Drop pods, and the lack of SOI. - Page 4

Stardouser · 2012-06-06, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by KTNApollo

Orbital stations, clearly. Same place we get OS from.

Actually, that gives me an idea. Obviously some people want no squad spawning at all even near bases but that's an extreme that might not happen.

What if the spawn spawn rate is tied to the number of people per hex? ie, if there are 20 people in a hex, the timer is X, if there are 500 people in a hex, the timer is X + Y or any combination therein.

The reason I am saying is this because some people have stated that the purpose for long timers is to prevent zerging and bottlenecking; so when these things aren't a factor, they should affect the timers less.

The lore could justify it, ie, the orbital station can only fire 30 drop pods per minute, or whatever.

Xyntech · 2012-06-06, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Actually, that gives me an idea. Obviously some people want no squad spawning at all even near bases but that's an extreme that might not happen.

What if the spawn spawn rate is tied to the number of people per hex? ie, if there are 20 people in a hex, the timer is X, if there are 500 people in a hex, the timer is X + Y or any combination therein.

The reason I am saying is this because some people have stated that the purpose for long timers is to prevent zerging and bottlenecking; so when these things aren't a factor, they should affect the timers less.

The lore could justify it, ie, the orbital station can only fire 30 drop pods per minute, or whatever.

So like every hex would have it's own timer? Like, I could squad spawn in a high population hex and then have to wait an hour to do it again, but I could immediately squad spawn on another squad mate in a low population hex, and then squad spawn a second time on him after only 20 minutes?

Because I'm not sure I understand how a variable spawn timer would work unless each hex had it's own timer for you.

I suppose there could also be a universal squad spawn timer, where you can never squad spawn more than once every x amount of minutes, no matter which hex you picked.

PeteHMB · 2012-06-06, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

"SOI" is not the Dome fields on Continental capitals.

Oh yeah. I stand corrected. Still. Didn't like ether one!

GTGD · 2012-06-06, 04:25 PM

I doubt you'll be able to HART onto a base like that in the release. It was probably just for the demo so you didn't see people running for a couple minutes and then getting instantly domed.

Bags · 2012-06-06, 04:29 PM

Maxes being able to drop pod on roofs of enemy bases is just silly.

Raymac · 2012-06-06, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by Bags

Maxes being able to drop pod on roofs of enemy bases is just silly.

Why? Wouldn't the squad leader need to be inside the base for this to happen? And if the squad leader is inside the base, doesn't that usually mean you have decent control of the area?

Sure you can have a cloaker sneak in and then have the squad drop, but that's not too different than a good gal drop as I've said earlier. Either way, it doesn't seem silly to me at all.

EVILoHOMER · 2012-06-06, 04:38 PM

I would have thought you can drop pod so close to the bases because SOE have set up a small scale demo to get people into the action and collect a lot of data on balance.

In the final game everything will be more spread out.

The Kush · 2012-06-06, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by Bags

Maxes being able to drop pod on roofs of enemy bases is just silly.

Agreed.

Stardouser · 2012-06-06, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by WildVS

Sounds like a good start on giving this mythical orbital station some functional intelligence. Probably something that can be more evolved with some beta testing but not a bad start.

I found this in a Star Wars thing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Doomgiver4.jpg

For some reason the link to the article with the full description won't paste in here. Edit: It's on Wookieepedia too: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Doomgiver

Also, for the idea of drop podding MAXes being silly, in Star Wars AT-STs can drop pod(possibly AT-ATs as well). Inb4 "this isn't Star Wars", I'm only saying. And if the silly part was dropping "on rooftops", that may or may not be good for balance but it's certainly not "lore silly".

GreatMazinkaise · 2012-06-06, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by Stardouser

And if the silly part was dropping "on rooftops", that may or may not be good for balance but it's certainly not "lore silly".

It's silly for balance reasons... that's clearly what the argument is. If you want to drop on/in the base, you should either grab a Galaxy or the faction fighter + Light Assault and/or drop shield combo. If you want to do it in a MAX, the Gal's your only option.

Stardouser · 2012-06-06, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by GreatMazinkaise

It's silly for balance reasons... that's clearly what the argument is. If you want to drop on/in the base, you should either grab a Galaxy or the faction fighter + Light Assault and/or drop shield combo. If you want to do it in a MAX, the Gal's your only option.

People sometimes try to justify things based purely on lore, though. And I agree, we need to do things based on what's good for gameplay, not lore. But I'd sure love to see that be applied universally.

Raymac · 2012-06-06, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by GreatMazinkaise

It's silly for balance reasons... that's clearly what the argument is. If you want to drop on/in the base, you should either grab a Galaxy or the faction fighter + Light Assault and/or drop shield combo. If you want to do it in a MAX, the Gal's your only option.

Why? The only answer is that's how Planetside 1 did it. That doesn't automatically make a change in that silly.

Having an option, that has a cooldown mind you, to drop pod on your squad leader is a great way to keep squad cohesion. People here always trump up teamwork, and this directly supports teamwork.

Plus it's not like you magically appear indoors next to your squad leader. You have to drop pod in.

Stardouser · 2012-06-06, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by Raymac

Why? The only answer is that's how Planetside 1 did it. That doesn't automatically make a change in that silly.

Having an option, that has a cooldown mind you, to drop pod on your squad leader is a great way to keep squad cohesion. People here always trump up teamwork, and this directly supports teamwork.

Plus it's not like you magically appear indoors next to your squad leader. You have to drop pod in.

I'm glad you mention cooldown. An automatically extreme cooldown seems, well, extreme. Throwing out a 120 second cooldown just because "OMG it's squad spawning" seems a bit premature. Honestly I think the cooldown should only be as much as it needs to be in order to not overwhelm defenders unfairly.

On that point, on paper, defenders seemingly have the advantage. Their spawn cooldowns are lower, they often have shorter to run to get in position, and now they have jump pads on top of all that. So why are defenders so disadvantaged? Are we assuming they will always be outnumbered and that justifies the restrictions on attackers?

Immigrant · 2012-06-06, 07:16 PM

Yes there should be some restriction like it should only be possible on the open ground. Dropping on buildings should get your pod crushed.

Also that thing they mentioned about pods being able to destroy aircraft without even a scratch.

something should happen but the only fair thing should be that both pod and aircraft get destroyed in collision.

Ductape · 2012-06-06, 08:35 PM

I never played ps1, So this is based on observations in other games and from the video seen.

I think that squad spawning should follow BF2142 in that you can pod in, but only at a certain location. Im not keen on seeing a ton of random pods dropping in all over the place during a base battle.

I would like to see it be something like a beacon grenade. you throw it down and it cant get destroyed, but shuts down after x mins or if an enemy gets within x meters for 30 seconds or so. As it is it will be cool for large spawns, but get irritating shortly.

I want to avoid sporadic drops but still allow for large drops to happen. For example, a galaxy filled with SLs disgorges behind enemy lines in a base and then squad members all drop on them to take the base very rapidly.

Another idea is to make it an item like the engineer tool. The SL is the only one that can have it, and they can take it out and use it to provide a signal for up to 30 seconds or so, with a 5-10 minute cooldown. While using this beacon tool, they cannot use a weapon. They can get reinforcements this way, but it will generally be a onetime thing once some squad members have died, or to get them there in the first place.