Empire Specific Additions

[TheN00b]

For some time now, a certain lack of diversity in Planetside has been incredibly frustrating to me. It seems that while the Devs have spent their time fixing bugs and patching weapons (and rightly so), the battleground as a whole provides a somewhat stale environment. For example, when I'm playing my 'Cong character, a grand total of 4 Empire-Specific weapons and 2 Common Pool weapons are used against me. Now, it may just be me, but I believe that the battlefield should be much for diverse, i.e. there should be a plethora of weapons for all Empires to choose from, which would in turn make combat scenarios unpredictable and thus more exciting. In an attempt to counteract this perceived lacking in what is otherwise a wonderful game, I have created several new weapons and certifications that I feel would be widely used, not overpowered, and most importantly, fun. Have at them:

Empire Specific Handcannons:
These areuch like the gunpowder powered handcannons used in semi-medieval times as an alternative to large, fixed artillery. However, unlike those cannons, which were still rather large and had to be carted around the battlefield, these handcannons are small enough to be 'mounted' into a soldier's secondary arm (secondary means that for example, if a soldier was right-handed, the left arm would be cut off at the elbow and replaced with a handcannon upon selecting the handcannon from the Equipment Terminal queue). Below are three designs, as well as the certification, that would employ these new tools. It should be noted that all handcannons fire their shells in a mortar-like trajectory, rather than in a straight shot.

Morninstar
New Conglomerate

Type: Handcannon

Weapon Damage: 75 upon a direct hit, degrades by 35 per meter.

Weapon COF and ROF: The COF of the Morningstar is medium, and is affected only slightly by movement. The ROF is 1 shell per 1.5 seconds, or 1:1.5

General Appearance: The Morningstar is a rather drab gray tube attached to a soldiers arm. When firing, it 'spits' out a spherical shell, which, upon impact, explodes into a miniature cloud of small spiked balls, which closely resemble the head of a morningstar.

Size: 1 Rifle slot. The ammunition packs are standard size, and carry 10 shells apiece.


Shredder
Terran Republic

Type: Handcannon

Weapon Damage: 90, degrades by 30 for every 2 meters away the recipient of the damage is.

Weapon COF and ROF: The Shredder has a tiny COF, and it's ROF is 1 shot every second, or 1:1.

The Shredder is a widebored, gloss-black cylinder. Each round fires an explosive shell that detonates insantry after it leaves the barrel and leaves behind a rapidly expanding pack of clechettes made explicitly for the purpose of tearing infantry apart. The flechettes are not explosive, but are rather serrated darts travelling at incredibly high speeds, which makes them quite inneffectual against MAXes.

Size: 1 Rifle slot. The Shredders ammunition packs are standard size, and each pack contains 8 rounds.

MPGL (Multi-Purpose Grenade Launcher
Vanu Sovereignty

Type: Handcannon

Weapon Damage: 1/2 Plasma Grenade, 1/2 Fragmentation Grenade.

Weapon COF and ROF: The COF is minimal, and the ROF is 1 shot every 1.75 seconds, or 1:1.75.

General Description: The MPGL is a translucent, glowing tube hooked up to a soldier's arm. It's fire combines a unique blend of grenades into one small mortar shell.
The shell the MPGL fires operates in several different ways: First, upon impact, an explosion goes off. That explosion is equivalent to a half-powered Fragmentation grenade, and let's off plasma equal to that of a half-powered Plasma grenade (the damage done by the residual plasma is also halved). The explosion also gives off an EMP blast equal to that of one Jammer grenade.

Size: 1 Rifle slot. The MPGL uses standard Vanu energy packs for ammo, but uses 5 'rounds' of a pack per shot, giving it effectively 10 shots per clip.


Handcannon Certification
Cost: 3 Certification Points.


I've already posted these elsewhere, but I feel that it's very important that every Empire have steady and reliable troop transport, and the Sunderer just isn't cuttin' it. The Deliverer does OK, but when it comes to trasnporting large amounts of troops, only the Gal works, and Gals are hard to come by oftentimes when your forces are just entering a continent.

Legionnaire
Terran Republic

Armor: 2000

Max Speed: 65 KPH

Accel/Decel: 45 KPH per second

Guns: 4 port-mounted 20mm chainguns placed alternately along the sides, 2 top-mounted 25mm chainguns.

General Appearance: The Legionnaire Mass Transport Vehicle is modelled after an Old Earth vehicle called a bullet-train. It is very sleek, 9m long and 1 meter wide, except in the very back, which is 2.5 meters wide in order to accomodate the engines and side-by-side MAXes. Each passenger row is 1m in both length and width, and the additional 1 meter is taken up by the narrowed nose of the vehicle. It is night-black, and well-known for it's incredible speed.

Troop Capacity: The Legionnaire carries 10 people at once, with 1 gunner at all 6 weapons emplacements, a pilot and passenger in the front, and two MAX units in the rear of the vehicle, side-by-side.

Notes: The Legionnaire has pods placed around each person in it, which can be ejected from the vehicle. If ejected, the person inside is shot upwards about 200m, then floats back down to land.

Thunder
New Conglomerate

Armor: 2500

Max speed: 50 KPH

Accel/Decel: 25 KPH per second

Guns: Two 30mm Flak Cannons on top, and 1 chin-mounted flechette launcher.

General Appearance: The Thunder is built like a much-enlarged version of the Old Earth Humvee. It is about 8 meters long, with a width of 5 meters and a height of 5 meters. It has a large, covered flatbed in the back, into which the soldiers are rolled, then stored into pods that are set horizontally in the bed. The Thunder is painted with Gold and Yellow "camouflage" paint (I know, I know...), and is among the loudest vehicles in the game. The Flak Cannons are placed on top of the pilot's section, and the flechette launcher is controlled by the pilots passenger side occupant.

Troop Capacity: The Thunder can carry up to 10 troops at a time; 8 infantry and 2 MAX units. 4 of the infantry are placed in the flatbedalong with the MAXes, 2 of the infantry are gunning for the Flak cannons, one is the pilot, and one is controlling the chin-gun from the pilot's side.

Notes: The Flak Cannon gunners, the pilot, and the chin-gun operator are equipped with the same ejection system as the Legionnaire, but the troops in the flatbed are equipped with side mounted ejection pods that launch approximately 7 meters to the side of the Thunder if activated.

Scythe
Vanu Sovereignty

Armor: 1750

Max Speed: 70 KPH

Accel/Decel: 60 KPH per second

Guns: 4 Port-Mounted Heavy Particle Cannons, 2 Rear-Mounted Heavy Particle Cannons 1 Chin-Mounted Heavy Railgun. All cannons cannot point more than 45 degrees upwards.

General Description: The Scythe is a rather bulbous vehicle, but has very graceful curves. The front is shaped like the front of an Old Earth fighter plane, with the chin-gunner directly behind and slightly above the pilot, much like in a Galaxy with the tail-gunner and pilot. The back is a miniature dome, with gun ports arrayed along the sides of it. It is a light azure color, with green flames around the cockpit area.

Troop Capacity: 10, 8 infantry and 2 MAXes. 6 of the infantry, along with the MAXes, are in the rear dome, and the infantry operate the the 6 Heavy Particle Cannons.

Notes: The dome is divided into sections like an orange, with a passenger in each section. If the passenger wishes to leave the vehicle, he bails and the section of the dome that was carry him falls out of the vehicle and disentegrates. If all of the sections are detatched, the pilot and gunner are forced to leave the vehicle, which then deconstructs.


Ground Transport
Certification Point Cost: 2-3 (unsure)
Benefits: Gives player access to drive the Deliverer, as well as their Empire Specific Transport.