If you have been reading the forums for more than a week, you have seen more posts about new guns(especially MGs) than you can count on your two hands. Ben has also announced he will add more weapons. But something i have noticed with EVERYone's suggestion is that the MG is to damn UNDER powered. Yes, you did read that right, i said under. Here's why,
People want it mounted, this means building time, it can't move, has an angle of about 100 degrees
It over heats, you can't fire for more than a few seconds(what's the point?)
Can't destroy blocks, well I would rather pop a nade than wait for them to peek out of cover.
Large spread, if it's inaccurate, that defeats the purpose of a DEFENSIVE weapon. Besides, i have rarely seen more than two dudes side-by-side
One per team, or limited, this INVITES griefers to dig holes and bury the MG. No way to get around that
Destroyed by a pickaxe, "Welp, there goes my only weapon. What to do, what to do..."
Seriously guys, I want to fight with a real gun, not a watered down nerf blaster. Imagine if you had the weapon that I(and you), have just described.

Would you rather have a machine gun that did 100 damage per shot, destroys blocks in 1 hit, has no recoil, has perfect hipfire accuracy, shoots 10 bullets a second and has infinite ammo? Its better to give a shit weapon and work your way up then give a god weapon and work your way down.

Option 3: start with a balanced gun

ding Mg that is only used for support, you still keep a sidearm

Ryan, that's a straw man argument. LRN2LOGIC

But yeah, I agree. I don't know too much solutions for this though at the moment. Will post later.

I think the better idea is to nerf the rifle,

make the rifle be unable to destroy blocks, leave that ability up to the machine gun.

that and this "concrete" idea that is just as common (ITT a block that is more resistant to enemy fire, shovels, and pics than normal blocks)

AnacondaML, you need to learn how to read. The primary suggestion is that the machine-gun is mounted, but still consider a single player's weapon, EG it's no more vunerable to getting spleefed than a camping player is. It can still be picked up, no tool required, and moved. Not all of us have suggested it shouldn't be able to destroy blocks... normal block-breaking abilities would be fine when coupled with new anti-griefer systems (such as streamlined votekicks). I think the ideal real-world example to model a machine gun from would be the M2 Browning... something that requires mounting to fire, but can be transported by a single person if the need arises.

Nerfing the rifles when a machine-gun is available for determined assaults on structures isn't an entirely bad idea. Realistically most infantry rifles can't break through stuff like that... but from what I've seen the current rifle capabilities aren't a grieferfest due to the slow rate of fire and high recoil. A low-recoil (A mounted M2 Browning has effectively no recoil, just a mild jolt, since a centered mounting takes the beating), high rate of fire machine gun that can break blocks will be.

Ultimately, I don't think AoS will be ready for a machine gun that's any good until we cut back the griefers. Right now it seems like at least one in every twenty players on a server at any given moment is a griefer, if not one in every ten. We need to cut back to at least one in every hundred to get anywhere in terms of making the game more fun.