Make the LMGs useful for anything but corner camping!

As a fellow redditor was kind enough to show in a video, you can get away with firing an LMG singlehandedly:

YouTube

I remember back in the closed alpha and beta days when they were actually fun to use.. Right now, the recoil is so bad that your only option is to either stay still bipoded as sniper bait, or corner camp objectives.

Before people bring up the balance argument, well, Insurgency is an assymetrical tactical shooter, and as it stands now, MGs are unusable in the role they occupy IRL. Plus there's usually only one of them on the field due to role restrictions. Even back then, when they were universally coveted, class restrictions prevented any overt OPness.

I would propose that MGs are made to reflect the two reasons they're not universally used in the battlefield: weight, and clunkiness indoors. Insurgency has both mechanics, and making them unwieldy indoors is obviously superior to making them useless anywhere.

As others have suggested, the role could be balanced by making LMGs expensive pointwise and discouraging use of secondary equipment like pistols and tons of nades. In addition, I would recommend making carriers cheap for them, to reflect their utility arising from spitting tons of hot lead downrange.

Hopefully the devs are listening!

Lmg's are already very useful and one of the easiest classes to rack up kills. They are meant to hold down lanes and suppress the enemy. They fill this role just fine. Lately, I see people running around Rambo style as well.

@MLB7 is right. If your goal is to pump up your K:D and support your team in winning, there is no better option now than an LMG. Along with commander/observer it's probably the most important role one can take on both offense and defense.

Check out AndreaFPS's review of the PKM - he's learned to use it even without the bipod. I tried it out and confirmed that if you learn how to control the vertical recoil, it can be an effective weapon indoors or while moving. I do think it would be too powerful if the recoil was reduced in any significant way. Why would anyone choose any other weapon at that point? You have an AR, LMG, and a Marksman rifle all in one.

@aslan14 Why would they choose a different weapon?

Simple. Class restrictions.

@alphaandomega hope your computer is fast. It will the be the first 2 picks every time by whoever has the fastest pc.

The weapon is already really strong. If you don't know how to use it then watch the video in this thread.

You make a very good point with machine guns. I don't want to get annoying by linking this to every MG thread, but I do think this is a good solution. As you said, we should have a system that mimics their weight and clunkiness instead of just giving it an unrealistic amount of recoil.