Infantry weapon changes - 12/12/2013

Currently on test server
A general balance pass has been done of all infantry weapons. The majority of weapons have been tweaked in small ways. The larger balance trends are listed below.

• Our data has shown LMGs performing too well at hip fire. In some cases they’re even outperforming assault rifles. We've done a global reduction to hip fire accuracy across all LMGs to make them more LMG-like.
• Assault rifle hip fire weapons have had their hip fire bonus reduced. They still have higher hip accuracy than the standard assault rifles.
• All laser sight attachments have had a small reduction to their hip fire accuracy modifier.
• 0.75x move speed weapons have been adjusted so that they have clearer tradeoffs for the move speed bonus. This generally means longer reloads and more recoil drift (to match them being the closer range variants).
• Carbines have had their minimum damage range brought in by 5 meters.

Coming later today:

• The hip accuracy penalty on LMG compensators is being reduced to match the new lower base accuracy of LMGs, though hip accuracy with a compensator equipped will still be lower than it is currently on live.
• We’re increasing the 1-shot kill range of bolt-action headshots (compared to the 150 meter limit currently on test). The maximum damage of bolt-actions had a slight drop to make the damage curve work, but reload speeds are getting faster to compensate. A general balance pass of all sniper rifles is happening so that their roles are better defined.

Edit: Actual sniper 1-shot headshot ranges below

• NC NC14 Bolt Driver & LA80 , TR M77-B & SR-7, VS XM98 & V10
  • 250 meter limit
• NC SAS-R, TR TSAR-42, VS Ghost
  • 200 meter limit
• NC EM4 Longshot, TR RAMS .50M, VS Parallax
  • 300 meter limit

Awesome.

This applies to NC LMG?

SOE your on a roll:

Don't overreact guys... Get on the test server and check out the changes before you malign the balances. LMGs should be used ADS most of the time, so its not a big deal, this just helps balance out when Heavies get jumped, they should not be able to hipfire their way to victory.

At least a buff in range came quickly, as I expected (because 150 meters was laughable). I still like to see some further testing with the ranges and perhaps add 50 meters across the board.

I think that would be the most comfortable place to have these weapons perform as they were designed.

I'm reasonably happy with the above changes, especially leaving snipers with some options for 300m headshots, as that's a good range to take on AV MANA users from in order to help protect allied vehicles from AV MANA fire (Something I've done before now, just add a silencer to create an increased bullet drop curve so the round angles over the turret instead of into it). It also helps to differentiate the bolt action sniper rifles by having different effective ranges.

NC LMG hipfire is already terrible...

Could you please elaborate? Is this weapons that modify your speed while you have them equipped?

I don't understand if this applies to all weapons across the board that affect the player's movement speed, or if it is the speed of the weapon itself.

Thanks!

THANK YOU JESUS. All of these changes are good.

He's talking about weapons like the Jaguar for the TR and the SVA-88 for the VS. Weapons where you only suffer a 25% movement speed penalty while ADS'ing rather than a 50% penalty.

There are a select few weapons in game which have a .75x movespeed modifier when aiming down the sights. Most weapons have a .5x modifier. When you aim down the sights with a .5x weapon you move at 50% your normal speed. With a .75x modifier you move at 75% your normal speed when aiming. The .75x movespeed weapons are being given some more drawbacks because currently they're easily some of the best weapons in game. Examples of .75x weapons are the TAR, GD-22, H-V45, Orion, SVA-88, Lynx, Jaguar, all NS rifles and all SMGs.

We'll see how this plays out.

Not a fan of the 'global nerf to COF' but a fan of the reduction of laser + hipfire weapons' dominance.

Looking forward to seeing it in game!

Edit:

Re: Edit:

Why can't the ghost be higher because of the lower lower power optics

I believe the OHK range increase is probably too much but I am glad you finally realise sniper tier HAVE to be different from one to another. That was my main problem with the sniper change.

Now... I'm curious about that hip fire nerf on LMG. Is the gauss Saw going to literally bend in a 75° angle considering that thing couldn't for the life of god hip fire? I would laugh quite a bit.

Remember, 300m is infantry render distance. You can't snipe beyond that and even if you could they wouldn't want you to be able to die to one shot to someone that wasn't even rendering, Don't forget how bad AV MANA turret from out of render distance was.

Attempting to fire a Gauss SAW in hip-fire will be like a child trying to use a fire-hose set to full pressure.

When I was a kid, that was all I wanted to do. Turn the fire-hose on at full blast and just fly everywhere. I might switch to NC if the effect is the same.

the one shot headshot ranges being longer is nice, but aren't they completely pointless?

come on, if you get headshot past 200-250m you can't say you don't deserve to die

I want to see a animation of a TR infiltrator picking this of a NC HA corpse and trying to use it and just flying off backwards with bullets flying indiscriminately in to random passing VS, NC and TR until he gets a weapon lock were he just falls to his death.