New Cert Ideas Revisted

[Nixon]

Derived from a thread earlier this week, I was hoping to spawn some more creativity from people in terms of what new certs you'd like added to the game. Preferably, ones that build onto existing certs and require prerequisites. The purpose being, of course, to allow further specialization within a particular field and allow for greater versatility within the game.

Thoughts? Keep in mind for those who think you're getting too much for just 1 cert on some of these that you need 5 certs worth of prerequisites just to be able to obtain them.

1) Demolitions (1 Cert)
Prerequisites: Engineering (3), Combat Engineering (2)
Allows for the purchasing of the DemoCharge explosive from inventory terminals. The size of a rifle, the charge is specifically designed for the destruction of generators, terminals, wall turrets and spawn tubes. Taking a short time to deploy, the device can be set to explode after 1, 3, and 5 minutes. Combat Engineers can use their repair rifle to disable this device, while shooting a charge will prematurely detonate it. Only five DCs can be deployed at a time, and detonation is displayed via the chat pane.

Note: Two DemoCharges are powerful enough to destroy a generator.

2) Structural Engineering (2 Certs)
Prerequisites: Engineering (3)
Offered as an alternative to combat engineering. Using his repair rifle, a Structural Engineer (SE) can repair vehicles, deployables and turrets to 125% of their normal armor. In addition, this cert grants access to deployable barricades. Barricades are powerful enough to stop vehicles, and can take up to 8 decimator strikes before being destroyed. Like most deployables, they can be repaired by engineers and 3 can be laid at a time. A barricade must be deployed on flat terrain and cannot be placed against doors. Barricades must be spaced far enough apart so that a MAX can fit between them. The third option available to the SE is the Door Lock, which can be placed on any standard door within the interior of a base. Planted much like a boomer, a Door Lock must be placed on both sides of a door. Onboard imaging is capable of detecting friend or foe, and the device can be destroyed using two boomer explosives or the equivalent amount of firepower.

4) Medical Engineering (0 Certs - Available if prereqs met)
Prerequisites: Medical (3), Engineering (3), Combat Engineering OR Structural Engineering (2)
Allows for the deployment of portable medical terminals (PMT) using a single ACE. A PMT can only be placed on a wall of base, tower, or bunker similar to a boomer explosive and contains an internal reservoir equivalent to one and a half medical applicator storage cans. Once used or damaged by enemy fire, the device deconstructs. 3 PMTs can be deployed at a time and medics can use their applicators to refill the reservoir prior to complete draining.

5) NTU Specialist (1 Cert)
Prerequisites: Engineering (3), Combat Engineering (2)
NTU Specialists are able to use the power of their BANK refill kits to temporarily power a console within a base that either lacks NTUs or a working generator. Using a repair rifle, 50 units are used to temporarily power a medical terminal for 1 minute, 75 units are required for one person to access an inventory terminal, and 100 units are required to power a vehicle terminal for the creation of a single vehicle.

6) Armorsmith (1 Cert)
Prerequisites: Engineering (3), Combat Engineering OR Structural Engineering (2)
Allows the user to repair infantry and MAX armor up to 125%. Also allows for the creation of the Riot Shield, useable by all persons with a free rifle slot. The Riot Shield contains 300 armor and cannot be repaired.

7) Empire Hacking (2 Cert)
Prerequisites: Hacking (3), Advanced Hacking (2)
Allows for the hacking of enemy equipment and vehicle terminals, allowing the user to purchase empire-specific weapons, and vehicles of the empire currently holding the base or tower. IDF panels on hacked doors will switch empires for a 30 second period unless hacked back.

8) Emplacement Hacking (1 Cert)
Prerequisites: Hacking (3), Advanced Hacking (2)
Allows for short-term hacking of wall turrets, and permanent hacking of enemy deployables. Using an EMP grenade, the user must first disable the device before hacking it. Spitfire turrets and motion sensors will turn over to their control (deployable limits still apply) and wall turrets will turn to their empire's control for a short period.

9) Mechanical Engineering (1 Cert)
Prerequisite: Engineering (3)
Using the repair rifle, a Mechanic can repair non-infantry armor objects at twice the speed using less NTUs.

10) Target Painting (1 Cert)
Prerequisite: Sniping (3)
Allows for the usage of a secondary mode on the sniper rifle that can paint a target with an infrared beam. While only the contact point of the beam is visible to the enemy, friendly units will be alerted to the location via a red blinking indicator on the mini-map and continent maps, similar in appearance to a mine. Squadmembers will be able to see a mini-waypoint on the location, useful for showing enemy AMS locations. Only one target can be painted at a time.

11) Paramedic (1 Cert)
Prerequisite: Medical (3)
Allows the user to repair and revive infantry at twice the rate of a standard medic using less NTUs.

12) Lattice Surfing (1 Certs)
Prerequisite: Hacking (3), Advanced Hacking (2)
Those with the Lattice Surfing cert are capable of deconstructing within a spawn tube and reconstructing at any friendly base on the continent connected to the base of origin's lattice.

13) Communications (1 Certs)
Prerequisite: Hacking (3), Advanced Hacking (2)
Allows the user to hack into the radar dishes on enemy Interlink facilities, giving the user the ability to see local enemy messages in the chat pane as well as reveal the location of enemy personnel, vehicles, and equipment within the facility's SOI.

14) Jamming (1 Certs)
Prerequisite: [Hacking (3), Advanced Hacking (2)] OR [Engineering (3), Combat OR Structural Engineering (2)]
Grants access to the Jammer Grenade, a modified version of the EMP grenade that is capable of wiping clean the friend-or-foe recognition system of mines, spitfires, and motion sensors for a limited time, causing them to detect everything as a foe. Infantry and vehicles hit with the JG lose radar and are unable to receive or send messages for 30 seconds.

Vehicles:
1) Icarus Light Transport (3 Certs)
Prerequisite: None
The Icarus Light Transport is a high-speed craft used for quick insertions of friendly forces in hostile zones. Unarmed, the Icarus relies on speed rather then armor and firepower to get its crew into a base. A pilot sits within a sealed forward cockpit while four infantry with up-to Reinforced Exosuits sit in open harnesses - two on each side. The vehicle's trunk, lacking any need for ammo, holds by default 6 medical kits and two refill cartridges for medical applicators and repair devices. Capable of landing on air pads, the craft can be purchased from any base and is invisible to radar.

[NoSurrender]

damn those are some badass ideas

[Aegis]

Mostly based around engineers though, would unbalance the game, everyone would be an engineer

[NCG JMan]

I was noticing that too Aegis. I am a combat engy. No wonder I liked them so much

[Lonehunter]

Those are GREAT ideas. These would let people specialize in whole new ways. Although, too many of them are based around engineering

[1024]

Sweet Ideas. Although i'm aslo biast(sp?), im a CE

[Zanzuke13]

Aye, they are good ideas, i paricularly like the empire hacking!

[ThundaHawkPS]

Nice ideas. If properly done specialization will be more dominant in the game (leading to more variation). Balance is the key, though.

[Celedon]

There are a number of specializations you can do to the weapons, faster reload, tighter COF, etc... The problem is SOE wants to keep it so that a br1 can kill a br20 just as easily he would another br1 given the right weapon in the right situation.

Weapon specializations upset that. So far, I haven't decided if that's good or bad. The thing is, you can have the same specialization, and the more points you put into it the better you get with it. In my model of things it would be something like this:

Instead of hacking

Theres

Hack Equipment Terminals 1 cert + each additional cert spent increases toh

Hack Vehicle Terminals

Hack CC

Hack doors

etc...

If you break up each support skill into its respective components, you allow much greater specialization and individuality among the toons. Plus, with a system like that you can keep adding skills therefore leveling could go much higher then BR20 keeping the incentive to play that drives EQ players to spend 12 bucks a month for 5 straight years.

The problem is, you do this you have to do it with the weapons also or else everyone does have support classes. Then you have actual differences in the way a BR20 shoots an MA and a BR1. I however think it would add some variety and longjevity to the game.

By the way, I love all those new skills... In my system there would still be pre-reqs for higher skills like you listed. It definitely needs some expansion for variety. Just some thoughts I had...

[PeregineDive]

Wow. Some awesome Ideas guys! I have Engi and Adv Medical - some of those would come in quite handy, not to mention having more specs for greater diversity or characters and more combat cituations.


-PD

[kidriot]

anything that adds depth and doesnt take away from the thrilling and exciting game play!!!

[PhyreFox]

Hey now I like most of these a lot

I especially like the idea of a lighter, faster, smaller air transport for troops.. I've always wondered why nothave a lighter airtrans, like there is for ground vehicles (Deliverer/Sunderer)

The Galaxy is a good transport but it's just too big sometimes... and it seems wastefult o use such a massive plane to transport a just one sqiad of 10 sometimes. Having the small troop transport unarmed would be no problem anyway, since with the way the Galaxy's guns aiming reticles go haywire whenever the plane pitches or rolls in the slightest.. it's effectively unarmed anyway

Now I 'can' see flying in in two little 5 man planes as a squad, plus you wouldn't be one bigass target, you'd be two small ones, and faster sweeeeeet

[CrazyCrazy]

Cool, but why did you nerf my hacker ideas and the paramedic?


Anyways, concerning the vehicle, I think it shoud be open-cockpit to allow a reinforced exosuit to drive it. Otherwise, you might as well get a deliverer.

[Nixon]

Oh yeah, and special credit to Crazy Crazy for inspiring many of these ideas in a previous thread.

In terms of finding ways to push on the medical class to help balance out the engineering tier, would do you guys think would be helpful? Perhaps some sort of stimpack that boosts stamina to 200%? Or maybe a Combat Medic cert that allows for the use of biological weapons... like a grenade that eats away health without doing damage to armor, and only works on non-MAXs because of their suits being sealed up? That might give some incentive for people to grab medical. It's hard to build on a class that involves healing people when so much of the gain focuses on machinery or hacking.

For Hacking, what do you guys think of perhaps some means of putting a virus in a base's CC. You can do it to any base, even if they're not linked to yours, and it'll make terminals randomly power down or even randomly switch between empires unless a hacker stops it. Of course, it'll take twice as long to input the virus.

Start tossing out suggestions, as today I'll continue to come up with ideas while I'm bored at work. What new certs do you feel can help add to the game without taking something away from it? Perhaps a vehicle the size of a Sunderer that when deployed folds down and contains a mobile repair and rearm pad for vehicles?

[Sleepwalker]

Combat Medical (2 certs)
prerequisites: Medical(3), Advanced Medical(2)
the medical applicator gets a second ammo type, which has to be applied at point-blank just like the first, so wouldn't be of use too often. it poisons the enemy, dealing 2hp damage per second. In addition, any enemy that comes into contact with the infected enemy for more than 1 second contracts it as well, taking 2hp per second as well and becoming infected. A single dosage of the virus takes 10 ammo, but the damage DOES stack, dealing up to 20hp per second (if the medic manages to hold the applicator to the enemy for 10 seconds). however: stacking damage does not carry over to enemies. enemies will still take 2hp per second damage if they come into contact with an infected person, even if the infected is taking six or ten damage per second.

there, i hope that wasn't too unbalanced. what do you think?