PlanetSide 2 Beta

YES, I know the VS weapons are currently using NC mechanics. They had been using the energy mechanics in previous builds which I played the past couple weeks. Do NOT enter this topic and state this

There is a fundamental flaw that has happened while trying to balance the 3 factions in this game. NC have hard hitting weapons, TR are fast shooting, and VS is.... about accuracy, or versatility? There really doesn't seem to be a consensus so far from the developers, and it is running the VS into the ground.

There are 3 major points that highlight why there is no reason to go VS in this game, as their weapons are outclassed by the other 2 factions.

• Damage degradation
• Slower projectile travel
• Strong recoil (without a reason)

These may have seemed like good moves to make the VS weapons "easier" to use for console kiddies, but it is just a ridiculous mistake in balance.

What is damage degradation?

Simply put, it means that the farther projectiles travel, the less damage they do. Interestingly enough, this happens with traditional bullets and would not have any meaningful impact on "energy" weapons in a realistic scenario. A TR or NC weapon may do 20 damage from 5m, 10m, 50m, and 150m. But an equivalent VS weapon may do 20 damage from 5m, 15 damage from 50m, and 10 damage from 150m.

Why damage degradation?

For some reason, the devs decided that energy weapons would not suffer from bullet drop. Therefore, it would be “fair” to limit the damage the VS do at a longer range in order to balance the damage output over time. It was a reasonable assumption at the time, but after testing it in action, it is simply a VS-exclusive disadvantage. Why? Because bullet drop doesn’t really kick in until sniper rifle range, and even then it is not pronounced enough to be a disadvantage of bullets.

Also consider this more compelling argument: bullet drop can be compensated for by skill. Enough practice and bullet drop is a moot point, but there is nothing a player can do to erase damage degradation. I’m sure some of you will say “well that’s easy, just put a cert in that removes damage degradation!” That not only requires you to spend certs to remove a disadvantage that the NC and TR players don’t need to deal with, but when you’re spending your cert points on that the NC and TR are unlocking useful additions. Also, it would basically be a requirement in order for the VS to compete, essentially becoming a certification tax on VS players.

There is already an imbalance that is in PS2, and most other games. Higher damage weapons are more efficient, since it takes less shots to do the same damage and saves ammunition. The VS are experiencing the opposite; they need MORE bullets at range to do the same damage they would normally do. Sounds like TR, right? Except the VS don’t have the extended magazines or ROF that TR weapons have. So the VS are using a greater percentage of their ammo to do the same damage.

What could be done to fix this?

Let’s go through the laundry list of possible fixes. Well, you could just raise the damage VS weapons do so that the degradation is in line with other empires, right? That would get you weapons that hit as hard as NCs at close range with a higher rate of fire. Does that sound fair to you? Didn’t think so.

What if they increased the ROF? That leaves you with TR weapons that do more damage. Also unfair, even VS carried less ammo. And it wouldn’t fix the fact that the weapons do little damage at range, it would just let you waste ammo faster.

What about taking away the recoil? That won’t help, since you can compensate for recoil with good aim and burst firing. It would have no real effect on skilled players, while it would make the VS the ****-friendly “hold the trigger down until it’s dead” empire. And again, it wouldn’t have an effect on lowered damage at range.

What if the degradation curve was lessened? Now THAT’S an idea! Make it less of a big deal. But the only way to make that competitive is to reduce it so much that there may as well not even be damage degradation in. That’s right, the solution is to remove damage degradation from energy weapons!

Slower projectile velocity

Energy weapons travel slower than their bullet counterparts. Not only does it not make sense (since when do waves travel slower than material objects?) but it just is not fair. This is once again a problem that can not be compensated for by players.

“But you just need to lead more, what’s the big deal?” That’s probably a common statement at this point. That isn’t the whole picture though. The problem with slow projectile velocity is not the leading, as a good player will be able to lead fine after a while.

Slower projectile means less time to land shots. Let’s say there were two weapons with the same stats (damage, ROF, etc): one with energy and one with bullets. Let’s even pretend that damage degradation isn’t in! The gun with projectiles that reach the target first will kill faster, simply because their shots will land first. It has implications at range too, since the farther off an enemy the more time they will have to react to shots.

See, it isn’t that you just need to lead more. Leading more is fine in a vacuum. But what happens when there is a rock for someone to take cover behind? You need to lead farther, but you end up shooting the rock. The player that leads less will be able to land more shots on their opponent before they can take cover, because their bullets get there sooner.

There is no way to fix this without taking it out. Changing rate of fire or damage would once again turn the gun into “balanced for long range, OP at close range”.

Recoil

At the level of the metagame, there just is no reason to go VS when the TR and NC weapon mechanics are vastly superior. But let me humor you and pretend that VS was indeed the “**** easy-mode” empire where it’s easy to play but has a skill ceiling. If that was indeed the case, why is there such strong recoil on VS weaponry? Not only was there talk of no recoil for energy weapons during the game’s development, but now we have recoil about the same as NC gear. Damage degradation and slow projectile velocity may have been “balances” for being able to shoot with good accuracy and no recoil, so that the damage over time at long range would be more in line with TR and NC weapons. But now noobs won’t even be able to hit their targets to do the lackluster damage, making the weapons even worse.

If the dev team wanted to say “screw it” and keep the VS’s skill ceiling intact, at least give new players a little help rather than having them outclassed from start to finish.

Let’s recap!

VS not only do less damage at range, but also have less time to hit their targets. This doubles down and increases TTK exponentially, making their gear less useful as distance increases (and without any close range advantage). Rather than a linear curve of damage degradation or less shots taken, they are combined making for even worse performance than the devs planned.

This implements a skill ceiling, which may cause more skilled players to prefer TR or NC to be more effective on the battlefield. At the same time, huge recoil prevents new players from having any advantage early on. In short, TR and NC weapons will outclass VS weapons for every skill level, from the fresh new player to the hardened veteran.

What I can determine from this ridiculous mishmash of mechanics is that there is no clear vision about what advantage the VS should have. So many people say versatility, like in PS1, but where is the built-in anti-armor mode? Where are any other tweaks that could give the VS anything but a disadvantage? This applies to both guns and vehicles. Heck, the Magrider is supposed to have an advantage from hovering on water but water isn’t even going to be in the game when it is released. There has been no thought put into the VS at all, and it’s sorely disappointing.

I hope that the devs will see this post, read it completely, and make the necessary changes to balance the game and give the VS the attention it deserves.