FIrst, this is from TR point of view, as I play them exclusivly, but I guess it applies to all empires. Secondly, this is probably mentioned already but its an issue so ill post it again just for the hell of it. The issue being how to make max weapons balanced so they are usable as single yet not overpowered as dual. In its current state, they seem utterly useless when singlewielded. I havent tried them dualwield yet but i recon then they might become useful. I know the devs seems fond of having maxes with different weapons on each arm, they talked warm about it during beta, but if they want it they have to make them usable. But buffing these weapons might make them too OP when dualwielding them, so how would you solve this problem? I was an avid max player during beta and went through all stages of them but compared to then, now they seem like a complete waste of time and resources.
Honestly I think they're assuming that any time you need to swap roles you can just go to a terminal and change your loadout to get different guns without spending more resouces/cooldown. No point in balancing the game around one arm each when you allow players to swap them freely.
I think the best way to do it would be to take out the option to use two of the same weapon. Make it so you have to have an AI weapon on 1 arm and an AV or AA on the other. I really don't see any other option. It would be nice to have a weapon on the max that was at least on par with a Heavy assault's machine gun. Right now a max is only decent at point blank range with an engineer glued to its butt. The hardest thing about balancing the max is that everyone has access to one. They have to make them weak enough so that if 20-30 people go max at the same time they don't become a nigh unstoppable force. Unfortunately they are so weak right now that they are really kind of useless except in very specific situations.
MAXes are for taking bases, not fighting out in the open. Doing MAX damage at LMG effective range would be a total disaster. Also you seem to have never been on a MAX crash, they're already pretty much unstoppable. The only way to beat it indoors is to outnumber them like 3 to 1 or pull your own MAXes in equal numbers and organization.
I said Not have a weapon with the same effective range of a Heavy Assault with a Max units damage... And your right I have not been in a max crush. I have see a couple of the youtube videos, and they were pretty awesome. But honestly a massive zerg wave of anything is pretty much unstoppable. Unless, as you said the defenders are there in larger numbers, or with solid organization. Sorry OP I wasn't trying to jack your thread, and turn it into an balance the Max thread. I still think the best way to make a single Max weapon useful, would be to take away the ability to use two of the same type of weapon. Then balance them accordingly. Actually that might be all Max's need.
If 40 maxes ever actually stand together in the laughably small explosion radius of grenades in this game then that's a problem with them, not the max itself.
Having one AI arm and one AV is situational, but it does have good uses, notably indoors against engineer turrets and other MAX units, and in mixed infantry/vehicle fights where you need to be able to deal with both.
There is zero advantage in a MAX having a AI and AV weapons out at the same time when both are sub par. When you're a HA, you have your gun out, or your launcher out. It's an "either or" choice. You want to kill infantry, you shoot with your gun. You want to shoot at a tank, you switch to your launcher. (Just ignore for a second that the HA's AV weapons is still VERY good at killing infantry.) Time to switch weapons is negligible. With a MAX, it's "neither" because in a singular configuration, your weapons aren't suitable for killing either. You want to kill infantry, you have to switch to dual AI and loose ALL vehicle killing ability and vice versa. And you can't even do it on the fly like a HA, you have to change out at a terminal. Not to mention the simple fact that no matter how many weapons you have out at a time, you can only aim at one thing at a time, at any given time you're only shooting at one thing, and if you find yourself with a tank and infantry in front of you, well the MAX AV and AI weapon (especially in singular configuration), is going to do jack squat to either target. That makes the MAX less versatile than the HA and means the MAX has zero advantage over a HA because even when they use dual weapons, they aren't much better than a HA. MAX weapons HAVE TO BE as powerful as HA weapons when single, and much better (if not twice as better) when dual. That is the ONLY way it can be balanced. Otherwise there is no reason to pull a MAX over a HA as long as HAs don't give up their guns to use AV weapons and HAs don't cost resources. This is even before considering that MAXs, because of their size, increased visibility, size and slowness, are just walking targets and will be spotted and killed in a fight long before a HA is even noticed. This is a simple and irrefutable fact: As long as the MAX costs resources, has a cool down and has additional drawbacks (lack of agility, lack of mobility, increased visibility, increased profile, doesn't get grenades or explosives, doesn't get restoration kits, greater weapon cert cost, lack of shield), balance says it must be MUCH BETTER than infantry in terms of offensive capability and survival to offset and justify those major disadvantages. Color and size for emphasis. Currently, the MAX isn't much better than a HA. Not by a long shot. Not enough to justify their cost and drawbacks. And if the developers wont buff the MAX so they are worth the cost and those drawbacks, some of the cost and drawbacks have to be removed. Period.
There's been one time where I've actually enjoyed having AI + AV. We were assaulting an S-AMS, and with both arms I could keep fire on both the sunderer and infantry spawning out of it. I haven't found any other scenario where it's useful though. AI + AA - Perhaps in the future when Galaxies can be certed for squad spawn again, this may be useful for the same situation as the S-AMS I described above. I suppose it may be useful as pure defensive role around your own S-AMS when the enemy has found it and is trying to blow it up with air and infantry. AA + AV - This suffers the most I think. I can't think of a reasonable situation where you could actually put this to use; if both air and vehicles are a problem, its more effective to specialize and clear out one type and then deal with the next.
If the max could be both aa and AI at the same time the max would be op. My recodamtion, have two loadouts one as a dual aa max, and one with two anti-inf weapons.
There is a possible solution to this: make single weapons powerful, but make the user switch between left arm and right arm with 1 and 2 or mouse wheel. This would allow optics to be certed for individual weapons and activated with the right mouse button. Then you tweak things so MAX weapons take as long to empty a magazine as to reload another. This way dual-wielding one weapon would allow continuous fire whereas equipping different weapons would allow flexibility at the cost of reloading. Finally, buff all weapons so that a single weapon is as powerful as two of the same kind are currently. I think that would make MAXes viable in all configurations.
its basic min maxing, choose your target, armor infantry and air and use the best weapons for killing said target. mixing weapons can be done. You will still kill infantry with one cycler because you can out tank them, direct hits with the pounder will do alot of damage as well but you will only get small assists shooting armor with a single rounder, you trade versatility for firepower. There is the issue that the twin cycler works almost as well as the twin pounder against other max units. I may be reading the issue wrong, the twin scat max may be underpowered vs max units and the cycler is working as intended. i really dont know about the VS max is the twin anti infantry good vs max? are maxs anti infantry weapons meant to kill other maxs?
