One of the most controversial topics on this forum is the recent powercreep in BR II. However, I have come up with a theory as to why. And it’s in relation to matchmaking queues.
Recently, all BRs have had things either uptiered (or for the most part, downtiered). And some of these “balancing” decisions have raised questions. However, my theory is that the reason why these things were uptiered/downtiered is related to upcoming matchmaking queue changes.
I believe this is the matchmaking the devs will implement:
BR I
BR II - III
BR III - IV
BR V
(most changes were in the BR II to IV range anyway so it makes sense)
In an ideal world, and I’m sure the devs know this too, we would have much preferred ±0 BR matchmaking. However, we don’t live in an ideal world, and this is Enlisted we’re referring to. Due to Enlisted’s low player count, they still have to combine certain BRs, however, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be hardlocked to those queues.
It then makes sense as to why across the board SMGs in particular were buffed, with the German M38/42 getting a slight firerate increase and downtiered to BR II (previously BR III), the Allies getting the M1A1 Thompson (previously BR III) and the Soviets having a BR III competitve BR II SMG lineup, and the MP28s getting considerable fire rate increases. Hopefully the map selection comes at the same time too.
I think its likely to have been very simple. Br 2 had PPS at merge… instead of nerfing/moving it up, better axis smgs were brought down…consequently allies had to aswell since axis did.
The suck thing about the current match system is that the vast majority of time I play, I am rarely playing the level I choose, or get lucky enough to get the enemy to have the level below me. Usually if I choose BR1, I end up playing BR2 enemy, same with my Br2, I end up in BR3 matches. So, to me the best idea is to just lock down each BR level, which will never happen. I could live with BR1, BR2 and BR5 being solo levels and merging BR3 and BR4 since IMOP there is not a ton of difference between the weapons in BR3/4. However, in no way shape or form should BR 5 be playing any other level then BR5.
BR1-solo
BR2-solo
BR3/BR4-merged
BR5-solo as f^^k.
They say we don’t have enough players, which is probably true, however, we have already been promised that someday before our Lord returns we will get to choose our maps and matches. How do we have the players for that, since not everyone is fans of the same matches or maps? So, if DF implements this it is going to stretch our player base anyway, which is probably why we have been strung along and not seen DF implement it by now. So, make better bots will probably be the answer in the future. To be honest, I don’t give a sh_t if I am playing a person or a bot, I just want to have a semi competitive match and have fun. This is one reason why people deserting doesn’t bother me.
The fact that many more powerfull weapons are going down in BR is not great, particularly with BR2.
But the fact that many of these weapons are rather high in the tech tree is infuriating… For instance both Berretta M38/42 and Thompson M1A1 are now BR2 (which tbh is not justified for the M1A1 imo) and they are their respective faction best option in terms of SMG at their BR. And yet they are only available at Tier 4 of the researcg tree… which means that the player that can use them are most likely veteran even though BR2 will see many new players…
By the way, the devs proved that they can rearange the tech tree as the bikes were move from tier II to I in the tech tree : they are now unlocked before the mortar
BR4 weapons are not much stronger than BR3 weapons, but there are very few examples ofc like Fedorov MG and Hei Automatic LMG which both need to to BR5.
Other than that they are fine, Soviets are already using BR4 smg power at BR3 with it’s ppsh-41 box. Mkb42 needs to go down in BR either to BR4 or 3 so Germany could have something strong at mid range.
When it comes to BR3 vs BR4 vehicles it’s quite different matter, how are BR3 player in his tank be able to take out a Jumbo? He can’t it will be like pre merge you need Panther to do exactly that.
And then Panther will be fighting vs KV-1/T-34 and destroy it - sweet revenge but that revenge is a bit too easy don’t you think? It will result from everyone using BR3 KV-1/T-34 to using BR4 IS-1 and T-34-85, KV-1 zis-5 will be probably forgotten and not played.
Japan is probably only balanced BR4 country as their Chi-to is pretty much a weaker Sherman of BR3, but he will stood no chance vs Jumbo.
I wish there would be 6 BRs so at least those BR4 and BR5 tanks could go up in BR and we could leave only weaker BR4 tanks where they are now.
Sure this is not always the case, for instance Type Hei late has only 10 rounds (but honestly, why is this gun even BR 4?)
But overall BR4 is all over the place, some faction don’t even have TT BR4 semi auto rifle anymore…
Well, most tanks would really benefit from a +/-0 BR
Because as you said, Jumbo for instance will terrorize BR3, but what is it supposed to do against a KT or Ho-Ri? It’s the issue of balancing amor properly. Kv-1 for instance is useless vs BR4, but becomes crazy good vs BR2.
If we nerfed every SF rifle by giving them MG damage (13.4 damage max) semi-auto rifles would be viable again, than we could move these rifles up to BR5.
Maybe even add 15 round semi-autos to tech tree on BR5.
Does any else think that we need objective criteria for changing BR?
Things like DPS, magazine size, reload time ect. compared to all weapons on current and suggested BR.
BR3 has Battle pass semis with large mag size like M1907 and Hino rifle so it’s null argument. Also many people forget about Meunier A6 with 15 rounds at BR3.
As USA you could be able to equip two BR3 semis and have 18 rounds which is almost the same as those you just metioned, or even more rounds if you use BP Winchester as it has 20 rounds. Do you really need 30 rounds or 40? No you don’t. But BR3 has also ability to have as many rounds.
Average BR3 American soldier:
He is totally underpowered vs your BR4 rifles right?
I feel like the best way is to currently list all the attributes of guns at the moment and give a point for each position it sits at (if there are 5 guns and one is 5th place it gets 1 point and if a gun is 1st for a particular stat, say rpm, then it gets 5 points for rpm but only 1 for recoil because it has high horizontal recoil).
Whoever comes out with the most points at the end is a BR V gun. And then of course the lowest points become a BR I gun and it works that way. Then maybe the stats can be adjusted later.
Been thinking about that too. Honestly with the separation of BR1 from 3, I wouldn’t mind seeing those TT 10 round semi-auto’s get moved down to BR3; I really don’t think any of them would be game breaking at BR3.
With the matchmaking change, there’s no reason to have to balance semi-auto’s around bolt-actions anymore imo: Anyone playing meta will mostly be rocking semi-auto’s at that BR anyways, and anyone who wants to stick to mostly bolt action gameplay can just play BR1. I wouldn’t move the current BR3 semi-autos down either, it’d be up to the players if they wanted to go meta with the mag reloaded stuff, or play the less competitive stuff like the G41 (the games so casual it really doesn’t make a meaningful difference imo).
They’re just kinda pointless rn being not much better than their BR3 counterparts, but nowhere near the select fire stuff at BR5.
That way we’d have 3 distinct BR brackets of Bolties (BR1), Semi-autos (BR3) and Full-auto (BR5), with a buffer BR between each for the outliers (e.g. the 20 round semi-autos, the japanese 5 round semi-autos).
