[Suggestion] Is it time to Buff VS?

I play on Miller and at the moment we have between 16%-30% and can get as high as 35% but this is rare and normally when TR or NC get bored and swap over.

Everyday I log on to find the same maps with a distinct lack of purple on them and an ocean of blue or red but being true to my spandex brothers I will fight to the end.

What is the problem with VS pops why don't people play VS is it political to some players and colours do mean something like I see a lot of French and Brits in blue and eastern Europeans in red.
Or is it simply that VS weapons are not good enough to hold back the hordes of NC players that plague our server.

What can DB do to make VS more attractive to play , Yes we look great when we die but fashion isn't everything.

That's just it - you don't look great, you look godawful and are devoid of any 'oomph' whatsoever (Saron aside). All VS ought to sacrifice their firstborn to Papa Vanu in return for Player Studio cosmetics.

I have yet to see any decent Player Studio VS design. I picked VS "coz of reasons" and am fine with it but I often envy other factions cool armor/weapon designs.

Other problem is that any VS specific trait weapons had is long gone, no bullet drop is not important in 99% fights anyway but at the same time nothing has been given to replace what was lost.

Some time ago I would have been against it, but nowadays I believe all VS small arms ought to get that no-drop bonus. A mild overall buff to long range accuracy. Granted, that would make VS Sniper Rifles way easier to use and thus more dangerous, but I could live with that. TR/NC SRs could get a miniscule velocity buff to compensate, or some such.

The problem is VS weapons are with a few exceptions very bland and samey and in some categories even NS beats the VS weapons as best in slot. This leaves NC with the best selection of infantry weapons while TR has ton of ammo to shot all day long with and still better variety than VS. VS speciality weapons (Lancer, Lasher, Spiker on alt fire etc.) are all built around being powerful if you bring ten of your friends shooting at the same target while NC/TR counterparts works just as fine single as in a group. Add in broken abilities such as ZoE (broken as in running nothing is better alternative).

Then you move to vehicles and while Magrider is hands down the most fun "tank" it's also the least useful tank. The way to use Magrider as every TR and NC main likes to point out is to sneak behind the enemy and shot them in the back using that fabled wall climbing skills (nerfed to high heavens) or to stand off at 250m+ (minimum distance to actually dodge a mid body shot); which leaves VS without a proper pushing tank compared to the other factions while at the same time being the slowest, weakest armoured with the worst driver gun to go with it (lowest DPS, slowest bullet, lowest gun placement) with the only non combat related MBT ability.

ESFs have every side arguing why their side is the weakest but the Scythe is pretty much dead if caught with a light PPA by other air; at least the other have a chance to defend themselves with primary weapon due to much improved bullet speed (TR) and ttk (NC) while VS puts on a light show in the sky. Same with ground secondary weapons; TR murders everyone pretty much instantly with AV mounted weapons as does NC while VS needs pin point accuracy with their AV weapons on infantry needing 3+ shots or have big slow "I can kill you if you go afk only" orbs anyone can dodge.

In summary VS lacks a proper reason to pull VS only weapons as most are simply weaker clones of NC/TR weapons without anything unique (that actually has an impact in battle) or require coordination from a platoon to be effective. Added in the vehicle VS only weapons tend to be very limited in their actual use beyond primary ability (i.e. AI/AA/AV) compared to NC/TR weapons and VS MBT is not a MBT but a harasser with two weapons at triple the cost meaning VS lacks the vehicle push ability of other factions. There's a reason VS is called the NS faction because between vehicles and weapons we got more best in slot in NS than any other faction.

Only VS can cherry pick stats and traits to the level seen around here.
Victimised mentality the lot of you.

I think at this point higby was right about you lot.....

It really comes down to only two things why VS is and always was the least played faction worldwide. The second point is the consequence of the first one.

1. The "Sci-Fi-Look" and weapons aren't appealing to a lot of players. Most players rather like more realistic looks and weapons.

2. To deal with the often followed up underpop you need more organization, more skill and teamplay, than you need in the other factions to be effective.

This game simply is about numbers. If you don't have the numbers you will have a really hard time.


Logged in on my VS-Character on Miller right now. Nearly Prime-Time and 26% worldpop for VS. Yeehaa. TR 37% and NC 37%.

That's not true for both the Striker and the Phoenix, which necessitate teamplay in order to be effective.

Coincidentally - that's how most Prowlers and Vanguards roll as well. Flanking almost always wins over a slugmatch in this game.

Slowest - yes, by a laughable margin. Weakest armored? False. The Magrider has armor equal to that of the Prowler. Worst driver gun - true.

The LPPA is the best Infantry farming weapon in the game, bar none.

I'll just skip over that part because it amounts to unsubstantiated garbage.

I'd totally dig a sci-fi look, but the VS don't look futuristic - they look like ****.

I've noticed that too - I assumed some big outfit had quit or something. I play all factions but it is hard to find a decent fight when I log into VS at the times I normally play unless it is a last ditch, failed attempt to stop a base being overrun.

I'd make a small wager that more people would play VS if they looked seriously alien like the tech-loving wierdos they (we) are e.g. something like the Borg Collective and toting weapons that make a noise like a roaring furnace instead of a weedy pew pew sound

Kinda depends on range limitation - I now use the XM98 SASR exclusively when sniping as VS - it kills at insane ranges because no drop (still need 3 or 4 hits at long range like the other SASRs but it works somehow). I regularly pick off people in one base from the neighbouring base. I would exclude BASRs from the no drop idea - they are just as good as the other faction equivalents imo.

That said, I do find VS auto weapons a bit disappointing much of the time - maybe because less RoF than TR and less dmg than NC (except for the Orion wiht it's 750 rpm).

But why do i NOT see Lancers as much as i see Strikers or Phoenixes? To be honest i can't remember when i saw a Lancer heavy the last time. But i see Striker and Phoenix heavies all the time around. Strange... May it be that a single Striker and single Phoenix is often more useful and more effective, than a single Lancer?

The difference is: With a Magrider you ALWAYS need to flank, or you are dead if you try to go head on head with a Prowler or Vanguard.

When I first played the game I only played VS. I loved them, it felt like a supreme faction who always had the upper hand since I found myself in a lot of long distance fights. Unfortunately (and fortunately cause when I first started some stuff was horribly balanced) the VS are not special anymore. I don't know what changed but it seems TR and NC weapons are easy as hell now to use. This is why you can see from my signature that I haven't updated, I don't play my VS guy anymore.

I say give them no bullet drop on everything like someone above me stated. That will bring players back, a lot will end up as infiltrators though so be warned. Don't start nerfing stuff again though. When I first started a couple years ago NC was absolutely unplayable. The weapons were so weak, no one wanted to be NC.

on cobalt for a looong time last year VS was the dominant faction
having several large zergfits simply roll over whatever continent the alert was on.
now-a-days all 3 factions have large zergfits and the zergiest faction seems to be random chance when you log on!
even NC have zergfits on cobalt now!

Unless you dodge a single round from an enemy tank by strafing, which is incredibly easy to do considering how slow tank shells move. 300 m/s is a joke. Middling velocity WW2 tank guns were 800 m/s.

Also the ease of flanking with the Magrider is insane. I wish I could get onto crazy hillsides like Magriders could. Tank combat in PS2 is all about positioning and dodging, both things the Magrider is excellent at comparatively. The Prowler will pop Sundies far away much easier, the Vanguard will win in a drive-around-corner-and-run-into-enemy-tank fight, but the Magrider wins everything inbetween, which I find to be more important. If a Magrider knows where you are, he can flank you, and will. If you try to flank, he'll set up somewhere quicker than you and kill you. If you run, you're dead, guaranteed. He can chase you and run away at will.

VS need a different color. Make us black and green, change nothing else.

To the guy that said we had lower ROF... Serpent, HV45, VX6-7, Orion, Sirius...wouldn't trade any of those for a single TR weapon. They're superior in everyway except magazine size. NC weapons are a completely different beast but I like VS high ROF weapons better, would kill for an EM6 or SAW equivalent though.

Magrider is the best infantry killer out there. VPC and PPA, won't kill an MBT with it, but it wrecks face, especially seat swapping solo. AV magrider is alright, just need to play peak a boo with it and forget playing solo.

Lasher is the best heavy weapon. It's the only heavy weapon that doesn't share a niche with other weapons. MCG is a cooler sounding less accurate LMG, Jackhammer is a shotgun that performs slightly different/better.

Personally I like ZOE. It's situational but I've never lost an AI/AI MAX battle using ZOE and even kill AI/AV MAXs pretty easily with it. I almost think the ZOE damage ignores resistance. Dont forget burster tracers from ZOE are just so pretty....8P. For what it's worth we have the smallest MAX by a pretty good margin. Hit boxes might be the same but we're not quite the lumbering hulk bullet magnets that TR and NC are.

Lancer, it's not awful exactly but personally I hate it, it's better than the Phoenix imo, but much worse than the striker.

Scythe is good. I think giving it the largest bottom profile (looking up at it from the ground) was a bad idea since the other 2 factions have better MBT guns for picking off ESF to begin with. Having it take of and flip after landing is a real PITA and the only reason I would say it's worse than the other 2 ESF. Also wtf DEVs, why can't we toggle between Hover and Flight mode?? You know how much better flying in this game would be?

On a whole I really like VS. Just wish they weren't purple, I think all our faction woes originate from the color purple. Cause overall our weapons aren't underpowered maybe even better than the other 2 factions. If we ever had the same amount of assets you'd see that pretty clearly, but pop>all.

The fact that "no projectile-drop" has been suggested for all weapons twice already shows what direction this thread is going in fast.

VS Max hitbox is indeed smaller than TR and NC maxes.

Want a reason? I played only VS for over 2 years with an outfit, after coming back i started an NC character and now i play only NC. And there is a reason behind it.

The weapons in the game are heavily made towards specific faction design goals. There are practically no weapon that match the weapon feeling of other factions. NS weapons solve this to some degree. Now i realy enjoy the NC weapon design (including the sound) and the handling fits my playstyle better. In years they never added weapons that mimic the designs of otehr factions closer so you eitehr like what is available or you dont.

The MBT. Hands down on this one, the Magrider is very very special in its design and capabilities. You either like it or you dont like it. I dont like it, the traditional tank style is what i like more. On top of it the Magrider has the annoying fact that it slides down practically everywhere when you try to repair it.

So overall they never added some weapons that are closer to other factions, they never made the NS MBT, no different playstyles where realy supported, so i switched to a different faction because they got stuff that is more fun to use for me.

State of Miller atm.

Indar, VS 26% TR37% NC37%.

Esamir. VS15% TR42% NC42%.

Logged into Esamir we had six regions left VS 0 points TR10 points NC 12 points and its not been open that long for all the debate about weapons or vehicles there is something seriously wrong here with balance.

People arnt playing VS its as simple as that probably down to reasons already stated in the thread there not appealing enough look wise and there weapons well just are not very good apart for a few exceptions.

If people think this is a VS whine thread forget it the numbers don't lie.

Truer words have never been spoken

http://www.ps2alerts.com/#victory-timeline


... and they say VS does just fine. In fact, it's the best on Miller. Across all servers, they're up 37.2 to TR's 35.3. Don't even look at NC's.