Move towards single-player vehicles?

I SandRock · 2012-06-09, 07:22 AM

Is it just me or does there seem to be a move towards singleplayer vehicles compared to how Planetside 1 required you to often have two players to make a vehicle effective. It seems now that even if you have two people in a vehicle, the 2nd player operates the weakest gun while the main player operates the main gun. Meaning that two individual tanks are better than one tank operated by two players. Which was completely the opposite with Planetside 1.

The same is true with the removal of the assault buggies and the Lightning taking over the Skyguard's function. The skyguard was a 2 player vehicle and only effective when operated by 2 players. The Lightning is a singleplayer vehicle.

Planetside is and always has been an MMO which centered around cooperative play, requiring multiple players to operate the stronger vehicles. While having a few alternatives (weaker) for the single-player.

I personally think this new direction is a bad one. It promotes self-centered uncooperative gameplay, way too much like any FPS on the market. Where it's all about personal glory and kill count rather than that great feel of being part of a team and having to work as a team to be most effective.

I don't understand why they chose this new direction, it's not like in a game the size of Planetside you lacked players to operate your vehicle..

RedKnights · 2012-06-09, 07:29 AM

The idea is, if you're investing all these resources yourself into making yourself a better tank driver, they want you to be able to full use the tank yourself and get that satisfaction.

At the same time, the secondary guns "ain't no joke" they do a fair bit of damage, so it'll be very advantageous to have a 2nd gunner in with you.

On another note, I'm pretty sure there's already 10 threads on this... search moar

Figment · 2012-06-09, 07:34 AM

There are a lot of topics on this already.

Suffice to say it's indeed a very controversial topic.

Crator · 2012-06-09, 07:34 AM

The skyguard example doesn't help your cause that much. You could be effective in contested areas with a skyguard by yourself. It took some strategic awareness and sometimes good hiding spots but you could park it and jump in the gun spot all by your lonesome and actually do some good with it.

Death2All · 2012-06-09, 07:43 AM

Originally Posted by RedKnights

The idea is, if you're investing all these resources yourself into making yourself a better tank driver, they want you to be able to full use the tank yourself and get that satisfaction.

At the same time, the secondary guns "ain't no joke" they do a fair bit of damage, so it'll be very advantageous to have a 2nd gunner in with you.

On another note, I'm pretty sure there's already 10 threads on this... search moar

As RedKnights said, the rationale behind the idea is that these are YOUR resources you're spending on vehicles and they want you to be able to get the most out of it.

It makes me second guess the resource system if it's going to make players sacrifice teamwork for flexibility.

They did say however, that there's a certification you can unlock for your tank that would allow the driver to simply drive the vehicle and then have an entirely independent gunner, a la PS1. It was pretty well received and I hope the implement it. Personally, I'd prefer they keep that ideology and do away with the whole tank main gun controlled by the driver. If you want to invest some resources in a tank, great, but make sure you have someone to gun for you. A little teamwork never hurt anyone. It's not like there will be a shortage of gunners if this game is supposed to have thousands of players.

Figment · 2012-06-09, 07:52 AM

Originally Posted by Death2All

They did say however, that there's a certification you can unlock for your tank that would allow the driver to simply drive the vehicle and then have an entirely independent gunner, a la PS1. It was pretty well received and I hope the implement it.

It was pretty skeptically received in my experience, most people then commented it should be the other way around: start as full teamwork, slowly work towards more lonely - but even that wasn't warmly received, more like a "if it's going to have to be forced on us, then at least do it like this, cause we're not really happy with the compromise or the lone MBTs".

At least that's what it looked like to me. :/

Personally, I'd prefer they keep that ideology and do away with the whole tank main gun controlled by the driver. If you want to invest some resources in a tank, great, but make sure you have someone to gun for you. A little teamwork never hurt anyone. It's not like there will be a shortage of gunners if this game is supposed to have thousands of players.

Agreed.

But really, this topic's been done to death, I'd say merge or lock it.

Canaris · 2012-06-09, 08:00 AM

not at all in my opinion, if you start rolling out single player vehicles you will make them hugely vulnerable to certain enemy types,

Say 20 VS all roll in single magriders a NC bomber squadron or TR AV team will tear them to pieces, Having 2 people per tank (someone to work the AA/AI guns) will make them a lot more defensible as well attacking. I think SOE has gotten this one right.

My biggest beef in PS1 was certing for vehicles just to be a glorified chauffeur.

More fighting is always good I say and I think this will increase vehicle/player team work.

GuyFawkes · 2012-06-09, 08:32 AM

I do hope by launch or soon after they bring in some of the small troop empire specific vehicles , enforcer etc .
Just appears to be a choice of johnny no mates or a full galaxy atm ( not including the mbt's) transport wise

Nasher · 2012-06-09, 08:37 AM

Vehicles are not really solo though. The 2nd spot in MBTs is the machine gun, which is really needed vs infantry and aircraft. The smaller lightning tank was always solo anyway.

In PS1 the only MBT where the driver could also gun was the mag rider. I guess they wanted to even things out this time and make driving less boring.

Immigrant · 2012-06-09, 08:42 AM

I believe that they've said that secondary turrets could be anti-vehicular and they will be able to make substantial damage. Anyway we see that all vehicles will cost resource so driving solo will be equal to flushing the part of your resources down the toilet since you won't have 100% efficiency.

asdar · 2012-06-09, 09:01 AM

I agree with the OP 100%, but I hope the rest of you are right and that multiplayer coordination is still greater than the sum of individuals.

On a side note, I don't really understand the hate for duplicate threads as long as the front page isn't flying by and wasting current topics. If there's duplicates on the first page, then I understand that it's annoying, but this topic hasn't been hashed since before E3.

More threads is greater than less threads, just like more players, even if they're CoD players is going to be greater than less players. Just my opinion, I hope I didn't offend.

SgtMAD · 2012-06-09, 09:10 AM

after watching the streams and seeing how the lightning was a friggin beast,

I don't see why MBT's can't go back to the 2 man setup we had in PS,I know they would have to redesign the Mag but in the end it would be worth it.

and i don't get why we don't have any buggies/deliverers,after seeing how the ground was laid out,they would be perfect for this game.

there are going to be so many friggin targets,

ppl are going to freak out during the open beta when they stress test the server.

MrBloodworth · 2012-06-09, 11:10 AM

The whole game has moved to focus on the individual, as opposed to the squad, team, empire.

ThermalReaper · 2012-06-09, 11:16 AM

Why not just add a mechanic that allows you and your friend to share the resource cost for the vehicle so one can drive and operate the weaker(or even no guns, the gunner can do that) gun and the other one can control the main gun or all the guns? But you wouldn't be able to operate without two players.

GuyFawkes · 2012-06-09, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

The whole game has moved to focus on the individual, as opposed to the squad, team, empire.

bit unfair, since we havent seen any of the squad leader certs , outfit stuff , or tactical stuff at all so far in the brief glimpse we had at e3. just people running around trying stuff out and playing domination.