Major items from Twitter

[Ailos]

I think one thing everyone is forgetting to take into account here with the thumper/rocklet discussion is the idea of destructible environments.
I know SOE hasn't mentioned much on that matter thus far, but I'm confident that at least some level of destructibility built into the buildings and bases.

When you go to a shooting range, apart from policies and rules, there's nothing physically stopping you from using an RPG rather than a handgun or a rifle, but the rules and policies that prevent you from doing so exist because the use of one equates destruction of the building itself.

In PS2 terms that translates to both the thumper and the rocklet being much more tactical weapons. One or two rounds a clear hallway; continious spamming means a cave-in. Yeah, you've killed your enemy, but you've now also blocked your passage in (as for instance in a BD tunnel), so if anything, you've done them a favour. It could, however, be a defensive strategy to make such cave-ins, so that the enemies are funneled through only one pathway, to buy time while re-enforcements arrive. Also given the fact that we're being told each base is being deisgned to have different tactics from all the others, that means there'll be any number of ways such a tactic would be or wouldn't be useful.

Either way, I hope they include as many weapons as possible into the game, all of the options from PS1, and more (what with sidegrades for each one and whatnot).

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by Tikuto

Driver's
I suspect we're going to see a driver's outfit but what would that be named?

• Autoist?
• Automobilist?
• Leadfoot?
• Operator?

That would be cool, esp if it allowed us to spec for just driving, not the driver/gunner combo thing they have. I love driving, cant stand driving and gunning at the same time, enough that i would just not even drive those vehicles.

[EASyEightyEight]

I think engineers will be the de-facto pilots. They mentioned 6 classes:

Mobile Assault (jetpack)
Medic
Engineer
Recon (cloaker/sniper)
Heavy Assault
MAX(?)

The last one might count as a vehicle, might count as a class, and I'd bet on the latter. From what I gather, vehicles will have their own skill trees, not a generic, all-rounder tree.

[Graywolves]

Originally Posted by EASyEightyEight

I think engineers will be the de-facto pilots. They mentioned 6 classes:

Mobile Assault (jetpack)
Medic
Engineer
Recon (cloaker/sniper)
Heavy Assault
MAX(?)

The last one might count as a vehicle, might count as a class, and I'd bet on the latter. From what I gather, vehicles will have their own skill trees, not a generic, all-rounder tree.

Imagine hot-dropping and jetpacking around for harrassment? Awesome.

[LZachariah]

Higby has already said that there is no "Pilot" class. Therefore, you could conceivably pilot a tank in Infiltrator Armor or Standard or Agile Armor, etc. Obviously, I don't think that anyone expects to be able to pilot a vehicle wearing MAX arrmor (though I believe that Galaxies can carry a few MAX's for hot-drops). Now, I'm not sure whether or not someone in Heavy Assault Armor can get into a vehicle. That, for me is still uncertain. So basically, you'll be able to certificate whatever skills you want (yes, that's a verb now, in honor of Planetside 2), and any pilot skills you have will apply in most of your class-loadouts (ie- a Vanu Medic will be able to jump into a Magrider and pilot it if they have the certification).

~Zachariah

[Marth Koopa]

Originally Posted by Tikuto

Lancer tracking?
Also, I'd like Lancer to have an additional H.U.D. layer that tracks your target for you. TR and NC have forms of tracking on their AV weapons (PS1) yet VS's AV weapon doesn't, and so this idea really ought to be thought-out for the Lancer.

That's not necessary. Keep the VS weaponry skill-oriented, the NC and TR can keep their scrub easy mode weaponry.

The Lancer is my favorite weapon in PS1, I don't want it changed one bit. It just feels so good blowing up enemies knowing I did it all with my skill, not with automated or hide-behind-walls-and-camera-guide-it trash.

Using the Lancer to blow up enemy aircraft is especially fun.

[Tikuto]

Originally Posted by Marth Koopa

That's not necessary. Keep the VS weaponry skill-oriented, the NC and TR can keep their scrub easy mode weaponry.

The Lancer is my favorite weapon in PS1, I don't want it changed one bit. It just feels so good blowing up enemies knowing I did it all with my skill, not with automated or hide-behind-walls-and-camera-guide-it trash.

Using the Lancer to blow up enemy aircraft is especially fun.

Fascist :P

[Bags]

The Lancer was the best ESAV, despite being the "hardest". I'd take it any day over the Striker.

[Captain1nsaneo]

Originally Posted by Marth Koopa

The Lancer is my favorite weapon in PS1, I don't want it changed one bit. It just feels so good blowing up enemies knowing I did it all with my skill, not with automated or hide-behind-walls-and-camera-guide-it trash.

Listen to this man. We VS like our AV, it's a trade off of chance to miss for higher damage.

SA in PS is currently underpowered and I will explain why. When you talking about dying to the damage you're ignoring the long reload times and small magazine that both the thumper and rocklet have. Though you're not complaining about dying any more since the plazma nerf because it takes 3 hits to the face with frag nades to kill anyone (sans medpack) and good luck killing anyone with the non-existent AOE damage. The rocklet needs all 6 to hit head on if you want to kill any Rexo with a medkit, but you won't do that because the rocklet isn't accurate enough and the Rexo has HA. And when was the last time you were killed by a radiator?

SA only really works when you have the high ground and an enemy out in the open which is almost never. More often than not a MA user will kill you first and heaven help you if you're indoors against anyone with HA. SA is all about where you are and where your enemy is, if you set yourself up right you will win and that's what gets HA users frustrated. They can't win a fight that's setup in an SA users favor.

(If you want to try out SA, as a devout user of not-HA I can only really recommend the EMP thumper with AV or the flacklet with AV for poor man's AA. Sweeper/rocklet/hand plasma can also work but it won't bring you to even footing with HA and depends on situation to work well.)

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by Captain1nsaneo

Listen to this man. We VS like our AV, it's a trade off of chance to miss for higher damage.

SA in PS is currently underpowered and I will explain why. When you talking about dying to the damage you're ignoring the long reload times and small magazine that both the thumper and rocklet have. Though you're not complaining about dying any more since the plazma nerf because it takes 3 hits to the face with frag nades to kill anyone (sans medpack) and good luck killing anyone with the non-existent AOE damage. The rocklet needs all 6 to hit head on if you want to kill any Rexo with a medkit, but you won't do that because the rocklet isn't accurate enough and the Rexo has HA. And when was the last time you were killed by a radiator?

SA only really works when you have the high ground and an enemy out in the open which is almost never. More often than not a MA user will kill you first and heaven help you if you're indoors against anyone with HA. SA is all about where you are and where your enemy is, if you set yourself up right you will win and that's what gets HA users frustrated. They can't win a fight that's setup in an SA users favor.

(If you want to try out SA, as a devout user of not-HA I can only really recommend the EMP thumper with AV or the flacklet with AV for poor man's AA. Sweeper/rocklet/hand plasma can also work but it won't bring you to even footing with HA and depends on situation to work well.)

The radiator is about area denial and the psychological aspect of grenade spam, not about gettin kills and it does it extremely well. Thumper does a great job with its grenade spamming, it helps to slow up progression indoors or clears out clumps (mostly pyschological), one guy with a thumper can stop or dramatically slow the progression of enemies up a staircase, a guy with an mcg cant do that at all. If your goal is to kill whore then go for your mcg, if you want to win, then making good use of SA is key. And you'll still get plenty of kills, dont worry about that.

Now the rocklet....yeah thats uderpowered and not that useful. Not sure what its role should be honestly. Dont need more AI stuff, its just redundant with the thumper, and its not very good for AV, and buffing it for AV just puts it into the ESAV department. Maybe its damage should be buffed a bit getting it close to the ESAV but with its dumbfire only and travel times it wouldnt be as good. Honestly tho it needs somethin to differentiate it from teh pack. Being some combo AI/AV thing sux, rocklets just seem stupid as AI weapons, and it ends up being a crap av and crap ai weapon. But honestly if they cant give it some niche then there's no point in havin it. (i do want it to return but i want it to fit in better, it needs a clearly defined role)

[Bags]

Rocklet rifle is fine.

[xSlideShow]

Originally Posted by BorisBlade

The radiator is about area denial and the psychological aspect of grenade spam, not about gettin kills and it does it extremely well. Thumper does a great job with its grenade spamming, it helps to slow up progression indoors or clears out clumps (mostly pyschological), one guy with a thumper can stop or dramatically slow the progression of enemies up a staircase, a guy with an mcg cant do that at all. If your goal is to kill whore then go for your mcg, if you want to win, then making good use of SA is key. And you'll still get plenty of kills, dont worry about that.

Now the rocklet....yeah thats uderpowered and not that useful. Not sure what its role should be honestly. Dont need more AI stuff, its just redundant with the thumper, and its not very good for AV, and buffing it for AV just puts it into the ESAV department. Maybe its damage should be buffed a bit getting it close to the ESAV but with its dumbfire only and travel times it wouldnt be as good. Honestly tho it needs somethin to differentiate it from teh pack. Being some combo AI/AV thing sux, rocklets just seem stupid as AI weapons, and it ends up being a crap av and crap ai weapon. But honestly if they cant give it some niche then there's no point in havin it. (i do want it to return but i want it to fit in better, it needs a clearly defined role)

I never really saw SA as something you use to replace HA but something you used to replace AV.

I also thought the Rocket Rifle was an amazing weapon it was my favorite second only to the lasher. It's role was the same as the Thumpers role. To displace enemy troops. I found it's most effective use in the exact opposite situations the thumper was good at. And I really don't think you had to hit them dead on to land a kill... It also has the most max slaying potential if your an agile user since it takes 2 clips to kill a max. You would always have an extra box giving you the ability to kill 2 maxes with relative ease.

I really thought the SA in PS1 was great and I used it quite extensively I would like to see it implemented in much the same fashion. The radiator is the only one that I'm ok with the removal of tbh. Since it performs almost the exact same thing as the Thumper.

[Erendil]

Originally Posted by xSlideShow

Ok, another thing... Since your not going to be able to carry an AV gun and MCG at the same time. Are you going to be able to carry a secondary rifle? Perhaps a cycler? Will the MCG user be able to carry Special Assault weaponry? Or will it be like the MCG, Special Assault, and AV fill up the same equipment slot?

Yeah I certainly hope the Heavies can carry a secondary light-class weapon like a Cycler. I'd really hate to see the Heavy Assault class limited to carrying just one "two-handed" weapon at a time. For the light classes it's fine since they'll have access to other support/special abilities. But limiting the HA class to just one main weapon would be too crippling for a pure fighter-type IMO.

I'm guessing/hoping that the Heavy Assault class will be able to carry one "heavy" class weapon (HA, AV, Thumper), one "light" class weapon (ESMA or Sweeper), a sidearm, and a couple of nades.

So you could do MCG+Cycler, AV+Cycler, Thumper+Cycler, etc, but since I'm guessing the Thumper will be considered a "heavy" class weapon you couldn't do MCG+Thumper, MCG+AV, or Thumper+AV.

[EASyEightyEight]

Actually... I want to believe SA would fit the light-weapon bill nicely. It's not overly large, it's just a rifle that lobs grenades/rocklets. Everyone could still have access to a sidearm as a primary means of direct fire, however effective that is compared to a real rifle.

But we're getting ahead of our selves. I don't recall any mention of what we'll get in the way of SA. It's probably a sure bet we'll get at least a grenade launcher though.

Basically, while I do want assault rifles and shotguns to be the majority of the small-arms we find in the field, I just don't feel every weapon that ISN'T a rifle or shotgun should be wielded only by guys in power armor.

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by xSlideShow

I never really saw SA as something you use to replace HA but something you used to replace AV.

Thats what i mean, you arent limited by certs like you were in ps1. So if you have access to av then use av, not the rocklet. Honestly if it doesnt bring anything new, then its just duplicating a weapon, thats boring and waste of resources. I really like the idea of the weapon, but it needs a niche. Its kind of half ass thumper and half ass av, its half ass at whatever it does. Maybe some simple extra effects or variation on delivery or whatever. Its SA, so i think it should bring somethin different into play in how it functions and what its good for that someone with AV or a thumper could not do. Honestly tho, esp with customization, they wont put it in alongside a thumper without changin it up a bit. Its just so similar that you cant really customize each of em and have anything unique come out of it, way too much overlap.

In the end, i bet they get combined into one weapon. you choose whether you shoot rocklets or grenades. The weapons are way too similar for them to not just do this and let the customization part determine whether the projectiles are straight or lobbed, which is the only real difference.