Squad Spawning Maxes? "Say Hello to my Little Friend!!"

[GuvNuh]

I loved this takeaway from the community night. I instantly had visions of 3 squads of max's suddenly spawning around 3 cloakers that managed to get into a generator room somewhere, then spreading out to cause general havok.

I think the ability to squad spawn, and to be able to spawn in what you want could be a huge game changing ability-especially considering the size of the squads you can put together. I would like to get your thoughts on this, as well as any good tactics you can think of to exploit the fact you can spawn in as many battle-tailored units you need as long as yer leader or spawn-capable guy stays alive.

Here's one off the top of my head- Have spawn-capable cloakers actually hiding in minefields and large CE hardpoints that get set up. as soon as something wanders in, you can start spawning appropriately outfitted maxes to finish off anything that gets by that area.
Another fun one is to lure a group of enemies around a corner or into a structure, then having a bunch of guys suddenly spawn in behind or surrounding them and blow them to bits.

[super pretendo]

I hope they put a cooldown on squad spawn, otherwise all sorts of queer shit could go down. Maybe higher certs lower the cooldown or make it so two can spawn per cooldown

[Atheosim]

Squad spawning will only work outdoors- and even then we aren't sure they'll work within base CYs.

[Death2All]

Squad spawning will only work outdoors- and even then we aren't sure they'll work within base CYs.

What he said. Hopefully it will stay limited to that. They've also said you have to go pretty deeply in a skill tree to get the "squad spawning" skill. But what will that translate to longer down the game's life when everyone starts maxing out their skill trees?



Also can't say I'm to pleased about the absence of MAX timers this time around. That is literally the complete opposite of what I'd imagine the majority of the community could ever want. The main issue with MAXes in PS1 (in corelation with BR 40 and abundance of cert points) was their spamability.

You die in one MAX, respawn, pull another as that timer counts down etc. The timer should have started upon their death and that would've remedied the whole problem entirely.


Removing the timer gives people a new crutch class that they can always play as all the time. The point of the MAX is that it's supposed to be a strong linebacker to help enforce and push through the front line. Being able to pull one all the time sounds fucking retarded, I'm sorry, but it does.


Another issue was the ability to just spawn in as a MAX, or any armor as Higby suggested. They wanted to eliminate the need to have to go to an equipment terminal to get gear, instead you just pick your class as you're respawning and go. I understand the point in speeding up the gameplay, but I foresee a few issues arising.

Taking the spawnroom for example. Imagine pushing deep into a base (admist the wave of MAXes with no timers, mind you) and finally into the spawn room and trying to destroy the tubes.

Have you ever been attacking the tubes at a base and suddenly people start deconning in with their Rexo or MAXes. You get annihilated. The point of pushing the spawn room is that you attack them while they're weak and defenseless (Standard armor, weak weapon Supressor) and then you take the tubes out.

Even with wave after wave of shitty defenseless PJ spawners coming in, you can take the tubes down, unless you're severely outnumbered.


And now what..? People will just spawn in with their full armor and MAXes as you're trying to take the tubes down. It just won't happen.




I'm just pissed with the current information I've been hearing as of late. The more and more I hear about the game the more it sounds like they're trying to make another bland, traditional, generic shooter with elements to attract the CoD/BF crowd. There's less and less elements that are making this game unique and more elements that just make it like any other piece of shit game that I hate.

:rant:


Then again this is all hypothetical and based off of my previous knowledge of PS1. This is all assuming that MAXes behave similarly to how they did in PS1. We don't yet know how they behave in game.

[GuvNuh]

I understand your general dislike of the idea, but i think the limiting factors will be a big play in whether or not this works well or horribad.
Really all Highby has said is we can do these things, he hasn't talked about any of the limitations yet. Like, how many people can squad spawn to a leader, can only so many spawn in within a certain timeframe, is there a limit for how far away you can be from a friendly base or spawn capable tower for you to spawn in, all kinds of things that could fairly easily regulate this.

Another thing is the tech/base/resource/hex control required in order to perform remote spawning, as well as the certs required to spawn people in at distance. I really dont think it will be the nightmare you imagine man. I think a group would have to specialize in shock trooping in order to pull it off, and it wouldn't be something random greenies could do effectively.

[Warborn]

MAXs will clearly differ quite a lot from their PS1 counterparts with these changes (no spawn timer, can sit in any passenger slot, can spawn anywhere). They seem to be scaling them back in power to make them more in-line with the other classes as far as their capabilities go. The fact that they all have a "charge" ability also suggests to me that they are going to be the close range assault class.

[Neksar]

How can you even be sure that spawn mechanics will be similar to PS1? The disabling of spawns for a base will likely be something less irritating than what occurred in PS1 - that is, getting spawn camped until they blew up your tubes. I imagine that spawns will be inaccessible to attackers and able to be shut off by some other means, rather than allowing players to be spawn-camped until the tubes are down.

Remember that the goal of PS2 is fun, and that games like CoD and Battlefield attract people by being fun. The hard part is making it fun and unique. One thing that I know for certain is that being tube-camped was not fun.

Also, I'm fairly certain there will be a cooldown on hot-dropping to your squad leader. I think it's supposed to be a useful feature to keep friends/squads together, not something that could be abused for surprise assaults.

[Bags]

I hope they put a cooldown on squad spawn, otherwise all sorts of queer shit could go down. Maybe higher certs lower the cooldown or make it so two can spawn per cooldown

There is going to be one.

[LongBow]

yeh, While its cool selfishly I hope squad spawn sucks, because the better it is the less useful a Galaxey is!

[Lunarchild]

Squad spawning has cooldown, is in open world only, and is a drop-pod falling from the sky... Maybe they can even have separate drop-pods for maxes so you know to start running now :D

[Figment]

From what we know so far, squad spawning is basically organised HART droppod dropping. But includes skipping the process of returning to Sanc and missing the HART dropship and makes it a bit more convenient and easier to organize.

Shouldn't be a major concern as long as you drop outside the SOI (considering I can't see you dropping right in the enemy base or at an entry point without having to fight your way to it due to balancing the element of surprise fairly).