Pocket OS frequency, acquisition, and blindsiding base builders.

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Tharovinn, Jan 22, 2023.

  1. Tharovinn

    I expect The Crown on Indar, Nasan's Defiance on Hossin, Eisa Tech Plant on Esamir, The Ascent on Amerish, and The 3 tridents of Oshur, to be bases that outfits looking to get Polystellarite (Poly for short) for the three biggest outfit assets, particularly, the Orbital Strike should be fighting over. But why fight over those bases where there is so much competition in the form of 2 other empires, AND the many other outfits in your OWN faction that wants the same thing when you can go the lazy route?

    Orbital strikes are not common because outfits fight and capture these bases and hold them to generate Poly, its because they fight over anywhere but these bases and use Expeditions to generate Poly they need for Orbital strikes, the Bastion, and Colossus tank, indirectly. You put in a lesser resource and exchange time which you don't need to be online to spend, to get a more rare resource.

    Due to Expeditions, even a player alone in an outfit can eventually trickle up and convert the resources they get from lesser bases they claim in the name of their solofit to get something as grand as the orbital strike and I believe this is why they are so ordinary, not to mention that you can store two of them for later use.

    As someone who interacts with the construction system often it is incredibly frustrating that bases I take the time to gather cortium for, intelligently build, and maintain during an active battle are destroyed by an orbital strike I don't see coming until its called down. At least with an Orbitral Strike Uplink I know that its growing circle coming my way from an enemy base is a danger I need to address as is the shield stripping Glaive at that base too or if I'm building within a the range of an enemy uplink, its a danger to keep in mind.

    Back to pocket OS - My only counter is activating the overshield on the structure shield module, and my only buffer is the skywall shield emitter. The sky wall is easily stripped by the Glaive or if you didn't want to set that up then infiltrating the base to destroy the module that creates it will do. Without a skywall, if I really wanted to counter a pocket OS I'd need to be alive, waiting at my base ready to activate the overshield ability of the structure shield module which, isn't always the case because:
    • I'm dead, awaiting respawn,
    • I'm away from the base
    • I'm alive, ready, and waiting at the base but I'm too far away from the structure shield module to activate the overhshield in time.
    • The overshield ability is on cooldown

    Reacting to a pocket OS on my construction base is like a reacting to an underhanded quick time event that you don't see coming. Its like someone breaking into your house, and its up to you to quickly recall where your gun is (I live in the states), figure out if you can get to it in time (if not find an alternative), react accordingly, and defend the house from the intruder. You have 10 seconds to think that through and execute those decisions.

    With all that said here is what I propose. Take any amount of combination of these points.
    • Remove the expedition that converts Synthium, and time in exchange for Polystellarite. Possibly just remove expeditions period. Outfits would then I have to think about what resources they need and in turn what bases to attack for the resources they need.
    • Choose 3 territories on all continents to generate 1 Polystellarite instead of their current resource.
    • Reduce how many orbital strikes you can store in the armory to one down from two.
    • Up x 3
  2. OSruinedPS1

    OS ruined PS1 too. Ironic.

    More specifically the I-win buttons a player grinded for ruined SP1: OS, EMP blast, reveal enemies and BFR.

    In PS2 same thing, I-win buttons you grind for is the cancer ruining PS2: OS, colossus, bastion. It's like, nobody learns.
  3. Avlaen

    The pocket orbitals are so stupid, they ruin any kind of game flow and have no counter, and they totally invalidate the cortium orbital strike, why build a base and wait on an orbital to charge when you can right click on a map and use an i win button?

    Theres no warning no build up no counter play
    • Up x 3
  4. VillusVill

    Yup pocket OS is too powerful to give to players and undermines a lot of the other gameplay mechanics. It should've been replaced with a artillery barrage that would just rain scattered flail rounds around the region the OS would hit for like 10 to 20 seconds. Nail a couple extra kills but not enough to do anything major and make it once called down another one can't be called down in the local region for a minute at least for the faction that called the last one.
  5. AuricStarSand

    The pocket OS, everytime single time people have ever worked together to build a base bigger than 3 skyshields, it gets double pocket os'ed to death. I've literally seen a 4 skyshield base at Indars downhill, was built. Then I redeploy for 10 sec, return & there's nothing left.

    Same goes for people who teamed together to build near Lith's road of Amerish, double pocket os'ed.
    Nowonder outfits don't build together, they have a rival outfit double pocket os all their work.

    I wouldn't suggest making it tougher to gain purple, I like to solo stock Collosus tanks.

    Yet why does the pocket os have to do dmg verse construction that much anyways?
    It's bad enough Bastions sweep them all away.

    Yes they are able to glaive, then pocket os, or double pocket os without the glaive.
    Before that I was getting wrecked by glaive & flail. So 2 people verse my solo silos.

    At least glaive silo item version of os, gives you time to see the circle reaching your base.
    While flail glaive, glaive pocket os, or double pocket os doesn't give you time to reply.

    The pocket os is already overpriced tbh, I use to like to stock them solo when they only were blue. Yet they are still used too easily either way to kill silo bases, as zerg outfits always have enough. Yet I wouldn't want purp to be too tough for a solo outfitter to get as I fancy Collosus tanks.

    So just nerf the pocket os from dealing dmg to silos.

    I'm not a fan of silo verse silos either. The irony that most silos have died from other silos users over the years.
    Suggest that infantry have more ways to fight silos & vehicles have entertaining ways to fight silos other than shooting the side of wall gates repeatedly.

    I'd just get rid of the glaive, then make flails do way less dmg to silo items, & even maybe the silos verse silo os too less dmg to eachother. Maybe instead just toss the silos a weakening button near the silo item, that if a enemy soldier finds his way into the silo and presses the button, the silos walls are weakened for 20 sec, I don't know. Either way new ways for soldiers to enjoy shooting walls, & not silo verse silo or pocket os's ridding the entire system.
  6. RabidIBM

    But, you know, "construction bases are causing too much OS spam"...
  7. Tharovinn

    I thank you all for your replies so far gentlemen. Now then:

    • OSruinedPS1
    Without straight up removing orbital strikes (which I would) I'm okay with them existing but I would want them to be more rare like I believe they should be because they require a rare resource to acquire directly. If you want to bypass the grind to get a personal one there is always the Orbital Strike Uplink the construction system provides. Without expeditions giving personal OS strikes to outfits I believe the uplink would be used more often, even if getting into construction for players that just want an OS strike just use it to place a slio, the uplink, spawn tube, and do the bare minimum.

    How you see the colossus, and bastion as cancer is for another thread. Create one, I'll reply to it :)

    • Avlaen
    Unlike the Uplink, pocket OS does infact come out of seemingly no where. Fun story: When I sought the power of orbital strikes as someone who didn't reach battle rank 30 yet. I knew from observation on the map that orbital strikes came from these construction Uplinks and its one of the factors that got me into buying construction. What I couldn't explain was orbital strikes called down outside the familiar circles generated by the Uplink. From my perceptive there wasn't a cause of it. It just happened and I and everyone else inside its death circle had to deal with it.

    Unlike the Uplink, no warning, no building up indeed. Counter play? Just find a solid object to duck under :rolleyes: (infantry perceptive)

    • VillusVill
    I've heard the suggestion of swapping the Orbital strike for a Flail strike like yours but I still don't like it. I don't believe any war assets should directly influence a battle with lethal damage like the OS does or the Artillery Barrage you are suggesting would do. My reasoning is its not interactable due to nothing in the game space causing. Calling an OS from an Uplink (a physical object in the game!) is fine, Calling an OS from the map screen (pure sorcery) is not.


    • AuricStarSand

    It makes sense to me that a giant space laser would destroy a base. The Orbital Strike has to live up to its name and reputation. On the receiving end it just don't feel good getting your base nuked. I know your pain :(


    It doesn't help that as an infantryman at a construction base, the protection you would expect from having hard cover provided from
    an enclosed building like the pillbox, surderer garage and infantry tower does not give the protection that is expected. You just die, along with all the construction objects you thought would protect you.

    • RabidIBM
    If anything there is enough Orbital Strikes to go around, that using one on a construction base isn't a big deal, plus, its easy exp.
  8. Somentine

    C&C: Renegade's Ion-cannon and Nuclear Missile. Basically, cortium bomb mechanics but bigger. This is what the orbitals in PS2 should be like.
  9. Tharovinn

    So it would be a deployable that calls in the strike onto itself. It would create a spontaneous point of interest, I like it, its in the right direction of what I'd like to see with the orbital strike. I wouldn't take it as is though. It needs more thought.
  10. OSruinedPS1

    "solo outfits" Gawd.

    From the spawn beacon to the bastion carrier, all of these "teamwork" tools are nothing but cancer.... just like in Planetside 1. They....never...learn.
  11. Somentine

    More or less. In Renegade you had to defuse it with an engineer weapon (basically identical to ps2's). In the very least, it's better than both construction's moronic dart and right-clicking pocket orbitals, even without any other changes.
  12. JibbaJabba

    They're orbital strikes right? Like from a satellite?

    Then let them only be fired when the satellite is overhead. Put a moving band on the map. Everyone will know when they are and are not at risk of getting hit.


    [IMG]
  13. RabidIBM

    This thread was about to fall off the front page, so I'm bumping it for another round. In case my sarcasm in my previous poat wasn't obvious, I'm disparaging the idea that construction is to blame for OS spam. Don't blame builders when a small base gets nuked 8 times in 4 minutes.

    Pocket OS is toxic, has been since day 1, is only fun for the guy right clicking the nuke but is annoying to all others. Pocket OS has needed to go since it was first conceived of.
    • Up x 4
  14. OSruinedPS1

    That's what he said.

    It's also toxic in the way it alters zergfit behavior. Zergfits already avoid fights and zerg as it was, but you give them pocket OS's and bastions now they have an even bigger incentive to avoid fights and zerg. What were you devs thinking?
  15. Tharovinn

    I'm glad you like my thread enough that you thought it was worthy of a bump. Have a like.

    The only thing new I have to add to the discussion:
    When an outfit made orbital strike is called upon an infantry fight, armor column, base builder and their base etc. the players going to be affected by that orbital strike don't care how expensive it was to craft in time or resources. They care that their experience with what they are doing on the battlefield is going to change in 10 seconds and there is nothing they can do about it but run or hide.

    I don't think anyone in this game should have such battlefield changing power that affects so many players in a negative way just to make that individual get a hit a dopamine for so effortlessly calling it in and raking in call the kills/exp after the fallout
    • Up x 1