1. What I find fun

I'll start here. I run a heavy and really enjoy it. I enjoy playing characters that can take a beating. Often times what prevents me from playing them is either inefficiency or lack of need in games (where putting out damage is much more important than handling it incoming). I'm actually looking forward to the future of my prefered role in gaming as I think D&D 4th edition made some smart steps in making "tanking" relevant, even though it needed a ton of work elsewhere.

At the start of the new build I was actually pretty pleased in that I was very effective at being noticed and soaking up bullets. I would see a flanking ally and starting putting fire on his destination, people looked at me instead of the flanker. Boom boom boom, dead enemy. Fun stuff. The other day I had an ally knifer chasing someone who didn't notice him, I dinked his shields to make him stop. Kerpow! I also enjoyed seeing people in bad situations running. I would wait behind something as an ally rounded a corner and wave hi to the guy chasing. Predator to prey in the turn of a corner. I also could (despite reduce HMG output) take two proto users if I rounded a corner and found them in close range (note heavy excluded). I left hurt but it was a clear win as it was my domain.

I also enjoyed putting fire on a spot where enemies were popping up knowing I was keeping heads down despite my complete inability to cause damage. Some of that stuff may sound odd that I liked it before or that changes impacted my play, I'll be getting to that

2. How damage impacts this

The damage base of other users impacts my role very differently than just kill or be killed. In my previous section I mention how I liked to keep heads down, how I waylayed enemies, and how I acted as a decoy. Damage actually has a very large impact on suppressive fire because if you can kill an enemy fast enough to ignore suppressive fire you will. If you know you can likely stay in fire and kill before you die, people will kill. If it draws out and you perceive yourself as doing less damage people play more cautiously.

More damage makes players hyperaggressive and negatively impacts my ability to be a fat decoy. More damage means faster fights, and reduces my ability to enter a battle in progress (granted this is in heavy gear). More damage also means I can't stay in the open as long in order to be a decoy. Less damage means the opposite for both.

3. Range and Cover

This is coming up a lot with the Tac rifle. Honestly the Tac rifle doesn't concern me because it is going to be adjusted. If you look at the killfeed and you know 60% of people are using it, something gets done. That's why the passive weaponry stuff was removed. My concern for the HMG also isn't range, as long as I kept near equivalent SS on my HW skills I was fine and felt most people needed a strategy change more than a nerf when it came to 1v1 time (though some balancing may have helped, just not as much as complained). My concerns with range are in regards to my ability to manuever and my ability to run. Both of these involve cover too. If you look at the overhead, my ability to shift positions is heavily impacted by the effective range of weapons. On a heavy this is a big deal because my area of influence is smaller and if I cannot get to the enemy then I cannot fight them. I don't think it should be a simple affair to get in close but range and damage impacts the balance of ranged users vs close range users. Scouts and heavies are actualy in the game boat O,o.

One argument is that there are no CQC maps, it was said to me that if they had 50% of maps as indoor CQC style it would be more fair. But the thing is, it would just be more of a coin flip than a one sided afair (that a better player would still have an edge on). Is it fair that 50% of the time my HMG is suddenly much less effective? Or that I would be unable to move around because of the open terrain and my speed? Would it be unfair that 50% of the time my HMG is at an advantage over the AR and that the shotgun suddenly has become supremely powerful? Enabling my methods shouldn't disable anyone elses. If I win I want it to be with my brain. I have no idea how to handle this scenario honestly nor I guess is it expected of me. It is difficult. You need areas where long range game is acceptable as well as CQC.

Just as in other shooters you say "No don't go that way, that sniper is killing everyone" or "don't go that way because this guy with X gun is setting up claymore constantly". Both those close proximity/tight quarter and long range games are enabled in these scenarios, you go with the option you feel you're best able to go and dumb people are fed to the enemy when they don't think about where they go. Part of the difference is in the CoD/Battlefield games you are better able to switch weapon for a scenario, where here you must dedicate points. So SP cost has a lot of impact on the range game. I don't think I should only have main suits with an AV version and HMG version, I should expect to have more fits for different situations and choose accordingly.

4. Weapon Choices for Adaptabiltiy and Impact on me

Currently I'm also considering the advantages of a Scrambler Rifle for covering fire (info needed obviously). However when used for this purpose I generally use too much ammunition to maintain this function on ARs. My limited mobility limits my ability to get ammo and my lack of equipment slots prevents me from doing it myself.

Many may say it is a dumb and unnecessary role, but frankly I've see very good enemies get significantly slowed down by my raining bullets near them which resulted in allies being able to get to cover. The fact is people don't run into bullets they can see and it will absolutely slow the proto bulldozer when it starts. I very much enjoy this role when I can achieve it because I can see the enemy sweeping through, I can see allies running for cover because "oh crap", I can see the enemies on radar moving to advantageous positions getting ready to open fire, and I can see that the dot stopped when my bullets blocked the path. I know I just helped the team.

I may play with the assault HMG more but my details in the damage section explain why it is currently unsuitable for the most part.

5. Mitigating Circumstances

I'll skip the personal blah blah. And for those who forget this is an FPS, so regardless of anything else if you're not the best you lose. Whatever the highest potential damage of a gun is, a better player is getting more of that. Making everyone stronger benefits better players more than it benefits you. There are plenty of better players than me but then I generally am not looking to directly compete with them due to my play style. Despite my butt whoopings there is a lot in play that impacts my fun levels.

The below isn't meant to be an opinion on what should be but rather an opinion on how certain things will impact my world within the game.

5.1 Expected changes

Changes to equipment slot availability. Not mine though, others. The reduced potential of others to assist me due to lack of equipment slots is tangible. Any ability I have is impacted by theirs. Not only that but as people begin focusing more on revives and uplinks I'll be strong. Also is my teammates ability to survive. The tac rifles being adjusted as well as other things that I'm sure are on the way will impact my ability to help teammates. As a team player I can only impact the effectiveness of my teammates in multiplicitive terms, not additive. If their impact is minimal than what they gain from me will also be minimal because I seek to enable them. This isn't a complaint against how the game currently is, it is simply stating a fact that will alter as the game changes.

I also believe that a lack of skirmish play has greatly reduced general team play behavior. Uplinks, injectors, heal tools, in a game where a kills are king these go by the wayside. I actually loved skirmish for the team play of it but we all know the score there, you have to have the stomach for it for now. It is incredibly depressing to make strategic manuevers that used to work great but now fall flat due to crippled numbers. FW is a bit better but putting a spy on the other side is just too easy currently. As priorities in game change (and the new game mode) I expect this to shift.

Oh and the weird hit detection going on with HMGs that I'm either crazy over or something is going on. You know the one where you get a solid .5 seconds of hit at close range nad sometimes nothing registers and other times like at the very end of the damage all that damage is taken resulting in suddenly the health plummeting? Future of that will impact all the above because of my related decision making.

5.2 Unknown content we know will exist

We know there is a lot still missing that we know will be added. I actually made a list in our corp forums. It was large. In fact during the Reddit IAMA (odd that a Subdredditor was reading it eh?) a question was asked regarding new heavy weapons. We were told wait for fanfest (believe there was an exclamation mark). No word yet, but we know more exist and it has been directly hinted at. If I can better swap to weapons needed for a scenario then I'm in a better spot. We also know more racial armors are coming. One of these may better suit my play style, while it is also likely that those wanting to murder everything will have a better suit. Oh crapnuggets I also forgot about the different variations. We only have sentinel currently. We know commando exists aside from racial variants. It would also not shock me if the rumored Crusader is heavy but who knows.

A major thing will be increased weapon selection. As more release I can spec at least partially into weapons better suited to my situation. Light weapons often depend on abilities given to medium/light frames (as mentioned before, ammo is easier found with fast feet and equipment slots). Generally speaking it will be less burdensome to have heavy weapon options meant for our hands as opposed to needing to spec into LW items more to compensate for our suits or skilling into a more suitable suit.

We also have this being a new game. What is expensive now and what will be expensive later will be vastly different. I also have a hunch that when the player market opens that we will see new boosters (that 2x booster never did see the light of day) as when you can get them with ISK it mitigates descrepency between paid players and free players.

The newbie zone will also have a serious impact on gameplay. I can expect people to be more aware of their equipment and what their doing. I'll be less likely to see someone running at my HMG with a laser at pistol range, of (hopefully) hacking a CRU they shouldn't, of (hopefully) having an enemy run past them without noticing whatsoever (holy cow common right now).

PvE (even though it is a ways off) will be a large impact, the ability to go smash NPCs for fun is important if your not at the top of the food chain. Often times it feels like your at the bottom, you're not. There are just some really big fish out there that make the ocean feel smaller or the other predators seem bigger. Going and smashing some face is very cathartic and goes back to the root of video games. Violently murdering something that only exists in electrical signals for emotional release.

Oh and finally the Domination(?) game mode. The discussion of a single objective map mode may very well find heavies more often playing that. However I am curious how it will work with people's suits as they switch from defensive to offensive play. Lot up in the air.

All of the above things (regardless of timeline or seeming impact) that I don't know about or that aren't related to my gameplay directly will have a major impact on my fun, efficiency, and fairness. And it is important that I remember teammates getting love mean me getting love by proxy.

Good read, but no specific issue was really mentioned. I do miss sitting behund a hill repping my heavy as my scout shotgun flanked the enemy my fatty was suppressing. That tactic doesnt seem as viable against tac ars, or more than one gek atm. I find myself ditching my heavy as he is easily over powered by two enemies in his range, and try to slip away unoticed, try to get back to his body, but cant revive but maybe 1 out of 5 times.