Weapon Tuning: The Mass Driver

The next weapon we take a look at is another in dire need of tuning. The Mass Drivers first incarnation was woefully inept, and so it certainly needed to be tuned upwards. But the current version has been tuned too powerfully, and now gameplay has been gifted with what FPS veterans affectionately refer to as a 'noob tube'. It is now a high fire rate, high DPS weapon with a low accuracy requirement, and it also has something no other weapon in the game has: Suppression Effect. User skill will never be even, but with that said, weapons must be tuned with the skilled user in mind. Devs must consider the person who can wield a weapon and land 8 of 10 shots, not the one who cant hit the broad side of a barn. Because the skilled user breaks the game with a poorly balanced weapon.




To properly tune any weapon, first we must abolish this ridiculous notion that every weapon must do damage equal to the AR at its effective range. The Assault rifle has the benefit of balance & familiarity and will be popular because of it. Some weapons will do more damage [the forge gun, sniper rifles, grenades] some will do less. This line of thinking where every weapon should have similar damage over a certain time period in the pursuit of 'fairness' is folly. All weapons need to do is fit into their particular roles and be properly slotted. As long as they are in their effective ranges and used accurately, they should be effective killing weapons. No one can ask for more.

The MD is the second highest ranged damage weapon in the game after the forge gun. What baffles us is its common practice is for high damage weapons to trade mobility, low clip size and fire rate for damage. But the MD rejects that and is only limited by clip size. It can be fired without any movement penalties and the fire rate allows it to be spammed endlessly. Imagine if sniper rifles had a 10 round magazine or if you could fire the forge at 60 rpm. In addition, no other weapons save the mass driver and grenade have such a low standard for accuracy. With these weapons being 'close' is essentially good enough. People [including us] may complain about the damage of Tier 1 laser rifles, but atleast the user must keep the beam on target for damage to be inflicted. Weapons with area of effect damage are rewarded with hits even when their aim isnt true.

The advantages of the MD are high damage with direct hits, splash at range and suppression. The weapon outranges HMG users and doesnt have the accuracy requirements laser, AR and sniper users do. If rounds land within 4-6 meters of the target [an enormous area] it delivers damage. Only grenades have as much splash and they cant be spammed at one shot per second. The MD simply cant be allowed to outclass HMG and Shotgun users in close quarters [suppression effect] and have range and splash benefits. Its wheelhouse should be in the 20-50m range and its fire rate and self-damage should be its limitation in close quarters. In the feedback section its been confirmed the MD soon will have an option that will allow it to operate similar to a mortar. Without proper limitations now, it runs the legitimate risk of being the best weapon for all instances, which no weapon should ever be. The solution is easy, reduce this weapons fire rate to about 30 rpm. lower the clip size to 4 and increase the reload time to the 4.5 to 5 second range so that it has much better balance and a more defined role in gameplay.