Too many Variables to balance
Any one else get the sense that there are too many variables for the Dev team to balance out in game currently.
In 1.3 it was way worse. The ship had completely flipped over, 1.4 righted the ship in some ways.
I'm usually dead set against simplifying games- I love the Arma series where combat can become really in depth and complicated (bullet drop, range finding, taking meds to steady aim, ect)
Between Gear Set bonuses, He gear Talents,Named Gear Talents, Weapon Talents, Gear RNG variations, Different stat options on gear (% elite dmg vs crit dmg ect..),
Base skills(fist aid for example), Skill add-ons(booster shot first aid), Talents (one is none ect..), Main stat (FA,STAM,ELECT) scaling, minor stat (Skill Power, ect..) scaling.
On top of all that they have to balance PVE vs PVP- because the same gear is used in both
On top of all that every time they come out with a new Game mode all of the above has to be taken in to account as well.
it's no wonder every update/DLC there is a new Meta that out shines most everything else.
It's no wonder when people bring up game balance issues the response is " The team feels its fine for now". Why would you even want to look at the complex math to figure out and actually balance anything (Judging by how bad the DPS calculation is in this game I'm not sure I would trust the numbers even if they did sit down and try to figure it all out)
1.5 is more balanced than 1.3 by a lot but it is nowhere near where it should be.
enemies WT5--- too easy (combination of a bunch of system balance- player gun dmg + player gear dmg/dmg mitigation vs enemy dmg and healt/armor
guns--- some guns are just un usable in any situation- Main ones being burst fire weapons
gear--- some sets just flat out are not as good, How can you compare Fire Crest to Alpha Bridge, you just can't it is better than it was but not but not by nearly enough.
These are just some examples, but pretty much any of the balancing issues that get brought up can be boiled down to the fact that there are way to many variables at the moment.
and the people looking at balancing either don't have enough time/resources to go into it all or the calculations they are looking at are not sound to begin with.
You guys need to be making some of this stuff easier on yourself, would result in better balancing for the player experience (get rid of loot stat RNG range, or weapon talents, or some combination to make it more simple to focus on balancing)
At the rate they add stuff the gear/talents/weapons that don't make any sense just keep stacking up, people keep posting threads about what new weapons ect... are going to be added when there are some in the game that no one uses, a decent amount of named weapons fall into this catagory as well.