Planetside 2 Classes vs Certs

[AgtPanda]

Originally Posted by Higby

This is refreshing to see. I felt like I was going to be tarred and feathered by the community when we talked about classes at first. Now I can worry about getting tarred and feathered for something else!

It's ok Higby, the only way anyone would possibly tar and feather you is if it would mean you cut your hair sooner.

[Kran De Loy]

Originally Posted by Higby

This is refreshing to see. I felt like I was going to be tarred and feathered by the community when we talked about classes at first. Now I can worry about getting tarred and feathered for something else!

Oh there is plenty of stuff you're likely to get that treatment for over the next few months.
(Psst, I mean in-game.)

[likwidneo]

Originally Posted by Higby

This is refreshing to see. I felt like I was going to be tarred and feathered by the community when we talked about classes at first. Now I can worry about getting tarred and feathered for something else!

Yeah when the first news started trickling out about PS2 and you guys were talking about a class system, I was pretty upset. But as you started making your case for it, I had to grudgingly admit that your reasoning for it was pretty sound. The last thing we need is a Light Assault trooper with a jump pack and a bolt driver picking you off from impossible to reach vantage points at uber long distances. As I've watched the game shape out over the last year or so, the class system you guys are implementing has definitely grown on me.

[Maticus]

Originally Posted by Higby

This is refreshing to see. I felt like I was going to be tarred and feathered by the community when we talked about classes at first. Now I can worry about getting tarred and feathered for something else!

Just the fact that you're NC

[Tatwi]

Originally Posted by Zebasiz

Yeah I agree.
I've been back in the game these last few weeks just to give it my own send-off. But I really like playing the support roles, engineer and medic.
But there is never much for me to do as a medic. Everyone is already healing themselves by the time I get to them, or I just get there fast enough and they just don't have to spend their medigel/whatever it wass called again. Heal Juice.

Gah! Or they simply won't stand still long enough to get a medgun/repairgun lock!

Medics should get a command that slaps injured team mates up side the head and makes them sit the hell down for 10 seconds.

"Do you know why I rezzed you!? Well, do you!?" Sit your crackerjack ass down next time, Popcorn Sally, or one day you'll wake up with your dick stitched to your thigh! You got me, soldier?! Good!"

Gaaaaah!

/facePalmDance

[mintyc]

Originally Posted by Bravix

Still don't like the idea of heal grenades >.>

i know what you mean, its just dosent feel right.

a regen granade i would be fine with me though, throwing a nade filled with healing nanites and haveing everyone it hits have ther health rechargeing rapidly for a few seconds would feel beter than an outright direct aoe heal.

on a side note you could do a simalar thing with enginers and give them an armour regen nade.

[Cordless]

Originally Posted by mintyc

i know what you mean, its just dosent feel right.

a regen granade i would be fine with me though, throwing a nade filled with healing nanites and haveing everyone it hits have ther health rechargeing rapidly for a few seconds would feel beter than an outright direct aoe heal.

on a side note you could do a simalar thing with enginers and give them an armour regen nade.

I'm not sure what the difference is there. Does "healing grenade" mean you throw it and everyone gets 50 health, whereas regen grenade means throw it and everyone gets +5 health for ten seconds?

If so all the vids that had any kind of healing grenade seemed to be the latter, green "+s" flying around and people got health over time. I think it was in one of the TB vids.

edit: forgot the second half of my thought!

[Kemeros]

Originally Posted by Higby

This is refreshing to see. I felt like I was going to be tarred and feathered by the community when we talked about classes at first. Now I can worry about getting tarred and feathered for something else!

You chose to be a smurf... deal with it.

No but more seriously, i don't think you guys are wrong about anything yet. Which is refreshing to say. You guys seem to know what you are doing. I'll try the game before commenting.

[qbert2]

I'm excited for the new mechanics. I was never really satisfied with the current ones and upping the cap didn't really help matters imho.

Also, anything that lets me as a medic / engineer support my team without them having to sit still is awesome. FPS players are like ADHD monkeys on meth, it's impossible for them to hold still.

[Kran De Loy]

I just excited.

Originally Posted by qbert2

I'm excited for the new mechanics. I was never really satisfied with the current ones and upping the cap didn't really help matters imho.

Also, anything that lets me as a medic / engineer support my team without them having to sit still is awesome. FPS players are like ADHD monkeys on meth, it's impossible for them to hold still.

Did you know there are studies that linked ADD to heightened levels of dopamine in a person.
We're naturally happy/energetic people.

[Kezz]

Originally Posted by AgtPanda

You may start off with all the skills, but you can't do it all at the same time as in PS1...

This statement contains a flat-out lie.

In PS1, for starters, there's a cert point cap, so you can't have all skills certed at any given time. If you want to start flying a plane you don't have certed currently, you have to go back to Sanc to swap at the rate of one skill per 6 hours.

And tactically, even though you can have a broad range of skills certed at once, you are limited by your inventory space. If you want to drive a tank, good luck carrying an MCG and an AV missile and a Nano-dispenser to repair that vehicle and ammo for all three. If you want to be able to repair and heal yourself, you won't have any grenades handy in your holsters. This sort of issue can be fixed by hitting an equipment terminal, sure, and mitigated by having cargo in your vehicle's trunk, but what you can do in the crucial first half-second of a hostile contact is limited by what's in your inventory at the time.

People have Medic and Engineering because they're cheap, and those two certs make you just as effective a combat support as anyone else (given that most people de-rez so fast that Revive is pointless). There are ways other than classes to make dedicated support roles more crucial to gameplay and more popular (both to be and to enjoy the services of). There are ways other than classes to limit what any individual can do at any given time.

[Zebasiz]

Originally Posted by Tatwi

Gah! Or they simply won't stand still long enough to get a medgun/repairgun lock!

THIS! >.<
So many times I'm chasing someone halfway across the base when they have half health, trying to patch them up. I finally give up. Then I hear it... The most enraging thing one can hear from them...

"NEED A MEDIC!" *pure undiluted rage!!!*

With heal grenades: What do ya'll think of them acting like regular grenades, that is, no IFF on them. If you throw the heal-nade it will hit EVERYONE in its range, friend and foe alike. Makes you have to be a bit careful when using it.

[Kezz]

Originally Posted by Higby

This is refreshing to see. I felt like I was going to be tarred and feathered by the community when we talked about classes at first. Now I can worry about getting tarred and feathered for something else!

Classes are a crummy idea. The worst part of the game I've heard of/seen so far. None of the justifications I've heard/read trotted out hold even a drop of water. I have some tar and feathers over here if you'd like to sit still for a minute.

Edit reason: forgot the smiley.

[Littleman]

Originally Posted by Kezz

This statement contains a flat-out lie.

In PS1, for starters, there's a cert point cap, so you can't have all skills certed at any given time. If you want to start flying a plane you don't have certed currently, you have to go back to Sanc to swap at the rate of one skill per 6 hours.

And tactically, even though you can have a broad range of skills certed at once, you are limited by your inventory space. If you want to drive a tank, good luck carrying an MCG and an AV missile and a Nano-dispenser to repair that vehicle and ammo for all three. If you want to be able to repair and heal yourself, you won't have any grenades handy in your holsters. This sort of issue can be fixed by hitting an equipment terminal, sure, and mitigated by having cargo in your vehicle's trunk, but what you can do in the crucial first half-second of a hostile contact is limited by what's in your inventory at the time.

People have Medic and Engineering because they're cheap, and those two certs make you just as effective a combat support as anyone else (given that most people de-rez so fast that Revive is pointless). There are ways other than classes to make dedicated support roles more crucial to gameplay and more popular (both to be and to enjoy the services of). There are ways other than classes to limit what any individual can do at any given time.

Your definition of "do it all at once" and our definition differ... in that you're in the wrong.

PS2's system lets you have access to all the certs of PS1. It's just that no one person can mesh them all together in a single moment, and that's the important part the more thoughtful members have realized is the problem with PS1's system. With PS1's system, I could be a jetpack guy toting a bolt driver, med app, and glue tool. Hah! And people thought giving them an ammo pack encouraged lone wolfing and was slightly OP...

That, and everything's been balanced around the class concept. They're not going to suddenly change it for a few bitter vets stuck in the ways of PS1 just days if not weeks from the betas kicking into high gear. Little late to be offering criticisms on what should be. Start getting used to the idea.

[Furber]

Man, at first I was so anti-Class system I was considering not even playing PS2. But over the months the more interviews and news I got from the devs made me realize that it's not going to be some super restrictive, tunnel visioned class system. With all the customization flexibility of each class, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the class system plays out.

One little beef I do still have with the idea of a class system is that it some times creates a more Rock-Paper-Scissors style of gameplay, but hopefully PS2 will not end up like that. I recognize that there are some natural counters among classes, but I want individual skill to be encouraged and rewarded, not some kind of counter-always-wins BS.