Can we please scrap the idea of consumable implants?

Either temporary buffs that are bought with resources or permanent and interchangeable buffs that are bought the traditional way. No nickel-and-diming people for certs and/or SC with these. Bad form, SOE.

Here I was thinking we would finally be getting some more permanent customization outside of cosmetics. This really is one of those things that make me want to throw away everything I've invested into the game. F2P just stays ****, forcing players into upkeep is never fun.

The games method of F2P is getting distorted at this point, and we are crossing a dangerous road if this passes through. The pillar of F2P that makes it survive is the idea that you can't buy power. There is one thing successful F2P games like LoL have in common. You can't buy power like this.

And it's only worsened by the fact that buying guns with SC costs a fortune, and don't even get me started on buying lumifiber or other customization for every single vehicle at ridiculous rates.

I love your game SOE. It's damn fun, and its the only one of its kind. But you're crossing a dangerous route by adding P2W implants.

However, on the topic of the Implants themselves the idea is flawed and not what was exactly visioned. The goal from what I understood was more individual character development. This is like a really cheap and lame system.

As the OP said I would much prefer a cert driven progression system. Maybe the whole idea is just bad as a whole and instead we need revamps of infantry load out options. At the moment most classes lack any real interesting choices in cert development. It's fairly obvious what the choice should be for cert lines and some of them feel pointless.

In summary what we need is a meaningful system for character progression. Whether this is a global cert tree for all infantry or more individually and well thought out class choices through cert lines. We don't want or need a useless P2W system for temporary boosts.

Sony said that this game will never have upgrades, just sidegrades.
If that is true then what are implants? Obviously they're upgrades.
The game hasn't even been out for a year and Sony is already going back on their word to the player base. Shows how much they care. I have been a paying customer of this game since beta currently with an Auraxium Membership right now and I swear to God if they go live with this obvious money grabbing implant system I will quit.
This is a slippery slope and I don't support companies that lie to their playerbase.
If you say you're making a game without upgrades put your money where your mouth is and prove it.

I'm telling the developers now though that I will quit because of this issue and I will not be coming back.

I actually don't mind this system. It's on a per-load out basis which will do something to limit the number of active players with an implant active at any one time. Honestly, I'd rather have this model, or no implants at all, than bonuses with even a semi-permanent uptime that have the potential to completely counter, outperform, and otherwise invalidate playstyles, tools, and attachments.

As a character progression system it would enlarge the power gap between new and veteran players, which the industry has show us in the past tends to staunch the flow of new players into the game, and ultimately leads to stagnation and typically the death of the game itself. We don't want that here, because players are the content.

I usually don't post a lot here.
But i have to say NO! To this P2win feature.
the augmentation in ressource cost already have created a gap between sub and non-subers. Don't create a new one.
And i am a subber

Definitely agreeing with the author on most points.
I play since beta, I'm Alpha Squad, I'm BR 83 and I spent ~300 € in the game (yeah I know ...), so this isn't some random "OMG P2W spotted" opinion.

Even though I somehow like the idea of making a crucial choice between character progression or getting a temporary bonus that could higher up your chances in combat, I also can't stop myself thinking that there's something wrong with this.
Not only because SC is involved, but also because, as some people try to say here : Since the resources cost rise, there is some P2W smell in the air and this implant thing looks as it would change this smell into an air that our players will breathe.

I'd be more for a very high Certs cost for each implant on a definitive level.

I don't like what I've read about implants thus far but I won't reject it until I've tried it. I've got positives and negatives in my mind about the implant feature but reading other players' opinions about this system has made me nervous. I hope we're all wrong and this doesn't create a "pay to win" situation.

I think they will have very little effect on the game. They seem very balanced overall.

I suspect people will give them a try for giggles and then forget about them.

Life is cheap in planet side 2. Certainly too cheap to be bothered with this kind of money sink.

Having something temporally in a game like this is wrong to begin with. You spend a good amount of time thinking what to do, where to go next and how to get there, that and maybe you'd have bad luck and get farmed by the enemy zerg for like 30 mins over a couple of bases. It's like trialing a gun, you can ether get a bajilion kills or non at all, it's all about luck and I sure as hell wouldn't spent my time or money on luck unless there's loot involved.

Having something like the implants is a good idea, I liked what they said it'd give you during(or before) the beta. Stuff like 0.2 sec faster reload time, slightly faster run speed, faster weapon recovery after sprinting(is there a term for that) even taking less dmg when falling. Stuff that give you very slight boost in situational... um... situations?? scenarios??

I really need to work on my "explaining" skills.

your whole Post is great, constructive and should be read by everyone, after that i can say this to support you:

1)I'm BR100, i'm over 140k Certifications and i have yet to unlock all the things, in fact this is what i've unlocked so far

so the "running out of things to spend certs on" doesn't apply, i still have ot unlock the AV engie turret!
and i plan on keep on unlocking things to play and that will stay in my loadouts, not something that will drain my certification gain, where's the fun and progression in that? it's just a lame mechanic

2) Totally agree! i would be even fine if implants would take hours to activate when switching from one to another, but still, i would be able to have them all and try all of them in time given, after all this game is going to stay for years right? i don't plan on unlocking these "boosts" implants for years.. imagine how you would feel after let's say... one year of unlocking temporary boosts, i'll get mad for sure

3) This is good aswell!

Scrap the consumable, make implants a thing you unlock with ACTUAL levels. So say, you get to level 10. You get Awareness: auto-spots enemies who damage you or that you damage. Etc. Now levels actually mean something.

I hate renting gear. I would rather pay 100 times the rental cost and have tge freedom to use the implant anytime in any loadout on any character I wish than "rent" it. Sorry SOE, usually when a game pulls this out I tend to lose interest.

This kind of system is pretty low even on a cow clicker, but this is a competitive FPS. This reeks of money grubbing and the idea of some management droid who's looking for a job a Zenga.

Remember Battlefield Heros? It was never as big as PS2, so EA started adding consumable buffs for cash to that too (after saying they wouldn't). Nobody bloody bought them and all they did was alienate the player base.

yeah... no!

Organized outfits will abuse the **** out of it. Can you imagine a whole platoon with Thermal reduction and spamming smoke everywhere, you won't be able to see them unless they're in you face, now imagine them being scatt MAXes, painful.

Thee implant outright negate items and upgrades, scout flashes become irrelevant, thermal vision becomes useless, and suppressors/silencers might as well not exist.
Yeah you can have only on at a time but 1/3 of them would be using the one that counters you.

Balanced? It sounds like a copy&paste from a hacking-site (tuned down though).

- not showing up on minimap
- see your enemies health
- reduced camera-shake
- highlight explosives
- etc

Of course you can have only one active at a time, but still ...
The explosive one for example will make mines useless. Often enough they lie around quiet long before someone "finds" them. Now ppl can go actively defuse them before some poor guy triggers them.
Or the "not showing up on minimap". It is already quiet hard to find one lone cloaker in an almost empty AMP-station if the cloaker is any good. Now even a radar-flash is useless to find this one annoying bug.

Only Clear Vision and EMP Shielding seem quiet useless to me since those grenades are quiet underwhelming to begin with. The times i died because of them are only the tiniest fraction of my deaths.

All in all, those implants will only widen the gap between casual and serious players.
It is unlikely casuals (which i believe are still the majority in this game) will use them on a regular basis or even get much use of them while serious players with more experience will know how to use them.

For new players it will only be frustrating getting killed by ppl that didn't show up on the minimap. ... yees i think the Sensor Shield is my favorite.

There is some serious alarmist over reaction in this thread lol.

Do you guys think downvoting this on the Roadmap would help?

Anyway, I'm against this and I've posted on PSU to that effect. However I'll post again here:

I dislike the fact that we're certing into something that gives more power and no downsides. Look at Tribes:Ascend, it gave you the Ultra Capacitor and another perk for starters. That gave additional Jetpack energy, to help you out (most newbies are gonna be bad at Skiing, right?). Suit slots are inexpensive to start out with, but a full one will cost you a lot of certs. These Implants? I feel a lack of Sidegrade here too. Give everyone a "basic" implant, perhaps, that gives minor improvements. Anyone got suggestions?

Secondly, the fact that it's a consumable. Seriously? I dislike this idea immensely. And I dislike even more the fact that we're even discussing why. I dislike games with the rental model, given how much it limits your freedom.

As people said, WTF is wrong with the PS1 model? Have implants work like guns: Sidegrade to replace what you already have, one-time purchase, with Certs or SC.

just make them purchasable by certs but with no time limit i would prefer that

If they are direct upgrades and force people to constantly rent them to stay competative... SOE will milk customers out of money. I however dislike these money grabbing techniques and this is usually when i leave.