[PTS] Vanguard Nimitz Reactor

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Campagne, Aug 2, 2019.

  1. Campagne

    There is a new defensive option on the PTS for the Vanguard!

    Thank you. Finally, something the Vanguard has needed since day one.

    Things to note:
    1. This is at the time of writing a defence slot item, meaning it can be equipped at the same time as the Vanguard's shield.
    2. The shield receives directional damage, meaning damage from the rear will still deal more damage than from the front. The shield does not soak all damage from a single attack, and damage can be dealt to the vehicle's healthpool after removing the shield in a single hit.
    3. The shield itself acts very much like a sunndy shield does, where the effect is not visible until the vehicle receives damage.
    4. Because of the 1000 HP reduction, repair times are normalized.
    In my opinion this makes the Nimitz Reactor a flat upgrade, with the only malice being another defensive slot option can't be taken at the same time.

    An alternative I would not mind seeing would be to replace the current Forward Shield entirely with the Nimitz Reactor, make the NR passive, and lightly buff the base chassis in small ways to bring the Vanguard up to par in straight fights.

    The NR allows it to engage enemies at a distance and use cover more effectively, which the base ought to be able to handle better. In exchange, the Vanguard would become much less of a threat in point-blank encounters as it'd still have bottom-tier DPS and no one-button action to save itself when at full health. It becomes a much more engaging vehicle to use and to play against, and would hopefully be much less frustrating for all sides.

    Regardless, I'm very happy to see something like this on the PTS. Let's just hope I didn't accidentally jinx it. :p
    • Up x 1
  2. vonRichtschuetz

    Half a year ago they mentioned the prowler getting a deployment shield. Is that still in the works or did they just give it to the NC who already have the most durable tank with a shield?
    • Up x 1
  3. DemonicTreerat

    One of two things. Either Wrel finally got handed his long overdue pink slip, or this is his attempt to stir up the VS & TR into a whine fest so he can further nerf the Vanguard while giving more freebies to the Magrider and Prowler. My money is on the later.
  4. Demigan

    So I propose that the Vanguard shield ability should be removed and replace the extra 1000 health of the Vanguard in place of a new ability, and what we get is a new shield that simply replaces the Vanguard shield ability? I'm both surprised that some of my idea's actually make it into the game and even more surprised that each time the implementation lets me down.

    It seems pretty weak. Many weapons will break the shield in 1 or 2 shots, meaning the 6 second time recharge will often not be used and to hide away for 1000 health lost seems a bad idea. With 100 health per second recharge it would take a total of 20 seconds to recharge 1000 health. Doesn't seem that much worth it especially if you throw away your normal shield for it. If you didn't have to sacrifice your shield it would be useful as you wouldn't need to repair more health than the other tanks which was a straight downgrade of CAI to the Vanguard.

    So yes please to making the NR a passive ability and then removing the Vanguard shield in favor of something new. The Vanguard Shield just makes players that oppose it like every loss wasn't earned by the Vanguard regardless of how balanced it really is so it has to go.

    And lastly, hurrah for them actually doing something with the Vanguard! Although looking at the upgrades the Magrider receives (Afterburner as passive and the option to pick a sideways-capable afterburner or fire suppression) and the Prowler (passive 1000 shield recharge whenever anchored) it seems like the Vanguard one is still the rund of the litter. It forces you to choose between the normal shield and NR, where both other tanks do not have to do this for their upgrades.

    Edit: just to be clear, I assume 2 c4 bricks will devour both shield and health simultaneously instead of the Sunderer shield which eats it all and protects the health.
  5. LaLaBear

    Possibly a nice gesture by the devs but I'm not really seeing this one as much of an upgrade unless all excess damage is absorbed once the shield breaks. It's essentially a 20 second recharge timer for 1000 HP that resets anytime the vanguard gets hit by just about anything. Even an ESF nosegun can keep you from repairing to full HP with minimal effort..

    Last I checked on PTS the prowler had a near identical defense slot that activated on lockdown. The difference was that it added 1000 hp to the pool but it couldn't move around with it. I also think the cooldown timer was faster. Either way there was no downside to equipping it.

    Magriders got the directional turbo with quicker recharge as their defense slot. Again, no downside.
  6. Campagne

    I think you've misread something. Both shields can be equipped at the same time currently, which makes it pretty close to a mandatory unlock in my opinion.

    It is fairly weak but as far as I can tell no effective health was lost. It's still the same minor EHP advantage as without the second shield but self-regenerates and doesn't waste time with extra repairs.

    Lucky that some of your suggestions have been noticed, I'm still waiting for any of mine. :p

    Prowler's deployment shield is still on the PTS as well, don't you worry.

    It also gives effective health whereas the Nimitz Reactor does not.

    I really doubt Wrel had anything to do with any of these changes. The devs. work as a team as far as I know and no one individual is calling the shots.
    • Up x 1
  7. Demigan

    Really? I stand corrected! Vanguard gets the second most useful ability and a pretty good one at that! Magriders afterburner becomes passive is better as it opens up fire suppression, otherwise the utility of this shield is a great addition! Thank you devs!
    • Up x 1
  8. LaLaBear

    I think you mean least useful? At this point you might as well run nanite auto repair and get the 75hp/s for all 6000hp and nothing prevents you from repairing that either.
    • Up x 1
  9. Demigan

    That is actually a good point. Although the shield starts regenerating 2 seconds faster and afterwards recharges 25hp/s faster. So for a team that intends to get out for repairs its better.

    But I probably wouldnt sacrifice my stealth module. Its just too valuable. Although I think it is an improvement to have this ability its not as good as I thought. Hopefully its a work in progress and players can choose if they want it as a passive or not?
  10. Liewec123

    ^this!
    its a cool idea to have a recharging overshield like deploy shield for sundies, but what is the point when you lower your tanks health for a shield of the exact same value when we already have auto repair as an option?

    they do the same thing except auto repair will heal ALL of your tanks hp, not just 1k of it ;)

    now if this shield reduced the tanks HP by 1k but gave a 1,5k or 2k shield, that'd be different,

    but currently this shield just seems like a slightly altered auto repair.
  11. DemonicTreerat

    You would be wrong then. Guess who was on Reddit asking for new ideas (apparently too scared to show his face on the OFFICIAL forums for the game that pays his bills) for the Vanguard's defensive slot? Yeah, Wrel. His finger prints are all over this and the Paladin. Namely how the VS abilities are direct upgrades from what is available, TR are lazy cut & paste without regard to balance, and NC are so marginal & overloaded with restrictions as to be worse than what is available now.

    Frankly I would rather have an updated version of the old directional armor. Start at -200 per hit to everything from the front going up to -500 applied after shield reduction. Or keep the total amount hp as is and have the shield constantly regenerate even under attack ala PS1 BFR shields. Even putting this in as a passive ability for the Vanguard. But replacing stealth, auto-repair, or flanker armor? ON further thought its not worth it.
  12. LodeTria

    it's just a worse NAR.
    • Up x 1
  13. Demigan

    Ok so I did a quick calculation:

    I found a source that repair guns heal 208 health per second.
    With NAR the first 12 seconds you heal 208, then 282 health per second. This would be about 24,5 seconds of total repair time.
    If you crewed your vehicle, which more than half do (Campagne calculated it there was almost 3/4rth eith gunners I believe) then it takes 12 seconds to repair 5000 health, so only the last 1000 health would the NAR help regenerating so you finish in 14 seconds.

    With NR you would spend 24 seconds repairing a Vanguard and the shield would be full.
    With 2 people you would spend 12 seconds repairing all the Vanguards health. But the shield requires 20 seconds to get to full, so it'll take longer to finish! NAR would be superior... if you manage to jump out and repair instantly.


    If we have to drive around for a 10 seconds then the shield will have kicked in already and finish healing just before you finish the Vamguard repair. This is the only scenario where the shield is functional as it heals 250 health more than the NAR. Wait 13 seconds before jumping out and you are always better off with NAR.

    So to change my mind again: this is the worst choice. With current repair rates giving this as a passive to Vanguards is actually a nerf! And as insult to injury we have to sacrifice our defense slot?

    As I finish I realize I havent added repairgun cooldown times. But I dont expect this to make much of a difference as it'll allow NAR to heal more health total and push the Vanguard to full health sooner.

    Edit I also partially bungled the calculations, for some I used the erroneous 482 hp/s for NAR+repair which should have been 492 which I used for some of the later calculations.
  14. Demigan

    My suggestions after thinking about this:

    If nothing changes in the stats of the reactor the name of "Nimitz Reactor" should be changed to "Numbnutz Reactor", just to tip off people who might consider getting it of it's value.

    If it becomes a passive ability the HP/s needs to be upped a bit or the entire thing would basically be a nerf to the Vanguard unless you go vanilla solo.

    If it stays a defensive slot option then it needs a lot more to be viable. After breaking it should take 10 seconds for the shield to be completely full, not 20. Otherwise the situations where the Numbnutz Reactor is better than NAR are very small where the player must exit the vehicle at just the right time and repair up to make sure the reactor gives juuust up to 3 seconds of advantage. Up to 3 seconds, that's the maximum.


    Edit: The current Numnutz Reactor states that it converts 10% of the Vanguards health into shield, which would be 1200 HP.

    Not that that point is going to make a big difference. All it will mean is that you are going to take longer to get your vehicle at full health (22 seconds instead of 20).
    And then I just realized that I got that from the PTS where the actual shield health of the Vanguard is listed as 1000 when you pull one. So the text is wrong and shouldn't have said 10% in the first place.
    The same for the Paladin for example where the reload speed upgrade says "increases reload speed by 10%", which with the current way NC is treated might not even be a typo...
  15. Campagne

    Bold of you to assume the prominent popular public figure who built his way up to the current position by engaging the community isn't simply the one who volunteered to ask the playerbase for ideas and that he is the one and only developer actually working on the game.

    Reddit is obviously because they can't be held accountable for the things they say or the promises they make as nothing said on a subreddit has any degree of official status.

    There have always been questionable decisions regarding balance occurring well before Wrel came on the scene and will continue well after we've all moved on.

    The next set of ES topguns is a bit of a joke absolutely, but there is no reason to believe this is the sole work of Wrel in particular or even that he is involved at all. Like I said, there have been some ****** additions before.
    • Up x 1
  16. Campagne

    That's disappointing.

    However, I still support its addition as a step in the right direction. Hopefully if and when it leaves the PTS it will do so in a much more viable state than it is currently. Regardless, with proper implementation it could be a solid replacement for the Forward Shield as something with more practicality and less frustrations while giving some room to improve the Vanguard as a whole.

    Still, would be nice for it to be useful on its own.
  17. Demigan

    I support the addition as well, but I dont share your optimism. Almost all (almost!) Of the latest additions since Doku started have seen the NC get the short end of the stick. And with some heavy handed nerfs to the MAX, sneaky nerfs to the Vanguard in CAI, new topguns of which the NC version is a nerfed Halberd and now the updated MBT's which first saw no change to the Vanguard and now an ability that is basically a nerf that takes a slot while the VS and TR get passive upgrades that are actually straight upgrades... I just dont see this ability getting the attention it deserves.

    In a balanced and fair world the NC would have had 1/3rd of its latest additions be the worst. In an even more balanced and fair world they would have seen the NC not having any less skill with carbon-copy weapons and yet still have a massive difference in alert wins so they would look into what makes the NC faction-specific arsenal so bad at winning alerts.
  18. Liewec123

    i'm really starting to believe that this was done simply to troll NC.
    if it hasn't been made clear from the abysmal max nerf and nc getting junk like Charger,
    someone in control hates NC,

    so when we ask why TR and VS are getting two super awesome new abilities and NC get nothing,
    wrel probably thought it'd be hilaaaaarious to give NC an ability that does nothing.

    "you can have NAR that only repairs 1k of your health! trololol!"
    • Up x 1
  19. Trigga

    Sorry but why anyone thinks this will be useful is a complete miss with me.
    (reads more of thread)

    Im glad people in this thread saw the light, i was really worried about the sanity of posters around here.
    This option is almost as insulting as the 'flanker armour' debacle.

    To the devs: LEAVE MBTS ALONE
    You always do more damage than good, just leave it alone ffs.
    At this point lets take the bad with the good, or it will just get worse.
  20. Liewec123

    or they could give NC an actual ability instead of trolling.
    imagine if this was an actual overshield? (that doesn't remove your tanks health)
    or if the shield constantly repairs slowly, even when taking damage.

    anything but a nerfed NAR.