Empire Specific Additions

TheN00b · 2004-02-29, 06:17 PM

For some time now, a certain lack of diversity in Planetside has been incredibly frustrating to me. It seems that while the Devs have spent their time fixing bugs and patching weapons (and rightly so), the battleground as a whole provides a somewhat stale environment. For example, when I'm playing my 'Cong character, a grand total of 4 Empire-Specific weapons and 2 Common Pool weapons are used against me. Now, it may just be me, but I believe that the battlefield should be much for diverse, i.e. there should be a plethora of weapons for all Empires to choose from, which would in turn make combat scenarios unpredictable and thus more exciting. In an attempt to counteract this perceived lacking in what is otherwise a wonderful game, I have created several new weapons and certifications that I feel would be widely used, not overpowered, and most importantly, fun. Have at them:

Empire Specific Handcannons:
These areuch like the gunpowder powered handcannons used in semi-medieval times as an alternative to large, fixed artillery. However, unlike those cannons, which were still rather large and had to be carted around the battlefield, these handcannons are small enough to be 'mounted' into a soldier's secondary arm (secondary means that for example, if a soldier was right-handed, the left arm would be cut off at the elbow and replaced with a handcannon upon selecting the handcannon from the Equipment Terminal queue). Below are three designs, as well as the certification, that would employ these new tools. It should be noted that all handcannons fire their shells in a mortar-like trajectory, rather than in a straight shot.

Morninstar
New Conglomerate

Type: Handcannon

Weapon Damage: 75 upon a direct hit, degrades by 35 per meter.

Weapon COF and ROF: The COF of the Morningstar is medium, and is affected only slightly by movement. The ROF is 1 shell per 1.5 seconds, or 1:1.5

General Appearance: The Morningstar is a rather drab gray tube attached to a soldiers arm. When firing, it 'spits' out a spherical shell, which, upon impact, explodes into a miniature cloud of small spiked balls, which closely resemble the head of a morningstar.

Size: 1 Rifle slot. The ammunition packs are standard size, and carry 10 shells apiece.

Shredder
Terran Republic

Type: Handcannon

Weapon Damage: 90, degrades by 30 for every 2 meters away the recipient of the damage is.

Weapon COF and ROF: The Shredder has a tiny COF, and it's ROF is 1 shot every second, or 1:1.

The Shredder is a widebored, gloss-black cylinder. Each round fires an explosive shell that detonates insantry after it leaves the barrel and leaves behind a rapidly expanding pack of clechettes made explicitly for the purpose of tearing infantry apart. The flechettes are not explosive, but are rather serrated darts travelling at incredibly high speeds, which makes them quite inneffectual against MAXes.

Size: 1 Rifle slot. The Shredders ammunition packs are standard size, and each pack contains 8 rounds.

MPGL (Multi-Purpose Grenade Launcher
Vanu Sovereignty

Type: Handcannon

Weapon Damage: 1/2 Plasma Grenade, 1/2 Fragmentation Grenade.

Weapon COF and ROF: The COF is minimal, and the ROF is 1 shot every 1.75 seconds, or 1:1.75.

General Description: The MPGL is a translucent, glowing tube hooked up to a soldier's arm. It's fire combines a unique blend of grenades into one small mortar shell.
The shell the MPGL fires operates in several different ways: First, upon impact, an explosion goes off. That explosion is equivalent to a half-powered Fragmentation grenade, and let's off plasma equal to that of a half-powered Plasma grenade (the damage done by the residual plasma is also halved). The explosion also gives off an EMP blast equal to that of one Jammer grenade.

Size: 1 Rifle slot. The MPGL uses standard Vanu energy packs for ammo, but uses 5 'rounds' of a pack per shot, giving it effectively 10 shots per clip.

Handcannon Certification
Cost: 3 Certification Points.

I've already posted these elsewhere, but I feel that it's very important that every Empire have steady and reliable troop transport, and the Sunderer just isn't cuttin' it. The Deliverer does OK, but when it comes to trasnporting large amounts of troops, only the Gal works, and Gals are hard to come by oftentimes when your forces are just entering a continent.

Legionnaire
Terran Republic

Armor: 2000

Max Speed: 65 KPH

Accel/Decel: 45 KPH per second

Guns: 4 port-mounted 20mm chainguns placed alternately along the sides, 2 top-mounted 25mm chainguns.

General Appearance: The Legionnaire Mass Transport Vehicle is modelled after an Old Earth vehicle called a bullet-train. It is very sleek, 9m long and 1 meter wide, except in the very back, which is 2.5 meters wide in order to accomodate the engines and side-by-side MAXes. Each passenger row is 1m in both length and width, and the additional 1 meter is taken up by the narrowed nose of the vehicle. It is night-black, and well-known for it's incredible speed.

Troop Capacity: The Legionnaire carries 10 people at once, with 1 gunner at all 6 weapons emplacements, a pilot and passenger in the front, and two MAX units in the rear of the vehicle, side-by-side.

Notes: The Legionnaire has pods placed around each person in it, which can be ejected from the vehicle. If ejected, the person inside is shot upwards about 200m, then floats back down to land.

Thunder
New Conglomerate

Armor: 2500

Max speed: 50 KPH

Accel/Decel: 25 KPH per second

Guns: Two 30mm Flak Cannons on top, and 1 chin-mounted flechette launcher.

General Appearance: The Thunder is built like a much-enlarged version of the Old Earth Humvee. It is about 8 meters long, with a width of 5 meters and a height of 5 meters. It has a large, covered flatbed in the back, into which the soldiers are rolled, then stored into pods that are set horizontally in the bed. The Thunder is painted with Gold and Yellow "camouflage" paint (I know, I know...), and is among the loudest vehicles in the game. The Flak Cannons are placed on top of the pilot's section, and the flechette launcher is controlled by the pilots passenger side occupant.

Troop Capacity: The Thunder can carry up to 10 troops at a time; 8 infantry and 2 MAX units. 4 of the infantry are placed in the flatbedalong with the MAXes, 2 of the infantry are gunning for the Flak cannons, one is the pilot, and one is controlling the chin-gun from the pilot's side.

Notes: The Flak Cannon gunners, the pilot, and the chin-gun operator are equipped with the same ejection system as the Legionnaire, but the troops in the flatbed are equipped with side mounted ejection pods that launch approximately 7 meters to the side of the Thunder if activated.

Scythe
Vanu Sovereignty

Armor: 1750

Max Speed: 70 KPH

Accel/Decel: 60 KPH per second

Guns: 4 Port-Mounted Heavy Particle Cannons, 2 Rear-Mounted Heavy Particle Cannons 1 Chin-Mounted Heavy Railgun. All cannons cannot point more than 45 degrees upwards.

General Description: The Scythe is a rather bulbous vehicle, but has very graceful curves. The front is shaped like the front of an Old Earth fighter plane, with the chin-gunner directly behind and slightly above the pilot, much like in a Galaxy with the tail-gunner and pilot. The back is a miniature dome, with gun ports arrayed along the sides of it. It is a light azure color, with green flames around the cockpit area.

Troop Capacity: 10, 8 infantry and 2 MAXes. 6 of the infantry, along with the MAXes, are in the rear dome, and the infantry operate the the 6 Heavy Particle Cannons.

Notes: The dome is divided into sections like an orange, with a passenger in each section. If the passenger wishes to leave the vehicle, he bails and the section of the dome that was carry him falls out of the vehicle and disentegrates. If all of the sections are detatched, the pilot and gunner are forced to leave the vehicle, which then deconstructs.

Ground Transport
Certification Point Cost: 2-3 (unsure)
Benefits: Gives player access to drive the Deliverer, as well as their Empire Specific Transport.

TheN00b · 2004-02-29, 06:19 PM

Finally, it comes down to this: Heavy Assault. Unlike many out there, I do not believe that Heavy Assault needs to go. It provides an effective close-range weapon, which is a role Medium Assault finds hard to fill. However, I have no great love for Heavy Assault as it is now. There are two things I believe require changing. First is the Lasher bug: While I have no truck with those who whine and moan about the VS finally having a good weapon, I do not believe that 'back-lashing', where a Lasher-(wo)man doesn't even have to turn around to engage you, is not fair. Therefore, I propose that that ability be removed from the Lasher in the next patch. Next, I believe that the Jackhammer simply does not fit the theme of Heavy Assault. While Heavy Assault is by no means meant to be a long-range powerhouse, it shuld be, as evidenced by the Lasher and the MCG, able to engage at at least moderate ranges. The Jackhammer is not able to do this. Therefore, I propose moving the Jackhammer to Common-Pool HA, as sort of a 'big brother' to the Sweeper, and replacing it for the NC with the Magnetically Accelerated Rifle:

MAR
New Conglomerate

Type: Heavy Assault

Weapon Damage: 50

COF and ROF: The COF of the MAR is identical to that of the Gauss Rifle, and the ROF is 1 shot every .75 seconds, or 1:0.75.

General Description: The MAR is a shoulder-mounted gun with a fairly short barrel and a resemblance to a 'fat' carbine. It fires fast-moving shots that are a shiny azure tone, and the gun itself is colored forest green.

Size: 1 Rifle Slot: The ammunition packs are standard size, and each carries 15 rounds.

There. I'm done

. This took me a good bit to write, so I'd appreciate if you responded constructively rather than saying '7h15 1d3a sux0rs. Also, please escuse any spelling errors, as I haven't been able to turn off overtype on this computer, which makes it very difficult to go back and correct errors. Thanks in advance,

TheN00b

Eldanesh · 2004-02-29, 07:47 PM

n00b:

I would like a complete rip-off of the UT flak cannon, spray similar to shotgun up close and a shell to lob at medium ranges.

TheN00b · 2004-02-29, 07:56 PM

El, sorry to sound assy (

), but could you plz reply to the topic? Thanks

.

Eldanesh · 2004-02-29, 08:04 PM

I will hijack if I want.

However, I do agree that Jackhammer does not really fit in with other HA.
On the mar, I assume that the 50 damage is split between health and armor, however doing that kind of damage with the same cof as a gauss and a rof that fast, it better have some crazy degradation at range.

it is the difficulty of balanceing slower rof up close makes me want to stick with the JH as NC HA only slightly modified, either with no 2ndary and a tighter pellet spray or with a choke system like the scattermax. Part of the thing with HA seems to be that they use the same ammo as MA weapons however the gun is simply more efficient with that ammunition up close.

Spee · 2004-02-29, 08:11 PM

Only one problem with this - The distances for degredation damage.

Go to an air pad term. Stand right on yet. yup, its reading as 4 meters, even though youre STANDING ON TOP OF IT.

35 for every meter? harsh.

JakeLogan · 2004-02-29, 09:48 PM

Well only thing I see wrong is the the thunder having a flak gun. Originally the Flak cannon was a TR only weapon. but then the skyguard came out and the the custom weapon of the TR went to hell. so yeah replace the TR troop transports withthe flak gun and the NC get a 25mm rotary chain gun or something like that.

scarpas · 2004-03-01, 12:03 AM

[/QUOTE]these handcannons are small enough to be 'mounted' into a soldier's secondary arm (secondary means that for example, if a soldier was right-handed, the left arm would be cut off at the elbow and replaced with a handcannon [/QUOTE]

OWCH

Phaden · 2004-03-01, 12:04 AM

Maybe i have the wording mixed up, but on the VS transport it says

Guns: 4 Port-Mounted Heavy Particle Cannons, 2 Rear-Mounted Heavy Particle Cannons 1 Chin-Mounted Heavy Railgun. All cannons cannot point more than 45 degrees upwards.

Isnt the heavy railgun the tone on the Magrider? For a transport thats an awful lot of firepower, especially when combined with the 6 total heavy particle cannons. Pare that down and then maybe.

But the overall idea for more troop tranports is awesome. PErhaps getting back to the Black Hawk idea, with empire specific air deliverer's?

Sploogey · 2004-03-01, 07:05 AM

i love most of those ideas
not really the flak cannon but the empire specific transports sound awesome...though they r a bit overpowered and the side launchyed escape pod would get kinda stupid...i.e. launching into the sea or just the whole idea of being launched sideways kinda seems a bit gay
possibly it shouldnt let u launch out like that...maybe u just 'fall' out like u do in vehicles now

Otherick · 2004-03-01, 07:33 AM

I realy like the transopot ideas. But i think you got it wrong with the VS Transport

The Vanu = Flexibility

the 45 degrees doesnt realy prove flexibility so take a away ooo 2 guns and give the remaining ones a 180 degree

easypickings · 2004-03-01, 08:11 AM

i like all the ideas, looks like you put a lot thought in to them.

ejecting from the transport would make them alot more usefull, although as spoogey said the side ways one wouldnt be much use on a bridge..

SecondRaven · 2004-03-01, 08:55 AM

Post them at the Ask the dev's and we will see where they go

TheN00b · 2004-03-01, 06:03 PM

Thank you all for your constructive responses. I really appreciate the suggestions, and will be editing (after this post) the properties of several items, most notably the Scythe. Raven, I will probably be posting this on the Ask The Devs after the upcoming one. Again, thank you, and good day

.

TheN00b · 2004-03-01, 06:15 PM

@ Easypickings: I understand your point, but I feel it adds a bit of diversity to the three. Also, I believe that ejecting into the water might be a highly useful tool at times.: Unlike upwards-firing ehection seats, these would propel you into 'cover' from what is likely a plethora of Reavers, Mosquitoes, and tanks.

@Otherick: You're right, that part of the Scythe really doesn't fit the VS theme. I'll be changing that: Thanks

.

@Sploogey: I believe that it's critical for bailing troops to immediately put some distance between themselves and their former vehicle. As such, I don't feel that simply 'falling out' is enough. Also, I'm in the process of toning down the Scythe a bit, and making minor adjustments to the other two.

@Phaden: I agree, the Scythe is a bit overpowered. Ill be toning it down, so expect to see some reductions in the firepower. However, I believe that air transport simply isn't the way to go. I'm sorry for not elaborating, but it's a fundamental belief on my part.

@Scarpas: Amen

@JakeLogan: Man, I'm sorry for not being specific: When I said that the Thunder had a FLak Cannon, I had an entirely different thing in mind. What I thought of as a FLak Cannon would be a large shell launcher that fired powerful shells that disperse into a cloud of shrapnel.

@Spee: Roger that, I'll be adding DD ASAP.

@