shady merc
RisingSuns
Dark Taboo
49
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Posted - 2014.07.13 21:46:00 -
[1] - Quote
The main issue with Assault suits is the current design of CPU and PG. All weapons and modules CPU/PG need to be re balanced to reward players for playing their roles. Since we don't do this all suits tend to fit themselves like an assault suit.
But if assault are UP why do we all fit our suits like they would? The reason we fit our suits like an assault suit is due to their ability to engage anywhere on the current battlefield.
Using one of the 4 Racial Weapons and brick tanking is the easiest way to limit the number of weaknesses your suit has. While the suit may not be exceptional in any situation its also not bad anywhere on the field. While this is good thing for the Assault suit it become OP very quickly when another suit does it. this was the problem we saw with Slayer-logi. The logi could fit more HP and carry more equipment then the assault suit making the assault obsolete. Its the same issue we see with the current scouts. When a scout fits to be an assault it get all the benefit of an assault and a scout.
We need to be rewarded for fitting to our role. An example of this is fitting Kin Cats on your suit. The PG cost of the Basic Kin Cat rivals prototype weapons. While most scouts want to fit Kin Cats they quickly realize that fitting armor plates is typically a better choice. Not only do they get more HP they also have more room to fit better weapons. We see the same thing happening with niche weapons like the sniper rifle.
Basic sniper rifle pg 10
Basic Combat Rifle pg 3
Prototype Combat Rifle 8
Here are a couple of suit using my skills to show of the concern with CPU/PG and assaults.
Assault Scout
Assault
Assault Logi
Assault Heavy
How do we fix this
First lets define the assault suit play style and what we expect it to fit. In Dust I see the assault suit as the Rifleman. They are the front line infantry that push towards the opponent. They should also be at home anywhere on the battlefield. It would be good to assume that almost all the slots on an assault suit would be used for tank, gank, or regen. We also typically expect them to select their racial tied Rifle.
Ok we know the Assault suit is the Rifleman now lets make sure it can preform that role the best. To do this we are going to make changes to PG and CPU so each suit is rewarded for its play style. In other word we want each suit to have an easier time fitting the things they want while having a tougher time fitting items outside of their role. Basically you will have to make sacrifices to play outside your role. Seems fair.
Step one
All suits role bonuses need to be static not per level. As soon as you hit level 1 assault you should get the 25% reductions to weapon fittings. This help reinforce the suits strengths early on. Currently their not much of a difference between the logi and the assault bonus at level 1. The scouts bonus is practically useless at level 1.
Step 2
Changing weapon PG.
The Combat rifle, Scrambler Rifle, Rail Rifle, Assault Rifle, all need to have the highest PG fitting cost of all infantry weapons. Doing this does a couple of thing. If increase the usefulness of the Assaults role bonus. It also ensure that other frames must make some sacrifice to equip the best all around weapons.
All other Light weapons need to have their PG cost reduced. This is done to reward other suits for playing to their roles. All of the other weapons are more situation weapons and as such choice to work with that weakness grants you the ability to equip better modules to offset it. Both the scout and Commando want to use these type of weapons they just use them differently. The scout is the master of battlefield intelligence and positioning. The are ability to move around undetected allowing them to take advantage of weapons that depend on positioning. These include the mass driver, shotgun, nova knives, laser rifle, sniper rifle. The commando uses the same weapon but instead of moving around the field to get in position to use them they wait for the opportunity to present itself to them.
Step 3
Changing Module PG and CPU cost
Here where we allow each suit to balance itself against the others. We need to separate our module into 4 groups based on the pg required. Once we do this we can balance the suit by PG/ CPU without making any of them useless.
0 pg items
Sensor Dampeners
Range Extenders
Precision Enhancers
Shield rechargers
Low pg items
Shield regulators
Code breakers
Armor Repair
Reactive Plates
Cardiac Regulators
Medium PG
Ferroscale plates
Shield extenders
Kin Cats(high cpu)
Damage Modifiers
High PG
Armor Plates
That the basics of our list so modules may be missing. So now lets look at our suits and see how they fit into it.
Scouts
low PG high CPU
This will emphasize the use of e-war, code breakers and kin cats over HP modules. While they can still fit the other things they now have to make a sacrifice to do so.
Assault
Medium CPU high PG
They can fit rifles and HP(both regen and tank) modules with ease however trying to stack anything else causes them to sacrifice something due to CPU concerns.
Logi
Medium CPU and Medium PG
Having less PG then the assault will ensure the Slayer logi is not the go to assault fit. By limiting the PG Logi will also make it beneficial for a logi in squad to choose a side arm over a rifle to either increase their tank or support abilities.
Commandos,
Low CPU, medium PG
Mostly due to low slot count. Expect the commando to fit a lower meta level rifle then the second weapon.
Heavy,
High PG, Low CPU
Yeah heavies are going to tank out, they can do that with... |