TR Max lockdown - Not again!

[razor851]

Lockdown is terrible compared to the other two empires MAXs abilities. Even so, PS2 is an entirely new game and we have no idea what any specific detail will be like in a game no one here has played.

[Boogster]

Just popping in to say that Redshift is right, of course. Lockdown is rubbish - mainly because it's useless when you're attacking. I hope it's been seriously revamped.

[Kouza]

All I want is maxes limited to BEING ON THE FUCKING GROUND. No jetpacks can lift your fat ass no matter how tight of Purple spandex you barnies seem to find your self in.

[Raka Maru]

Originally Posted by Kouza

All I want is maxes limited to BEING ON THE FUCKING GROUND. No jetpacks can lift your fat ass no matter how tight of Purple spandex you barnies seem to find your self in.

I do like using my AA against them when they fly. At least change them to aircraft damage when the feet leave the ground.

[Traak]

Originally Posted by Raka Maru

I do like using my AA against them when they fly. At least change them to aircraft damage when the feet leave the ground.

Make anybody who is bailing vulnerable to AA, also. So, when you bail from your mosquito, you can be locked-on, burst proximity-fused rounds, etc.

That would discourage those pilots from own-n-bail-to-own-some-more.

[Metalsheep]

As far as lockdown goes, the Pounder and Burster are fine, they put out sickening amounts of damage when they're locked down. The DC however is compleatly shafted. It cant kill anything when its not locked down, and the direct fire nature of it makes it useless when locked down, as someone can just pop a corner, shoot, and hide again. Making the DC eaither A: Unlock and run away. Or B: Sit there and die to the next two decis. Eaither way, the DC is now out of the fight.

I think that BOTH Overdrive and Lockdown should return, but when the TR MAX locks down, its Capacitors meter turns into a shield or some kind of damage dampaning field that drains when struck by weapons. This could give the DC boosted defese when locked down to make up for its immobility, without giving it extra armor. You could still lock down any time, but if you want the boosted defense, you need to make sure your capacitor is charged. And in choosing to lock down and take the Shielding, you cant just unlock and go into Overdrive right away.

[Helwyr]

Originally Posted by Kouza

All I want is maxes limited to BEING ON THE FUCKING GROUND. No jetpacks can lift your fat ass no matter how tight of Purple spandex you barnies seem to find your self in.

Sure if Aircav can't hover and have to wear flight suits that are the equivalent of PS1 standard armor, and when they bail they're immobilized for at least 15 seconds on the ground before being able take any actions.

I mean seriously the balance between Aircav and AA MAXes in PS1 was pretty awful. Granted inside a base surrounded by friendlies all AA MAXes were good, and the Burster in some cases the best. However, outside of that the AA MAXes were easily dispatched by their supposed prey. Except the Starfire because it could jump out of Reaver rocket spam or Jump into Tree tops where rockets were less effective. Even in the event the AA MAX shoots down the aircraft, it still hasn't won. Aircav gets to pull the ultimate trick from their sleeve and rise anew from the ashes of "paper" in the form of "Rock" by virtue of bailing as a HA/AV infantry at full health. Post nerf no AA MAX is winning that fight, and a locked down Burster doesn't even have the option of running away.

[acosmo]

forgive for necro but this is probably the most badass usage of lockdown ever @30 seconds

if i can do this shit in ps2 then i'm all for keeping it

[Azren]

Lockdown was so much fun at launch. You know, that time when not every single foot zerg ran around in rexo with AV on it's back? Yea...

It's not the lockdown that's broken.

[UlfStein]

So after sitting here reading all the comments, I've come up with several conclusions and several points, none of which can be considered revolutionary by any means, but i'd still like to voice my opinion on the subject. I will try to explain my points in a top down fashion with a general overview of my philosophies concerning war and the functions of the maxes before finally focusing on the lockdown ability in regards to planetside 2.

The first point is that for the nature of this topic we really should neither be fighting over which would be superior in max on max combat with the except of the anti-vehicular variety as these are otherwise not the functions of the other maxes nor should we dwell excessively on the detail or the number crunching of each loadout as we cant expect to have exact replicas of these maxes in planetside 2. What would be considerably more important is whether or not they are effective in their current role and how they could be improved upon, changed, or reiterated in PS2.

Each max and respective varieties have a job or function they are expected to perform. Some are inately better than others in specific situations due to their specific functionality as several have stated. For example, a scatmax is, in my mind, far superior to a DC or VS AI max in regards to bum rushing a base even without its shield, and yet, even though a VS AI max can to a lesser extent fill the same role, it really shines in regard to bypassing obstacles to complete a specific objective. Likewise, the DC shines at being able to hold key points from a larger distance while still retaining the ability to mediocrely bum rush a base. Although each of these maxes are capable of taking out infantry and bum rushing a base as a baseline, their abilities and armaments make them shine in specific situations. As their specific functions are considerably different, their ability to kill or TTK ratios are an unfair accessment of their actual worthiness unless one is a K/D whore.

In regards to Anti-aircraft, experience has taught me that a burster bunkered down has the best chance of destroying enemy air craft and that a tree born AA VS max can do a great job in that department as well. Though one of them in my mind is substantially better at destroying aircraft, without their special abilities, each of these maxes are still able perform their baseline role which is to be able to deter aircraft away which is in my mind their primary purpose, killing is just an added bonus. My personal regards to war is that it is better to maim or incapacitate an enemy in the heat of battle rather than to destroy them. In regards to FPS, unless I am certain I can kill my target or my side is making considerable headway, it is more effective imo to pin down a target and exhaust their resources and the time it takes them to resupply than to waste my resources to guarrentee they respawn at full capacity. This is more so true for planetside than other fps games because planetside is not won solely on kill count nor specifically bound to a time limit so, to me, bunkering down is not an absolute necessity for a burster to be successful; neither is a Sparrow's shield for that matter, especially if the sparrow never gets hit, so to me the overall feeling is that they are balanced per their actual role.

Aside from the fore mentioned philosophies on fps combat which adds a weight of bias to my arguement and my philosophy on max worthiness, I feel that the lockdown function would be a great if not better ability in Planetside 2 than it is now, and I have several reasons that I feel supports my claim. For starters, unlike in Planetside 1, not everyone and their brother is going to be equipt with deci's and AV to ravage a bunkered down max or be equipt with medical equipment to shrug off the damage a max may do as the class system for Planetside 2 from what we've been told prohibits this. Second, and this is purely based off of speculation, but despite the fact that PS2 maybe more lethal than our current game, the maxes being an unlockable item wouldn't make it unreasonable to suspect that the max suits will be much more proportionally tougher in comparison than a normal foot soldier than what we are use to, not to mention the lethality also counts against the foot soldier as readily as it does the max; especially since as I mentioned before that not everyone will be equipt with med guns and decis. Lastly though, and most importantly, it has been noted extensively that there will be substantially more cover available in PS2 which may increase the effectiveness of bunkering via protection or further nullifiy the disadvantage of being stationary.

I realize that this topic fell on the wayside a few months ago and that my message may be too long to read for the average reader, but i still feel that this topic is essentially relevent considering that PS2 is along the way, and worth delving further into as long as we likewise keep the topic relevent to developement of PS2 instead of arguing over the current mechanics found in PS1.

[Snowfake]

Lock down may have worked on paper but the truth of the matter is that it's just not practical at all.
With the games net code it is too easy for soemone to just pop in and out of cover to fire a deci. Infact in any shooter it has been a basic tactic for years to strafe in and out of cover as quickly as possible aganist a target because it makes you really damn hard to hit.
When the pounder was the AI max its splash damage would level the playing fields some.
Even if it was good for defence, you dont take bases by sitting in corridors! Max's are meant to be base tanks not bunkers, they lead the way and the softies all get behind them.
Fuck if they want to make it so TR max's need to be used in team work, give us a big bubble shield so we can protect everyone around us instead of a quick firing gun.

[Graywolves]

If Lockdown is supposed to make a TR max excel at defending a position then every soldier on ground shouldn't excel at destroy the locked down max with minimal effort and damage. Especially when other max's manage the exact same job and take less damage doing it and can even move and shield themselves.

[Effective]

Originally Posted by basti

What the hell are you guys talking? Lockdown is and was awesome.

No it has never been awesome.

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Max lockdown = free kill for semi intelligent players.

[UlfStein]

Originally Posted by Snowfake

Even if it was good for defence, you dont take bases by sitting in corridors! Max's are meant to be base tanks not bunkers, they lead the way and the softies all get behind them.
Fuck if they want to make it so TR max's need to be used in team work, give us a big bubble shield so we can protect everyone around us instead of a quick firing gun.

its a common stradegy in rts to take enemy territory by leap frogging bunkers, the same can be done in planetside as one has already mentioned on this thread. A TR DC max can still open the door for softies, but instead of charging forward after the brunt of the attack it can bunker down and lay suppressive fire defending to the corridoor of attack so that the softies can move in and take position for the max can repeast the process to move on to the next area. This fits the TR ideology better because it is more professional to do than bum rushing and relying on momentum that the NC max and ideology endorses.

Originally Posted by Graywolves

If Lockdown is supposed to make a TR max excel at defending a position then every soldier on ground shouldn't excel at destroy the locked down max with minimal effort and damage. Especially when other max's manage the exact same job and take less damage doing it and can even move and shield themselves.

Exactly, PS2's class system is a way to ensure that every ground soldier does not excel at taking down a stationary max, which is why lockdown may be more potent in PS2.

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by razor851

Lockdown is terrible compared to the other two empires MAXs abilities. Even so, PS2 is an entirely new game and we have no idea what any specific detail will be like in a game no one here has played.

Seems like so many people here have played it already though.