Dear players

we are ready to share our narrative for Hotfix Delta. As usual, some, all or none of these changes may end up being deployed when the Hotfix is ready. I also want to share that we are very happy with the new CPM and that we are starting to gel as a team that wants only the best for DUST 514. Lots of positive interaction and discussions in the last few weeks.

These are the high level gameplay features we want to look at for Delta.

Weapons
Sidearms - rebalance in a similar way as rifles were, ranges, requirements and damage, mainly through buffing and tuning existing weapon behaviour (reducing ion seize, ROF on scrambler, flaylock power and blast radius, to name a few ideas)

Add all Miltia Sidearms and Miltia HMG to Market

Snipers - We simply cannot have snipers so far away in the redzone they cannot be touched, while also being immune to countersniping. However, we also want to improve the Improved headshot damage, decreased range, improved damage. We have been studying Domination maps, and some of the farthest redline sniper spots that can camp the Objective to get a good gauge of the situation. There cannot be a risk free way of playing the game, for each role there must be a counter.

Plasma Cannon - increased projectile speed

Swarms - efficiency against assault dropships needs to be improved fairly, there are a few ways (increased speed, nerf afterburners, increased lock on timers, probably not lock on range nor damage). We will buff normal dropship ehp to make up for their shortcomings.

Rifles - tweaks to Scrambler, Assault Scrambler and Assault Rifles (plasma)

Assault HMG buffed, burst HMG needs a slight tune down

Dropsuits
Minmatar dropsuits - small ehp buff across the board

Standard and Breach Forgegun and Railgun Turret splash radius reduced or removed. Blast stays on Assault Forge Guns. Holding a charge with a splash makes sniping in many cases redundant, and the Forge is primarily AV.

Turrets
Small Rail ROF reduced

Large Blaster splash reduced

Small Blaster splash increased, maybe range increase

Vehicles
HAV inertia increased so switching from forward to backward movement is more realistic, and reduce fuel injector boost to speed.

Shield based HAV and DS buffed ehp, Gunnlogi and Myron

Other
Damage profiles - Projectiles (Combat Rifles, etc) to -15%, 15%, or -20/+20 from -5%, +10%, plus fixing turret damage profiles to match intended design

NPE - all Frontline starter suits will have racial pistols, snipers smg's, and others magsecs, academy length increased, all new players injected with dropsuit upgrades skills (shield armor and core). Granting these skills coupled with militia sidearms and hmg allows us to reduce starting ISK to 25K

Shield Modules - 15% or so CPU reduction of Energizers, Regulators and Rechargers

Nanite Injectors - heal same amount of shields as armor, yes quite a buff

Nova Knife optimization skill added

Add new Officer Light Weapons as well as key missing FW items to the LP Store


Most of these issues have been mentioned and discussed on the forums, discovered through data or raised by the CPM.

Let's have a courteous and constructive dialogue and detailed threads will be hitting shortly.

Right, tried to not forum rage, but seeing what the CPM and rattati have to say about dropship vs swarms....

Whats the purpose behind reducing the small rail rate of fire? They fire pretty slow already, and only have any decent ROF for thos specced into an incubus (several million SP and half a million isk later) so why the nerf?

Swarms, whats the final end game? We all know the stats about them vs dropships by heart, (175 M lock, 400 m range generally 3 hits and your done for).

The problem with buffing regular dropships and nerfing small rails at the same time makes it harder (i cannot say by how much till we get some numbers) to deal with suicide "pilots". Buffing swarms so that ADS pilots will not be able to get away (i know imagine infantry getting away from a firefight at 100 meters blasphemy) means regular ships will almost certainly never getaway, tank be damned.

There will alway be "debate" between average guys with a 50,000 isk swarm launcher and guys in 400,000 isk plus dropships, because everybody wants the kill, not area denial, and certainly not more warpoints. And nobody is willing to admit that there are players that are better than they. Dropships are so specialist they needed an entire training series (which helped to get judge elected to the CPM).

Pilots having a good KDR in terms of what? if I go 10 to 1 that 1 is worth three games of grind. Any decent vehicle pilot should not have ADV infantry type of KDR because whats the point of using a very expensive asset if you cannot keep it alive. Keeping it alive requires skill, especially since everything you fight has longer range and more DPS.

I offer to take any member of the CPM, dev, or any doubter in the air for a full day of gaming. You pay for the ADS i call one in (so you dont have to invest any SP for a lvl 3 inc) with turret of choice and you tell me how OP dropships are.

The suit may be a proto suit but my drop ship isnt at proto level either which i why i mention the price of my ship with only ADV modules, turret included. The proto suit isnt used exclusivley for av its just a fit you have on your proto suit. Also proto could only cost 8K isk and 155 loyalty points. currently what 20 AUR? 1 FW and you're set.1 drop ship loss is 3 matches just to try to break even. flying one out four matches just to not go isk negative, yep balanced.


Suits can get away by finding cover. Suits get killed when they're out in the open without cover, exaclty the same as a firefight. You get caught crossing an open area somebody with a rail rifle will take you down. I don't see how this uniquely apllies to dropships.

Thats funny because commando suits like the MK.0 are great for swarms and infantyr to point where rattati is about to nerf the **** out of projectile weapons. The only pure disadvantage is if you use a gal/cal/min logi suit as your swarm fit. Sidearms man, or in the case of commandos another light weapon. Also if infantry are wiping you out on the ground before you can even get a good look at a vehicle with swarms your prioritizing the big scary flying thing in the air over hte roving bands or infantry killing your team thats where you are making the worng tactical choice.

With missile "spam" we only have 8 shots before reloading. It looks innacurate on the ground because we have to fire using a white crosshair thrgouh the back of a white ship. We litterally cannot see the target we have to fire when the red dot over his head matches up. like you said tow or three missiles hits to kill a suit, generally its about 3 to five rounds if your a good shot.

In an endurance battle no way with proto swarms doing around 1.2K damage with a bonus vs armor, even if i survive his third volley i certainly wont survive whatever else is incoming. That why drops ships afterburn away after the first hit because we dont know what else is comming.

My main weapon isn't some top secret classified specialized nuke. Its a small turret. Anybody with a LAV can use them. I'm still waiting for people to say LAVs with heavy gunners are so OP.

If kill a group of 3 players 3x50 150 WP. You get two salvoes off 2X75 =150 WP.

Obviously if i'm in a vehicle the poor old infantry WITHOUT AV are going to have a bad time.

1 forge gunner can do a really good job of terminating a dropship. The forge round hoever doest follow me all over the sky.1 wyrokami with take less time to find a lock than the forger gunner will hurt me pretty badly and get minmimum 75 wp just by looking in my direction.

If costs equal possible damage cause then why do tanks with MUCH more HP, large mounted turrets, and higher DPS cost less?

A true logi has no issue with this.. It was the logi slayers who ruined your suit not Rattatai he fixed something that wasn't working as intended.

Looks like the tryhards figured out what goons did two years ago:

It has always been more efficient to have the assaults carrying the needles and the logi the rep/resupply gear.

It just took a significant buff to a nominally useful tool to figure it out. Sounds like it's working as intended.

I swear to ******* god, make my ads weaker, ccp and i will make alts and murder battle academy players for 30 days straight.

Just re-reading this tread and feel strongly that the nanite injector buff should belong only to logis - with bravo and charlie they're gradually having their role eroded. Also feel that any logi should use any piece of equipment better than any other suit, irrespective of race or skill levels.

I agree Vrain. When Logis and Commandos get fully looked at, I'd like for all Logis to have buffs to all equipment, and then a larger buff to their respective one.

Oh yes, you land lubbers have strafing to avoid bullets. Guess what we have?
We call it the afterburner. Oh, wait...
Guess what? Reality check.
Turning speed is a horrible nerf.
The missiles have 0 inertia.
Missiles keep tracking you.
They're increasing damage
Increasing range.
Increasing speed.
NOT increasing price of swarms is the real crime here.
You want my head of my python? Good. Grow a pair and spend isk.