First off, thanks for doing this. Pretty cool to open up to the community in large. Much appreciated, rawr. I want to comment on the long range combat item in detail. When I was typing up my thread on over all core soviet faction design I came to realize that small weapons was a much larger issue than just the Soviet's but I wanted to stick to my topic. This seems like a perfect opportunity to bring it up as it deals mostly with long range combat.
How does relic define the range categories? I'll be using the following three groups for the rest of my post.
Short 0-10
Medium 10-20
Long 20-35
And the small weapons categories are:
Rifles Kar98k, Mosin-Nagant, M1 Garand
Submachine Guns PPSH, Thompson, Greasegun, MP40
Assault Rifles MP44, StG66, FG42, BAR
Carbines G43, SVT, M1 Carbine, M1 Garand, M1A1 Garand
Light Machine Guns DP, M1919A6, LMG34, LMG42
Reference material
My observations are as follows:
- Rifles weapon category is rather tight except for Obersoldeten and Panzerfusiliere. Obersoldeten and Panzerfusiliere Rifles lead the pack in terms of DPS at close and long range. Obsersoldeten maintain a clear lead in DPS and their ability to project the damage amongst all three range categories. Panzerfusiliere DPS drops at a steep curve which brings it in line with the other in the weapons category at long range.
- Submachine guns are all effective at close range and all drop efficiency to project damage past 15 range. Their role is clearly defined with no weapon over performing when compared to others in the same weapons categories.
- Assault rifles are just as effective as submachine guns at close range but continue to project damage past 15 range. Obsersoldeten maintain a clear lead in DPS and their ability to project the damage amongst all three range categories up until 30 range. The Soviet faction has a gap with no assault rifles.
- Carbine rifles are double the damage of the Rifles at 0-5 range, and drop steadily as range increases. They remain better than rifles at all range categories. The G43 is over represented as 4 of the 8 units in this weapon category are equipped with G43’s.
- Light machine guns are all effective at all ranges and do not drop efficiency to project damage at any range. Obsersoldeten maintains drastic lead in DPS and their ability to project the damage amongst all three range categories. Their role is clearly defined.
So what does this all mean?
- Light machine guns and submachine guns have a clearly defined role.
- Rifles, carbine rifles, and assault rifles overlap in their ability to project damage and lack a clearly defined role. They appear to just be better at DPS but all follow a similar curve in projecting their damage.
- Obsersoldeten perform significantly better in their weapon categories.
This is a lot of stuff. How does this apply to long range?
- Every weapons group aside from sub machine guns can apply damage in the long range category.
- Obsersoldeten have a clear advantage in all ranges.
So what can we do to fix it?
- Rifles, carbine rifles, and assault rifles need to be adjusted so that range advantages and disadvantages are clearly defined. For example, instead of following a similar range curve as Rifles and carbines, assault rifles could have a bell curve. They could be effective at medium range but less effective at close and far. Carbine rifles could be good in short to medium and lose out at far when compared to rifles.
- Obsersoldeten need to be adjusted to reduce either their damage or their ability to apply it over all range groups. The LMG34 is clearly out performing all others in the LMG catagory by a significant amount.
- Soviets lack an assault rifle, unsure if you are looking for commander ideas but the RPD could be introduced in future expansions.
PS: I'm in Vancouver on Friday the 8th. If anybody from Relic wants to meet up and talk to a fan I'll ditch work.