Compromise for the driver=gunner issue.

[kaffis]

Originally Posted by Malorn

I know that's what they said, but that's a bullshit excuse. Several other vehicles and classes are designed around SUPPORT. Medics, Engineers, to name two infantry support. Transport drivers and to a lesser extent Bomber pilots.

All of those have one thing in common - weapon systems / tools which benefit other people and not themselves.

It is not necessary to turn a vehicle into a one-man killwhore machine just to get people to drive it/cert it. Plenty of people drove galaxies when needed. Plenty of people drove tanks and piloted libs. The tradeoff of the far more firepower and a stronger vehicle emphasized teamwork and coordination with gunners/bombardiers.

As a longtime tank driver what rewards me is not the ability to shoot. It is knowing that my tank crew was kicking ass and impacting the battle. Of course I'm going to cert things that make my entire tank better. You don't need to motivate me or distract me with a main gun.

As a player whose most offensively oriented cert was special assault, and who had liberator, sunderer, deliverer, galaxy, ams, and ran around gluing bases back together during defenses, I really hope the devs can wrap their heads around what you just said.

Originally Posted by Malorn

I'd much rather understand the real design vision and gameplay goals of this change. Giving the certed person the ability to shoot from the vehicle is a poor excuse and I know that isn't the main reason they made the change. They wanted to run design impacts by the playerbase so they have to be straight with us with what they intend with things.

I'm sympathetic to the notion of "hey, give the guy buying the certs the chance to use the gun." I don't think the path they've indicated is the best way to do that, though. I've outlined a simple solution that does that (as the stated goal) without mucking about with cooperation dynamics and team vehicle vs. solo vehicle balance.

I will admit, though, I'm skeptical, as well, as to whether that's the entirety of the intent. After all, they've gone out of their way to declare that they're providing lots of support roles for people who aren't good at standard FPS skills. One would think, then, that essentially allowing the "driver pulls the vehicle" to create a "driver" support role, and they'd be find with that.