BadAsh�s Controversial Game Tweaks

BadAsh · 2004-01-28, 08:27 AM

This is a list of things I�d love to see done to Planetside to increase the pace and fun of infantry battles in this game. With each of the suggested changes below I�ll list the change and my brief reasoning behind it. I know I�ll be flamed to oblivion here, but just keep in mind that these are just my opinions.

Infantry additions and tweaks:

1. Change the speed of all non-infiltrator suit armors to the speed of Agile. This would remove the advantageous effect you get for wearing the free lighter armors. Any good infantry combat style player knows foot speed is the power of infantry fighting. The slower speed by far negates the added armor bonus. And besides why are you required to train and earn certification points on a Rexo when an Agile is free? I assume of you can figure out how to put on an Agile suit a Rexo should be intuitive out without the same training cost and expertise it takes to pilot a Mosquito! So I�m thinking the 3 cert points are for special physical conditioning to compensate for the heaver armor. So an athlete wearing heavier armor running at the same speed as a physically unconditioned �desk jockey�, �computer nerd�, or �pilot geek� makes sense to me. Of course this logic is debatable, but so is any �game logic�. How come a .50 cal sniper rifle can�t kill you if he shoots you in the face? �Game balance� is the answer and everyone of fine with that as a one shot kill is deemed too powerful. So I say let all armors move at the same speed so that your heavier armors are actually BETTER then lighter free armors.

2. Reduce the speed bonus for Surge and change the stamina drain for all armors to that of Agile armor. Now cloakers can�t surge forever and Rexos can surge for more than 4 seconds. I�d make surge useful to catch up to an enemy, but be slow enough to avoid the warping effect caused by the inability of the game engine to handle those speeds. You�d have the ability to close in with an enemy or catch then from behind, but would not be turned into a superhero with warping powers.

3. Ditch the stamina loss from taking damage. Yeah, it seems �realistic� but it nerfs infantry too much especially when trying to escape from a vehicle that you have no chance of fighting against anyway. It also slows down infantry battles because after slugging it out with 2 or 3 opponents you are pretty much done for and need to rest. You can quickly repair your health and armor but your stamina just slows you down. IMHO the only drains to stamina should be implant and jumping costs.

4. Alter the Jackhammer�s secondary fire mode. I�d ditch the �tri-shot� mode and add the 3 mode shot focus effect like that of the NC Scatter Cannon MAX. This would remove the controversial �instagib� triple shot and give the weapon some ranged combat effectiveness at the expense of having to change fire modes manually depending on the target�s range. Even then it should be less effective then the MCG and Lasher at medium ranges as it�s still more effective than both in CQB with its standard firing mode. For the MCG and Lasher I�d add a single secondary firing mode to tighten the COF at longer ranges but reduce the weapons ROF. So at close range mode 1 would be more effective and at longer ranges mode 2 would be more effective.

5. Increase the speed of lasher orbs to make it easier to hit a dodging and strafing target.

6. I�d revamp snipers a bit. First I�d ditch the tracer round effect for sniper rifles. With HUD hit indicators the tracer effect is just over kill. Also I�d add a �Sniper Suit� packaged with the Sniper certification that would allow partial cloaking to a stationary Sniper. It would be identical to Agile armor but would have the partial cloaking effect added. The partial cloaking effect would require you to remain stationary or be completely visible. Further even if motionless you would have that ghostly appearance of an Infiltrator that is moving. You would have no where near the cloakers� effectiveness to be undetected up close, but at longer ranges you�d be harder to see. Finally I�d integrate the partial cloaking technology to require the Sniper to be both wearing the Sniper suit AND have the Bolt Driver equipped in hand. This would prevent the abuse of this suit by people playing as regular infantry equipped with other weapons. I miss the heart pounding �WHERE THE HELL IS THAT DAMN SNIPER?!?� sensation other FPS games have provided. Snipers are too easily spotted in this game. I believe the above two changes would add that element to the game as well as be cool as hell!

7. Add an �alternate ammo� to the knife to indicate switching to a throwing knife. This would allow for a longer ranged knife attack. I�d then add a special �ammo box� of knives to allow for having the throwing knives. Adding this ammo box to your inventory should add a graphic of a few extra knives to the player model for the coolness effect. Say one �box� adds 5 knives and if you have one on your inventory a knife graphic is drawn on your forearms, on your boots, and perhaps one strapped to your back with the handle protruding over one shoulder. As long as you have at least 5 knives these stay otherwise they are removed one by one as you toss your last 5 knives. Anyway, this would be cool as hell and be fun too. I�d give a damage boost for energized throw knives and knives thrown with the melee boost implant assistance, but it would be less damage then an actual knife stab.

Base defense and functionality tweaks

8. I�d make a change to base hacking times. If the spawn tubes are blown and the base is hacked that combination would cause the hack timer to count down twice as fast. This would encourage attackers to KILL the spawn tubes and not do the lame ass spawn camping to up their easy kill count.

9. I�d change the Matrix Panels to allow you to save your Matrix to as many bases as you have visited and bothered to save your Matrix. This would allow defenders to very easily get to the base that needs reinforcement. You can just deconstruct and go where needed provided you took the time to prepare. I�d also add Matrix panels to towers and remove them from AMS units. In this way defenders could be less dependant on vehicular transportation and would have an advantage in defending that could actually help form a counter Zerg. This would make bases a tougher nut to crack.

10. I�d also add a CEP award for defending a base. This would be based on how many attackers were fended of and how many enemies were killed. This reward should be less then the reward for taking over a base but be enough incentive to get SL types to actually keep their squad in a base that is being heavily attacked. I think too often defenders abandon their posts to move to more CEP friendly areas. Everyone wants to attack and no one wants to defend except solo BEP seekers.

11. I�d change all of the doors in the game to opaque force fields with coloration to match that of the empire controlling the facility or tower. If the door is hacked or if a friendly just passed through it the door would change appearance as to become 90% transparent to indicate the lower security or compromised condition. This compromised condition would allow for both people and weapon shots to pass through. Hacking the door would cause a 30 second compromised condition and a friendly passing through the doorway would cause a 5 second compromised condition. Further the door would only become compromised by a friendly IF that friendly actually passes or starts to pass through the protective barrier (i.e. moves close enough to touch the barrier). If the facility is hacked all doors become compromised just as they do now. This would eliminate the �door stuck shut� bug with the current door animations and prevent accidentally letting the enemy into a secure area because someone passed too close to the doorway and the doors opened. This is particularly bad in a tower as you have to be pretty careful to not accidentally open a door and let that MAX in. So this would aid in defense slightly in that regard but still allow for careless defenders to let the enemy in. Defenders could now see that a door has been recently been hacked so that would help give away the presence of an intruder. But, the very distinctive sound of a door opening would also be gone and replaced by a more quiet sound of someone passing through a force barrier (like at the warp gate barriers). So defenders are less likely to hear that door opening from across the base or from a few levels down or up like they currently can.

12. Add the IFF locks to every door in an installation. This means bunker doors as well as the wall stair access doors. The shelter these provide is supposed to be for defenders not attackers. At least make the attackers hack to have this cover.

JakeLogan · 2004-01-28, 08:41 AM

I like all of your ideas expect this one

Originally Posted by BadAsh

8. I�d make a change to base hacking times. If the spawn tubes are blown and the base is hacked that combination would cause the hack timer to count down twice as fast. This would encourage attackers to KILL the spawn tubes and not do the lame ass spawn camping to up their easy kill count.

Not saying its a bad idea Just that its overkill maybe take a minute or 2 off the hack not cut it in half. As for myself I'm usually on the defense the last thing I want is not have enough time for my forces to launch a counter-offensive.

Liquidtide · 2004-01-28, 09:01 AM

Are you kidding me Jake? I loved Idea 8! It's the other ones I didn't care for too much for like 11 and 12.

Good Job Ash.

Majik · 2004-01-28, 09:12 AM

Actually, there was only one idea I did like, giving CEP to SL defending a base. Every other idea had issues that would adversly effect game play, each of which the devs have already addressed in the OF.

Onizuka-GTO · 2004-01-28, 09:41 AM

I didn't like number 9, and partially number 6.
Number 9 really kills ground transport personal, not that they aren't suffering already but allowing everyone to spawn at every place they bind their matrix would in my opinion make this a mainly infantry battle where everyone doesnt need to walk or run or catch a a bus to a base under attack, like "real" reinforcement.

Number 6 seems to make snipers gods. everyone would be a sniper. I agree on removing the tracer, but of course will know which direction your being hurt. That should never be removed, i mean without the tracer its already hard to pinpoint where you are being shot from. You have to give the victim some chance to beeline for cover.

Xxzard · 2004-01-28, 09:42 AM

I don't like much of it at all especially the weapons ones how the hell does the MCG have medium range? and also you really don't need to kill the gen my outfit defends the gen in a captured base.

Queensidecastle · 2004-01-28, 11:12 AM

Hmm, no offense but I dont like any of them.

Way too many nerfs in there that just arent necessary. Think outside the box

Warborn · 2004-01-28, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by BadAsh

6. I�d revamp snipers a bit. First I�d ditch the tracer round effect for sniper rifles. With HUD hit indicators the tracer effect is just over kill. Also I�d add a �Sniper Suit� packaged with the Sniper certification that would allow partial cloaking to a stationary Sniper. It would be identical to Agile armor but would have the partial cloaking effect added. The partial cloaking effect would require you to remain stationary or be completely visible. Further even if motionless you would have that ghostly appearance of an Infiltrator that is moving. You would have no where near the cloakers� effectiveness to be undetected up close, but at longer ranges you�d be harder to see. Finally I�d integrate the partial cloaking technology to require the Sniper to be both wearing the Sniper suit AND have the Bolt Driver equipped in hand. This would prevent the abuse of this suit by people playing as regular infantry equipped with other weapons. I miss the heart pounding �WHERE THE HELL IS THAT DAMN SNIPER?!?� sensation other FPS games have provided. Snipers are too easily spotted in this game. I believe the above two changes would add that element to the game as well as be cool as hell!

Being unable to see the sniper means that you have a greatly reduced chance of finding appropriate cover. Snipers will become much more lethal. This game has too much outdoor action to make snipers anymore lethal than they are, outherwise outdoor fights will be ruled by snipers.

And this is coming from a guy who does nothing but snipe.

Mudflap · 2004-01-28, 01:41 PM

#5 cannot be done. Increasing lasher orb speed causes a ton of issues. Suddenly, the VS would have the premier HA weapon....again.

We've all been up against lashers camping the back door. How do we handle em? We jump infront of the door, shoot, and get the heck out of the way, taking a bit of damage. With improved speed, lashers would be interior defense crack! They're even pretty good against MAXes.

Jagd · 2004-01-28, 02:50 PM

#9 and 10 are the only ideas I like. It seems like the current spawn system is set up to punish players for dying. Come on Sony, this is a game! Why punish people for getting killed while going about their business? Argh! Most of the teamplay elements in the game are too easily co-opted by having a squadmate or two die and wind up halfway across the friggen continent. And of course CEP for defenders just makes so much sense, it is kind of bizarre that it isn't there already.

As for the other ideas; you have got to be kidding me about making ReXo as fast as agile. How can you talk about balance in the same post as a suggestion like that!? Surge is bad enough, don't make it easier for HA & AV wielding ReXo grunts to slaughter a towerful of badguys. Lasher speed? It is already the only HA weapon with both splash damage and indirect fire capabilities, lets leave it as is since it already excels at what it's designed for. Snipers? Yeah that's ok. What with CSHD it's already lame enough trying to figure out where a sniper is, since you may have already rounded a corner or gone inside before the magical bullet that they fired translated into a kill because they weren't rendering your location fast enough. Doors are just fine when they're doors. Thanks. IFF on every door? As if hacking wasn't so far ahead of the other skills in terms of usefullness, why would you make it even more attractive? We will have no more medics or engineers. Jackhammers own everything indoors, lets leave it at just indoors. Hack timers? Are you kidding me??? It should be the opposite if anything (and I think the timers are perfect as is) because when the tubes are down it already becomes a big challenge to resecure what with the logisitics of travelling or getting an AMS back into the CY, etc.

So yeah, those two ideas are cool but the others I dislike with a passion. If SOE decided to implement that list I would become very hysterical and probably quit playing, since they would affect gameplay so negatively.

BadAsh · 2004-01-28, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by Queensidecastle

Hmm, no offense but I dont like any of them.

Way too many nerfs in there that just arent necessary. Think outside the box

The only things reduced in power in that whole list are:

Standard Armor - foot speed reduced to that of Agile
Surge - reduced enough to avoid "warping" speed
JackHammer - change "triple shot" mode to 3 longer range effectiveness firing modes like that of the Scatter MAX... so at PB range that is a nerf, but it adds the capability of longer ranged engagements...

Everything else is a Buff.

Thanks for the feedback everyone... I'm kind of still hashing around ideas for a game preference site kind of like Zombieside's site.

I'm agreeing with leaving the Lasher alone and rethinking the sniper suit combo... perhaps add the suit but leave the tracer round effect... maybe it's just me but snipers as they currently work are just a very minor annoyance at best. If I get hit once I duck down and heal. If he makes me do that more than once I either walk over and kill him or jump in my mossy and remove the pest.

As for the multible matrix pannel idea... yeah I though about it reducing the need for ground transport, but ONLY for defenders. So if you want to attack you will need the xport vehicles. I thougt of this as a means of helping resist the currently unstopable Zerg swarms. It's already bad enough with attackers just mass HARTing behind your lines... if they had a way to respond to that attack and return to the front lines better perhaps the Zerg might die...

Queensidecastle · 2004-01-28, 03:28 PM

None of those need a nerf tho.

For example the Devs are hoping that the Rexo buff will take care of the Surgile problem. How? Well the way it looks so far is that it will be so hard to kill Rexos that a Surgile isnt going to live through the return fire warping or otherwise. This has the plus side of not nerfing agile or surge and giving a counter to the surgile HA problem. Will this do the trick? maybe. I can usually defeat Surgiles wearing the current Rexo, I can just imagine how much more effective 1-2 seconds of extra life in a fight will be (It will certainly be worth the 3 cert points finally)

So the Devs were able to add a buff that has the potential to nulify the annoiance of the Surgile issue. If they are wildly successfull, you will see no one attempting to take a tower in Agile because it will just be a stupid thing to attempt, Surgile problem gone. Agile will then still have its uses (armor for driving and piloting) as well as being free allowing people that dont want to specialize in grunt combat to spend points elsewhere.

Thats what I mean about thinking outside the box

Angel_of_Death · 2004-01-28, 04:43 PM

I think some of the ideas are good, and some are on the right track but not quite there yet.

The best one would be the BEP/CEP for defending bases. For defending a base for at least 30 minutes, we should get something.

Rbstr · 2004-01-28, 05:01 PM

TO be honest i don't like many except 12, 10, and 5 but only a very small amount.

Keep footspeed the same, heavier armor = slower speeds, its would give no reason to be agile at all but the pilot. Why make transport vech even less used? If you want to go right into battle go play CS or AA:O, this game is about teamwork, part of that is ensuring all of your troops get to battle.

BadAsh · 2004-01-28, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by Rbstr

TO be honest i don't like many except 12, 10, and 5 but only a very small amount.

Keep footspeed the same, heavier armor = slower speeds, its would give no reason to be agile at all but the pilot. Why make transport vech even less used? If you want to go right into battle go play CS or AA:O, this game is about teamwork, part of that is ensuring all of your troops get to battle.

I hear ya man, but the problem as I see it is people ARE leaving to play faster paced games. Hence the server merger... numbers of players dwindled and continue to do so... I'm hoping the right changes are made to prevent "Emerakov".

I know very few veteran players that actually rely on "teamwork" to provide their transportation. Typically a squad that wants to hot drop on a tower just has every member grab a mossy or reaver, hover/wait at a way point out in the boonies, and rush together. it's faster and more powerful because when you get there a force of 10 Air Calvary is much more powerful than 1 GAL...

Within seconds of butchering everything in the area, you hot drop together on the tower and surgile quad shot or surgile deci everything in the tower to oblivion and another tower turns blue. *yawn*

The only advantage a GAL drop had on the Air Cal drop is your troops can have Rexo and you can drop 2 MAX units. About the Rexo... the Rexo will always be owned by Agile because of the speed differance. The little bit more armor won't save you from an opponent who can run circles around you and avoid 3x the damage that you have to eat. And MAX units... any infantry player worth his salt has a deci... so... *joke*

The typical elite load out is Agile/HA/Med App/BANK... in inventory you have 3 med packs, 1 med app ammo, 1 BANK ammo, a REK , 1 box of ammo, and a deci. With this you will obliterate any Rexo or MAX you find in that tower. Typically this guy is a pilot of a reaver so after you deal with the power of the reaver this is the nightmare that you have to deal with now...

Why ever wait for a gal?

Perhaps if a rexo was actually better and could keep pace with the agile... see where I'm going... then you can't be the all-in-wonder and might need to catch a ride...