I've created a completely new account on Miller and created 3 new characters for the 3 factions, playing until BR30 on each of them. I've only unlocked the tier1 bolt-action on VS and TR and nothing else in terms of weapons, only spending on upgrades and some weapon attachments. Overall, my stats are ~4KD, ~600SPM and ~2KPM, which I think is quite good given starter gear. However, I think there are significant gaps in infantry new player gear : 1) Lack of functioning AA 2) Infiltrator gear 3) Starter sidearms 4) Implants 5) Attachment choice for unlocked guns 6) Vehicles 7) Miscellaneous 1. At the start, new players don't have functioning AA as infantry or vehicles. Yes, you can pull your own ESF and dogfight, but expecting new players to fight veterans with unupgraded ESFs is absurd, and that's what I ended up using to counter A2G farmers along with dumbfire rocket launchers. I think that this could be resolved by making standard dumbfires one-shot full health ESFs, recommending new players to at least unlock a G2A lock-on launcher (which could be given for free), the other burster MAX arm (which should be discounted) and potentially unlocking the Skyguard (which could even be made available for use right from the start or at a discounted price). The power of AA is another topic, but new players don't have anything except dumbfires (which are hard to use to shoot down air). 2. Infiltrator is functional right from the get-go, but I wouldn't call it competitive. VS and TR start with semi-auto snipers, which are nice to have as a vet, but if you want to snipe the T1 BASRs are much better. SMGs open up a completely different style of play, scout rifles allow a lot more mobility and leeway than semi-auto snipers, then there's the full auto scouts... none of these weapons are exactly "essential", but unlike on other classes, they open up a much different style of play and are much more important to have than guns on other classes, so it's the only class where spending certs to unlock guns even as a newbie is a good idea (although you should cert spotting tools and cloak first). I'd suggest discounting one SMG family to 500 certs (I'd choose Sirius/Blitz/Hailstorm, but Eridani/Cyclone/Armistice is a good choice too), making straight pull-bolt automatically unlock when unlocking T1 bolts on VS/TR and likewise automatically unlocking the ballistics computer when buying the Gauss SPR on the NC, and also potentially making ES scout rifles less expensive (the semi-auto ones). 3. The starting sidearms are usable, but a lot of NS sidearms stand head-and-shoulders above not only the starters, but most ES sidearms in general. The Repeater is great - both forgiving and capable of very high DPS and I think it's in a good spot, but the Beamer and Mag-shot have some problems. They are semi-auto (meaning it's possible to over-sample when spam-clicking, thus cutting effective RoF in half) and have odd rates of fire (try hitting exactly 451RPM or 351RPM). I've found both the Beamer and Mag-shot great with a micro to utilize them to their optimal RoF, but I wish I didn't have to and that semi-autos be made better in general. Another problem is that ES pistols really suffer from Nanoweave, which NS pistols don't have problems with. I've found that you generally have to completely out-play the revolver users in order to beat them in a 1v1 as an infiltrator, because you don't really stand a chance against a Commissioner's OHK or 0.35TTK at 8m. TL-DR: Deal with over-sampling, maybe give sidearm balance another look. 4. Starter implants are really lacking, and while it's possible to max out one in a short timeframe, I've found unlocking more than 10 very expensive cert-wise and heavily reliant on RNG. The starter implants, Safeguard and Target Focus, aren't very useful. Safeguard is practically useless and doesn't even prevent cheap deaths in most situations it procs, and Target Focus is useful for newbies, but doesn't have much utility otherwise. To somewhat alleviate this, I'd suggest making Target Focus and Sweeper HUD starting implants (replacing Safeguard), and as class directives are completed new players should be awarded with a choice between 2 implants : Medics can choose between Mending Field and Combat Surgeon. Light Assaults can choose between Safe Fall and Aerial Combatant. Heavy Assaults can choose between Nanomesh Specialist and Mobility Mesh. Infiltrators can choose between Sensor Shield and Deep Operative. Engineers can choose between Robotics Technician and Electrotech. And Exceptionals should be a little easier to craft. 5. I think that with some starter weapons, choosing what attachments are unlocked from the get-go would be great. Most notably the carbines, assault rifles and semi-auto snipers. The starters are a good choice, but letting the player choose between the rail attachments or even any attachment in general (so it's a choice between suppressor/foregrip/laser sight) would be interesting. 6. Vehicles require an obscene amount of certs to get into. For tanks, you need to unlock a proper tank cannon (875 certs), unlock some ammo capacity, reload speed levels (up to 1000 total), need to unlock fire suppression, a proper secondary for MBTs AND cert out the defense and chassis, which adds up to around 3000 certs. Competitive MBTs can cost up to 5000-6000 certs, while a completely certed one costs ~8500 certs and this sort of cost is per vehicle. ESFs also require unlocking rocket pods and reserve ammo/reload speed, Stealth, Dogfighting airframe, Fire Suppression and I could go on. Vehicles are really inaccessible to new players, which is bad because they're sometimes necessary to pull and are overall great to have certed out. Overall, armaments should be made less expensive cert-wise, and one chassis and defense slot can be unlocked via player choice. 7. In terms of UI, some passive certs like Hacking need to be made visible on the default class menu. A few unlocks should be highlighted as "recommended" and "not recommended" for BR30< (class abilities, medkits, C4 on LA, Adrenaline/Resist shield on Heavy, Tank Mines on engineer(?), MANA AV turret/Spitfire, Vehicle Stealth and Sunderer Deploy Shield/Ammo/Repair support as recommended). Extending the weapon trial time to 2 hours would be nice. Speaking of weapon trialing, if a player does well enough with it reward them by giving them free attachments in each category if it's unlocked via certs or bought by DBC when it ends. Allow attachment use on trialed weapons. Reducing cert cost of Spitfires and AV MANA to 875 or 750 certs would be nice. Making C4 and AI mines cross-class unlocks would also be good. A free XP boost could be given once a player reaches BR25, to maintain the level-up curve (as each level gives 100 certs). And last but not least, I think that having the old "what type of player are you?" query that used to be in the game would really help newbies choose a new gun.
New players should get a 1 week, 1 day, and 1 hour XP boost to use at will. OR they should greatly increase cert gain across the board (it's an 8 year old game... the grind to see content is unnecessary)
Honestly with how situational the Skyguard actually is, I'd rather it be made a default option and be refunded it's Cert Cost despite paying for it at launch. Are we talking the default Cannon on MBTs? Because I'm pretty sure they and the Bassy are decent, but MBT guns are held back by the "Driver as Main Gunner" decision made by Smedly way back when. Both making the Skyguard Turret a Default Option and returning to Planetside MBTs having Separate Drivers and Main Gunners would give the Lightning back it's proper niche, which I am all for.
Giving everyone the Hawk/Grounder/Nemesis for free, and starting with the second build of HA having it by default would be good. I don't remember what the 2 starting load outs of HA are, but 1 for getting up close and personal, and they other for long distance fire support would make sense. Regarding vehicle weapons, they starting weapons are the best for new players because they are the most versatile. The unlocks are better because they are specialized, and an experienced player can read the play to bring the right weapon to the right situation, but new players need weapons which are forgiving of misreads. That said, it would be nice if they gave the 1 cert upgrades by default to save some pointless clicking. I personally would like to see a complete do-over of MBT weapons. They're all the same gun, but with different ammo. Also, total ammo unlocks don't make sense, why would the ammo racks be 3/4 full? That doesn't make sense. Instead, they should start with HEAT ammo exclusively, and a full ammo rack of it. Unlocks should grant access to the other ammo types, which the driver can change between with the 1,2 or 3 keys. Fastest way to change ammo would be to fire the unwanted shell. If the driver doesn't want to do that, then tapping r after changing ammo selection starts a much slower reload to account for removing and storing the already loaded shell. Fully unlocking either specialized ammo means you can carry that ammo exclusively, and not have any HEAT shells anymore. That probably deserved it's own thread...ah well. Good discussion though, hopefully we can have more like this.
I guess they could increase cert gain a bit, but it's already pretty good. I doubt a new player would make good use of the boosts. It's not a bad idea, but it should either be built in so the new players get the boost or membership benefits for free up until a certain rank (maybe 25)? Otherwise it'll likely be wasted. Some people also raise the idea of giving newer players access to premade slots, as is done in other games. For example there's like 15 different loadout slots or whatever. Maybe make 2 or 3 of those prebuilt classes with a dedicated role. The class wouldn't be modifiable aside for maybe attachments (which would all be free, no certs). Would help players get a feel of things and get to test different scenarios as they earn the certs to build their own loadouts. Ex: A demolitions slot where a heavy has C4, decimator, heavy weapon, av nade bando and mobility mesh, athlete and the pilot. Another "lone wolf" slot with nanoweave, NS-15, commi, deci, athlete, survivalist and medkits. Maybe a third "support" slot with a high capacity lmg, the blackhand, safeguard, ocular shield and flak. They don't have to be super meta loadouts, we want them to be somewhat different from each other, specialized towards a specific scenario so the new players get to learn and experience a lot of playstyles and weapons, and then take the best from each to build their own custom loadout.
I think they did already do this for your first two Loadout Slots... ...I mean, they're regular Loadout Slots you can modify, but it's not like a new player is going to even know how to do that...
