This post is intended to create a dialogue/discussion around the recent changes to the overweight mechanic. I am attempting to consider this from an unbiased perspective and my thoughts on the matter are speculative.
The most recent patch tweaked the minimum weight necessary to achieve the 'overweight' status effect from 40 kg to 35 kg, reducing the amount of loot and/or gear you can bring in before you begin to feel the effects of the gear.
A few thoughts:
The lower initial weight makes it difficult to bring in top end gear. A Zhuk-6a, Altyn, RPK, D3CRX Rig, Attack 2 + meds/mags puts you around 30kg, only 5 kg short of achieving the overweight status. Does this result in fewer high tier kits being ran? Tangentially, does this shift encourage PMCs to extract sooner?
BSG could be intending for you to get your gear back from insurance more frequently – a change that would make the game more friendly for newer players. With the weight changes, you're less likely to take another players gear as being overweight for most of the raid is undesirable.
This may be a push towards squad oriented gameplay – an element BSG has noted they want to implement in the past. Taking in heavier gear may allow tank/support/mule roles to develop and reduce the "one-man-army" effect.
What is a reasonable amount of "loot" a player should expect to bring out? While it's unrealistic to carry out a backpack full of guns and armor, the current changes bring you close to being overweight with a "standard" higher tier kit. With the kit mentioned above, a half full trizip of mid tier barter items can put you overweight fairly quickly. Add in a second gun and an extra piece of gear from loot (i.e. helmet) and you're easily overweight.
A heavier tier 5 kit (Altyn, Gen4 Full, Gun, D3CRX Rig, 6SH118 Raid Backpack + meds/nades/mags) puts you at 40kg, starting the raid with the overweight status.
What have your experiences been with the new overweight changes? Do you feel they were necessary? How do you expect these changes to impact the flow of the gameplay?
