Phoenixes are back. Now it's time to cloak the AMS.

[Ruffdog]

Tomorrow will see a large shift for PlanetSide 2. One that cannot be undone: First-person-guided, anti-vehicle ordnance.
The Phoenix.

2 empires will suddenly find their AMS Sunderers have just entered a new level of vulnerability.

The Sunderer, it goes without saying in these large maps, is the King unit on the chessboard. It is ultimately what dictates battles, and so territory.
The Sunderer AMS is Planetside 2.

No unit will suffer as much against the Phoenix as the deployed Sundy and the TR and the VS are going to realise this.

There is no comparison to be drawn with air units eyeballing sundies in the current state of affairs. That air unit is a player right there in that space that can be destroyed and air units cost resources. Heavy Assault NC on the other hand will be able to scout with no risk and no resource cost. Admittedly getting a visual on a sundy will be incidental but the end outcome will be the same. The next rocket is going to the rear of the target.

I feel now is right to establish a cloaking system for deployed Sunderers for all empires.

[camycamera]

YES I WANT.

i remember seeing old PS1 vids of the cloaked sunderer, that was pretty cool. getting close to it reveals it though, as it is in an invisible bubble, making it balanced, somewhat. hopefully it isn't too OP though. and there should be a slight shimmer for the bubble.

[Gonefshn]

I don't think the AMS is going to be in any more trouble from this change. That said, I agree the cloak bubble needs to be there. But it should have been there a while ago.

I'd be more worried about the lancer since it will be impossible to dodge and has no way to see it coming. Imagine 6 players all firing a charged lancer bolt at the same time. Instant dead with the chance to avoid it.

At least you can avoid a Phoenix missile.

[Chewy]

Originally Posted by Gonefshn

I don't think the AMS is going to be in any more trouble from this change. That said, I agree the cloak bubble needs to be there. But it should have been there a while ago.

I'd be more worried about the lancer since it will be impossible to dodge and has no way to see it coming. Imagine 6 players all firing a charged lancer bolt at the same time. Instant dead with the chance to avoid it.

At least you can avoid a Phoenix missile.

That and it may not be possible to hit a sunderer behind cover if you don't get a perfect starting angle. Or one could stand at an end on an Amp station and hit a parked sundy on the other side of the base. That demo stream didn't show much of anything to what the phoenix can do other than hitting a rock.

[Snipefrag]

yeah, I would love to see it make a return.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Baneblade]

Lets see what they can do before we bitch, shall we?

[bpostal]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

Lets see what they can do before we bitch, shall we?

Can't we bitch just a LITTLE bit?

Although to be honest it takes a bit of work on the player's part to ensure they leave the cloak bubble at an angle/area that is unseen from the enemy. My guess is that most players aren't going to give a god damn. Thus cloaked AMSs are going to be just about as easy to find (active ones at least) by following the stream of players backwards to the honeypot of XP as they currently are.

[Koadster]

My max level blockade armour just became a whole lot better.

If you watched Higgles stream it was fairly hard to move the missile unless your pretty much in LOS.

[Baneblade]

The Phoenix is a massive buff to enemy snipers.

[Artimus]

Originally Posted by bpostal

Can't we bitch just a LITTLE bit?

Although to be honest it takes a bit of work on the player's part to ensure they leave the cloak bubble at an angle/area that is unseen from the enemy. My guess is that most players aren't going to give a god damn. Thus cloaked AMSs are going to be just about as easy to find (active ones at least) by following the stream of players backwards to the honeypot of XP as they currently are.

You may be suprised at how hard it is to track down a clocked sundy at least in PS1 it was somewhat of a bitch to find even with the stream of soldiers. EMP's were a big help though; I hope they bring those back. As far as the NC launcher goes.. I did not catch the stream but I would imagine they would be the most underpowered and the VS one being top dog. TR's I would guess would be most effective in groups of people spamming them (which is what the TR were known for).

[Stanis]

TR & VC will just become adept at finding features/terrain that block the Pheonix.


Since both Striker (Lock) and Lancer (Direct Fire) requires Line of Sight - the NC will be doing the same with slightly different criteria.



Cloaking bubbles for AMS and engineer deployable would be great to have.
I think they'll need to enhance the Interlink / Radar / Intel metagame with radar before they introduce stealth.

[Corvo]

Originally Posted by Artimus

TR's I would guess would be most effective in groups of people spamming them (which is what the TR were known for).

Let's not make biased assumptions, shall we? It reminds me of people bitching in /y about NC/TR/VS "being known for" hacking, griefing etc.

EDIT: Sorry mate, didn't realize you were probably talking about PS1 here Just had a bad day I guess *sigh*

Well anyway, I don't get it how TR's will be more effective in groups than the Lancer and the Phoenix. Any weapon used in large groups will be more effective than used by a single soldier, and both the NC and the VS have a bigger potential at raining death on unsuspecting targets since both of them don't give any warning except for the thud of a warhead impacting your armor a split second before you blow up. I think TR is at a disadvantage here since we are just getting another lock-on launcher that people already have working tactics against. It's no game-changer, it doesn't bring anything new. The Phoenix and the Lancer do.

[HiroshiChugi]

Is it just me, or do Striker Ambushes sound a little like the Stinger Nests (I think that's what they're called) in C&C Generals and C&C Generals: Zero Hour?

[Qwan]

I look at it like this, if this optically guided missle can do a 90 degree turn then Ill start to worry about it. But two things that are a disadvantage, one your exposed, two you dont see whats going on around your charactor. Granted if your siting on a hill firing at a tank, he can see you as well, lets not forget near misses will cause you to move, and jerk around. I believe it balances itself out a little, but we will see in the game. Its the TR one im workied about, 5 round, magazine feed, rocket launcher, talk about rocket spam from hell, imagine 3 heavy assaults standing on a wall with these things, it just aint right man.

[bpostal]

Originally Posted by Artimus

You may be suprised at how hard it is to track down a clocked sundy at least in PS1 it was somewhat of a bitch to find even with the stream of soldiers. EMP's were a big help though; I hope they bring those back...

Yeah, Jammers would be nice. As I recall though most of the times it wasn't that difficult. If you lost the CY then there was typically one back by the NTU silo, one back behind the vpad (always next to a stairwell) and the NC liked to park one just outside one of the gates like we weren't going to notice everyone pouring around the corner into the CY.

If the AMS is outside, like back behind the BD then you could identify where most of the players were foot zerging from, infil your happy ass out there to confirm the position and mark it for an OS.

Cloaked AMSs would be nice, but I don't think they'd solve much.

The one caveat I will add to that though is that of course it does make inactive or backup AMSs much harder to find as they're not in use and thus don't have the ant stream to follow.