Orbital Strike: Does it negate good team game play?

[Furber]

Huh, I can't recall a single time I needed anyone else to help me when I wanted to OS. You just hit "Reveal Enemies" (CUD ability gained at CR4), find a clump, and grab a bunch of free kills. It made AMSes rather easy to spot too since there would usually be a clump of enemies around the AMS. Maybe if they made it a little less of a solo job, and actually require some kind of coordination with other players, it would definitely fit in.

[FPClark]

Originally Posted by Furber

Huh, I can't recall a single time I needed anyone else to help me when I wanted to OS. You just hit "Reveal Enemies" (CUD ability gained at CR4), find a clump, and grab a bunch of free kills. It made AMSes rather easy to spot too since there would usually be a clump of enemies around the AMS. Maybe if they made it a little less of a solo job, and actually require some kind of coordination with other players, it would definitely fit in.

QFT...Maybe you could make it like the Battlefield2 (OMG SUGGESTING BF STUFF KILL HIM!!!) commander with a request system from your squad or outfit.

[Synapse]

An OS is a win button with little strategic value. I like the idea of commanders having some pull with orbiting ships but not via an AOE 1-hit kill they can launch personally.

Perhaps something more strategic like an area denial weapon, DOT that kills things sitting in a certain spot for too long.

And I'd probably require a squad member to laze the target for you, because you'd have to call it from a console in a base. (maybe only particular bases have such consoles) If you required squad members lazing a target and sitting at a console you could make it a single target 1hit kill, meaning it's only good for stationary (or dumb) targets.

Similarly there's no reason it needs to do damage. What if it were an orbital dropped shield? You could drop glue from orbit that slows everyone in an area.

Or you could just give a commander a cooldown ability to give his whole squad a 0second respawn on a point of his choosing.


All of it better than what we have today.

If its powerful it's crucial that it always be rare though. Don't go the way of the PS1 devs with orbital strike thinking there would be no CR5s, or the Eve Online devs thinking no one would have 100 billion isk.

Put hard limits on the number of players who can use it. top ranked 5 players online or something.

[WorldOfForms]

Those two lodestar pilots (and what sounds like, all the other vehicles) didn't know what they were doing.

Even if your Lodestar is parked on the ground, when you see/hear the charge up of the OS, if you elevate and afterburn you can easily dodge the strike.

So, were those Lode pilots not in the cockpits? Or were they AFK? If so, that's their problem, not the OS. Especially considering your troops had just secured a tough location. They should have been ready for immediate counterattack.

Hell, a REXO with surge can easily dodge an OS even if caught at the epicenter. The only thing that really can't dodge an OS is a deployed AMS, and that's how it's supposed to be.

[Bags]

If your lodes get OSd then you probably need better pilots. You can take off easily and avoid an OS.

I tried to OS 3 lodestars last night and they all flew off before it hit.


Really only problem with OS is the number of them... I think it's fun trying to surge away from one, desperately heading for the door.

[DarkChiron]

I don't know, OS just seems too much like those bullshit killstreak rewards you get in CoD. Rewards which the devs on multiple occasions have made fun of for how ridiculous they are.

[Kezz]

OSes are a problem when they're:
a) too easy to use
and/or
b) so common that you're prepared to use them on trivial annoyances.

Either would be unfortunate. The situation in PS1, where both apply, is kinda ridiculous.

Artillery (of whatever stripe, Ortillery is one type) is an integral part of what we've come to think of as "combined" arms, and the "Tac Nuke" effect has its place in persuading people to maintain tactical spacing and discouraging swarms. The game would be poorer without 'em. So long as they can be kept as the difficult to use, expensive tool that they ought to be.

[JimmyOmaha]

Originally Posted by Doxy

But doesn't OS has a visual identification before it hit?
Im pretty sure it's not that difficult to avoid it.

They do, but its still a pretty brief warning. Infantry have the best chance if they can get inside cover; but if you're not already moving when you see the indication its pretty much over.

[Rivenshield]

Long cooldown periods -- I'm talking a day or more if in-game time a la grief points, not chronological time -- and an absolutely hellacious resource cost for each OS can help them from becoming the game-killing monster they have become in PS1. Maybe.

Whatever the devs implement need to look ahead a few years when you have hundreds of bored players filling their Command cert tree because it's the only cert tree *left.* And so do the OS advocates in this thread. That's more or less what happened in PS1. There needs to be some kind of absolute upper limit on how many times you can call down the wrath of God in the same area within a set period of time.

[Snipefrag]

Jeez, a lot of moaning in here. OS's as a gameplay dynamic are fine, the problem is the sheer number of them around now. They should go to people who are actively leading.. As another strategic tool which can be used to turn a battle.. Not to just pad your kill count.

[NEWSKIS]

The problem with OS's right now in PS1 isnt the OS itself but the amount of them. Long ago there werent that many OS's to be used so they were less common. When your empire had like 10-15 to use in 3 hours you had to not waste it.

If they have it in PS2, it needs a system to prevent a ton of them from being used, like making it very expensive on resources. Or another alternative is make them like a cr4 OS in PS1, where it has a very small radius and needs pinpoint accuracy for the greatest effect. That way it cannot by itself wipeout large numbers of people, but more to take out specific targets.

[Kezz]

One way to limit spamming might be to start making them inaccurate after the first one in an area. The turbulence caused by the initial strike makes targetting iffy (or some other such handwave). Additional strikes in the same area would have as much chance of hitting friendlies as enemies, and an increasing chance of hitting empty ground as the trajectory deviation becomes larger with increasing "turbulence".

Making them have a hefty "Commandium" cost too would further discourage spamming. No one is going to waste resource on something that might well cost them a weapons lockout.

[Tsunami]

idk if you saw what they were planning for the OS but you have to spend lots of "credits" just to get one and they vary in size, so it might be like 1 OS every 3 hours. Go big or go home idea.

and we don't know if you loose all your ammo if you die so if you die with it, you just sunk a ton of resources into something that didn't go off.

[Timealude]

orbital strikes are a form of a stalemate breaker....if you have 2 empires going at it on a bridge and they are staying at a stand still for an hr or so a well placed orbital strike and move game play along for each team. I do not see it as a form of an I win button just because everyone can get them with work....back when ps1 was younger people had to earn os and in planetside 2 i see them being alot harder to come by just for the fact that it will most likely take resources and have a huge timer...

Originally Posted by Kezz

One way to limit spamming might be to start making them inaccurate after the first one in an area. The turbulence caused by the initial strike makes targetting iffy (or some other such handwave). Additional strikes in the same area would have as much chance of hitting friendlies as enemies, and an increasing chance of hitting empty ground as the trajectory deviation becomes larger with increasing "turbulence".

Making them have a hefty "Commandium" cost too would further discourage spamming. No one is going to waste resource on something that might well cost them a weapons lockout.

lazers arent really effected by turbulence right?

[Sephirex]

Originally Posted by Timealude

orbital strikes are a form of a stalemate breaker....if you have 2 empires going at it on a bridge and they are staying at a stand still for an hr or so a well placed orbital strike and move game play along for each team.

Pretty much just described a "I win" button even if I agree with your point.