Airmen/women! What role are you going to play?

[Led]

We have had enough polls asking what ground pounders are going to do, or ones general role in the war, so how about sharing your ideals on the air war? :D

I am most likely going to be a dropship pilot, and spend a little time escorting in a reaver and clearing LZs. Just hope people actually want to land Galaxies, instead of bailing out and letting the thing crash a'la tribes :(

[Airlift]

I plan to do just about everything on the list, but my primary interest is in delivering a small group of people to isolated enemy bases and helping to secure them.

[Sputty]

I was hoping to be a reaver pilot and help groups of ground soldiers or escort galaxies on offences or getting to bases being attack by enemies.

[�io]

I'm definitely a WilD WeaSel! :D

[Jinxmasta]

If I do decide on making a pilot I will probably go for almost all of these. However, I really look forward to piloting the Reaver.

[zMessiahz]

The Reaver a 1 or 2 man air craft?

[FireFrenzy]

I plan (subject to change) to be a reaver/skeeter pilot as a main job, although that wastes my fighting skills, i'd still like to do it. Something about it that just lures me in. Also, no such thing as a bomber...yet.

[BLuE_ZeRO]

Going to have to agree with the weasel :D

[Duritz]

Personally I think air superiority will be an extremely important, but slightly overlooked role. I want to be the guy that makes the LZs dangerous, destroys the transports escort, and gets the front line to need to hide.

[�io]

Originally posted by BLuE_ZeRO
Going to have to agree with the weasel :D

:thumbsup:

When PS time comes out around how about we both hop into a reaver or mosquito and go crazy on some TR and NC kiddies. :p

[Saint]

When are they going to release a screenshot of the reaver and how is its speed going to be compared to a galaxy and a skeeter?

[Tegadil]

Escort all the way.

[Jinxmasta]

We already have a pic of the Reaver but I forget where, you can search the forum if you want. Oh and the Reaver is a 2 man aircraft.

[Hamma]

Negative - Reaver is one man, it was when I played anyway.

As for this poll, should have made it multiple choice. :D

[Flashingfish]

In my outfit we'll have a team of reavers who will perform all of those tasks, but mostly close air support

[Coliostro]

Piloting an airship without a joystick is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. It's amusing for the first couple seconds until you realize you're basically a flying baked potatoe with very little control over what happens and when. I think the devs should support some kind of joysticks if they want air combat to be successful.

Disclaimer: This is just one man's opinion and does not reflect in any way the intelligence or demeanor of said man....That said, flame away :blowup:

[Flashingfish]

Yeah I find it extremely difficult to fly planes in BF1942 with the keyboard+mouse, but maybe that's just because I'm a bad pilot =]

[Airlift]

It's a good thing nobody wants to be a bomber, because it looks like there will be none at release.

[zMessiahz]

BF1942 piloting without a joystick sucks. Of course, those are also planes that need lift, thrust, and all that good old fashioned physics stuff. The air ships in this game will all be super VTOL ships like T2. Yeah yeah, I know the game hasn't come out, but look at the damn things... its gotta be that way. They are too bulky and have no wings. No way they fly without some sort of device that essentially allows them to ignore gravity. That means banks, rolls and all that are out (uneccesary to game mechanics).

Whats the point? Joysticks don't mean as much with planes like that. Unless you can bank, do barrel rolls,etc whre you need that additional axis of movement... joysticks don't help much.

[�io]

Originally posted by Airlift
It's a good thing nobody wants to be a bomber, because it looks like there will be none at release.

I'm gonna be a bomber, gonna up into my comrades galaxies and jump out over enemy base all the while shooting all my nades and rockets. :lol:

[Coliostro]

Originally posted by zMessiahz

Whats the point? Joysticks don't mean as much with planes like that. Unless you can bank, do barrel rolls,etc whre you need that additional axis of movement... joysticks don't help much.

You've hit upon exactly the point i was trying to make. If these aircraft can't do these things...What IS the point? That's the fun part about flying in the first place (and necessary if you're going to be shot at from both ground and air)

[Sputty]

If anyone has ever played any helicoptor sims then they know what a joystivck is good for. I think some Devs had said it is like a modern VTOL aircraft, the harrier. If they don't put in joystick support they'll have to make a really advance keyboard system.

[Stalefish]

Originally posted by zMessiahz
The air ships in this game will all be super VTOL ships like T2. Yeah yeah, I know the game hasn't come out, but look at the damn things... its gotta be that way. They are too bulky and have no wings. No way they fly without some sort of device that essentially allows them to ignore gravity. That means banks, rolls and all that are out (uneccesary to game mechanics).

I think you hit the nail right on the head Messiah. It's the future, no need for jet propulsion or propellers. Besides, if they had vehicles like they did in Tribes 2, and just modified the function of them and maybe added a few more physics modifiers the vehicles would be pretty fun to play around in.

I'm kinna lazy and don't want to go reading through stuff, but vehicles cost money to generate right? If that's the case, I don't think people will take them lightly and just bail out and send it flying into a few unsuspecting players.

Then again, I remember somebody saying all you needed was to be at a place that generates them and the cert to use it, so I'm probably wrong. If that's the case and you can get as many as you want like in tribes two, people will probably dispose of them when they don't need them anymore in a way that will kill some extra enemies.

[�io]

Nope, as long as you have the cert for it everything is free.

[Coliostro]

That in itself is potentially hazardous. I hope people don't abuse the free vehicle thing and try to act like bailing is only for emergency purposes. (Or maybe as part of a large scale strategy involving many units on the offensive and not just one Kamikaze pilot who thinks it'd be funny) :ugh:

[Stalefish]

People will use any advantage they can get, and running people over with big ships deals alot of damage to the enemy and puts the pilot in a fairly safe environment. If you get 10-20 dropships flying at a base and then just dropping in on all of the guards outside, you could probably take all of them out without wasting any ammo. And you're right Calio, it's really hazardous.

[Hamma]

There is no money in Planetside, however you do have time restrictions on vehicles. After you spawn one if you crash - you cannot spawn another for several minutes (i dont know the exact timer)

[Stalefish]

They should make it much longer, at least like a day or so. That would definately make people be alot more careful with their vehicles. It would also make bad drivers concentrate more on stealing other faction's vehicles. :D

[�io]

A day for vehicle respawn is crazy! There's all kinds of ways to kill vehicles, allowing only 1 galaxy a day would mean as soon as you get shot down at 11am by an AA MAX you can't use another in tonite's big strike or to help your buddies out around supper time,etc.

[Stalefish]

But if you allow instant respawns then you get abuse from all the people who think it's fun. You get abandoned Galaxies just ready for the enemy to steal and you get idiots running their own team members over in buggies all the time because they can't kill anyone in the other empires.

Maybe not a day, but longer than just a few minutes. A few hours maybe? Something that will lessen abuse and still let people get things when they need them.

[Airlift]

If I respawn to find a hour's wait for my vehicle, I will log off and play something else.

[NapalmEnima]

Originally posted by Airlift
If I respawn to find a hour's wait for my vehicle, I will log off and play something else.

I'm expecting people so inclined to have multiple vehicle certifications. So while you're waiting for your Reaver timer to expire, you could easily be tooling around in a mosquito, or a lightening, or whatever.

[Stalefish]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, having different timers for each one. Or maybe make it so you can only have a total of 3 in an hour or something. And Airlift, you could go join somebody's Galaxy raid while you're waiting for a vehicle spawn to pop up again. :D

[Hamma]

Things will always be abused. One thing is for sure, it wont take a day, and I doubt it will take hours.

This is one of the things that is still being tweaked, and will continue being tweaked right up until PS goes gold

[�io]

Ok let's stop all this nonsense please! :)

Even if you have multiple vehicles certs (not all of us will) it doesn't mean your mosquito cert will be the same as the lightning you were using.

Second TKing with vehicles = grief points and/or complaints from teamates to the support team and just abandoning your vehicles makes no sense unless you're ambushing an enemy base in which case you would do it anyway no matter how long the respawn is.

And third a longer respawn would change the whole PS expericence. PlanetSide's dev team want to create a fast paced MMOFPS. If your squad loses their only galaxy(only 1 pilot with that cert in squad) then they have to wait a few hours to lauch the strike they wanted to, multiple this situation by every player/squad in PS and it means the game is no longer a fast-paced action game but rather a strategy game where you have to carefully evaluate the risks and dangers of each mission and concentrate on defending your only (insert any or all vehicles you need to have for mission) instead of concentrating on attacking your target.

[Stalefish]

Dio, I said people who can't kill enemies and still want to have fun. People like that don't care about grief points, they're in it for the fun and even if their teammates complained they'd still do it. Not everyone thinks like you. They're not all retional human beings who want everyone to have a good time. Most of the people that play it will be those kinds of people, because they see it has great graphics and see that you get to kill people and go pick it up at Wal-Mart or something and dig in. It's from our community that you'll get most of the good-natured team-players who want their empire to kick ass. :)

Edit: Gotta elaborate considering how the grief system works I guess. Someone will keep TKing until they can't any longer, in which case they'll make a new char and continue with that one. I know it seems kinna stupid, but I bet people will do it. ;)

Second Edit: Partaining to the above, nevermind. I'm an idiot. :p

And the longer respawn times making the game slower, you're right, it would. I take back what I said on that. And I have no clue what you were talking about here:

Even if you have multiple vehicles certs (not all of us will) it doesn't mean your mosquito cert will be the same as the lightning you were using.

:D

[�io]

Ok well item 1 i know you edited but as for TKing with say a buggy and getting banned then making a new account, well that could be done with weapons as well so vehicle spawning won't change that. Also a i'm not so sure you can get another account that easily, i assume/hope if you get banned they check the CD ID # so if you want to get another account you have to get another #. (if not the system is kinda dumb)

Now item 2 what i meant by that was as some stated :
I'm expecting people so inclined to have multiple vehicle certifications. So while you're waiting for your Reaver timer to expire, you could easily be tooling around in a mosquito, or a lightening, or whatever.

Now sure this is fine and dandy if you're just having some fun, but if your squad needs you to go ahead and scout and your mosquito gets shot down 20secs after leaving your base then your pretty screwed even IF you have other vehicles certs. :)

[Sputty]

I don't think PS will have the chaotic battles like Q3 or ay other standard FPS, it's worlds are massive so to take out a lone mosquito it would either be the idiocy of the pillot(I'm not calling anyone an idiot) or the other side had well positioned scouts themselves and were prepared. Anyway, I don't think the mosquito will be used in any major battle, it'll be good for minor skirmishes but in a major battle I don't think it'll last for very long which is why I think that therer won't be a problem with vehicle spawning. I think the devs will make the spawning wait a little but not too long or offensives would be annyoing and easily stopped. One well placed MAX could end an entire attack by taking out the dropship or the defense of a base useless as a Reaver went ahead and took out the few tanks making the attacker's tanks come in a easily wipe through any major defense allwoing a good portion of infantry into the base with no real opposition so they'll need to make the spawn times not too long.