Proposed maxim buff/rework

The soviet maxim is currently considered to be the worst mg available. Its only advantages are extra survivability, which is somewhat negated by an unfixable death loop bug, quick pack-up time and faster traverse. These upsides are not enough to make up for its horrbile combat performance for the price of 260 mp. To make it a somewhat viable choice, I can think of 2 possible changes for it:

-Reduce cost by 20 or 10 mp.
It would be the simplest way to fix the maxim, but also some people are against this change because of what maxim used to be like at first - super-fast deploy and pack-up time plus the cheap cost of only 240 mp made it a viable weapon to spam instead of normal infantry. In order to prevent maxim spam from coming back, I came up with an another idea:

-On top of reducing cost by 10 mp, reduce surpression, speed up deployment and slow down pack-up time and make the ability "sustained fire" available from vet 0, costing ~30 muni
-vet 1 reduces cost to 20 muni
-activates instantly
-boosts surpression greatly
By introducing a muni cost to boost its performance to decent levels, maxim spam will require constant investments in munitions to be effective. In addition, sped up deployment and slowed pack-up time will encourage using it to offensivly support infantry, which is its intended role, and will also be viable in a defensive position with the increased surpression you can activate quickly.

If you have the time, please elaborate why my ideas are good/bad and how could they be improved, or maybe you think the maxim is already a decent unit, in which case also please explain why you think so.

I think making Sustained Fire a vet 0 ability might be a buff enough as is tbh, even with the forced reload at the beginning which severely hampers its use vs blobs. Vet 1 could then become a cost reduction like you say, but maybe not so severe.

I don't think anyone could seriously complain about this; there is certainly nobody complaining about the Sustained fire ability now...

I also agree sustained fire as a vet 0 ability is all that is needed. Its so close to being a half decent mg and over tuning could send us back into spam. A small buff, especially one that still requires forsight and player input and especially an economy hit would be the best, most conservative approach

Put it behind T3 then buff it.

Put it behind T3 then buff it.

And now it needs to be on quad level of power to ever be considered, congrats.

I also agree sustained fire as a vet 0 ability is all that is needed. Its so close to being a half decent mg and over tuning could send us back into spam. A small buff, especially one that still requires forsight and player input and especially an economy hit would be the best, most conservative approach

Second that. And a 5-10 muni reduction at vet 1.

And now it needs to be on quad level of power to ever be considered, congrats.

Nonsense, the vast majority of opponents I see get a Maxim out after 4 cons, the T70, Zis and sweeper. Literally nobody in the top 100 1v1 goes early Maxim before the 4th Conscript. T3 timing would change nothing except kill Maxim spam for good.

Just a slight cost reduction would be fine. The unit isn't that bad, it just doesn't perform as well as its counterparts in other factions and therefor shouldn't be as expensive as its counterparts.

NO need buff or rework

let them alone plz

Maxim is 6 man MG squad and enough strong now

The price dropping 20 mp or the sustained fire being moved to vet0 with price reduction at vet 1 have my vote.

Flare to vet 0 as with the mortar was a good move as wel.

Reduce cost is easiest and most worthy fix.
Maxim is shit tier unit that Soviet has to live with

I think making Sustained Fire a vet 0 ability might be a buff enough as is tbh, even with the forced reload at the beginning which severely hampers its use vs blobs. Vet 1 could then become a cost reduction like you say, but maybe not so severe.

I don't think anyone could seriously complain about this; there is certainly nobody complaining about the Sustained fire ability now...

I also agree sustained fire as a vet 0 ability is all that is needed. Its so close to being a half decent mg and over tuning could send us back into spam. A small buff, especially one that still requires forsight and player input and especially an economy hit would be the best, most conservative approach

Now that you mention it, moving sustained fire to vet 0 might be enough to make it decent, but IMO the ability itself shouldn't force a reload, simply because the only time this ability can be used is when an enemy is approaching your mg and you scout them before they attack the maxim. If you use it when the maxim is supporting a push, the enemy will already see it and either escape its cone of fire or just walk up to it and throw a nade. In a defensive scenario it's also usually not worth using since you leave the mg open for attack during reloading, unless you surpress the enemy beforehand. If the ability was at vet 0, was quick to use and costed more munitions, there wouldn't be such a problem and also the ability wouldn't be spammed because it will quickly drain resources if it is used too often. Also i'm not sure if the ability cancels if the mg is packed up, but it should.

how about

we give

the soviet hmg

suppression

shocked gasps from the audience

Now that you mention it, moving sustained fire to vet 0 might be enough to make it decent, but IMO the ability itself shouldn't force a reload, simply because the only time this ability can be used is when an enemy is approaching your mg and you scout them before they attack the maxim. If you use it when the maxim is supporting a push, the enemy will already see it and either escape its cone of fire or just walk up to it and throw a nade. In a defensive scenario it's also usually not worth using since you leave the mg open for attack during reloading, unless you surpress the enemy beforehand. If the ability was at vet 0, was quick to use and costed more munitions, there wouldn't be such a problem and also the ability wouldn't be spammed because it will quickly drain resources if it is used too often. Also i'm not sure if the ability cancels if the mg is packed up, but it should.

If it didnt require reload we risk having attack nove maxims again.the idea is that it can perform defensively if needed. It already does cancel if moved also.
If made vet 0 it could have a speed up on the reload at vet 1 or a cost reduction or even flat improvement.

If it didnt require reload we risk having attack nove maxims again.

Don't think i agree there. If you a-move an MG you have no control over how it sets up. You could be wasting your Muni pretty badly if the cone of your Maxim doesn't line up well and you have to re-face

how about

we give

the soviet hmg

suppression and we move it to T3

shocked gasps from the audience

Perfect 👌

Perfect 👌

Why would you put an HMG in T3? That's really late.

Just give it passable suppression and nerf whatever you have to to balance that out.