Empire specific buggies

[Azzzz]

But the harasser now is made of paper...very thin paper.

Hit and run tactics are really difficult to do considering people's aim is getting better and usually get popped before they can run away, least in my experience.

The only use a harasser does now is that they are able to climb a high ass mountain and bombard those below. It's good for a solo thing when low on resources.

[Vanir]

Originally Posted by Eggy

There was some news about the buggies in the latest "Higby Pls" stream.
Most of it seemed positive, interesting and fun to me.

The NS harraser will be altered to be even more nimbler and have improved hill climbing. Expect the existing top guns to be "better" at what they should do, and not so good at what they shouldn't.

The ES buggies will be bulkier, not as fast or nimble, but will carry more people and are intended to be combat/support vehicles.

Each ES buggy will have an ES ability.
TR - OverDrive ... Super charges the buggy and its weapon systems.
NC - Ram Shield ... Improved Ram Damage and Ram Defense.
VS - Phase Shift ... Able to phase through enemies.
Also looking at giving the TR one, 2 less powerful guns, rather than 1 super weapon, as a faction trait.

imo I cant see the NC and VS ones working unless also combined with a short burst of increased speed, and the thought of an overcharge vulcan is quite scary.

New ES top guns coming for all the MBTs and Buggies intended to fill a more heavier role.
Existing top guns all going to be re tuned as part of a top gun pass.

Also teased new MBT main cannons. Rail Gun, Quad Cannon and Dildo Gun, as well as dedicated driver Heavy Tanks. Which Is why I guess we may need heavier weapons on the other stuff. Was specifically mentioned that the quad cannon would literally be able to maintain continuous fire by reloading other barrels while your shooting. Im not sure the terrain of the maps supports a vehicle any bigger than the current MBTs so no idea how that will work.

Also investigate altering the rumble seats on the buggies/flash to be full 360 or forward facing to make them more use full.

So I just watch the whole Video here: http://www.twitch.tv/planetside2/b/563199069

ESB's at 28:45

MBT's at 1:03:45

Got me all excited for the new ESB's! However extremely disappointed about the news on the "Commander mode" for the MBT's. I know that with this, many veterans from PS1 who had been holding out and waiting for something like this to be implemented will now never come back to PS2.

Higby also go on to mention new Heavy Tanks being implemented and they will have dedicated drivers. Why not give the new heavy weapons to the new Heavy Tanks instead of the MBT's then?

[Ghost Runner]

Lost me at"Dildo Gun" can't stop laughing after that

From what I remember after "Dildo Gun" the new additions sound interesting.

[Gatekeeper]

Personally I'd support making the Harasser a bit tougher in return for it no longer being a OHK when it runs someone over. Seems pretty sad that running people down is currently its strongest attack.

The ESB abilities for VS and NC sound strange and pretty useless, but I guess it's hard to say without having more details. For example, if the phasing lasts for a while and avoids incoming fire as well then it could be a nice way of escaping from danger (should disable the Thresher's guns as well in this case though), but if it's literally just for avoiding collisions with enemy vehicles then I see no value to it. As for ramming with the Enforcer... it'd better do a lot of damage, otherwise it's just a buggy that's come screeching to a halt next to whatever it rammed and is now about to be torn a new one.

Honestly given the dev team's terrible track record in coming up with ES specials, and then with balancing them, I think they'd probably be better off not bothering with that aspect.

As for heavier tank weapons and dedicated drivers - if they don't make having a dedicated driver the prerequisite for using the heavier weapons then they're really missing an obvious trick. There's no need for new tank chassis as far as I'm concerned, just have some kind of module that allows heavier weapons when fitted, but gives the main gun to the gunner. They'll need to give some thought to how the current top guns will work though - will the gunner get those too, or is the driver going to have them? Or are we talking about adding a third crewman?

[Vanir]

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

The ESB abilities for VS and NC sound strange and pretty useless, but I guess it's hard to say without having more details. For example, if the phasing lasts for a while and avoids incoming fire as well then it could be a nice way of escaping from danger (should disable the Thresher's guns as well in this case though), but if it's literally just for avoiding collisions with enemy vehicles then I see no value to it. As for ramming with the Enforcer... it'd better do a lot of damage, otherwise it's just a buggy that's come screeching to a halt next to whatever it rammed and is now about to be torn a new one.

From what Higby said in the video when he talked about them at 28:45 in the video, the Enforcers shield ability will be similar to the Vanguards shield except you pick what side you want the shield to cover before you activate it. So if running from something you can have it to cover your rear, but if your about to ram something you can have it to cover your front and it will do extra damage when ramming. You can also get it to cover your sides if your suddenly flanked too. As for the Thresher, phasing will allow you to pass through vehicles and enemy fire will pass through you when you are phased. I think it would be cool if you could pass through trees and rocks while phased as well. But will you be able to fire while phased? I don't know as Higby never said anything about it, but I don't see why the devs would make it so you couldn't?

These are just ideas that the devs have for these new ESB's and want to hear any other ideas and suggestions that other people may have for them.

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

Or are we talking about adding a third crewman?

Talking about adding a third crewman. So they would be three man vehicles like the Harasser, a driver, a passenger controlling the main cannons, and the other passenger controlling the secondary guns. Way back before PS2 even went to beta, the devs announced that the MBT's would be 2 man vehicles. Most of the PlanetSide community did not like this and many good arguments were made why the MBT's should be made 3 man. But it was too late as the devs had already finished making the MBT's. They devs later then when on to say that they will give MBT's an ability to be made 3 man and giving access to new heavy guns (quad barrel cannon, rail gun, and "dildo" gun) but it's something that everyone would have to wait for. Higby then announced at 1:03:45 in the video that it would be too much work to give MBT's this ability. So now Higby it talking about bringing in new heavy tanks (possibly empire specific) and that they would give these new tanks dedicated drivers.

[Baneblade]

It was not and still isn't too late to make MBTs three manned. It isn't like they did any E/E Animations or anything.

[Eggy]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

It was not and still isn't too late to make MBTs three manned. It isn't like they did any E/E Animations or anything.

If we are getting heavy tanks with the coveted dedicated driver and 2 gunners then it makes sense to keep the current MBTs as is. Just give it the option of more specialized heavy firepower so it can combat the heavier tanks.

At the end of beta, and just after release. I could of seen many reasons to have the MBTs as dedicated drivers, lack of them meant that 95% of my PS1 outfit gave up playing in the first few months. They are never coming back to PS2.

Now its just too much re work to redo the MBTs when there are much better things to spend dev time on.

it also makes better financial sense. More vehicle with more top gun options, that are shared makes for more cash spent on weapons and cosmetics.

[Figment]

Eggy, you completely miss the point why we don't want drivers to gun. It doesn't make sense to retain a broken feature because another feature is added.


Drivers gunning heavy vehicles ruins game balance in so many ways we spend hours talking about it. It is all about the averaged power and endurance of players, meaning it is all about how manpower is distributed and used over vehicles. Fair balance REQUIRES a minimal occupation of heavy units of more than one player to avoid the tank spam that choked assaults in canyons because players retardedly stand still to aim and cause a traffic jam (and get everyone slaughtered) as they do all the time in PS2.

These heavy tanks talked about are bullshit without proper manpower balance between units.

Higby still doesn't quite understand the issue.



It is about fair balance and keeping heavy units from overwhelming enemies by volume of units and with it firepower, flexibility and hitpoints per player. It is about promoting teamwork and bonding through interdependency.


PS2 does nothing of that. Gunners are an option. They should be more than essential. They should be a minimal requirement.


The Magrider can easily be adapted by simply nerfing the driver gun to hell, or adding a new tank while simply removing the turret from the Magrider and make it a tank destroyer. That isn't hard or too much work, they are just relocate to change that which already exists.

Which is why this should have been done during alpha and the egocentric kids (who even admitted they didn't care about the game just their own stats and cheap kills killwhorestyle) should have been silenced in favour of experienced team players.