The Reaver and other fighters

[Livefire]

As a dedicated Reaver Pilot, and being the new Reaver art was what most excited me about PS2 being a flight sim lover I really would like to see some tweeks. First I see they have made it very dumbed down/stripped down as default so you can build it up with certed mods and customization...that's cool.

But then I want to see the vehicles be able to load up to the max on upgrades not you get this so you loose this type of thing. I know Higs said he thought it might be good to make it so you cant have everything at once on your vehicle because a noob player couldn't do this, but I don't think it's that big of deal after all that's the point of putting in all the hours and getting all those points so your vehicle can be obber. This is the kind of thing that keeps players around and coming back. Just as long as a noob can still technically kill you in it even though it may be hard is all planetside needs to set its self apart from other MMO's which actually make it completely impossible to do this.

So here is my thoughts on some changes I would like to see. Ether every ones empire based aircraft becomes super good at flying like a fighter and a helicopter all in one or you build in an upgrade tree with 2 variable pathways.

1. You can upgrade your Reaver to become like a futuristic version of a F-35 attack/fighter with medium and long range heatseeking and radar lock on air to air missiles, 20-25mm Vulcan cannon like all fighters have. And have the ability to swap and combine out some of the air to air for laser guided smart bombs. This would be real fun to coordinate with your squad mates on the ground but not required because the aircraft like in real life would be able to laser its own targets as well just not as accurately being it would mostly be flying at higher altitudes. This version would not have a great ability to hover because it has been specialized to act like an attack fighter and air superiority fighter, like an f-35. Very fast and lightly armored, very powerful air to air sensors. Possible stealth.

2. Or You can upgrade the Reaver to become a super futuristic Apache Helicopter type aircraft. 2 Seats (pilot in back, gunner in front) and it would look like the pre-beta art did with solid wings that don't rotate with the stupid mini engines and has 4-6 munition slots on them instead of none It would be able to carry a 30mm nose gun meant to be fired by the front seated gunner but not only(high explosive and armor piercing rounds with the duel feed like it was originally designed with) on a 360 mount with zooming optics-hi-rez thermal camera, dumb fire rocket pods (like now) fired by ether gunner or pilot, laser guided/ground radar guided air to ground hell fire type missiles fired by the gunner or pilot (should be very powerful and very accurate) able to kill a tank in one hit if you hit the right spot. Short to medium range heatseeking/radar guided air to air missiles and in any combination you want as long as it all fits on the wings. Heavy armor/powerful ground sensors and slower moving. Able to hover perfectly stable and indefinitely.

As noted the pilot and gunner should be technically able to fire all weapon systems just like the real Apache can do and demonstrated in Arma, it's just not as effective compared to a pilot that just fly's and a gunner that just guns like tanks should be as well

Remember, to have all these weapons and systems you would have to have the aircraft fully upgraded in one tree pathway or the other. And one well place AV or AA rocket fired by and infantry soldier should be able to bring the whole package down And both other empires would have a similar system for there empire specific aircraft.

[Ipimpnoobs]

The thing I agree with is soft spots on all vehicles. I played World of Tanks for a long time, kind of like an in between game and anyways, the one thing they did really well was their battle mechanics. It would definitely be awesome to implement this like you were saying.

The whole page of the wiki is good but the Damage mechanics I think hits exactly what you were talking about:

http://wiki.worldoftanks.eu/Battle_M...mage_Mechanics

summary: For instance, if you shoot a tank tread it may fall off and your stuck for a bit. Or in the case of a helicopter, an engine blow out may cause the handling to veer left or right and you counter this to safety.

The only thing though, is this might be too much for the middle bell-curve bulk of players. I think that is the market demographic they are after.. Anyhow, maybe a watered down version?

Great points!

[Mox]

If you are also supporting really strong AA, i have nothing against your ideas.
Air Forces should never be too über otherwise groundbattle sucks. Furthermore, air vecs should not be the right choice for every situation. I am not interested in having half of the server population flying Air vecs and the other half in using AA.

[Scopedog]

Well as they are building a competitive game with a strong No P2W model it rules out having everything on your vehicle at once, I don't know if 1 slot i perfect or if 2 would work. But allowing every unlocked thing is

a) to overpowered

b) kind of boring as you now are a jack of all trades, situations should determine your success, finding those requires SKILLS.

c) forcing new players to buy unlocks with station cash to be competitive, witch will make the game less of a success as people hate p2w for a reason.

This game need to be skill based not equipment based to become huge, the devs knows this so I would not hold my breath waiting for them to come around.

Peace out.

[Chaff]

Teamwork was the best element in PS1. While the devs seek to balance weapons & weapon platforms in PS2, I hope they consider how it could promote any element of teamwork.
For air fighters I see 4 primary ammo choices....AV, AI, and PS2 could add anti-bomber (AB), or AA. Pilots would be limited to 2 of the 4 categories.
So, you can have jack-of-all-trade certs...but you have to pick your poison.
If you want to rape the ground and carry all AI & AV....then you are vulnerable to enemy fighters carrying AA in their fighter.
Want to go hunting Gals & Libs ? Better carry AA & AB....which means you're weak against ground targets you may stumble against.
By forcing specialization, you encourage fighter pilots to either coordinate/cooperate with ground AA or work with other pilots with diversified loadouts and work as a strike force.
1 or 2 air cav, 2 or 3 tanks, and 2 Skyguards was a great way to roll around the PS1 world. One squad could really roll around wreaking havoc with that lineup.

[Hosp]

Originally Posted by Chaff

Teamwork was the best element in PS1. While the devs seek to balance weapons & weapon platforms in PS2, I hope they consider how it could promote any element of teamwork.
For air fighters I see 4 primary ammo choices....AV, AI, and PS2 could add anti-bomber (AB), or AA. Pilots would be limited to 2 of the 4 categories.
So, you can have jack-of-all-trade certs...but you have to pick your poison.
If you want to rape the ground and carry all AI & AV....then you are vulnerable to enemy fighters carrying AA in their fighter.
Want to go hunting Gals & Libs ? Better carry AA & AB....which means you're weak against ground targets you may stumble against.
By forcing specialization, you encourage fighter pilots to either coordinate/cooperate with ground AA or work with other pilots with diversified loadouts and work as a strike force.
1 or 2 air cav, 2 or 3 tanks, and 2 Skyguards was a great way to roll around the PS1 world. One squad could really roll around wreaking havoc with that lineup.

Nothing but truth in there. But for the OP, in spite of how things seem limited in Beta now, the way things are going to work is a mix of what you mention (though seating options are highly questionable) and what chaff has just spoke of.

Everyone will become jack of all trades cert/weapon wise sooner or later, but they can't use it all at once. They do indeed have to pick their poison. The big question becomes what you sacrifice vs what you get and the devs have yet to finish/implement all that. But it will happen.

[Livefire]

Originally Posted by Mox

If you are also supporting really strong AA, i have nothing against your ideas.
Air Forces should never be too über otherwise groundbattle sucks. Furthermore, air vecs should not be the right choice for every situation. I am not interested in having half of the server population flying Air vecs and the other half in using AA.

Yes, I am in complete support for having upgradable and very powerful AA so that you can even one shot kill aircraft, the same combat envelope that should make aircraft very powerful and effective against all targets should get flipped on its head if they get caught in the wrong place or surprised by AA.

All combat theaters are fought today and will be in the future as in planetside in these steps.
Step 1. Air superiority fighters establish air dominance over the enemy territory by shooting down the other guys Air superiority fighters and keeping them down and killing his AA systems. Step 2.Then there gunships and bombers lead the ground assault to clear a path and support there tanks and infantry to move on to objectives and even truly capturing them. This is what these combat systems would allow and every one would have to work together to accomplish this task......i.e the more sophisticated the weaponry/vehicles and play style (the more like real life) the more it will require coordination and team work like real war. This is why games like Arma don't have tard rushing zergs and chaos on the battle fields because of the sophisticated style of play like real life combat

We can't be scared to put new players in Planet Side into a highly sophisticated, in depth futuristic combat simulated environment that emphasizes the differences of the run of the mill arcade shooter clone and a MMO FPS. With an appropriate leaning curve you will get a large hardcore player base that makes a MMO survive a decade or more like EVE online, and this is exactly what this game as all MMO's need to stand the test of time.