At the moment the NC have a serious problem when fighting as infantry. There are some bases that are simply impossible to take again equal numbers of similarly skilled/organised opponents. Why? Because our MAXs have a serious damage projection problem. For example, I was fighting against Vanu at Snake Look Ravine on Indar today and we lost because of our MAXs. The battle was fairly large, hovering around a platoon for each side (50%-50%) pop split. However we were getting hammered. This was not due to the tactical acumen of the Vanu. Rather it was an inability to compete with the VS MAXs' area control. While we could smash some VS MAXs by charging up to their lines, our MAXs quickly died in their midst. They ressed theirs and ours were left dead in the middle of their lines. So even though we pulled the same number of MAXs, had the same number of people, had the same degree of coordination we were smashed. Without the ability to project damage beyond 10m we could not even pressure their lines. Normal infantry simply evaporate in battles like that and cannot provide the same degree of effectiveness per-person. This asymmetry is exceedingly detrimental to the infantry abilities of the NC. Yes, I think that asymmetric balance could be achieved but it would require some serious changes in MAX balance philosophy. NC MAXs could be made faster or more armored than their counterparts so that they can close more easily. This would be a difficult thing to balance as both speed and armor have shown to be very powerful levers in MAX balance. I personally wouldn't mind seeing NC MAXs gain more speed so that they are only slightly slower than an infantryman. Another option would be to buff the Aegis into a proper pushing tool. This would mean buffing the move speed up to MAX normal and giving it a bit more coverage so that people can push up behind it. In exchange perhaps the ability to continue a reload with it up might need to be removed. The other group of balance options are to make MAXs more symmetric. One option to achieve symmetry would be to buff slugs so that they were competitive with the VS/TR MAX AI. This would be unfair to the TR/VS unless they got their own shotgunesque ammo (Maelstrom Ammo: +500% damage +400% spread -90% clip size). The other would be to introduce NS MAX AI shotgun, chainguns and maybe even the mythical flame thrower. I personally favor the symmetric balance options because NC MAXs are still a pain to go up against as inf and simply buffing them threatens a return to the HackMAX glory days. However there does need to be a balance pass for the NC MAX because at the moment it is under performing in important tactical roles.
Still OP at 10m and below (which is where maxes are most useful anyway), not bad at 15m, need a slightly better option beyond that.
Yeh buffing the aegis gets my vote. Allow running with it, and also give it some melee damage capability.
You are attacking one of the better defensive bases in the game against equal numbers and think that MAX's are the answer? Did you have air superiority? Why didnt you shell the base with vehicles? If you had air superiority, you should have gotten 3-4 HA lightnings and nuked the defenders into the base and then pushing in your MAX. Or you could have done the easy one: Get a galaxy, 4-5 LA with C4, drop C4 on the frontline, then immediately push with the MAX's. Only takes 8-10 guys on vent to break an enemy line, then the pugs will follow.
Oh, I agree completely. The way to win that fight would have been teamwork. The problem is that we couldn't form a effective defensive line to hold the point with our MAXs where as they could. We could have won the battle with teamwork, but we should be competitive with the same amount of team work as an force of equal numbers (not much). As it was we got stomped hard. If the NC can only be competitive against equal numbers at more open bases by being better organised then that is a problem, especially since we're no longer the undisputed kings of biolabs.
