Maybe I'm not reading this right, which is a very real possibility, but the first part of the post seems to indicate that AR users are hitting with 90% accuracy at 15meters? Is that right? That may be the case against heavies, but good luck getting anywhere near 90% accuracy against a scout suit or even a decent assault straffer. This smells strongly of a "nerf AR" thread and tries to use misleading and misguided calculations to back it up.

Also, you're completely ignoring LR, Mass drivers, shotguns, etc etc which can have major impacts on how the other weapons and suits are balanced. Practice doesn't always follow theory.

I'm sorry but what was the point again?

A heavy has way more EHP than an Assault suit and both can deal identical damage. The immediate downsides of the heavy suit are cost as well as slower speed and the lack of the utility slot.

Also, heavy suits have a role in that they offer weapons exclusive to it.

- So what was the point again? that HMG's suck, or did I miss anything?

I chose the weapons that were commonly used and easy to compare, to elaborate a point. the LAR is hard because it's EM based damage does more to shields, which wouldn't be a problem if CCP would tell us our resistances. The MD is hard because its both a burst and an approximate fire weapon. The SG is hard because its a burst fire weapon.

The calculations i am using figures for an ideal situation with unrecoverable loss given as an average. (Think 2 guys standing still at 15m. if there was movement involved i would have used hip fire for the AR, SMG and HMG.)

I am not saying "Nerf AR" i like the weapon, and use it often. However I am saying, "Increase our effective hit points relative to current high end damage output, or we will have SPACE COD 514. Where there is only one logical choice and everything else is novelty..."

This is too theoretical and, frankly, inaccurate. If CCP gave accuracy numbers for each character, which I wish they did, you'd find 90% is way too high for AR (even if you could somehow manage to make all your encounters 15m).

I'm sorry but what was the point again?

A heavy has way more EHP than an Assault suit and both can deal identical damage. The immediate downsides of the heavy suit are cost as well as slower speed and the lack of the utility slot.

Also, heavy suits have a role in that they offer weapons exclusive to it.

- So what was the point again? that HMG's suck, or did I miss anything?

I based that on my alt using 2 complex damage mods and a type 2 Assault suit. As it so happened there were plenty of new berries standing about to scope and burn, TTL was about 1.1-1.5 seconds (while strafing) in each case to support my claims.

The HMG and AR are fine as they are, as is the Assault and Heavy (Scout and Logi need specific attention, see above.) base EHP is too low across the board. I wont say this game should feel like we are firing foam darts. however if something isn't changed the first to fire will win 98% of the time, making this game far less enjoyable then it should be requiring less skill and situation awareness then it should.

If nothing gets changed once folks get into the 10-20mil SP range I will be proven unfortunately correct.

First, I would like to say good job on taking the time to go through all this.

However, like others have mentioned, 90% is way too high. In some games (like CoD), they actually track your individual weapon accuracy. I'd say the average for ARs is somewhere around 20-40%. I'm willing to bet that Dust is actually lower than that considering aiming is slightly more difficult/clunky in Dust compared to CoD.

Dust uses Absolute firing (as opposed to relative that has to factor projectile velocity and bullet drop and weapon inertia (except for the Mass Driver and to a lesser extent Forge Gun)) so if you are, or are not on target at the time when the round is supposed to be que'd for fire it will hit or it wont based on an algorithm that CCP has failed to disclose. (not saying they should)

What does that mean? Up scope the AR puts out almost a laser line of bullets. Crouched and in doom mode the HMG and SMG can do almost the same but not quite as accurately based on the algorithm. If on target when the round is fired it will hit, or wont hit the tracer rounds are pretty much for show to aid in the ambiance of the game.

That still doesn't account for actually aiming at moving targets while you're moving, etc. The benefit of the HMG and downside of AR in a real-world (I use the term to refer to a Dust battle in practice) are, ironically, the inverse upsides and downsides you mentioned in theory. The AR is more accurate, and HMG less so, but that also means you have to be more precise when aiming your AR at a moving target, which is exactly why 90% is too high for any real-world scenario. The HMG, on the other hand, has that sort of cylinder of fire that allows you to be a decent bit off but still do moderate damage.