We have all seen these attempts on balance...

When nerfing weapon x weapon y stands out etc etc

My is this?? On a podcast the other week I said what is true, the player Base will find a way to break it.

As of lately jump mods... the idea and design is brilliant however the player Base stuck a mass driver or plc and broke the module.

So what I suggest is a lockdown on weapons.
Gallente weaponry to be strictly used on Gallente suits. I know this takes away that feeling of "freedom" but think of it like this.

The rail rifle... so you balance this weapon to the Caldari suit?
So after some tweaks etc it's nicely balanced.
A player comes along grabs that weapon slaps it on an amar assault for example... puts on 3 dmg mods and boom it's broke.

Anyway back on task... the issue we face in dust is... "WE NEED MORE WEAPONS!!!"

Give us what we want... a mass variety.. but, make sure it's balanced for all. What I mean by that is, make sure all fractions have a shotgun orrr a variant of a cqc weapon as an example

By doing that people won't scream "omg I can't use a fricking shotgun on my amar scout"

On that note I'm going to throw something out there as a pc vet/ heavy pro. Why is it that the amar is most dominant with the hmg?? I run the min sentinel 90% of the time but I know i could do better if I run the amar. These are the reasons balance doesn't work. The hmg on the min sentinel is as balanced as it comes. You want ultimate dmg?? You sacrifice health you want speed? You sacrifice armour. Etc etc...

Me and valcore had this discussion months ago. In pc the the most dominant suit was the amar sentinel with hmg... then the Gal sent with hmg, then the cal and finally the min?!?!?! In pc the least efficient heavy on kills was the heavy that was actually using their factions weapon?? Now you can't give that heavy a bonus to the hmg because we'll why should the min be the only one with a bonus! ? Which I agree but this will hopefully show the reasons to lock weapons.

Let me throw out a prediction with the heavies,

You introduce the Ai lazer hmg for the amar sentinel? You worked it out that the amar with the dmg makes this weapon brilliant and balanced against shield. Then a min or cal grabs that weapon slaps on 3 dmg mods and starts melting everything shield so what so you do?? Decrease effort on dmg mods?? Well the min will always be able to bring more dmg to the table or do you decrease the efficiency with the weapon?? Which will effect the amar sentinel making it now below balance.

Now as for balancing against new players...
Let's use current situations

New uses militia
Vets use proto - officer

Now I see people saying it should be tiered

Militia vs militia... now as much as I agree we need to go deeper... we need to look into passives...

Now let's look at numbers 1-5

Basic tier is everything in skill tree locked at level 1
So if we proceed to level 5? You will only get the bonus of level 1. This then because balanced.. and also vets still get experience bonus

Advance tier is everything locked at level 3

Proto - officer is everything unlocked

BALANCE!!!!!

The problem was that the weapons and their respective bonuses were not good enough. A Gallente using a rail rifle still outguns a gallente using an assault rifle in CLOSE range, medium, and absolutely on long range. I said that the caldari bonus for the rr should had been reduced charge on caldari suits and high with out it. In order to make more appealing. Not a reduced recoil bonus since recoil is part of skill play, something that someone should learn to control and grow in becoming a better player. Also reducing the recoil was not going to affect the rail rifle's damage output when used on a different suit. It was and still is the better weapon to use on ANY assault suit in any multipurpose scenario with maybe the exception of shotguns in close range unless the shotgunner is a bad player.

The problem was that the weapons and their respective bonuses were not good enough. A Gallente using a rail rifle still outguns a gallente using an assault rifle in CLOSE range, medium, and absolutely on long range. I said that the caldari bonus for the rr should had been reduced charge on caldari suits and high with out it. In order to make more appealing. Not a reduced recoil bonus since recoil is part of skill play, something that someone should learn to control and grow in becoming a better player. Also reducing the recoil was not going to affect the rail rifle's damage output when used on a different suit. It was and still is the better weapon to use on ANY assault suit in any multipurpose scenario with maybe the exception of shotguns in close range unless the shotgunner is a bad player.