Why play LA?

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by SarahM, Jan 3, 2016.

  1. SarahM

    We have
    • spam... erm... spawn bacons (which can be put down by an Infiltrator falling from skyceiling using one of the other methods, spamming in a whole squad near instantly and being replaceable near instantly as long as one squad member is alive)
    • ESF ejection seat
    • Valkyrie squad deploy resp. save drop
    • Galaxy squad deploy
    • Instant battle drop pods
    All of them allow non-LA classes to access roofs and other high ground which would otherwise be inaccesible to them, decreasing the usefullness of the LA jetpack.
    So, aside from getting back onto a high place without using a vehicle or respawning, is there anything left LA can do that other classes can't?
  2. Dirge

    LA needs a buff, we have all been saying it for years.
  3. Iridar51

    All of the things you mentioned have at least one:
    • nanite cost and time investment associated with pulling and piloting a vehicle
    • require teamwork
    • have a cooldown

    LA isn't about getting to high places. It's not a rock climbing class. It's about fluid movement through, around and over the battlefield, objective control and flanking.

    Apples and oranges. A sniper can get an amazing position over the battlefield using ejection seat ESF, but he can't use it to flank choke points, at least not in a relevant time frame.
    • Up x 5
  4. L0st1

    Snipers can't C4 faery all of the things.

    Had a really fun one in a tech plant, jumped a wall and found a pre-damaged cloak sundy in traffic. Nuked that, had to jump over a harasser that was trying to road kill me and missed the C4 drop...except that he had to back up over it to get out the alley, BOOM, three more kills. Plus a couple randoms with the shotty.

    Love that crap.
  5. Demigan

    Well if the LA is for fluid movement through, around and over the battlefield, why does it only have the 'over' the battlefield available in the jetpacks? Where's the through and around the battlefield abilities?
  6. Iridar51

    In your hands? Jet Pack doesn't care where you fly with it. You can fly in any direction.

    I guess you mean something different from me by through and around.
  7. Qaran

  8. Armcross

    Are you a troll or just a new player?
  9. Demigan

    I meant that the LA's ability has one direction: up. The Drifter jet does give a slight speed boost but is not exactly useful for places where you want a lot of high speed and fighting at the same time, such as breaching a room.
    I would simply like to see some expansions to the LA like having a short speed boost like the MAX charge ability, or maybe a personal teleport gun for instance.
  10. Iridar51

    Only up? That's not true even about icarus. We can still glide over impassable terrain or chasms. Other infantry can move horizontally, but not when there's no ground to stand on.
    • Up x 2
  11. SarahM

    I'm here since beta and I'm dead serious. I'm just voicing my concern that there are now many utilities which are marginalising the LAs design space.
  12. Iridar51

    If anything, we should take that as "stuff to do". Just add denying those tools to the enemy in your job description.

    Without galaxy drops and spawn beacons, the only thing to do on the high ground would be shooting down on peasants below and countering enemy LAs from doing the same to your team, which is kinda redundant.
  13. Demigan

    Ok lets put it another way: Why does the Light Assault become a watered down Engineer in most indoors scenario's? No other class loses their class ability anywhere, only the LA does. Sure sometimes there's some things you can jump on that others can't get on, but it's not that much of an advantage indoors, aside from the fact that you lose once again the "light" assault because you will be stuck on that cover or have to face jumping COF when getting off.

    I think the LA could easily get new stuff that keeps him a Light Assault indoors. Jetpacks are wonderful, great, super, I love them and it's why I've been using the LA as my main class since forever. That doesn't mean there's things that can be addressed and changed for better versatility and keeping the class in it's role even indoors.
    • Up x 1
  14. Iridar51

    I'm just afraid of all the poor gameplay teleporting or short range dash would breed. Suicide C4 rush tactics won't even be suicide anymore. And all the shotgun hate.

    I wouldn't mind a buff to my favorite class, but I just don't think that particular idea would fit into current balance.

    Maybe the ability itself is not so useful indoors, but it opens many new routes into said indoors, isn't that enough?

    And there are different kinds of indoors. Insides of Tech Plants, for example, are basically LA heaven. And so are most buildings that have windows in them.
    • Up x 2
  15. Demigan

    I think that it can easily be both balanced and extremely suicidal.

    A short range dash with C4: add a good cooldown similar to Charge, as well as a 1 second recuperation time before you can use any weapon again and vehicle users will not have to fear them much. If they see you coming they can start driving away, which would lead to a maximum of 1 C4 on them, or they can kill you.
    Short range dash with shotguns: Again with a good cooldown and 1 second recuperation time, enemy players get enough time to notice and retaliate without making the dash more of a disadvantage than advantage. Since you'll be sacrificing your jetpack abilities (I assume it replaces the jetpack although, it could be added as an alternative ability) It would be a good trade-off between being able to avoid the terrain and having short dashes into/out of combat. Since there's a cooldown you won't be able to use it to get in combat, kill someone and turn to flee instantly, but have to choose if you use it to get in or out.

    Teleport gun with C4: Probably useless the way I imagine the teleport gun. Fire a beacon towards the place you want to go, then when you teleport towards the beacon it takes 3 seconds before you are whisked away. The beacon can be destroyed in that time causing you to die upon teleportation unless you renew it. The beacon can have similar light-shows as mines, as well as a green light-show when teleporting the character there, giving enough visual cue's and perhaps even audio cues for any vehicle to notice and react. Also it would be a bad gun to get out of combat unless you can survive 3 seconds.
    Teleport gun with shotguns: You shoot a beacon, hope it doesn't get discovered while you telport to your enemy, switch weapons back to shotgun, prey you still have a chance to shoot. Doesn't sound like a real problem to me.

    I think it can still be improved, but I guess this is a subjective matter for both of us.
  16. Iridar51

    I meant running into a room of people to blow them all up. Currently this somewhat doesn't work, because there's a delay before you can detonate C4, so the enemy has plenty of time to kill the LA.

    With this dash, LA would be able to run in, throw C4, dash out the window, detonate C4. Though I guess this isn't very different from just running 2 steps back where LA came from.

    Vehicles aren't worth suiciding over, lol.

    That could work, though I wouldn't sacrifice the jet pack for a short range dash. Why not just make it a tool with "press F to pay X% jet pack fuel and dash"?

    Derped over the recuperation time, of course it's a viable balancing tool, figured out long ago, dunno why I forgotten about it.
    • Up x 1
  17. Demigan

    I would love it if it didn't replace jetpacks as long as it's well balanced. Dash with drifter jetpack for instance would be much better than with Icarus jetpack due to regeneration and total fuel capacity.

    It could be balanced by equalizing all fuel capacity and then changing the drain rates on each jetpack. Or having some kind of system behind the dash so that it will change drain rate depending on the jetpack equipped, then add a cooldown after dash-usage so that the total regeneration time after a dash is about equal? It doesn't have to be equal to make jetpack choices have more variation, but I think that in it's current state slapping a dash on it would make Drifters too good with it.
    • Up x 1
  18. Iridar51

    Yeah, of course cost would be different for different jet packs. Or it could use a separate, cost-free coldown.

    It depends how the dash works, if it's true directional dash, i.e. propelling the user where he's looking, than that could solve the drifter's biggest downside - lack of vertical movement. I wouldn't see it as making drifters too good, merely making them viable, because last buff to drifters sure as hell didn't.

    Or the dash could work differently with different jet packs. I already wrote all this stuff before.

    Devs could also make it simply "aerial sprint" like in Firefall. I.e. hold "sprint" while flying to go faster at the cost of fuel. But I guess that's its own thing.
    • Up x 2
  19. InterSpectra

    To the subject title, I play LA because it's fun. They can be very effective, certainly not the most effective overall class in most situations, but LA don't need any setup to get atop any buildings.

    Especially in combined arms, infantry, armor, air, they all are just a distraction for one another, making it easier for LAs to dive in quickly and do some damage. Sometimes those few seconds of confusion is more than enough for friendly troops to rally forward (if communication was involved I suppose).

    While I have largely stopped playing, whenever I do I always end up with the same style of play because it's the most fun for me, with a huge affinity towards LA.

    My style seems to be the one everyone loves to hate on (in BF3 CQ maps, I would be that Assault spamming Smoke that scores highest for team with top kills, yet in top 5 deaths cause I'm always holding down that Shift running throughout the entire map), that won't stop me from doing what I enjoy out of PS2.
    Around an hour of gameplay yielded some fun moments for me:




    Note: Despite this style of play I have yet to register a single shotgun kill, being a long standing BR100. That in itself should deserve an Auraxium medal of some sorts.
    • Up x 2
  20. CuteBeaver

    SarahM I read your post on the infil boards. LA's really should have had their tool by now however the development team has gone back and forth on what that tool should be. Management changes I am sure you know since you have been part of the community for a very long time. Devs flip flopped from adding ammo scavenging and dual wielding pistols. Flare guns were added but turned into joke weapons which shot fireworks. (Really wish they shot flash grenade like things for you)

    Developers have tried to implement fire, (as in flamethrowers for the max) but ran into problems with its damage and animations. So that removes the possibility of Molotov Cocktails as a grenade type. (Which would have been awesome for area denial and teamwork). Personally I would have really liked to see some kinda AOE / sustained deterrent added to your toolbox.

    I'd like to see smoke have more of a purpose for stealth. Function the same on all settings in terms of tactical benefit. Allow Light Assaults to have smoke remove player spots & fall off radar for a bit. That kind of thing. Light assaults are already exceptional at killing and have great mobility so the developers have been dragging their feet on this one since its not critically broken. :( Might not be the most popular thing to say but there was a suggestion for energy grenades being given to engineers to help repair things at a distance. It would be cool to make smoke an LA specific in exchange. Thankfully for engineers I am not a dev <3

    What originally prompted this post was Heavies though. Indirectly all the flanking classes are getting buffed. Once these Heavy Shield changes go live... (Yes I know wishful thinking) Honestly If I were in a PS2 developer shoes I would see what happens to the Heavies with the shield changes, and then once the dust settled focus on the LAs. For you its obvious playing your favorite class day in and out they need a hug. I just feel in the devs position I would want to see how things stacked up first before making more changes. In the past (you probably remember) LA's were the default class nearly everyone used. Devs might be watching for a shift to see what happens.

    I would like to see LA's get something nice to play with. I don't know what. I just know something shiny is overdue.
    • Up x 2