News: Roadmap Resource Revamp & Continental Lattice Updated

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Malorn

I posted some clarifications in the resource roadmap thread. Reposting here for your convenience:

If you guys refund acquisition certs please make sure you change the cert cap limit, as I'll be way over the limit.

I love the proposed changes, the game has desperately needed resources to be revamped and to drive the game since release. I've been attempting to hammer that home in so many of my posts, it seems like you've been working on it so much thanks to you!


Give the ANT a 10s-deploy, 150m EMP field. Disables any enemy vehicles entering an area. A defenders dream :O

[Lonehunter]

Originally Posted by Mordelicius

Orbital Strike(!) - Orbital Strikes need power to activate!! ANT need to deploy and players consume it's power in able to use orbital strikes.

yes.... YES!

Seeing a lot of good new mechanics people are thinking of

[MGP]

Originally Posted by Mordelicius

Orbital Strike(!) - Orbital Strikes need power to activate!! ANT need to deploy and players consume it's power in able to use orbital strikes.

Here's a video from PS2 Beta of NC commander powering up his Orbital Strike:

[Ragnafrak]

Originally Posted by Assist

Give the ANT a 10s-deploy, 150m EMP field. Disables any enemy vehicles entering an area. A defenders dream :O

In theory, that would be very fun. In practice, when people figure out they can stack 30 ANTs inside 1 small area and have this ability going off every 5 seconds, no.

[TheRagingGerbil]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

Easy.

Bring back the LLU style of base capture and require the ANT to transport the module.

Plus if you make the ANT a bigrig style, do it up like Mad Max style:

Or like the tanker from Death Race:


A vehicle that has a dedicated driver and requires gunners to defend would be rada!

[Hmr85]

Alright, I literally just slapped this together to get what I would like to see here. So I apologize for the crappy image / MS paint.

Basically, I would rather see the ANT as a separate vehicle and it needs to be a space truck/ Rearm platform/ Mobile bomb.

Behold the ANT!! ( No I didn't design it. Its actually a real vehicle. I found it under images in google.) Its slick looking and easily identifiable. Notice the container on the end for resource transportation.



Below is the ANT deployed gathering resources.



So back to my points after my crappy image upload. Lol

1.) (Easily Identifiable). I don't about some of you guys but I want to live out my futuristic space trucker fantasy's. Give me the option to cert into bigger cargo space for my ANT

2.) (Mobile Repair/Rearm Station) You guys could take it a step further and give it the ability to deploy like so and supply Armor with repair/ammo. Attach some pads that deploy out onto the left and right side of it on the ground. That way armor has to drive up onto them to start repairing.

3.) (Deployed Protective Generator) Give it the ability to deploy like so and provide a shield or cloaking field for protection.

All of this though would require you to be certed into it.

[CraazyCanuck]

Fantastic News.

On cotinental locks. For a faction that is down to their Home WG, allow them the ability to Warp Assault either of the other two WG on the same continent. This option is only available after the faction has been forced into their WG and after a set timer. Timer is cancelled if the locked faction breaks the lock. When active, there is a small window for the locked faction to send troops through before the WG power supply is drained and needs to recharge. With the new resource system, could instill a period of no resource gain or a slower resource gain until the WG recharges. When a warpgate assault occurs, the targeted WG receives a small local warning of the incoming assault as a power surge is detected or what have you.

As for the ANT. New vehicle is a must. Otherwise the larger outfits will just mass spawn sundies and hide the ANT amongst the duplicates. When charged, have the ANT emit an EMP by default that disables radar/HUD/lock-ons from working within its effect.

Maybe as an added effect to increase gameplay, make it so that the ANT can only hang on to the charge for so long before it becomes volatile and destructs That way logistics involving distance from the facility in need and the closest terminal comes into play. Just stalling an ANT advance or forcing a detour would become viable tactic.

Another variable maybe the time it not only takes for a terminal to charge an ANT but the duration between charges and/or number of charges a terminal may be able to complete before it needs to recharge?

[Rahabib]

I still dont really see the need to have it separate vehicle, just let it be the sunderer with a module that takes the AMS slot.

Why:
1) Sunderers are already targets, You dont have to worry about one slipping by unnoticed.
2) Defensive ability. Yea, ANTs may have worked great for those bored enough to drive them in PS1, but in a game with 10x the population, they wont last more than a minute.
3) New vehicle, all new certs, more of a shameless cash in for SOE. Or maybe I just convinced them to do it now.

OK heres why this wont really affect as much as you think:
Yes its new side objective to the game, hurray! But still when it comes to attacking a base, heres your choices. "Well this base now has less resources so it will be easier to take." Once you get it, all it does is push the enemy back. The game is still just one giant tug of war. Thats fine but you cant cut off strategic use of vehicles from other zones etc. So basically, the battles across territories still do not interconnect meaningfully. Now that it will be a unified resource type, taking a biolab or taking an amp makes very little difference in the grand scheme. I personally liked having three types of resources, its just its impossible to cut off a resource type from the enemy making resource types meaningless. Rather than tweaking the system to work, they just went back to PS1 - problems and all.

[Greenthy]

Originally Posted by CraazyCanuck

Fantastic News.

On cotinental locks. For a faction that is down to their Home WG, allow them the ability to Warp Assault either of the other two WG on the same continent. This option is only available after the faction has been forced into their WG and after a set timer. Timer is cancelled if the locked faction breaks the lock. When active, there is a small window for the locked faction to send troops through before the WG power supply is drained and needs to recharge. With the new resource system, could instill a period of no resource gain or a slower resource gain until the WG recharges. When a warpgate assault occurs, the targeted WG receives a small local warning of the incoming assault as a power surge is detected or what have you.

Or one could just add in sanctuaries, linking to a continent and a BI (while they work on more continents)

[Ragnafrak]

Originally Posted by Rahabib

I still dont really see the need to have it separate vehicle, just let it be the sunderer with a module that takes the AMS slot.

Why:
1) Sunderers are already targets, You dont have to worry about one slipping by unnoticed.
2) Defensive ability. Yea, ANTs may have worked great for those bored enough to drive them in PS1, but in a game with 10x the population, they wont last more than a minute.
3) New vehicle, all new certs, more of a shameless cash in for SOE. Or maybe I just convinced them to do it now.

Why not:
1) Consider the bigger picture. There will be more than one. There might be 10 or more. Which one is the important one? Undeployed, they all look the same. Destroy the deployed one, another deploys. They become their own camouflage. Think about zebras herding together, their stripes melding with each other to confuse predators.

2a)Just as there are many who, like yourself, would think driving a defenseless ANT less than fun, there are others who believe the opposite. I am one example, and the group of friends I play with think it would be great fun to have to defend a mobile objective such as an ANT.

2b)Saying that they won't last very long is also too narrow a viewpoint. TTK on everything is less than a minute. There are plenty of circumstances when ANTS would be viable as well.

2c)If dying too quickly is a big concern for you, then this would be another thing to add to the list of reasons why the ANT should be its own vehicle. A separate ANT vehicle can have more armor and hitpoints, giving it a longer TTK. Of course, being too durable would mean it would need to give up offensive capabilities, as has already been suggested.

3)Everyone has access to all of the vehicles for free. Low-level certifications are not hard to comeby and are also not purchased with SC. Thus, adding a new vehicle with its own cert lines does not directly lead to more cash for SOE, shameless or no. Further, tagging unnecessary adjectives onto it does not strengthen your argument.

[Wayside]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

APPEARANCE:
If you didn't create a brand new vehicle for resource gathering, I think it'd be worth while to visually indicate on the existing vehicles that they were configured to carry resources. You could do this in such a way that the overall model rigging and animation of the vehicle didn't need to change. This would (I imagine) save on development time.

For Example:

• Replace the rumble seat on the Harasser with a flat bed, perhaps with a crate or container in it - making it look like a small pickup.
• You could alter the Sunderer in a smiliar way, giving it an open or covered bed.
  http://www.memphisequipment.com/files/trucks/m809.jpg
  http://www.military-today.com/trucks/raba_h14.jpg

FUNCTIONALITY

• Supplies for Attackers

I think the basic concept of hauling resources around lends itself to at least one additional role for such a vehicle. I'm not sure how the Sunderer's current deploy terminal would play into the new resource system, or if any changes are planned for how soldiers rearm in the field, but it sounds like one problem the new resource system could introduce would be that of attacking armies running into resource problems.

If players depend on a base to replenish their resources, you could allow resource vehicles to provide a similar, if reduced effect within a limited radius. This would add the "supply line" aspect to both the attackers and the defenders, adding a logistical challenge and something new for both sides to attack / defend.

• Large Deployables

There has been talk since BETA about player deployables. I think its come up recently in various dev talks as well in the form of a potential continent where there are no bases by default, and players are responsible for constructing and managing all of the structures in that area.

One intermediate step towards that (glorious) day might be large deployables. Objects that are larger than the one-man turrets we currently have, but smaller than full sized buildings. Objects that might be transported in and deployed from vehicles outfitted for such a task. These might include:

• Deployable, static Radar / Sensor Suites
• Larger and more varied deployable turrets (perhaps something closer to what bases have)
• Modular Cover (akin to sandbag walls)
• etc.

An obvious method of balancing larger deployable turrets might be to make them dependent on those same supply vehicles for ammunition, rather than giving them the infinite ammo that base turrets currently enjoy.

All this to say I think the question of what such vehicles could bring to the battlefield can be most directly answered by considering what sorts of equipment and resources one might want on the battlefield that would be too heavy or voluminous to be carried around by infantry.

[TheRagingGerbil]

A perfect example would be the US Military Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) platform. Here is the wiki link.

Basic Platform:


Phalanx weapon System:


Fuel Tanker:


Missile System:


Fire Truck:


Vehicle Repair/Recovery Platform:


Others:

[Larington]

I would:

Remove spawning functionality from the Sunderer to make it more of a troop transport & front line vehicle repair/resupply vehicle.

Create a new resupply vehicle, the resupply vehicle has the following main options for its Deployment Utility:

1. Troop respawning & re-equipping with drop pod interception weapon on roof.
2. Troop respawning & re-equpping with cloaking bubble device
3. Nanite capacitor, useful for recharging friendly bases or draining enemy bases.
4. Mining/Gathering for sending resources to a continents warpgate.

(Could also have a troop respawning & re-equipping with pain field generator on it)
(Could also have it so that a fully charged nanite capacitor resupply vehicle has a particularly devastating explosion if destroyed, which means you could have fun sticking a block of C4 to it and bailing out as it rolls at an enemy troop spawner)

Later on you could extend its functionality into field base construction in a game update.

[Baneblade]

[Blynd]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

add a totally new vehicle - no weapons at al but quick as hell make it have 2 variants
1- the dispenser module and
2- the vehicle repair mod


- allow armour upgrades but it adds weight and thus slows you down ( trade off )
- allow chassis upgrades but these also have trade offs