My main concern about the class system

DviddLeff · 2011-07-25, 03:26 AM

The class system I see as overall being a good thing; in PS giving one player too many options turned people into one man armies being able to take down infantry and vehicles well and then heal, repair and use command abilities all with a single load out.

Making players specialise to a specific role at a time will lead to a great amount of teamwork being required, just like in the early days of PS where people were restricted with their certs (imagine a time when only a few people were BR15, let alone 20) and so had to specialise totally.

In my upgrade projects certification overhaul I retained the inventory and cert system, just massively reduced the amount of cert points available so that any one player could only really afford one advanced weapon cert (eg HA or AV), a support role and a vehicle as well as a special armour (MAX, Agile with jump jets or Infil).

However the problem I see is one of specialised squads of players. For example if you have a fast assault squad equipped with jump jets to perform hit and run attacks, will any of them be able to have a support role, or will they be confined to that fast assault role while they use the jump jets? Will they be able to use AV or AA weapons (perhaps weaker, lighter ones than a Rexo may carry)?

Vancha · 2011-07-25, 03:38 AM

A medic with jumpjets? That's the one thing I might play over a sniper...

*Jumps in*
Fear not, citizen! I am here to heal you!
*Flies off*

Bags · 2011-07-25, 03:39 AM

I don't like class system at all. Their cert system in ps1 worked fine until we got half a million certs to spend.

Raymac · 2011-07-25, 03:59 AM

It sounds like "customization" is the key word the devs have been throwing our direction, so I have a feeling they have this covered. But we won't know until we get to see it.

opticalshadow · 2011-07-25, 04:01 AM

Originally Posted by Bags

I don't like class system at all. Their cert system in ps1 worked fine until we got half a million certs to spend.

well the orginal cert system did not contain any package cert deals. every vehicle was its own cert, though guns remained much the same. so there was alot more certs needed to achomplish things. they merged certs when the playerbase declined and the requirement for less soldires preforming more jobs was needed.

the class system sounds free forming enough on paper, but i wish they would give us a video example of their concept.

Aractain · 2011-07-25, 04:08 AM

They need to tell us about this.

What my impression tells me is that like PS you can choose your armour regarless of spec. So medics/riflegirl/heavy assault being able to choose agile or rexo (or whatever they are called).

Do we know if the jumpjets are an option or part of the basic setup for the light armour?

CutterJohn · 2011-07-25, 04:13 AM

Its a positive and negative. It will provide more options for balance, but will of course limit your customization. I personally wasn't very fond of the original number of certs.. I'm very indecisive and want to switch roles a lot.

The class system seems nice. Easy to get into being able to do pretty much anything, but you won't do it all that well or have all the options.

ShowNoMercy · 2011-07-25, 04:16 AM

Originally Posted by Aractain

They need to tell us about this.

What my impression tells me is that like PS you can choose your armour regarless of spec. So medics/riflegirl/heavy assault being able to choose agile or rexo (or whatever they are called).

Do we know if the jumpjets are an option or part of the basic setup for the light armour?

I don't believe that will be the case, I've heard mention that they want to restrict Agile HA combo that tower droppers so frequently used. If you are using "heavy" assault you should play the part of heavy infantry. (lots of dmg lots of armor, but very slow).

Aractain · 2011-07-25, 04:19 AM

Yeah I thought that also but can't remember where it was stated.

Maybe each "class" has armour options you can choose? (which is a better way of saying what I ment)

Senyu · 2011-07-25, 04:22 AM

If they made us wait forever just to even hear that PS2 existed and was even being worked on at all, imagine how agonizely long they could make us wait for this information?

And we would wait for it

Highwind · 2011-07-25, 06:37 AM

In defense of that Classes COULD be:

The Devs have placed a high value on customization, we've heard it, and I think most of us agree we like what we've heard so far.

One of the main issues with high levels of customization if that many people will attempt to build exploitative or unfair combinations of skills. An example of that no one wants to see is a heavy soldier with heavy assault and also having a "jump-pack" aka jetpack. I think this combination is largely behind the fear that jetpacks have.

The Devs have a few solutions, one is if they were to have no Jump-Packs at all, which is kind of a let down in the sense that it removes so many possibilities before they are given a chance. Another option is to make them so weak (aka nerf them) that no one will pick up that skill in a mass population sense, so why have them and continue to have them in the balance equation. The best option that comes to mind is the have some "skills" not be compatible with each other at all, aka you can't have heavy assault AND a jump-pack, period.

Quickly you'll see a web of conflicting "skills" in where you can't use A, while you use B, etc. So to solve this issue you just make certain unique "skills" be the defining skill for a Class, aka Scouts have a jump-pack as default or as one of their class only tree options. Then you can build on each class with as many customizationas you want in an easier to understand framework, it isn't as clear that you can't use your "Flamethrower" with a "jump-pack" if it was just freeform cert "webs", vs it being slightly more clear that Scouts can't use that tier of heavy weapon due to all of the reasons that can be derived, it just feels better.

So if you follow all of that, I believe this is the main thought behind Planetside 2 classes. Unique starting points, each with subtle or not so subtle features to them that you can then build on top of and shape into what you want them to be.

Some final examples might be: A wall breaching scout with his skills learned in such a way that helps him assault the ramparts around a tower or base, vs a scout that learns Sniper skills and uses his jump-pack to get up to higher and better sniping spots. Both a scout "class", yet they couldn't be much more different in their roles. etc etc, for other "classes" if it turns out working out like this, which is how I feel they are hinting at.