Severus Smith
Ikomari-Onu Enforcement
Caldari State
351
   |
Posted - 2013.09.20 17:38:00 -
[1] - Quote
I play a Heavy exclusively and wanted to post a few of my ideas for the Heavy of the future. I have a differing vision for how Heavies should work than CCP does currently. I know these changes below aren't ready for the game []iright now[/i] but if people like them (especially people at CCP) they could make for an interesting game in the future.
The Heavy Suit
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I think there should be two types of Heavies. Commandos and Sentinels.
Commando
Commandos should be well armored suits: 1x Light Weapon, 1x Sidearm, grenades, 1x equipment, high EHP (~1500 EHP through mods or built in resistances). They are slow, like a Heavy should be, and should be able to go one on one with Assault suits and win in most occasions due to EHP. They trade speed for survival. They fill the FPS stereotype of the slow, bullet sponge enemy with a normal gun: "What!? I've unloaded my entire clip into him hows he's still standing?"
Sentinel
Sentinels should be dedicated heavy weapon suits: 1x Heavy Weapon, no sidearm, no grenades, no equipment, moderate EHP. This suit is engineered to support the Heavy Weapon and thus loses all other handhelp items (sidearm, grenades, equipment). They are slow, moderately armored (sub 1000 HP), and carry a BIG f***ing gun. High damage but limited mobility. They fill the FPS stereotype of slow, armored enemy with a powerful gun: "Flank him! Taking him on direct is suicide!"
The Heavy Weapons
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Heavy Weapons are kinda bleh right now to me. They're balanced for the game (mostly) but they can be easily beaten by medium weapons even at their optimal. I think Heavy Weapons should be feared at their optimal, and pretty easily avoided outside of their optimal. This fits with FPS stereotypes (flank, use cover, or strafe away from a big gun). Heavy Weapons should all be able to damage infantry or vehicles, but specialized versions focus on one or the other (Assault = anti infantry, Breach = anti vehicle). All Heavy Weapons have a "charge" time of roughly 2 seconds (shorter for Assault, longer for Breach). This allows enemy soldiers to have 2 seconds to react when they encounter a Heavy. They can try to kill him, run for cover, or something. This means that Sentines can't "Assault" positions as easily because they have slow speed / reaction times. They also require support for ammo and covering fire when reloading.
Amarr (Beam Laser / Pulse Laser)
The Amarr battle doctrine is to fight in a line formation, firing from range with high powered lasers. As such their Heavy Weapons should be powerful at range but slow to maneuver and poor in CQC.
Tachyon Beam: A focused beam laser that melts enemies at 60m. Low damage in CQC, 2 second charge time, 5 - 8 seconds until overheat. Very slow aiming while charging / firing.
Scrambler Cannon: Fires charges scrambler pulses (think Scrambler Rifle charge) at 60 RPM. 2 second charge time, can overheat, slow aiming while charging / firing.
Caldari (Railgun / Missiles)
The Caldari battle doctrine is to pelt their enemies from extreme range with railguns / missiles. As such their weapons should have the longest ranges and deal high alpha with low RoF.
Forge Gun: We all know this one. Increase range / projectile speed. Remove splash damage. Kills vehicles dead.
Heavy Missile Launcher: Fires a swarm of 6 missiles at locked on targets. Can lock onto enemy dropsuits. Missiles can home around corners (maybe, and not tight corners). 2-3 second lock on time. Can lock onto multiple targets. Long range.
Gallente (Blasters / Drones)
The Gallente prefer close range brawling with blasters or keeping enemies at bay with drones. As such their weapons should do high CQC damage with decent maneuverability, but poor ranged damage.
Blaster Cannon: Fires a barage of plasma at 4000 RPM. 1200+ DPS at 20m or less. 2 second charge time, high damage falloff, high dispersion.
Drone Launcher: Fires multiple sentry drones that attack enemies with blaster fire. Fires drones 30m or until they strike an object. Drones attack nearest enemy within 30m with 300 DPS blaster fire. Drones have low hitpoints and can be destoyed. Great for reinforcing objectives and attacking entrenched enemies. Maximum of 5 drones active at a time. Assault fires smaller drones (AI) with faster rate of fire / lower damage (200 DPS). Breach fires larger drones (AV) with less tracking / more damage (400 DPS).
Minmatar (Autocannons / Artillery)
The Minmatar are guerilla fighters that prefer quick engagements and single overwhelming volleys over prolonged combat. As such their weapons should deal high alpha damage or have a high RoF, but do not excel at prolonged combat.
Heavy Machine Gun (HMG): We all know this one. Add 2 second charge time, increase damage, decrease dispersion.
Flak Cannon: Fires flak shells that detonates at 40m - 50m or on impact. 2 second charge time, 60 - 120 RPM, basically Mass Driver at range. Horrible dispersion. Great for taking out entrenched enemies at 40m - 50m range.
Feel free to add your own ideas for Heavy Weapons, or critiques of mine.
Constructive criticism please, don't be that guy. |
Awry Barux
Shining Flame
Amarr Empire
83
|
Posted - 2013.09.20 18:14:00 -
[2] - Quote
Your idea for the commando is deeply flawed. If it can "go one on one with an assault and win most of the time", you've just made the frame more powerful than anything else. Everyone is going to flock to it. Why bother being fast when you can have 1500 base EHP? I mean, that's two core locus grenades with room to spare. That's tanking a direct hit from a basic FG without going down. A scout could run up, cook a nade perfectly, stab it with proto nova knives, and the commando would STILL have time and HP left to turn and instagib the scout with an AR.
tl;dr: too much, too far. The commando does need more survivability, but it should come from faster bounce-back. 10 shield/sec recharge rate is abysmal. |
Severus Smith
Ikomari-Onu Enforcement
Caldari State
352
|
Posted - 2013.09.20 18:35:00 -
[3] - Quote
Awry Barux wrote:Your idea for the commando is deeply flawed. If it can "go one on one with an assault and win most of the time", you've just made the frame more powerful than anything else. Everyone is going to flock to it. Why bother being fast when you can have 1500 base EHP? I mean, that's two core locus grenades with room to spare. That's tanking a direct hit from a basic FG without going down. A scout could run up, cook a nade perfectly, stab it with proto nova knives, and the commando would STILL have time and HP left to turn and instagib the scout with an AR.
tl;dr: too much, too far. The commando does need more survivability, but it should come from faster bounce-back. 10 shield/sec recharge rate is abysmal. Fair point. And maybe 1500 EHP is too much. Please look at the spirit of the idea and not the raw numbers I posted. I am not a game designer and as such don't know how to perfectly balance the numbers. The Commando should be slow, as slow as the current Sentinel Heavy. It should have a slow turn speed as well. Its strength is survivability.
Also, the Commando I described above already exists: AR Heavies. And since AR Heavies are not more powerful than everything else right now I can assume that the above stats (1x Light Weapon + Slow + 1500 EHP) can work pretty well. They compete with AR Assaults pretty well. One on one the AR Heavy will win in direct firefight due to more EHP. But the AR Assault is more mobile and as such can flank and snap fire from cover far quicker than the AR Heavy can.
Awry Barux wrote:1500 base EHP Also, they wouldn't have 1500 base EHP. That would be total EHP with mods and resistances. Like Proto Heavies have now. |