From what I understand, basically Dust is a full-time beta again like in 2012 except now it's a beta for a game on another platform. Which doesn't bother me as much as it did (now that I've calmed down from fanfest) because I remembered something. I remembered the reason I joined this Beta back in 2012 was because I wanted to help build the greatest persistent shooter ever made. So, in the spirit of beta testing, here are my thoughts on moving forward with AV versus Vehicles:We reduce the price of all vehicles and vehicle modules down to dropsuit equivalent ISK values and buff the hell out of all AV weapons. Then spend a week testing it. If AV is too much, take AV down a touch and try another week of testing. Test Tuesday day through Friday, collect feedback Saturday through Monday, make adjustments on Monday, test Tuesday through Friday, etc.
Then once AV v V gets mostly good feedback on the forums, you have gotten close to balance. You can crank tank prices back up AND have good data to send over to the balancing team in the PC port. Then you can make minor tweaks to AV or vehicles to fine-tune the balance. The idea is to get things close first, and right now they are FAR from close.
Balance = Any one player when running AV gear should have a chance against any one person driving a vehicle. A MLT AR can kill a protosuit in the right hands, the same should be said about MLT AV and fully specced tanks. There is one person driving the tank, so it should take one person to kill the tank. Period.
As it stands now - A proto prof. 5 swarm cannot break the rep cycle of vehicles, so a MLT swarm has no chance. Swarms need their projectile speed jacked way up, their original clip size returned, and their original damage back. AV grenades are completely useless unless they are packed, and even then there's only 2 now so our AV grenade damage has been dropped by 33.333_%. Make the packed damage the basic AV nade damage, then bump it up from there. Forge guns are mostly good right now, but they seem to still misfire occasionally and the lower tiers could use a slight damage bump. There is no reason why Plasma Cannons shouldn't do as much damage as a forge gun. The projectile is easily avoided, you have far less ammo, and your clip size is one. You already OHK 99% of all suits with it anyway, so I say make the PLC do equal damage to the breach forge gun.
