Life after BR20 - Spork speaks

[Retroactive]

sounds cool

[Firefly]

Originally Posted by SecondRaven

but we have to remember now that we can go past BR20 we are going to have people with every cert...(not literaly) but depending on how much further we can go the more everyone is going to look like a super solidger.

Except that maybe, JUST MAYBE, the developers recognize this problem and said "After BR20 there is no more cert-points gained when you increase BR.

Thus we have this concept, which Sporkfire touched on, and may be their answer to what you see as an impending bad thing.

Originally Posted by SporkfirePS

One of the concepts floating around in the post-BR20 discussions is Elite Abilities. That is, being able to do much cooler stuff than the certs you already have allow (such as barrel rolls for pilots, more hackable items, etc.)

BR21: choose an Elite Ability: barrel roll, hack a wall turret in a base, hack a terminal and actually pull out enemy-empire equipment, blah blah yada yada...

[Kikinchikin]

thats awesome. i'd like to see the ability to supe up land vehicles with NOS myself. or maybe enhanced handling/hand braking?

and maybe infils will finally get the famed REK slot. or u could go as far as giving grunts another pistol slot and/or more speed. IE giving rexo dudes 50 percent of the speed advantage an agile has over it. and you could have a timer of say 48 hours on ur elite abilities, making it more crucial to choose the right one even more so than certs.

edit: another good idea maybe is that lets say u go up to BR 30. You gain a small lil armor upgrade (maybe medals or patches, new color i dunno something nifty. maybe even a new commander ability and or something new to do as a grunt i dunno. at br 25 u get ur first elite choice. but u also get the choice of tradng in ur elite choice for 3 cert points. so at 25 u'd have 27 cert points if u traded in the elite. and same at 30 u get another elite choice but ucan have more certs. so theoretically u get 30 cert points at level 30 maximum. odd how that works out. it could be a good idea tho.

[321]

This sounds awesome only now that the certs come with 2-3 vehicles the concern of there being super soldiers of the level of BR is to big is even more.

[KIAsan]

You guys complaining about extra certs should worry more about these proposed "extra abilities". I for one would NOT like to see this in game. Think about how you would be even MORE discouraged if I can suddenly hack a wall turret at your base and waste you, just because I made BR20. Or even more discouraging, that I have the exact same cert you do (adv hack in this case), expended the exact same cert points, yet my Adv hack does more than your adv hack, just because I have br20.

Do you really think that you won't be complaining about it if they implement it this way? I for one would just prefer to stick to something a bit realistic (and very easy to do code wise). That is allow BR to increase for br20s, based on the same rates it is now. Yes, eventually I will get more than 23 certs. Yes, I can jump out of my unimax, grab my ha, fight to the veh term, hack it and grab a lightning. Ok, so I can be more of a loner. So What??? the fact that I am a br20 with 23 certs isn't any more onerous than me being a br25 with 28 certs. Yeah I got 5 more certs, but think of how long it took me to get those. Anyway, the devs will probably go with the special abilities and we will be right back here on this very forum, arguing about how unfair it is.

Edit: As it is now, there is no incentive beyond br20.

[Lithpope]

I kinda agree with KIAsan but, for different reasons. I saw what Alternate Advancment Abilities did to EQ when they first came out in Luclin, they broke it for support classes and quite frankly broke the game for a while. People bitched and then when they toned them down other people bitched, never ending cycle. That said, I don't think Specializations in PS have the ability to break the game as much as they did in EQ if the Devs are careful.

IF they do do Specializations, OMG I hope they do CE.

/Dreams of Anti-Armor Mines and Flak Spitfire Turrets!!

[Destroyeron]

Originally Posted by TheN00b

Meh, this might deter n00bs a bit. Imagine you buy this great new game, which just won a Game of the Year award from a premier magazine. You begin to play, sweating with anticipation, and... Get blown to smithereens every time you're alive by super soldiers Not good.

N00b with supressor vs. HA

HA wins

duh

[Dunce]

Whilst we are discussing methods of further progression in the game, here's my idea. I'd like to see certification specific experience-based enhancements. This would mean that players would be able to unlock new abilties for various certs once they had gained a certain amount of XP whilst using that cert. For example, the ability to barrel-roll the reaver would be unlocked once you had earned a certain XP for flying it. XP gained for that player whilst not in the reaver would not count towards this enhancement. If you swapped the cert then you would lose all progression towards that enhancement. This would encourage players to stick with a cert and become good at it. Support based certifications would have to be worked diffently since they don't give XP (though I think this should be changed so they do - using support tools in or near a hotspot should give XP)

[DeadTeddy]

the way I understand it, BR is not there so you have goals. it's there to limit the short term options without creating pre-mase roles like in BF42 for example. the thing is, the moment you have something to shoot for, you get caught up in it. it happens in every game. then you hit the top and get bored.

I remmember a dev (smoke I think) saying that they don't want to give an advantage to experienced players and keep the game FPS, where skills are what counts. they are doing this pretty well with the "newB pack" they call the uni-max. you just get BR2 and take it, easy and usefull.

I like the barrel roll idea. after all, an experienced pilot can pull allot nicer moves from aircraft even if they aren't built to do them. I'm sure they can find similar things for other certs, that won't give a real advantage except for specific cases (like dodging the fire from a tail gunner.

[Black]

Maybe at BR21 u can customize your armor?

[Rada]

Of all the Morg�s I�v played, The N00b has a better chance against a veteran in Planetside then any other. He has to expect to get killed a lot, But that�s the same for a noob in any game. And there are ways for a N00b to rack up points by playing smart. In Asherons Call, When a level 5 goes up against a level 15 PC or Monster there is only one outcome. N00b loses.

In PS:
N00b with supressor vs. HA - HA wins
N00b with supressor, In the gunner seat of a Vanguard vs. HA - N00b Wins.
Well, most of the time.
BR2 N00b with infi standing behind my br12 - N00b wins, (I know this for a fact. Boy do I know this. I know this Too %$%$$ Much!)
And when that Magmower runs over you in your REXO, It does not care that you are a Unimax,Adv Eng, Adv Med, Air Cav, HA, Sniping, Assualt Buggy. Having more certs helps you as a player come out of the spawn room with the right equipment, (if you guessed right) But once the gunfire starts, you in your max and that N00b with a decimator, aren�t that far apart.

[Arkitan]

Originally Posted by Destroyeron

N00b with supressor vs. HA

HA wins

duh

thats true but even new characters can get HA right out of VR training.

[Queensidecastle]

I am a fan of specilization because it allows you to create a custom character. If we could have all the certs we wanted everyone would be exactly the same and Planetside wouldnt be any different than Quake or UT. At that point they might as well remove the battle rank system entirely.

Much better is the ability to create an identity and role for yourself. People will know of you as a great pilot or a great hacker because you spent the time and energy creating yourself that way. People will want you along for those reasons because they know you are really good at your job. It also models life in a slight way. Its not very often that a person spends thier first 35 years becoming a top surgeon and then want to change to being a top architech. It just doesnt work that way. Also, you can drop all your certs and re-speciliaze how ever you like anyways, so its not like you cant try something new or change your mind

[Firefly]

Specialization and elite abilities are the way to go.

HOWEVER.

If you remember Core Combat, there were a few new Certifications that came out, and then they were merged at some point after.

This game will not survive on PS and CC alone. There has to be more. There must be more. There will be more.

Say, for example, that an aquatic expansion comes out. I use this example because water covers more surface on the planet, it's an easier modification because it's all there, you just keep people from sinking immediately. Water covers surface and the subsurface, where you can create subsurface bases, etc.

So we get this Auraxis Oceans expansion. Say they come up with an underwater implant. Well, I don't feel like ditching one of my three already to get a new one, so BR24 here comes a new implant. Say they create a few surface vessels, some subsurface vessels. Well holy shit Batman, they aren't going to lump attack submarine with Prowler. They aren't going to put Rubber Raiding Craft with the Harasser/Lightning... so you'll need more certifications. There's no way you're going to max out cert points unless the developers put the cap at BR60 now.

So yeah, I think we're safe at not seeing uber-God characters with every cert known to man.

[SandTrout]

The Alternate advancement abilities must be useful, but limited to indirect combat.

The Elite hacker with an extra REK slot is useful because you dont have to fumble with your inventory. Possibility of hacking Wall turrets might actualy be a boon to defence because people don't want do destroy something they can use.

Barrel rolls might compleatly neutralize the mossie's menuverablitiy advantage over the reaver.