I'm not listing numbers because CCP already has them and if the community really needs them I suggest looking them up personally.

Combat Rifle versus Burst Assault Rifle:
Combat Rifle has higher damage rounds, faster rate of fire, longer range, lower resource costs and lower price.

Rail Rifle versus Breach Assault Rifle:
Rail Rifle has higher damage rounds, faster rate of fire, (much) longer range and lower price. Resource costs are higher though.

Scrambler Rifle versus Tactical Assault Rifle:
Scrambler Rifle has higher damage rounds, faster rate of fire, longer range, lower price and the ability to charge for three times the damage. Resource costs are much higher however.

So, if all the races have their primary variant and the other races have designs that emulate that... Why is it that the Assault Rifle, being the primary weapon of the Gallente, has such similar DPS values to the emulators that it's literally single digit differences? The range is the shortest and yet even the Rail Rifle (once charged) overshadows it in the damage factor.

If they're meant to emulate the Assault Rifle than why is it that it's being outclassed?

Honestly, given that they have lower ranges, -all- the Assault Rifles should have higher damage dealing capability than the other rifles because that's what they were designed for. Close range, high damage capability. That's not what we're seeing here and when the Kaalakiota Assault Rail Rifle has replaced the Duvolle Assault Rifle as my primary armory, despite having such intensive skill investment into the Duvolle, there's something strange going on.

Right, that's the entire point - the assault variants emulate the Assault Rifle but far too well and are arguably better. I don't see how the assault variants are in any way inferior to the Gallente AR, let alone 'mildly'.

Nah dude, it was only ever over-powered because of the low TTK. Before the 10% increase to weapon damage back in like, Uprising 1.2, TTK seemed to take forever and that mostly due to shoddy hit detection and capped weapon ranges.

The Plasma Rifle shouldn't be able to trump the Combat Rifle at range, the Combat Rifle was designed to have more range anyway. The Plasma Rifle SHOULD, however, be the absolute best there is in automatic fire at close range but it's comparable at best. No-one wants it to be OP or UP and saying "Nyeeeh the AR is OP!" is ignorant; I mean for christ's sake what you're basically saying is the the AR is no longer "OP" because they replaced it with a bunch of rifles that were MORE POWERFUL than it!

All we want is for it to have it's niche, to be better than the emulators what it's supposed to be doing: Rapid dispatch of the enemy in close quarters. Doesn't make much sense if they all have the same DPS.

But see, the whole point is that the standard version is what the Assault variants of all the others are supposed to be copycatting.

The issue is that it's inferior to the copycats, which is contrary to the design of every other weapon.

"In no way should a variant rifle outperform the base rifle of the race it is emulating."

Than why have the DPS values so similar with longer ranges? Assault Scrambler Rifle doesn't even overheat, as much as someone would try to convince you - if you don't believe me grab one and just hold down the trigger; takes -magazines- to overheat it.

Assault Rail Rifle performs as well if not better than the Assault Rifle once it's fully charged

Assault Combat Rifle is arguably better overall because of it's low resource costs; similar damage output and longer range.

It's funny, I've gotten to like the CR and thought back to when I first tried the burst AR months ago, which as you noted, is a pretty crappy weapon. CR feels like a proper tactical assault weapon with short controlled bursts.

I think the following is probably one of the easier ways to balance the rifles and give each a niche, as opposed to say, reworking all the Gallente rifles that have been around for a while:

- CR stays the same, more or less. ScR as well. There may be a need for some balance passes but nothing major.

- RR should be less effective close up; there are multiple ways to do that but getting rid of it's absurd hipfire accuracy is a good start. How a rail weapon that generates enough force to fire a projectile that far is able to be fired essentially as accurately as a laser weapon like the SCR without steadying it (i.e., ADS) defies even sci-fi logic.

- AR gets a reduction in effective and perhaps even absolute range, with the optimal starting at very close range. Dispersion/kick gets increased, as does the DPS. It now becomes a murder machine in CQC but is no longer able to pick people off from a distance like the duvolle does now (silly for a blaster weapon).

You now have your rock/paper/scissors + 1. AR is great in CQC. ScR (compared to RR) is the mid-range weapon, and the RR is obviously a killer at long range. Your +1 is the CR, which now becomes the versatile generalist weapon, as I guess maybe a Minmatar rifle should be.

Your copycat weapons should be viewed as pseudo-inferior versions of the original with some tradeoffs to make it do something else than the original:

- Assault ScR is the copycat of the AR, with longer range but lower DPS and the overheat mechanic.
- Tac AR is the copycat of the ScR, shorter range, no charge, but better against armor. Maybe needs another buff somewhere like hipfire or DPS, not sure.
- Burst AR, well, I'm not totally sure what to do about that one, haven't used it like I have the others.

Agreed. Since the AR is already the shortest ranged rifle in the game, all we would need is a buff the make it stronger at closer ranges. The rail rifle is ridiculous. I had was using a gk.0 assault with a Federation Duvolle specialist AR. I got into a close range engagement with a standard rail rifle and dropsuit, an I LOST!!! The rail rifle was better at close range than the Gallentean AR was, and it was standard vs. Prototype too. We need a serious buff somehow to make the AR the best at relatively CQC for a racial rifle

I'm not listing numbers because CCP already has them and if the community really needs them I suggest looking them up personally.

Combat Rifle versus Burst Assault Rifle:
Combat Rifle has higher damage rounds, faster rate of fire, longer range, lower resource costs and lower price.

Rail Rifle versus Breach Assault Rifle:
Rail Rifle has higher damage rounds, faster rate of fire, (much) longer range and lower price. Resource costs are higher though.

Scrambler Rifle versus Tactical Assault Rifle:
Scrambler Rifle has higher damage rounds, faster rate of fire, longer range, lower price and the ability to charge for three times the damage. Resource costs are much higher however.

So, if all the races have their primary variant and the other races have designs that emulate that... Why is it that the Assault Rifle, being the primary weapon of the Gallente, has such similar DPS values to the emulators that it's literally single digit differences? The range is the shortest and yet even the Rail Rifle (once charged) overshadows it in the damage factor.

If they're meant to emulate the Assault Rifle than why is it that it's being outclassed?

Honestly, given that they have lower ranges, -all- the Assault Rifles should have higher damage dealing capability than the other rifles because that's what they were designed for. Close range, high damage capability. That's not what we're seeing here and when the Kaalakiota Assault Rail Rifle has replaced the Duvolle Assault Rifle as my primary armory, despite having such intensive skill investment into the Duvolle, there's something strange going on.