Longtime VS Player, observations on other factions

Not sure how you felt the NC's flying whale was equal to the Scythe, especially since there's the hard fact that Reavers have lower speed unless I'm misremembering the stock Scythe values. Otherwise the OP is pretty spot on as to what's the issue with NC. When enemies are pretty short range it's possible to hit them, but the uncontrollable recoil makes longer shots a pita compared to other factions who either have accuracy or raw bullet dumping. Besides the GD-7F that is, which is an incredible carbine capable of running similarly to the other faction firearms.

I don't have any experience with the AI nosegun for either the Scythe or the Reaver, but from what I've been told by other pilots the PPA is actually pretty meh as well until you've certed out the magazine capacity. Then that thing does work, as I have seen others do.

The Scythe ESW is incredibly meh. I've only had some success with it versus Liberators but even then the default nose gun serves fine there while being good against enemy ESFs as well.

Actually, the Reaver might have the best ESW of the bunch since it's pretty good Air vs. Air. Still pretty weak overall given how close you need to be and it does almost nothing to armor.

Sorry to derail this thread a bit like this but I have to respond to this!

So you have found a TR weapon that you feel is inferior to the other factions counterpart, what a sad day it is. All your carbines can fire 40 rounds before reloading, several times this fact alone kills me when fighting a TR and when playing as TR this has won me several fights and often against more than 1 enemy.

Funny how you seem to forget about this while comparing the weapons.

Thats the TR specific Advantage, Like the NC who get Harder hitting rounds.. These things are not shared with the exception of a small amount of weapons. The TR are about putting the rounds out at incredible rates, we have the fastest ROF with Class specific weapons until you get to the carbines which are the most used weapons due to Engineer and Light Assault both using them. I just struggle to see why we get a slower rate of fire despite sharing the same Recoil and COF stats.

Now if you look at the Assault Rifles for the Combat medic we have the ROF advantage but we are punished for this with longer reload times, more recoil, Slower ADS move speed, Bigger COF slower projectile velocity. Now before you start saying it is a bigger fire rate then the carbine situation, We have a 845 ROF were the VS and NC have 800 so again its the same ROF difference of 45RPM. Below are the 3 weapons i compared.

Again RPM is in red Recoil is in blue, this time projectile velocity is inn green and this time COF is Yellow and ADS move speed is purple

1 TRV TR AR0 0143 @ 10m125 @ 65m3.075s/4.1s402000.25 ↑ , ←18 ↓3x0.5x0.1/0.3/30.1/0.252.5/3/5/72/2.5ADS: 0.05, HIP: 0.1845 rpm55011.25

2GR-22 NC AR0 0143 @ 10m125 @ 65m2.31s/3.3s301500.22 ↑ , →18 ↓3x0.75x0.1/0.3/30.1/0.21.5/2/5/71/1.5ADS: 0.05, HIP: 0.1800 rpm60011.25

3H-V45 VS AR0 0143 @ 10m112 @ 115m2.55s/3.2s301500.2 ↑ , →18 ↓3x0.75x0.1/0.3/30.1/0.21.5/2/5/71/1.5ADS: 0.05, HIP: 0.1800 rpm5900

So now we can clearly see the stats we are comparing this time around the ROF advantage is given to the TR however for this advantages they get slightly worse COF when using ADS, and a significantly worse COF when firing from the hip infact it is almost Double that of the VS/NC weapons which have the slower ROF at 800rpm. The TR also get a slower ADS move speed whilst having 10 rounds more they take almost a full second longer to reload.

When the TR get a 45 RPM advantage they are penalized almost across the board on every other factor of the weapon. Yet when the NC/VS get the 45 RPM advantage the weapons share the stats of the slower TR weapon almost across the board (refer to earlier post)

Whilst you say i have found a weapon that is inferior the whole point is any weapon is viable and non provide a direct upgrade. How ever the NC/VS carbines that fire at 845 RPM are a direct upgrade to the TR carbine that can only manage 800 RPM. they have no more recoil, longer reload speeds, COF these stats are almost identical and within the same margine as the slow TR carbine.

Whilst we can maintain an additional 10 rounds we get longer reload speeds if rounds are left in the chamber. The only advantage you can realistically take from the increase magazine capacity is the ability to take out targets that have not noticed you quicker or when spraying against 1 target who is doing the same. However the latter is just a case of luck who gets the hits first wins. In almost 100% of circumstances in a 2 v 1 you are likely to die first, you may take one with you but unless the enemy are playing very badly the likely hood of you killing both if they know you are about is very slim.

Suprisingly the NC Carbine has the Fastest long reload speed and the middle short reload speed the VS get the longest fastest short but the longest long reload speed and the TR get the longest short and the middle reload speed. This comes at no suprise, having a bigger magazine capacity will result in rounds left over after a fight and players often choose to reload before moving on. The TR are more likely to have rounds left over due to the large mag capacity and thus get the longer reloads.

our 10 round advantage for the faction comes with disadvantages on every weapon. The same way the damage increase on NC weapons have downsides. These apply to all weapons except the weapons which ignore the faction advantages such as the TMG-50 which is a TR LMG with 50 round magazine but it has 167 damage instead of 143.

On the topic of the magazine size advantage the NC6 Gauss saw has the highest Damage round from an automatic weapon at 200 compared to 167 or 143 that the other factions can acheive. This weapon also comes with the TR magazine advantage holding 100 rounds the same as the Lower damage TR weapons and double that of the TR's hardest hitting LMG. Of course it comes with disadvantages slightly increased recoil, and a slower RPM.

The biggest difference I see between playing both VS and NC is the higher tiered weapons.

The higher tiered VS weapons
Very little recoil and
No bullet droppoff
Gain considerable damage

The higher tiered NC weapons
Alot of recoil
Bullet droppoff
Very little damage gain

I went the opposite way of the OP though and played NC first, then went to the VS side and was pretty shocked at the ease of firing the VS weapons.

Comparing weapons without noting things like the TR bonus of .75 movement speed when zoomed combined with reflex vs .50 ads movement speed, the larger magazine, larger default ammo and decent velocity is not really a comparison is it.

I have to agree with Stigler that simply comparing a few disparate stats while ignoring other, significant factors is rather short-sighted. An empire-specific advantage is still an advantage.

In regards to recoil: both the recoil amount and recoil patterns between VS and NC weapons are largely consistent with each other, with the exception of a few outliers on either side, VS posessing the low end and NC posessing the high end.

In regards to bullet dropoff: I find it makes almost no difference in my play at all except in regards to sniping, and even then VS SRs have bullet drop. Also, this is mitigated by the fact that NC weapons generally have the highest projectile velocity in the game, meaning you must lead moving targets less than other factions.

In regards to damage: while it is true that VS weapons generally scale better in damage, it is key here to remember that this is only true when you compare them to other VS weapons, not NC ones. Higher tier VS weapons still do the same damage as NC ones at close range. Not only that, but they do less damage at range, AND at shorter ranges than NC weapons (~75m for minimum dmg as opposed to ~115m). The only reason you might think that NC has very little damage gain is because base NC weapons are already in the highest damage class of their respective weapon types. Not only that, but the SAW is in a whole other class of its own, doing more damage than any other LMG in the game.

If you don't believe me, you can check the weapon data for yourself: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...true&sortcolid=6&sortasc=true&rowsperpage=250

I find it odd that I see this a lot from people that have not played much tread tanks. I played all three factions extensivly during beta. I have 2k + certs in every faction tank (back in early stages of beta 2k was a lot). I will admit when I first dealt w/ the tread tanks it threw me off but, after about a day of farting around w/ it I could run and gun quite easy.

I do agree that it is quite a bit easier to do on the mag but, It is far from impossible and becomes quite easy w/ practice. The Vanguard is a beast w/ the correct certs and can thrown down w/ any mag if they have a good crew.

Great post btw. I am glad that someone is giving an open view to the factions. It's refreshing.

Right. Except that the Vanu have more weapons with .75 ADS multiplier than any other.

Just to add a couple things to this comparison:

The NC full clip reload time is half a second faster than TR and .8 second faster than the VS, in this case. A sizable advantage in combat. Especially with such a fast firing weapon. (2.14 seconds to empty the clip of the NC and VS version and 3.00 seconds for the forty round TR clip or 2.26 if it were 30 rounds).

The serpent is the only VS carbine to recoil to the left. (Just a neat fact.)

The extra 10 rounds on the TR weapon means you can still shoot while others must run/reload/switch to pistol.

This is a medium range weapon, so VS no bullet drop and the different bullet speeds are not huge factors here.

All in all, they are just different flavors of the same gun. VS lower recoil helps with the long reload time. The TR get slower rpm, but can sustain fire the longest. NC get significantly faster reloads to compensate for higher recoil.

I personally use the VX-6 over the Serpent, and if I was able to choose between the Serpent and Lynx I would take the Lynx over it.

I use 1x reflex and soft point most of the time, the .75 ads move is my type of playstyle, I do not hip fire if I can help it. The default 450 velocity and 2x first shot is good also, makes for better controlled bursts, and the clip reload time is ok, but you have 10 more rounds and they do make a difference, as LA I run out of ammo a lot or just miss killing someone with the last rounds in a magazine.

Lets simplify all the nonsense the op was meandering about. Which weapons do you prefer NC, TR, or VS? You'll pick which ever weapons you are more successful with (give you an advantage). Here's a hint nobody in their right minds would pick NC (people do play NC...not because of superior infantry weapons). Simple fact is VS and TR weapons are better than NC. Whether its recoil, reload rate, rof, etc. etc. the other factions have an advantage.

In infantry fights do the other factions have an advantage over NC? Yes. The size of the advantage is of no consequence, it's there. That's how simple it is. Save your wall of text for something that's up for debate..

Throw out faction specific weapon perks entirely, make it all mirror, and maybe then the NC will shut up.....

Wait no, they will still complain. Nvm.

I'm nearly exclusively an NC player. When I first got into beta some of my guild mates were playing VS and some TR. These individuals established these allegiances when they played the original PlanetSide, however when we formed a group of Guild Members for PS2 it was concluded that we'd play NC.

This didn't create a lot of strife, but there were some divided loyalties. So, those players that liked VS and those players who liked TR started there own Outfits so that we could bounce back and forth just for variety. What stuck me immediately when I went from an NC Engineer to a VS Engineer was that the VS Engineer felt a lot more agile, dextrous, nimble, swift and was a great dodge/strafer.

The VS weapon felt as though it had a little less recoil, but I was most impressed with the survivability by virtue of how the VS moved. I was also impressed with the Scythe, that thing is incredibly maneuverable compared to the Reaver. The Scythe felt like a fine tuned sports car and the Reaver felt like a 4 door grocery getter.

What little I played of TR it felt more like NC as far as movement and weapon recoil. I suppose for me I like NC because the weapons feel more like what I'm use to in BF3, which has a good share or weapons with recoil. It really comes down to the player and what they are able to adapt too.

If the game is fun play, if you're having trouble find that sweet spot. You're going to win some and you're going to lose some.