VS CME discussion thread

Discussion in 'Combat Medic' started by Trysaeder, Nov 26, 2012.

  1. Trysaeder

    The CME is the long range AR variant, equivalent to the SABR and Reaper DMR. However it's different from these two as it doesn't offer any significant difference in handling; it is a Pulsar VS1 that shoots slower (650 RPM vs 700 RPM).

    Despite this, I've felt an increase in killing power at medium to long ranges with the CME compared to the VS1. Both weapons have had no attachments on them and were used in similar ranges. I did some wall testing to better understand the recoil patterns of the two, but there was little observable difference. Maybe it has less damage degradation, or maybe the faster bullet velocity is actually effective in increasing overall damage, I don't know why, but the CME seems to kill faster than anything else I've used despite doing a very normal 14.3 damage.

    This feeling that the CME is superior at longer ranges pushed me towards buying the Centauri/CME combination instead of being a miser and using only the VS1. With the Centauri able to equip the advanced laser sight and the CME able to equip the advanced foregrip, all fighting ranges will be covered very well (the Centauri is the best VS gun when used within its limits).

    I encourage anyone looking at the CME to use it in actual combat, especially if you actually own it. I look forward to hearing your experiences with this weapon, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do. Perhaps someone can explain why it feels so good.
    • Up x 1
  2. Trysaeder

    Bump to bring this often overlooked rifle forward!
  3. CrimsonDaemon

    I'd like to hear more about this as well.
  4. Lavalampe

    I was a big fan of the CME rifle in Beta.
    I've played it the way it was meant to be: mid to long range.

    Now i've got the weapon naked and i think sometimes it sucks but i won't give up.
    You need: Foregrip, Compensator, High-Velocity Ammo and a 3,4x Scope and you will get a long range beast which is outgunning the most other classes in 25+ meter fights.

    The downside is the price. If you want to buy this weapon with certs and fully use it, it costs you 1340 cert points. Even when you buy the weapon with sc you still need 340 certs for it's full potential and it will still have no advantage in close quarter combat. This weapon is also garbage if you just hipfire cause it has a wide spread without laser and it is to slow compared to real cqc weapons.

    So ask yourself:
    - Do love to rush in cqc? -> Choose another weapon
    - Do you stand in second line -> Give it a try if you have 340 certs left for the needed attachments.
    - Do you have a good aiming down sight -> Give it a try
  5. Lavalampe

    Just played again with the CME and purchased the grip and the 3,4x scope.

    The weapon still spreads like hell :(
    I've got the feeling that the 3,4x spreads more than the 2x holo (ofc this shouldn't be). Just had a bigger fight at The Crown and outdoors it was just mediocore. Indoors it was the hell. Died in close range to enemies even when i got the first shot to the head. Maybe just a bad day...

    I really hope for the high velocity ammo and the compensator. I hope i don't wasted lots of certs.

    @Devs: Did you change something on this weapon since beta?
  6. Trysaeder

    I did a bit more testing to compare the VS1 against the CME and I found that the biggest difference is in the first 2 shots. The VS1 has very little first shot recoil, while the CME has 'normal' first shot recoil. For a long ranged gun, it's horrible to have average first shot recoil since that puts you far behind every other long ranged gun. The VS1 is probably better at long ranges because of this.

    The CME was always quite underpowered and I thought something had changed, but it still performs worse than similar weapons from other factions, as well as the VS1 itself. It needs to be accurised to the point where it can fire tighter groups at 100 metres while maintaining decent damage, because the VS rifles are worse than the NC and TR counterparts.
  7. Lavalampe

    The Big difference bewteen the CME and the VS1 is the High Velocity Ammo which works like the Heavy Barrel in Battlefield 3. You get slightly more recoil but bullets won't loose much dmg at distance and fly faster. Tomorrow, I think, I will have enough certs together for the high velocity ammo. I hope that the gun will perform better with it.

    Another thing that got my attention today: I have the feeling that the weapon got more recoil with higher size scopes. I feel that the recoil with Iron Sights or RDS sights is much less then with the 3,4x. Just imagination or reallity?
  8. Corb

    makes sense, the further range you go out to the more slight things (like recoil, wind direction, breathing) affect your aim. When you zoom your recoil isn't increasing, its just that you're realizing that all the little changes make a difference at that far of range due to scale. (so 1 inch movement from you sneezing on your end translates into a 5 foot difference at the endpoint and the scale grows the further out you go).
  9. Trysaeder

    Huh. I never thought of it like that. I doubt that it increases the aimed accuracy like BF3 though, otherwise it would actually be useful. Even the most accurate rifles still have 0.25 CoF when scoped, and you really don't want more vertical recoil while burst firing a long ranged weapon as the grouping gets affected.

    Either way, the CME is a super expensive gun since you need so many attachments just to bring it onto the same level as the Pulsar at long range. The Pulsar's first two shots land very close to each other at medium range, far closer than what the CME can group, so just imagine how much worse it will be at longer ranges.

    It's just due to the higher magnification of the scope revealing the tiny differences you saw before. If you used a 8x scope on a rifle you would see recoil movements that you wouldn't notice on a 1x reflex. I tested all the guns back in beta with a 4x scope to get a true feel of their recoil and they're surprisingly different.
  10. Grotpar

    Had the chance to test it, and the problem with this gun is simply the extreme horizontal sway it has during full auto fire.

    It doesn't have all that much vertical recoil, but it sways a lot to the left and right during full auto firing.
    The Pulsar only has a slight sway to the right, making it easy to compensate for.

    As a result, I'm going to stick with the Pulsar for long range for now.
    After 30+ minutes with the CME, those 5 minutes with the Pulsar(And the SVA-88, the CME's LMG counterpart) were god damn heaven.
  11. Lavalampe

    The CME is one of the few guns that can take an compensator and Tier2 (Advanced-)Frontgrip. Both together should compare the swaying and the recoil alot even with high velocity ammo. I will test it when i got the certs.
  12. Trysaeder

    Centauri: 0.2 ↑ , ← -14.7 , 20.3 →
    Projectile speed: 590m/s
    Time per clip: 2.25s
    Reload: 2.55s/3.2s

    Pulsar: 0.22 ↑ , ← -16.8 , 20.2 →
    Projectile speed: 615m/s
    Time per clip: 2.58s
    Reload: 1.75s/2.2s

    CME: 0.2 ↑ , ← -14.775 , 20.225 →
    Projectile speed: 630m/s (lol, a 2.4% increase in velocity over the VS1 justifies the tag 'higher velocity')
    Time per clip: 2.79s
    Reload: 2.4s/3s

    NS-11A: 0.22 ↑ , ← 20.2 , -14.8 →
    Projectile speed: 640m/s (hah, even higher)
    Time per clip: 3.25
    Reload time: 2.0s/2.45s

    Cycler (best gun): 0.27 ↑ , ← 0.2 , 0.2 →
    Projectile speed: 580m/s
    Time per clip: 3.20s
    Reload: 2.8s/3.7s
    Interesting how it takes longer to reload the Centauri than to empty the clip. This doesn't happen with any other CQC rifle.
    Also interesting is how the NC fast bolt is 650m/s while the TR and VS fast bolt are both 600m/s with no other differences.

    Numbers aside, I had an above average 40-5 session to field test the CME. The engagement distance was about 30-40 metres, using a 3.4x with no other attachments. I got more headshots than average, but that's just my feeling. Later on I assaulted a watchtower at a distance of about 80 metres, which felt too far for the CME to perform effectively. The first shot recoil of the gun threw my aim off enough that I was limited to 3 round bursts, which resulted in such a high TTK that I didn't sincerely kill anything.

    I feel like this gun isn't a huge difference from the VS1 save for the reload speed. Furthermore, it's equaled by the NS-11A in nearly all areas except bullet drop. The NS-11A can take soft point ammo and a flash suppressor, but does not have an advanced forward grip. All other attachments are the same. It also uses TR sights, which are superior in my opinion, especially the 1x and 2x reflex sights, which have tiny red dots in the middle and a very clear picture.

    I have enough certs to max out 5 infantry weapons, but I don't want to spend them yet since I'm still not confident in any VS AR. If only you could demo attachments or something. 'Pay a flat fee of 20 certs to try out any and all the attachments you want on two different guns' or something like that. Trial period should also let you use two trial guns at the same time with double the cooldown.
  13. Scrangos

    I think part of the gun balance is done after being certed out. While pretty much untestable to anyone who isn't loaded in certs it seems to be designed that way.

    On paper the CME is way worset han the VS1, but maybe the rank 2 grip + compensator with HV bullets makes it considerably better than the VS1 when both are certed out. At least in a certain area.
  14. Trysaeder

    I just spent 140k experience to trick out the Centauri and CME on a whim. I wish I hadn't, and now I realise why I used the Pulsar VS1 throughout the beta despite the presence of these two rifles. There's nothing that feels as good as the Pulsar's 1.75 second reload and decent RoF + accuracy. It's pretty much the VS' version of the M416 from BF3. It takes more time to fast reload the Centauri than to empty the entire clip, and I just didn't like how fast it used up ammo. My CME thoughts are below.

    The advanced forward grip and compensator combination still does not accurise the CME enough for the 3.4x scope to be viable. The first shot recoil is still very high, so in practice I had to 'waste' the first shot in order to use the more precise 2-3 bullets that followed. The CoF bloom also increases very quickly, reducing the range at which this weapon can effectively land 80% of its shots while firing full auto.

    Unfortunately, this reinforces my position that 'if you can't hit it with a 2x reflex, give up and do something else'. The supposedly most accurate automatic weapon in the VS armory is still incapable of utilising the extra zoom of the 3.4x effectively, unlike the SABR, Cycler and Reaper DMR. I remember one distinct moment where I was outgunned by a GD-22s LMG at a distance of about 50 metres, which made me give up on this weapon's advertised long ranged capabilities. I put the 1x reflex back on and was content with using it at medium ranges as the first shot recoil gave me a ton of headshots, but I'm still disappointed at the range of the weapon.
  15. TheEvilBlight

    To clarify, short reload is reloading before empty and long reload is reload when empty?
  16. Lavalampe

    Ok bought the Compensator a few mins ago, but couldn't test it much.
    But i still have the feeling that the gun is spraying mad for the first shots :(
    I will also buy Foregrip Tier2 and hope that this will work a bit but my hopes are low.
  17. Trysaeder

    Yes that's right.

    I've now got a few hundred kills with the CME and I feel like I know it better now. My advice to anyone looking at it is to simply save your money/certs and stick with the Pulsar VS1. It's probably the most versatile VS AR in combat at the moment, and the reload speed is a joy to have. You'll rarely find a situation where the VS1 lets you down.

    Hopefully this thread has helped potential CME users make an informed decision.
  18. Lavalampe

    And i hope it shows the devs that something is wrong with this "long range" rifle.
    I've also twittert about the many cons of this gun and I still wonder, why i performed so well in beta with it but not now...
  19. TheEvilBlight

    The less guns I buy the better, since it's a pain to cert up and spend on the same general toys for each gun (scopes, etc).

    I'm still burned over the foregrip on the Pulsar C...oh why, stupid me...
  20. Trysaeder

    Getting closer to the Auraxium now, and I think I've found a pretty reliable formula to get head shots with great precision at medium ranges. Burst 123, 1, 12-12 reasonably quickly, aiming for the upper chest/neck. The last four shots are pretty good at landing right on the head, but a tiny bit 'off' what your crosshair aimed at, CS style.