With the launch of 1.8 on March 25, CCP is changing the medium suit bonuses to reflect more racial preference. Assault and Logi dropsuit command changes will make racial suits work more effectively with their weapon type or particular flavor of logistics, but the bonuses didn't go far enough, and CCP greatly missed both the mark with them and the opportunity to add in real balance to the game.

The bonuses coming to the Assault suits in particular allow rail rifles to reload quicker, assault rifles perform better hip firing, combat rifles fit more ammo in the clip, and laser weapons overheat less. But the real missed opportunity here is in damage output.

Specifically, there's been a huge influx of people outfitting heavy suits with light weapons, most likely because a heavy suit is the only way to meaningfully survive with the TTK in the game currently. But given that heavy suits can build for tank and still have the tremendous damage output and projection of a light weapon, where is the trade off? Where is the incentive to use a medium assault suit, when the heavy suit performs as or more effectively than a medium assault suit?

The incentive should have come about in the form of damage bonuses. Assault suits could either have been given a 5% per level damage bonus to light weapons or a flat role bonus of 25%. Obviously, light weapons would have to be nerfed by 25% in order to give the same relative damage output as currently. However, it would create a viable reason, an incentive, for people to use assault suits over heavy suits, with the main trade off being more damage over survivability.

This game should not have arbitrary limits. Natural limits in the form of fitting optimization, tanking effectiveness, stacking penalties, etc., all fit within the idea that only your imagination is the limit to what you can and how you can fit out your suit. But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be incentives to how you should fit. With a change suggested above, heavy suits are still free to fit their suits how they please. They would, however, be trading the damage output of an assault suit for the survivability offered by a heavy one. You know, balance.

TL;DR CCP should add a damage bonus to light weapons in Assault suits but nerf light weapons overall to compensate. This creates interesting choices between damage output and survivability when making the choice what suit to use for what role.

Versatility comes from specialization. Assault suits are about killing. Period. There's no "variety" in killing. You shoot your opponent until their health reaches 0. If you want versatility, specialize in another role. In fact, that's the way the game's designed.

And really, read through the post before commenting. I'm not recommending a flat 25% damage buff. Assault suits would be where they are now. In fact, Commando suits would still be 10% higher than them. The only thing that'd change is to give more incentive to run Assault over Sentinel or SlayerLogi. Really, if you want to run a Heavy suit, there needs to be more trade offs than just speed. Snipers sniping in a proto heavy suit, just as tanky as a heavy at point blank? Seem balanced? Slayer logi carrying equipment for days, still providing the same dps as an assault? Seem balanced? I'm afraid not.