more incentive to play support

[topaz sail]

my ass is running out of ammo and like only one out of ten squads has a support and its never mine

[willow trout]

Think giving support more then just lmg might make people play it more but idk if that going to break balance since support are basically slow and heavy tank style

[hushed valley]

Yet they are not tanky. You can take 1-3 bullets per respawn, and that's all. Speed is much more valuable than that.

[topaz sail]

im fine with lmgs but like more speed would be nice

more incentive to give ppl ammo and drop ur boxes

[willow trout]

Just using the word tsnky since they get access to heavy armor and helmet at base level, ik it don't make u super tanky but it something (stop the first sniper from 1 shooting u

Cool thing I found out is that support can instantly build sandbags and boxes, thought I guess noone really talk about that part 😦

[quick crow]

Ive been mainly playing Support since i started and my biggest gripe is weapon selection. You have 1 weapon choice until level 20(which leaves you with 2 options until Rank 50, then 1 last option at Rank 100) meanwhile Assault, Engi, Medic, and Leader have far more selection by then and overall weapon selection leaves support with only 4 total options whereas other classes get far more diversity. Maybe give Support PDWs/Carbines as well? Or add Shotguns and give those to Support maybe?

Ive been trying to like the L86A1 but i just dont really care for it and only am using it because i like giving out ammo.
It may also help if you could atleast replenish 1 or 2 thrown away mags per ammo box, otherwise you are kinda screwed if you throw mags away. Maybe 1 mag from small ammo box, 2-3 from heavy box but require you to use points to obtain them seperately?

[peak kraken]

Testing stuff out in the firing range and the M249 feels like the best support gun currently IMO. Makes me worry that after level 20 as a support main I might have no future weapons unlocks to look forward too...

[quick crow]

Damn, i was looking forward to the MG36 since i love the look of the gun so this worries me. I also am saddened that the MG36 doesnt have the Carry Handle optic like the IRL version. Atleast didnt see it in Practice range.

[willow trout]

Best thing I try to do is to just hop class so I won't tied myself down to a small arsenal

Tho I think the best thing to do is to atleast give support 1 more weapon type

[peak kraken]

I'm not entirely sure why it doesn't similar access to that of medic

they're both support roles

but I guess support is tankier as a class

[quick crow]

AR class alone is 12 guns compared to Support's measly 4 counting BOTH weapon classes :(

[peak kraken]

I mean we only just got 4 weapons

[quick crow]

I havent really played the Playtest so im unsure the differences in my defense xd

I dont really see it an issue if Support got either PDW or Carbine, even both tbh

[peak kraken]

in the playtest we only had the L86 and the M249

[quick crow]

Oh damn

[peak kraken]

I want to say we had access to other weapon classes but I might be tripping

[quick crow]

One other thing pertaining to Support, what are the differences between Ammo Boxes? I never really noticed

[peak kraken]

I actually dont know

I just use the big ones lmao

Big ones probably have more ammo in them as it is limited

[quick crow]

I just use the big one since it was defaulted to it. Only gripe with it i have is they dont resupply mags tossed away, even if it was 1 or 2 of them. Sometimes i forget to pick up tossed mags x.x

[barren nymph]

This is the only reason i play support

well that and the cosmetic armor

i just use the building to close off routes as the enemy is pushing and then chuck my 4 nades over the wall, plop down a ammo pack and chuck more nades

[sage valve]

Support needs other gadgets considering ammo is nice, its only good if your squad is CRUSHING the enemy, otherwise your just a dude with BIG ASS GUN and in most cases, you die cause of it. Maybe having a greater emphasis in providing armor replenishment or even extra plates for your teammates, something that REALLY contributes to the squad in a MEANINGFUL way.

[void mural]

Give them some GPMG's like the MG3 and M240B

[hushed valley]

Just wait man, few major patches

PKM and its chinese copy also are in the works

[loud niche]

More XP for resupplying would be nice. As a medic I rack up XP

[willow trout]

If people can see ammo boxes through walls this would help, feel like unless I'm in a choke point it hard to find a good spot to place down ammo

Or if someone just ask for ammo which feel rare in my case

[loud niche]

I just played support yesterday for the first time and I think being able to pick up your ammo box like medics can pick up their med kit would be nice. Also getting XP for dropping down cover to help teammates in hectic areas

Maybe slightly more xp for non medic classes reviving teammates because of the extended time?

More weapons would be amazing also

I enjoyed support. I did pretty well with it. The instant building is really nice too

[willow trout]

Now thinking about it if support can see if people low on ammo like other bf like game this would also help the class

[loud niche]

Yes!

I usually have to ask a group if they are low, because if I drop the box I cannot pick it back up either

[waxen plover]

IIRC there was a “Suppression Assist” mechanic in BF1 to incentivize suppressing fire in the support class, although it was definitely seen as the participation medal of the game lol

[twilit island]

Just ask around if anyone has an ammo box, the assault class has a small one and I think most people take that

[covert tinsel]

Support needs only two changes and it'll be infinitely better. Replace their grenades with a grenade launcher so that they can continue their role of medium range suppression, and make the LMG's not absolutely ass at anything above 60 meters by adjusting the recoil to not be stratospheric if they're ads. Currently LMG's are practically unusable if you're using any of the medium range scopes.

[topaz sail]

i use medium range scopes with the m249 and its not terrible

[covert tinsel]

its fine when you're using it relatively close, but try it at any proper distance and you end up spending more time fighting to stay on target than actually aiming

[waxen plover]

Seems like support incentives are on the short list per the dev stream. More support-only buildable structures are coming, and easier ammo supply ideas were floated

I.e. “throwing” ammo at teammates, I’m thinking akin to BF1/BF5

[manic garden]

The only time people need ammo is when they're camping a rally due to the very short lifespan of players (if you're not medic). Support can also be very good at defense with his structures, but the game currently doesn't reward you for defending a point. You can fortify an entire building and hold a point the entire match and still get less xp compared to just throwing yourself into the zerg rush. He should definitely be the class that can supply armor for people, but maybe its a choice so you either give everyone ammo or armor (the armor box can even replace the small ammo box since I believe its just a worse ammo box with no upside rn).

However I think a larger issue is that an entire class of weapons exclusive to him are useless:

LMG's currently serve no purpose and are just worse AR's with big mags. Why would I use a gun that has less damage and has more recoil when fights don't even last long enough for the supposed positive of a big mag size to matter? Support has literally zero reason not to use the G36C or L86A1 when they offer higher damage and can also be easily used for long range engagements. You can even add an extended mag making LMG's even more questionable.

What they should do is have limited penetration so Support can actually support his team when it comes to crowds and would at least allow a different option instead of just grenade spamming (which is unfortunately one of the best ways to play support currently). This would at least give LMG's a useful identity, but would still force him to stay with the team since in 1v1 scenarios you still get out gunned by most other weapons (definitely not infinite penetration though, somewhere around 1-2 players per bullet). So if a support wants to flank he uses his AR's, but if he wants to stay with the team he would use an LMG. Let the player have a playstyle choice with the weapons like Medics have with SMG's and AR's.

[waxen plover]

Agree entirely. Historically I gravitate to a “support” class in similar games, and on top of the special equipment changes I’m definitely in agreement the weapons probably need a slight change too. Another option would be some kind of suppression while using LMGs, I have heard there is a suppression mechanic in the game, but I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it. Would certainly help with the death loop in frontline and hopefully would convince people to stop throwing themselves in the middle of a firefight

[plush violet]

request a drop resupply box, and shoot its parachute, that way it drops faster

[teal merlin]

currently have 8 hours logged on support with 350+ kills on the M249, my main complaints with support come from the fact the bipod mechanic is inconsistent and the recoil on any medium-range target means when the bipod randomly decides to stop working you will immediately realize when 3 shots send you to the stratosphere

i usually feel forced to place sandbags because its the only way i can semi-consistently get the bipod to trigger and even then it can be iffy on hills

other than just proning

[topaz sail]

agreed bipod is very annoying to use

[honest crown]

First things first, the ammo boxes need to be bigger, I can't find them when I need it, and maybe change how small ammo box work, I want to resupply allies at further distances

[misty swift]

I think Support needs more gadgets that are relevant during the fight imo

It currently gets the same universal gadgets like C4 and claymores like Assault

But like

Why run Support for that when you can just play assault?

Literally only reason to run Support is for ammo rn and lmgs and that's it

[dreamy plover]

I think small ammo box should probably be replaced with either armor box or armor repair kit. Or a combination of both that works similar to medic's medic kit. So a support can slowly repair armor of injured people, or toss down armor box for everyone to resupply armor, and the tradeoff for this is not being able to take the boxes full of ammo - and this would discourage the other issue support has right now of encouraging people to spam grenades everywhere because you get 20 of them.

[gusty sphinx]

There is plenty of incentive currently. Just most supports are bad.

[brazen urchin]

I would honestly like a little flag for support and medic boxes to make them more visible.

[brazen urchin]

Suppressing fire tho. The biggest issue facing machine guns in most team shooters is that everyone can get sniper rifles and be a perfect shot right away, which is very much not the case irl. Whereas irl the machine guns can kinda just pick a direction and lock down whole swaths in front of them, putting down drastically more lead than ARs can, and it's pretty unlikely that anyone will land a perfect headshot the second they start shooting.

As for "make supports cool again; i'd like to see a flame thrower for clearing bunkers. Doesn't have to do much damage, just splash around corners to discourage people from corner camping endlessly. A mortar could also be cool. Set it up like the grenades and give it a total damage cap and a damage cap per player, so it could be used to harass and soften up groups of players w/o being overwhelming. 40mm grenade launcher would also be neat. For buildables - search light in visible and ir spectrum, concertina wire to slow + bleed infantry until it's removed with explosives or by engineers, tank traps to slow vehicles. Machine gun nest buildable with a cut out at the right place to deploy your bipod.

Anti-Materiel rifle might be interesting, but that would probably be better for engineer since anti-vehicle is their thing. Maybe a flare gun/smoke launcher gadget for marking targets? Idk if anyone would use it. We used them a lot in ARMA. Maybe vehicle ammo resupply in the field? Like a box that would hold 10-24% of the vehicle's ammo? Or a buildable vehicle ammo depot of some kind?

[manic garden]

I've played a lot of Insurgency: Sandstorm which has suppression mechanics where you move slower and get blurry vision when suppressed, and I mean slow. The difference is you already don't move fast in Insurgency: Sandstorm compared to Battlebit, where most classes are olympic runners with how fast they can move. Going that fast to a slow crawl suddenly would be VERY jarring for players.

[brazen urchin]

Have it slow them by 15-25% of whatever there current speed is, then, and cap it at the speed supports run by default. That'd be a significant de-buff without being entirely different from normal movement.

[manic garden]

Could work and be something tweaked occasionally, if we don't get a way to resupply armor he should still get something more for LMG's because even pre-firing you still lose to most AR's.

[hollow mantle]

i feel like every class should get access to assault rifles and then have 1 or 2 specialized weapon classes like lmg, shotgun, sniper rifle, pdw, smg etc

[covert tinsel]

Honestly if lmg's are gonna be 'balanced' around rediculous recoil and inaccurate fire, snipers should have to deal with wind conditions when making shots.

And AR's should have similar recoil balancing to LMGS

[sly mesa]

make it where for can click on a support to get ammo rather then them droping ammo

[gritty lintel]

For the love of god just make the class run faster and take away some of the armor, im so pissed that I have to run literally everywhere slower then the rest of my teammates

[teal merlin]

anti support psyop

no real support main would want to lose their sniper protection

surviving an smg fraglord panic magdumping you and turning around to dumpster them with hipfire m249 is a powerful feeling

[digital lintel]

supports get armour right

or is that assault

[spice aurora]

I think you should be able to remove the armor on the class to move faster with lmgs

[willow trout]

But u can?

I'm level 80 or so and u can run normal helmet and armor if u choice to, think backbag is the only thing u can't downgrade from big > normal

[willow trout]

And yeah support the only class that have access to the best armor in the game, the exo armor+helmet, don't know the top of my head what assault get (might be heavy all the way down to light/no armor)

[brazen urchin]

I would like to have LMGs be in a position where they can reliably provide area fire to force people to get down, while doing enough suppression or aimpunch that people can't quick-scope coming around a corner and reliably annihilate the gunner before he goes down.

[brazen urchin]

Go in to your character menu and equip lighter armor. You can go all the way down to regular armor if you want.

[manic garden]

I would also be fine with that, but the LMG's would just need a heavier sound so people know the bullet fire is different. I just didn't know what the stats were like before Early Access since apparently it was nerfed in some fashion, but I can't find anything about the specifics.

[gritty lintel]

I'm aware of that, but it still doesn't take away the slowness of the gun.

[sharp drum]

To be air

Fair

If people were able to get score for giving ammo to players i think ammo pack would be placed down more often

[dreamy plover]

worth noting that because of genius programming "big" backpack is lighter than "normal" backpack

[willow trout]

Wtf really lol

[willow trout]

Things is u do get points when people take ammo from your ammobox

[balmy void]

I really enjoy playing support and turning a point into mine-central and really turtling down. Easily my favorite class because it's waaay more defensive

[sharp drum]

No

Same way you dont get score for throwing medkits down

[willow trout]

Wym no? U get "resupply" point when people collect ammo from your ammo box, have u never notice?

[teal merlin]

yeah you get like 40 points per resupply they do

obviously you need to place it down at a chokepoint or else they'll never get touched because most people die before ammo becomes an issue

[young sparrow]

A few more defensive tools would be nice, currently defending is pretty hard compared to attacking
Yet again I'm not the most experienced.

[waxen plover]

Throwing down the insta-build structures as support is extremely useful defense wise. Wish we would see some kind of points system for this, like maybe if teammates get a kill within “x” meters of barrier you get a structure assist or something

[sharp drum]

You dont gain any score for it

Resupply point =/= score

[willow trout]

Do u even play support, trying not to be rude but u can get score/points from teammate getting ammo, if that wasn't the chance then support really would be a pointless in term of getting xp

[sharp drum]

I play support yes

You dont get score from supplying ammo to others

Asked mods about it too

If it was supposed to be a thing or a bug

They said its supposed to be a thing

[short flower]

Yes, you do.

[sharp drum]

Recent thing?

Because i asked about it few days ago and i was told that its not a thing yet

[short flower]

Nope, it's been like that before launch.

[sharp drum]

And i havent gotten any score for resupplies

I know i was resupplying too

Dropped an ammo box for my teammate

Who asked for ammo

[short flower]

Must be bugged for you then.
You dropping small or big?

[sharp drum]

Big

[short flower]

Strange, I've never got issues dropping big.
I've never tried small so I can't attest to that

[sharp drum]

When i asked about it if its a bug or not then admins told me that you dont get score from it

[short flower]

Weird.
Maybe it's just not adding to the scoreboard.

[sharp drum]

Thats what i mean yeah

Like you get score for kills and heals/revives etc etc

That score

[willow trout]

I'm 1000% sure u get score from resupply unless the 60+ I see spam 5 times is just imaginary points the game spitting out

[sharp drum]

People will play medic because its easier for xp gain and is more rewarding to play

If they made support rewarding/as rewarding to play too im sure more people would play support

[short flower]

As long as you're getting experience points for resupplying, it doesn't matter too much that it's not on the scoreboard.

[sharp drum]

Well yes but i havent gained xp from resupplies

Idk if its a bug or not at this point

Just googled looks like you do get xp for resupplies

Mustve been bugged for me then

[lunar urchin]

Just copy planetside and have enemies who shoot at your structures give you assists for providing cover.

[teal merlin]

i like the idea of cover assists but that would 100% just turn into chokepoints being xp farms for supports/medics and probably notification spam as you get 20 +5 'cover assist'

[glacial cloak]

getting xp for building structures, suppression mechanics/bonus, making the bipod work would be fucking amazing

[topaz sail]

ii feel like that would be a good incentive for actually using the support's ability to build structures instantly?

[lunar urchin]

To limit spam it can be made to provide the assist/exp on enemy death. Like when they shoot your structure, they get flagged for the assist. When they die, you cash in on that exp. That way it also wouldn't scale with the amount of shots fired at your sandbag, which is the most obvious potential problem.

It also goes without saying that chokepoints are already xp farms for medics (and, to a much lesser degree, supports) as is.

[jagged tangle]

I think they should add a class based leveling system to where you gain more rank for 1 class but still get levels for other classes to get rid of the idea of having to max out each class and an accumulative rank of 200 instead of straight up rank 200

[nimble birch]

Unless it's already been suggested, should there be a bonus granted when a squad has one of every class in it? Some sort of incentive. Maybe an XP booster.

[proven cliff]

Support feels not tanky enough. Exo armor reduces speed, which is vital, so I think a buff to the armor is in order. It should feel like you are a heavy obstacle for the enemy to get through.

[frail nebula]

Why would you play a support if you can play a medic

I think that explains it

Support only has 4 weapons

The resupply mechanic is annoying

Without self heal its also very hard for you to hunker down and use your lmg

Its not that theres not enough incentive to play support

Its just too much incentive to play medic

[willow trout]

everything outside of sniper is just more incentive to play medic

[hollow echo]

I've put 12 hours into playing support.
My honest opinion is that its a useless class
-Instabuild of sandbags is cool, but honestly not that useful
-supplying ammo boxes is cool if you want to spam grenades, but players rarely use them because most people are playing fast and loose, knowing they will likely die before ammo runs out

• The light support guns are entirely outclassed by assault rifles
• The light machine guns are entirely outclassed by assault rifles. The only advantage is 100 round magazine, which is useless without a suppression mechanic in the game.
• The only redeeming feature would be a WORKING bipod, that means support players that sacrifice movement gameplay for hunkering down and holding firing lanes with HEAVILY reduced recoil would be enough reason to play support, but as it is, the bipod is pointless and provides no tangible benefit

I know SgtOkiDoki plans to add barbed wire, but this will not be enough to make this class worth playing. The actual gameplay of support needs something added, some reason to play with.

At this point, I'd rather the support class just have access to other classes of guns, like assault rifles. I don't plan on revisiting this class unless it has a serious overhaul in its design, not just added content like wire

[topaz sail]

also more bandages and revive time buff for support would be nice

if its called support it should support with more than just ammo!

[modest glade]

Supports should be able to build without being confined to squad points which is limited based on the game mode. Support's special ability is worthless in CTF since you don't get squad points.

[novel trout]

Not just CTF, any situation where your squad doesn't have a lot of points will put support at a disadvantage, which is why I had an idea to give support 50 free squad points each life to use.
Of course, this is just one of multiple shortcomings support has.

[modest glade]

If we keep to the squad point system, supports should have their own pool of points to pull from instead of dipping into the team's.

I would rather the support have a reserve of structures or objects they can place without needing to spend points.

[random flax]

Been thinking about this a bit. Not just applicable to support but maybe a way to buff some classes more than others through a new feature: a passive "ultimate"?

Every class has a progress bar off the side/bottom of their screen that fills linearly with points. Once the threshold has been met (idk every 5k, 10k, 15k points? maybe depends on class) you get your ultimate proc automatically. For medic it could be a self rez every 10k or 20k points, so you get like 3 per game. For support, it could be "resupply X% of ammo/utilities for all allies within X radius"

So give all classes the passive ult, but make the most uses classes (medic) underwhelming but still useful, and make the less used classes more enticing?

[normal dove]

Agreed, IMO the bipod should be a toggle that "sticks" you to a given surface until you release it or walk away from it. I would also add that even when the bipod is properly engaged, I feel it doesn't do enough to justify all the other downsides.

I'm not a fan of suppression mechanics because they feel tacked on, but I think that if bipod LMGs where laser-accurate, then holding a steady stream of fire against e.g. someone hiding behind a tree would actually suppress them simply due to the fact that they would know you WILL hit them if they poke their head out.

[random flax]

@normal dove whatre you confused on

[sinful lantern]

Support should have the ability to repair armor. Currently when exo armor is removed, you can't repair armor back, but still have the really slow ADS and move speed, even without the armor.

[limpid violet]

that last part proposes an interesting idea: increasing movement speed proportional to how much armor you've lost and shouldn't be weighing you down anymore

[modern stream]

Giving Support (and Leader and Assault) access to a certain kind of close range weapon that isnt in the game currently would be a good alternative later down the line in development.

[willow trout]

Was mostly talking about AR for support, but it not like armor is making them too good to use other weapons, look at Engineer, they have heavy armor (same as assault) and basically access to all the weapons but 2 but isn't getting outplayed by number to medic

[zinc dagger]

My biggest recommendation to improve the support class would be to massively buff bipods. Currently using anything but a red dot is borderline impossible, and even then accuracy is so poor that getting kills with a bipod-equipped LMG while posted up feels more accidental than intentional. It seems like a fair amount of the horizontal recoil is reduced, but the vertical recoil is so bad that it genuinely feels more controllable to use a foregrip rather than a deployed bipod.

Supports are extremly slow moving, but their ability to quickly fortify an area should lead to them naturally falling into an overwatch role, but the fact that bipods work so poorly means that it is impossible to fulfil this role, as the poor conrollability of the weapon prevents them from laying down effective covering fire. Reducing the amount of vertical and horizontal recoil to almost zero would help enormously with that.

While there are concerns that a laser-beam style LMG sounds overpowered; Snipers are perfectly designed to deal with this style of threat: Bipod users are required to be stationary, and that plays perfectly into how snipers can actively contribute to an advancement. In addition, smoke grenades and flanking are both extremely powerful tools that can be used to great effect in countering a bipodded LMG.

TLDR: A Bipodded LMG should have almost zero recoil and be able to annihilate anyone dumb enough to charge through its line of fire. Snipers, smokes, and flanking are easy ways to deal with an LMG since it has to be stationary.

[sinful lantern]

I love the support class,

-I think resupplying friendlies should give more XP

-A way to right click and force resupply friendlies (we’re letting medics give morphine to anyone they want anyway)

-More guns for us please (: something faster like smg and assault rifle

-A tool or armor kit to slowly repair armor? Currently maybe the first kill your armor gets shot off, and the slowness of aim and movement reduction stay for the next battle, all the slowness and none of the benefit

-Some kind of negative recoil, like the longer I fire my lmg the less recoil I get? Could add spice to the class. Maybe could even tie it to heavier support armor giving more stability like exo

-a mini gun 😄

[uneven solstice]

As someone who played only for 30 hours in game in general and 30 of these is on support, i wish m249 bipod was at least like in Day of Defeat (snapping to the place with limited angle) or much bigger icon with much bigger margin of placement, also almost every window is unsuitable for bipods, i carry with me tactical recon friend with pickaxe so he can make holes in walls for me. Also considering how unflexible bipod gameplay is in general, it feels pretty weak as attachment.

On that note, i still like the gameplay loop of support with all the instant barricade placement, ability to have heavy ammo pack and extra armour, looking forward to see more weapons in arsenal and structures for him for sure. Maybe give him ability to carry PDWs or hopefully balanced SMGs as secondary weapons or when we eventually get shotguns to carry them in secondary as well?

Or when ammo belts arrive swap secondary for extra amount of belt length

[normal dove]

I like the idea of an expanded arsenal + stability-improving armor to really sell the role of a walking killing machine. To keep it balanced, full exo helmet could block scopes from being used, so playing a fully armored support would be more akin to a CoD juggernaut, someone you don't want to stumble into face-to-face.

[uneven solstice]

Wow, i only now realised you can see the dots where your bipods are placed

[supple snow]

more hp less speed

[hushed valley]

Seems like a big nerf

LMAO

To alredy underperforming class too

[charred axle]

The devs said “we don’t wanna add shotguns, they are hard to balance effectively in game”

I do not disagree (look up cod, and insurgency, then see what I mean)