TCS-4 black, Aril Quicksilver core, pack and helmet, Lumin V w/3X, light and suppressor, 6 batteries, multi tool, Curelife, FSK8, 2 grenades
Very fast w/ good carry but needs concealment, cover and constant motion to evade; and memorize CureLife colors. Drop pack to FSK8. (CIG does not list the weight of backpacks and the CureLife, but the above fit out is just over the 15kg line, so dropping your pack temporarily will indeed push you into 100% move rate. Dropping your pack should be a common preparation for any serious firefight.)
To reiterate some points from a couple years ago:
a) Your weight is independent of what is stored in your pack, so you should carry as large a capacity pack as possible. Hence the Aril above. Keep your multi-tool in your pack. When looting, collect weapon attachments early and place in pack since they are high value. Collect weapons and armor late since they fill a pack or hang outside and thus contribute to carried weight. You should not carry a second, third or fourth weapon (excepting knives) until the area is cleared.
b) Your speed is reduced by your weight in 5 steps, looking like this:
Equipped Weight/ Speed Modifier
0–14 kg………….100% (No Penalty)
15–24 kg………….95% (Minor Penalty)
25–34 kg………….90% (Moderate Penalty)
35–44 kg………….85% (Significant Penalty)
45+ kg………………80% (Major Penalty)
Additionally note that most NPCs generally cannot hit targets moving with only a moderate penalty or less, so there is a huge advantage to keeping your weight under 35kg, and keeping your carried weight below 25kg will help you avoid fire from the better NPCs. Players have a very hard time hitting opponents with no movement penalty (<15kg). Combat was very deliberately designed this way so take heed.
Missions like the 890 Jump where players are funneled into a doorway in front of 3 NPCs have shown conclusively that evasion trumps heavy armor. You need to be able to jump into a doorway, throw a grenade and jump away. Standing in the doorway will get you shot.
In weapons rankings, players seldom note that heavier weapons point more slowly, and that time to first hit is much more important than time to kill since you cannot shoot while you are being shot. Even less often players esteem light weapons for their contribution to movement, so LMGs are often rated much higher than should be. If you get shot, you are doing something wrong. A lot of the YT vids from SC rating weapons, etc. clearly demonstrate the people making them do not know how to avoid being shot. Don’t take their advise. All the best FPS gamers dress light and move fast.
When designing a full fire team, a heavily armored guy with an LMG makes sense because it adds the ability to lay down inaccurate suppressive fire, to fix the enemy in place, and prevent them from maneuvering while the rest of the team maneuvers. It is not in general a good idea for an individual combatant to sacrifice maneuverability for inaccurate, suppressive fire. Suppressive fire works best when enabling team members to maneuver. The Demeco does not kill any faster than the Lumin or Gallant. It just fires twice as many shots between reloads, weighs more, slows you down, and requires you to carry more ammo.
CIG says they plan to introduce varied movement speed and stamina based upon physical conditioning, so in the future players who start their day with a run may find they can carry more and get shot less. Skills will also level so, if you want to reliably perform lethal takedowns, you will want to practice them.
Finally, we are on the cusp of seeing personal shields and radar introduced to the game. These will change everything. Until we know their capabilities, specs like weight and duration, work-around, etc. there’s no way to say how they will affect combat except to note personal shields will thwart energy weapons. So there’s that. This represents a huge nerf to energy weapons so probably we should expect some sort of buff, like returning the Gallant and Lumin V to 60 rounds/battery and the Demeco to perhaps 150.
Word is, personal radar only picks up people wearing electronics, so perhaps we’ll see ninja knife fights become more a thing.
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