TR Max lockdown - Not again! - Page 14

LordHumungusXOX · 2012-01-16, 03:26 PM

TR MAX lockdown is an absolute Love/Hate beast. It looks cool as hell but in reality it is so hard to justify. I think making the Maxes beltfed or raising the firing rate to an absurd level is really the only way to compensate. By following the rule of the best defense is a good offense, the TR Max could stand a chance. If they duplicate its PS1 state, it will be a craptastic MAX all over again.

Effective · 2012-01-17, 12:30 AM

Lockdown = free kill = end of argument. The ROF increase will always be too much or too little. There is no middle ground. TR maxs need something different then lockdown. Something that enables them to be able to push key locations and be as useful as other max units.

Erendil · 2012-01-17, 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by LordHumungusXOX

TR MAX lockdown is an absolute Love/Hate beast. It looks cool as hell but in reality it is so hard to justify. I think making the Maxes beltfed or raising the firing rate to an absurd level is really the only way to compensate. By following the rule of the best defense is a good offense, the TR Max could stand a chance. If they duplicate its PS1 state, it will be a craptastic MAX all over again.

Pretty much this. PS1 lockdown was devastating in the right situations (gen/cc holds, BD defense, Air Cav ganking) but it was too situational. Shields and Jumpjets were way more versatile - which is fine for the VS since that's their strategic approach, but in PS1 it made TR MAXes subpar overall until they got the capacitor as well.

However, given that we currently have instant vehicle boarding/exiting in PS2 I can see where they'd put in instant lockdown as well. Not saying I agree with that concept but it is a possibility.

That said, we know almost zilch about how MAXes will behave in PS2 nor what other unlocks/special abilities they may or may not have, so the idea that TR MAXes will have lockdown means pretty much nothing in terms of balance at this point.

Princess Frosty · 2012-01-17, 04:24 AM

The problem with the TR max was that locking down was clearly to be used for being more defensive, area denial to incoming troops, what it resulted in was a great deal of "Deci popping" where Rexos would peek around a corner for 1/10th of a second, dumbfire a Decimator and then pop back in to cover taking next to no damage.

Hitting a very large, stationary target is really easy, especially if you have prior knowledge of where they are, so the benefit awarded to the TR max should have been greater.

Ideally their anti-infantry should have been better at corners, deci-popping wouldn't be an option if you fired small rockets which had splash that went around corners, that would significantly increase risk for people trying to dance at corners with anti armour weapons.

This is why the Anti-vehicle MAX was used indoors so frequently because it could lock down and set the grenades to bounce and then fire around corners causing much more effective area denial. You know you've done something retarded when the empire tends to use AV MAXes indoors in preference to AP MAXes.

To top it off the TR AA MAX was the only empire AA to require any kind of skill to lead compared to simply locking on and fire/foget, overall it made the TR much weaker unless they were deployed in very specific formations with supporting cover, some of the back door drops we did with Ostekakes crew worked well but they were highly organized and in a game with hundreds solo players that sort of requirement for one empire but not on others is a bit of a killer, and Werner showed that in the daily numbers where the TR were stomped constantly.

LordHumungusXOX · 2012-01-17, 07:33 AM

Yes, decipopping is a big reason the TR maxes really suffered from lockdown. Plus the ridiculously long animation to get your fat ass up and pull the spikes out of the ground. You're usually dead by the time the animation is done.
The fatsuit is awesome but I think they botched it bigtime when they added 40 round clips, then a capacitor, then stealth buffed the already very versatile and powerful Reaver(though the Reaver's former grunt spamming abilities were the reason to camp the living shit out of them to begin with). They should have left well enough alone, but oh well.
Lockdown would need to be quicker and be sheer death to anyone in front of it. Everything in game needs a weakpoint and getting behind one should be it. The majority of the playerbase would prefer some other MAX ability and it would probably be better to ditch lockdown because the only way to make it feasible is to overdue its offensive capabilities(which will never happen).

Metalsheep · 2012-01-17, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by Princess Frosty

Ideally their anti-infantry should have been better at corners, deci-popping wouldn't be an option if you fired small rockets which had splash that went around corners, that would significantly increase risk for people trying to dance at corners with anti armour weapons.

This is why the Anti-vehicle MAX was used indoors so frequently because it could lock down and set the grenades to bounce and then fire around corners causing much more effective area denial. You know you've done something retarded when the empire tends to use AV MAXes indoors in preference to AP MAXes.

Once upon a time, the Pounder actually WAS the TRs AI MAX and the DC was the AV MAX. If i remember correctly, the Pounder was super overpowered against infantry, and generated a ton of grief for the user. And the DC just tickled vehicles. They were switched at some point, i don't remember when exactly.