Equality of Playstyles - How about a "Driver" Specialization?

[Tatwi]

After reading this great comment on a forum somewhere,

"[Vehicle] playstyles [are backed] up by specialization-through-certification, [they are] not luxuries. Infantry is not the only playstyle in this game. One should not be limited over the other... An infantry-specialized playstyle is always accommodated, no matter what."

I got to thinking that if SOE really wants to allow people to play Planetside 2 in a way that is fun for them, they're going to have to address this concern.

As it stands now, infantry and MAX units can be spawned infinitely and without a meaningful cooldown, while vehicles have both a long cooldown and a resource cost. If a person truly wants to do nothing other than operate a particular kind of vehicle they will be forced to have down time that infantry loving players won't ever have. Not only is that an unfair advantage, it also goes against what Planetside 2 is supposed to be about.

As a solution, I put forward the following two possibilities:

1. Make a Driver Class

• Access to this class is unlocked by spending Cert points in it.
• Unlocking this class causes all other classes to cost resources and have cooldowns to use.
• Pistol.
• Repair Tool.
• 1 Gound and 1 Air vehicle of choice does not cost resources and has no cooldown. 24 hour cooldown to change choices.
• 50% Resource cost reduction on vehicles.

OR

2. Allow Engineers to specialize as drivers via cert trade offs.

• All of these only apply when playing as Engineer.
• Trade the turret for 50% reduction in resource cost on all vehicles.
• Trade rifle for the choice of 1 vehicle that will not have cooldown.
• Trade the ACE for the choice of 1 vehicle that will not have cooldown.
• Trade the ammo resupply for an additional 50% resource cost reduction on upto 2 specialized vehicles (requires at least one of the rifle or ACE trade offs), but also causes all other classes to cost resources.

I am sure that these aren't perfect ideas, but I think the general principle of them would allow the two preferred play styles to be on equal footing.

[IgloGlass]

Well engineers are already the best drivers? They just pop out of their tank and heal it. Arguably they are better pilots than Light Assaults, definetely better Galaxy pilots.

Add some implants that decrease the cooldown to five minutes like in TB's video, plus some skill, and you should be able to have indefinite vehicles.

[Renegadeknight]

Think the engineer one sounds like a better idea. Adding another class seems less practical than using an existing class. Not sure about the making classes cost resources/time however, since these would be class customization that could be add and removed.

edit-

Originally Posted by WildVS

I like where you are going with this but it may be getting to "complex" for the audience they are wanting to attract. And don't get me wrong I am not one of them but I do see plenty about. I wish the game has some deep RGP-esque elements but unfortunately casuals are the direction of our time.

I wouldn't say that. They had already said that there will be class customization where you can trade one advantage for another, so this isn't too far of a stretch.

[Comet]

What you want is supplied via certs into vehicles.

[Tatwi]

Originally Posted by Renegadeknight

Think the engineer one sounds like a better idea. Adding another class seems less practical than using an existing class. Not sure about the making classes cost resources/time however, since these would be class customization that could be add and removed.

edit-

I wouldn't say that. They had already said that there will be class customization where you can trade one advantage for another, so this isn't too far of a stretch.

I think the Engineering one is better too, but I thought I'd throw both out there for comparison. When it comes to making thoughtful trade offs through the cert system, I don't the ones I put forward for Engineers are too outlandish. I mean, you're giving up something to get access to something else that is just as useful in a different context. So I think that works as the cert system is intended.

As for making that ultimate trade off, that super specialization choice of making two of your vehicles free at the cost of making all your other classes cost resources, I think that's exactly the kind of decision a dedicate driver/pilot would be willing to make, because it's fair and helpful for them. Really, it just turns the tables around, making infantry work like vehicles for the people that choose this deep specialization. And people wouldn't have to take it, but it would be there for those who really want it.

[RoninOni]

#1: Engineers are already the best drivers.

#2: Team up with a buddy. You can spawn a Faction tank and he guns. When you die HE spawns a Faction tank and YOU gun. When you die again, if your faction tank is still on CD, then you spawn in 2 lightnings.

#3: The resource cost is supposed to be part of the whole economic territory system. If you can't afford a vehicle, you can always join a crew as a gunner and repairer. I do think MAXes should actually have a minor resource cost as well, but not really significant. Just enough to make them want to run in crews taking turns as engineers.

#4: There are already certs to reduce Cooldown durations on vehicles. Confirmed in game, I believe in a video interview, and shown in some scene while showing off their customization menus.

#5: You'll get natural resource drip even offline... so unless you play a LOT you should be able to make fairly regular use of vehicles UNLESS you waste them heedlessly. If you DO play a lot, then you could always purchase a resource boosting implant once in a while to support the game you love to play so much

[Tatwi]

Originally Posted by RoninOni

#1: Engineers are already the best drivers.

#2: Team up with a buddy. You can spawn a Faction tank and he guns. When you die HE spawns a Faction tank and YOU gun. When you die again, if your faction tank is still on CD, then you spawn in 2 lightnings.

#3: The resource cost is supposed to be part of the whole economic territory system. If you can't afford a vehicle, you can always join a crew as a gunner and repairer. I do think MAXes should actually have a minor resource cost as well, but not really significant. Just enough to make them want to run in crews taking turns as engineers.

#4: There are already certs to reduce Cooldown durations on vehicles. Confirmed in game, I believe in a video interview, and shown in some scene while showing off their customization menus.

#5: You'll get natural resource drip even offline... so unless you play a LOT you should be able to make fairly regular use of vehicles UNLESS you waste them heedlessly. If you DO play a lot, then you could always purchase a resource boosting implant once in a while to support the game you love to play so much

There is very little I can say in reply to this post, but quite a lot that needs to be said. However, I can say with certainty that #1 does nothing at all to help people who want to pilot single person vehicles or galaxies / sunderers as their main occupation.

The real thrust of the issue is this:

When a friendly kills an infantry unit, because he thinks it's funny, the infantry unit can respawn for free instantly. When a friendly kills a vehicle unit, the vehicle unit gets locked out of their chosen play style for at least 5 minutes, but possibly hours if his faction does not have access to many resources. All because someone thought it would be funny or lag happened or *insert thing beyond the person's control here*.

In this light, people who genuinely couldn't care less about the infantry game, but love the vehicle game are secondary citizens in Planetside 2. And for no logical reason really - the game is about "massive combined arms combat on an epic scale" not just "Battlefield: SOE Edition", right?

[Comet]

Tatwi, it's a matter of game balance. The changes you're wanting to see are broad and would mean other changes would have to be made at the core of the game.

The system is just fine the way it is. I am a dedicated pilot/driver and the system works just great. You're going to lose vehicles to friendly fire and lag, it happens.

Comparing infantry to vehicles isn't an accurate comparison as they're both very diferent in how they function and what they're capable of.

If all you want to do is pilot/drive (like me), I'll say it again, use your certs properly and you'll be just fine.

[Tatwi]

Originally Posted by Comet

If all you want to do is pilot/drive (like me), I'll say it again, use your certs properly and you'll be just fine.

Wait for your beta invitation before coming to that conclusion.

[Comet]

Right...

[sgtbjack]

Originally Posted by Comet

What you want is supplied via certs into vehicles.

This

You can use your certs to reduce the cooldowns.

And no, I do not want engineers to be able to auto spawn tanks for free, than this game will be WoT's. Tanks are stronger than infantry or max units, if you can auto spawn, with no resource cost, than the game will be unbalanced. Unless you want to give infantry a gun that fires tank rounds, or a jet back and the ability to complete bombing runs.

Of course if they do implement the changes you want, then I'm just going to kamikazee ships into people all day. No sense in using tactics anymore.

[Comet]

Exactly sgtbjack.

[RoninOni]

Originally Posted by Tatwi

There is very little I can say in reply to this post, but quite a lot that needs to be said. However, I can say with certainty that #1 does nothing at all to help people who want to pilot single person vehicles or galaxies / sunderers as their main occupation.

*PILOTS* will have a very similar option... team up and use alternating lib timers and their own fighter spawns when they're up. All fighter craft CDs are ticking? Run some Gal duty.

For the record I will be primarily a vehicle player myself, and I've already planned to do this with various friends... knowing that there will be timers we'll be working on. My G13 is even set to count down those timers so I can monitor them while were out and about.

Originally Posted by Tatwi

The real thrust of the issue is this:

When a friendly kills an infantry unit, because he thinks it's funny, the infantry unit can respawn for free instantly. When a friendly kills a vehicle unit, the vehicle unit gets locked out of their chosen play style for at least 5 minutes, but possibly hours if his faction does not have access to many resources. All because someone thought it would be funny or lag happened or *insert thing beyond the person's control here*.

In this light, people who genuinely couldn't care less about the infantry game, but love the vehicle game are secondary citizens in Planetside 2. And for no logical reason really - the game is about "massive combined arms combat on an epic scale" not just "Battlefield: SOE Edition", right?

The better solution to this is to make the vehicles worth the investment.... Their cost is directly relative to their value on the battlefield. If their value isn't worth the cost, then they need to increase the value or reduce the cost.

MAXes make a pretty damn decent backup Infantry class for people who like tanking for that matter.

[FortySe7en]

MAx's will have cooldown. Its beta, chill out bros.

[VikingKong]

Isn't that what these jobbies are for?
http://wiki.planetside-universe.com/...ard_Specialist