Clarification on Headshots - PlanetSide Universe

Matt Higby has clarified details on how the Headshot system will work in PlanetSide 2.

Q. What exactly is the planned Damage bonus for headshots? Will any Infantary weapon be able to One shot Kill?

A. The system allows us to have different damage bonuses for each weapon. This way we can make it so that sniper rifles give a 200% bonus making them OSOK on headshots and chainguns get a 0% bonus making it make no difference. Check CVS Ad on WeeklyAds2. Other guns like pistols or assault rifles might be somewhere in between based on how rewarding we feel precision should be with each of those weapons/weapon types. Vehicle weapons will likely have a 0% bonus.

Exact balance for this is not final, but that's the general idea that we're going with and we'll tweak as necessary.

This will ease quite a few concerns. Head on over to the forums to discuss.

505 comments

2011-07-13 11:15 PM

Source: Forums

Latest Comments

2011-09-02 04:18 AM

Erendil

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

Originally Posted by BorisBlade

Dont worry so much about not havin med, you are gonna die so freakin fast that you wont have time to heal. They are makin the TTK absurdly fast. Its the other added bonuses that medics will get that will make em more useful rather than the heal aspect.

Honestly its good its not br40 style. But keep in mind you can still do anything ya want just by pickin your class when ya spawn. If you want to be the medic support guy get him, if you wanna go guns ablazing you can pick your HA man. Really, you arent limited much at all, esp since you can change it up with ease. You just cant do everythign all in one set up like br40. And you can bunch things up and call it whatever package you want, but you cant honestly think that its good gameplay to be able to repair armor, repair players, have the best AI (HA) and the best AV weapons all in one set up. Thats absurd. Gotta break it up a bit.

The problem is that from what Higby has said they are breaking it up too much. Here's Matt's response to one of Graywolves's questions:

10.Can I still heal, repair, drive, and lead all while kicking ass with my cycler?
10 - healing and repairing are both exclusive to two different classes, so no. Well, you can heal yourself with a medkit!

More and more the impression I'm getting is that it'll be like we'll all be something like a ~BR10 with unlimited re-cert capabilities. Which is something I can live with if I happen to be fighting in close proximity to a term so I can quickly swap out classes as needed.

But class limitations as extreme as it sounds like they might be implementing are going to put an extreme damper on any operations out in the field that require any significant length of time or that call for a very small number of soldiers performing black ops where a vehicle like an AMS might give them away.

In a combined arms game like PS1/2 it's inevitable that you will come across multiple different types of enemy units in quick succession, if not simultaneously. With the PS/2 class system I'm afraid that it might not even be possible to carry both a decent AI and AV weapon Or if you do, that you won't be able to heal or repair yourselves due to a class system that is too confining.

The MA/AV/Rexo/Eng/Adv Hacker loadout that I mentioned above is not at all OP'd or a "one-man army" in my eyes and I see no reason why we shouldn't be allowed to have such a loadout. But my fear is that with the class system we won't even be able to do something like that.

Heck, in PS1 even a BR8 character can do MA/AV/Rexo/Eng. How is that a one-man army?

2011-09-02 05:14 AM

Talek Krell

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

2011-09-02 05:49 AM

Aractain

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

One man army is hyperbole, an exaguration. "No Important Weaknesses" is what I would say. In PS1 you could bypass or counter everything as the "One Grunt". There were many kinds of grunts, cloaker grunts, greybie grunts, MAX grunts, n00b grunts. One Grunt to beat them all, and in the darkness, rape them in the basement.

They appear to be breaking that up and forcing you to make a choice which is going to be more fun for the majority of the player base.

2011-09-02 07:24 AM

Shogun

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

i wish they would wipe the new ideas and return to the good old cert and br20 system as it was in ps1 in the good old days. paired with the cap of course!

there were no jackofalltrades back then and it played out fine as long as we had a significant playerbase.
the br was risen because there were not enough players any more and so people had to be able to be selfsufficient for you cannot rely on dedicated medics if there are none.

2011-09-02 07:54 AM

coLMinigun

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

I realllllllly hope they reconsider the idea that you can't heal and repair yourself

2011-09-02 08:33 AM

Redshift

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

i just hope they don't make it all rock paper scissors which is where it sounds like it's going, i.e meet a max as AI grunt zero chance. meet an AI grunt as an AV grunt zero chance

2011-09-02 08:34 AM

Aractain

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

Originally Posted by Shogun

You can't make claims that PS1 died of indavidual things like self-sufficeint soldiers but you also can't make claims that it "did fine" with them.

All you can really say is that PS1 died before it was even a day old (launch was WAY smaller than they expected).

I can say for sure though I didn't find the design of PS1 as fun as it could be (and you would probably say the opposite and I would eye you suspiciously because only the top dawgs of PS seemed to have fun with the mechanics - which is a terrible design if you want people to keep playing).

2011-09-02 09:10 AM

morf

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

Besides diminishing the usefulness of support roles, self repair\heal also slows down the game. How much time do people spend ducking behind trees or walls to heal/repair themselves only to fight for 10 seconds and then do it all over again. Stairwell fights become a neverending cycle of people rotating out to the front for 3 seconds, then running back around the corner to heal for 20 seconds. It slows down the game.

Personally i'd like to see it go down more like a 1930's knife fight. 2 gangs meet and its a brawl till the end. Medics and engies can dance around throwing down healing/defensive bots or whatever, commanders give an aoe buff and prioritize targets, grunts mow shit down.

2011-09-02 09:42 AM

Crator

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

And who's to say the engineers/medic won't be given a utility further up in the cert tree that might do some sort of AoE rep/heal effects. Let's not judge how PS2 will be in regards to this subject until we find out how it will play out.

2011-09-02 10:00 AM

Aractain

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

Humm I just (like right now) realised something. PS1 had "Bloodscreen, so real".

Since everyone had medical and engy they got hurt, got behind cover and regenrated their health. That is the same system as COD, get hurt, stop being hit for several seconds and regenerate health.

Can't belive I never saw that before lol.

2011-09-02 10:46 AM

FIREk

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

I hope that having different classes means that they will be a lot more powerful at what they do. AV weaponry was pretty weak in PS1 and it took quite a few people to destroy a tank. Or, rather, to scare it away, as it usually had enough armor to run away.

Now, I'm hoping that, should I choose to play as an AV class, I will be able to destroy a tank with a couple of well-placed shots, much like in BFBC2. AV TTK should be a bit longer than in BFBC2, as vehicles will be more precious (assuming there's a long way to drive from a vehicle terminal-equipped facility to the objective). We definitely shouldn't be firing lock-on rubber AV missiles like in PS1, though.

By "a few well-placed shots" I'm thinking of being in a good position (hidden, with a good view of a tank's rear or sides) and firing 3-4 shots from a skill-based, dumb-fire or limited guidance launcher.

If I forgo heavy armor and powerful anti-personnel weaponry, I should be rewarded with some serious AV potential. It also makes me assume a role, not be one amongst a hundred identical players with MA/HA, AV, ReXO, Med and Engy.

Hordes of non-AV-class players should still be able to scare off a lone tank, looking for easy kills, with massed fire from whatever they have, though.

2011-09-02 12:38 PM

Zulthus

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

Originally Posted by morf

Besides diminishing the usefulness of support roles, self repairheal also slows down the game. How much time do people spend ducking behind trees or walls to heal/repair themselves only to fight for 10 seconds and then do it all over again. Stairwell fights become a neverending cycle of people rotating out to the front for 3 seconds, then running back around the corner to heal for 20 seconds. It slows down the game.

Best post ever. It gets so old having people run down the stairs for 5 seconds, pop off a few shots, and run back into where friendlies are firing just to try to heal themselves.

Bags, since you hate ideas that slow down gameplay, then self healing/repping is definitely not for you either.

2011-09-02 01:01 PM

GTGD

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

I'm a fan of having the ability to self heal/repair. The fact of the matter is, if you need to sacrifice firepower for the ability to heal/repair, there is going to be a severe shortage of support. Not all FPS players are so self-sacrificing for the good of the team. Just look at the zerg, the only reason they even cert it is because it helps them zerg better.

I also don't think it is going to slow down gameplay. They said the TTK is going to be quicker, and if you're in the middle of a fight, you probably won't be able to run and heal until after the shots stop. There won't be this "running up and down a stairway" crap.

Secondly, I would really urge the devs to include vehicle boarding/exiting animations. I know it would cost more and take time, but it is so important on so many levels. How do I tell whether the driver or gunner got out? It can also be abused, especially if it is instant. Taking fire? No problem, use the vehicle as cover and if you get hit just instantly board! +1000 armor. Then after a few shots have been fired and the enemy reloads, jump back out in an instant and kill them.

2011-09-02 01:42 PM

Sirisian

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

Originally Posted by GTGD

This is exactly why I like healing/reparing. I'm a big proponent of complex holstering delays (especially large 5-10 second inventory to holster delays) and holstering choices. If you have like 10 different "pistol" slot devices or weapons it varies people's priorities especially between classes. Medics might have two pistol holsters and bonuses for their medical applicators whereas a non-medic might heal slowly. Same would be true for repairing. Running back and healing/repairing for a non-medic/non-engineer should be a slower operation basically.

If the game only has a few choices for holsters then it becomes more of a problem. Imagine if your MA rifle has a long reload and you have two holsters. Do you want med/eng or a pistol. (This is especially true if the game gets rid of any inventory). If players have a lot of useful choices with advantages/disadvantages it's better without directly removing choices because a class exists. The class medic/engineer have a lot more abilities than healing/repairing.

2011-09-02 01:45 PM

Talek Krell

Re: Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

Originally Posted by GTGD

How do I tell whether the driver or gunner got out?

At this point I'm assuming that you can also insta-switch between seats, so no need to worry!

...Wait...