Planetside Idea Lab

[Hayoo]

Floorplan for Maglev station:

[EarlyDawn]

Now, this is a battle zone, right? You can fight here?

[Edit: Any btw, any ETA for the redesigned emplacements/firebases? That's probably my favorite idea out of all of them. I think that would be a nice progression of developed concepts after Outposts/Zones of Control because it would be great to set up a firebase and hold an outpost against an enemy platoon, all the while having your Platoon Commander call the Task Force for backup...]

[l3lizz4rd]

Hayoo, you have the best ideas I've ever seen come out of this community. Every single one I've read I think "Damn, I'd love to see that in the game." Great work, hopefully some of your ideas could become reality.

[Lartnev]

Hehe, SmokeJumper's "inspiration"

Yeah I agree that a lot of what is on planetside idea lab would be great to see in the game, a lot of it could be complicated from a coding point of view, but the devs have nothing but time.... and lots of ideas

3 cheers for Hayoo and PS Idea lab

[Onizuka-GTO]

hip-hip-hurrah!

[Hayoo]

Thanks for the kind comments guys and making this a rewarding experience.

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

Now, this is a battle zone, right? You can fight here?

[Edit: Any btw, any ETA for the redesigned emplacements/firebases? That's probably my favorite idea out of all of them. I think that would be a nice progression of developed concepts after Outposts/Zones of Control because it would be great to set up a firebase and hold an outpost against an enemy platoon, all the while having your Platoon Commander call the Task Force for backup...]

Yeah, the maglev stations would be part of a zone. Capture the zone and you capture the station.

Here's a little more on the deployable emplacements.

Emplacements cannot be placed inside a base, on roads, bridges, in front of doors, etc.

• Any trooper can make a generic front-piece cover/sandbag thing with an entrenching tool. This basic type comes with a lock-box for putting in extra ammo. Destroy the lockbox, the cover deconstructs. So bombers, arching fire, grenades, or flank attacks are best for denying this cover to the enemy and making him withdraw or die.
• Updated: Engineers, even though they are really mechanics, can create the larger cover and have the option of putting a single machinegun on there, probably 15mm.
• A CE can create a fully enclosed emplacement for machine guns, aid station, command posts, supply post, etc. Again, bombers, arching fire, and grenades are best against this. Aid stations and CPs are more vulnerable as their tent-looking structues rise above the emplacement cover. These weak types are meant to be back further from the line for protection.
• A Field Engineer can create the stronger emplacements that come with AA or AV weapons inside them. Direct fire weapons are able to hit these gun mounts to destroy the emplacement.

By the way, the turf-color of the sloping sides of the emplacement reflect the ground it is created on: temperate, desert, and arctic, so that they give some kind of camoflauge in addition to cover.

Right now trying to get a handle on the scale of everything in the game so I can create a more accurate layout for the urban area outposts.

[Rbstr]

hmm, i like, But i would say make the large/machinegun nest things, Regualr engineer stuff to hae a middle ground

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by Rbstr

hmm, i like, But i would say make the large/machinegun nest things, Regualr engineer stuff to hae a middle ground

Can't believe I forgot to put Engie's in there! How about I switch out that Combat Engineer for the 'larger cover' and let him have the option of putting a machine gun on that. I want to make sure Combat Engineers are special in doing fortifications. Engineers in the game right now are supposed to be mechanics.

[Rbstr]

Yeah thats about right

[JetRaiden]

Originally Posted by Hayoo

Thanks for the kind comments guys and making this a rewarding experience.



Yeah, the maglev stations would be part of a zone. Capture the zone and you capture the station.

Here's a little more on the deployable emplacements.

Emplacements cannot be placed inside a base, on roads, bridges, in front of doors, etc.

• Any trooper can make a generic front-piece cover/sandbag thing with an entrenching tool. This basic type comes with a lock-box for putting in extra ammo. Destroy the lockbox, the cover deconstructs. So bombers, arching fire, grenades, or flank attacks are best for denying this cover to the enemy and making him withdraw or die.
• Updated: Engineers, even though they are really mechanics, can create the larger cover and have the option of putting a single machinegun on there, probably 15mm.
• A CE can create a fully enclosed emplacement for machine guns, aid station, command posts, supply post, etc. Again, bombers, arching fire, and grenades are best against this. Aid stations and CPs are more vulnerable as their tent-looking structues rise above the emplacement cover. These weak types are meant to be back further from the line for protection.
• A Field Engineer can create the stronger emplacements that come with AA or AV weapons inside them. Direct fire weapons are able to hit these gun mounts to destroy the emplacement.

By the way, the turf-color of the sloping sides of the emplacement reflect the ground it is created on: temperate, desert, and arctic, so that they give some kind of camoflauge in addition to cover.

Right now trying to get a handle on the scale of everything in the game so I can create a more accurate layout for the urban area outposts.

make a couple of those bigger I cant read the text.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by JetRaiden

make a couple of those bigger I cant read the text.

If you mean the images illustrating my attempts to scale everything, I did that on purpose since it wasn't something I was presenting.

Or do you mean the emplacement examples?

[SilverLord]

Those emplacements are tight bro, I really would like to see those come into the game.

[EarlyDawn]

Excelent stuff for the emplacements. I look forward to the full list of what we'd be able to deploy!

As far as mounting a machinegun on the fortifications, (The small sandbag mounds) I'd be more in support of having a new class of heavy machinegun that could be mounted on the baracade and crewed by either one or two people. The gunner could fire the machinegun and reload it manually, or you could have a second crewman reload it at a greatly increased speed.

It would also be nice to have the option to deploy the three kinds of cover currently in, the tech-sandbags, the tall metal wall cover, and the shorter wall with a gap for firing. These would not have the said lockbox, and would simply absorb damage until destroyed.

[Edit: While it's on my mind, how does one select what kind of post to build, or wether or not to use a machinegun on the entrenchment? Some terminal placed once you build it or is it decided when you use the tool?]

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

Excelent stuff for the emplacements. I look forward to the full list of what we'd be able to deploy!

Me too.

As far as mounting a machinegun on the fortifications, (The small sandbag mounds) I'd be more in support of having a new class of heavy machinegun that could be mounted on the baracade and crewed by either one or two people. The gunner could fire the machinegun and reload it manually, or you could have a second crewman reload it at a greatly increased speed.

I've wanted that too for a while and I've supported several threads on it. In the end I decided there was room enough for both. The larger cover (made by engineer and higher) can just be plain cover and no weapon. This would give two levels of regular cover over to crew-served machinegun use.

A grunt uses the entrenching tool to create his small cover, a friend runs up and deploys his machine gun behind it, rather than actually docking it to the cover (whole other coding issues). Once you're CE, you can create that two-sided emplacement with dual machine guns at both ends. Emplacements as a rule will not have large locker space for ammo, and MGs eat up lots of that, so a friend would have to keep feeding ammo into the locker for the gunner to shoot. Once you're out, you're out, you have to run back for extra.

And don't think about simply constructing another one to quickly get free ammo, as it takes longer than a spitfire to make and you are as vulnerable as a Phoenix user while creating them.

It would also be nice to have the option to deploy the three kinds of cover currently in, the tech-sandbags, the tall metal wall cover, and the shorter wall with a gap for firing. These would not have the said lockbox, and would simply absorb damage until destroyed.

I wouldn't mind the shorter wall with the gap or the tech-sandbags (and I might retool the graphics to have those on top of the foxholes instead of the brown sandbags). But the emplacemetns I have serve that function already and which would a grunt like to have more? A chest-height cover. Or a chest-height cover with a place you can store extra ammo in.

[Edit: While it's on my mind, how does one select what kind of post to build, or wether or not to use a machinegun on the entrenchment? Some terminal placed once you build it or is it decided when you use the tool?]

Depends on if you're a grunt, engineer, CE, or FE. I'll do examples for both ends of the spectrum:

• Grunt gets his loadout that has his entrenching tool and emplacement/nano juice (still working out which one is best).
• As grunt nears the battle he notices approaching enemy into valley.
• Grunt unholsters his entrenching tool.
• He currently has only one creation option, the basic cover.
• He aims at the ground and fires.
• A small map window pops up showing his location and surrounding terrain. This window lets him choose the direction the cover will face.
• If the area of placement is red, he can't build it there. When it turns green, he can.
• He clicks again, locking the direction in place.
• The screen snaps back to 3rd person view, showing an animation of the grunt creating the cover.
• Cover finished, view snaps back to 1st person.
• Grunt ducks just in time to avoid a sniper round.

• Field Engineer gets his loadout that has his fortification tool and emplacement/nano juice
• As FE nears the battle he notices approaching enemy into valley.
• FE unholsters the fortification tool.
• He currently has 4 options that he can toggle through with the right mouse button: Basic cover, the larger cover, standard emplacement, heavy emplacement.
• He selects heavy emplacement, runs to a spot, aims at the ground, and fires.
• A small window pops up that resembles the vehicle pad selection pane. On it from top to bottom are the types of emplacements for that catagory that he can create.
• He selects the artillery emplacement.
• The selection window changes to the small map window showing his location and surrounding terrain. This window lets him choose the direction the cover will face.
• If the area of placement is red, he can't build it there. When it turns green, he can.
• He clicks again, locking the direction in place.
• The screen snaps back to 3rd person view, showing an animation of the grunt creating the cover.
• Emplacement finished, view snaps back to 1st person.
• FE shouts to his friend, who runs up and mans the artillery post, while the FE a distance aways to create a machine gun nest for some exposed grunts.

As an alternative to the "emplacement direction window" I can just have the construction area highlighted in first/third person in front of the avatar and he can turn his mouse this way and that to rotate the emplacement site. If he hits the escape key or whatever, the selection is canceled. If the area is green and he clicks, it goes to the Type Selection screen.

At least that's how I am making the concept art. Could change here and there, depending.

[Dharkbayne]

You should come into IRC some time while Spork's in there, so you can discuss this with him personally.