Scheneighnay McBob wrote:Something has bothered me for a long time with Dust- the clear difference between what dropsuits players use, and how they actually play.
Assaults have always been the most common, but it seems to me like the vast majority of assault players played like commandos and sentinels- grinding through the front line.
Why is that? Seems to me like the reason is that assaults have always been presented as the regular, go-to dropsuit for any situation. Every trailer is centered on them, and Dust's mascot is the Caldari assault. Currently, Nova's mascot is the Gallente assault.
Should there be more focus placed on heavy frames, to reflect how players actually play the game?
Of course, this goes by my personal perspective of the dropsuit roles:
Heavies: sit in the heaviest fighting on the front line
Logis: support the heavies
Assaults: maneuver to take pressure off the front line
Scouts: sneak around taking ungaurded points and picking off snipers/AVers
Since we're theorycrafting, I'll use the real-world use these would be put to:
Sentinel: Fire support for an infantry push. Militarily, the only reason one would armor and arm up something like a sentinel is if they were expected to spend lots of time in the open, exposed to enemy fire. Open-ground fire support, vulnerable to fast-movers in close would be the realistic military result of the sentinel. Military equipment that would be expected to have sufficient cover and external protections to keep it from being casually gibbed would result in the defenses having been sharply pared down to save on costs.
Commando: This would have been a heavy combat vanguard/shocktrooper. Not special Forces, but the first soldiers and marines charging headlong into enemy fire to sow havoc. This is the kind of thing the USMC, for example, would kill to get their hands on were the dropsuit classes actually available. This would be the kind of suit you charge open ground with, or kick in doors in urban combat.
Logistics: Would have been medics, resupply and defensive fortification engineers, not just attached to the fatties at the hip.
Assaults: Majority of main-line infantry. You would see a full company of these guys for 20 commandos, and maybe 6-10 sentinels. Maybe ten logis to provide support to the company.
Scouts: Only a squad worth, so about ten who comprise the early-warning defense/outriders and sentry assassinations. A cloaked scout with a clear comms signal would be far more valuable than a platoon of assaults.
Edit: And the main infantry would still think the heavy guys are just a buncha lazy, muscle-headed slackers who lift iron to look good (not because we often had to pack 80-120 pounds of equipment in the field individually depending on the situation)