Assault Rifle Frames Rework

[Mr. Sledge]

I have read Styg wants to make all frames viable, so I took a crack at the assault rifles.

Hornet: My only suggestion is to remove the burst precision buff and leave it as the lowest AP option because they are already immensely powerful.

Marauder: Take the burst precision bonus from the hornet and pass it to the marauder to make it the most consistent single target burst weapon. Also maybe tighten the damage spread to make it the most reliable.

Chimera: Leave it alone as the critical focused assault rifle.

Huszar: Make the Huszar into an LMG. Keep the wide damage spread, double the burst penalty and give it an extra bullet or two per burst, and double the mag capacity.  The role of the Huszar becomes the crowd control assault rifle.  While it throws more rounds down-range they are less likely to hit whatever you are specifically aiming at, therefore more likely to hit one of the other targets nearby.

I am not an expert on the burst mechanics by any means, but I think these changes would make each rifle have a definitive edge on the others.

[Hazard]

Hornet: My only suggestion is to remove the burst precision buff and leave it as the lowest AP option because they are already immensely powerful.

I disagree. The last patch nerfed burst weapons immensely, so further nerfing the best burst-fire frame would just mean that ARs as a class end up even weaker, even if balance within the weapon class benefited from it.

Marauder: Take the burst precision bonus from the hornet and pass it to the marauder to make it the most consistent single target burst weapon. Also maybe tighten the damage spread to make it the most reliable.

Definitely could use a boost, but not at the expense of the Hornet.

Huszar: Make the Huszar into an LMG. Keep the wide damage spread, double the burst penalty and give it an extra bullet or two per burst, and double the mag capacity.  The role of the Huszar becomes the crowd control assault rifle.  While it throws more rounds down-range they are less likely to hit whatever you are specifically aiming at, therefore more likely to hit one of the other targets nearby.

The Huszar absolutely needs a boost, and turning it into an LMG is a nice idea, but -10% burst penalty would (probably) be crazy high if you still want to be able to fire it effectively at long range (10-13 tiles). One or two extra bullets per burst are also pretty pointless if you can't burst fire twice with an Adrenaline shot, and as long as Bullet Belt exists, you could have a magazine capacity of 100 rounds and it still wouldn't be that significant of an advantage (unless you want to use a different belt, like Doctor's Pouch). Finally, in what way would this be a crowd control weapon? You don't need to hit the target in order to trigger the Suppressive Fire perk, and its effect isn't exactly strong enough to "control" the enemy anyway.

[harperfan7]

Hornets:
are the weakest both in damage and in crit bonus, but are the quickest to fire and most accurate.

Huszars:
have the highest damage potential and the highest crit chance, but have a burst penalty and require 1 more strength (you'll have full-auto anyway).

Marauders:
are between those two; full crit bonus, no burst penalty or bonus.

Chimeras:
are craft only. They have a higher lower damage range than hornets but with the same upper damage range (aka weak). Otherwise the same as a marauder, except their crit bonus is 130% (the only one above 100%).

Hornets are for getting in more shots/bursts; the 7.62 Hornet is the only one you can burst when encumbered or dazed without a rapid reloader, a rapid 8.6 Hornet can burst as well; the only AR above 7.62 that can (also a rapid 7.62 Marauder can burst twice, or once while encumbered/dazed)
Huszars and chimeras are for Gun Rush from Commando.
The Critical Power feat makes chimeras that much better (effective 175% crit bonus), especially with an anatomical scope (262.5% crit bonus)
Personally, I think the Huszar is the better choice until you get Critical Power, and even then, I might still use it if I'm not using crit-chance boosting gear.

The marauder is the odd man out; he's balanced between them, but has no niche. The huszar competes with the chimera for the Gun Rush slot, and eventually loses (still wins if not critting; a 9mm huszar with acid bullets is your best Gun Rusher against bladelings for instance). The hornet is the main use gun, simply because of AP efficiency.
(are the shrooms immune to crits? that's two situational enemies where the huszar beats the chimera if so)

A marauder could use some combination of the following:
>more bullets per mag
>a 5% precision bonus
>a 1 or 2 tile farther range/optimal range
and to seal the deal
>lower AP cost by 1 (from 13 to 12 and from 14 to 13; with rapid reloaders that's 10 and 11)

The hornet would have higher burst precision and leave you with a few more AP after shooting, but the marauder can still get in on the juicy extra shooting. The marauder has a higher crit damage bonus.

A muzzled full-auto 8.6 marauder with a 27 round mag could burst three times with no reload. A 7.62 with 36 could burst 4 times. With ext mags, those would be 33 and 45 (the 45 is 5 clean bursts), but that means no rapid reloader.
No AR has a precision bonus, and they all have the same range; two areas where the marauder could also have an advantage.
It would then be more of a player-choice kind of thing; a bit more AP per round and burst precision, or looser reloading and/or some extra range/aimed-shooting with better crit damage.

[newageofpower]

RE: LMG

You could also double the amount of shots per burst, but raise the burst AP to something like 45 rather than taking off other frame's bonuses. That way it would be a natural bipod candidate (especially with the extra slot from the proposed Gun Nut Rework) which is sadly one of the less used weapon attachments.

[ciox]

Lots of good ideas here, my two cents:

- make the blue scope increase critical chance by a percentage like +40% or so, so that it synergizes with the rest of your build elements that increase critical chance, the scope is underused otherwise and this would be by far the most interesting way to buff it
- significantly enhance the Huszar's power and stats while also increasing it's STR req from 7 to 8, the same STR req of metal armor, buff the rifle frame in such a way that it truly fits a high STR character