What you don't understand and you really should is laser tech out ranges blaster tech every time, all the time.

"The idea being that each race will have it's base variant be Assault, (Gallente) Burst (Minmatar), Breach (Caldari) or Tactical (Amarr) and then the variants are a specific race's take on the others using their own tech. So, you'd get an Assault Rail Rifle that attempts to somewhat mimic the behavior of the Gallente Assault Rifle and a Tactical Assault Rifle that attempts to mimic the Amarr Scrambler Rifle and so on."
https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=870299#post870299 from CCP Remnant.

Confirms the tactical AR is basically a Gallente scrambler rifle.

Now consider this:
Scramblers are lasers. Lasers have the 2nd highest range, 2nd to only railguns.
ARs are blasters (including the tactical AR). Blasters are the lowest range weapons.

Given all this info, you would expect the scrambler rifle to have longer range than the tac AR, but somehow its the opposite. This is why its a problem.

I don't want the tac AR to be inferior though. I want it to get a damage increase (blasters are suppose to have high damage per second), or get a bigger magazine (like 4 more rounds).

I'm fine with a range nerf on the TAR, because as already mentioned, it's the lowest range tech knock-off of one of highest range tech types in the game. It's also a knock-off THE prototypical tactical rifle in the game, that being the scrambler.

As for, "You can't make a weapon "a weaker version of" another one", yes you can. Every weapon is made to fit a certain role in the game, and this is largely in fitting with tech/damage type and the weapon's roles within the game.

The idea is about having certain weapons that you skill into fill specific niches. You don't skill into shotguns and expect their to be a long-range version that takes out snipers, for example. That's not the shotgun's niche. The rifles have been given a bit more leeway in this matter, and it would seem the idea is to give people that skill into those weapons a certain degree of flexibility while still stressing the differences in technology types.

Blaster tech is meant to be the shortest-range high-dps option in the game. This means the Duvolle AR is meant to be one of the fastest damage-dealers in short-range available in the game. The Duvolle should definitely outclass the Assault Scrambler in short range, as blaster-tech is supposed to be definitively better. That's one element of "balance".

This is why it's an issue to have the TAR outrange the Scrambler, as if a single weapon type (blaster AR) can be both the best in short-range and have an advantage at long-range over the tactical weapon type, you've effectively hosed the advantage for skilling into one over the other.

I'd say swapping the ranges is a good solution, and if you say that's too much of a nerf - you've basically admitted that the scrambler was at a disadvantage.

As to the scope issue, that's sort of a separate "design flaw" element they introduced. And you find all the AR models in the viewer are seemingly tactical anyway. It seems it's a holdover from how they were originally designing the weapon.

It's possible other elements of both the assault variants and tactical variants need to be further balanced (clip-size, damage, heat production), but having the blaster outrange the Scrambler is asinine. Bear in mind, there'll be two more tactical rifles (Combat and Rail), both of which will outrange the TAR in theory as well (and the rail will outrange the Scrambler in theory). The Plasma AR's edge as a "skill" will be the fact that in its short optimal range, the standard Assault-type rifle should still be the fastest damage dealer.

Supposedly they'll be seeking our input on rifle ranges with the new combat/rail coming out soon by posting their potential stats. So, you can stop the QQ and provide input directly at that point. They're likely to ignore this topic considering that.

we have the scrambler rifle vs assault rifle.. not going to say any more because i dont want to listen to any annoying rants..



but what of the laser rifle?

how should the laser rifle fit into this area as it out ranges the tac ar...

i think?

1. Is an Ishukone Forge Gun Stronger than a MLT Forge gun? Is it game-breaking that that is the case? The fact that it has a scope is an incidental design issue, as I mentioned. It doesn't dictate the future of the weapon, it suggests that it should have a dot-sight instead. The advantage with Blaster Rifles is supposed to lie with the Assault Rifle itself. That's the advantage. Just as the Combat Rifle should be a better Burst Rifle than the Blaster Burst Rifle, and the Rail Rifle should be a better Breach Rifle.

2. The scope is non-issue of design. It just means it needs a different sight, as I mentioned. The advantage with ARs should be within the Assault variant.

3. Not sure what you're saying here. The Combat Rifle is Burst as well? The point is that the Combat and Rail Rifle will both have tactical variants, just like the AR. They're both longer-range tech than the Blaster, so they'll both need to have longer range than the TAR as well. That's what the tech types mean: they impact the range of the weapons and the damage types. The TAR will be the shortest range tactical rifle in the game.

4. The end point is to have all racial rifles fill their niche with variants that are advantageous for flexibility, but not greater than the competition. The endpoint does involve comparing all the weapons, and having ranges worked out appropriately. We need to change the weapons so that there's meaningful differences between specializing in the various rifle types, so the tech differences are observed, and the weapons are effectively balanced to be strongest in their given niche.

For Scrambler Users, this means they'll face-off against Tactical Rail Rifles that have better reach than they do. For Blaster users, this means they'll have the shortest range Tactical rifle, but should outdamage any of the other assault rifles in a short-range scenario. That's the balance.

Using a weapon variant that takes your rifle and tech-type out its niche means playing at a slight disadvantage (like running with a handicap) as a trade-off for the flexibility. For a Scrambler user, this should likely mean that your Assault Scrambler will have problems going toe-toe with a Duvolle user in the 20-30m range. For a Blaster user, this means even using a higher range variant like the TAR will require you to close the distance a bit to use your weapon against rifle users with tactical variants of superior range.

This isn't to suggest that everything is balanced and a simple range-swap fixes everything. The fire-rate or other things might need to be adjusted to account for range differences and so on. Tactical variants of some other guns are low-damage high RoF for example, so it's possible the TAR could go a completely different direction and get balanced.