Too much Sundeer focus?

[Taramafor]

I was skimming over another thread and one of the things that caught my eye was something along the lines of "Too focused on Suns" or some such. Not exactly worded of course, but this does bring something into account.

Let's look at other FPS games. What objectives do we get? Ok, we have to do this and that and then something else. Let's say in Battlefront 2, we have to go here and destroy these books. Or go there in Unreal Tournament to assault this base and change this objective to open the way to another objective (And while only a visual in UT in PS2 I can defiantly see such actions making an impact on a global scale).

Now here's the thing. A Sun is but one objective, and it never lasts long unless there's more suns. Any single sun that deploys anywhere will quickly get found and blown up. Any multiple suns deployed must use cover and even then aren't likely to last too long. And even taking that into account, all fights boil down to simply "Find and blow up the sun". This is the objective in almost ANY fight. And quite possibly why there's so much of a repetitiveness feel for a lot of people. The question is, how do we resolve this? All I know for sure is that I want more then "hunt the sun" in every fight.

Thoughts?

[Violin]

tldr: TRG wants to blow up the sun and must be stopped at all costs.

[Taramafor]

tldr: TRG wants to blow up the sun and must be stopped at all costs.

Joke mode:
Blast, our plan has been reviled. We will blow up your suns yet! FOR THE REPUBLIC! :evil:

Serious mode:
Seriously though, it is the same objective over and over, no? The only time it changes is when attacking a base in which case it's "try to defend the sun and stop it from being blown up." But otherwise the same objective (the sun).

[Violin]

I actually hate when sundys get blown up, unless there are just a ridicuous amount of them. During a completely manageable fun fight, it is nice to let the attackers have a chance(get farmed;) ) . Most of the time the last sundy gets destroyed and that's it funs over, redploy and look for the next fight, or come tomorrow log off and play Battlefield:rofl:

[ChipMHazard]

Well it's about removing the opposing team's ability to spawn. Imo, only way to take the focus away from the Sundies is by having other vehicles also act like spawns.

[Taramafor]

Well it's about removing the opposing team's ability to spawn. Imo, only way to take the focus away from the Sundies is by having other vehicles also act like spawns.

Ah, but what if there were alternatives to spawning? Perhaps a certain vehicle that's NPC controlled that has high HP and attack BUT a NDZ in a large area around that vehicle. I know NPC things are a no go and I'm simply using this as an example and the reason I said NPC controlled was because everyone would want to drive that big, high HP, heavy hitting vehicle. Again, simply an idea of how something can stand in for a sun, not saying it should be implemented. Just looking at other options.

[bpostal]

Well it's about removing the opposing team's ability to spawn. Imo, only way to take the focus away from the Sundies is by having other vehicles also act like spawns.

This is the big one, if you can control where, when, why and how the enemy spawns in then you stand a much greater chance of winning the fight. Of course there's always going to be more bang buses, because people want to spawn closer to their objective than the last base.
Even if you brought back the G-AMS (for the galaxy), it would still be the number 1 target for any defensive team and rightfully so.
Without the ability to spawn forward of your last base, each player would have to respawn far, far away and then drive, fly or walk back to the fight. Nobody wants to do that so you'll see AMS trains rolling up to the base and more getting pulled as soon as the vterms are hacked.

[Emperor Newt]

Not giving every player access to weapons/tools that (almost) instantly kill Sunderers may be s start. But I suppose that's out of the question...

[maradine]

To a certain extent, every fight is "drop the Sundy, hunt the bacon." It's a consequence of spawn capability being manifest in a physical object - ie, by design.

[Taramafor]

It's not so much the spawning I'm against, but rather the very short life spans of the suns themselves. I'm thinking perhaps a mobile "base" of sorts could be added to draw the fights out a bit (because sometimes, longer fights are more fun but with suns we very rarely get them except at certain locations). A trade off for that could be a longer spawn time or something (due to the higher defense).

Whatever the case though, I do want things to remain balanced.

[bpostal]

It's not so much the spawning I'm against, but rather the very short life spans of the suns themselves....
Whatever the case though, I do want things to remain balanced.

Those two are very, very related though. The reason they AMSes have short life spans is simply because they allow for spawning. As such, they are frequently as important, if not more so, than maintaining control over a capture point. Remove the AMS functionality from them and the buses will live much longer because they will be much less important.

The issue with creating a big ol' mobile base is that it would be a nightmare for balance (to say nothing of what it would do to PS2's tenuous grasp on logistics).
It still wouldn't solve the problem because now instead of a couple guys who have made it their goal in life to kill the enemy bus, it's a squad or more who are going to grab armor, air, everything up to and including the kitchen sink, to destroy that massive mobile base as quickly as possible.

[Taramafor]

Hmm... How about having the Suns drop mobile spawn points that are activated in a certain area around the sun itself? You know, ones that can be taken over like in battlefield/battlefront. Probably a nightmare to have Sun's do that anywhere they please (in terms of the coding and stuff) but it just might give that extra edge for longer fights while allowing suns to be semi hidden. Could have certain neutral points that are activated by suns perhaps? Or a location where a sun sets down a bunch of spawn tubes at certain location? Perhaps in themselves being able to be blown up? Obviously, only 1 at a time would be allowed per sun. And it would mean the sun would have to deploy another once one's blown sky high (cool down too) Just theorizing.