So I decided to put down my shotgun for a while and learn to love a carbine for the sake of killing stuff further than my nose. As I was looking through the stats all looked like the varied the usual way, little more damage and less rof here, the opposite there, etc. But one gun stood out beyond all the rest, and I was blown away. The SF. The thing has all possible attachments and all possible fire settings. I'm just starting to wonder what the downside is. And that's what this thread is about. As a LA who has at least tried the SF (or your empire's equivalent), what is so great in another carbine that you put down the SF for? What's the big advantage other carbines have or the disadvantage of an SF? (I'm only a few days old ingame, so I do ask this sincerely and not to be argumentative).
The downside is that it is slightly worse in stats than the stock Solstice. This is true for all the deluxe versions of default carbines for all factions. It is very likely that you can compensate for that stat difference with attachments, but since I don't know the numbers behind them(and, indeed, if they work at all, since many people claim they don't) I can't say for sure.
The downside is supposedly just a little less damage/rate of fire/reload time/recoil? in exchange for all the attachment goodies. Can't stand the NC Gauss S though, I felt horribly gimped in every fire fight when I tried it. The Trac 5 and Solstice versions are probably much more usable if they are anything like the base versions. Dunno for sure though.
Honestly, the Solstice SF as a straight up gun is only ok. By this, I mean that it's not bad by any means, but the only reason to really use it over say the VX6-7 (or now the Serpent) is the fact that you can put an under-barrel grenade launcher on it (which insta-kills with a near direct hit). The VX6-7 and the Serpent both spray bullets much faster (thus killing your opponent faster) than the SF. Personally, I use the VX6-7 (not willing to spend the certs or the SC on the Serpent, since it's the same thing but slightly better) the vast majority of the time. The major exception is during tech plant defenses, in which case I roll with engineer and the SF with the under-barrel on it.
See here for raw data comparisons. This is setup for VS carbines. Just click the dropdown menu's at the top to change to different weapons. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...INE&sortcolid=-1&sortasc=true&rowsperpage=250 Summary: Solstice SF has what you say, every fire mode, every ammo option, every rail, UB, optic mod. It also is tied for fastest reload speeds with the solstice and solstice burst. It ranks 2nd in single shot recoil, so it's pretty good at single and 2-3 shot burstfire. It also has slightly worse vertical recoil than the other carbines. In comparison: VX6-7 and Serpent are essentially identical weapons and both have the best dps. These two have approximately 25% more dps than the solstice SF. The pulsar C has a higher per shot damage and less damage degradation over range. This gives it better damage per minute and damage per magazine and ammo supply. Pulsar C is a longer range weapon for single and burstfire past short range.
It may just be I've been off shooters for so long I don't have the trigger discipline, but I was impressed that the burst fire mode really did help my landing hits from further away. I didn't know that about the pulsar c's degradation, so am I right in thinking the C is best for longer ranges and the serpent/VX 7 are better than SF for close quarters? With the SF being the middle ground, not as good as either at one situation but better in the other?
If you spam the trigger, the Burst will fire faster than the SF. The Burst reloads a lot faster than both the SF and stock carbine. A shotgun is optimal at point blank, and VX6 is optimal just outside of optimal shotgun range, and the SF is optimal just outside of VX6 optimal range. The VX6 can't mount a 2x Reflex, which hurts it a lot.
My opinion is that the Pulsar C is what you want for mid-long range engagement. And the Serp/VX6-7 at cqc as you said. The SF is all about versatility, you can pick any fire mode, or any ammo or other mod. AND you get underbarrel grenade or smoke which improve the combat and tactical capability of your class. You are trading raw killing power of the gun for Versatility. The only real downside to the SF is it's DPS. IT is still very useable and can do things that the other guns cant. Grenade a group of targets and clean them up with bullets. Trigger spam on the burst will result in 66dps compared to 61dps on the SF at full auto. The burst reloads at exactly the same speed as the stock carbine at 1.65s/2.2s and only slightly faster than the 1.73s/2.305s of the SF. My numbers taken from PS2 data files. SF has better first shot recoil, worse hip COF than the VX6-7. almost the same first shot recoil and same hip COF as the Serpent. I have never had a situation witth the 1x reflex that would have gone better with the 2x. There isn't enough of a difference for this weapon at least. Maybe in a gun like the pulsar C that is better at range.
I haven't the creds to spare just to confirm this, is the 1x relex just a shotgun crosshair on your carbine?
The Vanu 1X reflex is a spectacular sight that doesn't even have a housing to obscure your vision. It's just like the 2X but without the annoying turquoise arrows to both sides.
Without any zoom too right? Sounds like the perfect sight for the VXC-7/Serpent to make it an ideal cqc carbine, but the SF seems to be about versatility. What optic would compliment versatility most? IR/NV? 3.4x red dot? One of the others?
People generally agree 1X reflex is the best all-purpose optic. Zooming optics amplify your recoil just as much as they magnify your target. They are primarily useful for single-shots and short bursts at ranges where the 1X dot would obscure your target.
3.4x sight is for taking mid-long range potshots with the burst or single fire modes. Great plinking scope, not that great for close fights. Basically once you move out from the 1xReflex, every other scope is specialized towards SOMETHING. IRNV scope is for nights or seeing through smoke. Magnifying scopes are for being able to get a bead on distant targets easily. Just don't get silly and slap a sniper scope on it, it's not a sniper rifle and that's not its effective engagement range. And for the love of Vanu, take an underbarrel attachment. That's the SF's real advantage over other carbines, you either get a noobtube or an underbarrel smoke launcher. (There's also a shotgun but we don't talk about the shotgun)
The SF is also a great squad leader weapon. I usually go light assault so I can get the spawn beacon as close to the front line as possible. I use smoke grenades on the SF to cover our advances when the enemy has better position than we do.
I think the SF is one of our best weapons largely because of it's versatility. Un-upgraded it's somewhat sub-par compared to the Solstice (basic) but once you get some of those upgrades it becomes an amazing weapon. A compensator, underslung nade or smoke (with an IR scope), etc. I tend to play close-medium range, getting behind the enemy or above them, killing some and moving to a new spot, etc. With a compensator, soft-point bullets, underslung nade and 2x reflex sight (you get used to all the lines) the gun rocks. I'll keep it on automatic for close fights, switch to burst when I'm above enemies, one burst to the head and they are dead. Single fire if I'm trying to pick off or otherwise distract enemies. It's great. I even manage to win about half the close-range 1on1 fights with HAs if I use my jetpack to get a height advantage and am not surprised. I don't think I'd trade it for any other weapon for what I do.
I find the 2X reflex to be the best all around sight. It still doesn't **** you at all in close range, and makes medium range a lot easier than the 1X (and even the 3.4X, I feel like). That's just my opinion, though.
I don't usually post on forums but felt the need to here, as I think there are a couple details that could sway the decision for folks out there wondering the same thing as OP. There is some good info here in this thread, I also came here looking for some insight into the SF. For me it was a tossup between speccing slugs on the Pandora or underslung nades on the Solstice SF. I opted for utility and went with the SF for 700 SC and then put 100 CP into nade attachment. First, not sure if intentional, but from my personal experience thus far, rearming from engy ammo packs "usually" appears limited to one occurrence, which means you can fire two nades before having to resupply at a terminal or sundy. I say "usually" because I was once able to rearm twice from my own ammo pack, which leads me to believe that there might be a bug with the rearming of underbarrel attachments. Searching the forums leads to more mention of this existing since beta, not sure of the validity, but its something I thought should be mentioned. Second, I haven't bought many weapons in this game but I was under the impression that firing the underslung mode would be a button press or a toggle or something similar to full/burst/single fire mode. Instead, I have to hit 2 and enter weapon mode 2 to use grenade mode, which shifts all my other gear slots down by one (pistol is now 3, repair tool is now 4, ammo pack is now 5, etc). Again, not a huge deal, just thought it should be mentioned. Despite this, I still run the SF with nade attachment, as I think access to one or two nades while on foot is all I will ever realistically need for my playstyle. Just wanted to pass this on to anyone else considering the SF.
Base solstice is a beast of a gun to begin with, the SF is just slightly less effective, in exchange for getting your hands on launcher attachments and HVA. Though, if you want to just melt things without even having to try.. just go for the new Carbine they added, the Serpent or something. That thing is ****** strong, accurate, and fast. It's a facemelter.
