Just an idea of mine! Veteran needs some LMGs. Heavy Stubbers are definitely an option, but why stop at that? Ballistic Weapons are great and all, but the Astra Militarum are known for their ENERGY WEAPONS first and foremost.
This niche would be applicable to Hot-shot Volley Guns, what the Scab Gunners use, but they’re difficult to balance with the rest of the current Las Weapons. Therefore, I’ve got a more grounded and lore-friendly alternative in mind…
Support Lascarbines. They’re Lascarbines with Drum-shaped Power Packs. The Tempestus Aquilons have access to a Hot-shot variant:
So how would it work? How does it compare to the current roster of Las Weapons?
Aiming:
The ADS function would be similar to the Ogryn’s Heavy Stubber, but with increased Spread to make up for their increased Ammo efficiency. Support Lascarbines should be focused on Suppression.
Ammo:
Compared to Infantry Lasguns and Recon Lasguns, Support Lascarbines would have increased Magazine Capacity at the cost of reduced Ammo Reserves.
Rate of Fire:
Between that of Infantry Lasguns and Recon Lasguns, with the same applying to their Damage Per Shot.
Reloading:
Support Lascarbines would be subjected to a lengthier Reload than the other Las Weapons in order to give them a drawback to their massive Magazine Capacity.
Special Attack:
To further differentiate them from the other Las Weapons, they’d have neither a Flashlight nor a Shove. Instead, the Special Attack would be a Bash.
Suppression:
This Weapon would be excellent for keeping Enemies down so you and your teammates can advance, move to cover, or retreat.
More of an LMG in functionality. The best term for it’d probably be LSW.
Significantly increased Magazine Capacity and Suppression, but with relevant drawbacks. The lower Rate of Fire comes with an increased Damage Per Shot.
The lower Rate of Fire combined with the aforementioned increased Magazine Capacity means you’ll be able to fire it for an EXTREMELY long time before needing to Reload. Therefore, you’ll need to Reload these Support Lascarbines much less frequently than you would with Infantry Lasguns or Recon Lasguns.
It’d also have a Bash Special instead of just being another Las Weapon with a Flashlight Special! I’m not completely finished fleshing it out, I suppose.
A Lascarbine fitted with a Drum-shaped Power Pack. These do exist in 40K, I was only showing the Tempestus Aquilons’ Hot-shot variant of these Support Lascarbines because they actually have Models.
Hot-shot Weapons just sound like too much of a headache to balance with the current roster of Las Weapons. Therefore, fitting Lascarbines with Drum-shaped Power Packs, which has precedent in 40K, would be a better fit for a Las LMG within Darktide’s context.
One way to make this weapon unique is rate of fire could be contingent on the player’s movement state. Bracing the weapon would reduce the player’s movement speed to near zero but could increase rate of fire dramatically towards the direction of Accatran Mk XII, whereas firing it on the go could lean the other direction with reduced rate of fire.
Alternatively, Veterans using this weapon could “mount” it on crates “cover” (like they already do with other weapons) to get that same higher rate of fire with increased protection from ranged attacks - with slightly better spread reduction from the increased stability of mounting the weapon.
I wouldn’t call this a heavy machine gun the caliber is to low and it isn’t water cooled (not that a mg has to be water cooled to be a hmg but it has to either use “heavy” ammo like .50 or be water cooled) . The gun itself looks to heavy to be a light machine gun or a general purpose machine gun, what it does look like is medium machine gun specifically a Browning 1919.
You severely underestimate the power of Weapon Modification. I probably should’ve said “LSW” instead of LMG, though. I’m trying to keep it simple to read!
But until either Fatshark finds a way to balance Hot-shot Volley Guns with the existing Las Weapons or GW creates a dedicated Las LMG, using Lascarbines with Drum-shaped Power Packs as a LSW is the best lore-friendly option with precedent available to us.
I’ll give you points for the effort, a Las LSW wasn’t something I was expecting to see pitched, that said as neat as this weapon sounds, I can’t say I’d want this over a Hellgun or Volleygun.
As far as balancing such weapons go, I don’t think it’s as tricky as it’s made out to be. Their superior power seems to stem less from raw damage output as much as armor penetration goes from what I’m seeing in the lore, think that can be translated as having similar or slightly higher damage numbers in-game but with built-in rending strong enough to be noticable but not so much as to overshadow the Bolter and Plasma Gun - As a drawback, both guns would incur mobility debuffs and slower draw speeds to account for the backpack you’re presumably lugging around and have them be more of a commitment to use rather than a quick-draw weapon like regular Lasguns. Furthermore Hellgun could be designed as an upgraded generalist with decent-ish auto-fire rates when hipfiring with ADS being semi-auto for head-popping, meanwhile the Volleygun is a pure full-auto suppression machine with more noticable movement penalties while firing (similar to the Flamer) and braced only ADS to account for the damage output it provides.
Still even with these theoretical takes of Hellsguns/Volleyguns being in-game, this Las LSW could still be fun - Kinda like a Las counterpart to the Brauto-guns.
