Sunderer as transport vehicle?

[Kalbuth]

Sundy transports MAXes

[MrKWalmsley]

I just realised how great of an asset it can be to defence. I mean one defensive tool is the Engy turret, but with the Sundy you have 2, both customizable, and both with the ability to turn 360 and look directly up and slightly down. Plus the protection it gives to the gunners from direct fire, plus the massive amounts of armour.

Given the option I would rather deploy a couple of sundys as a defence for a base than engy turrets, on the exterior and open areas of the base of course.

[Hrongar]

Two words: "Bang" "Bus"

[StumpyTheOzzie]

Originally Posted by Brusi

People will find a use for it ;p

Filming porn doesn't count.

I often use the bangbus as a suicide minesweeper. Sure, I die a horrible death but isn't that the job of 'point'?

[Figment]

There's a lot of ways to utilise the Sunderer, most people underestimate the power of Ground Transportation. Killed about 6 Magriders, 3 Prowlers and 1 stolen Vannie driving the Sunderer Mk1 in direct one on one combat.

Sunderer Mk2 is fastly more powerful.

The PS2 "Mk3" will be a bit in between the Mk1 and Mk2 in combat, but even more powerful in specific roles from the looks of it.

[Azren]

Originally Posted by Kezz

Lacks survivability you say? When the devs have been yukking about it being able to ram MBTs to death, it's that heavily armoured?

The problem is size. That thing makes a huge target, near impossible to miss for any AV.


This topic was not meant to question the sunderer's viability in general, only as transport vehicle. This is important. It will obviously be a very useful support vehicle, but how does it fare as a mass transport when you can have everyone roll their own Flash/mossy/whatever.

[TerminatorUK]

The vehicle certification requirement in PS1 proved not to promote the use ground transport as you would expect. In fact, outside of organised squads, the use of ground transport became quickly obsolwte with most people opting for a mossie.

In PS2 the very fact that people haven't already had to pay the cert cost for a mossie, the obvious speed/armour/power of the vehicle, increased player count (including new players happy to hop on a transport, high density of places viable to fight (not needing to traverse such large distances) and finally (very importantly) the associated (and maybe quite high) resource cost to pull an aircraft will probably mean they are actually used more frequently.

[Flaropri]

Originally Posted by Azren

With this given, why would the sunderer ever be used as a transport. What does it have to offer to the troops to make it a viable option? We know what it lacks, speed and survivability.

I don't think it lacks survivability really (and it's a smaller target than a Galaxy IIRC). It also has the benefit of being able to safely (for it, not necessarily for the target) ram tanks out of it's way. The Galaxy can't do that; it can't provide that sort of disruptive charge through infantry and armor that the Sunderer can.

The Sunderer also has easier access to gateways and the interiors of buildings or other locations that are underneath some natural or man-made roof.

Depending on engine noise and skill of the pilot/driver, the Sunderer can, as others mentioned, be more stealthy in its approach than a Galaxy.

[Turdicus]

The gal is good for hot drops and for setting up a mobile spawn outside of the battle, but the sundy has been advertised as a battering ram. A flash, or even a squad of flashes, would likely fare much less well trying to get into the courtyard of an occupied base, whereas the Sundy would be able to punch right through and drop an entire squad (maybe even two if the rumors are correct) into the heart of an enemy base.

It depends on what strategy you're going for. Sure you COULD drive in a squad of flashes, but that won't be terribly effective at getting you past a defensive line like the sunderer is supposed to.

[FastAndFree]

And don't forget that the Sunderer is a supply vehicle. So if you have 2 Sunderers... Not even Chuck Norris could stop them

[Hamma]

The sunderer is quite a beast as well it will be used to plow through vehicles including tanks. This isn't your PlanetSide 1 Sunderer.

[Redshift]

I want it to have a bubble shield, so it can smash full pelt into a base wall and deploy a shield for protection while the grunts run indoors

[Jaegen]

Originally Posted by Redshift

I want it to have a bubble shield, so it can smash full pelt into a base wall and deploy a shield for protection while the grunts run indoors

That might be a little OP, but it does bring up a good point. How vulnerable will squads coming out of Sunderers be? There aren't getting out of vehicle animations like in PS1 but I can see defenders just chucking grenades at a Sunderer and killing everyone coming out of it. Are players able to exit the Sunderer while it is moving?

[Baneblade]

The Sunderer is going to be a very important vehicle for War Machine. You will see some very interesting tactics from us using it.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

The Sunderer is going to be a very important vehicle for War Machine. You will see some very interesting tactics from us using it.

You can't possibly know that yet... it could be shit.