Speed and regen will be relevant in 1.8 with the adjusted TTK. A fast suit will be able to break contact and get to cover to regen. This whole topic on balancing is off track, as all of the suggested ideas are assuming game play will be exactly the same after the next patch.

Damage mods at the old values combined with extra mod slots is why everyone went logi in the first place. At the start of 1.8, the extra mod slots is too much still, but the assaults new bonuses will help almost even it out. After which, we do need to make all the med suits equal in H/L slots. This allows the logi to still overcome the speed, regen, and tank differences the assault has, but will never be able to attain as much of either.

With one less H/L slots EVEN with buffs to the stats of the logi, and the logi will have no choices in how to build their suits. All mods slots would be devoted to tank only. This would still leave us with less ehp than what is achievable by assaults, less effective regen abilities, as well as being slow moving ducks waddling around, with not enough firepower to survive.This would make this suit a novelty for the rich isk/sp players only.

All med suits all the core should be the same. The only differences should be the logi gets more equipment and reduced speed to the extra weight, and differences in class bonuses. This means regen, HP, stamina and H/L need to be the same across the board. They should be the same suits, with just minor modifications that allow them to perform in there specialty effectively. Assaults bonuses to their weapon and ability to carry a sidearm makes the combat superior to killing the logi, even the amar with their sidearm. The logis slower speed makes them sitting ducks, but they can put out equipment to help their team effectively.

A high slot with shield extender is greater than a uplink. A low slot with an armor plate is greater than a rep tool. A sidearm is greater than nanoinjector. These are reasons why we cannot count total slots of a suit, and have to treat them as just part of the specialization bonus the suit gets. The only reason to have a different slot layout would be if the were their own tree and type of suit. As it is, to try out a logi, you have to spec into the basic med. This is basically an assault suit stripped of the role bonus. This implies these are the same suits, and should be built at the core the same. This would balance the two specializations out.

I keep telling people not to discount the new general assault bonus. With maxed light weapons and sidearms and maxed fitting optimization we'll be fitting proto weapons at the CPU/PG cost of advanced and fitting specialist weapons at the cost of standard

+1 on the Assaults having more module slots than Logis.

I think they should homogenize the Medium suits, slot wise, and I mean all the slots. Right now Proto Logis have- A:13, C:14, G:14, and M:14 while the Proto Assaults have A:10, C:11, G:11, and M:11 total slots. That averages out to 12 total slots on Proto suits, which I think would be great. The Assaults would have more modules in exchange the Logis have their Equipment slots.

So, in my theoritcal world, which I'm sure someone else has come up with, the Logis would look kinda like this:

Logistics Ak.0

Light Weapon-1
Sidearm-1
Grenade-1
Equipment-3
High Slots-3
Low Slots 3

(Of course, If we make them more Armor centric, lose at least a High-slot for another Low, perhaps change two, giving it 1 High and 5 Lows, this would also differentiate it from the Gallente more than the sidearm)

Logistics Ck.0

Light Weapon-1
Grenade-1
Equipment-3
High Slots-4
Low Slots-3

Logistics Gk.0

Light Weapon-1
Grenade-1
Equipment-4
High Slots-2
Low Slots-4

Logistics Mk.0

Light Weapon-1
Grenade-1
Equipment-4
High Slots-4
Low Slots-2

(I know that's a major change to the Minmatar, if we want to maximize speed, maybe a 3-3 split would work better, again, these are just rough sketches.)

Likewise, the Assaults would look like this:

Assault Ak.0

Light Weapon-1
Sidearm-1
Grenade-1
Equipment-1*
High Slots-4
Low Slots-4

(Again, if we make them more Armor focused, instead of balanced, then a 3 High, 5 Low could be fun, though differentiating from Gallente would be difficult, unless we give one of them 2 equipment slots )

Assault Ck.0

Light Weapon-1
Sidearm-1
Grenade-1
Equipment-1
High Slots-5
Low Slots-3

Assault Gk.0

Light Weapon-1
Sidearm-1
Grenade-
Equipment-1*
High Slots-3
low Slots-5

(Again, giving one of them an additional equipment in exchange for a slot would help separate the two, personally, I'd give it to the Gallente)

Assault Mk.0

Light Weapon-1
Sidearm-1
Grenade-1
Equipment-1*
High Slots-4
Low Slots-4

(To keep it different from the Caldari, @ 4-4 split was all I could think of, but, giving the Minmatar an extra equipment could help split the difference, and then switch it back to the current 5-2 split.)

My biggest issue is the 2 equipment on the Assaults, taking one of the best 1.8 changes from the scouts and just spreading it around. However, with a maximum number of slots available on any module type being 5, while homogenizing medium slots, leads to very similar slot configurations.

This is just my thought, bash me like crazy. I've been running Logi since Open Beta time and added Assault to the mix when uprising hit. Keeping total slots the same between the two would allow you to give the Assaults a boost while not gimping Logis horribly.

This seems to me like common sense. The logis should have more Equipment slots, the Assaults should have more Highs and Lows. The fact that it's common sense tells us that CCP will likely never do it this way.

amarr needs to have more slots. 1 more low and 1 less high than gallente at least.
Minmatar should have the even slot layout.

I'm not against that. Honestly I was more concerned with balancing slots overall then the specific High/Low layout. But, I might add more specific layouts to flesh out the idea a bit, if I have the time.

Slots overall? As in 2 equipment slots and 1 low versus 2 lows and 1 equip slot?

Uh .........."Can I get TL:DR ?" ( he says in his southern baptist preacher voice)

Assaults are slamming into the objective and Assaulting thats what they do.

Assaults should be the jack of all trades but master of none in my opinion. Thus it should have the slot layout to support said ideology.

Assaults should be the jack of all trades but master of none in my opinion. Thus it should have the slot layout to support said ideology.

Suits

Each starter fit would have a static bonus and each bonus would be different from the others in that race. That static bonus would reflect one of that race's style. Amarr bonus would be to energy weapons and armor and Caldari would be more focused on shield and ranged combat and so on. The slots can be slightly different in the starters but mostly the same


When we move to the light frames each suit would get a per level of light frame bonus. Similar slots to the starter.

Light Advanced frames would get a per level of light frame bonus and a per level of scout bonus. These bonuses would be different than the standard frame per level bonuses to give them their specialty. The standard may have 5% per level to armor mods but the advanced would have 5% to armor repairer per level and 3% reduction in armor repairer CPU. There are Two Light suits in the tree I made and both would have different bonuses given on the suit and per level of skill.

Light Prototype suits would have a static bonus and two unique bonus per level but it would come with a missing slot or a slot moved to high from low, anything to make it different to almost the point of gimping if not used within its role. Giving a suit an extra sidearm or grenade slot would be a perfect way to give a proto suit a unique feel as long as it comes with some type of drawback.

Suits

Each starter fit would have a static bonus and each bonus would be different from the others in that race. That static bonus would reflect one of that race's style. Amarr bonus would be to energy weapons and armor and Caldari would be more focused on shield and ranged combat and so on. The slots can be slightly different in the starters but mostly the same


When we move to the light frames each suit would get a per level of light frame bonus. Similar slots to the starter.

Light Advanced frames would get a per level of light frame bonus and a per level of scout bonus. These bonuses would be different than the standard frame per level bonuses to give them their specialty. The standard may have 5% per level to armor mods but the advanced would have 5% to armor repairer per level and 3% reduction in armor repairer CPU. There are Two Light suits in the tree I made and both would have different bonuses given on the suit and per level of skill.

Light Prototype suits would have a static bonus and two unique bonus per level but it would come with a missing slot or a slot moved to high from low, anything to make it different to almost the point of gimping if not used within its role. Giving a suit an extra sidearm or grenade slot would be a perfect way to give a proto suit a unique feel as long as it comes with some type of drawback.

The thing about the Gallente Assault is that it only benefits one weapon: the AR.

How is a shotgun going to benefit? Plasma Cannon? Perhaps Ion Pistol will, too. So only half of their weapons. I'd say we get a RoF increase to match our assault style (it's the Gallente's niche)

Take a second to forget about Dust and think about other FPS games.

I always hated the shotgun, because the range is horrendous. It's less of a shotgun and more of a portable shrapnel launcher.

I'd love to see how this turns out for shotguns because REAL shotguns have short to medium range, not short to point blank.

This is pretty unrelated, but it's worth saying: What happens in real life has no bearing on this game, at all. I don't care what a real world assault rifle can do. Because in Dust, we're not shooting real world assault rifles at real world infantry. We're shooting future space guns that actually fire ionized plasma bolts at mercenaries in high-tech super space Iron Man suits. Real life doesn't really mean squat.

I dont often insult people on the forums but this has to be the dumbest thread Ive seen in along time.......

You want more slots on the assaults but you wont have enough pgu/cpu to run all those modules not only that. If say they (CCP) did bump the cpu/pg of the assaults AND give you more slots then you just change the names of the suits.They're both medium frames.......except the logi's ARE slower.Have less base hp.Slower strafe speed.Slower turn speed. Less stamina.Slower sprint speed......AAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDD LESS SP REQUIREMENT.

LOL wow let me get off these forums while all these ******** germs are floating around lest they contaminate me.......

I say, take away the base bonus of 5% reduction to PG/CPU cost of light/sidearm weapons and instead give a 5% bonus to damage mod effectiveness.

Add 1 extra equipment slot and increase the base CPU and PG by 10%.

Now you have a viable assault class that is very deadly and versatile.

I don't think you quite understood the Suits orginal description, the description you suggested afterwards sounds more like a heavy scout

Assaults are meant to be versatile as in they can be used for anything and everything.
Need AV? Take an Assault Suit
Need Shock Trooper take an Assault Suit so on and so forth.

I don't think the T2 dropsuit systems really allow the Assault to do the job it should be capable of doing.

1) New Equipment: Laser Designator
An Assault dropsuit with a laser designator is truly one of the most versatile units available. The user can designate upto 4 unique tasks ranging from bombing runs amd artillery strikes, to vehicular transportation and team orders. These requests can even be seen by team commanders who can route them to the best equipped units to respond.

2) Orbital Depot Drop:
Assaults are the only unit capable of deploying new supply depots to the field. Unlike other units which can only drop small/large turret installations, the Assault suit is also capable of delivering a supply depot to ground forces nearby, this allows them to remain active no matter the circumstances, for a price.

3) T3 Weapon Customization:
With the introduction of the T3 weapons systems most units obtained the ability to build weapons exactly to their liking, however the Assault suit also gained a few extra advantages. With a T3 weapons system the Assault Suit can forgo deployable equipment in order to modify their weapon on the fly mid-battle.

You can still only have 1 light weapon, but for example in T3 you get a frame and a main assembly, you can swap outmthe main assembly, so an Assault Rifle can modified into Tactical Assault Rifle or an Assault Mass Driver can be changed to a breach as the need arises. This doesn't encroach on the Commando's field as it is still only 1 weapon. But the weapon can now be tweaked mid-battle.

So I had the idea that maybe instead of Assaults getting slightly better overall base stats than Logis, they could just get another module slot somewhere.



Assault:
Amarr: 1LW/2S/1G/1EQ/3H/5L
Caldari: 1LW/1S/1G/1EQ/5H/4L
Gallente: 1LW/1S/1G/2EQ/3H/5L
Minmatar: 1LW/1S/2G/1EQ/4H/4L

Logi:
Amarr: 1LW/1S/1G/3EQ/3H/4L
Caldari: 1LW/1G/3EQ/5H/3L
Gallente: 1LW/1G/4EQ/2H/5L
Minmatar: 1LW/1G/4EQ/4H/3L

So this leaves all medium suits with 13 total slots at PRO. All of the Logis get 7 module slots, except for the Caldari which gets 8, due to not having a bonus Sidearm or Equipment slot. All of the Assaults get 8 module slots, again except for the Caldari, which has 9. The Amarr Assault gets an extra Sidearm; this is in line with the Amarr Logi, and allows the suit to constantly have a weapon ready to switch to. The Gallente Assault gets a bonus Equipment slot, in keeping with Gallente's philosophy of preserving life. The Minmatar Assault gets an extra Grenade slot, as the Minmatar love explosions, and it's arguably the best with grenades due to it's speed.