Strove Pokes Holes In: Directive Weapons

Its me again, going on a forum crusade for discussions and opinions.
First off i am a young game design student with an intrest in game fairness. Try not to accuse me of being faction biased.
Directives are great... They actually are, it extends the play time of veteran players and has potential to be used as a game play tutorial as suggested in recent videos by Wrel.

What does bug me, and i suspect a reasonable portion of other players is the direcitve level weapons.
Heres the thing, i actually quite like the idea of them, i agree with the small changes in their stats be comparison to their starter weapon counterparts. Not obviously more powerful but different enough to have its reasons for being used. Part of me things that the weapons have less appeal compared to the defaults because of their other stats locked by attachments but im not too bothered. Any one with these weapons is using them for the bling effect (look at mah shiney bling yo, it totally makes me look better than you)

What bugs me is:
and this is where any one reading my other threads thinks im a vanu hater
The vanu weapons have infinate ammo, the drawback is a lower theoretical mag right? The players who have these weapons dont need any more shots than the single charge to kill people, and with never really having to reload and never running out of ammo its a clear shot upgrade over almost every weapon.

On Light assault alot of people take ammo belts so they can maintain themselves. All of a sudden no directive VS assault needs to take that. Nor will a heavy ever run out of rounds... Its nothing huge in the grand scheme of things but knowing that the VS directives allows the user to never need ammo or ammo belts seems like an advantage the other factions will never benefit from. It dosnt seem like much on the surface but it allows for consistent sprees and removes an suit slot from play.

Does any one else have opinions on this? Do people think that having got 6000 kills with LMGs (and most likley having payed for them) that a notable stat difference would be nice? Or are you fine with the 1up factor? What do you think about the infinite ammo situation?

Please, this is a discussion not a dunk fest or a comparison of private parts... Keep it calm and productive.

I think the NC and TR ones should get something different. Currently only the VS get something fun and new. The TR and NC just get slightly different variants of guns we already have, some good, most bad.

Penetrating Rounds, charge up fire rates, dealing damage charges up a single fire slug or boost mode. Stuff like that. Hell make the TR pistol give people around you buffs when it TK's (Not really, but you get the idea)

The Shotgun with an Underbarrel Shotgun is gold though.

Are you trying to be rational here OP? Are you trying to stir things up?

All of the VS directive weapons are garbage except the LMG and the pistol, and the LMG is less accurate then the Orion.

It is nice to have something new and unique, but it doesnt make them superior weapons by a long shot. You could possibly make an argument for entire squads using directive weapons so that you dont need engineers and can roll extra medics or heavies, but even then you would still need rockets for the HAs.

VS directive weapons have bad TTKs and the itty bitty magazine sizes are huge hindrances to actual gunfights, which you have to survive in order to reap the benefits of that infinite ammo.

except for the fact that the magazine sizes on those weapons are pitiful so if someone's skilled enough to get a massive streak with one I say let them.

Like the way 2nd comment already suggests that im here to troll. No, im here to have a discussion.
It seems to me that VS direcitve weapons have a new flashy ammo trick which, while Negator perhaps rightly says isnt as good as it seems, it still gives a reason to use the weapons over the alternatives. Most other Dweapons are sidegrades, or even in increasingly seen as minor downgrades due to the attachment choice.

I dont know, im here to have a discussion not to tell people "this is whats right"

The executive is just flat out awful.

If I wanted a silenced Magshot (which is a terrible idea, really only do that with a Rebel), I would simply put a silencer on it. Where's my never seen before extended magazine or advanced laser sight?

Or even magically, a sight.

Not once have I seen or heard anyone beyond Infiltrators equipping ammo belts... I've unlocked the Betelgeuse and the difference in magazine size is noticeable. Obviously people don't have 100% accuracy and sometimes it takes 3/4 of a magazine to kill someone either due to hit detection or general missing. If anything, its forced me to use my sidearm much more frequently.

The infinite ammo pool is almost pointless. Playing alone is not only rare but its asking to be killed quickly. Not only do you often get ammo from friendly ammo packs but you can get your battery fix from enemy ammo packs as well (makes sense ). The only class this ultimately affects is LA but usually I spend the time regenerating my shields/health from being shot at for getting ammo.

Additionally the Eclipse and Betelgeuse were nerfed when they received the heat mechanic. The Eclipse lost its Soft Point Ammo (something that every single weapon that can equip it has it equipped) and the Betelgeuse had a horizontal recoil nerf (its actually quite noticeable). I'm sure these nerfs were there to alleviate people's concerns of balance problems derived from potential gameplay issues from infinite ammo.

Right, straight on tfrom the PPA we're onto... Oh! The VS directive weapons!!! Well, we can't have VS getting something nice then, can we? That'd be silly...

Alright...

Let's give the NC weapons a damage up on the other ones, and give the TR a larger ammo pool and no magazine.

Edit: I am serious about this, by the way. It would stop NC/TR from ******** about VS's directive weapons... Which don't all have the heat mechanic. The NC/TR specialties wouldn't b passie, like infinite ammo, but rather they'd be direct and affect battle. VS would have a balance field day, but with trigger discipline and good aim, the VS trait would override the TR one.

Personally I wish they just balanced the heat mechanics weapons to not have infinite ammo, and then buff them accordingly. Right now I feel like they can't go anywhere else because they're locked to being infinite ammo guns.

Just make them like Covenant weapons in Halo. And maybe something like the Plasma Repeater from Reach. (It shoots slower and slower as it heats up, never stopping, and it can be manually vented with reload.) There's plenty of variety to be had among heat weapons, so long as they're not all held back by the infinite ammo mechanic.

You are the reason i state and repeat that im not being biased, i play all factions and have an interest in game balance due to my current education and career path. Its not that i have a problem with the ammo mechanic, i acutally kinda like it it has a different feel and play style attached to it while also having valid draw backs. What im saying is that by comparison TR and NC get rather dull options by comparison.

My comments about the lack of ammo pool having advantages may just be specific to me and my play style, i would love to not reload my carbines and LMGs. Additionally i know alot of people who take ammo belts specifically on LA. Personally i use it with my ACX11 constantly, i even use it during off hours when engineers are hard to come by. Dont dismiss the whole thread because you personally dont use a suit slot that is only a super small part of the conversation...

You have no idea how hard I've been tempted to whip out my Commissar Commissioner and TK people who are sitting in the spawn room like pansies instead of bum rushing the point.

make the godsaw 250 damage a boolit!

Sorry, it's just that VS finally have something that is interesting and fun, and NOT in danger of being nerfed, and, well, here we are.
NC/TR can get nice things too, but the VS weapons look cool (guiltily I must admit that I don't have any directive weapons.... Ah well.) and to SOE anything that comes up as unbalanced or unfair results in nerfs, not buffs of the other things.

The same could be said for you, unfortunately. I could say, "Don't make a thread based on the perception people use a particular suit slot when in actuality you're the minority." But I won't.

You guys won't rest till everything VS is nerfed.

And you guys wont rest till youve written more words than youve read on this thread

To claify i am a games design academic, 2 year player of all 3 factions... And not once did i ask for a VS nerf on this thread. I asked for productive discussion on the topic of directive weapons... Somthing you have failed to do.
Alkezo
Fair point but im not basing the whole thing on a suit slot... or i would have names it to include so. Most of the conversation has been comparing the weapons, somthing i feel i have done well, noting some other changes in game-play that perhaps others wouldnt think about.

Vanu weapons have always been better than the other factions.

Even within their own weapon categories, they have weapons better than their auraxium directive rewards.

Orion for example is still better than Betelgeuse.

Most of the directive weapons that are really good are Carbines.

In short, I don't think the infinite ammo part of them is unfair or anything. The guns aren't BiS even with it.

I just can't really see how you could make the other factions unique without requiring strong trade-offs which would make them terrible. I don't really think the heat mechanic was worth it. Now there's a perception of game-play imbalance due to it.

Can you shut up?