Marksman, shotgunner, and officer improvements.

[Riou Insuiko]

I'd like to suggest some changes to the infantry units listed above. I've noticed some issues with the infantry classes of: Marksman, shotgunner, and officer. For me, neither of these three classes have ever been the best choice, or even a good choice, in any situation I've found myself in. They are, in my opinion, too weak.

I think the classes could be improved in the following ways:

Marksman - Rational: This class should serve to be a 'weak' sniper. It should behave more like a sniper and less like a soldier with a long-range rifle. 

Moderate increase to projectile flight speed.
Moderate decrease to fire rate.  I'm just a laggy noob I guess.
Moderate increase to damage.
"Sniper aim" for non-scoped shooting.
Depending on the damage increase, perhaps reducing the headshot multiplier would be appropriate.

Shotgunner - Rational: This is, ideally, the 'best' anti-infantry unit at close range out of the basic infantry. In an ideal situation it can be effective, but even missing one of your shots can have you outplayed by a regular soldier in close quarters. The main issue I see is that you need to be right on top of your opponent for this to really have any use. It needs a better close-mid range game.

Slight narrowing of the bullet spray.
Slight increase in damage.
Moderate increase to range.
Slight increase to fire rate.
Moderate increase to reload time.
No headshot multiplier.

Officer - Rational: There's not too much of an improvement suggestion for this guy. He functions well as a speedy, smoke grenade chucking, anti-light armor cheap infantry. The main issue I have against the officer is that I feel he is too weak against other infantry. I don't think the officer should go toe-to-toe with other basic infantry. At a medium/medium-long range he should come out on top 9/10 times given comparable skill between players. Right now he cuts it a little too close in my opinion.

Slight decrease to damage.
Moderate increase to fire rate.
Moderately increased accuracy.

I think one of the main problems with balancing these characters is that you can end up with them being too good, especially in the hands of a skilled player. Or just plain bad/unusable if they are too weak. I suspect that the shotgunner will be the hardest to balance in this case. I hope that I have provided adequate detail for my suggestion. As I am not a developer the rates at which these levels should be adjusted are merely suggestions. I would very much like to hear from both developers and players about these suggestions.

Thanks

Edited July 27, 2019 by Riou Insuiko

[NodSaibot]

One random note, I'm busy at the moment and might get back to this thread later, but just want to point out that the marksman is hitscan, it has no projectile speed.

[HIHIHI]

2 minutes ago, Riou Insuiko said:

Moderate increase to projectile flight speed.

Well... The marksman rifle is already InstantHit. You can't get much faster than that. : )

As to the rest of your suggestions, I tend to agree with them. The marksman (to me, at least) seems like THE most useless infantry unit in the game, capable (in my hands, at least) of little more than harassing snipers IF he has cover nearby.

As to the shotgunner... I like him as he is. He can be outperformed by a regular soldier if his aim isn't good, BUT - they are both wearing Kevlar armor. Flak armor infantry are much more susceptible to shotgunners, and even LCGs are in trouble with a good or decent shotgun around. Perhaps a very slight decrease to the spread of the pellets would be ok, but still, you would risk the shotgun becoming OP against AT infantry. It is one of my personal favorites of the free infantry to start a match with.

Officers... Perhaps a slight increase to damage per second would be nice, but I think that the Officer's accuracy is fine where it's at. After all, he is wielding a very heavy chaingun with absolutely no sights whatsoever. : )

I also feel that the officer, for the same reason, should be more of a medium to medium-short range unit, albeit somewhat more powerful than he is now, perhaps. Not too much, though. He's already at 100 DPS, vs. 80 DPS for the autorifle (granted, the autorifle has greater accuracy, but at close range, it's nice to have a little spread to catch people in without having great aim).

And I see Sarah has replied... I'll post anyway and see what I repeat. : )

[Riou Insuiko]

Strange. My connection must be confusing me, because typically I need to lead my shots a tiny bit, depending on the range, when using the marksman. I'll edit that out. Thanks.