How about Gal pilots?

[Turdicus]

Piloting a Galaxy back in PS1 was one of my favorite things to do. It was so satisfying responding to requests for gal pilots and then successfully dropping off an entire squad onto my enemies heads. But I don't remember ever getting experience for transporting troops (please correct me if I'm just forgetting).

Would there be a way to add some kind of incentive to gal and sundy pilots? Some kind of xp reward so that being a transport driver doesn't retard your BR progression. The way I picture it working is if it was somehow incorporated into the mission system, if there was a mission to bring a squad to a certain place the gal pilot can get xp for successfully delivering that squad.

This would make it so that being a gal or sundy pilot is both fun AND rewarding. I'm probably still gonna do it even without an incentive, because its so critical to gameplay and fulfilling that role is very satisfying, but an xp incentive makes a lot of sense to me.

[onwee]

From what I have gathered, EXP is gained by basically being in the combat zone. The more amount of people killing each other in an area, the more EXP you get.

I don't think they have mentioned any specifics on support exp (such as getting exp when people drop out of your GAL). But I'm very confident you will be able to level up by just dropping people into combat. Since you were in the combat zone, you would be getting the same exp boosts the shooters would be getting.

[Thomas]

I'm not sure how that would activate a trigger to give you XP though and obviously we can't just allow XP for people being in the galaxy and bailing out as that would be a major XP exploit.

I'm afraid the life of a Galaxy pilot is a lonely one...

Maybe as the galaxy is a spawn point maybe people that spawn from the galaxy - as they complete objectives - give a small percentage of XP to the gal owner?

[p0intman]

As long as I can dump people I don't like out over an ocean still, doesn't matter much to me.

[onwee]

I'm not sure how that would activate a trigger to give you XP though and obviously we can't just allow XP for people being in the galaxy and bailing out as that would be a major XP exploit.

I'm afraid the life of a Galaxy pilot is a lonely one...

Maybe as the galaxy is a spawn point maybe people that spawn from the galaxy - as they complete objectives - give a small percentage of XP to the gal owner?

I think if you established rules on GAL drops it would be ok,

For example, if it's a combat zone and there is enemy in the area, then +XX exp for each gal drop...for example.

[Gogita]

I think what we tend to forget is that in Planetside 2, there will be a much larger focus on outfits and more incentives to join outfits as well. Outfits will help giving incentives to people to have support roles.

In PS1, many support roles have to be incentivized before people will use it mainly by giving support exp and such. This holds for galaxy pilots as well, AMS's and so on.

However, I can imagine that if you are in an outfit and you are the designated galaxy pilot, you do not need any experience incentives to pilot the galaxy. The fact that you are helping your outfit and you get credit for it in your outfit.

[Mechzz]

I don't think they have mentioned any specifics on support exp (such as getting exp when people drop out of your GAL). But I'm very confident you will be able to level up by just dropping people into combat. Since you were in the combat zone, you would be getting the same exp boosts the shooters would be getting.

Higby said early on that if you deploy a Gal spawn that you get a share of the XP generated by peeps who spawn there.

[Atheosim]

I think what we tend to forget is that in Planetside 2, there will be a much larger focus on outfits and more incentives to join outfits as well. Outfits will help giving incentives to people to have support roles.

In PS1, many support roles have to be incentivized before people will use it mainly by giving support exp and such. This holds for galaxy pilots as well, AMS's and so on.

However, I can imagine that if you are in an outfit and you are the designated galaxy pilot, you do not need any experience incentives to pilot the galaxy. The fact that you are helping your outfit and you get credit for it in your outfit.

But XP is required to certify for greater specialization. Why would I want to be a dedicated gal pilot if piloting a gal doesn't net me any cert points for piloting a gal? If I want to be a sniper, sniping lets me specialize further, etc, etc, etc.

[Turdicus]

I agree Gojita, even without incentives the sheer utility and necessity of gals and sunderers always draws people in to use them. It won't be an issue I don't think, but getting xp wouldn't hurt :p

The battle zone info helps to clarify where SOE plans on going with this. It seems like it might be a hell of a time just getting the whole process balanced and worked out, but if they can do it then they are going to make a lot of support players very happy. A simple sphere of influence wouldn't work, because then people would always try to do combat drops instead of dropping them on the outskirts of the battle. I dunno, it gets complicated.

[Atheosim]

Higby said early on that if you deploy a Gal spawn that you get a share of the XP generated by peeps who spawn there.

Okay, so that's the AMS bonus. What about actually piloting the gal as a troop transport?

[Gogita]

But XP is required to certify for greater specialization. Why would I want to be a dedicated gal pilot if piloting a gal doesn't net me any cert points for piloting a gal? If I want to be a sniper, sniping lets me specialize further, etc, etc, etc.

Of course, I agree with that. Support exp needs to be given, but it seems like there is still a lot of worries about that there is not enough incentive for people to play support roles. I just think it will not be as bad because of the combination of focus on outfits and support exp.

[Zenben]

I think this could be an awesome implementation of the mission system: A squad leader calls for an evac for his squad. Those with Gal pilot certifications see the mission, and can accept it. Only one pilot can accept it, so as to avoid overlap. Pilot flies to the squad, picks them up, and SL sets a destination through the mission system. Once the squad arrives safely at the destination, the pilot is awarded mission experience. OH GOD I WANT TO BE A GAL PILOT NOW!

Edit: Oooo afterthought - experience could be based on how "hot" the LZ is for the pickup and/or dropoff. This would be measured perhaps by the number of nearby enemies or hotspots as in PS1. The danger level would be indicated to some degree in the mission interface. If you're in a Gal and you're ballsy enough to try to evac a squad that's surrounded by enemy forces, you get a significant exp bonus.

[Mechzz]

Okay, so that's the AMS bonus. What about actually piloting the gal as a troop transport?

whaddaya want, a bonus for spawning the Gal? You spawn the Gal, load it up, fly it to the attack point and set it up. Why does playing taxi driver to 10 deserve its own share of the xp?

You XP for flying the Gal, learn to land it like ArcLegger and learn to aim :p

[Atheosim]

I think this could be an awesome implementation of the mission system: A squad leader calls for an evac for his squad. Those with Gal pilot certifications see the mission, and can accept it. Only one pilot can accept it, so as to avoid overlap. Pilot flies to the squad, picks them up, and SL sets a destination through the mission system. Once the squad arrives safely at the destination, the pilot is awarded mission experience. OH GOD I WANT TO BE A GAL PILOT NOW!

This is a fucking EXCELLENT idea.

[Turdicus]

Well Mechzz the galaxy as an ams might be a sidegrade, and so might not be the default option of the galaxy. I mean...I hope it is. Some people prefer to taxi squads back and forth to the battlefield, picking up a squad, flying and dropping, then going back to base and picking up another squad. Rinse. Repeat. For those kinds of situations an xp bonus would make being a dedicated gal pilot more viable, since rank progression would still exist as opposed to being nonexistent.

[Atheosim]

Well Mechzz the galaxy as an ams might be a sidegrade, and so might not be the default option of the galaxy. I mean...I hope it is. Some people prefer to taxi squads back and forth to the battlefield, picking up a squad, flying and dropping, then going back to base and picking up another squad. Rinse. Repeat. For those kinds of situations an xp bonus would make being a dedicated gal pilot more viable, since rank progression would still exist as opposed to being nonexistent.

Yeah, this is what I was trying to say. Thanks for having greater capabilities of eloquence :p

[Mechzz]

Well Mechzz the galaxy as an ams might be a sidegrade, and so might not be the default option of the galaxy. I mean...I hope it is. Some people prefer to taxi squads back and forth to the battlefield, picking up a squad, flying and dropping, then going back to base and picking up another squad. Rinse. Repeat. For those kinds of situations an xp bonus would make being a dedicated gal pilot more viable, since rank progression would still exist as opposed to being nonexistent.

I hear ya. In fact I too would hope that hotdropping some troops would earn the same share of xp as spawning them.

[Immigrant]

I think this could be an awesome implementation of the mission system: A squad leader calls for an evac for his squad. Those with Gal pilot certifications see the mission, and can accept it. Only one pilot can accept it, so as to avoid overlap. Pilot flies to the squad, picks them up, and SL sets a destination through the mission system. Once the squad arrives safely at the destination, the pilot is awarded mission experience.

And how to prevent possible abuse of this xp yielding scenario? SL could call in Gal for his team simply to allow the pilot to farm xp.

[Zenben]

And how to prevent possible abuse of this xp yielding scenario? SL could call in Gal for his team simply to allow the pilot to farm xp.

Not sure if you saw my edit, but you could base the exp gain on how hot the pickup or drop zone is. If you just taxi a squad around an empty base, you don't get jack shit. If you save a squad from a firefight where they're outnumbered 3:1, or drop them in to a base where they make a significant difference in the fight, you get significant exp.

[Immigrant]

Not sure if you saw my edit, but you could base the exp gain on how hot the pickup or drop zone is. If you just taxi a squad around an empty base, you don't get jack shit. If you save a squad from a firefight where they're outnumbered 3:1, or drop them in to a base where they make a significant difference in the fight, you get significant exp.

I'm up for it then if it can be made to work as you described. :thumbsup:

[Turdicus]

Sounds like in the end the "battle zone" implementation is the best option. XP scales depending on the number of enemies present in the immediate area of the activity. It'll probably have something to do with hexes too, like the number of troops within a certain set of hexes. If this is worked out neatly then it would be a fine addition to the game. But its gonna need testing, I volunteer =)

[Razicator]

Imagine if you can set up waypoints as missions in PS2 for galaxy pilots. For example, set up a mission request for galaxy transports to go from one base to this hex on the front line for the next hour. It'll be kind of like the troop transports in Supreme Commander, where they constantly go back and forth from front lines to base via waypoints and NO input from the player beyond setting it. It'll make PS more like the starwars battles with clone troops constantly jumping off of incoming transport aircraft.

Of course this will happen anyways within outfits, but empire wide missions would make the scale oh so much grander!

[Atheosim]

Jeez, I never thought I'd want to be a gal pilot so bad. Everything about this game sounds so stupidly goddamn fun.

[Xaine]

In Planetside one, if you dropped troops from a Galaxy, you got support EXP for every kill they got i believe. That worked fine. Its really the only way not to abuse it, and to give you an incentive to drop them in a decent place.

[Shogun]

yep, in ps1 at first there was nothing like that, but later on a support xp system was implemented that worked pretty well!

whenever you drop someone from a gal, his first kill would start a timer and you get a share of his kill xp for every kill during this timer.

same applied to ams spawns, ams terminal usage, usage of terminals hacked by you and armor repairs/healing.

hope this will return

[Atheosim]

yep, in ps1 at first there was nothing like that, but later on a support xp system was implemented that worked pretty well!

whenever you drop someone from a gal, his first kill would start a timer and you get a share of his kill xp for every kill during this timer.

same applied to ams spawns, ams terminal usage, usage of terminals hacked by you and armor repairs/healing.

hope this will return

Yeah, it was honestly a fairly brilliant system.

[Shogun]

Yeah, it was honestly a fairly brilliant system.

yes it was! i always played supporter full time, and it made my day so much more rewarding when this was implemented! and the number of supporters went a lot higher instantly!
i am sure the devs got that covered!

the system only had one flaw... the teleporter pads! when it was implemented, people always would place telepads in spawnrooms to leech xp from everybody who used them to get to the vehiclepad faster... leading to a shortcut directly to the spawnrooms for invading enemys ;)

[Turdicus]

Oh, well if it was done well in PS1 then I'm sure the devs have it covered. Building off of the original system from PS1 and modernizing/expanding it is probably a priority for them. Adding the mission ideas in one form or another would be great as an addition. My concerns have been laid to rest, support players are safe.

[Shogun]

oh yeah, adding a second layer with the mission system would be great! the support roles should be encouraged as much as possible! supporters have lost so many things from ps1 (antruns, stealthy ams placement, vast reduction of engineer deployables, autoheal, etc.)that i gladly accept any bone they can throw at us ;)

[Thomas]

Wow, I had no idea that was in PS1.

[basti]

You get XP when someone that dropped from your Gal kills someone. Was like that in PS, i imagine it is like that in PS2.

[Immigrant]

I think this could be an awesome implementation of the mission system: A squad leader calls for an evac for his squad. Those with Gal pilot certifications see the mission, and can accept it. Only one pilot can accept it, so as to avoid overlap. Pilot flies to the squad, picks them up, and SL sets a destination through the mission system. Once the squad arrives safely at the destination, the pilot is awarded mission experience.

Actually even though I find this scenario cool this most probably won't be possible for very simple reason - why would infantry team want evac in the first place? The worst case scenario is that they'll die and get respawned in 20 seconds, if there won't be a death penalty system (many peeps here threw sticks and stones at me for mentioning that possibility) staying alive won't really be important at all (except for k/d ratio), and thus waiting for a evac would actually be a complete waste of time for infantry.

PS1 system with shared xp from kills sounds fair enough and it doesn't give an opportunity for abuse.

[Zenben]

Actually even though I find this scenario cool this most probably won't be possible for very simple reason - why would infantry team want evac in the first place? The worst case scenario is that they'll die and get respawned in 20 seconds, if there won't be a death penalty system (many peeps here threw sticks and stones at me for mentioning that possibility) staying alive won't really be important at all (except for k/d ratio), and thus waiting for a evac would actually be a complete waste of time for infantry.

PS1 system with shared xp from kills sounds fair enough and it doesn't give an opportunity for abuse.

Yeah, I thought about that. Maybe the evac portion was just wishful thinking. Though you could still call for a pickup at a base for an offensive drop on an enemy location.

[Zekeen]

As a dedicated Galaxy pilot fanatic.... I am LOVIN this thread! I'd definitely like some transport exp!

[Serpent]

Yeah, I thought about that. Maybe the evac portion was just wishful thinking. Though you could still call for a pickup at a base for an offensive drop on an enemy location.

... It's a great idea for one small reason (the others are just there for the feeling of being dropped off like a boss)

Spawn 1 galaxy, and serve the purpose of 12 reavers that would be spent crashing somewhere anyway ( I'm talking about just using reavers etc. as small 1 man transports that just crash anyway). It's a great system especially if the faction needs to conserve resources at any point.

Besides, 1 galaxy with 1 mission doesn't sound interesting. But what about 3 or 4? around 50 people dropped off at one point just with 4 galaxies, that's definitely worth it IMO.

[Shogun]

yes. i was thinking of this as a method of organizing attack drops. you get a galaxy and set your target as a mission to attract others to do the same. this could be done with the mission system. and having a full squad ready for a pickup and calling for a squad-external galpilot for a drop is also needed sometimes if you don´t want to leave someone behind. it also caters for dedicated support outfits who could take the role to bring other full squads into battle.

[DayOne]

The mission system will be perfect for gal drops. Organising them in PS1 was usually a pain in the backside when not in an outfit.

[basti]

The mission system will be perfect for gal drops. Organising them in PS1 was usually a pain in the backside when not in an outfit.

A pain? Random galdrops were frigging useless!

Its like loading your gal with a bunch of rocks and dropping them over a base. Just NOTHING happend after that.

But the transport guys who got people quickly from A to B were awesome, loved them, saved me loads of time traveling by ANT. ;)
And i would love to see rewards for those guys. Even tho it may be pointless to transport people around in PS2, given you can pretty much spawn everywhere. :/

[Truemedic]

Even tho it may be pointless to transport people around in PS2, given you can pretty much spawn everywhere. :/


I wouldn't jump to conclusions too quick on that one basti. I have the feeling spawns will be limited to a hex and if you wanted to travel to a different hex you would have to decontruct and head back to the foothold then take a pod to another hex if you didn't feel like walking

Although it does sound tedious but it's just an idea to make air transport a more valuable option.

Just my 2 cents.

[Serpent]

If you look at the footage of almost every video, I don't see a huge amount of spawn locations. ???

[Zenben]

... It's a great idea for one small reason (the others are just there for the feeling of being dropped off like a boss)

Spawn 1 galaxy, and serve the purpose of 12 reavers that would be spent crashing somewhere anyway ( I'm talking about just using reavers etc. as small 1 man transports that just crash anyway). It's a great system especially if the faction needs to conserve resources at any point.

Besides, 1 galaxy with 1 mission doesn't sound interesting. But what about 3 or 4? around 50 people dropped off at one point just with 4 galaxies, that's definitely worth it IMO.

Well if I'm remembering correctly, the devs alluded to platoons being back in the game. So a platoon leader could call for multiple galaxies to pick up the entire group of 30+ people for a drop on a base. A coordinated drop like that could change the tide of a battle.

[Serpent]

Well if I'm remembering correctly, the devs alluded to platoons being back in the game. So a platoon leader could call for multiple galaxies to pick up the entire group of 30+ people for a drop on a base. A coordinated drop like that could change the tide of a battle.

Even better!

Platoons = large scale flanking opportunities, all sorts of stuff :twisted: