I was thinking about the Vanu and how their weapons should have no recoil, like no gun jumping but still have random bullets after shooting for a while because the NC have high damage, TR has the fastest guns, and VS only have no bullet drop and one more idea. What if the vehicles for the Vanu were all floaty like the mag rider science they have alien stuff but, I mean it just a couple of ideas.
But no drop on VA98, Obelisk and Eidolon are tremendous for long range shooting. There is also heat mechanic on some weapons, including the Obelisk again, unstable ammo on the Maw and the new SMG and the low recoil/quick reloads on other weapons. It is a shame though, that each faction only has one ES vehicle. Another one would be nice, including a floaty one for Vanu
No bullet drop is already an insane advantage. It literally just lets you click heads, and you don't need to compensate; your projectiles will all go towards your crosshairs. The heat-for-ammo mechanic is also uniquely VS, and is a major advantage when ammo is somehow scarce. And @Eternaloptimist it's two ES vehicles if you count the ESFs as well as the MBTs. But yes, we need the ES buggies and AMS vehicles re-added.
good that not a single one of the weapons you listed are useful. the only weapon that is somewhat viable where it is useful is the Phaseshift. well and the saron. and why the **** are talking about UnZOEble ammo? it is literally a self nerf now, just like ZOE itself. and while UA being crap is fine i guess, having only self repair or extra ammo for the MAX is hugely detrimental, especially with the dominance of the NC MAX. and while i love my quick reloads, you are forgetting that NC have almost the same reloads on small arms for increased damage per mag. all in allVS simply suffers from not having anything for many important niches because of gimmicks
Calling the Phaseshift viable now... He's listing VS-specific ES locked capabilities. Did you notice the Infinite ammo? That was a hint. As well, NC & TR do not have as many fancy tools in the box. ZOE itself.. yeah expanded bullet-size is certainly akin to a near-suicide-button.. What in hell? I guess since it was nerfed from head-shots-for-days to something sane, that previously turned a crap gun into a head-shot machine, It might be related to ZOE, in how BS it was; Except it's not actually negative to the weapon, unlike ZOE. Like you **** on NC for acting like NC has nothing, with 'tons' of 'firepower', 'weapons' While literally saying VS has nothing for important niches because of gimmicks.. What is having only Short-ranged shotguns? Apparently not a Gimmick, while having Only shotguns for numerous entire slot options. When is having infinite-ammo all over the place, as an ES special, a gimmick locking important niches? What exactly is the gimmick VS has, that blocks important niches? Is it lack of bullet-drop all but a few weapons? I doubt it. Is it, the infinite-ammo? That's literally on numerous weapons, from snipers to assault rifles.. so doubtful. Is it, the ample splash? Good Question. What is VS's gimmick stripping them of important niches? I hope it isn't a short-range low-magazine, long-reload limitation.
I love how my infinite ammo allowed me to kill my enemy faster... oh wait. all unstable ammo does is all but remove headshot damage. period. thats it. the increase in projectile size from 1cm to 3cm is so great that it indeed ruins the entire game... oh wait, it doesn't change anything. it only reduces headshot damage. it LITERALLY is ZOE. What is having short ranged weapons? i don't know, maybe the hipfire only MAX weapons TR and VS have? what is the range you usually engage with in hipfire with a carbine without lasersight? 100m? 200m? oh wait, it's 10m, 20m max. you know, like the scattermax. There is nothing that BLOCKS niches. there simply is nothing that FILLS niches. But you would know that if you weren't so dumb.
If killing power was it.. AV Mode that NC finally got, has the inverse. Infinite-Ammo is a massive advantage, let alone with the ability to dodge any reload period, and having no need for engineers. This is a consistent perk, unlike TR & NC, who have no such actual perks or traits added on top of general weapon stats. Unstable Ammo, allowed head-shots, at full. The weapons with it, received a slightly reduced headshot multiplier, it did not remove headshots. As well, Nothing for NC or TR, is even close to either of these two things alone. Given ZOE Increases damage-taken by the MAX unit, and Unstable-Ammo increases the odds of hitting the target at the very least.. They're vastly different. A gimmick; NC's gimick, is close-range shotguns. It's the heavy-weapon, the ES Pistol, the ES ESF Weapon for AI, the ES AI Weapon for Vehicles, it's also the only weapon for AI Maxes. Now THAT is a gimmick. You have splash-weapons, aka the Lasher, that fills a Niche. All sides have shotguns, expect on Maxes, that fill a close-range high-damage output niche. All sides have sniper-rifles; VS has 1 with bolt-action that has infinite ammo, and no drop. NC's is a delayed shot, and TR's is a joke. All sides have LMG's, with VS's scoring the highest reliably. Which Nich is VS missing? AV? No. AI? No. AA? No. Close-range: No. Long-Range: No. Medium-Range:No. Upfront damage dealer: Lots of that in VS. Precise Shooting: Lots. Multi-Target: Many. TR & NC have the same niches', and VS has extra tools providing more. NC & TR, do not have a Splash-spammer. NC has a Guided-Missile, TR has an AA Proximity-Fuse Launcher, VS has a charge-AV weapon. VS isn't stuck out of any Niche in the game, they have every weapon type past the ES Launchers. And have their own ES Launchers, and ES tricks. What VS is lacking, is the ability to one-up every aspect of TR & NC. What Niche can VS not fill? VS has the most actual options: TR has mostly near identical weapons, NC has 2 types of weapons. VS has dozens.
I played this game since Alpha Squad, I have always thought that one of the biggest cop outs is the lack of empire specific vehicles. I personally think the only vehicle that should be the same across faction is the Sundy and possibly the Galaxy. I guess its down to how damn difficult it would all be to get balanced though right? :S
well you also think that the trap is still bad so do you even try to have any understanding of weapons? like seriously you are so out of touch with the actual balance of the game it hurts. Unstable ammo ONLY gives negatives ZOE ONLY gives negatives do you see a pattern? equipping and activating ZOE removes the VS MAX entirely from it's ability to attack or hold points. the TR lockdown mode, as limited in use as it is, atleast gives it a boost to defensive power (which is quite useful afterall, if you pushed a point you then have to hold it for the next 5 minutes) while the NC Shield is just straight up the best MAX ability in the game for pushing and the scatterguns are straight up the best MAX guns in the game for room clearing and killing people trying to push you. AV the VS fills with variants or NS weapons AA the VS use the Lancer because the lancer is NOT an AV weapon anymore. AI the VS use the kobalt Close range the VS use the same as every other faction Long range the VS use the same carbon copy sniper rifles as every other faction Multitarget the VS use straight up slower killing guns than every other factions wanna know something fun? the best way to buff the lasher is to add bullet drop to it. that is how useful the no bullet drop perk is. same for the PPA. it is actively detrimental for one of the 7 weapons that actually benfit from it. Lancer? it would drop 2m within it's effective range if it had bulletdrop, not noticeably at all. the only guns that actually benefit from it are the eidolon, which noone uses, the phaseshift, which noone uses, the Obelisk, which noone uses and the Saron... oh wow, we have ONE gun that actively benefits from no bullet drop and actually has an influence on the battlefield! time to nerf it i guess! not to mention that NC literally has the biggest variations of Damage of ROF models of any faction in the game while VS is highly limited to 143 and 167 damage guns only.
though i believe the vs does need some massive updates, a floating vehicle isnt such a good idea because of the massive disadvantage at longer ranges accuracy. implementing some more agility wise perks to vehicles though might be interesting
Having no Bulletdrop is only good for Sniper rifles which VS has only the Phaseshift...every other rifle are semiautomatic. Having no bulletdrop on carbines, AR,LMG,SMG etc sounds cool on paper but there is to consider that those weapons are not accurate enough to shoot that far (except maybe AR's) and there is also the Max Dmg range of each weapon... Having no bulletdrop on SMG sounds cool but if it sprays like hell and doesn't do any damage in range...the trait gets useless
One more thing what if the Vanu had faster reload time because like its a battery, not like a magazine with bullets inside maybe like .5 second or .7 second shorter reload time, and if the bullet velocity was faster then bullets but I mean just a couple of ideas.
The Vanu already have comparatively shorter short reload times up against their weapons' other faction equivalents and, at worst, the same long reload time as the equivalent NC weapon (leaps and bounds over the TR's short and long reloads, though). Edit: okay, that's twice I've done this now. I need to come up with a counter-suggestion soon or I'm going to start feeling bad.
My experience of using VA98, Eidolon and now the new Obelisk is very good. But I respect the fact that the experience of other may differ. I've only just purchased the Maw and so I acknowledge that I haven't tried out UA yet - although I wasn't commenting on effectiveness, just the ES nature of VS gear in response to the OP. I'm pretty sure the VA98 SASR has no bullet drop, so do both VS BRs. Certainly seem to behave that way when I use them. I've found both BRs to be very effective at medium and long range due to this, both in their own right and by comparison to the visible bullet drop on the TR and NC equivalents.
All Bolt action sniper rifles from all 3 factions have the same stats...just different looks. Exceptions are the ES snipers: Phaseshift VS Trap TR Railjack NC
SOE actually started with the idea of making most vehicles ES. For example the Liberator was (as far as I can tell) supposed to be an NC aircraft. Aside from balance it would be incredibly hard to create 3 distinct weapons. SOE and early DBG both used the logic "for each 3 ES weapons we build, we could have build 3 NS weapons instead". They are now changing this tune and offering more ES weapons by introducing ES Flash weapons and battle rifles. This is what I think they should do: keep all the NS stuff, but add ES bits to them. So the VS Lightning has access to a few (!) weapons that the TR and NC dont have. Add unique ES stuff to other things too. Think a Lightning performance slot which says "this thing hovers now" (but you have to pick it instead of rival/racer chassis), or an ES ability for the Harasser/lightning/Flash etc. It would make the entire faction more unique but it doesnt have to be extremely different. For example each faction gets one ES long-range AV weapon, one mid-range and one CQC. If the VS long-range is strong (not OP, strong), then the TR could have a strong CQC and the NC a strong mid-range weapon. Making sure that if mid-range combat is the norm that its not as much stronger as the other two variations.