First off, the bracing system. As it is currently implemented, it is very nice. However something I would like to see added to it, is the ability to slide left and right on the cover while braced (either at a serious penalty to accuracy, or the inability to shoot at all while sliding). Unbracing and rebracing over and over again just to get the spot you want is annoying. Next, the suppression. Firing a single shot past an enemy should not instantly suppress them fully. I can just keep tap firing single shots and literally never run out of ammo this way. Having the suppressed debuff applied at 100% is fine. But apply it after 3-5 or so shots go past. This will force the player to use the heavy bolter like it is supposed to. Using short bursts to suppress and injure. Instead of tapfiring it like you're using a sniper rifle. The suppression itself is fine. However the rewards from it are too little. 50XP per suppressed enemy killed? yeah no we can do better. Having a devastator suppress the enemy team is an advantage, the XP gain should show this. The 50XP per suppressed enemy kill is fine. I suggest adding if possible, 2 more XP rewards. [Suppression] +1 XP for every enemy you have suppressed for 1 second every second. 1 unit suppressed for 2 seconds = 2 XP, 1 unit suppressed for 6 seconds = 6 XP, 5 units suppressed for 10 seconds = 50 XP [Suppression Defense] +1 XP for every shot the enemy misses while suppressed. At first you think this would give out too much xp. Then you realize most guns fire slowly or have low magazine sizes. There's also the fact that a lot of enemies will just stop shooting entirely anyway. However. See that enemy Devastator suppressing your friends? Shut Him Down Get all that delicious Devastator full auto bolter fire xp. Oh but what about when 2 Devastators suppress each other and both miss shots? Well make suppression XP not apply while you are suppressed yourself. These 2 Devastators are just shooting wildly at each other accomplishing nothing. The XP gain should show this. So if you choose to be a Devastator with a heavy bolter, and you suppress the enemies effectively. You will get XP for doing your job. Not just for when an ally happens to kill an enemy you suppressed.
actually I just realized something. The heavy bolter is braced on cover on the area of the weapon where the ammo belt should be feeding into. Does this mean we're not getting a modeled ammo belt like in 40k space marine? Or are we just going to deal with massive amounts of clipping. I mean I guess the devs might be able to code in some sort of distance setting, so when you brace on cover, it pushes you back a little to make the heavy bolter rest on the cover right in front of the belt guide.
The heavy bolter takes too long to fire up. It should be no different from firing a normal boltgun. Give it a higher reload time (but not that high, it doesnt take that long to reload a machinegun) Short bursts should be more accurate than they currently are. You should be able to damage vehicles with them (if you can ive not seen it yet) How in the name of Zues's butthole do you justify Assault Marines being able to walk through Heavy Bolter fire to one shot you with their melee weapon? If you have to follow the GW fetish for melee combat, at least give it some defensive capabilities, like a stagger, that prevents someone walking right through a massive hail of explosive rounds.
Uhh... got some comments on this... 1: Through out all the fluff/games, heavy bolters take time to prepare, thats why it takes a second to rev them up 2: It's a machine gun, it's not meant to burst fire and it's bolt shells kick hard based on their heavier caliber regardless if you're holding the trigger or burst firing. 3: They do damage vehicles, especially when shot in the back. 4: Assault marines are the natural counter to the devestator, they are their worst nightmare, it's what they're meant to do. I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, just saying, if these concepts are difficult this is not the class for you. You may be better suited as a tactical with a bolt gun, don't underestimate that gun, it's brilliant and much more mobile for defending against assault marines.
On number 2. You're completely wrong. You're SUPPOSED to burst fire with machine guns. If you don't, you'll overheat and warp the barrel. (just like in the game NO WAAAAY) 1. The heavy bolter actually fires instantly. What you're talking about is the time for the space marine to bring it up to a readied position. 2. The heavy bolter has no reload time. You have 500 rounds of ammo belt fed from a backpack. (1000 more if you bring ammo packs) 3. The accuracy while hipfiring is fine for what it is. The accuracy while aimed firing from a standing position is fine for what it is. The accuracy while aimed firing from a crouched position is really good. The accuracy from a braced on cover position is literally pinpoint accurate and never gets worse. 4. You can damage vehicles with them. 5. This is the one thing I agree with. The heavy bolter doesn't do enough damage to deter people from running through it. Assaults SHOULD counter devastators, but not by absorbing multiple heavy bolter rounds. They should counter devastators by using their jump pack to flank the devastator. (Although with the current lag in EC, it's hard to properly judge how well weapons take down enemies.)
1. The table top is a different environment. You cannot port from one to the other and achieve balance. 2. Burst fire is exactly what they are for. It's only in a sustained fire role that you would have extended periods of firing, and even then you are limited to what you can do because of the heat produced in the barrel and firing chamber. Take a look at early machine guns. They were water cooled for a reason. 3. Fine. 4. Rock Paper Scissors PVP is as pathetic as it gets. There should be no natural counters. It should be a game of skill. Every RPS pvp game eventually turns in to a massive fail as there is no balance and you just get flavour of the month buffs and nerfs to compensate for the inheant inbalance you get from RPS game play.
Well, I understand your point from the real world perspective of physics, but have you ever seen a heavy bolter in any version from any Warhammer game fire in bursts rather than full auto? I certainly have not. It's a suppression weapon, meant to lay down huge amounts of fire and keep people behind their cover. I suppose you "could" choose to fire it in bursts but I hardly see the point and, as the devs have not created a "burst" mode for the gun, like with the bolter gun, they seem to agree...
You dont need a 'burst mode'. Its called trigger control. With proper trigger control you can fire machinguns a single round at a time.
