Specialist or One-Man-Army

[Veteran]

Some people say that PlanetSide is a game of specialists who work in concert to get to their goal. Some say it's groups of well-rounded personnel who can fill in for each other when one dies, which happens so often and so quickly that a squad of specialists would be robbed of essential personnel if there weren't redundant specialists involved. Imagine if you lost your squad's only hacker? Kinda funny, eh? Well, according to some people, the fact that so many people have Hacking is an abhoration, and a symptom of people 'having too many credits'. I consider it essential to any squad to have redundant hackers and engineers (and perhaps, some day, medics, but not today).

In PS, a person could be a shotgun-wielding, minefield-deploying medic who drives a gunship. Without mutually exclusive certifications, this will always be the case. If people were limited to, say, half the cert points they have now, would people give up their weapons to become dedicated medics? The answer is no, except for rare cases, too rare to be factorial. A dedicated medic is usually more of a liability to himself and others, unfortunately, because he is surrounded by extremely fast, agile opponents who will see him reviving a team-mate and go for the easy two kills. A dedicated engineer would quickly become bored repairing things all the time, and a dedicated hacker would too. One might say it's essential for PlanetSide to let people be jacks-of-all-trades.

So here it is... Do you consider yourself a valued specialist who cannot be easily replaced in your squad, or are you an all-around guy (or gal) who can remain flexible and still get the job done?

edit: You might note some personal bias on my part towards letting people wear many hats. I respect those who want the game to revolve more around specialists, but it's a game and not real-life, and squads have enough trouble as it is without being crippled by the loss (or link-death) of a needed specialist. I think it's a matter of practicality that people be able to serve as proxy specialists.

edit2: The genesis of this poll is the new certification paradigm that was announced recently. People are saying that everyone will 'be able to do too much', and I wanted to see if people agreed that it's possible to 'do too much' or if it's a sign of PlanetSide's maturation to let people choose their destiny.

edit3: I know the word 'irreplaceable' has another 'e' in there. Typo.

[TeraHertz]

I find that most people are a "jack of all trades" with one specialisation that fewer people in the suqad have. For example, galaxy pilot, liberator bomber etc.

[Vernam]

Nice poll
I definitely consider myself the "One-Man-Army" type. I'm certed in basic medical, engineering, and advanced hacking, but only really so I can help myself and keep fighting. I'm also certed with an infil. suit, scattercannon max, and vanguard so there is really no objective that I cannot complete.

[Warborn]

I'm a jack-of-all-trades with a bit of specialization injected in for fun (although my cert layout doesn't convey it well, I'm actually a dedicated sniper; if I'm not sniping, I'm probably not playing Planetside) and I suspect that most people are the same, having some general certs with one or two "this is what I like to do" certs. Planetside wasn't designed so that a Medic could do nothing more than be a Medic. Equipment certs are secondary to your combat capabilities, and as such it's only natural given the relatively limited selection of said certs that you will encounter some level of redundancy, mitigated only by the value of each particular cert. To elaborate, you will find a lot of Engineer redundancy, a moderate amount of Medical redundancy, slightly less Combat Engineer redundancy, and very little Advanced Medical redundancy, as each cert is useful to the individual and, to a lesser effect, to the group as a whole in that capacity. Hacking I can't really be sure of, so I won't comment on it, but I suspect that Hacking is around as common as Medical, and Advanced Hacking comparable to Combat Engineer, or somewhat less.

At any rate, the new cert layout will not change much in the game. I personally won't be affected by it at all, as most of my certs are occupied with weapons and equipment, having only a single vehicle cert, that being the ATV package. I suspect that the only significant changes will come with the variety and frequency of MAX units (people, I feel, will be very willing to alter their template to accommodate a 5 point cert that gets them 3 MAX types) and the frequency of some of the lesser-used vehicles, as people will now have more certs to burn on vehicles if driving stuff is their thing.

In the end though, I think the main thing that interests me about this future alteration is what prompted it. Why did they do it? Are they intending to add more certs to the game, and want to give people more points without raising the Battle Rank cap just yet? Or do they simply want people to be able to drive more vehicles for less certs? Or is there another reason? I do hope they answer this question in some fashion; I would really like to know what their intentions are.

[Spee]

Specialist, but rarely in short order. Combat engy/infiltrator. I generally just sabotage stuff, which isnt crucial to the squad's objective, but it sure does help.

[DoomWarrior]

planetside is made up of many aspects to get where u need to go, a person drives a tank to kill you, u use a rocket launcher to kill him, then a sniper shoots you, then a guy with a machine gun kills him, then a reaver kills the guy with the machine gun, than an AA max kills the reaver, then a tank kills the MAX, and the tank provides support for the squad its with, and the squad carves a path for the cloaker, and the cloaker hacks the base.

there you go, the game of planetside

[Rbstr]

I basicaly can do anything, because i chose to be a close suport type of sniper. And because it doen't take that many certs to be a sniper i when basaicly jack of all trades, i have every Wep cert but SA, and i'm droping HA at the recert for Skeeter/reaver, i have lighitning, and i am a basic engy. I snipe or drive lighting unless somthing else is needed from me ro i get bored of it. Most of the time i chose a role i want to do and play like that for a day, then maybee do somthing else the next day.

I basicaly feel as warborn said

[Jagd]

I have specialized characters, but they are set up so that I have the most flexibility I can have to engage various targets.

My Vanu has infiltration, combat engineering, tactical support, medium assault, quasar (AI) and starfire (AA) MAXes. This lets him take on hard targets (CE or Quasar), soft targets (Quasar, Sweeper, Starfire, CE), aircraft (Starfire, CE), repair facilities/comrades/vehicles, and set up defensive positions (AMS, CE).

Overall I prefer sneaking around friendly bases defending them with deployables, but I need the ability to change what I'm doing as the situation dictates. If there are some reavers hovering outside the courtyard pecking the turrets apart to prep for an invasion, I need to take them out before rushing to the walls and repairing them. And if a sunderer rolls up and a squad rushes the front door, I need to be able to don my Quasar armor and go wipe as many of them out as possible.

My Terran is more of a shock troop, but still incredibly versatile, she has advanced hacking, reaver, tactical support, special and heavy assault. She can take on hard targets (spec assault, reaver), soft targets (reaver, heavy and spec assault), aircraft (reaver), support offensive and defensive battles (tactical support, duh!), and always has a getaway ride (light vehicle + advanced hacking = never walk again).

[DoomWarrior]

rbstr, whered u get ur avatar from?

[Febnon]

stay on topic now....

[Jagd]

Originally Posted by DoomWarrior

rbstr, whered u get ur avatar from?

[Nimbus]

Generally I just try everything and play with what I like. So I guess I'm a jack of all trades. Not really well rounded. Generally I like sniping or defending in a max unit. I tend to get outmaneuvered at close range so I kill from a distance or lock down in a corner so I can't get flanked and cover the doors. I love the lightning but I very rarely get any kills with it. I feel that adv hack is almost necessary.

[EarlyDawn]

I'm a "wide specialty", even though that's an oxymoron... I "specialize" in support which is a pretty wide area...

Galaxy, (soon) lodestar, Adv medical, AMS, Router... May pick up engineering later on.

[Flammey]

I can't answer the poll. I do what MUST be done. I'd be a weapons specialist, but I just can't carry enough weaponry. I guess you could call me a Gunnery-First Class. I'm a way better gunner than I am a pilot. I tend to run into what I'm aiming at. I really gotta work on that.

[SandTrout]

Definate specialist in combat support myself.

I have Adv. Hack, Combat engie, Adv. Med, Infil suit, Galaxy, and medium assault. I would have gotten scattercannon max instead of medium assault, but people need me to rez/repair/hack for them too much.