Alena Ventrallis
The Neutral Zone
Psychotic Alliance
1399
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Posted - 2014.06.26 01:15:00 -
[1] - Quote
People are calling to too many radical nerfs. Nerf damage, nerf range, ROF, what have you. I don't use the HMG or even have a heavy suit, but these calls solve nothing. We need to look at the past of the hmg, and the large blaster, to find a middle ground, that gives the hmg power while not being overpowered.
First off, almost nothing has changed about the HMG since its inception. Originally it was underused, a majority of you remember this. There was absolutely no dispersion, which made aiming it supremely difficult with the reticle. All CCP Changed was the dispersion, and the rest is history.
The large blaster was slaughtering infantry left and right. I got 5000 wp with an all militia fit soma and no vehicle skills on my infantry character, like it was nothing. All that changed in bravo was adding dispersion, and the blaster tank whining disappeared overnight.
See the common denominator? Dispersion is the answer to the problems with the hmg.
See, there are two different concepts we need to be aware of. I'll explain both. There is the concept of DPS, and the concept of applied DPS. DPS is a mathematical calculation based on damage per shot, and rate of fire. It works well on a spreadsheet, but in practice, this is a horrible balancing factor to consider. Adjusting this has radical effects on gameplay, and should only be to kered with in dire circumstances.
Applied DPs is how much damage a weapon can apply in combat. While seemingly the same as DPS, In practice is can vary wildly. For instance, the kick of the rail rifle changes its applied DPs, because the recoil makes some shots miss, lowering the applied DPs, while the regular DPs remains constant.
Therefore, we need to tweak the applied DPs of the hmg, not the actual DPs. We do this by increasing the dispersion further. This will cause more rounds to miss targets, and allows it to retain its devastating effects, while reducing the applied DPs at range.
For the record, the only thing that changed about large blasters was the addition of dispersion, and that solved the problem people were having with it. The same should be applied to the hmg, to ensure that it remains useful while not overpowered.
Typed on my phone, so grammar be damned.
Calmanndo user with nova knives: Because someone has to do it.
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