The Ultimate TR Refurbishment Thread (Part 2)

EliteEskimo · 2013-06-05, 12:49 AM

Introduction

On May 3rd, 2013 I put together a detailed thread dedicated to showing how the TR are currently not living up to their faction lore with their current weapons, vehicles, and abilities. I couldn’t ask for the thread to be more successful, and it exceeded my expectations by getting ideas and suggestions from all 3 factions. After about 2 weeks the thread accumulated 300+ likes, 25,000+ views, 750+ replies, and 40 pages of detailed feedback and ideas. Since 40 pages is a lot for the Developers to look through, this thread will be highlighting the best ideas that were put forth for each section from part one of the Ultimate TR Refurbishment Thread. https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...action.122793/

What Lore Based Traits are the Terran Republic Supposed to Have?

For convenience to use in part 2 of the thread, and as a refresher for anyone who has forgotten these are the traits that define the Terran Republic according to the Official Planetside2 Website and Matthew Higby https://www.planetside2.com/news/oct...debriefTR.html

“More so than any other empire, the TR is a professional military. The TR are a professional military whose weapons and vehicles are top of the line, shining and new, but conventional. The TR prefers to stick with what has worked for hundreds of years – accurate, high velocity bullets, and lots of them. Terran Republic weapons have the fastest firing rates, largest ammo capacities, and are generally designed to allow for maximum sustainable damage.”

“The Prowler is a medium tank that is not only the fastest empire specific tank on the field but it can be armed to the teeth with extra weapon systems beyond the other empires medium tanks, making it one of the deadliest vehicles in the game.”

Now that we know who the Terran Republic are supposed to be according to the Lore we’ll get to see the best of what the Planetside 2 community came up with to get the TR back on track to being cool and following the Lore.

Great Need For More Creative TR Infantry Weapon Designs

Currently the Terran weapons suffer from little to no variety in weapon design; you literally have to strain yourself to tell the difference between our LMG’s and the differences between our Carbines. Pictured below is what I’m referring to

As we can see the differences between the TR weapon designs are very small and to the untrained eye can seem borderline identical. In terms of Terran Republic LMG's one person posted a very accurate description of how we feel about the similarity in weapon designs between the various LMG's. Recently in GU10 some of these were modified, and while it's a good start much further needs to be done in the future.

Issues with TR Faction Specific Traits

TR do not hold the fastest firing weapons across the board as they should. This can be seen with the following spread sheet updated as of the May 24th Hot Fix.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet....pe=view&gid=12

This issue is especially apparent among Vanu weapons which have similar high ROFs . In a great many cases TR had more horizontal recoil then their VS/NC counter parts. This combined with the fact that TR has the faction trait of lower damage hitting weapons means there is clearly something wrong with the TR’s weapon balance and lore. No one is saying TR weapons can't get kills or aren't effective, but we are saying that they do not really standout among the other factions or behave according to the Lore. The TLDR version of this sub-section is stated in the pictures below.

Terran Republic weapons need to fire faster than their NC/VS alternatives, and at the very least need to have less horizontal recoil than the NC’s. To balance this increase in ROF many players have suggested a decrease in bullet damage to compensate for this. Our guns should also by enlarge have more vertical recoil than other VS/NC weapons due to higher ROF, which a professional solider could handle, but also have less horizontal recoil which cannot be controlled.

Another excellent point made was that TR weapons should be given more attachments like advanced forward grips and compensators. The TR is the only Professional Military faction and also is using top of the line equipment. One would think at the very least all of our "S" type weapons should have all the attachments available.

Terran Republic Infantry Weapon Ideas From the Community

All of these ideas follow the Terran Republics more conventional weapon design models, and others simultaneously also put forth creative designs that would add further flavor to the Dakka faction also known as the Terran Republic.
If I missed someone's idea I apologize, and feel free to repost them in the comment section below. Thanks!

T7 Mini-Chain Gun Ideas

The T7 Mini-Chain Gun currently is designed as some weird LMG type weapon that barely feels like you’re holding an actual Mini-Gun.

What The Terran Republic Desperately Want

The design and stats for a proper Minigun is apparently waiting in storage based on the pictures posted above. My question is, why hold back such an excellent design that will make the TR feel cooler and likely get more station cash purchases of the T7?

Striker Ideas

As was said in part 1, the Terran Republic doesn’t like the Striker in terms of function because the function isn’t unique. We were disappointed getting a lock-on launcher when all other factions already had a lock-on launcher to use as well. The VS recieved a Laser Cannon type launcher, and NC get a fun camera guided launcher. No one is disputing that the Striker is a very useful launcher, but usefulness does not equal fun. The Terran Republic want a rocket launcher with a skill cap attached so they feel more in control of the damage they are dishing out. Posted below are some of the best ideas that were brought up for future Terran Republic Launchers or the current Striker.

Planetside 1 Scorpion Type Launcher

"In step 1 you fire the rocket, it's not guided and will continue until it hits a wall or gets blown up by small arms fire(?). It can be shot directly at a tank etc, but at very reduced damage.
After 5 seconds maybe, the missile is armed. Now we move on to step two" .

"In step two, you activate the missile, it creates a swarm of tiny missiles that will follow your laser guidance."

Gatling Gun Rocket Launcher

Basically this weapon would fire accurate high velocity dumb-fire mini rockets for the HA to use. The Max's Fracture only brought 2 barrels to the table, and while cool it wasn't enough Dakka for my tastes.

Conclusion for Higby

Higby what I have presented to you is the abridged version of 40 pages of collected feedback and ideas from part 1 of my Ultimate TR Refurbishment Thread. These designs would also likely cause in players to buy more weapons that are both cool and unique thus benefiting SOE to invest time into this changes.

Every one of the ideas displayed will allow the Terran Republic to stand out more as a faction, but will also make the other 2 factions stand out more by comparison. This isn’t to say the other factions can’t get more unique too with their own designs, but overall I feel the TR needs the most help right now getting back to their Lore. I see now that you're more likely to respond to this question off the official PS2 forums so I'll ask this here, what do you think of these ideas Higby?

Thanks again for taking the time to read this thread, any further constructive ideas or suggestions are highly appreciated!

(Part 1 of 2)

(Part 2 also covers Vehicles, the G30 Vulcan, Maxes, and can be found by clicking the following link and scrolling down to post #2)

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...part-2.129411/

EliteEskimo · 2013-06-05, 02:30 PM

Lol, there seriously isn't anyone on these forums who hasn't seen this yet or have anything to say about it?

Dreamcast · 2013-06-05, 02:54 PM

The biggest thing that pisses me off about this is that

VS=TR in RoF basically but with no bullet drops/higher bullet velocity

Sorry but is a huge advantage and it pisses me off that TR doesn't have the highest RoF LMG in the game.

inb4 TR has more bullets....Sorry but more bullets is a TR characteristic but so is RoF.

AThreatToYou · 2013-06-05, 02:58 PM

Actually I haven't seen this stuff.
I support it.

the GD-7F is the highest ROF carbine in the game. It is an NC weapon... what gives?
The NC satisfy in the damage per shot department. No other faction has 200 damage per shot weapons [well, aside from the manticore].

Dougnifico · 2013-06-05, 03:02 PM

My biggest agreement is the cosmetics of the TR. Everything is very bland and lame but they are fixing it. I love the striker so I can't complain. The MCG is a travesty though. No doubt about that.

^also, that is only because they nerf-raped the Hailstorm...

GeoGnome · 2013-06-05, 04:53 PM

Honestly Eskimo, you sent me a message when you had done the second post, but by the time I got around to responding, it was 20 pages and I didn't want to read through the ridiculous volume of information critiquing you at that point.

I'm saying, thank you for reposting it here.

Reading through it, as most of the changes are cosmetic, I have to agree. I think SOE has heard this and is working to improve one's ability to differentiate between the various weapons.

The MCG definitely needs that change. Hell, even if there are absolutely no changes to the damage or anything else, just make it underslung so it Feels Like A Chaingun.

Your stuff about the striker... In order to make it in line with the other ESRLs I think that it needs Some kind of mechanical difference, and a swarm cannon might fit the bill (not crazy about the one that explodes above it's target)... but I feel like there could be something different there. Hit scan and camera guided are nice... Maybe it should focus less on the "Moar Dakka" portion of the TR mythos, and more on the "Reliable and multi-functional" portion. What about a mortar? Something with a high projectile gravity that can be dialed for various ranges, max range would be far out but require a 45 degree angle on the gun, but it could be dialed back to minimum range and be lobbed into a room or something. This would make it a very high skill cap weapon and you could do mortar teams... which I'm sorry, but that would be amazing.

EliteEskimo · 2013-06-05, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by AThreatToYou

Actually I haven't seen this stuff.
I support it.

the GD-7F is the highest ROF carbine in the game. It is an NC weapon... what gives?
The NC satisfy in the damage per shot department. No other faction has 200 damage per shot weapons [well, aside from the manticore].

Ya I never understood this either, the weapons stats really haven't been following the Lore to well.

Also, does Higby comment on these forums very often?

Sunrock · 2013-06-05, 11:04 PM

Well in terms of design I cant give a crap. It's a game you play in first person view and all the fighting is taking place at range so I hardly notice it at all anyway. Putin in any effort into it is just waist of time IMO.

But other wise allot of good ideas.

EliteEskimo · 2013-06-06, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by Sunrock

Well in terms of design I cant give a crap. It's a game you play in first person view and all the fighting is taking place at range so I hardly notice it at all anyway. Putin in any effort into it is just waist of time IMO.

But other wise allot of good ideas.

Lol, well some people like looking at their guns while they use them from time to time. I will agree that the other ideas take priority first. Either way though I think everyone can fine something to like in this thread. I'm hoping Higby will like the majority of it once he reads it.

Dreamcast · 2013-06-06, 01:38 AM

BTW from patch notes

The following weapons have had their cosmetic look updated:

NC: Razor GD-23, Carnage BR, and LA1 Anchor
TR: T5 AMC, TAR, MSW-R, T16 Rhino, T32 Bull
VS: Ursa and Corvus VA55

I really can't tell what they changed on the MSW.

Canaris · 2013-06-06, 02:37 AM

Well you know you have my support on this already, especially page 2 on the Prowler overhaul, lol did you see the tank shell rounds animations are now curved after the update. They fly from left to right and then curve back to center to follow the new crosshairs aiming. Beware the TR boomerang cannon!

I like the update they've done with some of the TR gun models, step in the right direction

Falcon_br · 2013-06-06, 03:22 AM

Originally Posted by Dreamcast

BTW from patch notes

I really can't tell what they changed on the MSW.

It no use drum magazine, just a standart banana one now.
Explains the faster reload.
Also the sound it is much better now, I even removed my silencer from it!

Mutant · 2013-06-06, 04:32 AM

Originally Posted by Dreamcast

BTW from patch notes

I really can't tell what they changed on the MSW.

They extended the length of the magazine.

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...-heavy.130166/

Rolfski · 2013-06-06, 06:13 AM

Originally Posted by Falcon_br

It no use drum magazine, just a standart banana one now.
Explains the faster reload.
Also the sound it is much better now, I even removed my silencer from it!

The MSW-R now uses the sound of the T1 Cycler, which doesn't make sense.
Its magazine is twice the size of the T1 Cycler, which also doesn't make sense.
For a CQB weapon it has a longer barrel than the med-range T32 Bull, which doesn't make sense either.

If anything, the weapons design team hasn't done their homework properly.

EliteEskimo · 2013-06-06, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by Rolfski

The MSW-R now uses the sound of the T1 Cycler, which doesn't make sense.
Its magazine is twice the size of the T1 Cycler, which also doesn't make sense.
For a CQB weapon it has a longer barrel than the med-range T32 Bull, which doesn't make sense either.

If anything, the weapons design team hasn't done their homework properly.

Or the vehicle design team for giving the Prowler an Off centered turret when the Planetside 1 Prowler did have a centered turret. Also when you think about it no reputable tank in the history of forever has had an off centered turret.