Hello NWI/Everyone!

I will start by saying that I really love Insurgency, but there is something that almost kills this great game for me: the way MGs are balanced (by introducing unrealistic levels of recoil). I think it sets precedent for doing other things to make this game more arcade-like and less tactical/realistic. The realistic, intuitive feel of the weapons is a quality that draws me to this game, thus I never use the MGs.

In a game like this, you of course want to discourage MGs from being used like mobile assault weapons, but why are they not used this way in real life? Well, they are generally more expensive and rare than your standard assault rifle, so class limits and higher resource costs are one way to balance their use. Perhaps tactical units don't want to put their most expensive and best suppressing weapons on the front line? This of course doesn't translate well to a video game, where these concerns don't matter much. So let's explore how one could reflect that MGs are slower and heavier in a way that discourages their use in mobile and aggressive ways!

An alternative way to balance weapons like MGs, is to introduce an inertia mechanic. An inertia mechanic would do three things:

  1. Increase the time it takes to aim down sights...simple enough to understand.

  2. Create a delay between moving your mouse quickly, and the barrel of your weapon following these fast movements until your barrel "catches up" to where you are pointing with your mouse. Think of it as a rubber band effect: The fast you move your mouse, the more delay exists. Smaller weapons like SMGs and Carbines would feel noticeably more "snappy" than MGs with this inertia system.

  3. Increased weapon weight would contribute to overall weight of the soldier, which would make him/her slower and increase stamina drain.

Besides being more realistic, a benefit of a system like this, is that it can be applied to all weapons, not just MGs. This makes it consistent and scalable, unlike the current way of introducing artificial recoil for just one class of weapons - this feels disconnected and inconsistent from the other types of weapons. Recoil should be determined by weapon caliber, type of round (example: some 5.56x45mm AP rounds have more powder/velocity than others), weapon weight, and weight distribution of the weapon itself.

So please NWI, I BEG you to at least consider another way to balance MGs. I truly appreciate you reading this post and considering what I've said...Thank you!

V/r,
A fan of your game