So.... the Orion.

I really don't understand these forums. The infantry weapons in this game are so damn generic and same-y t(within the same archetype) that I'm astonished people find such a huge difference between trying one or the other.

I use either the orion, sva-88 or flare depending on my mood. I'd probably try out others but I don't feel like spending certs or SC on new infantry guns.

The only things I've found to be really OP is vehicle related; either ESRLS (the striker) or vehicle balance (harasser cheese), etc.

Infantry gunplay in this game is as blandly generic as you can get.

I would pick the Polaris in that situation, you have already said it yourself that the Orion is better in a 1-2 situation but the Polaris is better if there are more than that. In a group battle individual skill is more or less a non factor, especially if you have to constantly reload and need to go find ammo packs.

Orion only has 250 total ammo and with the ROF it eats that supply really fast.

One of the reasons I started playing mainly as Engineer is because the Orion has such a crappy ammo supply, I can kill people with it but sooner rather than later I end up with the Beamer unless there are ammo packs all around me wich isnt always the case.

Also, you are much more likely to come across average or below average players, its just how it is. Now you could run around with a gun that can give you a small edge against the "good" players but you will die more often to the "bad" players, they will simply run you out of ammo or overrun you or you can use a weapon that leaves you more or less on equal ground with the "good" players and at least gives you a chance of putting down 2-3 times more of the "bad" people at a time.

TR propaganda? Aiming skills have nothing to do with the RNG making bullets fly in random directions. Its a gun that either rewards you or destroys you. You can't choose.

The entire flight of players from NC to TR is proof enough...

You do realize that there are close, medium and long range weapons right? Oh hell , why bother... You can't fix stupid.

The first time I picked up the Orion, I shot down 3 Mossies, got an auraxium medal, threw it up into the engines of a 12 of 12 galaxy and brought that sucker down. Picked my Orion back out of the wreckage and proceeded to beat the survivors to death with it. I was on my way back to a terminal to grab a new one when an NC Scat Max charged me, so I overloaded the batteries, threw it as his feet and used the beamer to detonate it for an instant 1 shot.

Then I went to a terminal, grabbed an SVA-88 and things started to get interesting.

The Gauss SAW has less horizontal recoil than the Orion. The Gauss SAW has 0.175/0.175 left/right, while the Orion has 0.2/0.225. It has a smaller CoF while aiming down sights from a stationary position and blooms slower over time than the Orion does.

The weapon you're blaming for this is absolutely superior to the Orion in the situation you were in. Of course, a weapon being better in a particular situation doesn't mean you'll get every kill, and people are always eager to blame the weapon when they can't shoot straight.

That's not left/right, that's min/max.

And he's talking about CoF and bloom, not about horizontal recoil.

Yes, I can't shoot straight. That's why I'm running a 1.95 k/d ratio and rising with an Orion. After playing awhile vs NC, I think I got killed by the SAW twice. I did face the EM6 though and that was a nice LMG. I never had a problem fighting any "stationary" SAWs. If they moved an inch, then I won easily.

Stationary position is arbitrary. If you fired before you stopped to kneel (which happens most of the time), then you get the CoF of...0.55. Good luck hitting ANYTHING with that. By the way, how long do you have to stay "stationary" before the game registers you as stationary?

They do... and they don't even cost a lot of certs.

I stand corrected. This means that the recoil on the Gauss SAW is consistent with each shot, while the Orion's recoil per shot is variable. The Orion's higher rate of fire also means that you start with worse horizontal recoil per shot, and then increase that by half due to the faster fire rate.

He knelt down and started firing. The CoF starts at zero for the Gauss SAW and 0.1 for the Orion. The Gauss SAW blooms at 0.07 per shot, while the Orion blooms at 0.05 and fires three bullets for every two that the Gauss SAW fires, meaning the Orion accumulates bloom at a 15:14 ratio compared to the Gauss SAW. It's not much of a difference, but the Gauss SAW is better when it comes to CoF bloom. If you're not moving, it takes three shots before the Gauss SAW is less accurate than the Orion is on its first shot. If you're moving, both of them start at the same accuracy, but the Orion still blooms a tiny bit faster.

I played VS cus I wanted to kill some NC that jarate me off. I accidently got an auraxium with the orion.

T9 carv is better than the MSW R on any day of the week. Only the Orion can get away with a 50 round clip.

I have 9k kills with the saw. Its overrated.

You would if they change it so it was actually fair. I mean 750 rpm are you serious? VS has pretty much adopted the TR traits.

If you're moving, you're better off just putting away your SAW and pulling out the Rebel instead. And that's probably not even an exaggeration.

The SAW has worse CoF when moving than typical short range LMGs (0.5 compared to 0.4), but it's still putting shots into a much smaller area than an SMG with an advanced laser on it. How accurate does this gun need to be before the NC's dedicated legion of professional crybabies will stop whining about it?

It's more accurate while stationary and less accurate while moving, unless you're crouched in which case that disadvantage disappears. It has a longer reload time but can do almost three times as much damage before it has to stop and reload. If you're fighting Heavies with resist shield and NW5, the Orion can potentially kill two people before it needs to reload. The SAW can kill seven. I feel really bad for you that you can't quite manage laser precision while sprinting and spraying this huge beast of a machine gun. That's the disadvantage it gets to balance out the other advantages. The gun is fine, you suck.

I'm trying to get the EM6 on my NC character atm, then I'll never look back to this overrated biga$$ SAW. About the Orion: VS has too high RPM regarding their "Faction Traits". 700-750 rpm LMGs, carbines, assault rifles. (High rpm, high magazine capacity are TR traits.) It's not just the VS, the NC got some of them too. Most "Faction Traits" are disregarded or removed in the name of "Balance". Many weapons are reskins of other faction weapons. Sad but true...

A weapon in ADS is more accurate than a weapon fired from the hip?

Stop the ******* presses, that is PLANETSIDEGATE **** right there.

Try to follow me up here.
SAW's advantage is that it's very inaccurate when fired on the move but accurate when fired from standstill.
This is an FPS, where you either move or you die; doubly so since this is PS2 and due to sheer volume of players there's awlays 3 bored enemy snipers looking at you at any time.
See how these two don't mix?

That's always been the problem dude. SAW's advantages are good only on the spreadsheet.

Only way to do that would be to make the VS trait viable, wich means nerfing the NC and TR bullet speed/drop by such epic proportions that by comparison judgement day would be casual friday.

Its like, if we cant have RPM or high damage because they are not our traits then NC and TR cant be allowed to be accurate or fire at range without some serious bullet drop not this "oh you are 200m away? il just aim for your scalp and hit you between the eyes" deal we have right now. Even when sniping at near render distance the bullet drop is hardly there, yes you notice it but then you have to realise that you are looking through a 12x zoom scope, any ammount you are aiming above your target is infact just a tiny adjustment at the 1x level.

Sometimes balance is better than being true to the faction traits.