Complete Overhaul ala Renegarde

[Renegarde]

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Basic Assault
Basic Assault is pretty much in a perfect state right now. Vanu players read on.

Scatter Pistol (NC, No Change)
Repeater (TR, No Change)
Beamer (VS) - The current beamer is the stepchild of the empire pistols, no contest. The new beamer will have a modest charge-up feature to increase its effectiveness. Hold the trigger to charge the weapon; after half a second the weapon will reach peak power and do double damage. Once charged, the weapon can be carried in the charged state (so it doesn't work like the spiker. This will allow beamer users a little extra versatility (yay!) as they will be able to inflict more of an extra initial punch, and then follow up with regular fire. This will "nerf" the beamers autofire (read: holding the button rather than squeezing off each shot), but I don't think anybody is going to care.
AMP (CP, No Change)
Suppressor (CP, No Change) - Despite its reputation, the Supressor is actually quite an effective weapon for its cert cost (read: 0).


Medium Assault

Gauss Rifle (NC, No Change)
Cycler (TR, No Change)
Pulsar (VS) - The only change to the Pulsar is the slightest buffing of its damage degredation.
Punisher (CP) - The reload time for the punisher is cut drastically, making it comparable with the empire MA. It doesn't take that long to replace a clip or shove a grenade down a tube.
Spiker (CP, No Change) - Hehe, these things are cool.
SMG (CP, New Weapon) - The SMG is in every way identical to the suppressor, except it is a pistol sized weapon without zoom capability. (Yes, this is a Cloaker Buff)


Heavy Assault
Heavy assault has lots of problems. Personally, altho I have never been a hardcore HA user, I think that, for 4 certs, these weapons should all be unrivalled killing machines. I have completely done away with the controvertial (spelling?) Jackhammer, and all of the other mpire weapons have recieved moderate buffs.

Rail Driver (NC, New Weapon) - (Size: 3x9) The Rail Driver uses a more powerful gauss accelerator. The weapon uses its own ammunition (Magnetic Rails) that come in boxes of 20 (clip size: 10). It fires pretty slowly (say, 150 RPM), but delivers a massive payload with each shot. It can down a Rexo in 3 shots (highly tweakable, keep in mind 3 shots is more than a second at 150 RPM). The Rail Driver is moderately accurate up to medium range if the user is in a stationary, crouched position. There is no secondary fire mode on the Rail Cannon.
Mini Chaingun (TR) - This weapon can already mow through multiple targets given the user isn't a complete airhead. However, damage per bullet should be increased by one so it can keep up with the new Rexo armor (while still keeping Rexo superior to its old form) and increasing is killing ability on lighter armors.
Lasher (VS) - The new and improved lasher has a clip size improved by 5 and +50% orb speed. Long live the vanu.
Maelstrom (CP, No Changes) - This is already a frighteningly powerful weapon.


Anti-Vehicular
All of the empire AV weapons now to 150% regular damage. This excludes the decimator (which is now an AV weapon an does twice a much damage; see below). Note that all MAX units have recieved a very generous armor buff which keeps them up to par with the AV weapons, but increases survivability against any other type of weapon. That is detailed later.

Phoenix (NC) - +50% damage per shot. (Love this weapon. Never change it, ever.)
Striker (TR) - +50% damage per shot.
Lancer (VS) - +50% damage per shot. The warmup period required before each shot has been removed. However, the overall refire rate remains unchanged. (Instead of a warmup sound effect, there will be a cooldown sound effect that plays after the weapon is fired. It basically sounds just like the old warmup audio did, only backward. This way, it still sounds badass =P)
Decimator (CP) - (Size: 3x6) The decimator 2.0 does twice as much damage, but it is now a 1-shot disposable weapon. It still takes 2 shots to down a max, despite their armor buff (see below).


Special Assault
The decimator has been removed from Special Assault. In return, it has been given a new Special Ops Rifle. This, combined with the ever-popular Thumper and the underated Rocklet Rifle, means that SA is still a very viable choice.

Thumper (CP, No Change) - Hehe... no comment.
Rocklet Rifle (CP) - +25% extra damage (to help keep up with the MAX armor increase and the AV damage buff).
Radiator (CP) - The Radiator pain field has been modified so that it is visible by all units. Also, grief has been completely removed in situations where friendlies actively run into the field but were not actually hit by the "blast." Grief will remain for Radiator users that actually fire at friendlies. (This will introduce a griefing scenario where people will irradiate crucial areas to their own team, and remain grief free. To remove this possibility, friendly fire would have to be removed from the Radiator completely. This idea is not so far-fetched when you realize that the Lasher is also an "FF Off" weapon.)
P40 (CP, New Weapon, formerly the Special Ops Rifle) - (Size: 3x6) This is an alternate version of a Medium Assault Rifle. It does minimal damage for its ammunition type (9mm, think Cycler per-shot damage), has a lower refire rate than other Assault Rifles (don't know the exact figures, but Punisher ROF sounds good), and has accuracy comparable to a Cycler (good, but not uber). Its main advantage is that it has approximately half the damage degredation of a Gauss Rifle, making it worse point-blank than an Empire MA, but noticably better at longer ranges.


Sniper Rifles
I didn't make Empire specific Sniper Rifles because, lets face it there really isn't that much room for anything other than cosmetic changes. (Obviously, the TR would get a fast-firing, deep clip weapon, but the NC and VS aren't so easy to deal with. At least, not without giving Vanu the shaft.) The P40 that was listed earlier has been removed due to numerous problems.

Bolt Driver (CP, No Change)


MAX UNITS
MAX units are too frail as they are. You can give the whole "Its only 3 certs, I spent 20 on my Grunt, I should be able to pwn you foo!!?!" argument, but the fact is that MAX units are so cheap because they give up any and all abilities that they might have for the ability to kill. A tank (including the Lighting) is only a 3 cert vehicle, and most can take on multiple infantry units simultaneously. If you are on foot and come across me in a Lit, you can kiss your ass goodbye unless you have about 5 other grunts or some serious armor support. There is no reason a MAX should not be able to do the same.

ALL MAX UNITS - The armor for every single MAX unit is inreased to 1000. This is approximately a 50% boost. (Remember, in the balance pass every single vehicle recieved an armor buff. The MAX is obviously considered a vehicle by the game engine, so why were they left out?) All of the AV weapons were given a similar buff. This not only makes the MAX much more survivable against regular grunts, but makes AV weapons much more desirable. See that, two birds with only a single nuclear blast.
Terran MAX units - Currently the TR MAX units have to lock down just to compete with the other empire's MAX's. This is entirely not fair, since the other MAX units get to be effective and have a cool special ability. So, here is my proposal:

Current Effectiveness ratios:

NC MAX, unshielded: 100% effective
VS MAX, not jumping: 100% effective
TR MAX, not locked down: 50% effective (Has half the Rate of fire as a locked down MAX)
TR MAX, locked down: 100% effective (Locking down takes three seconds, makes MAX a sitting duck: NOT FAIR)


New MAX Effectiveness ratios:

NC MAX, unshielded: 100% effective
VS MAX, not jumping: 100% effective
TR MAX, not locked down: 80% effective (Has 80% ROF compared to the old locked down MAX)
TR MAX, locked down: 120% effective (This is a 50% increase over the new unlocked MAX, and a 20% increase over the old locked MAX, locking down only takes 1 second)



I didn't put effectiveness ratios for the other empires when using their special abilities because that would be nearly impossible to judge. The TR MAX still has to lock down to get its maximum effectiveness, and is still inferior to the other empires MAX units when it is not locked down, so if they somehow seem superior to the other MAX abilities keep that in mind.
--------------------------------

Well, planes are in (for the most part =P), be sure to put in your 2 cents if you actually bothered reading the whole damn thing. I couldn't add them to this list, because their is a stupid 1000 character limit, but they are detailed below.

MMmmmmmm.... Feedback.....

[Warborn]

I'm going to be a big nerd and quote-reply to whatever catches my eye.

-Beamer (VS) - The current beamer is the stepchild of the empire pistols, no contest. The new beamer will have a modest charge-up feature to increase its effectiveness. Hold the trigger to charge the weapon; after half a second the weapon will reach peak power and do double damage. Once charged, the weapon can be carried in the charged state (so it doesn't work like the spiker. This will allow beamer users a little extra versatility (yay!) as they will be able to inflict more of an extra initial punch, and then follow up with regular fire. This will "nerf" the beamers autofire (read: holding the button rather than squeezing off each shot), but I don't think anybody is going to care.

This would make it effective for infil-sniping. Sounds cool, and it fits the beamer well because of how noticeable it is both audibly and visually. Infrequent fire with roughly equal DPS would make up for the cosmetic imbalances, perhaps.

-Pulsar (VS) - The only change to the Pulsar is the slightest buffing of its damage degredation.

Like the Guass, I thought the lack of Pulsars was due to it accruing less kills than the Heavy Weapon of each Empire. If you have one of those handy damage charts to back your claim that the weapon be buffed handy, I think your point here would be properly accentuated.

-SMG (CP, New Weapon) - The SMG is in every way identical to the suppressor, except it is a pistol sized weapon. (yes, this is a Cloaker Buff)

Despite the ease with which the Surpressor can snipe people? I'm not sure I like this suggestion. Although the Surpressor is limited in its ammo capacity, especially when used by an armor with such a small backpack, I think this is a step in the wrong direction. Infiltrators aren't meant to be fighters, they're meant to be saboteurs, hackers, and otherwise stealthy individuals. I think in order to give infiltrators the role they deserve, more stuff should be hackable around bases to cause varied effects within bases (dropping Phalanx Turrets, deactivating Modules, deactivating Vehicle Terminals, etc) and perhaps even the visibility of the infiltration suit while on the move should be reduced considerably given how easily they're seen with Darklight. Infils should have more of a job to do and should be able to do it easier than they have now; they don't need to be made more combat worthy, because that's not what they're suppose to excel at.

Heavy Assault
Heavy assault has lots of problems. Personally, altho I have never been a hardcore HA user, I think that, for 4 certs, these weapons should all be unrivalled killing machines. I have completely done away with the controvertial (spelling?) Jackhammer, and all of the other mpire weapons have recieved moderate buffs.

Personally I'd remove all Heavy Assault as it is now and replace it with stuff that's designed to excel at medium and medium-long range. I dislike how PS infantry battles are constantly devolving into in-your-face slug fests with weapons that kill you in half a second. Remember how the Lancer used to be before the nerf to its infantry killing ability? That's what I'd want HA to be, minus the anti-vehicular capability.

And yes, I realize that not many people will agree with me. That is, if they're not too busy jumping out of a Mosquito over a tower and mowing down a half-dozen infantry before they're killed and go back for yet another round.

-Lancer (VS) - +50% damage per shot. The new Lancer has half the warmup period of the old one (still a pain in the ass), but a lower refire to compensate. (Explanation: it still has the same overall rate of fire, but the lag between the triggerpress and fire is halved. This is a good thing.)

Yeah, this is good. Doing away with it, period, wouldn't be too bad either. Strikers lock on, Phoenixes are manually controlled, yet the Lancer has to be aimed manually. I think it needs to be slightly easier to use.

-Special Ops Rifle (CP, New Weapon) - This is a new weapon hybrid between the Bolt Driver and MA. It has approximately half the damage degredation of a Gauss Rifle, a respectable rate of fire, and good accuracy (capable of 4x zoom). Basically, it can hold its own against an MA user at close range, but at 50+ meters it'll rock thier world. Uses 9mm ammo with a 30 round clip.

I don't like this at all. It would put both MA and Snipers out of business. I'm not sure how much sniping you do, but if you're sniping and you get shot by anything, your CoF blooms like mad. A very accurate, reasonably damaging MA-ish weapon like the above would make you essentially unkillable to snipers, because you could still hit them at range and thereby screw their aim up for a couple seconds.

-P40 (CP, New Weapon) - The P40 fires much smaller ammunition than the Bolt Driver. It has quicker COF movement (both in and out), takes 5 shots to down a Rexo (30 total damage: Rexo takes 20 health/10 armor damage from each shot), and has a has a 10 shot clip. While a skilled Bolt Driver veteran can still kill noticably faster than a P40 user, its deep clip and very forgiving nature makes it a much more desirable weapon for the casual user. 8x zoom, 10 round (3x3) ammo boxes.

Not to sound like the elitist sniper asshole that I am, but sniping shouldn't be for casual users. Too many snipers will royally screw up Planetside, with its big outdoor environments. Sniping is perfect, and I hope they never change it.

- ALL MAX UNITS - The armor for every single MAX unit is inreased to 1000. This is approximately a 50% boost. (Remember, in the balance pass every single vehicle recieved an armor buff. The MAX is obviously considered a vehicle by the game engine, so why were they left out?) All of the AV weapons were given a similar buff. This not only makes the MAX much more survivable against regular grunts, but makes AV weapons much more desirable. See that, two birds with only a single nuclear blast.

Hm... yeah, I agree with this I think. MAXs die quite quickly. There's no telling how this change would actually pan out were many/most/all of your suggestions to go through though.

New MAX Effectiveness ratios:
NC MAX, unshielded: 100% effective
VS MAX, not jumping: 100% effective
TR MAX, not locked down: 80% effective (Has 80% ROF compared to the old locked down MAX)
TR MAX, locked down: 120% effective (This is a 50% increase over the new unlocked MAX, and a 20% increase over the old locked MAX, locking down only takes 1 second)

I didn't put effectiveness ratios for the other empires when using their special abilities because that would be nearly impossible to judge. The TR MAX still has to lock down to get its maximum effectiveness, and is still inferior to the other empires MAX units when it is not locked down, so if they somehow seem superior to the other MAX abilities keep that in mind.

Are the TR MAXs actually that ineffective when not locked down? If that's the case then I'd agree with this, but I was and still am under the impression that their damage output is equal to other MAXs when not bolted down, and 50% greater (or so?) when bolted down.

[Rbstr]

I like it for the most part, but I think the Pulsar need a bit more of a buff, and the guass a slight one. Your TR you should see how well the cycer rips apart anyone with MA.

Also you forgot an AV max fix, as it stands none of the maxes can take out a vehicle if it has a driver and is not heavily damaged. I would increase the Speed of all AV shots (except the DC, witch geta a damage buff)

Also i would add a new Weapon class that the p40(great Idea BTW) is now moved too
called Enhanced Medium Assault, basicaly enhanced MA wepons, The cool thing is you can take this cert instead of MA for 3 certs(it does the same prerequisit thing as MA) or take it in addition to MA for 2 certs.
It contains:
P40

Photon: This New weapon was created by The VS with their recently aquired knowledge of more Vanu tech(ala CC) becsaue of the realization that the Original pulsar was not performing up to par.
Ammo: Regular E-cells
Clip: 40
Range: Slighly extended form pulsar (with slighly less degradation)
COF: Pulsar sized
ROF: Varries
Damage:
Primary mode is exactaly like the Original Pulsar with a 2 point damage buff.
Secondary Mode is an enhanced AP mode, It basicaly fires small lancer shots that take 10 rounds each. It does enough damage to take a max out in exactaly 2 clips, same ROF as lancer minus the Charge time.

Guass Rifle Revision 1: Same as the VS's but replace VS stuff with NC stuff
Ammo:Varries
Because of recently discovered Vanu tech the guass has been modified to fire using only a magnetic field(not mag accelerated standard rounds) so it can fire multiple ammo types:
10mm HE tiped Slug : This ammo was desined to do much better at damaging MAXes and Vehicles that the orriginal AP ammo, Take out a max in 2 clips
10mm Fin Stabilized Discarding sabot round (FSDS):This ammo was made to be more accurate, and do more damage at range than the orginal guass
10mm Flachette Round: This ammo is acctualy a small bundle of razor sharp needles that spread a small amount (like a shotgun)
(all boxes of this ammo hold 40 rounds)
Range:
The HE slug is the same as the original guass
The FSDS round has more range, and degrades much less than the original
The flachette round has Much shorter range(Sweeper range) with a samll spead(less that sweeper)
Clip Size: 20
COF: HE, original COF with more expation after the third shot, FSDS much more accurate same expantion as original, Flachette Same as original same expantion
ROF: Same as original Guass
Damage: HE: Max in 2 clips, FSDS: 9 rounds or so to reinforced, Flachett: 5 rounds to a reinforced.

Penatraitor(SP): The TR realizing the no longer had Superiority in thier Medium/long range wepons rushed to field an new enhanced version of the Cycler.
Ok this wepons is exactaly the same as the original cycler but it has a small 5 shot rocklet launcher on it.
the come in a box of 10
they do half the AI damage and 1.5x the AV damage as the rockled rifle

so what do you think?

[Renegarde]

A locked down Terran MAX has approximately double the rate of fire as one that is not. There have been many arguments about how effective they are when locked down, but nearly everyone agrees that a TR MAX that is not locked down is not even in the same league as the other empire MAX units. You have to be locked down or you just cannot compete. Granted, when you are locked down, you can deal some serious death, but not any more than the other MAX units (this statement could spark an a heated argument that doesn't really belong in this thread.... but oh well), plus they get a nifty ability that can come in handy in various situations. TR lockdown isn't nifty. It's a mandatory deathtrap.

RBSTR:
Sorry bro, all those weapons are way too effective.
Photon: Makes the Lancer obsolete.
Gauss 2: WAY too versatile. That's the Vanu's forte, and most would blanch at giving something like that to even them.
Penetraitor: Makes the Rocklet Rifle and Thumper obsolete.

Overall I just don't really like them. But I might be wrong, lets see what other people say.

[SilverLord]

Nice, great proposals. Very good work.

[Renegarde]

Actually, now that I think of it, a weapon with the P40's description would probably own MA users, which is definitely not the effect I was going for. Hmmm... I'll have to do some serious thinking about this.

By the way, good someone be kind enough to post a link to this thread in the official Development Discussion forum? That would be freaking awesome.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Keep it coming!

[Spee]

Rob, by increasing the amount of anti-armor weaponry available in the grunt class with MA, youre kinda killing off the original poster's ideas - MAX's are supposed to be unstoppable killing machines - Until someone with a decimator finds them.

[Renegarde]

Ooh, ooh, look what I found!

http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum10/HTML/009417.html

I figured this thread would have been deleted by now. This is from waaaay back, before I lost my account and went TR.

I miss being able to post there... =(


Edit:



-Special Ops Rifle (CP, New Weapon) - This is a new weapon hybrid between the Bolt Driver and MA. It has approximately half the damage degredation of a Gauss Rifle, a respectable rate of fire, and good accuracy (capable of 4x zoom). Basically, it can hold its own against an MA user at close range, but at 50+ meters it'll rock thier world. Uses 9mm ammo with a 30 round clip.


I don't like this at all. It would put both MA and Snipers out of business. I'm not sure how much sniping you do, but if you're sniping and you get shot by anything, your CoF blooms like mad. A very accurate, reasonably damaging MA-ish weapon like the above would make you essentially unkillable to snipers, because you could still hit them at range and thereby screw their aim up for a couple seconds.


Accually, Warborn, MA weapons are pretty damn accurate AND have 4x zoom. They can hit snipers at long range. The main advantage of the Special Ops Rifle is that it has very little damage degredation, so it can actually inflict noticable damage at medium range, rather than just being an annoyance.

In short, it doesn't actually have better maximum range than Medium Assault, it just has better practical maximum range.

[Warborn]

Accually, Warborn, MA weapons are pretty damn accurate AND have 4x zoom. They can hit snipers at sniper range. The main advantage of the Special Ops Rifle is that it has very little damage degredation, so it can actually inflict noticable damage at medium range, rather than just being an annoyance.

In short, it doesn't actually have better maximum range than Medium Assault, it just has better practical maximum range.

Well, for starters "sniper range" is a pretty broad definition. Are we talking barely visible range, where the crosshairs completely blot them out, or what?

But, to make a reasonable guess, the range I typically snipe at I tend to get a lot of MAs who'll try to shoot me, say, with a Gauss rifle. To put it bluntly, they don't stand a chance. Now, I'm not sure how much sniping you do, or how often you fire a MA weapon at a guy aiming a bolt driver at you, but I snipe a lot, and I kill a lot of people with that weapon. And I've only on a couple occassions ever had any issues with a guy using a MA weapon messing with my aim at what I would consider "sniper range", let alone posing any significant threat to me.

So, in my experience, unless you're reasonably close, if you try to use a MA weapon against a bolt driver, you're dead. Although you may get a shot or two every now and then which hits, at what I'd consider average sniper range, the MA weapons simply are not accurate, and if they were, I'd probably be out of business. And that's what I think your proposed weapon addition would do.

Now, while a weapon not unlike the scoped fallschirmj�ger rifle from Day of Defeat would be alright, having a scope while still being uncomparable to a sniper rifle in terms of accuracy (extrapolate that definition to PS terms), the idea of a scoped rifle with zoom, good accuracy, and good ranged damage infringes on the area of sniper rifles too much, in my opinion.

[Renegarde]

Good arguments, this is exactly the kind of feedback I've been looking for. So, here is a new definition:

Special Ops Rifle (CP, New Weapon) - This is an alternate version of a Medium Assault Rifle. It does minimal damage for its ammunition type (9mm, think Cycler per-shot damage), has a lower refire rate than other Assault Rifles (don't know the exact figures, but Punisher ROF sounds good), and has accuracy comparable to a Cycler (good, but not uber). Its main advantage is that it has 6x zoom and approximately half the damage degredation of a Gauss Rifle, making it worse point-blank than an Empire MA, but noticably better at longer ranges.

For the record, I only played as a sniper for a few days before I stopped playing. (I can still brag about my share of cloaker and MAX kills tho =)... don't know which is more satisfying.) I appreciate your dedication to making my ideas better... if they will never actually make it to the game.

PS: "sniper range" was a typo. It's fixed now =)

[Warborn]

Good arguments, this is exactly the kind of feedback I've been looking for. So, here is a new definition:

Special Ops Rifle (CP, New Weapon) - This is an alternate version of a Medium Assault Rifle. It does minimal damage for its ammunition type (9mm, think Cycler per-shot damage), has a lower refire rate than other Assault Rifles (don't know the exact figures, but Punisher ROF sounds good), and has accuracy comparable to a Cycler (good, but not uber). Its main advantage is that it has approximately half the damage degredation of a Gauss Rifle, making it worse point-blank than an Empire MA, but noticably better at longer ranges.

That'd probably be pretty good. Maybe a scope too, let it go 6x instead of 4x?

I appreciate your dedication to making my ideas better... if if they will never actually make it to the game.

But, whatever. I'm sure the developers have their own plans, and for some inane reason I still have hope they can improve the game a good deal. I guess I'm only jaded toward MMO[i]RPGs[/]. My MMOFPS indifference hasn't been properly cultivated yet. So even if your ideas are totally disregarded, you can at least have the distinct pleasure of maybe one day seeing a change which bears a striking resemblance to something(s) which you suggested earlier.

[Renegarde]

LOL, yeah, it would be great to come back from AIT to find some (or even one!) of my ideas in place. I'm gonna work on those empire specific aircraft I promised earlier, so be sure to check back in =)

About the 6x zoom: I don't think that's really possible. It would be great, but as far as I know there are no weapons that have 6x zoom... but I'll put that in anyway.

[Warborn]

LOL, yeah, it would be great to come back from AIT to find some (or even one!) of my ideas in place. I'm gonna work on those empire specific aircraft I promised earlier, so be sure to check back in =)

About the 6x zoom: I don't think that's really possible. It would be great, but as far as I know there are no weapons that have 6x zoom... but I'll put that in anyway.

Cool, I will.

As for the 6x zoom: I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility in terms of programming. I would hope that their code is done in such a way that 6x magnification is only a matter of changing around a few variables. Their current magnification settings really seem more arbitray than hard-set values. But, that's just a guess.

[Renegarde]

Empire Aircraft
Each empire specific aircraft differs a great deal from the next, so the role or niche filled by each may (gasp!!!) not be the same across empires.

SkyHawk (NC, New Aircraft) - The SkyHawk is a formidable plane that sports both a 25mm cannon and a DEAG (Dual Eagle Air to Ground) rocket platform. It is the slowest of the empire aircraft, rating just below the Reaver in max speed and afterburning speed, with armor comparable to the Reaver. The DEAG system is a devastating weapon versus slow-moving or stationary ground vehicles. When fired, both missiles deploy and accellerates toward the target at high speed and inflicting massive damage anything directly struck by the missiles (splash radius is only about 1 meter; damage for both missiles combined is about 50% more than the new Decimator). Due to the subpar accuracy on the rockets and a very small area of effect, it would be extremely difficult to land both missiles on a single MAX unit. Capacity for the DEAG rockets is very limited. The rockets are also deadly to other aircraft if you can manage to score a hit.
Eradicator (TR, New Aircraft) - The Eradicator Gunship is an agile craft equiped with dual 14mm chainguns. Each weapon simultaneously fires an astonishing 500 RPM within a fixed cone of fire (just slighter smaller than the COF on a stationary, crouching MCG). This weapon can utilize both standard Anti-Infantry ammunition or Armor-Piercing rounds, making it an unparalleled close-combat aircraft. The plane lies somewhere between a Mosquito and a Reaver. Due to its up-close nature, it has the most armor of the empire aircraft, surpassing the Reaver by about 20%.
Cyborg (VS, New Aircraft) - The Cyborg boasts the highest speed of all the empire aircraft (a Mosquito can just barely outrun it), but also the poorest armor. It is equipped with a front-mounted Quasar cannon (complete with AP mode) for infantry suppression. --- HELP ME, I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING FOR THE VANU. Damn, I hate thinking of weapons for them. I'll come back to this later, I promise. ---


Stupid 1000 character length limit. Well, here they are, though I obviously need more time for the Vanu. I promise I won't leave it gimp though, just give me some time and maybe a few suggestions.

[Jagd]

A couple thoughts... If you are going to turn the Decimator into a 1-shot disposable, it should be shrunk down to 6x3 (medium assault gun size) instead of the whopping 9x3 it is currently. Also, I'm completely against any plans to remove the decimator from SA, if anything allow it to be used by both AV and SA. That "special ops" rifle is kind of a joke, because what good is it for special ops? The decimator is by far the most widely used tool of the covert ops squad, dropping tubes, generators and turrets in no time. I like the idea of more aircraft, but what worries me the most about empire specific stuff is the unbalancing act they would put us through... it could take months to get things to an even keel, or they may *never* even be balanced properly (take HA, for example).

[TheRagingGerbil]

Leave the deci where it is.

Instead, add Jagd's one shot deci to the av lineup. Hmm, maybe make it a CC AV weapon...

What about the Radiator?

[Queensidecastle]

I totally and completely agree with the original Poster's assesment of MAX units

[Veteran]

Yah, Renegarde is dead on with the TR MAX analysis.

[EarlyDawn]

Nice job with the MAX tuneups.

The only thing I have to add is that the Decimator needs to be one-shot, be shrunk as suggested, and either get a damage buff and move to av or act more like a modern RPG. Prehaps give it a "cycle" time while it's priming to launch?

"DECI-DECI... hit the deck!"
If you've seen Black Hawk Down, you know what I'm talking about.

[JuSTCHiLLiN]

Make the deci one shot and move it to av? I think that's a bad idea. You could do more damage with a rocket rifle (24 rocklets = 1 deci shot) and they're good against troops and maxes.

[Renegarde]

First off, I know the planes are totally off the wall; that's one of the reasons I didn't include them in my original post. Its just a fun idea, as are most of the others presented in this thread.

I was kind of torn about making the deci 6x3, because of the amount of them a Rexo would be able to carry, but it seems that that seems to be the general consensus. There would still be a lot of bitching about a Rexo popping one, then pulling out another and firing that too. But then again, there is always going to be bitching, so oh well.

As for not moving the Decimator, there has been heated debate on that topic since the first time I played in August. I think that the most powerful AV weapon in the game belongs in the AV weapon group, and the Devs have also said that they were thinking of moving it (in the last Ask the Devs, I think). I don't think leaving a weapon in two different cert groups is practical either.

LNS, that would be freaking awesome, but it would really boil down to nothing AND give Decimator users something to bitch about.


That "special ops" rifle is kind of a joke, because what good is it for special ops? The decimator is by far the most widely used tool of the covert ops squad, dropping tubes, generators and turrets in no time.


I for one would cert SA just to use that weapon, so I don't really think its a joke. Maybe it just needs a different name, so people don't get the wrong idea about it.

I completely forgot about the Radiator. Funny, because I already knew what I was going to say about it. Here it is (I'll add it to the original post if there is enough room):

Radiator (CP) - The Radiator pain field has been modified so that it is visible by all units. Also, grief has been completely removed in situations where friendlies actively run into the field but were not actually hit by the "blast." Grief will remain for Radiator users that actually fire at friendlies. (This will introduce a griefing scenario where people will irradiate crucial areas to their own team, and remain grief free. To remove this possibility, friendly fire would have to be removed from the Radiator completely. This idea is not so far-fetched when you realize that the Lasher is also an "FF Off" weapon.)

Finally, I removed the P40 Sniper Rifle and instead gave the name to the "Special Ops Rifle," and I increased Rocklet Rifle damage by 25% to insure that it is still a viable weapon in the face of the new MAX units and AV weapons.

[Madcow]

Make the deci one shot and move it to av? I think that's a bad idea. You could do more damage with a rocket rifle (24 rocklets = 1 deci shot) and they're good against troops and maxes.

That sounds like a great argument for his idea, not against it. The deci shouldn't be the no-brainer weapon that it currently is. 24 Rocklets? Good luck getting all of those off, and hitting the MAX with all those shots. At the very least it will make people decide between carting a Rocklet Rifle and a deci, rather than having the single far superior for the job weapon that we currently have. It seems obvious that the deci has moved beyond it's original intent, it's become a staple for any standard grunt (whereas AV probably should have been a staple). If the devs can make moves which diversify the weapons seen on the battle field a little more, I'm all for it.

[Renegarde]

For the record, it has been officially anounced that the Decimator is going AV.

http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum16/HTML/000910-2.html

Stealth *BUMP*