Thrustpad [Jump Pad] Poll

[Badjuju]

And we should probably wait until beta before we take this sort of thing to seriously and pass judgement.

[CuddlyChud]

The Devs obviously put them in there for a reason. It's not like they thought: you know what Planetside 2 is missing? Man cannons! I'm pretty sure we can assume they're pretty necessary.

[Pyreal]

Can't the call the Vulcans and buy some teleportation tech?

[Figment]

I noticed a lot of the bases do not have the walls interconnect.

How do you feel about not being able to walk over high ground from one side to the other? Possibly this is one of the reasons they done that: you can have jump pads instead (yet this of course limits the high ground areas near openings to the courtyard).

[Straws]

I've not chosen a option on the poll because yes/no polls are useless.


The discussion needs to be broader than the thrustpads. It needs to be about facility defense and capture, because that is the reasoning behind their inclusion.

Due to the size and capture method of facilities, infantry movement is very important. I feel that because of this set up, the idea of enclosed facility walls (ala PS1) would slow the game down more than the developers are interested in.

So, in lieu of wall structures, they need to add a means to travel around the defensive battlements in a rapid fashion.

Two options seem to be popular at the moment;
-Thrustpads
-Teleport pads

The only alternative is that one of the classes is designed to be the facility battlement defender and they can travel quickly, but others can't. Even though this is alpha, I feel development is way to far down the line to look at that.

So, the two options we have. Thrustpads and Teleport pads. While I am a little unsure about thrustpads, I am so incrediably against Teleport pads, I can't even begin to understand why Planetside veterans would ever consider them to be a good idea.

Here are the negatives of teleport pads being used as a defensive battlement navigation device.
a) When attacking defenders, they would slip away in an instant, recover, then return. Attackers wont have that luxury, and being blunt, it's fucking cheap to escape death via a teleport that the attacker can't quickly chase you down through.
b) Sniper fodder. This may seem to counter the above, but please bear with me. Snipers will camp and instantly kill people that appear at a teleport pad. Once sniper teams are in place, we'll have tactless camp spots for free kills, rendering battlements useless.

Now, I know those reasons kinda counter eachother, but they actually show how badly teleport pads would negatively affect the game. First, being anything but a sniper to deal with battlement defense is pointless. Second, why bother defending the battlements if you're going to be instagibbed upon portally between battlements.

At least with thrust pads, the attackers can track-fire to kill a defender, forcing a more skillful type of sniping, as well as allowing other assault classes to participate. However, I suspect the jump-path and the landing point will be fixed, meaning that sniper camping is still a risk, but that risk would be at three points per battlement instead of a potential 1.

Personally, I would just prefer fixed platforms between each battlement. Platforms don't need walls.

[TheRagingGerbil]

Don't see an issue. The pads take away from the drudgery of having to run up and down the stairs all day to repair turrets, revive troops, setup additional defenses. Plus they look fun as hell.

Teleport pads would be annoying because troops would all of the sudden appear and disappear into thin air. With the thrust pads you can see the enemy coming and going and predict shots where they will land. I actually really liked playing in the caves of PS1 just for this reason. Picking off troops as they moved around the vertical world of the caverns was fun.

[MrBloodworth]

Its definitely new, and different. Even thought there are SOME parallels to PS1 systems.

I think, as long as we do not see them as an addition used to remove choke points, because choke points are necessary, then they are fine.

However I do worry about some superman tactics that may come from them, like jumping up to air vehicles to attach [s]Boomers[/s] C4 to it mid air, or flying MAX units...

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by TheRagingGerbil

Don't see an issue. The pads take away from the drudgery of having to run up and down the stairs all day to repair turrets, revive troops, setup additional defenses. Plus they look fun as hell.

Teleport pads would be annoying because troops would all of the sudden appear and disappear into thin air. With the thrust pads you can see the enemy coming and going and predict shots where they will land. I actually really liked playing in the caves of PS1 just for this reason. Picking off troops as they moved around the vertical world of the caverns was fun.

Thin air? I would think that if there is both a destination pad and a deparature pad, that's hardly "thin air". Also, when one team gains ownership of a section of a base, the other team would no longer be able to teleport to the pad that's located in that section, and vice versa. This way, teleport pads will only allow transport between OWNED sections, which will prevent teleport pad camping. Naturally, if you sneak into enemy held areas you could camp the pads, but you won't last long doing it.

And also, the ability to pick people off as they use the pads for travel is a negative for the people using them, not a positive.

[Sentrosi]

I voted no.

I think they're arcade-like and not needed in Planetside 2. I can understand a need for things such as jump pads, but surely some other mechanic can be in place. Such as the old Core Combat teleport pads.

I know I know. "CORE COMBAT!!!! HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THAT WHICH SHALL NOT BE SPOKEN!"

But I think that all the enemy needs is a few snipers outside the base picking off the jumpers. You'll grind any sort of base defense to a halt quickly. With the teleport pads you can encase the pads in a temporary shield that would allow the player to at least have a chance at defense. With jump pads you don't really have a chance.

[Aaron]

I don't mind the transportation. I just think it needs to be done a different way. The pads don't match the coolness of everything else, you know? Of course, it's only alpha and they're probably still working on them.

[Shogun]

Originally Posted by Cosmical

Simple resolution. Have a way that attackers can disable the jump pads through some kindof hacking or sabotage.

Done.

yes!
just wrote the same thing in another thread. i guess this is the better thread for this:

please give us sabotage options for the pads! a cloaker and or engineer should be able to turn off the pads, or turn them around to screw up their aim and make them launch the players to their doom in wrong directions, or with double power, resulting in a far throw that also inflicts a lot falling damage.

just give the pad a very subtle status-indicator! you need to be able to actually check if the pad is hacked without killing yourself! but it must not be a bright light punching everybody in the face. you need to look closely and if you don´t you run to your doom without warning.

[EVILPIG]

What if the pads only worked for friendlies?

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by EVILPIG

What if the pads only worked for friendlies?

Thus far, I've been arguing against it only on the idea that it works for friendlies. That it could work for enemies who do not yet hold the base, doubles the problems.

[Saieno]

Jump Pads are great in very fast paced games such as Unreal Tournament, Quake, Nexuiz, etc. This is because Jump Pads work as a method to quickly move across the map or reach certain advantage points. These games aren't about team work, regardless if you are on a team or not. They are lone wolf style games where one person can completely decimate a match without any team work involved. Planetside had everyone healing you, repairing your armor, covering your back, and generally looking out for you as well as their own personal objectives. Having Jump Pads in Planetside merely work to divide you from your squad, shifting your focus from teamwork to getting that next defense kill by hopping to another wall.

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by Saieno

Jump Pads are great in very fast paced games such as Unreal Tournament, Quake, Nexuiz, etc. This is because Jump Pads work as a method to quickly move across the map or reach certain advantage points. These games aren't about team work, regardless if you are on a team or not. They are lone wolf style games where one person can completely decimate a match without any team work involved. Planetside had everyone healing you, repairing your armor, covering your back, and generally looking out for you as well as their own personal objectives. Having Jump Pads in Planetside merely work to divide you from your squad, shifting your focus from teamwork to getting that next defense kill by hopping to another wall.

The logic still works for Planetside and it is because of the scale. The size of the maps in UT, or Quake are not even close to the size of the bases in Planetside 2. So in PS2, you will need to move even greater distances, and unless you want the game to turn into a jogging simulator, these thrustpads are needed.

Also, it doesn't kill teamwork (I freaking hate that argument being used for everything). While the scale of UT and Quake needed lone wolves to move quickly, the scale of Planetside 2 needs whole teams to move quickly. We've all heard calls over Broadcast calling for reinforcements by the back door, or the west gate, etc. THAT IS TEAMWORK.