Diversity on the battlefield + class system

[NapalmEnima]

Originally Posted by DOUBLEXBAUGH

New system = BR40, you have access to everything just cant do it all at once. Skill trees mainly give sidegrades, and minor upgrades farther down.

I must disagree. I don't think it'll be anything like BR40.

I believe new characters will not have access to any vehicles ('cept maybe the ANT).

I believe there will be several weapons that aren't accessible to any untrained classes that will be to one or more after earning some BR and spending some training time... several classes might be able to unlock the punisher after a little training for example.

An untrained AV trooper might have the empire-specific AV weapon, but not the decimator. A heavy assault troop might have to train quite a bit (and earn some BR) to access the rocklet/thumper.

Light assault might not have access to jet packs right away... simply being much faster on their feet than the heavies. If both start off with only the empire-specific assault rifle, there will be some appeal to the additional speed.

Engineers might not be able to build turrets/mines/sensors untrained... starting off with only a sweeper and a caulk gun.

Lots of potential examples.


But at the end of the day, we really don't know... and won't until the classes are revealed along with their skill trees. That might take a while.

[Azren]

Yes, but all of those can be unlocked in time, or by investing enough money into the cash shop. These things I do not mind, but I find there should be a limit to how many roles a character can play at any given time. Only to make the battlefield more diverse by having some character stuck in their roles.
Very specific battlefields will only have very specific battles in them otherwise (for example a terrain with many rivers or mountains would be dominated by air cav, since nobody would be stuck driving his tank around).

Another issue I don't quiet understand, since everyone can have at least the basic air cav, tank (on day one, as it has been confirmed), will the sunderer and galaxy ever come into play as transports? Apart from the armor limit (if any) there is really not much stopping everyone from jumping into a mossy and bailing over the next base.

[Crator]

Don't forget, GALs now provide spawning for troops and maxes. That would defiantly help in situations where ground vehicles can't traverse too.

[Talek Krell]

I anticipate that Gals at least will be making common appearances. I can't say the same for the sundy as they've described it, but we'll see.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by Talek Krell

I anticipate that Gals at least will be making common appearances. I can't say the same for the sundy as they've described it, but we'll see.

I hope that if the sunderer isn't useful enough, they find some way of buffing it. By buffing it, I don't mean armor or firepower specifically, just usefulness.

Same goes for everything in the game. If anything isn't getting used enough, I hope it gets made more useful. If that means a little extra damage, fine, so long as it doesn't make it over powered, but hopefully the forgelight engine is robust enough that they can just add new, useful functionalities to vehicles and weapons that end up less than useful.

[MasterChief096]

Well its kind of their goal to make sure there is terrain that is more suited for certain roles. I specifically remember Higby stating that there will be canyons and mountains that only aircav will be 100% effective in.

I don't really see a problem with this. In real life war situations, human armies didn't send tanks into the mountains unless absolutely necessary.

There is also a player reason they are doing this (once again paraphrasing Higby).

According to Higby and SOE in general, they acknowledged that dedicated tank drivers and pilots often felt worthless when the fight would move indoors in PlanetSide. By adding huge plains for tank battles, and mountainous areas and canyons for planes, the drivers and pilots of these vehicles will be able to capture territory that has resources without ever leaving their vehicle if they don't want to, thus allowing them to contribute to the empire in their PREFERRED role.

They said there will be areas that are dominated by tanks, areas that are dominated by planes, and areas that are dominated by infantry (such as dense forests). In addition to this Higby stated that there would be areas where a combined mixture of all these units would be necessary to achieve victory.

It is for this reason that I don't think diversity will be effected that much in PlanetSide 2. I mean sure, if you kill a guy with your vanguard gun, he might go pull a reaver to come kill you, but then you could respawn as an AA unit to go hunt his ass down. This would lead to a never ending cycle of people dying and then pulling the counter to what killed them, and thus leading the people that originally killed them to die and then pull the counter to that.

For this reason, I think its unlikely that people will adopt a mindset of "pull the counter to whatever killed me."

This mindset might occur if this game was 1v1, but its hundreds versus hundreds, thus the incentive to actually pull the counter to what killed you is lowered, because most likely someone else in the hundreds of players on your side are trying their best to already provide that counter.

[Xyntech]

At a guess:

Tanks will dominate everything in areas that are wide open and relatively flat. It will be easy for them to maneuver and aircraft and infantry won't have anywhere to hide from them.

Aircraft will dominate in places where there isn't much small cover for infantry and AA vehicles to hide behind, but plenty of large canyons and clouds and tall trees for the plains to weave in and out of.

Infantry will dominate in all of the rough terrain where vehicles can't easily find or get at them, but where they can shoot out at the vehicles.

I'd hope for a breakdown roughly like this:

%40 combined arms

%30 infantry

%15 air cav

%15 tanks

[Accuser]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

I hope that if the sunderer isn't useful enough, they find some way of buffing it. By buffing it, I don't mean armor or firepower specifically, just usefulness.

Drop pods

[Talek Krell]

Negative on the drop pods. Entirely overlaps the role of the Galaxy. Only reason they were necessary in 2142 was the floating bases and the map timer.

[Captain B]

Those aren't drop pods, they're mortars with people in them!

Bring back the old drop pods, but maybe with more than one person in them? Maybe our main bases could have something where you enter and then get sent into SPEHSS to be dropped as a unit to areas already claimed.

[Xyntech]

Even if launching players didn't fit, it's still on the right track as far as thinking outside the box on ways of making underused vehicles more useful.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by NapalmEnima

I suspect that vehicle unlocks will be in one or more trees, and each will need to be purchased/unocked with a relatively large one-time resource cost.

What makes you suspect this is the case? And what value does such a mechanic provide to the game?

[Traak]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

Even if launching players didn't fit, it's still on the right track as far as thinking outside the box on ways of making underused vehicles more useful.

So, a vehicle that was relatively useless could be made more attractive by having some unique ability that made it suck less?

I have one. Add mine clearing. If the thing drives slowly enough, it will blow a bath through a minefield with no damage, but has to be low speed.

Not just a one-shot EMP, but a swath cut, at low speed, by a vehicle. A swath wide enough for a tank.

[Captain B]

Having minesweepers as a vehicle upgrade that you could toggle that slowed the vehicle to like, 33% of its max speed, would be awesome.

And it'd totally rock running someone over in one!

[Traak]

Originally Posted by Captain B

Having minesweepers as a vehicle upgrade that you could toggle that slowed the vehicle to like, 33% of its max speed, would be awesome.

And it'd totally rock running someone over in one!

Which would, to me, call for a new voice macro:

"You're mine, punk!"