Gameplay: Devastator, Warbringer, and Trident

[Baneblade]

A little backstory: Devastator is the heaviest tank from Verant's Tanarus tank FPS game. It was a tier above the Vanguard, the medium tank. Warbringer is a metal band and apparently some WoW nomenclature. Trident is the overpowered hover tank from Infantry Online's Mechanized map (SOE). Should be no copyright or trademark issues with any of these names.

NC - Devastator

The Devastator is the NC penultimate land vehicle, it costs ten times as much as any other unit. It is armed with a main turret that is essentially two Vanguard turrets welded together doubling the Vanguard's damage per shot. There are 4 secondary gun turrets, one oriented toward each facing of the vehicle and with 180 degrees total horizontal arc and 60 degrees total vertical arc. The Devastator is amphibious, but very slow on water. It can also carry 4 passengers, but no MAXes. So an entire squad (6 crew + 4 pass) could fit in one.

TR - Warbringer

The Warbringer is the zenith of TR ground battle philosophy and also costs ten fold what any other vehicle does. The main turret battery is a six barrel gatling autocannon (Prowler barrels) with double the Prowler's fire rate. Like the Devastator, the Warbringer has 4 secondary turrets and room for the rest of the squad. The Warbringer is also amphibious.

VS - Trident

The Trident, like the rest of VS technology, takes a completely different approach to the heavy tank concept. It hovers and is thus the master of amphibious assault. Armed with a single Mega Laser turret that emits a continuous beam of photonic energy and 4 secondary phase turrets (energy weapons that do bonus damage to energy shields) as well as matching the ability to carry a full squad, the Trident is easily a peer for the category.

Precise stats can't really be worked out until we have a baseline to work with, but roughly five times the survivability, 75% the speed, 25% the acceleration, and 10x the cost of their smaller tank counterparts.

[Hosp]

I like the idea more because it's adding armor options and not because of super vehicles.

I know it's a futuristic sci-fi game and all, but super weapons always end up being super at first and nerfed to all hell shortly thereafter. Really it just looks like BFRs all over again.

Rather, I'd take those tanks and just add them as another potential option for your certs at relative costs.

[Baneblade]

Which why I didn't give them. Tons of fire power. Double the DPS might be too high for five times the survivability, even still. Dunno yet really. These would be massively juicy kills, so I fully expect them to be focus fired most of the time.

[Saifoda]

Originally Posted by Sobekeus

These would be massively juicy kills, so I fully expect them to be focus fired most of the time.

Exactly -- shared XP for all who "assisted" in the kill, which would include not only massive xp/resources for a big-vic kill, but all the crew members as well. These ideas I think are much better than the BFRs of yore, as those were just the guys who spent their times in the caverns (which was eventually everybody at one point or another) and they were basically one-man killbots.

Maybe you could also have each tank have a specific pilot/driver spot, which does not control any weapons; could be a further counter to being army of one style.. Also would promote cooperation.



In general though this idea could either turn out really good, or really bad (i.e. BFR) but I think it definitely has the potential to be a boon and not a drain on the game.

[Baneblade]

They are all 6 crew: Driver, Main Gunner, and Four Secondary Gunners

No AA options, we don't need a universal farming machine in PS2.

[Saifoda]

Originally Posted by Sobekeus

They are all 6 crew: Driver, Main Gunner, and Four Secondary Gunners

No AA options, we don't need a universal farming machine in PS2.

lol yeah, I could definitely see that being a good balance rule. This all sounds pretty good to me!


+1

[Talek Krell]

This actually seems fairly well balanced as far as heavy tank ideas go.

The separate driver keeps it from being a one person farm machine.
The vehicle is very powerful, but far less resource efficient than an MBT.

Interesting idea at the least.

[super pretendo]

The Devastator is the NC penultimate land vehicle,

penultimate just means "second to last" dude

also, I have a several page long "super heavy tank" thread in this subforum

[Baneblade]

That is a diminutive way to look at it, I like to think of it meaning the Devastator is the second to last thing you see before you respawn.

[LillRutger]

And I thought the community were against BFR's.

IMO: No, I don't want some big supertank/firingplatform in the game.

[Baneblade]

Originally Posted by LillRutger

And I thought the community were against BFR's.

IMO: No, I don't want some big supertank/firingplatform in the game.

Because it isn't a BFR.

[Fab]

I am no PS1 vet but here is a general opinion : I don t like the Idea of adding massive changes to a game that requires balance. The current state needed years of work to be fully balanced, i fear that adding new vehicles, especially powerfull ones, breaks the game like BFRs did.

On the opposite, i love your ideas and the philosophy of the 3 tanks that you discribed.
I just fear they replace sunderers and medium tanks, even if the price is extremly high. Maybe you can reduce the risks by putting a "faction cooldown time", and by allowing the spawning of such a tank only with the authorisation of the faction leaders...

[Saifoda]

Fab I think the balances could be pretty good.

Especially the resource balance one, for example let's say, all things considered (empire owns 33% of hexes evenly distributed across resources) and you're actively gaining an average of resource XYZ at a rate of 500/hour. You could make this vehicle cost upwards of 100,000 (implying 200 hours of gameplay) and that would make it nearly impossible for most people to purchase.

^ I know that suggestion is uh, how do you say, hyperbolic? I guess? Idk, but I think you get my point that with the resource system alone you can balance out the *amount* of these that come out (which would be one main issue). The main trouble with BFR's was how overpowered they were and that they were one man killbots. The liberator was DEVASTATING in the original game, but it took at least 2 to be effective and was still relatively exposed (to fighter craft and AA vics and MAX).




Your faction cooldown timer is a good idea for helping to balance it out too; idk about the "command authorization" thing though, that tends to lead towards some bad things (increase intra-empire competition among the "leaders," implies and enables the perception that commanders are superior players [when the whole idea is the opposite -- see 5 minute 5 year doctrine], etc...)




EDIT: Also:

Originally Posted by Sobekeus

Because it isn't a BFR.

^That.

[Fab]

Originally Posted by Saifoda

Fab I think the balances could be pretty good.

Especially the resource balance one, for example let's say, all things considered (empire owns 33% of hexes evenly distributed across resources) and you're actively gaining an average of resource XYZ at a rate of 500/hour. You could make this vehicle cost upwards of 100,000 (implying 200 hours of gameplay) and that would make it nearly impossible for most people to purchase.

Yeah that could do it. That makes me think : do we know if you can lend some other players some of your own ressources?

[Saifoda]

Originally Posted by Fab

Yeah that could do it. That makes me think : do we know if you can lend some other players some of your own ressources?

At this point I am not sure of anything -- maybe a dev will pop his/her head in here and let you know otherwise an answer MIGHT be floating around somewhere in the forums, or a mod might know or just somebody else in general. I haven't seen any new videos lately except for the ps1 live streams that have been going on so not a lot of questions have been getting answered this past week. If I had to guess, I'd say.....maybe? Yeah, I just really don't know. It'd be cool if you could, but there may be a good reason why they won't implement it (if they don't).