It will be strange. The lore will advance from N4 to N5, not like in the jump from N3 to N4 (at least more significantly) We are arriving to a new planet and all factions will fight for colonization
I will agree with @Delta57Dash you too cut it out its not what this thread is about. As far as the rest of the details, as per the seminar, the closer we get to the release time you will get more and more information about everything. Yes, October is rapidly approaching and more information is soon to come.
As a general nitpick with N4, I really hope we see more FTF not less. DTWs on all shotguns and shotguns everywhere was not great considering how common DTWs already were and are. Maybe we could remove the template mode at least for the LSG? Also a matter of realism for me, shotguns just don't do that, sure they can fire a spread of pellets, but it's not hitting multiple targets at close range like that. I did not like the N3 template+FTF based 24" Teardrop Shotgun options either, glad they're gone, waaay too powerful to ramp up multiple kills with one shot.
There's online resources for lore too. Honestly the reasons I didn't grab a copy of N4 were 1.) its exorbitant cost and 2.) the sinking quality of the English writing from CB at the time. Not in terms of story, but in terms of actually getting the language right. Forking out 68$ AUD for a book with immersion-breaking spelling and punctuation errors that Microsoft Word could spot wasn't something I was willing to do at the time. Fortunately they seem to have gotten better at that in more recent posts on their website.
Honestly the only faction that would be impacted by the removal of DTW mode from shotguns is PanO, everybody else has a plethora of DTW to not feel the change at all.
Fidays, Hunzakuts, SAS, Bearpode (irregular one), and Speculo don’t have any other DTW except shotguns. How many DTW including shotguns each factions have is not what matters. What matters is the cheap discounted skirmishers/warbands from their low BS gains access to cheap weapon able to choose between FTF and template.
I feel changes like decreasing DTW needs to be done very carefully. The proliferation of DTWs in N4 have: Made Assault Pistols and SMGs much less reliable weapons to use without trading. Made HI more reliable with Armor and multiple wounds being extremely more valuable. Gave every Faction the ability to deal with Mimetism models. While I agree that revising shotguns to N3 or to some other change to decrease DTWs, I worry that such a change would have a huge impact on the game. That might be more than CB wants for N5.
To my memory, shotguns in Infinity always had some form of template effect available. Either as Terminal Template (N1, N2 & N3) or Direct Template (N4). Now, I actually liked the N3 way of shotgun terminal templates, but I agree it was somewhat difficult to grasp, especially for beginners. DTW way of shotguns in N4 I find acceptable due to the need to simpify the rules. How CB are going to handle it in N5 - I have no idea. Though I guess they'll stick to Direct Template. It is a simpel rule, and it works.
I hope the remove ammo types and the massive discount on SMGs, and have points changes for profiles between army lists. A Riotgrrl in vanilla is very different to one in Bakunin. Same goes for anything with Frenzy or Impetuous. Additionally the points should change based on how things fit into the army list. Stop exploiting the formula to create stronger profiles. On top of that, can we get weapons to have costs that scale with the usability of the platform? The HMG carried by basic troopers at BS11, ARM 0, and no mods is very different compared to one on a platform with BS14, ARM3, W2, and Mimetism(-6). This leads to only the most efficient gun carriers. This counts for defensive stats combined with extra wounds. If you have multiple wounds having mimetism and high armor is much better than on a single wound MI. Can we get back to thematic forces with some limits? Not every faction needs to be good at everything, and none should excel at everything. Faction identity has deteriorated steadily with an influx of new units, many of them random mercs from where ever that may or may not make any narrative sense in the faction. Remove the bloat.
If they made DTW templates smaller like I suggested, that would nerf them without changing their use in the game. Would also bring opportunity for CB and partners to sell you new templates. We are using the same templates for 15 years, I don't think anyone would cry about needing to repurchase 5 euros acrylic templates. So a win-win IMO.
DTW are ok just now. The game don't need changing rules, only need a good work on balancing every unit of every faction.
A big issue is consensus, what one group or meta finds awful the other finds it good and what that group finds bad the other group find it works fine. There are few if any things that everybody agrees with.
Sorry to cut away this moment from context. I am mostly agree with your words. In a full message, but I would like to touch exactly this topic. "[Something] is difficult. Especially for the beginners." CB decided to be over with Code One. It was extremly simple and cut lots of interesting rules, that beginners could understand. For example syncronize units. May be not all variations, but anyway. (or may be I missed some and dont remember CodeOne. Anyway) The main moment is, that I really hope, they would not simplify the game itself. Beginners could deal with this new things. We were able to learn the game after all. If I understood right, CB are going to make explanation of the rules simpler for beginners. Not rules itself. Maybe there would be gradation between packs from starter and to more exotic sets. But that is only for beginners.
I doubt winding down DTW access will affect much. We'll just have to take units/profiles with DTWs as a conscious choice rather than just counting on having a massive quantity availiable no matter what. I believe in N3 this was typically achieved with a higher number of Warbands relative to other troops than is favoured now. The benefits for cutting down on DTWs, like The Armoury being fun, vastly outweigh the downsides in my opinion.
On shotgun DTWs, I would suggest dropping the strength of the weapon by 2 when fired in blast mode - so a light shotgun with be STR 13 in hit mode and STR 11 in blast mode, and a boarding shotgun would be STR 14(AP) in hit mode and STR 12 in blast mode. They would still be fine against lightly armoured troopers, but heavy armour would be better able to shrug them. Chainguns, Flamers and Pulsars of various flavors, keeping their their STR, would then be seen as meaningfully different from shotguns.
