[Suggestion] Orbital Strike

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by ElricVIII, Oct 12, 2015.

  1. ElricVIII

    This is a suggestion based on a conversation I had with some friends that were new to the game:

    A new player has very limited ability to meaningfully interact with enemy vehicles. Without access to C4, Tank Mines, or their own vehicle certs they have the option of either using the default HA launcher or their own, substantially weaker, uncerted vehicles. Well, the starter HA launcher is reasonably effective, so that's one good option. But not everyone wants to play HA; in fact, I think a lot of the reason that HA is the most used class comes from the fact that new players basically have it as the only option to deal with enemy vehicles.

    So, the idea I had was the addition of an orbital strike mechanic. Between bases you often have long periods of vehicles sitting on distant ridges, fighting each other and vying for enough advantage to move up and assault a base or to prevent such an assault. What this really boils down to is my nanites vs your nanites to see who gets a resource advantage. The idea behind an orbital strike is a way for new players (and even vets) to leverage their nanites in a meaningful way.

    The mechanics behind this are simple: Through the minimap you can call down an orbital strike upon a marked enemy vehicle. This would be either a single shell or multiple smaller shells that deal enough damage to dissuade the vehicle from camping on a ridge. Give it a significant nanite cost to prevent spamming (I was thinking ~600 to leave 150 open for your own consumables) and give it a 2-3s visible charge-up so attentive pilots can interact with it. I was thinking 5 shells in a ~10m radius that deal a bit more than half of a lightning's health in damage.
  2. \m/SLAYER\m/

    after 10 kills you have enough certs to get both
    • Up x 1
  3. Dirge

    If orbital strike were to be added it should be something absolutely terrifying. Like the equivalent of 80 pieces of C4 raining down in a cone.
  4. SQPD

    No. No CoD.
  5. cbplayer

    No.
    Having a "kill everything" in this game stupid.
    The only reason you want this is because you know its overpower and you want it for yourself.
    If you want kills you need to earn them, not point a laser at them you scrub
    • Up x 1
  6. ElricVIII


    Your reading comprehension seems lacking. The entire point is a deterrent, NOT able to kill a vehicle single-handedly. But, thank you for your moronic "git gud" comment, I appreciate it when idiots make themselves obviously known to be ignored.
  7. cbplayer

    What basically you want to do is to cripple people half a kilometer away who has no way to defend themselves. If you want to destroy a squadron of vehicles hud together like sardines. Send in a galaxy drop of LAs.
  8. TheFlamingLemon

    This wouldn't add any fun to the game. This would make gameplay as a tank much less fun and those who place orbital strikes don't accomplish anything in their kills, there's no challenge, so overall this negatively impacts gameplay. Same concept as having mines that can kill players rather than just damage them such as the claymore (idk about proxy mines for VS but I know the bouncing Betty is at a good level and other mines should be nerfed to meet that. But I'm getting off topic)

    This is why Heavy Assault needs a nerf IMO
    • Up x 4
  9. cbplayer

    This guy gets it.
  10. Tilderx

    Orbital Strikes were in Planetside 1, not saying that was good or bad. But you couldn't buy the ability. They had "Command Ranks" ranging from 1 to 5. At rank 4, you got a "small" OB and at rank 5, a larger one. You could only use it once every 3 or 4 hours. You had to be fairly close to where you wanted to drop it, so using it was usually always a suicide run. You always used a cloaker to get in range and then select where to drop it on the map.

    Once you selected, it prompted everyone, friend or foe, that an Orbital Strike was coming in 10 seconds. Once the 10 second timer starts, there is a "beacon" that is visible to everyone that marks the center of the blast. So, if you got indoors in time or ran away from the center to get out of range, you were safe.

    Here's a brief video showing it in action:

    Not sure how i would feel about it being added to PS2, especially since it can kill friend or foe. I can definitely see some troll using it to kill dozens of friendly infantry and armor with it. It would definitely have to be limited in alot of ways. Maybe you personally could only use it once every 4 hours. Maybe there is only one NS Orbital Attack Satellite and it can only be used once every 30 minutes. Once someone uses it, on any faction, it has to cool down before it can be used again.
  11. Cyropaedia

    Orbital Strike will cost about 500 Daybreak Cash...
  12. FateJH

    I believe the first part of the beacon before the Strike was only seen by friendlies. The last four seconds of the charge was when the "marker" was visible to everyone but, by that point, people caught within the first half of the radius were as good as dead. Maybe if you had Surge, you could get far enough; maybe.

    I don't hate Orbital Strike; I hate what it became. It was framed as a reward for good leadership; but, anyone could use it whenever after it became accessible to them. None of the command abilities were actually leadership rewards so much as they evolved into time farmable abilities. You didn't even need to actually be leading anyone to use an Orbital Strike - just pull out your CUD and map, marker the point, and drop it. Everyone became CR4, or CR5 if they could get there, rotating around squad and platoon leadership to make certain anyone who still needed it could get it. It slipped far too easily from a guarded strategic asset to deal with entrenched enemies or masses of attackers (depending on your perspective) into a personal shenanigans button.
    • Up x 1
  13. Tatwi

    This was discussed at great length in alpha and beta. The bottom line was this:

    If you can't remove an enemy encampment from an area with the tools already available in the game, it's because the enemy won, not because there aren't enough tools in the game for you to win.

    Sometimes you lose. Get over it.

    Orbital Strike: Do not need/want.
  14. ElricVIII


    That's interesting, at least there is some precedent. However, I was thinking it would be locked to a vehicle to prevent spamming on objective buildings (if you've ever played Tribes: Ascend, you know what a pain this is). I'd even say have a 1-2 min cooldown per vehicle even if different people call int he strike.


    The issue is that in order to make effective use of the nanite system, you need to have a significant cert investment. This is less true for armor than air, but oftentimes the winning force is the one with the most certs spent. I know that I saw a huge change in my ability to deal with vehicles after I certed up a battle sunderer, compared to using stock lightnings/MBTs. Basically, unspent nanites are wasted, but nanites spent on uncerted vehicles just make you farm for the guy with the fully leveled tank.
  15. Crayv

    Zerging still is currently the be all to end all tactic in the game. OS's would certainly help reduce this.

    I still think a good limiting factor is while you are waiting the several hours for it to charge, you are limited to half of your normal resource pool and regen. With a pool of 375 resources you could never pull a MAX or an MBT (and a few other things) and you would exhaust your resources very quickly. It would prevent large outfits from abusing it by all of them using it during an alert as they would be severely crippled if they did this.

    If that is still too strong then making it defensive only (on territory you control) could also help.
  16. FateJH

    What are you going to do when the zerg begins using Orbital Strikes against you too?
  17. Sovereign533

    I don't agree with Orbital Bombardement.
    I would rather suggest something akin to the Battlefield 2 system. For example, you get an ANT, drive it to a certain distance from a base, deploy it into artillery and use that to bombard something from range.
    Would give air and Harassers something to hunt behind enemy lines.

    My point is that you need something to counter it with.
  18. Canaris

    OS worked in Planetside 1 because it was a tactical game, PS2 isn't. This topic has been done to death & major majority voted
    NO
    • Up x 1
  19. Some1

    I think theres more to be done first befor thinking about adding something like this in. Try again in 2 or 3 years and we will see.
  20. JojoTheSlayer

    They became BAD when "everyone" became Cr5. I had Orbital strikes in PS1, so did practically everyone in my Outfit.
    Even if it was cool, I wouldnt want it in PS2 for balance reasons.

    Oh and if you didnt know...
    Here is seemingly the PS2 version of OS that was never added to actual gameplay:
    (I am assuming the VS, and possibly others, sound was just a place holder)



    And the Uplink tool:



    If the price was set to 100DBC. That might actually work, balance wise towards preventing OVER usage.
    If it still got over used, one could just raise the price slightly (125). I would still think one would need be at least a given BR rank, as in not totally new, have eyes on the target AND swap ones pistol out with the Uplink tool in order to "trigger" the strike.
    Store wise they could just as well sell strike ammo, be it single or packs.

    Considering the "assets" are already there and that Daybreak added the unpopular "bounty" system.
    I wouldnt be surprised if they actually do this for extra revenue if they need another "cash flow".