NC win rates are dreadful

I don't know whether you're agreeing with me or protesting what I said. Please provide clarity.

Using an argument of convenience by arbitrarily assigning expies does not persurasion make. There's more to the historical conversions between normal bows and crossbows than merely operator training, especially since projectile mechanics, at those same distances where it would matter, don't significantly differ between the two until much further down the latter's development line. Eased training lead the way to its prolific adoption but the crossbow would still have to be useful against longbows before even being considered. The main benefit of crossbows over conventional bows is more likely related to how it trivialized suit armor in close quarters engagement since it provided adequate penetration and quick and compact striking power. In any case, neither faction actually has the "crossbow of history" as the benefits of our weapons are, ideally, arbitrarily split based on factional flavors.

Rifle is clearly better as it is versatile. Having shotguns only is a major drawback.

Leave armor alone please, armored units were tanks if applied to Planetside situation. Both crossbow and longbow were aimed at horse outside of "cqc" lol.

Harder to use but potentially better is the common theme on NC weapons. Easier to use with acceptable results always wins historically due to numbers. That is proved with current situation in PS2. Even if numbers are equal between sides side with easier to use weapon gets more succesful results per instance.

It's a large enough player base to absorb most per-user differences. What's left of player skill or teamwork differences might account for some small part of the discrepancy.

What we're really left with here is that the faction equipment is not balanced. Heck, it can't be. There is no way to achieve perfect balance without making all 3 factions perfectly identical. Someone has to come out on bottom and it's the NC. Always has been.

I play all 3 factions and this is apparent to me. It is what it is. /shrug. I still have fun playing NC though. That's what's important.

Still baffles me the SAW is the default for NC. Easily the least newbie-friendly weapon for infantry in the game and it reqires a hefty amount of certs to become good in the hands of someone who knows how to use it.

The HA is the cornerstone for infantry combat and both TR and VS get access to two really good LMGs straight out of the gate. Plus they are optimal choices for where most infantry combat takes place. Don't get me wrong, the SAW is a good weapon but it sure as hell isn't for someone who's just got into the game.

To be fair, asymmetrical balance can be achieved. Starcraft has done it but I suppose it's harder to replicate in FPS

100% Agree! Godsaw is a skill weapon and should have been a Cert unlock.
They did say with the latest livestream that Ambusher jetpacks were locked behind certs to discourage newer players from using them. the same should be said to Godsaw

It's frowned upon because it's the lowest common denominator or "stupid" way of playing, and it works pretty well. It supports solo lone wolfs in a supposed team game & makes co-ordinated play less valuable. The game also encourages it with redeploy so you don't have to worry about getting to fights at all, removing any need for interception like say some ESF hunting down galaxys trying to get to fights. An entire hoard of people can just spawn out of the magic boxes at any time, so the easy way to win is to normally bring the mindless hoard & camp the coming rival hoard in the box.

Killing spawns is normally the best way to kill zergs, as most are just solo players trying to play the game as it is designed, and will redeploy to the next zerg once the spawns are gone.

Yes Starcraft has indeed, as have multiple games.
It's not like balance needs someone to be shafted & screwed so the other two are balanced.
It's not a vengeful god seeking a sacrifice ffs, lol

Also It's Gauss Saw, but yeah, that thing isn't anywhere near New-player friendly. (Godsaw is the Directive unlock)
Which is counter-productive as well, given not is it harder, it's not even designed for the same range as the other two.

StarCraft doesn't have the complexity of this game. There really is no way PS2 can be balanced. I think they've done a great job but it's far from perfect. NC drew the short straw.

TR and VS got the best ESF. TR got the best MBT. TR got the best MAX. NC has the worst starting weapon for the primary class. It all adds up. On any given 1v1 any faction can win. Taken as a whole the aggregate difference adds up and you end up with win stats like we see.

Dev could do a little tweaking to help, but it's a hard balance to achieve and they could wreck it easily. I wouldn't mind if some rebalance put someone else on the bottom for a while though. If this seems unfair it isn't. It's already happening, just not to TR or VS.

Starcraft has 3 sides.
Each has their own weapons, strengths, and capabilities.

PS2 has 3 sides.
Not even do the three sides have completely different weapons or truly different capabilities.

NC doesn't get the best anything, but that is okay since both VS & TR have the ESF, TR has Max and tanks...
Not even in that example is the VS & TR balanced.

In the NC lack the capability to compete, no, not any faction can win.
The NC requires the others to let it.

Balance is not "All but this one avoids being slaughtered"

Actually, what you are seeing isn't who's better, but who's weapon arsenal is better suited to the game. Consider this first: We have multiple servers with different cultures (both ethnicity and way to play the game culture) behind them, and almost every single server shows the same trends. The one server that has 2x more TK's than any other server has this perplexing syndrome happen on all factions, but relative to how much their brethren on another faction TK. So it can't be that by some pure statistical magical number, an all servers just about the same amount of "outsmarting/outperforming/co-ordindating" players will join up with the right factions. The logical conclusion is that there's some constant that's affecting these things despite the server culture or average server skill: The weapon arsenal.

For example, the VS starter LMG is the easiest to pick up, while the NC starter LMG is the hardest. The total impact of the average playerbase is far larger than the impact of the elite playerbase (in fact the Chinese in WWII had the same problem, they had a group of far more experienced group of fighter pilots within their airforce but it was too small to truly impact the average battle), so if the average player has more trouble with one starter weapon than the other, then the team with the easier starter weapon will win, if only because the playerbase with the difficult starter weapon will have more trouble gravitating to the right weapon to combat the advantage.
Ofcourse, LMG's aren't the only ES starter weapons. There's the tanks, aircraft, Carbines and AR's as well. The total mixup of what the average player will have at hand will define how well each faction will do with them, and their final ability to handle them.

The big question is: Should Dev do something about it?

I think the general answer is: No.

Balance ain't perfect but it's close enough that it does not interfere with fun. That's key.

If there was one thing I would suggest it would be changing the default NC HA weapon. Don't invent a new one. Don't tweak stats on existing ones. Just issue a different gun like the LA1 Anchor.

Such a change might produce a noted improvement in average performance of the players without actually changing anything in regards to balance.

I think it has something to do with their Maxes, the Saw, and the empire specific launcher. From my experience NC seems to be less likely to pull armor and their stock Maxes are awful at suppression which is where it really matters. Ive seen countless NC Max crashes end in epic fail due to the crappy range and ammo count.

And the Saw is not a friendly weapon to beginners, you have to cert it quite a bit to get it in decent shape. Not to mention the empire specific launchers, Lancers and Strikers are viable while the Phoenix is pretty terrible.

Phoenix is a great AA weapon, In my expirience it always oneshots an ESF (never tested exact damage but ESF is rarely at full hp when A2G). But it lacks severely overall. 300m is just too little for a weapon which is good in groups only.

And NC Maxes do need mid-to-long range option. Slugs are just awful since you have to stay perfectly still and even then their DPS would easily be worst, I'm not even taking suppression factor.

The top of the hierarchy of this game is an airplane. and Anti-Air is tooooooooooooooooooo weak.
Inevitably ESF must be shot down with ESF. However, NC's Reaver is garbage.
That's all.
Wise players are slaughtering NC using Mosquito or Scythe. It's not only in Connery.

AA is not weak. It does its job of air deterrance.
And yes, Reaver is the worst of the bunch. However I see alot of Reavs in the sky recently. Flying Reaver like a year ago was lonely and depressing expirience.

Compared to AV and AI, AA is weak, as all it can do is drive the target away, not kill.
AV kills. AI kills.
AA drives the target away for the least certs, and no cost to target.
AV costs the target nanites & respawn time, in addition to travel time.
AI costs the target nanites if using \ used any Supplies, or if a Max, respawn time, and travel time.

AA is the weakest.
It also is the only weapon type, besides the few AI only weapons, that makes the user vulnerable severely to everything else.
While also still not able to be on par with AI vs Infantry, or AV vs vehicles.

Stop offtopic-ing to chase me with that crap. You dont fly, lets stop lying, so you dont know how things are. AA is obnoxious in abilities and numbers currently. For every 3 dudes you rocket pod you get +1 Burster or Skygard on the ground. At least dude 2 posts above you understands that it takes ESF to kill ESF, with or without AA.

Actually, on the topic, can anyone tell me, with some thought on their words, what NC have that can be considered OP?

Phoenix nest, in concept, but thats 6-8 men out of frontlines and it takes alot of team work.

Please, something actually OP. And dont use word "shotgun" for saint Higby's sake.

because all of NC weapons just plain sucks, NC can only win by numbers and nothing else, you re better of using NS or NSX weapons than any of their theme craps
very low fire rate combined with high recoil, who ever came up with that idiotic design??
a flying brick called reaver with please shot me down asap sign
a siting duck vanguard that can use shield for few seconds then die
all of their anti infantry weapons on vehicles sucks aswell compared to other 2 factions
NC has literally nothing except sometimes numbers but weapons shouldnt be balanced around numbers...

Only AA is Deterrence, everything else in game is kill.
Stop blowing yourself. You happy, I said it.
AA is reactive, in order to not die repeatedly, they pull AA, and only after half the base is AA does the aircraft leave.. and still alive.
You take half the numbers needed for AA, into AV, and any tank is dead in a moment, not retreating, just dead.
So Obnoxious, it doesn't work - For the same numbers, You can use a rifle and get the same results.

If Only an ESF can kill an ESF regardless of AA, then there is an issue.
You do not need any vehicle to kill a vehicle.
Nothing but aircraft need not only dedicated weapons, but the same vehicle as the target to kill the target.
With the entire dedicated weapon, not even being needed at all if using aircraft.
AV works regardless of platform, without needing vehicles.
AI works regardless of platform, without needing infantry.
AA apparently needs aircraft, which alone do not need AA to kill aircraft.

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On the original topic;
NC's scat maxes, are usually considered OP due to the 'damage' in CQC. (Yes, that's a shotgun, but that's all NC has for Max AI)
Ignoring the entire issue of range, ammo issues, RNG, etc ofc.
And is the literal complaint I hear constantly about NC.

Otherwise, It's basically Clusters of Phoenixes from spawn-rooms usually.
But it's rare, and not usually mentioned with the same frequency.

Numbers are the same and weapons is clearly not balanced by numbers as they should be.
Maybe in a tournament situation NC weapons would be better. In causal zerg they are way worse. "Harder to use but potentially better" concept doesnt work for zerg strength.

Reaver should recieve plain 30% hp advantage. This was voiced more than once.
Im not into tanks much, but shield is good to survive focus while backing off to repair. But nothing much above that really.