News: Higby Update on Air vs Ground Balance

Hamma · 2012-12-05, 09:47 PM

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...lance-2917.htm

Hey all!

First of all, since I think this is my first official post since the game has been live, a quick introduction. My name is Matt Higby and I'm the Creative Director for PlanetSide 2, my job is to work with all of our game designers as well as the other team directors to help build the game. I'm also supposed to post on the forums and make funny movies on youtube.

I wanted to post today to talk about some changes to vehicle balance and especially air-to-ground gameplay. Air-to-ground interactions (and i'm talking about ground-to-air interactions with this too) are one of the most challenging balance touch points in the game. It's very easy with minor changes to make people on either end of this equation feel like they're getting hosed.

Goal for ground based anti-air:
We've talked before a bit about wanting ground to be an effective deterrent to air, and a very dangerous threat against pilots who are being risky (strafing, bombing low, hover spamming rockets, etc), but not necessarily be a hard counter to air. Ultimately friendly air power should be the best counter to enemy air power. I think that statement has been interpreted by some as us saying that the current balance is what we want, I want to be clear: that is not the case. Currently the air-to-ground balance is favoring air a bit too much, and aircraft have an imbalanced influence on the battlefield compared to ground.

In next week's update we're making some adjustments to the air-to-ground gameplay, some of these will affect ground vehicles and some even affect infantry vs infantry, but the main purpose is to bring air and ground into balance a bit more. None of these are enormous changes, but the cumulative effect should be closer to our goal of allowing ground to be an effective deterrent to air and a dangerous threat against pilots who are being risky.

Lock on Rocket Launchers (AV and AA):
- Range Increase
- Faster reload time (to compensate for lock on time)
- Now require lock on to fire

Flak:
- Minor damage increase
- Projectile speed increase

A30 Walker:
- Buffed Damage
- Faster Projectile

Rocket Pods:
- Decrease to the inner explosion radius: 3m to 1.5m. This is the center of the rocket explosion where the maximum damage occurs, so this will not affect direct hits. Effectively this makes the damage falloff at the center of the rocket pod explosion start closer to the center.

Flak Armor:
- Increase maximum explosion resistance for certed Flak armor from 25% to 50%. This makes Flak armor a more viable choice over Nanoweave for soldiers being attacked with explosives.

Decimator:
- New Heavy Assault common pool rocket launcher. High-damage anti-vehicle weapon, has a slow projectile speed and no lock on, but does massive damage to vehicles and other armored targets.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a very complex balance touch point, and we expect that balance changes will continue to occur to this area of the game until it feels great. We think these changes should help a lot to keep infantry and ground vehicles feeling competitive with their colleagues and enemies in the sky and will be a good first step in the journey of balance.

As always, we are eager to hear your feedback, questions and concerns.

DirtyBird · 2012-12-05, 10:14 PM

Let me guess, the Decimator is just 1000 certs or 700 SC.

Chewy · 2012-12-05, 10:16 PM

Lock on Rocket Launchers (AV and AA):
- Range Increase
- Faster reload time (to compensate for lock on time)
- Now require lock on to fire

This is going to make a lot HA players rather mad. If Im reading that right it is removing the ability to dumbfire AA and AV lock on rockets. I understand not having dumbifre for AV but not to have it for AA is going to really hurt AA based HA troops once the air is cleared or if armor rolls in.

Maybe the other adjustments will make this moot with other AA weapons being more able to do the job. Wont know till we play the patch.

Methonius · 2012-12-05, 10:25 PM

Not going to lie, flinching at the aspect that I won't be able to dumb fire anymore with my AA launcher, but I'll just have to see how good it is after the patch before I spout out how crappy it is.

maradine · 2012-12-05, 10:27 PM

Having the Deci back will be really nice, but I'm curious how slow the projectile will have to be to keep the default launcher viable. Then again, I guess it's one-shot.

edit: Oooooooh, it's a replacement. I didn't get that out of the post.

TheSaltySeagull · 2012-12-06, 02:58 AM

Originally Posted by Chewy

Lock on Rocket Launchers (AV and AA):
- Range Increase
- Faster reload time (to compensate for lock on time)
- Now require lock on to fire

This is going to make a lot HA players rather mad. If Im reading that right it is removing the ability to dumbfire AA and AV lock on rockets. I understand not having dumbifre for AV but not to have it for AA is going to really hurt AA based HA troops once the air is cleared or if armor rolls in.

Maybe the other adjustments will make this moot with other AA weapons being more able to do the job. Wont know till we play the patch.

You will be in the same boat as the other ground based AA platforms the dual burster max and skyguard. They are worthless vs anything that isnt aircraft and in a situation like you describe would have to change equipment. HA will have to do the same thing. You at least have your LMG so you can engage infantry which is more than can be said for the MAX and SG. So I personally don't see this as much of an issue.

Whiteagle · 2012-12-06, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by Chewy

Lock on Rocket Launchers (AV and AA):
- Range Increase
- Faster reload time (to compensate for lock on time)
- Now require lock on to fire

This is going to make a lot HA players rather mad. If Im reading that right it is removing the ability to dumbfire AA and AV lock on rockets. I understand not having dumbifre for AV but not to have it for AA is going to really hurt AA based HA troops once the air is cleared or if armor rolls in.

Maybe the other adjustments will make this moot with other AA weapons being more able to do the job. Wont know till we play the patch.

Yeah, I can understand the AA Launcher being a "deterrent" for air... if it could still engage ground targets with dumbfire at reduced damage...

This...
...This makes me wonder if Lock-on should just be ONE duel purpose Launcher that does less damage overall...

Originally Posted by maradine

edit: Oooooooh, it's a replacement. I didn't get that out of the post.

Yeah, can we get a conformation on this?

I'd love to get a Straight Upgrade to my default for FREE!

Hamma · 2012-12-05, 10:27 PM

They are replacing dumb fire with decimators.

DirtyBird · 2012-12-05, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

They are replacing dumb fire with decimators.

Exactly, I already spent $7 on a weapon that functioned a particular way, it hasnt even been a month and its being changed.

To be fair I think they should offer refunds.

maradine · 2012-12-05, 10:44 PM

How did you spend $7 on a weapon in the default HA kit?

Graywolves · 2012-12-05, 10:46 PM

What I really want is the Stryker. Even if it did only like 10% damage to something I'd love it.

DirtyBird · 2012-12-05, 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by maradine

How did you spend $7 on a weapon in the default HA kit?

Which one of us is reading it wrong?

Lock on Rocket Launchers (AV and AA):
- Range Increase
- Faster reload time (to compensate for lock on time)
- Now require lock on to fire

The Crow is the Rocket Launcher he is referring to isn't it?

psychobilly · 2012-12-05, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by maradine

How did you spend $7 on a weapon in the default HA kit?

Talking about the ground-to-air rocket which we paid for. It is getting nerfed so it can no longer dumb fire on ground targets. If it was a problem they should have lowered the AV damage, but it won't be the same weapon we paid for.

Should allow a station cash refund, at a minimum.

maradine · 2012-12-05, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by psychobilly

Talking about the ground-to-air rocket which we paid for. It is getting nerfed so it can no longer dumb fire on ground targets. If it was a problem they should have lowered the AV damage, but it won't be the same weapon we paid for.

Should allow a station cash refund, at a minimum.

That's not the problem they were trying to solve for. You can still dumb fire into whatever you like - you just need to be within a meter and a half of what you were shooting at to do full damage. I thought everyone in the air was into "skill weapons"?

I don't think the attitude that paying for something exempts it from a balance pass is particularly grounded in reality.

Originally Posted by DirtyBird

The Crow is the Rocket Launcher he is referring to isn't it?

None of the above, it would seem!

Goldeh · 2012-12-05, 11:49 PM

Originally Posted by psychobilly

Talking about the ground-to-air rocket which we paid for. It is getting nerfed so it can no longer dumb fire on ground targets. If it was a problem they should have lowered the AV damage, but it won't be the same weapon we paid for.

Should allow a station cash refund, at a minimum.

EULA says that you're leasing the weapons you buy. You don't "own" the gun you buy, you permanently rent it. This gives SOE the right to do whatever they want with the guns you buy.