So, the title. I personally think that LMG balance is rather a mixed bag full of insanely good stuff like CQC LMGs and then filled with a lot of lackluster guns (Pulsar LSW, TMG-50, Flare VE6, EM1/Polaris/T16 Rhino..) and has been for a while a mixed bag with little to no variety. So let's get to the topic. I'd first like to see starter LMG changes. The NC6 Gauss SAW bare-bones is an awful gun, bullets don't go where you aim, and until you get the wombo combo the gun will suck. So, I'd honestly say that either GD-22S, EM6 or NC6S Gauss SAW S would be good replacements, due to not sucking bare bones and being all-round good LMGs. For VS, I'd say that Orion is too good of a starter gun and needs to be swapped with SVA-88, while Orion is a cheap sidegrade. If that happens though, I'd like a vertical recoil buff to SVA-88, since the need of a compensator on that gun is huge. I personally think that CQC LMGs are over-preforming by a long mile and are in general too good at ranges they're not meant for. They also kill the most on all BR100 charts and are stats-wise the best as well (Fastest fire rate, fastest reload and good accuracy with no drawbacks). So I'd say that a small (with an emphasis on SMALL) CoF, CoF bloom, recoil and damage drop-off nerf will keep the CQC LMGs in line with others. And lastly and most importantly, I would love to see trash, sub-par and uninteresting copy-paste LMGs changed to be better and more unique. There are at least 2 guns in each arsenal that are absolutely the same but just have a few almost unnoticeable stats changed. I can't wait for the EM1/Polaris/T16 Rhino buff you advertised during the LMG changes, and pretty much 75% of LMGs deserve similar treatment. And how can I forget... a T9A Butcher and GODSAW buff (With an addition of an directive ES trait, of course!) If there was ever an award for the most unsatisfactory directive weapon award ever, the Butcher would get it no problem. the GODSAW is good, but lacks some "oomph" to it. Thanks for reading.
LMGs should be a relatively niche support weapon instead of the go-to choice in PS2. They should be terrible at running and gunning, and instead really only be useful when firing from crouched and still positions. Moving while firing and hipfiring should be rather terrible. Essentially, almost all LMGs should work like the Gauss SAW. This means that the HA will be more of a specialist class than the "good at everything" class.
Yep: mobility and hipfire accuracy shouldn't really belong to LMGs, and should instead be something for carbines. But I don't think any possible LMG tuning patch will go that deep. I'd be satisfied if devs just pushed live the LMG tuning patch they had on PTS, leaving Orion and Betelgeuse as they are: it would at least give some tweaks to weapons that are clearly not in the right position. Then, on top of that, Butcher and Godsaw need their unique mechanic that can be extended to all faction special weapons (Malorn's idea of the spin-up for TR like the MCG was so cool...).
Dayum, I like it! I think that a game that has done something similar well was... Call of Duty : Black Ops 2. Assault rifles were decent at everything, but good at nothing. They were better at CQC than LMGs and snipers, but worse than SMGs and shotguns. They were also better at range than SMGs and shotguns, but worse than LMGs and snipers. LMGs were "Hold the point!" guns. They were meant to hold the line and beat the bulk of the enemy force, but were horrible at run and gun, so bad that you may as well be better off quickscoping with a sniper. But when the machine was set up and done? R.I.P enemy team. It was a high risk/high reward gun, high recoil was rather annoying, but once you master it it's really good. PS2 could borrow some of that for the betterment of the game. Considering the Directive guns, the GODSAW and others can get a reverse spin-up, the longer it fires, the slower it fires, but it also does more damage and is more accurate the longer you fire. TR can get... the spin-up? I mean, dat dakka!
BF2142 had this mechanic with their LMGs. The longer you fired, the more accurate it became. Also going prone had significant benefits to it. There's a reason after all why in BF the LMG-carrying class is called "Support".
I play primarily heavy, and to me, one of the nice aspects of an LMG is the large ammo capacity. Even the 50 round LMGs give a huge benefit when engaging multiple targets and allow for a lot more flexibility in choosing to fight/run. This is especially important where at medium ranges where it is going to take minimum 6 body shots to kill someone, more if they have nanoweave, medkits, or HA shield. Combining all of those, there have been a few cases where I have shot a person 10+ times and they were still standing. I think the relatively high shots to kill makes accuracy for things like carbines a bit more punishing than they should be, especially like the AC-X11 which only has 24 rounds. I think since this game has the relatively high shots to kill, the default weapon should have 35-40 rounds instead of only 30, which I think would help a lot with other classes fighting heavies.
TR: if its not the MSWR or the Carv its garbage NC: if its not the Anchor its garbage VS: anything but the Ursa is good
especially on my vanu char i have to think very often: "only 5 more rounds, only 5 more round for gods sake" because the 143*30 is often enough not enough to kill a medkit spamming ha
I've recently been starting to put some time into my HA, and after testing out various weapons in the VR I bought the Bull (TR). I run it with high velocity rounds to avoid it affecting accuracy, the forward grip instead of laser sight because I always ADS and rarely hipfire and finally the NV scope, well, because I'm an NV ***** and use it on everything. This setup makes me feel all Vanu inside, because the bullet spread/grouping/accuracy is way too damn nice!
Better to compare CQC LMGs to CQC ARs and Carbines. CQC LMGs work as pretty decent guns at medium range but all CQC ARs/Carbines were nerfed in the past to keep them in SMG ranges (accuracy and damage falloff nerfs).
