The Return of BFRs???

[PurpleOtter]

One of the things that really bothered me about the original BFR's (aside from the horrid balance issues of course) was the dreadful walking animations. They moved like an epileptic having a grand mal seizure while being strung out on meth. The audio wasn't much better either.

[Whiteagle]

Originally Posted by Mietz

High mobility is essentially a few magnitudes higher in balance than raw damage output or armor because avoidance is far more useful in this game (see ESF, Mag, vs other MBT/Liberator)

The questions are:
a. would the mechs be treated as vehicles?
a1. would the lock on launchers be able to lock on to them?
b. do they strafe?
c. How high is the weapons platform situated? (shooting over shields, locking down vertical spawn shield exits in spawn-rooms)
d. do small weapons damage them?
e. can they be knocked over?
f. armament?

To hit a mag with a dumbfire launcher is hard unless you are -very- close and if the mech has a rotating turret it essentially negates the 80° vision impairment of magriders.

Essentially the concern is to not create the equivalent of an ESF on the ground with high mobility, low armor and massive firepower.

Well this is exactly why I like to sum up a "Scout Walker" as "A Flash with Legs."

They'd come with the same weapons as the Flash, so they're not going to be terribly powerful offensively.

They'd be barely faster then sprinting Infantry going straight out, so they'd be perfect for supporting an Infantry pushes instead of replacing it.

Being a single story in height give the pilot better visibility then someone standing on the ground, but the open cockpit also makes them more vulnerable to sniper fire.

As a vehicle, they're just a Flash that sacrifices speed for better handling and turning.
Plus they wouldn't come with a passenger seat, instead get a Basilisk as a Default Defensive Weapon, so they wouldn't even replace the vehicle they share a niche with.


My own ABRF concepts however fill an entirely different Combat niche, being Amphibious One-man Combat Vehicles that won't have a theater until we get Oceans and Naval Combat.
Only the Vanu version wouldn't be LESS mobile on land due to its hovering nature, and even then would be the weakest armed of the three since the Magrider can also float over water.
The other two are less "Tank with Legs" and more "Submarine with Legs."

[Wahooo]

I've posted this before... and so many posts like it...

It is really the symbolic presence as much as anything and what they (BFR's) have come to represent in the overall "what went wrong with PS1".

There are a ton of different factors that lead to a population decline of PS1 and deserved or not BFRs have taken the brunt of the blame. What that means is they now symbolize ruin and downfall and the epitome of the Devs crapping on the player base.

A bit harder to find now with PS2 having been out for a few months but a year ago or so if you found mention of Planetside on some random game forum or searched through the comments on any random youtube video about PS1 you would find comment after comment "I loved the game until BFR's" or "I played from release until BFRs".

It has just become worked into the lore of PS1 that BFR's were the death of the game. There is no arguing because it is coming from a sentimental point of view, BFR's killed the game period end of story, and it is so pervasive there is just no room for recovery.

Now what about them killed it? A load of different things. The mechanics to get them were so different than anything else in the game, left a very bitter taste to a lot of people. They lagged the fuck out of the game. Even after they were nerfed the hitboxes and shield played havoc on FPS for many people that never had issues anywhere else. They were stupid OP when the first came out, and the single driver/gunner for such a game changing vehicle didn't sit well with the PS1 style *cough* reaver *cough*.

Any way as I said the hatred is just ingrained and irrational. It is on the level of racism really, but the issue moving forward is what it represents in Planetside is Devs slapping the players in the face. I just don't see how that gets put into the game properly.

Added to this basically anything that is a walking mech like platform will = BFR.

[Gatekeeper]

I agree with the earlier suggestion of a scout-walker type mech.

You could make that highly mobile and arm it with a tank secondary gun without making it overpowered.

The big problem with BFRs was always that they were highly mobile super-heavy tanks, without requiring any more crew than the regular tanks. Which obviously tends to break balance all over the place.

[Infernalis]

BFRs were horrible in PS1, both in term of gameplay and art design. On the other hand Walkers in BF2142 were really good and balanced.

The thing is, what can they bring to gameplay seeing as we already have little mechs (MAXes)? Highly mobile light tank? No real need with the Lightning and seeing we have no urban maps.

[almalino]

Originally Posted by Infernalis

BFRs were horrible in PS1, both in term of gameplay and art design. On the other hand Walkers in BF2142 were really good and balanced.

The thing is, what can they bring to gameplay seeing as we already have little mechs (MAXes)? Highly mobile light tank? No real need with the Lightning and seeing we have no urban maps.

Mech on a really high legs to be able to shot people over the walls around the bases Would be soo kool!

[almalino]

Oh, they could not add dedicated mechs into the game. Just make my Vanguard a transformer that could transform into the BFR and back at any time I would be soo happy

[Huntsab]

This game is nothing like PS1 the implementation of Mechs will not impact the game like it did back in the day. Different mechanics and I think the loss of surgile quad shot did a lot of damage too. People left en mass cause they couldn't sprint up and quadshot you before your screen ever displayed them, any more.

[WSNeo]

Originally Posted by Huntsab

This game is nothing like PS1 the implementation of Mechs will not impact the game like it did back in the day.

Like hell it won't!

BFRs completely raped outdoor infantry pushes in fields, mountains, etc. Pretty much, if you weren't in the base or in the woods. You were fucked. You see infantry coming from a general direction? Better go farm them until we can find the AMS that they are coming from. Pushed the enemy to their base but can't seem to get into the courtyard? Better jumpjet on top of the base roof and pick off all the defenders on the walls! Enemy massing tanks? Have you and a squadmate pull two BFRs to see who can kill the most tanks by bunny hopping on TOP of them (instant kill if you landed on a tank).

I literally left because of the first reason given. The mechanics were broken as fuck. These things mentally scarred a lot of people who loved this game to death, me included.

[MrMak]

So essentily if BFRs were a type of tank isntead of Mechs people would flip out about anythign that resembles a tank?


Seems bout right.

[Sledgecrushr]

The BFR really needs to fill two different roles if it comes back
1-medium tank
2-needs three peole to operate at full capacity

So what Im thinking is something quick but just as fast as a magrider. It would have the punch of 2 lightning cannons but single shot HEAT instead of burst fire. It would also be lightly armored compared to a mbt, very nimble on its feet.

Now for the three crew two will be using the guns and the third will be very busy driving this quick nimble vehicle. I would want the driver spot to be demanding because a couple of rocket hits and this thing will go boom.

[Falcon_br]

I really don´t want another 3 people vehicle in planetside 2, it is already hard to find one good gunner for you liberator, try 2!
My suggestion is still the same, high mobile one pilot with weapon link a ESF so lone wolfs don´t need to suck bad just using a lighting.
And give it another tech prerequisite, like a bio lab, people already kill themselves a lot for Eisa!

[Sledgecrushr]

So we have seven vehicles in the game currently. And really we dont have a viable three man vehicle. Sure you can put three people in a liberator but generally that sucks ass for the tail gunner because he doesnt get a share of the belly gunners xp. Almost all libs are crewed by two people. Most MBTs are crewed by one person and pretty much all the other vehicles barring the galaxy are solo... We need a team oriented vehicle.

[Falcon_br]

Originally Posted by Sledgecrushr

So we have seven vehicles in the game currently. And really we dont have a viable three man vehicle. Sure you can put three people in a liberator but generally that sucks ass for the tail gunner because he doesnt get a share of the belly gunners xp. Almost all libs are crewed by two people. Most MBTs are crewed by one person and pretty much all the other vehicles barring the galaxy are solo... We need a team oriented vehicle.

Ok, how about a Fatboy?



A mobile base where people can spawn MBTs, ESF, it have 4 general propose direct attack batteries (4 gunner), 2 anti air flak turrets (more 2 gunners), a driver, a torpedo launcher (no use in Planetside) and 2 landing pads so the ESF can rearm on it.



It is just a land version of a Titan from BF 2142, same type of canons and same number so gunners. Also a good option for the game.



Or they can make something like the Elephant from the Halo series, it was a AMS in the halo wars, spawning infantry near the enemy base, also in Halo 3 it got really power full weapon and it can carry some tanks on it. The perfect platoon land transport unit.

Or maybe we can just have the SBFR small battle frame robotics for one person and the CBFR colossal battle frame robotics that will ruin the game like they did on ps-1.

[Shogun]

Originally Posted by Falcon_br

Ok, how about a Fatboy?



A mobile base where people can spawn MBTs, ESF, it have 4 general propose direct attack batteries (4 gunner), 2 anti air flak turrets (more 2 gunners), a driver, a torpedo launcher (no use in Planetside) and 2 landing pads so the ESF can rearm on it.



It is just a land version of a Titan from BF 2142, same type of canons and same number so gunners. Also a good option for the game.



Or they can make something like the Elephant from the Halo series, it was a AMS in the halo wars, spawning infantry near the enemy base, also in Halo 3 it got really power full weapon and it can carry some tanks on it. The perfect platoon land transport unit.

Or maybe we can just have the SBFR small battle frame robotics for one person and the CBFR colossal battle frame robotics that will ruin the game like they did on ps-1.

sounds amazing!

BUT have you looked at the ps2 maps?
where are you going to put such a beast? there is almost no empty space between all those bases and outposts. on the old giant ps1 maps a unit like that would have made sense, but the distances in ps2 are just not big enough to justify a mobile base.

back on topic, the BFR could just be a cosmetic variant of the tanks.
and despite the amount of hate the term BFR creates, it wouldn´t change anything. the actual tanks already are what BFRs were in ps1.
if those mechs make it back to planetside, the driver/gunner concept needs to come back too!

devs, please don´t carry over more stupid things from ps1 while denying to bring back the really good stuff from ps1 like driver/gunner tanks, useful combat engineers and spitfires, real cloakers and a TTK and colorsheme that allows to actually know what is hitting you before you die.