Do we really need spawnbeacons?

[NewSith]

(Blatant outfit promotion included)


Here's a ComClash pre-season play between two outfits, one of which is rather famous among visitors here.

I strongly advise watching the video, but in case you wrongly consider it not worth your time I ask below:

If spawn beacons are generally used by more or less organized groups, rather than zerg and now we have squad vehicle spawning, wouldn't it be logical to remove beacons, which as of now bear a slight flavor of "uncounterable" as opposed to battlegals and such?

My thinking on the matter was caused by final interview in the vid, as I considered how boring the match would've been if 418 could just drop kamikaze engies with AV mines or C4 on MCY sundies non-stop.

P.S. Flash+EMP grenade combo counters smoke shielding + IRNV. But shhhh!

[Falcon_br]

I do

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by Falcon_br

I do

I doubt you even realize how thoughtful your answer is...

[bpostal]

What's worse, dropping a squad via beacon or dropping them via gal? In the end it amounts to about the same thing, but the mobility and precision afforded by gal drops is way beyond anything you can do with drop pods.
I don't see a major problem with them (beacons that is), and of course they add value to SLs and their members.

[synkrotron]

I'm sure that beacons have their place, but I, for one, rarely deploy on them because I'm never sure where I'm going to end up. I'd sooner hitch a lift in a Sundy/Gal or even spawn a base or two back and get my own transport.

[ringring]

I don't like them, a bit cheesy.

[NewSith]

You know, the three replies before mine are all saying pretty much the same thing:

Spawn Beacons are becoming redundant, and I agree with that. They are going to be used even more seldomly now that vehicles can spawn squadmates. And while still being an option for organized play, they are not half as useful as a single flash acting as a forward spawnpoint, yet they contribute to creating tactical chaos wherever they are placed, and that's a bad thing.

[almalino]

Beacons must not have beams into the sky. In BF2142 spawnbeacons were just small devices planted on the ground and beeping.

This way Beaconbs will be harder to locate and destroy and might be a good option for spawning again.

[HereticusXZ]

Well until a better counter to the Galaxy is added into the game like say example: A base defense turret that fires TV guided missiles that do heavy damage to large vehicles.

PS2 is rightfully going down a path of rock-paper-scissors for everything and they have assigned the ESF to be the primary hard-counter to -all- Air?

Until a proper hard-counter is created for specifically the Galaxy, and not just a generic blanketed counter, yeah, the Squad Beacon will lose it's useful effect. But it won't ever die out or dissapear entirely.

Fans enjoy the drop-pod option to much to scrap the Squad Beacon.

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by HereticusXZ

...Until a proper hard-counter is created for specifically the Galaxy, and not just a generic blanketed counter...

http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...d.php?p=872122

Yummy...

[mrmrmrj]

I think spawn beacons are a critical element for those that want to play in small groups pursuing tactical goals. Beacons are plenty balanced by the fact that they are easily visible to the enemy and easy to destroy.

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by mrmrmrj

I think spawn beacons are a critical element for those that want to play in small groups pursuing tactical goals. Beacons are plenty balanced by the fact that they are easily visible to the enemy and easy to destroy.

And again, I have to mention Flashes that make a more reliable spawnpoints for small teams, mostly thanks to stealth upgrades and autorepair...

Beacon itself only adds pain in the back for AMS drivers, suffering from AV mines and C-4 charges, falling from the skies with enemy players attached to them.

[AuntLou]

Ah yes a bunch of spawn beacon haters who are just too lazy or afraid to go take them out. Also stop using the excuse that the beacon is used as a AMS destroyer. Since the nerf it's nearly impossible to use that strat and you can maybe travel all of 5 meters from the beacon itself.

My suggestion would be to reduce the timers of the beacon since the vehicle/gal spawns are so short it makes the beacon pointless.

[Boildown]

Drop podding Sunderers is practically impossible since the nerf to how far you can move a drop pod while dropping. As just said above, you can barely move out of your own way in drop pods any more.

I am heavily pro-spawn-beacon. And I strongly believe that the above mentioned nerf needs to be undone. I am very pro-drop podding onto enemy zergs. Right now Planetside 2 is just a massive zergfest, and every change Sony has made in the past six months has done nothing but promote zerg vs. zerg gameplay.

If you're ever outnumbered by as little as 6 to 4, you're screwed, no matter how good you are. That is not how battles throughout history have actually worked, where operational and tactical decisions routinely allowed the smaller but better force to defeat a larger stagnant force.

Spawn beacons and drop pods were an effective tool for defeating enemy zergs, particular vehicle (tank and sundy) zergs by a smaller force. This is a GOOD thing for the game. It is no fun to be running two squads and knowing that there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent being stomped every base down a lattice line, over and over and over again. Falling back and setting up defense is a pointless endeavor with the way the game is now if you're outnumbered, and your troops are not going to stand for their K/Ds being trashed with no significant losses done to the enemy.

Spawn beacons before the drop pod nerf allowed an outnumbered enemy to at the very least cost the tank zerg some precious resource points and allowed the outnumbered force to get out of their own spawn rooms. You simply put your personal waypoint on the place you want to drop and aim your pod for it. Some people think the pod itself did damage, but that's only true if you landed on aircraft. The drop pod does zero or next-to-zero damage to ground vehicles, the damage was done by explosives the drop podding player placed after landing. Tank mines, C4, usually.

This is completely fair, the attacking zerg force (there are no defensive zergs) should have a some things working against them, and a defending force should have some defender's advantages. Smart and experienced players should have techniques they've learned over months of playing that allows them to do more with less. Planetside 2 should have more than a superficial cert-driven learning curve. The drop pod nerf was just one more way the Planetside 2 developers seem determined to vainly try to attract new players at the expensive of all their established players.

[HereticusXZ]

Originally Posted by NewSith

I have to mention Flashes that make a more reliable spawnpoints for small teams

You can't spawn on Flashes? It's only Galaxy and Sunderer.

The Squad Beacon isn't effective at all for anti-sunderer because of it's extremely small "Cone-of-Landing".

If the Beacon is useful for anything it's just to quickly insert troops into the zone, that's it. Unless the beacon itself is placed ontop of a priority target then it won't be a deciding factor in a fight.

I rather enjoy finding clever places to hide the Squad Beacon - Not just ontop of towers but to balance on the top of the antenna with it.

Ultimately though I agree the Squad Beacon is falling out of fashion only used as a last ditch effort when all other spawns are absent. The Galaxy is so much more effective and accurate as a drop-spawn.

I'd like to see the stat comparison between Galaxy Spawns and Squad Beacons deployed ever sense the vehicle-spawning update came out, or even Galaxy Spawns versus Squad Beacon Spawns.