It has been a long-time concern since HvH combat sucks. 80% of the time you get so many fracs and internal damage that you are out of the round since every doc is already busy. In terms of factions UPP guns are really good while CLF guns suck ass and marine weapons are balanced for distress signal. That little second before you fall unconscious to crit is annoyingly enough to let you kill trade with your enemy so long you see them. You can also be a lil gremlin and turn off your light and sneak up on unsuspecting enemies like a lurker and get them out of the round permanently.
Since the game is already balanced around distress signal why not balance HvH to coexist with it? For starters make fracs and internal less frequent, especially on armoured body parts like chest and head. That’s what armors and helmets are for. Let medics take a breath. Remove that damn second before crit to reduce kill trading, at least when it is caused by a gun. Buff CLF guns, nerf UPP guns. Unless we fight on the Almayer change the lighting so that it will be day. Getting shot by a dude without light and getting out of the round at the start of the (rare) event is fucking ass. I’d rather play distress signal.
Oh and make it so that Cades actually have a use when you are getting shot. Let there be an offset that some of the bullets fired at you while you are behind it hit the cade instead. In HvH there is no concept of cover. Do the same for other objects and structures like crates, ledges, floodlights etc, all in a different degree of protection. Of course all that to a degree as to not make it unfun. That way you can actually create advantages for yourself and your team.
Make it a day on a map instead of night. Maybe keep darkness for enclosed rooms far away from windows and lights. Caves can stay dark.
Remove sniper spec and faction equivalents.
Remove 2x scope and smartscope, make 4x scope into 2x scope with the same drawbacks of 4x scope.
Make every single scout spec faction equivalent have spec limits as to not being able to shoot/prime nades/etc when invisible, with big cooldown on doing that also after becoming visible.
Globally slow everyone to half of their current speed at the very least.
Pretty much all you need to do besides adjusting numbers of each and individal faction. UPP should be less numerous than marines, CLF should outnumber them almost 2:1.
No, giving CLF basically Gen3 synth skills is not a good exchange for their weaker gear and smaller numbers.
Synths in armor are too tanky if they can use a gun.
Exclusive AP ammo variants should not be available to anyone. Mod88 rounds, slugs and flechette are fine, AP pulse rifle ammo is not.