Well yeah just like the shotgun is better in CQC then the assault rifle or the mass driver has better AOE then a combat rifle.... but last I checked when a gun is too good it's based on how well it performs in various situations and not that it performs the best in all situations. There are better CQC guns over the rail rifle even if it had less kick, but how many of those weapons have the rail rifles range? Last I checked rifle wise, the sniper rifle which has no reticle at the hip and cerebral palsy when quick scoped. The laser rifle is pretty much the worst gun in CQC. You reduce the recoil and the rail rifle will be pretty amazing in CQC (right now the spread makes it luck based as to whether or not the AR or CR will kill you in close range assuming you both can keep the reticle on one another.) Then compound that with the fact that the Rail Rifle will be amazing in long range engagements and you have the making of an OP combination.

Like I said, the failure of CCP to recognize these facts or give in to absurd demands from the community is what keeps us constantly in nerf/buff cycles.

Honestly, the Cal assault should have the Calmando's bonus.

It is an assault suit.

As it stands, I can take a Calmando put on a sniper rifle with mods, and a swarm launcher, have a nanohive, and practically own a battlefield.
Go up high, snipe to my hearts content, easily tank any counter-snipers, AND shoot down any incoming dropships.

Point is, it doesnt need the damage bonus. Give that damage bonus to the Cal assault on the ground that need to try and counter snipe.

I'd rather us not make Caldari Assaults with RR the next FOTM. Superior at range and in CQC, this is why we can never have a balanced game that people don't consider these things.

Look dude...even if all rail rifle shots connected, it doesn't have enough DPS for competitive play.

Well yeah just like the shotgun is better in CQC then the assault rifle or the mass driver has better AOE then a combat rifle.... but last I checked when a gun is too good it's based on how well it performs in various situations and not that it performs the best in all situations. There are better CQC guns over the rail rifle even if it had less kick, but how many of those weapons have the rail rifles range? Last I checked rifle wise, the sniper rifle has no reticle at the hip and cerebral palsy when quick scoped. The laser rifle is pretty much the worst gun in CQC. You reduce the recoil and the rail rifle will be pretty amazing in CQC (right now the spread makes it luck based as to whether or not the AR or CR will kill you in close range assuming you both can keep the reticle on one another.) Then compound that with the fact that the Rail Rifle will be amazing in long range engagements and you have the making of an OP combination.

Like I said, the failure of CCP to recognize these facts or give in to absurd demands from the community is what keeps us constantly in nerf/buff cycles.

What would benefit rail tech weapons on a caldari assault bonus without it becoming OP? The old sharpshooter bonus would be nice, but it would cause rage among the nooblets. What do you think it should be? I don't think a copy and paste of the commando bonus is really worth it...

Since you feel so strongly, why don't you list out the bonuses you would give each suit if you had complete control?

Look dude...even if all rail rifle shots connected, it doesn't have enough DPS for competitive play.

Reduce the RR's optimal range by between 15-20% and then have an Assault bonus that increase optimal range by 5% per level.

Alright well considering assaults are the medium suit slayer types:

Gallente: Armor rep efficiency. Downtime is the Gallente's greatest enemy with abysmal shields and high armor.

Caldari: Increased shield efficiency. The Caldari are the shield tankers and as such, the assault should have large shield recharge per tick.

Minmitar: Reduced shield recharge delay. The Minmitar are speed tankers primarily and are designed to bounce in and out of combat.

Amarr: Increased armor plating efficiency. The Amarr are the slow but heavy tankers, they are designed to have the most amount of e/hp buffer and there is where they accelerate in killing.

You want weapon affinities, role a commando.

Alright well considering assaults are the medium suit slayer types:

Gallente: Armor rep efficiency. Downtime is the Gallente's greatest enemy with abysmal shields and high armor.

Caldari: Increased shield recharge. The Caldari are the shield tankers and as such, the assault should have large shield recharge per tick.

Minmitar: Reduced shield recharge delay. The Minmitar are speed tankers primarily and are designed to bounce in and out of combat.

Amarr: Increased armor plating efficiency. The Amarr are the slow but heavy tankers, they are designed to have the most amount of e/hp buffer and there is where they accelerate in killing.

You want weapon affinities, role a commando.

These are things that can more or less be addressed in suit base stats, there's no need for actual bonuses related to them.

I'd be ok with this idea in general. I'd probably move away from the bonus to shield extender/plates for Caldari/Amarr and push for perhaps recharge rate and reduced speed penalty or something of that nature. You need to be particularly careful with defensive bonuses, as bonuses that add eHP are quite powerful, and can cause issues when some suits get it and others in the same role do not.

For Caldari I mean that they will recharge more per tick like the shield energizers, not that they will get higher e/hp like extenders. For Amarr the speed penalty reduction would probably be better as you say since this will counteract their major drawback. To me the assault bonuses should either play to the strengths of the suit or compensate its weaknesses. So the Caldari and Minmitar bonus would play to its strengths while the Gallente and Amarr Bonuses would counter act their weakness.

I don't like the idea of nerfing a weapon so it can then be buffed for a specific suit, not to mention that would bring it down to scrambler rifle range for anything not a cal assault. Unless your planning to nerf the range of that weapon too so it can actually maintain a noticeable difference between optimal ranges.

How about a 5% reduction to optimal range with a 2.5-3% per level increase? It's not a significant nerf, provides a direct boost over other RR users and extends optimal range out by a couple of metres towards its effective range.

For Caldari I mean that they will recharge more per tick like the shield energizers, not that they will get higher e/hp like extenders. For Amarr the speed penalty reduction would probably be better as you say since this will counteract their major drawback. To me the assault bonuses should either play to the strengths of the suit or compensate its weaknesses. So the Caldari and Minmitar bonus would play to its strengths while the Gallente and Amarr Bonuses would counter act their weakness.

The Gallente's only weakness right now is sucking.

Id stress that it's important to tie these to modules and not base stats. Giving base bonuses like a passive armor recharge per second, it actually discourages using reps since you have one already built in. Bonuses should encourage a certain fitting philosophies. I'd personally go with

Gallente: Bonus to Armor Repairers

Caldari: Bonus to Shield Rechargers/Energizers

Minmatar: Bonus to Shield Regulators

Amarr is kind of a goofball since its not really a repping sort of race but I want to avoid boosting eHP since the Amarr Assault will already have terrifying amounts of HP if it stacks a lot of Complex Plates. I'd probably go with one of the following.
~Reduction to Armor Plate Speed Penalty
~Bonus to Ferroscale Plate HP (similar effect, less slowdown, but brings the ferroscale to be more like normal plate HP)
~Bonus to Reactive Plates (A nice mix of HP and reps, without it getting out of hand)

Sounds good to me, though I doubt Rattatai and Logibro will do this.

Honestly I wish we could see this for both Logi's and Assaults, though Logi's to a lesser bonus.

Nothing but PG/CPU is stopping you from using any other rifle

And distracting...discuss political issues.



Meep.