This whole discussion is rather interesting, I think, because what we have is basically a microscopic (and more eloquent) version of the debate storm that has been raging on the official forums for over a month.
On one side, we have the NC who believe they're being shafted as far as game balance is concerned, and the TR, who doesn't think that they're being shafted as heavily, but still believes that the VS is overpowered. On the other side, we have VS, who believes that there is balance, and that the game is mostly fine, and that most problems is not faction balance but problems that plague the entire game.
When people present theoretical, hard-evidence facts, such as datamined weapon stats, and argue that VS is OP or VS is fine, the other side says that hard data doesn't have any real relevance in real situations. On the other hand, people present anecdotal evidence, which by nature includes all variables of a real situation, then the other side claims that anecdotal evidence is useless.
I think this is a shame, since factual data does indeed not give the full picture of reality, and a piece of anecdotal evidence is in itself not very relevant but factual data provides the basis for the game reality, and a lot of anecdotal evidence becomes statistics. If people could just stop looking at each piece of evidence by itself and instead try to piece together a coherent picture we would actually make some progress in this discussion instead of constantly going over the same tired arguments.
Now, I'm not going to claim that I'm unbiased in this, I've thought multiple times (mostly while losing badly ingame
) that the NC is shafted in so many ways. It's a very easy conclusion to reach when being frustrated from losing, but not one that is very constructive.
My personal belief is that vanguard/prowler/lightning turrets need to be stabilised so that they can accurately fire on the move, like magriders and that the flinching system for infantry should be reworked since it makes high-RoF weapons far better than others in close combat. Maybe just remove it altogether for hits on the shield and keep it (perhaps with reduced intensity) on health hits or something. After all, the shield is designed to absorb bullet hits, right? Why would you flinch when your magic future forcefield gets shot? Also give the Reaver some actually useful bonus and fix its crosshair. Right now it's only a larger, less manoeuvrable and slightly slower scythe, or a much larger, slower mosquito with slightly higher max afterburner speed. The afterburner acceleration was even nerfed, so that you reach that higher max afterburner speed for a very short time.