Since I bought this game I just really started playing it more recently and im enjoying it but its really imbalanced at some points IMO, this is somewhat overshadowed by teamplay but doesn't change the fact that some weapons and abilities are useless.

Here are some issues:

-The shotgun is terrible. Honestly you can go behind a dude at point blank range and shoot him and he will have time to turn around and kill you with a submachinegun before you can shoot again. Its just bad, the damage is not that high, the range svcks and the rate of fire is the worst part. At the very least the rate of fire should be buffed, even if its less accurate.

-The grenade launcher is also useless. Its harder to get a direct hit with this GL than in TF for 2 reasons, the guys move fasters and in different ways and the weapons physics in general seems kinda random. Even so a direct hit will not only have almost zero splash if any at all, it will only apply a knockdown effect. Im not saying we need DEMOSPAMS but it should at least have som aoe or firepower for a weapon that can be harder to use than a sniper....

The other weapons are OK i guess, cold use little tweaks here and there but they all their uses. Now about the classes:

-The operative needs a buff. What is the operative role in match? To get behind enemy lines and kill them would be the most important one (not talking about mission objectives) but even so he lacks the offensive firepower of the soldier or even the engineer. The operative has some support in the form of revealling the enemy positions but that's about it, its nt useless but it is worse than the other classes support, which would be fine if he made up with offensive power.

But without any self buff hes not that good in direct fights, I understand his concept as a more tactical fighter but I think that some simple buffs could be used. For instance:

-Comming out of a disguise could give you a temporary damage buff.

-Any form of quick time cloak would be great and better to reach behind enemy lines. Hell even smoke grenades would be usefull.

With that said I do think that the tower hack is kind of OP and that caltrops are awesome.

The soldier and the medic are okay, the engineer is probably the strongest class, he has so many objectives and buffs, can earn the most xp of all, even more than the medic.

Shotguns do MASSIVE damage, and have knockdown if you get a solid point-blank hit - that alone means your opponent will be off-guard, which makes a follow-up melee or switch to another weapon more viable (if you have your own SMG with a fast equip time, use it, a high-damage pistol like the Sea Eagle would be even better for a quick 1-2-kill)

Grenades, whether thrown or fired, are meant as crowd control and suppression weapons, not as direct damage.

When I play Operative, I can cause totally insane chaos in an enemy team. If I time it right and start causing trouble right before my teammates show up, it makes everything go a lot smoother for them, and if I time it perfectly, right AFTER my teammates show up, I can often get away after causing trouble as well.

I'm currently equipped as Operative main, Medic second, and a few Soldier skills to back them up - I can't do $#&% trying to play as an Engineer, so I can't agree that they're a "stronger" class - you're just better with them.

if u want ur op to be buffed, then why dont u just let one of your team mates buff you? I was under the impression this game was supposed to promote teamwork.

cause people dont realize your teamates dont listen dont care or are bots thtat are just too dumb,

a single buffed shot gun at poit blank is an instant kill even on heavies, but the problem is if they are moving the auto aim point way behind them(i hate the auto aim too, might just take it off) but the shotgun is extremly powerful and to tighten up *accuracy* (its actually the spread bro) if you aim down the sights the spread is significantly lower (confirmed on a wall)

agreed the lobster and AGL have no killing power i can get 6 direct hits and not kill a darn thing, sure grenades werent meant to kill unless your soldier which doesnt even buff the grenade launcher weapons (it does the attachment though) which would have made them just powerful enough)

The only tweak I would really want to see is to remove engineers ability to destroy hackboxes. I feel it makes few maps (mostly shipyard and reactor) unbalanced because even if you pull succesful attack to hack the objective, there will always be an engie who just negates the whole process if (and when) you don't finish the hacking at first try. This makes going for hack objectives not rewarding as your progress towards the objective can be nullified so easily.

Fun fact: I have played only multiplayer all the way to level 20 for my first character (not a big deal, I know) and I have never seen the hack objectives from shipyard and reactor be accomplished.

Other hack missions, such as resort and sec tower include small space which can be defended to cover the operatives hacking. In my opinion, Security tower is best example of a working hack objective with current system as it involves a rather small area that can easily be defended as defending team untill offence gets a foothold of the small room with the safe, which is quite hard to conquer back.

If you play operative, get used to the fact you will be alone and unbuffed most of the time. They DO need a buff with hacking though, hackboxes should not be removable and if they remain removable they need to be 1:1 hack/unhack time ratio.

I think the biggest issue atm is hack box destruction and imbalanced heavies.

I think, as I've said before, that Hacking should be sped up VERY slightly, or reversing a hack should be slowed down VERY slightly - it won't need much of a tweak, and it won't need to be tweaked at both ends, but it IS a little too difficult in most maps at present.

didnt you headhot the person from behind with shotty? works for me.

nade launchers shouldnt be easy OHK weapons. they are for takedowns. im glad this game isnt full of nade spam like bc2.

@"OP lacks the offensive firepower of the soldier or even the engineer" - eh? they can use the same weapons and have some great tools to use. the thing is its not as easy to get XP as medic. and you need to reach higher ranks to get the good toys

ive only seen an engineer beat me once as medic. almost always the top player is a medic. (usually me if im medic)

Shotguns spread being brought it a little would be nice

There are three different GL which one is underpowered exactly cause I've heard the under mounted is strong I've used it and i agree it's strong and doesn't need to be messed with. The lobster GL isn't for killing it's for knocking down groups of enemies giving your team the advantage. The E-Z Nade is for softening up groups of enemies none of them are choice tools for killing you might want to try bullets for that.

As for operatives they aren't spys from TF2 I think allot of people believe they are but if you try to use them as such you won't get nearly as many points as if you use them properly, which is to gather intel on enemy locations through com hacks and spotting them. Use disguises to get behind the enemy assault and spot them and cause some havoc not to get behind a enemy and kill them.

Brink is an extremely balanced game. It may not play to your style strengths, but Brink is balanced. Learn the game and work as part of a team.

I would actually like to see the Heavy body type buffed (with that little mobility, he should really be a tank)

Also, maybe tweak some maps a bit to make them more balanced (I'm looking at you, Container City)

It would also be nice to make turrets actually shoot at people instead of just sitting there while you rock them down.

I agree on most points.

The Hjammerdeim should be made a medium weapon, heavies rarely use it and heavies arent able to get close enough to make good use of it when they do. Personally I love the Hjammerdeim, but I never use it because the heavy body type just doesnt work with it - it makes you too vulnerable a target. Heavies are fine with machineguns, and if anything I think an RPG style launcher should be added to the body type, but the shotguns need to stay in the medium category. The mossington's fire rate is simply too low, I've noticed as well that on any buffed player using an SMG, even if you sneak up on them, the time between shots for the mossington puts you at a severe disadvantage.
Game developers have always been absolutely terrible at balancing shotguns, I havent seen a single game where they're represented properly - all game developers seem to think that shotguns fire at a 45 degree angle out from the barrel and wont hit anything past 10 feet -_- I'm beginning to think that nobody in the game industry has ever even fired a shotgun before.

The grenade launchers... I disagree with you there. My brother uses the lobster to some serious effect as a soldier, he can consistently get direct hits with it, knocking enemies flat on their butts. The automatic grenade launcher is less useful, as it has no knockdown effect, but it can be used to spam an area, preventing the enemy team from coordinating as well.

Operatives do need more objectives, I agree. Personally I think the following changes need to be made on that account:

-Remove nerves of steel from the engineer skill tree, and replace it with a skill that increases the engineer's starting/max supply pips by 1 (same as the medic skill, engineers have way too many abilities and buffs to not have extra supply).
-Remove the transfer supplies ability from the medic skill tree, and replace it with a healing grenade that buffs and restores health to all allies in the detonation radius.

-Allow Operatives to disable HE charges and remove hackboxes.
-Remove the ability for engineers to disable HE charges and remove hackboxes.
-Give operatives the ability to buff an ally's supply by 1 (increases target's max supply count, and restores 1 supply pip, essentially replacing the medic's transfer supplies ability).


That gives operatives more objectives for each map, and gives them a buff so they can support the team better.

The grenade launcher is what I hit people with all the time. It's not hard.

The shotgun is awesome in close range and fast reload speed. It's balanced.

Teammates buff you, you don't buff yourself. Operative doesn't need a buff.

I play most of the time as an operative and I honestly don't think they need to be changed. Caltrops are surprisingly devastating, because no one thinks to slow down, and there are few things more satisfying than turret hacking. Except maybe hitting someone with a cortex bomb. Yeah for the first rank they're pretty limited, but so are the other classes.

I agree with the shotguns being pretty disappointing though.

the Heavy-only shotgun is horrible, but the Mossington is great.

I'm starting to find more to like about the Soldier class.I never knew how valuable the scavenge skill was until recently.Haven't used the Medic that much yet,but I have a character set up for it and a soon as my Soldier is lvl 20,I'll work on that character.

^THIS! :foodndrink:

I'm sorry, but your post is ridiculous.

Shotguns are extremely powerful with damage buff...
GL's are used to KNOCK down... and it was said that grenades are not meant to kill in this game, simply injure to finish off with your SMG/AR/etc
Ops don't need a buff, they are fine the way they are, the specialize in going under cover.

Ridiculous post... Honestly.

Absolutely. Even highly lethal games such as Vegas:2, which prides itself on it's weapons physics, has utterly garbage Shotguns. I expected Brink shotties to be bad, and it has not disappointed there. Both act like sawnoffs, HUGE spread, anyone that has hands-on experience will tell you that this just isn't the case, 'specially combat orientated shotguns.

Only changes I would like to see are slower engineer removal of hack boxes, and move silently moved to the operative skill tree. Adding some more general abilities to the main tree would be nice as about 1/3 of them are not that useful.

Shotgun does 220 ish dmg unbuffed, to body 15-30% more with buff 50% more if you manage to plant all slugs in face.

As far as shotgun goes, the spread just need alittle work, shotgun is far from a terrible weapon.

As for grenade launcher, the underslug grenade launcher are in risk of being to powerful if anything, the lobster seems fine, the only grenade launcher that needs fixing is the heavy one.

The rest of your suggestions are just pure bad tbh.

Temporary cloak? Damage boost after disguise? both these make me want to slap you.

Only change I would like to see to for operative is they should get the transfer supply ability rather then medics, since its useless for medics.

Also Hacking Comm and Disguise needs to be affected by the perspective perk, or they need to fix it so your not stuck looking at the ground.

Also Hack boxes should not be removed by engineers at all, It should be a operative job, and it should take twice as long. (not my idea, but It is a idea I highly support)

Also for the homing beacon it would be nice if they made it slightly easier to stick, as it is now any sudden movement will force you to start over.

I wouldn't mind getting rid of the Hjammerdeim altogether, It's just an overall silly weapon, heavies won use it because they have far better options, and really the Mossington is far easier to use, not that silly 2 shots the cycle stuff. If i ever play heavy I'll have a Gotlung and a Mossington for secondary, and I probably wouldn't take the Hjammerdeim for a primary as a medium too.

http://i54.tinypic.com/x4jh53.jpg

Check out the Shotguns section. Also, note that the Hjammer has less projectiles which are also weaker. Sadface.

If you don't double-shot, and measure your pacing, you can keep up a solid rate of fire instead. The 2-shotting is so you can basically get a near-instant takedown on someone if you're using the gun right and have a 1-on-1 encounter. If there's a group, controlled individual shots will knockdown a group, and keep them down while you rip them to shreds.

Used properly, it's a truly brutal weapon - seriously.