The question of 3x9 AV and the future direction of development

According to the developers:
“And lastly, we’re evaluating balance options for select-fire rifles. At BR V, nine-man rifleman squads running top-tier select-fires have become dominant (one-hit potential, low recoil, fast reloads), and some players have asked for reasons to consider smaller squads or other weapons. We’re looking into this, but haven’t decided what to do next; we’ll let you know once we have a plan.”
SITREP №3 - Teasers, Tickets & Tunisia - News - Enlisted — official forum

How this problem can be solved. And this is my proposal.
It is not specific to any particular weapon or unit, but it shows the direction in which a decision should be made.

We have BR.1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the game. They can be figuratively divided into two areas. One area is the low BR area — 1-3. And the high BR area — 4-5. Given that the 4th BR has limited armament across many factions and its effectiveness lies between that of two nearby BRs, this BR can be considered a borderline area between two regions.

In the low BR area, weapons generally have lower lethality. SMGs deal less damage than SMGs. Rifles are not automatic. And vehicle landmines are less powerful. This is why the gameplay differs from that in the high BR area. Characters live longer there, and more time is spent eliminating an opponent.
In the high BR area, it’s the opposite. Weapons are more lethal. Even SMGs have higher lethality compared to SMGs. Rifles can shoot quickly, and the landmines of the vehicle are more powerful. But for some reason, there’s a bias in this BR. AVs are much more lethal than HV or machine guns, yet they have larger squads. And this is the main problem.

It’s obvious that this problem can be solved in two ways. By equating AV to the rest of the weapons — by nerfing AV — or by boosting everything else.

Why the second option is much more sensible.
Between the 3rd BR and the 5th, there’s another BR — the 4th. And if you bring AV’s lethality in line with the 5th BR’s HV, it turns out that the difference in lethality between weapons of the 3rd BR and the 5th isn’t that significant. The 4th BR seems to have been ignored in this smooth increase in lethality along the BR line.

Based on the above, we can conclude that in order to maintain a roughly equal transition between the lethality of weapons along the BR path, we shouldn’t nerf the AV at the 5th BR; instead, we should bring the rest of the weapons in line with everything else.

This way, at the 5th BR, the weapon’s playability will be roughly equal across all weapons and squads, and peak lethality will be preserved. So, we’ll have a top‑tier BR, the 5th one, with the most lethal weaponry — a machine‑gun burst that can kill characters.

In total, there will be 5 BRs with different killing power of weapons, which is still evident today.
1 BR — characters take a long time to absorb damage. The magazine is small. Rifles fire very infrequently.
2 BR — characters take a long time to absorb damage. The magazines have a larger capacity, which covers a greater number of opponents. Rifles fire more frequently.
3 BR — characters absorb damage at a moderate level compared to the other BRs. The magazines have a substantial capacity. Rifles can fire more frequently because they are self‑loading.
4 BR — characters die faster; many PP weapons fire more often (the same PPSh). The magazines have a larger capacity (the same PPSh). Rifles are roughly the same, but they have slightly better stats (just compare the SVT‑38 and the SVT‑40).
5 BR — almost everything one‑shots characters. The damage from all weapons is either one‑shot or two‑shot with a rate of fire. Stores are organized according to the overall effectiveness of the unit (for assault units, fewer units means a larger magazine; for fighters, more units means a smaller magazine). Rifles can be used as machine guns.

Thus, each BR represents a different gameplay experience, with a smooth transition between them. Nerfing the AV to the level of the rest means making the BR as lethal as it should be in the 4th tier. Therefore, it’s necessary not to nerf the 3x9 AV, but simply to upgrade everything else to bring it up to the level of the 3x9 AV.

As a result, it is necessary not to nerf 3x9 AV, but to buff the other units and weapons. For example, increase the damage output of SV and machine guns. Give stormtroopers more speed and/or survivability. Make it so that players want to play on 5 BR with different units, just as they do on 3 BR, but ensure that the weapon lethality, the rate at which characters are eliminated, and their survivability have parameters characteristic of 5 BR.

Do you want this way of solving the problem: 3x9 AV on 5 BR?
  • Yes
  • No
  • I abstain.
0 voters

The text has been translated from another language; there may be inaccuracies.

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That makes a lot of sense.
Right now, the reason nine‑man full‑auto squads exist is that full‑power automatic rifles suitable for mass deployment only appear at BR‑5.

If we nerf them, it would be like curing a headache by cutting off the head.
Nobody would want to use nine‑man squads anymore. Previously, grenade‑launchers on nine‑man squads were nerfed so hard they became practically useless.

Who still uses semi‑automatic weapons between BR‑1‑3 these days? Most players just rotate three assault squads.

Instead of nerfing recoil‑control for BR‑5 full‑auto firearms,
we should raise machine‑gun damage or boost base stats and capabilities for assault troopers. That way other weapons can compete numerically against full‑power nine‑man squads.

Ideally we also need BR‑6, to dilute the pool of 20‑round and 10‑round full‑power automatic rifles.

No, the damage of automatic rifles should be reduced to the level of current machine guns.
The automatic rifle meta has gotten on everyone’s nerves, and the final resolution of the automatic rifle issue will come sooner or later.

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But players seem unlikely to welcome this. Last time they planned a recoil nerf, it got reverted due to massive community backlash

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All - are these people playing on BR 3?

dont touch sf or 9 man

is the fault of developers to beggin with and getting used to a whole new bs is gonna get half playerbase tired

at the end of the day is BR5 so who cares just separate it from BR 4 and below

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No

I didn’t like the recoil nerf either, but a damage nerf would satisfy most people.
The fact that they kept it in their plans means automatic rifles will get nerfed sooner or later, whether we want it or not. And it’s clearly stated in the news.
So the question is what they’ll actually do. There are 3 nerf options in total, as follows:

  1. Increase recoil (rejected)
  2. Reduce damage
  3. Restrict which classes can use automatic rifles
    They rejected the first one, so a recoil increase is unlikely, and a damage reduction is more probable. As for the third option, it wouldn’t satisfy anyone.
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that will remove any reason to use these rifles and turn BR5 into slop bullshit + it wont solve not even half of the problem rifle man are so versatile and having 9 lifes will still be another problem

honestly leave it as it is the developers screw that one so much that ppl opinion will favour SF

You’re wrong.
If machine guns get one-shot damage, they’ll fill the niche of heavy weapons with high damage. Assault rifles will play to their strengths of accuracy and low recoil, while automatic rifles will occupy the niche of versatile automatic weapons. It’s precisely the reduction of automatic rifle damage that will bring order to weapon specialization.

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Low recoil? That is, reduce the damage dealt by the AV and decrease the recoil? Right now, the recoil is so strong that not everyone can handle it and immediately be able to operate normally. Even I’ve been playing with the AV for a long time, but I still can’t hit the enemy even at close range.

Making SFR’s damage 13.2, like machine guns, is the best solution.

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SF rifle recoil needs to be reverted back to how it was originally, they should not be 10 times stronger than a BR 4 semi auto.

Any other solution is not acceptable or realistic for the devs to implement.

While keeping the current recoil. As it stands, it’s minimal anyway.

And how would that help? They would have reduced the recoil anyway if they wanted to. Players didn’t like that option, so I think they’ll cut the damage.

It’s already hard to hit with the AV. White and red markers appear, even though it seemed like I hit the upper part of the body. Reducing the damage will turn the AV into an airsoft weapon.

That’s not true.
Machine guns have been like that for several years now, and nothing terrible has happened. You’re not firing one bullet at a time anyway.

remember the body armor? it gives 15hp meaning it wont one shot

then by doing some calculations and if not wrong soldiers with vitality get 13.5 hp and a machine gun generally does 13.2 at point blank meaning unless is a head shot it wont be a one shot unless that damage is increased

also Are you doing the calculations good? 100 bullets on br 5 that each can one shot btw? and if we follow your logic RD-44 and MG42 100 will be de dominant ones one being easy to move with and the other with insane rof

assault rifles will still be shit btw if we have MGs why would i use AR? i would just run X3 rd 44/mg42/stinger and some SF on my enggi and AT

for me it will turn BR5 into boring slop + 9 man are 9 man yet

First of all, we don’t know what damage they want to give machine guns. It might be around 16 units. I hope they have the brains for it, since they don’t want to remove the cuirass protection.

The RD will keep its current damage since it’s chambered for a smaller caliber, and logically, the damage increase is only meant for machine guns firing full rifle cartridges.

Gameplay speed, greater accuracy.

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But most other players will find it more enjoyable to play there.

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Because a boring slop is playing meta against meta when there’s no other choice. Maybe I just want to relax and play premium squads at BR 5, but what am I supposed to do when the enemy is running meta and I’m forced to use it too if I want to win? It’s literally imposed gameplay.

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