The problem is that most battles, regardless of which faction is involved, takes place at ~40 meters. With the current mechanics, they're simply too powerful.
Here's what I think they should do (But won't):
Infantry:
- Increase the health of infantry, including shields, by 50%. Killing and dying at the drop of a dime isn't fun. Deaths will still be fairly quick (2 - 4 seconds in most cases), but overall I think it'd improve the balance between different weapons and give infantry a fighting chance against vehicles.
- Increase the head shot damage of all sniper rifles by 50% for one-hit kills.
- Introduce armor piercing rounds. Does very little damage to armored vehicles, but it's better than nothing and gives all classes access to ranged anti-armor weapons. It does less damage to infantry and increases recoil, but travels faster.
- Remove nanoweave armor, or change it to reduce damage against non-armor piercing rounds. Each rank should increase your survivability in some way (IE, one more bullet of damage from light weapons for rank 1, one more bullet from medium weapons at rank 2, etc) and cost a fair sum. With the new health system, this won't be the "must have" suit upgrade, and would be preferred only for specific situations. It may need a buff to make it more useful. If it turns up too powerful, it can decrease movement speed very slightly.
- Damage rework on guns to fit in with the nanoweave survivability scale. Overall gun damage should be increased slightly (10 - 25%) to counter the high TTK brought on by increasing overall health.
- Increase options to get ammo. Supply drops, scavenging, ammo crates in the back of cars... Doesn't matter, just make bullets and rockets more available. This is essential with the increased health.
- Reduce recoil effects of high recoil weapons by 1/5, mid-recoil weapons by 1/6, and low recoil guns by 1/8 so RoF is less awesome compared to high damage. Also, this will make more bullets hit, allowing infantry combat to still be fast.
- Increase the bonuses given by weapon mods, especially recoil reducing ones. Allow most guns to carry most mods and their improved versions (Especially scopes). If a weapon can't use a mod, it should have a good in-game reason. If I can have a laser sight, I should be able to get the advanced laser, too.
- Remove flinching, reduce it significantly, or have the degree of the flinch be based on the damage of the weapon hitting you (Probably best if we don't want Sniper Rifles dominating combat). In the final case, the current degree of the flinch would be a shot from a sniper rifle. You're a biologically engineered clone, you don't need pain.
- Increase the magazine size for all carbines and assault rifles that do not have 40-round magazines by 5.
- Give all guns with low-capacity magazines and low damage, such as sniper rifles, scout rifles, and high RoF variants, an extra magazine or two. This will make them more feasible in extended combat, especially with the higher health.
- Increase the minimum damage drop-off distance to vary from weapon to weapon. Pistols drop off at 10 meters, SMGs at 15, carbines at 20, ARs at 30, LMGs at 35, Semi-Auto Rifles at 50, and Sniper Rifles stay the same (No damage drop-off). Bullet height should also take longer to drop, depending on the weapon. This will make long range combat more feasible with the increased health.
- Flak Canon MANA turret for engineers.
- Flak Canon for Heavy Assaults. Takes up the Launcher spot.
- Decrease Flak Canon damage by 1/4 or so.
- Two different kinds of lock-on ammunition for launchers: One with a fast lock-on time but slow missile speed, the other with a slow lock-on time by fast missile speed.
- Soft Point ammunition should do increased damage to infantry instead of increasing the damage drop off range by a negligible amount.
Vehicles:
- Drop all vehicle projectile explosive radii by 1/2. You should actually have to aim, rather than just point your turret in the general direction of your target.
- Increase direct explosion damage to the point where it can handle the new infantry health. (IE, you should die if you eat a rocket or step on a mine.)
- Drop the health of all aircraft by 1/4 or so. Allow small arms fire to damage Libs and Gals. They're planes, not tanks. They should not be able to take more hits than a tank.
- Heavy Armor cert for aircraft, allowing you to ignore small arms fire, but slowing your aircraft significantly.
- Reduce the front armor of the Magrider to be on par with its side armor.
- Decrease Flak Canon damage by 1/4 or so.
Buildings and Bases:
- Put a lot more buildings in and around bases. It should feel less spartan and minimal than it is now.
- Larger buildings. More variety. Make them feel like they had a purpose before the war.
- Pretend the people who made the bases were aware that someone invented aircraft and that people in their buildings die when bombed by things above them.
- Place ammo stations around the base. They don't allow you to change kits, but you can resupply from them.
- More cover for infantry, especially from vehicles and aircraft.
- Decrease Flak Canon damage by 1/4 or so.
Empire Specific:
- Decrease the CoF on NC and TR guns slightly.
- Decrease damage drop off for non-VS guns. (Exception below.)
- Introduce two new, VS specific ammo types: Plasma Beam and Laser Bolt. Both are unlocked from the start for all weapons (Except Sniper Rifles, which remain exactly as they are: The same as all other factions), and one must always be equipped. Plasma Shot is functionally similar to other factions' standard ammunition: It is affected by bullet drop, is less affected by damage drop-off, and keeps the current recoil that VS weapons have. Laser Bolt rounds are the no-drop off bullets, with some small differences: They travel slightly faster, but are more affected by damage drop-off and have increased recoil. Unlocking a new ammo type (Like Armor Piercing) will unlock both Plasma and Laser variants.
- Increase Lasher Damage by 50%. Have two special Lasher ammo varients: Focused and Explosive. Focused ammo deals increased direct hit damage, while explosive ammo deals more splash damage and has a larger blast radius.
Gobal:
- Supply drops, as mentioned above.
- Satellite Scans. Spend some resources for a quick scan of the local area. Useful for finding hidden infantry.
TL;DR: Buff infantry significantly, make VS guns more unique rather than OP, and nerf aircraft slightly.