome that body armour and even some forms of cover are no defence against them at closer ranges. I think this mechanic is missing from the game version.
Agreed. Battle rifles fire full-sized rifle cartridges, just like sniper rifles. It's one of their defining characteristics that separates them from carbines and ARs. Due to the nature of the PS2 world, we can't have them shooting through walls. However, I'd love them to be able to defeat body armour, which is why I made the suggestion to boost their damage to 313 in RadarX's Battle Rifle Thread. Why 313? That's the minimum damage needed in order to nullify the protection of Nanoweave Level5 when compared to the Battle Rifle's current damage. Right now, the BR's STK against standard infantry is 4 shots. If they have Nano5, it jumps to 6. But with 313 damage, the STK of both unarmoured and Nano5 targets remains at 4. It will also reduce the STK against a Shielded Heavy by 2 - from the current 8 shots, down to 6. If you combine this with a maximum damage range of 20m, Nano5 targets will take 5 shots to kill from 20-55m, and 6 shots beyond that. At the same time it extends the current 4 bodyshot kill against unarmoured infantry to the same 55m range. Same thing with the 2-headshot kill range, which currently is a lousy 8m (the length of a Harasser). Compared to now, this will in-effect allow BRs to defeat/negate Nano5 at short range, and reduce it at medium range, which IMO is a pretty good selling point and would give them a unique niche. Its extended 2-headshot kill range will also reward precision shooting over spamming at short/medium range, while still allowing SA Scout Rifles to retain their "2-headshot kill at all ranges" and "3-bodyshot kill <15m" adavantages over BRs.
