Gameplay: Amphibious transports & naval units

Figment · 2012-06-16, 08:48 AM

Alright, so most of these concept sketches are pretty old actually and done within 5-15 mins, probably some are from 2005 even so bare with me that the style is PS1 and hasn't been updated yet. I might make some sketches with units that would actually fit in with the current design themes.

Just decided to post these holidaybrainfart sketches nonetheless considering there's so little water used on the continents and the argument used might just be "optimising gamespace". Again, these were all roughs and would need a lot of revising.

At the time, I had hoped for a naval expansion to PlanetSide, particularly to make Cyssor more interesting and make use of the currently less used areas.

Since we have classes now, the suit idea might actually be possible as a class.

Names are all random brainfart placeholders ofc. Anyway, the first three are based on the idea of the C&C hovercraft landing ship, which is basically this:

The idea behind the need for this unit was that the Lodestar was too valuable and hard to obtain near sites where you needed naval capacity. So as a compensation for not being able to fly, it could carry two and would have some weaponry installed. These would be pure beachlanding vehicles.

Later on I realised there were no resources for big developments and that the large design of these units would be unwieldy near bases: they could be used to block entry routes and the AA firepower would trump Skyguards due to the large amount of hitpoints, they could probably also be used as a tank in a tank in a tank unit. A drawback to prevent this sort of thing from happening would be to limit their capacity to move around on shore efficiently.

Still, I figured they'd be a bit unwieldy and slightly exploitable, thus the Messenger, Lander and Expeditor (MkII) were born as amphibious Sunderer variants with a PS1 Galaxy loading bay for transporting light units:

In addition, I figured the TR and NC in particular could use an extra amphibious tank. The following tank is part amphibious APC, part medium tank, the Crocodile:

Then there was this little Destroyer, which was both an aircraft support platform as a waterbased AA and mounted with wallturrets.

This type of unit is IMO a lot more suited as an outfit teamvehicle, though at the time of course the PS1 issue of not being able to stay move atop a moving object interfered. In PS2 this would not be such an issue from what I understand though!

Then a mini-sub to be used by Mariners (sea-mines and torpedos):

Sabotage and sneak attacks, night time stealthy SEAL attacks in PS2 with harpoon guns anyone? :3

And lastly, a Motor Torpedo (Speed)Boat, somewhat similar to the subs, but variants could be combinations of anti-sub, mine laying, mine clearing, anti ship (torpedoes) and anti-air (turret on back end).

Hell, even came up with a rough naval base design back then (which would be well outdated now and need a complete and utter overhaul).

The idea was that you could place this base on top of any sloped terrain by elevating it above the terrain, making walls simply pass through the map where needed, while the lock doors would end very close to the water surface.

It would provide access to the aforementioned hovercraft transports and destroyers, perhaps the subs, though I did like the idea of Sub Pen bunkers.

NewSith · 2012-06-16, 09:36 AM

Figgy, I'm in love with you... Awesome ideas and sketches!

EDIT: Also is it just me or it's BMP you repainted?

Baneblade · 2012-06-16, 10:51 AM

Looks pretty good overall.

berzerkerking · 2012-06-16, 11:31 AM

/sign

Cuross · 2012-06-16, 11:55 AM

I like the hovercraft ideas. Now, I play VS so I can assure you that we never had any issues with water crossings, but sometimes I did feel pity on the NC and TR who were all but hopeless. Actually, I take that back, I was rocking a sniper rifle from the other side of the river, I didn't want anyone coming across! :P

About your idea. Amphibious transports are really only a great addition to the NC and TR. The VS can already hover, so I think that the need for the hovercraft on the VS side isn't so spectacular lol. The only people really loving it would be the Sunderer and Lightning drivers. I mean, sure it means that we'll have a bigger tactical advantage since our Magriders can skim along side them and for the same beach assault we can also bring along a good squad or two of infantry over the other factions.

But what I love about the hovercraft idea is that it is just as effective over water as it would be over land, basically making it an almost better Lodestar (almost better because the Lodie can fly). But I will admit, for the sake of balance, the VS would have the upper hand in this fight. Back to the drawing board, good sir, an update is surely necessary as you have predicted!

Figment · 2012-06-16, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by NewSith

Figgy, I'm in love with you... Awesome ideas and sketches!

EDIT: Also is it just me or it's BMP you repainted?

:3 It's Russian I do believe!

Figment · 2012-06-16, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by Cuross

About your idea. Amphibious transports are really only a great addition to the NC and TR. The VS can already hover, so I think that the need for the hovercraft on the VS side isn't so spectacular lol. The only people really loving it would be the Sunderer and Lightning drivers. I mean, sure it means that we'll have a bigger tactical advantage since our Magriders can skim along side them and for the same beach assault we can also bring along a good squad or two of infantry over the other factions.

Aye that's why I made it smaller for the VS, it would only have been useful for ANTs, Skyguards, Harassers, AMSes and Sunderers really. Hence I allowed two units in the others and only one in the VS and also gave it less firepower to defend itself.

Not completely non-useful, but significantly less so. Mostly it's a cheap Lodestar, but with one thing of added usability: it's also providing AA over water areas. That wouldn't make it completely useless either since it'd be (compared to the others) more of a regular unit. At the time of drawing I had envisioned the VS unit to be slightly more of a fire support vehicle than a transport vehicle than the others (who got a bit more potential firepower though), but it'd also be more fragile than the others.

The main potential breaker IMO is hitpoints vs competition with other unit types. The Skyguard would have a significant speed advantage. The reason for giving it more hitpoints is obvious: over water you do need more hitpoints after all to stand a chance to survive as you have no cover.

Where it breaks is when you're not over water. So my issue with these naval units is ironically land. :x There's a chance they could be acceptable because they'd be huge targets and would have huge problematic downwards depression angles with the guns being deliberately placed on top (they'd only be less vulnerable to aircraft, though relative as it'd be easy to do strafing runs on them).

If that's enough to balance them would be another thing. Either way, the Sundy variants would have been easier to implement as they didn't need any new infrastructure.

Zekeen · 2012-06-16, 01:47 PM

I'm sorry, were there words? I couldn't tell... too busy... staring..at...awesome..vehicles... sure.. sign?...ok...

...../sign....

What was I doing again?

lMABl · 2012-06-16, 02:17 PM

Awesome sketches and some great ideas! Really shows the potential of naval combat in PS2.

/sign

Figment · 2012-06-16, 09:01 PM

Wonder if they could rebuild Indar's shoreline into an Atlantic wall, add hexes near beaches and cliffs and make that territory useful for invasions too.

Then they just need to make sure the landing units can not move inland, which can be done by creating relatively narrow (rock cover along the path up) and steep passages should do in that regards.