Give people more reason to carry sidearms

[ladwhy]

Like in real life, almost every soldier, if not all, have a sidearm to use if they lose their weapon or can't reload fast enough, shooting with the sidearm while tackled is actually a good idea, since you can't really aim with your main weapon while prone, but you can use a pistol quite well. This can be used to scare runners/lurkers away, for example, I'm a medic treating a wounded in center of nexus, with cades without wire, and a lurker jumps me. When he sees me shooting at him with my pistol, he would zoom outta there as fast as he came. I would lowkey sacrifice med space for a sidearm if this gets included.

[Rayleonard]

Remember with knives it made it too unbalanced to cut your way out.

Might as well bring that back or allow pistol use with permanesting. There has to be more of a risk and reward to swallowing them whole.

I personally used a VP or M4A3. But with how many time it didn’t contribute. I just wound up using points on a mini medic kit or twin shotguns.

[Just L]

If something like this were added, there would be a number of ways to make it appealing.

If you have a sidearm pouch, shoulder holster, or sidearm belt, you automatically draw the sidearm when you are knocked down by a xeno. This also provides a buff to the sidearm holster choices, as you rarely see people take those due to superior options like the shotgun belt and lifesaver bag.

Buffing pistol damage and fire rate would also help make them more appealing choices for this purpose, you can even decrease the effective range of pistols like what was done with the SMG.

[CABAL]

Like in real life, almost every soldier, if not all, have a sidearm to use if they lose their weapon or can't reload fast enough, shooting with the sidearm while tackled is actually a good idea, since you can't really aim with your main weapon while prone, but you can use a pistol quite well. This can be used to scare runners/lurkers away, for example, I'm a medic treating a wounded in center of nexus, with cades without wire, and a lurker jumps me. When he sees me shooting at him with my pistol, he would zoom outta there as fast as he came. I would lowkey sacrifice med space for a sidearm if this gets included.

No, runners and lurkers won't be scared away with a pistol. Quite frankly, normal Pulse Rifle doesn't scare them away. As long as they have 50% HP and you are completly alone (or with wounded who lie in pain on the floor) they won't back up.
Benos suffer no consequeces for having only 1% of HP, they are as fast, as nimble as at 100% HP, so pure damage won't scare anything away and you can't balance it. On the frontlines they do need that HP, they do (sometimes) need speed, but this means that in such scenarios, you can't do anything. Your only choice is such situation is Heavy Bullets revolver, as the stun is what might scare runners, or lurkers away, but those a bit experienced know you have only 7 shoots in your revolver, so the pounce will happen when you will run out of ammo.

In scenario where Lurker/Runner pounces you and you whip anything that isn't Mateba, Heavy Bullets Revolver, or some fancy Auto-9, they won't escape unless you somehow menage to get their health down to around 25% HP.
If you could reliably do it with pistols, then pounce would be ineffective, so benos would cry as whole point of Lurkers and Runners is pounce. They can't do jack shit without it.

All of that means that handguns will stay where they are now: Uneffective small dmg source, maybe a bit of untility as a light source and crowbar. There is no way to balance handguns.

[kooarbiter]

I'll just leave this here

https://youtu.be/XXSx1u_HzRU?t=59

[mandalore66]

I guess so, it might be a good time to start dual-wielding M39 with arm braces and light armor, so that one young runner buddy of a dev dies to it, cries and here we go, massive nerfs in next week.

Ugh, is this how this server is being developed?...

[CABAL]

Ugh, is this how this server is being developed?...

"Next week" is a massive underestimation. About a month usually takes for benos to cry really hard to nerf something. But that is how it is done. It's all going in circles.
Marines as usuall, find some use in certain things, like a weapon. They use it and it so happens to perform very well, benos cry and it is nerfed.

Look at Slug for example. Over the years it was garbage ammunition, someone tried to buff it, but nobody was using it (maybe besides me). Some talking (begging) to Neth and he gave slugs some love with Shell Shock. Slugs then were in exactly the same state for like a half of year (can't say for sure, changelog from 2019 is broken), but then more people started to use it (mainly in MOU53, but sometimes even in normal shotguns). Benos for some reason only then radomly started to cry "BUCKSHOT OP", but all they were advocating for was nerfing "SHOTGUN, HOW TO COUNTER IT?".
Nobody can withstand acid beno tears, so Buckshot (sure why not? 20 damage doesn't really make any difference when you do before nerf 300) was nerfed alongside slug, so that slug is total garbage again and nobody (besides MOU53 users, as they are forced to combine flechette and slug to get ghetto buckshot, but even they noticed and are just loading 3 flechettes) uses it.

The same will be with M39, it got DMG and Firerate buff, nothing stops some robusto to take two pointman kits, all AP ammo he can carry and decimate some Ravs, Crushers, or any other beno.

[mandalore66]

snip

Well, I guess the most basic and simple way to measure how the game's balanced is look at the winrates for both sides?..

Do we have this data?

And yes, I realize that there are good and bad ways to balance the game that could both lead to a 50% winrate for each faction.

[ladwhy]

I mean, You have a sidearm AND a main gun, in most cases a shotty. I use slugs, I know how to spam it effectively and sometimes get kills alone. AAANYWAYS, when pounced, you'll use the pistol to scare him away, hopefully, get up, pick your shotty up and defend yourself with that. If the unga's main weapon is a pistol... well... I wish him good luck.

[CABAL]

Well, I guess the most basic and simple way to measure how the game's balanced is look at the winrates for both sides?..

Do we have this data?

And yes, I realize that there are good and bad ways to balance the game that could both lead to a 50% winrate for each faction.

I don't have the data, ask admemes, most likely ping one on furscord. However it is probably around 60-40 for benos. Mature rate up and lackluster APC contribute to that. Game can be balanced, but usually in that state trough unfun methods, like CAS/OB/Mortar/Tank etc. Nobody besides few marines have fun with that, rest of them and benos are on the unfun end.