Archers and Shortbows: I have both and although the Shortbow does fire *slightly* faster, it has 2 major problems when compared to the Archer. The Shortbow has to drop out of aim/zoom in order to re-chamber every round which slows down your rate of fire against moving targets, and the three round magazine hinders its damage output comparatively because of the necessity to drop out of aim/zoom. In most engagements, whether MAXes, air or armor, the Archer is still better. The Shortbow needs a Straight Pull Bolt option, especially if it is going to be limited to a three round magazine. As a rare weapon, it needs to stand out against the Archer. Both need a bump in the bullet velocity. Currently, they are at 525 m/s. That needs to be boosted to 650 m/s, putting it on par with the higher caliber sniper rifles like the RAMS .50, which is a boon for long range hitting. Racer Chassis: with regard to ground vehicles, the Racer Chassis does not offer that much of a speed advantage. In both the Harasser and ANT, the gain is ~10 kph while giving up traction, braking, turning, etc. That needs to be at least 20+ kph in order to be worthwhile. I am sure the difference in tanks is similar. For ESFs, the difference between Racer and Hover/Dogfighting needs to be remarkably higher. As it stands, the Hover and Dogfighting Chassis can run down a Racer without Quick Recharge Tanks (QRT), if the non-Racer is using QRT. That makes the Hover Chassis vastly superior because it is the best "dog fighting" option, but also the speediest over distance. Let the Racer shine in its namesake by a wide margin. In exchange for all of that speed, you obviously can't turn, roll, brake or hover as quickly. Construction: with the removal of Hives (a good thing), mega bases are obsolete. Most constructionists make a small base from which they can launch air and armor. Some will create an Orbital Strike with the hopes of getting a few kills, but the OS is so easy to avoid now. 1. A Deploy Shield Sunderer will survive a direct OS. MAXes and other infantry can just jump inside, take the hit and then jump out. Engineers repair the Sundy as if nothing happened. Any and all armor, regardless of boosts or utilities, should be annihilated if hit by an OS. Since the OS kills friendlies as well, enemy Sunderers don't have to worry about immediate attacks after an OS. That renders the OS pointless and a waste of time. 2. The Orbital Strike takes too long to charge up in order to help take a base. If you build 600m away and wait for the charge to grow, that base is often capped and the zerg has moved on before you can fire it. I would suggest limiting the range of the OS to 500m, but make it charge 3x as fast. Give it some relevance. If an OS is giving the enemy a problem, then they need to take it out. 3. Air Pads and Vehicle Pads need to be able to spawn heavy aircraft and armor, even if that means adding an upgrade option to those pads that cost more cert points. I would gladly invest in the upgrades!
As someone that uses PBM's for a cheap n easy way to get his reaver in the air PBM air pads absolutely should not be able to spawn heavy air, likewise with the vehicle pad. It's easy enough as it is to get lightinings or reavers the way it is without adding heavy vehicles to it. I could agree with it if it cost 10,000 cort to deploy otherwise it's a big fat no from me. I mean just today i was flying reaver and some **** in an air transport was taking 90+ percent of my reavers health off in one freaking hit.
As strange as it sounds, you don't use racer chassis for racing, but for hillclimbing. The racer chassis doesn't just increase your topspeed, it also fastly improves your acelleration. So you get up inclines, that are impassable without racer. That alone makes it an almost mandatory pick for main tanks, lightnings and sunderers.
The shortbow is for people who used the Archer with laser scope and and got excited whenever they heard a MAX coming around a corner. For them even with its smaller magazine it is a wonderful tool. It isn't for the people who snipe so doesn't need the straight-pull bolt. It's for the engineers who see an enemy MAX stomp into the room and instead of running away they smile and say "Not today big-boy" Racer is already the de-facto best choice in 95% of ground vehicle loadouts, needs nothing extra there. I can't comment on ESFs as I barely use them. Bring back the Wasp please and then i'll clean up the skies. AMSes need to survive OSes or else all low population late night fights will be totally obliterated. If you want to change the way that OSes and AMSes interact then how about something along the lines of the AMS auto-undeploying when struck with the OS EMP, you can say it's a defensive measure to keep the terminals working. That way your OS takes the sundie out of action as a spawn point, which is what I assume you want, but isn't so hard for the people who own it to get it back operational so long as they are paying attention. If you want to destroy an AMS you damn well best do it like the rest of us, not from a kilometer away.
I don't set up my Orbital Strike Uplink anymore but did they remove the need to designate a target with a tool and be within a certain physical distance from the target being called?
