Trailer's Drop Pod Beacon

[BlueSkies]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

A beacon could be cool.

It would alert enemies that death from above could be on its way.

It would be a target for the enemy to seek and destroy.

It would be an inventory tradeoff choice whether or not you wanted to bring a beacon along.

It would make it easier to rally everyone to spawn into the same area at the same time together, instead of scattershot like we've currently seen with most squad spawners.

Hell, it'd make a great distraction. Drop beacon at east side of base, wait for defenders to zerg a bit, rush the west side of base.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by BlueSkies

Hell, it'd make a great distraction. Drop beacon at east side of base, wait for defenders to zerg a bit, rush the west side of base.

Infiltrator places a beacon to the east, Galaxy flies in low to the ground and lands behind a hill to the west. Let the invasion commence

[Ranik Ortega]

Originally Posted by BlueSkies

Hell, it'd make a great distraction. Drop beacon at east side of base, wait for defenders to zerg a bit, rush the west side of base.

Lol good point. though if it were destroyable that wouldn't quite work unless pushed a bit outside the base outside of destruction range. Still a great tactic

[MercDT]

I would actually prefer this than squad spawning. It makes a lot more sense game play wise.

Battlefield 2142 had this mechanic and it worked just fine...then again this is Planetside. A replacement of the current cert should be replaced with this.

[pengalor]

I would actually like to see a mixture of both. I think you should always get a sqaud spawn where you just spawn at the location of the sqaudmate you selected (you come down in a drop pod still) but give it a decent cooldown so it's for emergency situations that you really need to keep pushing on that exact point. Then you could also have the option of a squad spawn beacon that has a much shorter cooldown but obviously has the downside of being stationary and easier to spot. I think this would balance perfectly.

[Gonefshn]

Originally Posted by Ranik Ortega

Gone it would not surprise me if the beacon were in purely as a balancing measure to squad spawning. It acts as an early warning system to people on the ground that pods are possibly incoming. It acts as something that can be destroyed to prevent spawning etc etc

That would be cool but just because it's in the video doesn't mean it's even in the game, haven't seen anything like it yet.

I'd love it to make it in though.

[SixShooter]

I would love to see this as opposed to the current squad spawn mechanic. It would take some balls to set up a beacon like that behind enemy lines and even more balls to spawn there knowing that everyon can see where you're dropping in.

[Littleman]

People can see it, it needs to be deployed, and likely will be limited in number. On the other hand, there wouldn't need to be a cooldown timer, just a maximum drop limit or a time limit on how long the beacon lasts. It can't last indefinitely until destroyed, else why bring a galaxy besides potentially being less visible than a shining pillar of light?

And before anyone points out that last bit: It's a galaxy... it's not subtle.

[SpcFarlen]

Originally Posted by SixShooter

I would love to see this as opposed to the current squad spawn mechanic. It would take some balls to set up a beacon like that behind enemy lines and even more balls to spawn there knowing that everyon can see where you're dropping in.

I agree, its risky for both the one placing it and the ones spawning in. It tells everyone in the area HEY LOOK AT ME!!! But could also be deadly if a full platoon were to just fall out of the sky near a base where the defenders cant get to.

Id say let them throw it in beta to see how it works. If its bad, take it out. Simple as that.

[PoisonTaco]

Sounds a lot like the spawning beacon from Battlefield 2142. In 2142 you could only spawn on the squad leader. The squad leader had the option of taking the beacon and when deployed his squad spawned there instead of the beacon.

I think Planetside 2 should do something similar. You can ONLY squad spawn on the squad leader (gives you a big bonus if you can snipe him) but that changes to the beacon once it's placed.

I just hope the beacon doesn't have the obvious beam of light going into the sky that can be seen from a mile away.

One thing I could see being a really cool for customization is changing the drops. Higby and Co. could play around with the accuracy of the drop pods. You could say have a beacon that gives your squad a very accurate deployment a the cost of longer respawn times. You could have a beacon with lower spawning times but when people come down, they may be spread out and further away from the beacon.

[vVRedOctoberVv]

Originally Posted by Gonefshn

Dropping a beacon would be a cooler mechanic for squad spawn than a simple timer because it would gaurantee the epicness and effectiveness of everyone coming in at once.

This, I always liked to take the HART into battle, but was disappointed that even when I wasn't the only one doing it, it felt like I was the only one cause everybody was scattered depending on where they happened to click, and how fast they navigated the map :P Plus... Pods didn't seem to be very visible in PS1. You'd see one occasionally, sure, but even so, it wasn't until JUST before it hit, and it was kind of "meh"

Wouldn't mind seeing larger pods with some of the vehicles, at least smaller ones, in them. It's a logical extension of the technology.

[JoeDragon]

Originally Posted by Ranik Ortega

Blue the devs also said "no one will be able to get all of the certs because their will be so many"

It's a common line from MMO devs that basically means nothing and the players will unlock everything fairly quickly.

I find it funny how Devs always underestimate the shear ferocity in which Players will devour content and streak through levels. Plus I specifically remember Higby saying "It will take years to unlock everything and by then we will have added more." Or something along those lines.

To that I say, Challenge Accepted. (give me a couple months lol.)


As for the Drop Pod beacons/Squad spawning... If they limit it to your squad alone and not the entire platoon (which I've heard could be like a hundred people) then it wouldn't be any different than a Gal Drop.

Fact is, if a Large Organized Guild wants to drop in 100 people on one location, it's going to happen. Mobilization on a massive scale is what Planetside is all about.

[Timealude]

If they put squad beacons in the game, I want to be able to stab someone in the stomach

[vVRedOctoberVv]

@JD

No shit. People go bananas over that stuff

[matthewpeters]

I think you are all overlooking the fact that the enemy will be running around screaming "BACON!!!!!!!!!!" whenever someone does place a beacon. That alone makes this idea worthwhile.