I'm not the only one that has no problem with the MG's so clearly its NOT the MG's themselves. It's the way you're using them, IMHO.
Wholly agreed. I played four whole rounds with them today on Barracks, and while the first two were frustrating, the second two convinced me that those who aren't picking them are plain old missing out. For the most part. In my opinion, the only needed tweaks are:
--the ability to break from cover while crouching with the machine gun without raising one's head
--faster crouching and standing
--better deployment
No need for crazy penetration, accuracy, recoil reduction...
But even with the abovementioned weaknesses in mind, the MGs are still DEADLY.
I heard the talk of nerfed MGs with sadness in my heart and immediately decided to test it out as a Russian MGer on a full 64 player Barracks server.
The first round went badly--German riflemen and marksmen near the political school would pop a hole in my head at range before I'd even finished deploying. We lost terribly.
The second round went very much the same way as I found the "can't deploy here" notifications extremely detrimental to my health. Using the few deploy-friendly locations on the Political-school side of the Admin Building, I didn't have enough different positions to elude the German jaegers, who had about eight windows, a trench, and a shady alleyway and balcony to shoot from.
In the third round, instead of deploying only to get shot, I would crouch, hit deploy, then immediately crouch again. Using the W key to peek over cover for an instant, I would locate the pesky rifleman, then duck back down, wait for a few seconds, then hit deploy, immediately aiming towards the last known position of the rifleman and firing in his immediate area. The suppresion prevented him from responding quickly, while I could refine my aim, riddle the German, then duck down, leave cover, and change locations. In this way, I could match the riflemen kill for kill, only dying when they shot me through cover or while the game clumsily made me stand up while leaving cover.
In the fourth round, however, things changed.
The Mess Hall and the buildings east of the infirmary held several excellent firing positions, all providing perfect views of the streets between the NCO Barracks and Infirmary, and the field behind the infirmary. From those positions, I could wait for sprinting Germans to appear, firing at their smoke-shrouded silhouettes with proper lead. Few ever discovered what direction they'd been hit from. As soon as I took enemy fire, I would relocate my weapon, wait for things to cool down, then resume firing. Any time a head appeared in a window, a quick burst sent him scurrying for cover, and a second blew straight through his puny brick/mortar wall. On the occasions I was outflanked, the DP-28 served admirably in the close-combat role. End result? See the screenshots below.
I can't imagine an MG34 doing any worse.
There's no doubt about it. Machine guns remain the buzz saw of the battlefield. The learning curve is high, true, but for an Ostfront player who appreciates the new crouch feature and can control recoil with that smooth rearwards crawl of the mouse, it won't take more than a few rounds to pick up.