Those who have read my previous threads have probably already noticed that I am a huge fan of the PPSh with a drum magazine.
And it’s a big disappointment to me that I can’t equip assault engineers with this.
And in general, assault rifles of all factions except Germany are some kind of dieselpunk sci-fi shame (or anachronistic retrograde WWI shame, if we are talking about Fedorovs), which makes these squads unusable for me.
There are two main arguments against simply giving Assault Engineers the damn SMGs:
-
a WHOLE ONE squad of engineers with automatic weapons would somehow ruin the balance at
low BRs. -
As the administration staff explained to me, this was done because in the Stalingrad campaign, engineers could use assault rifles but couldn’t use SMGs. To me, that argument is bullshit, and who gives a fuck who used what in a campaign that no one remembers anymore? So today we’ll only discuss the first argument.
The simplest solution is to give Assault Engineers the option to use BR4 or BR5 SMGs, but not BR1-3 SMGs.
However, the game doesn’t have a mechanic that would limit a soldier’s weapon selection not only by weapon class but also by that weapon’s battle rating. And it’s unlikely that the developers will work on creating such mechanics (although it will be useful for four squads in all factions of the game)
Therefore, I will propose the following possible solutions to this problem:
1 ) Place a phantom BR5 (or BR 4) item with in the Assault Engineer inventory. The player will not be able to remove this item or even see it in their inventory. This way, Assault Engineers will receive SMGs and will not be able to ruin the balance at low BRs.
However, this decision will prevent players from using semi-automatic and bolt-action rifles at low-mid BRs (as I do). It will also prevent players from using assault rifles from the only faction that has assault rifles at BR 2, BR 3, and BR 4. Whether this is a good or bad decision is up to you.
2 ) This is a more complex solution, as outlined in the topic title. However, it will allow assault engineers to use SMGs, allow low-tier BRs to avoid encounters with engineers armed with automatic weapons, and, most importantly, this decision does not take away existing options from players.
What’s the gist of this solution:
Assign all BR4 and BR5 SMGs a new weapon class. Let’s call it the “heavy SMG.” The heavy SMG will be available to all soldier classes that have access to regular SMGs, but it will also be available to assault engineers. There’s no need to even indicate in the user interface that it’s a different weapon class than just an SMG.
So, what’s the best way to do it?
- Assault Engineers should not have any form of SMG.
- Just give assault engineers the ability to use any SMG.
- Assign BR 4 or 5 to the Assault Engineer squad itself using a phantom BR4 or 5 item in the inventory.
- Allow Assault Engineers to use BR4 and 5 SMGs by assigning BR4 and 5 SMGs to the phantom “Heavy SMG” class.
