Disclaimer: I'm not a gun nut and acknowledge this may have little to do with real life. However, for game play, I thought this might be worth considering:
LMGs (as I understand them) are designed as a support weapon for suppression and area denial.
In Insurgency, they seem to be used more as automatic battle rifles with huge ammo-boxes. To compensate for this, they have been given very large recoil in an attempt to balance them vs. battle rifles.
To encourage their use in a support role, perhaps consider:
- ONLY let them ADS if the bipod is deployed.
- Decrease their recoil (they're heavy/stable guns, no?).
- Increase their suppression.
- Increase their penetration.
I can hear the objections to increased RNG/suppression already Fair enough, but I don't have that particular issue. I think suppression isn't rewarding misses as much as it is a tactical tool.
The idea is that:
- Once set up, LMGs become laser death machines but at the cost of manoeuvrability.
- If you tote them around, they can still suppress and spray down an area like a fire hose, but aren't good for precision work.
- Tracer rounds become really useful as you could walk your rounds on target even when compensating for hip-fire sway.
This would give LMGs a very distinct role and encourage a support style of play. They'd be most effective when setup at key positions rather than say clearing a house where smaller guns with greater mobility would be advantageous (thus making your sidearm more useful than just a backup).
Some of you who have read my other suggestions may see a trend here: I find myself looking for tweaked gun mechanics that help differentiate between different classes of weapons beyond recoil/penetration. Having greater differences in utility I think adds a lot and makes choosing between them more interesting.
As always, just my 2ยข