Only skimmed the posts, so these may have been covered.
I had in my mind that M60 would be walk only and the damage increased - to test the concept of a stronger weapon and no walk.
I still think the ultimate way to balance BG vs bursting smalls is to have some setup time. Say it takes 3 or 4 seconds standing still before a big gun can fire and no time for an assualt rifle. Then you can pop round a corner and burst with ARs but not with heavy machine guns ... but BG would ultimately be the better dps.
I cant believe it took 4 pages for this to be posted.
Now I didn't play cbt at all and have no idea about any changes, but it really sounds like something that could be implemented in a certain way.
My first guess would be:
Minigun forces you to walk so it has to be kept in 2nd slot. The 3ap from having to equip it would be too harsh. Also, the hit ratio in a 1hex burst should not be 100% of the burst but more like 60-80, would need some calculating to get a decent number there.
The Idea is that an avenger deals massive damage, but the enemy has a bit of time to react to it. In Reno or in the BH alleys it could mean life or death, especially with all the lagging folk from overseas.
Apart from that, an SG guy should not only be able to perfectly pop out from behing cover to instantly unleash his burst, but he can also kill minigunners in a 1hex battle.
Now you could say that even when walking, a minigunner could still walk one hex around the corner, shoot and walk back just as fast as if he ran. But if he gets hit by a rocket and is pushed out in the open, he loses valuable time that will most probably mean his death.
I think something along the line of that would create 2 types of bursters, offensive and defensive one. I don't mind if the damage of the avenger is buffed even more if you as a team can only afford to have one or two of them in your strategy as you need places to put them.
And one semi-related comment about the sg-bg issue, justifying the miniguns dominance through its higher maintenance cost (that no member of any major gang cared for anyway): Why not introduce xl70/g11 and just make it more expensive than avenger. There's no reason that bg's have to be mroe expensive than sg by definition, right?
