Would people care if all factions weapons were mirrored?

I'd actually like a system where you could unlock another faction's weapons ONLY through player skill. If you kill X of a certain faction with a single weapon, you can unlock that weapon's equivalent for your character by paying the normal cert cost. This would serve as a pretty cool "wow" factor for players of high-skill, and give them more options with a weapon-type they are already good at using.

The weapons themselves are all pretty similar, but I would be sad if they removed any differences. Asymmetric balance, even barely asymmetric balance, is much more fun than standard balance.

VC would still be to OP... cause purple spandex and nanites

One core truth about human beings, is that we tend to look for scapegoats.
When we stand around picking our nose and a sniper shoots our helmets empty, we prefer whining about "VS snipers being soo OP" over saying "Hey, I really should've moved." because the former blames a higher power (the devs) and denies any and all responsibility.

Don't believe me? Join an outfit. Listen to them for a day or two. I guarantee you, you'll hear outrageous claims. I have heard people talk about Magriders being much more heavily armored than Prowlers and Vanguards and that isn't even the most bizarre example.
Even when given hard numbers, people will sooner discredit the game's own database with circumstantial "but"-clauses, than admit that they're just not cutting it.
I would like to tell you, that this is mostly "the kids" but it's not. Grown men are just as prone to such a blind lack of humility, as teenagers.

The point of this ramble?
In a perfectly mirrored game, there aren't any scapegoats. Even in a F2P and the inherent hacker problems, people would quickly have trouble passing the blame for their failure.
It has killed competitive games before and it most certainly will do so again, in the future.

I'd be 100% fine with it.

This thread gave me an idea. Let us loot dead bodies to extract weapon parts. Get enough weapon parts and you can craft an enemy empire's gun to use for a while.

it's all your fault ya know

This game wasnt created equal, its not supposed to be.

I know.

Seeing alot of

"AIR KILLS ME"

"TAAAAAAAAANKS EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVERYWHERE"

"MAX AA BEASTS"

Hard time actually believeing this is faction based lol

i'm sure this threads opinion is in the minority.

Dont you guys appreciate the variety in playing against other factions? I like knowing that one faction hits harder than the other, or that i know for a fact i can outgun one faction, but need to be accurate or it spells death. I like knowng i can pick apart the LAs of one side, but have to be a bit smarter when facing the LAs from another.

It adds variety to me. i also like exploiting my own advantages, while making up for my weakness with strategy

The easy answer has always been: Allow players to pick up weapons from the dead.

If you're NC but have a serious love for Vanu pew pew guns, then kill one and take his Orion. You won't be able to re-supply it, and you lose it when you die, but so what.

The reason no one ever cried about AK vs. M4 on CS is that you could always kill the T or CT and take his weapon. Done and done.

How much variety in strategy is there really, though? The factions only have slight differences, arguably not enough that you need you play in a different way to win.

"drivel"

They're not different ENOUGH in my opinion. I agree with [some random podcaster] I listened to: I'd like it more if the faction differences more more extreme, as to be on par with something like Starcraft.

So different (but balanced!) that when you heard "NC are coming" you immediately had to plan for how to defend against NC. Or when you hear "TR are coming" you prepare differently.

I would hate it if all the factions were the same, mechanically. I'd probably still play it, because that'd make it no worse than battlefield or something, but the differences in factions really makes this game stand out to me.

Yeah I think we'd all like this, but can it be balanced efficiently?

What if the man-hours spent attempting to balance the 3 factions instead went into developing better and more features for the meta game? Is it still worth it then?

Yes actually many people would care and for those claiming perfect balance is the way to go with everything, where every gun/tank/whatever else has to be numericly identical to each other and all that I have a video for you to watch, should reveal quite a bit on why a little imbalance (nothing game breaking) is actually good.

VC?

I'm the only member of the Vanu Conglomerate that I know of? Are there more of my brothers out there?!

If they mirror all weapons, they might as well call it a death match and forget factions. No it would make the game uninteresting. Right now if I want to play a different faction for a different feel of the weapons and classes, I can. People often forget not everybody stick to just 1 class and 1 faction, like in a MMO most people don't just stick to one class and never change. It's good they have 3 different styles, they just have to refine them better so they are all good viable choices that makes them all competitive.

It's not perfect right now, but tweaking takes time. I'm glad they do not make big sweeping changes.

for years to come, people will get on these forums and qq for days about this being op that being op, hell the nc just got a little buff and there is already a new buff the nc thread. end all the bs, end all the debates, common pool all the weapons and call it a day. peopel wont stop playing this game because they balance it. heII mite even get a flood of new blood from it.

Then just make all weapons do 1 damage and everyone has 1 health. That way it's who has faster reflexes wins first...or less lag.

Uniformity is never the answer. Just stick with the PS1 theme.

NC = Damage
TR = RoF
VS = Technology

Just do it secretly and see what people say.

"OMG THESE WEAPONS CANT KILL, VANU OVERPOWERED"

"We mirrored your stats to the Vanu gun"

"..."