Anti- Air Max Armor <==Boring

[Lexington_Steele]

Originally posted by RageMaster

As would be the MAX/Mosquito. Way too much scope.

let see...
Mosquito has no pre requisite and lets say it costs 3 cert points.
Lets say Agile costs 3 points as well(an obvious over estimate).
lets say reinforced costs 3 points (probably another over estimate).
Lets say each MAX costs 3 and I get all three.

That leaves me with 3 cert point to spend on other things and I have all the MAXs and the mosquito.

If Mosquito + three MAXs is doable, then why is it so hard to believe that someone who is a mosquito pilot will be able to use just a single MAX.

With a single MAX cert and a Mosquito cert, that leaves me 9 cert points + however much I over estimated. That 9 points + seems like enough for an assault rifle, a hacking cert and a healing cert.

[Lexington_Steele]

Originally posted by RageMaster
Team wise, you'd need only a relatively a small amount of players in a squad to have every cert covered! Potentially you could change the functionality of a 4 man squad ENTIRELY just by getting to the vehicle/armour/weapon points.

I think the misconception is the uber-character. Unless I'm misinterpreting the dev info its going to be focused on character specialisation. If you wanna get your MAX you have to be transported by others...

I don't see your problem with this.

Just because 4 people have all the certs covered doesn't mean the 4 will be able to use all of them at once.

If someone is in a MAX, someone else has to transport them. (you can't pilot other vehicles while in a MAX suit.

You are not going to have the inventory room to to carry a REK, a med aplicator, a repair tool, suplies for the med applicator, supplies for the repair tool, deployable turrets, an anti vehicle weapon, a short range weapon, and ammo for both weapons.

So when I am going into battle I will only be able to serve one, maybe two main functions. What is the problem with my character not being limited to working only one or two jobs when I have reached Maximum level?

[Ludio]

I agree with Lex, I think the devs want to focus peoples characters, but they also want them to have some flexibility. Would you say its unfair to have reaver, galaxy and skeeter certs? Probably not because its obvious that they are different vehicles and only one can be used at a time, so whats the big deal with skeeter and MAX? The MAX cant be used at the same time as the skeeter, it has to be equipped at an inventory station. If you are doing recon in a skeeter and find a force moving towards a base you can warn your team and land/suit up in a MAX in preperation for the attack. If you get shot down far away from a base, or even near to one, your probably screwed.

As long as you cant be all your different roles at once, it is fair, this is similar to carrying weapons in your inventory, it may seem unbalancing, but in reality you cant really carry too many weapons due to ammo/support roles.

[RageMaster]

Ah, I see the logic in the last two posts... I see how that could work now. Thanks for a different angle on the whole cert business. Though I suspect you might be under-estimating in your cert point costs, regardless, over-estimation on cert costings would probabally still give you a Mosquito/MAX.

And I see now how balance would be bought to PlanetSide through inventory space. Thanks for your input.

Point conceeded ;-D

[SmokeJumper]

Nice discussion, folks.

To answer the original post, yes, anti-air MAXs can fire at vehicles and soldiers. They do less damage and they can't achieve a guided lock, but they can defend themselves somewhat.

And to just make a note about the most recent discussion, yes, our goal is to create flexible characters that have specialty areas, as mentioned.

For instance, my current incarnation of SmokeJumper (BR11, I think) is an Infiltration Suit (pre-req of Agile), Combat Engineering, Advanced Hacking and Wraith. Doesn't seem like a lot, but he's a VERY flexible character. My standard four Favorites (configs) I use are:

Stealth Saboteur: Carries a REK and four ACEs. Infiltration suit, of course. I sneak into bases, blow things up, lay mines in annoying places, hack terminals, and otherwise make defenders run around chasing their tails. All my stealth configs are set up for maximum flexibility and they "depend on the generosity of others" to be tennable inside a facility. (e.g., I loot corpses a lot.) Usually take the Regen implant so I can heal easily.

Stealth Attack: Carries an AMP and several varieties of grenade. I don't use this config very often, but it's useful in one-on-one situations where I'm trying to find a lone attacker in a facility. Often take the personal shield implant, if there's time, because it increases my survival odds in a firefight.

Agile Assault: Suppressor, REK, grenades (multiple types), minesweepers, bullets (both types) and a couple medkits. I often take Range Magnifier with this config because I'm often on base defense (because of combat engineer ability) and range magnifier helps me determine threat farther away. Most times, I use Second Wind with this if I'm near a Bio Lab to change out.

Pure Deployer: This is my "get the defenses out" config. Agile armor for max armor space, a Suppressor and nothing but ACEs. Surge implant, if available for speed of deployment. And then, go, go, go.

Hope this helps. Remember, this is a Battle Rank (BR) 11 character, so it's not as flexible as it will become eventually, but has more than a starting character.

Also note: I change SmokeJumper all the time. Don't expect me to be a stealth engineer forever.

[RageMaster]

Interesting. I'm guessing you have no empire specific weapons at your feet other than the pistol atm. But going on BR20 as the cap you could fit quite alot more into your final character I guess. You've thrown alot of light onto the subject :-D

Thanks for your words, its food for much more PlanetSide thought :-)

-RageMaster

[SmokeJumper]

Yup. In my vision of this incarnation of SmokeJumper, I would probably pick up a Mosquito cert (probably the last thing I'd buy), and consider doing things like buying weapon skills to get me more flexibility...and maybe the ability to use a Bolt Driver so I could be one of those sniping yahoos as a change of pace.

On the other hand, I might pick up some support vehicles (like AMS/Deliverer/Sunderer) because those would make me more valuable to Squads.

I have another character that's investing heavily into nothing but vehicles to see if I can become a "Swiss Army Knife" for an Outfit, getting them wherever they need and with whatever support. Not sure how useful that will be, but it's fun anyway.

[Zatrais]

Hold up a minute here....

You're using the supressor whitout anny weapons certs?

And if you don't mind... how manny cert points does it take to get a MAX? hehe had to ask, dying to know

[RageMaster]

Everyone gets the Standard Assault cert. PlanetSide-Universe lists the Supressor as Common Pool Standard assault, which means you get access to it by default as soon as you start your character :-)

[Zatrais]

just noticed it and this SS shows it there aswell.

http://planetside-universe.com/media...id=28&img_id=7

learn something every day hehe

[Moloch]

hehe, sorry never read the cert limit stuff, don't know where it is.
Question: Are your BEPs and CEPs recorded to your account, or per character? I would hope per account, so you don't have to reagain BEP and CEP with each new server and character you try. Prob a stupid question, but I didn't know for sure.

[Zatrais]

BEPs and CEPs are earned individually for each chareter on each server on each acount.

so having a BR 20 char won't automaticly give you 4 BR 20 on each server.

[Moloch]

I gess I'll be seein the same VR training over, and over, and over again. That's gonna suck, 4 times doing the same training on 1 server.

[tazz]

You dont need to have 4 characters. If you play for a long time you probably will, but it certainly isnt neccesary. As SmokeJumper said, the characters are designed for flexibility. 2 characters, maybe 3 will be enough to fill the roles you want to play. Unless you want to have a character for absolutely everything, that might take 4.

[Moloch]

Yeh, I know it ain't necessary, but it would be useful to have the loadout thing like T2 without having to redo training for each character, so yas don't have to do drag&drop inventory every time you want a major loadout change