Assualt Rifles are pretty effective.

And they should be. They are easy to use, offer good range, good RoF, good damage, ammunition capactiy, etc. This is simply the kind of weapon assault rifles are. That's why they're generally standard issue among the real-life militaries of the world, they're easy to train people because they offer average stats in all fields, so they're not extremely effective, just effective.

However, in video games like Dust 514, AR's are bland. Because they are easy to pick up and use effectively, they enjoy overwhelming majority use on the field. Even straightforward weapons like snipers and SMGs often take secondary priority to the AR because the more specialized the weapon is, the more experience and skill it requires in order to perform at its best. Often I see people get frustrated trying to learn something extremely specialized like Nova Knives or a Scrambler rifle and just pull out an AR instead.

This is not a good thing.

This is promoting lazy, unskilled play. Instead of pulling out a SCR for mid range precision, they'll just keep an AR (often still full auto) because it performs just as well. Instead of grabbing a shotgun for CQC, people stick with the AR (often not even the Breach variant), because praying and spraying often does the shotgun's job just as well.

As people start getting dominated in a match, they'll often pull out ARs (unless they're so afraid to lose a free suit that they snipe) because it allows them to maximize their damage output in virtually any situation. This leads to small efforts in general, and starts up these boring wall-of-gunfire games that frustrate them further. It gets to the point where everyone is unloading as much as they can at each other, and often not even in epic cover-to cover fights. Often they'll just hop around holding R1 and die when they run out of stamina. Fighting a bunch of guys with the same weapons easily gets extremely boring*, especially when you try to do it in a more specialized weapon but they outclass you simply because their weapon takes much less effort to use.

The fix should be two-fold:

1. RENAME THE WEAPON. "Plasma Rifle" sounds like a badass futurespacetech gun. "Blaster Rifle" sounds like something out of a movie making fun of an 80's sci-fi movie, but it does sound better than "Assault Rifle", which sounds like a weapon from WWII. In relation to video games, all I can think of when I hear "Assualt Rifle" is generic brown-and-grey modern military shooter. Renaming it would make it sound more interesting and exotic, tie in better with the lore, and discourage people from considering it a 'generic' weapon. (While I'm at this, the Sniper Rifle could use a name change as well.)

2. PUT IN THE REST OF THE (RACIAL) VARIANTS. Do what Halo games do to keep people entertained and keep the combat looking like it isn't stale garbage: Put in more weapons that are basically variations of the same weapon and give them different skins. The officer variants and the Assault Scrambler Rifle are getting close. Putting in the Gauss, Rail, and Combat Rifles (and precision rifles to a lesser extent) will improve the variety of the game immediately. When you put them in, make sure to include "Tactical" and "Breach" variants as well. Overall more weapons to choose from that can do the "all-around" role the AR currently occupies is going to help more people see the game as competitive and content-filled. Honestly there should be already be placeholders and skills for these weapons in some form or another. Make the models for them later, like the TACAR scope. Think about how much more interesting the weapon became with just a new scope.

oh, and
2.a. Make all the variations of weapons exist in all tiers. There is no reason to have to invest almost 2 weeks of skillpoints just to try a weapon with a different fire rate. Learning the game is near impossible when a new player has to invest a month just so they can try a Charge Sniper or Assault Scrambler Rifle.

2.c. When the racial variants are all in the game, racial free fits should use proper racial gear (BPOs) by default. Variety + Lore with one stone.

IN CONCLUSION, this is not really a gamebreaking issue, and it probably isn't a very high priority issue (for a lot of people, although I think it is). I probably didn't need to gripe about this subject but I feel that it would be an improvement to the game across the board.

Thoughts?

*I'm positive that fighting a bunch of guys with the same weapons in RL would probably NOT be boring.

AR works just as well as SCR... In the right hands the SCR ***** slaps an AR all day

TL;DR - add missing content pl0x!

Ummm, I think blaster rifle sounds cool(reminds me of madmax and fallout)

Good. It's supposed to.

I've been trying to look this up because I didn't save the dev blog. Did they already add the damage falloff for weapons at range, or did range just get a buff? Feels like the AR hits for the exact same damage from across the map.

hey , I wasn't complaining lol.. but how can you say it works just as good, and then agree with me that it ***** slaps an AR

In the right hands

I've been trying to look this up because I didn't save the dev blog. Did they already add the damage falloff for weapons at range, or did range just get a buff? Feels like the AR hits for the exact same damage from across the map.

Yes they did add the dmg falloff range thing. It did not effect the dmg our guns used to do at past ranges, only lowered dmg that goes past the old range. I can now hit a guy at like 60m with my AR, but I might as well be throwing dirt at him.


I don't use the tac AR , or the other scoped varient though.. so can't say for them. but I definatly get nowhere near the dmg I do at 35m that I get around 60m

Yes they did add the dmg falloff range thing. It did not effect the dmg our guns used to do at past ranges, only lowered dmg that goes past the old range. I can now hit a guy at like 60m with my AR, but I might as well be throwing dirt at him.


I don't use the tac AR , or the other scoped varient though.. so can't say for them. but I definatly get nowhere near the dmg I do at 35m that I get around 60m

I'm really liking the system they have now. It seems like it's actually helping keep people in their optimals.

Plus it feels better to at least throw some damage downrange instead of your bullets just refusing to go any further. It looked especially bad on the Scrambler Rifle and Pistol.

Also I feel like it polished Forge Gun and Sniper balance in terms of damage projection.

The hard cap did have a benefit people overlooked. I saw a lot of squads staying closer together, focusing fire and flanking at the start of Uprising. Now, we're kind of back where we started with people trying to play rambo.

Also as you said, other weapons like the sniper rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, and heavy machine gun need new names so they sound less like a class of weapons and more like an individual weapon type.

The hard cap did have a benefit people overlooked. I saw a lot of squads staying closer together, focusing fire and flanking at the start of Uprising. Now, we're kind of back where we started with people trying to play rambo.

They should remove 10-15m from optimal and absolute range and give it extra DPS.
Or increase the scrambler rifle range and reduce DPS.

What the Gallente Blaster Rifle should be is a short range high DPS rifle.
The scrambler rifle is long range low DPS rifle.

Currently they put out the same amount of DPS and range >_> (The assault SCR that is, the normal scrambler rifle is a unique one)

I'd be okay with this. Also, buff the breach's ROF with a tighter hip fire spread while making it kick harder when you ADS.

I'd be okay with this. Also, buff the breach's ROF with a tighter hip fire spread while making it kick harder when you ADS.

Nah, it doesn't need any more downsides.
30m range is tiny already, it also has faster drop off so by the time you reach the optimal of the normal AR you are doing minimal damage.

Just increase the ROF to 588.2 (I did the math) and watch as the breach AR is suddenly used.

yeh , the breach really needs some attention. I rarely see it used.