Vehicles: Shields

[wildcat140679]

For me vehicles with shields felt a bit out of place with in Planetside, mostly because I was accustomed to not having shields at all.

When shields became available through an AMP facility, it felt it slowed down things a little bit and some times even tip the scales of balance in battle. People delayed going to the front lines, just so they could charge there shields on there vehicles, for it increased there staying power/survivability some what and you would have an edge over those who didn't have shields.


Some part of me, wishes Planetside 2 would not have any kind of shields on vehicles, for I felt it disrupted balance somewhat.

However I've to admit that when I drove around in a vehicle and it had a shield even if it was only charged up to 10% of capacity, it made driving more forgiving. Bumping in to another vehicle, rock or tree, a mild drop or even a single unexpected mine on the road. It took the edge of the first initial damage taken.

Nobody really liked showing up on the battle field while having sustained minor damage, because you just knew you became a more interesting target to be fired upon instead of the vehicle driving next to you.

So, whats your opinion on vehicle shields for Planetside 2?

[Firefly]

I don't think there was a balance issue - other empires could get shields. If I got shields and encountered someone who didnd't, why is that my fault? If my opponent failed to get them, that's his fault and not mine. It's almost the same thing as encountering a wounded vehicle/aircraft and taking it out whilst enjoying full vehicle health. Nothing's preventing the other guy from getting them from somewhere.

[Vancha]

So, whats your opinion on vehicle shields for Planetside 2?
That using Planetside 1 as context for them is pointless.

From what we know of territory acquisition and resources etc. I can imagine any shield bonus that exists being far more of a gradual bonus than just a binary 20% or nothing.

[CutterJohn]

I love the concept of the invulnerability shields in BF2142. The shield was on a 30s cooldown, and lasted like 3s. It was a good tactical option for vehicles.



Amp station shields were kinda meh. Just an additional pool of hitpoints with a fancy name.

[Bruttal]

shield should be a component for all VS vehicles sure we might get stiffed on the actual armor but a auto repairing shield that only requires some resorces sounds okay to me.... physc idk. i really dont care either way ya spin it its balanced as long as it happens before the game is released and not after when they tend to get lazy after the first year

[Sovereign]

BFR shields for all! yeaaah thats totally rocking!

No, if shields are implemented they need to be done in a more well thought out way, I wouldn't mind for instance if it were mostly VS specific tech and minor shields across the board could be used as cover, as in energy shielding akin to what was used as gates of bases in the last game..

[Quovatis]

I always wanted engineers to be able to charge shields manually. It takes big vehicles like a sunderer or galaxy almost 5 minutes to fully charge the shield and nobody waits that long. What I used to do with my mag gunner is switch off pulling mags and leave the other one stashed in the courtyard. When we die, the new mag is fully charged and ready to go.

But shields did give an advantage. For instance wasps can take one extra enemy wasp missile if you take the 10 seconds to charge the shields. Makes a huge difference in a 1v1 battle.

[Mezorin]

Food for thought, Battlefield 2142 had a great shield system: it was a 5 second invincibility field with cool down that was your get out-of-jail-free-card on tanks, APCs and the mechs. This was needed, as one good rocket or tank shot to the ass and your tank was done. Even one good rocket salvo from one of the mechs and you were just about toast. Note that C4 explosives, remote mines and any sort of EMP hard countered these shields, and smart enemies would co ordinate their AV rockets with EMP mines or grenades.

There was an entire vehicle fighting meta game where you try and get your enemy to blow his shield when he does not need to, THEN you unload your tank cannon on him if you can help it.


The PS1 shields themselves are not a bad gameplay idea, in fact the shields could encourage vehicles to have some staying power in the field. The only problem with them was how you got those said shields: through sitting around in a SOI waiting for the recharge. Vehicles could have old school style planetside shields as a specialization path that would have fairly low health, but fairly fast regeneration rate to give vehicles some protection from light wear and tear, but would fall apart when the big guns get brought out and focused on the target.


One idea I think would work for shields is you would have two paths: the long term weak but regenerating shield, and a short acting but powerful get out of jail free card shield. Both would be mutually exclusive, and would give different play styles to the vehicles: one allows you to have 5 seconds of indestructableness for crashing the front line but doesn't allow for as much long term staying power, and the other allows you to (carefully) absorb lots of little hits over time. The main difference is these shields would come from a unit onboard the vehicle, rather than an AMP station SOI.

This would also allow vehicles to setup their defenses according to what they figure the main threats will be. If they expect to be pelted non stop by pesky DOT infantry/MAX suit fire, but can easily retreat and recharge at will, they could slot for the regerating HP shields. If they expect to have random aerial reaver flybys, bombing runs, burst damage ambushes, or even Alpha Strike happy Vanguard zergs, they could go with the 'invincibility for 5 seconds' shields.

[wildcat140679]

One idea I think would work for shields is you would have two paths: the long term weak but regenerating shield, and a short acting but powerful get out of jail free card shield. Both would be mutually exclusive, and would give different play styles to the vehicles: one allows you to have 5 seconds of indestructableness for crashing the front line but doesn't allow for as much long term staying power, and the other allows you to (carefully) absorb lots of little hits over time. The main difference is these shields would come from a unit onboard the vehicle, rather than an AMP station SOI.

I really don't like to see any kind of I'm invincible kind of shields. Instead I suggest having a slow recharging high capacity shield and a fast recharging low capacity shield. If installing shields as an upgrade will also have disadvantages as needing to sacrifice armor (less vehicle hit points) or add extra weight poorer vehicle handling/slower top speed might balance things out better instead of making a vehicle stronger with out any drawbacks.

Nevertheless, having vehicle shields as an upgrade and there for cost resources and require skill/certification I find better than an AMP facility giving shields to all vehicles.

[Firefly]

I really don't like to see any kind of I'm invincible kind of shields.
There are no invincible shields. They're just extra hitpoints that require a longer TTK and/or more massed firepower.