Lock and Load

The FAS Alpha Tester's Journal on the FAS Forums has a lot of information about the upcoming release of FAS that isn't posted anywhere else. Some of the most insightful comments about the game comes from U4.

I asked how the old weapons compare to the old favorites. U4 responded "The weapons of le olde FA that we've included in FA:S, in my opinion, have been drastically improved, while still maintaining the "feel" they had. The source engine opened doors for us that were previously welded shut inasfar as balance goes."

He uses the FAMAS as an example, the notorious popular AR of old versions of FA. U4 says that the FAMAS of FAS fills like the FAMAS of the older FA, but "it's hard to pull off a 25-round burst with a face full of buckshot."

U4 also added, "One thing we've noticed in testing is that each map has it's own set of weapons that get used the most...but all it takes is one person to push through and hold out for a little bit, and the whole server ends up having to change up their configs to best suit the new contested territory. It's kind of hard to explain, so I'll just let you await with bated breath."

While this is open to interpretation, it seems that maps could work like this:

Areas of the map are suited for some weapons more than others. Some areas would favor long range weapons, other explosives, other CQC weapons. Players who can keep an area will undoubtedly have other players to switch to that preferred weapon style to counter the player in that area.

For example, one player is sniping a larger open area and other players without long range weapons can't do much against him. So they get different weapons and take them out and hold the area. The next area they get to is very CQC friendly, and their long range weapons aren't as powerful, so switching to CQC weapons would be prudent. In this way, all weapons have a use in many maps.

Of course that is just speculation.

When asked about when the amount of weapons start producing redundancies, U4 said, "I think redundancies aren't really an issue with the amount of flexibility we have...although we can only have so many 5.56 assault rifles with a 30 round magazine and a ROF between 600 and 750 rounds per minute."

U4 also says that they are reaching the limit of weapons that would fit into the "feel" of FAS. He explains this by stating, "I even had to start making weapon tweaking recommendations based off of stuff like weapon weight, barrel length, and even chamber pressures of particular weapons based off of the rounds it would be firing in it's native region."