Just for you, Dal:
(edit to fix hotlink?)
No longer common pool. Ditto for the Bolt Driver -- both are NC-specific weapons, though VS and TR will get their own empire specific shotguns (err. maybe not shotguns, per se, but weapons with similar battlefield roles) and sniper rifles.
Also, good post from Higby in response to the announcement that the Bolt Driver is NC-specific:
This is going to go a bit more in depth than it needs to to answer the question, but I figure you guys deserve a bit of extra explanation for being awesome and providing me with so many good times reading speculations.
Many of our weapons are built similar to the Chinese QBZ or German G36 where several weapons (carbine, assault rifle, LMG, sniper rifle, etc) are built off the same platform. We have a huge number of variant parts that can mix and match to create different unique weapons. A lot of the parts will be unique to certain weapon types, so a barrel on an assault rifle won't necessarily be the same as on your LMG so that we have distinct silhouettes and looks, each of these weapons also behaves completely differently in game from an ammo count, accuracy, firing rate, damage, etc. standpoint.
The Bolt Driver is an NC specific sniper rifle, each empire will have their own ES sniper rifle, but due to the way our weapon platforms work, they'll have some variation even within the sniper rifles, this is the "sidegrade" concept you've heard us talk about a lot. While an NC sniper might start default with a high-damage, slow firing rate, magazine fed bolt driver, that player would be able to unlock variants of the bolt driver that might be semi automatic, or breach loaded for extra damage, or anything in between that makes sense for us to make. TR, and VS will be similarly versatile. So, if you want to be the high damage sniper guy, you don't necessarily have to play NC! You can be on TR and unlock a higher damage sniper rifle than the default which is semi-auto and has low recoil to allow for successive shots. Similarly if you want to be a super high firing rate VS player, you can unlock a pulsar that has some higher burst potential at the trade-off for, say, damage over distance, or ammo capacity, or whatever we think the best tradeoffs are to make the guns balanced and fun.
Now, that being said, it may very well be that the highest possible damage sniper rifle will be available to NC, and TR can get to have a weapon as powerful as one of the best NC rifles, but not quite as beefy, and likewise the NC might be able to get a very high fire rate gauss rifle, but not quite as high as the highest fire rate weapon available to the TR. This will allow us to retain the unique empire feel without having it be a straight up "these guys are always like this and those guys are always like that" vibe.
Savvy?
edit: by the way, RadarX saying it's common pool is just email fail on our part, I had said it "was common pool" meaning in PlanetSide, not "that gun was supposed to be common pool".
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
