Originally Posted by
BiTzSam
Many people are forgetting this is an on going game. Meaning there is no sequel. If you want guns to keep being added to the game, stats have to be changed. You can't have 100 guns in the game and expect that stats of older guns aren't changed to maintain balance. Era is not the same game as it was 6 years ago when guns like the BAR were released.
Games part of a series, eg COD/ BATTLEFIELD only last for about a year until the next version comes out where the guns are all completely different in terms of stats, effectively being a rebalance of the games weapon system- eg, the new COD WW2 is effectively the same as the last COD game in terms of gunplay, however weapon balance in WW2 was redone to slow down the TTK (need more bullets to kill people) which is classified as a fairly significant rebalance.
The Destiny series is a good example, looking from Destiny 1 to Destiny 2, Destiny 2 contains almost all the elements of the first game, but they have been completely rehauled/ 'nerfed' down from their Destiny 1 state so that the game would be more balanced.
Era doesn't have the luxury of doing that as there is no Era 2, so balancing changes are done when there is a need. Not only that, because Era is such a long lasting game there have been multiple people in the balancing position, each with different perspectives.
BAR was an overly powerful gun. Significantly more than it needed to be. Back when the BAR was released, it was very early for era, and there weren't that many guns available, especially any guns anywhere near the BARs price point. Meaning there were no comparisons to really make when making the BAR, so the stats were more or less blindly given. Not only that but considering there weren't really any expensive guns, I don't think it was expected that many people would even buy the BAR so it having strong stats wasn't as much of an issue, because only a handful of people really owned it. Flash forward to now, the vast majority of players who actively PK own the BAR. Meaning it's now seen everywhere which is why changes need to be made, because the PK environment now, is not the same as it was when it was released.
When you bought the BAR you were paying for the most effective store available weapon, and that hasn't changed. BAR wasn't the only gun nerfed during the rebalances, many other guns were aswell to ensure that the BAR remained worth its price, by remaining the most effective gun. You might not be able to do as well with it as before because the stats themselves are toned down, but its actual performance in comparison to other guns still remains. Unfortunately because the playerbase is so young, it's very hard for them to understand that. Go look at the communities of other balance heavy games that have an older audience (eg overwatch/csgo/cod/ heroes and generals etc) and you will generally see that the majority are FOR balance and nerfs to ensure the game is fair