Maxes detract from game experience

As they are, maxes detract from infantry game play because there are too many of them, blocking the flow of battles.

When I turn a corner and get killed by a max camping there, I learn not to go there again.
The problem is that they are at every corner, every building, everywhere blocking off the flow of the battle.
C4, rockets, etc, work, but there are still going to be too many maxes on the battlefield.
Max on max fights are just boring, both sides have engineers repairing them, and even if one side dies, the medics waiting behind them will revive. The only option is to have more maxes than them.
The fate of the battle must not be entirely based on who has more maxes, but which side is more tactical and uses more teamwork.

Therefore, maxes should become less common, say 1 or 2 maxes per squad instead of 6. This would be done by significantly increasing their resource cost (again).
This way, a max would be a valuable tactical unit, specifically deployed in certain areas to fill a specific role making an impact on the battlefield, rather than an attempt to outnumber the other sides' maxes.
Less expendable maxes will also encourage more teamwork to keep them up.

no they don't

Resources are the wrong way to do this. It doesn't matter how much each MAX costs if they can be used to farm in an infantry hex and be revived a million times. The side with most MAXs would still win. The only way to make MAX spam less OP is to make them more vulnerable to attrition. That means nerfing their revives. A 5 second limit on the revives seems to me to be appropriate. If a medic can't start a revive on you within that time, well you'll have to live without your skillsuit.

MAXes are only powerful with support. They're a part of an overall bigger fighting force.

I rarely use one myself, but I certainly don't complain about them.

Yes, we need to do something with maxes in general. Rise the cost, give them less HP, remove ability to be revived, increase engineer repairing time or something else. But something has to be done.

I had a big post to say but I was getting bored.

Just replace the word MAX with tank and you'll see you just have it out for MAXes.

Increasing recourse won't help.
Proof?
TR (i'm sorry you guys are just the concept of SPAM) has a MBT that costed x2 the price of a Lightning, yet every fight will have more Prowlers than Lightnings.

They increased the recourse costs and guess what?
NOTHING CHANGED

The only thing that changed is that Prowlers are now more careful in combat and will take smaller risks.

Same thing will be done with MAXes, they'll be spawned as much but will just play more farm oriented (read defending) than the big scary wall of flesh that's supposed to go in a room and paint the walls with blood.

In new resource system we trust.

Basically this.

Cost is not the issue. The fact that they can be revived at all is the issue... Along with the fact that virtually all max weapons are horribly balanced, save for the NC's.

MAXes have no business killing things beyond 30 meters (Besides aircraft). If they can do that, people will always take them over infantry.

With the upcoming ZOE nerf, I think there will be a slight reduction in their numbers, and I have to agree that MAX's should have a much longer time needed to be revived.

On a side note, OP's from Woodman which is most likely the server with the biggest amount of ZOE spam there is.

You are right that there are TOO many of them. There needs to be a good reason not to pull a max in a big fight. Right now, other than needing an engineer, which can be mitigated by having auto repair and playing smart, or not being able to drive vehicles, there is very little downside to pulling a max. Give people a reason to go standard infantry over a max, and you'll see a reduction in maxes. It doesn't matter how much they increase the cost, the timer, etc. The initial pulling of maxes is the problem of seeing so many of them. Show up to a biolab? Why wouldn't half your forces pull maxes, when it's the smartest thing to do?

I love having MAX's in the game, because when one (or more) appears it instantly and dynamically changes the complexion of the local engagement.

If anyone played EQ1 they may remember the Sand Giants in the Oasis zone. All the players would be happily going about their battles with the local fauna when all of a sudden someone yells, "Sand Giant! Run!". Immediately everyone would run with their head on a swivel to find a rock to hide behind, then slowly coalesce into a Sand Giant lynch mob to down the vile creature.

MAX's in PS2 serve the same function, they break up the monotony of stalemated infantry fights by suddenly making relevant tactics and teamwork that was otherwise dormant. Of course, too many MAX's can be a problem, but it's a case of fighting fire with fire in PS2. The best response to a MAX crash is to respond in kind, in the end , they tend to cancel each other out.

I disagree, completely removing MAX revives would almost certainly mean that MAXs would need a buff to survivability. This could have some serious knock on effects, including over-buffing them for skilled and well supported players. Changing it so that MAXs are still revivable, but only within a time limit means that MAXs wouldn't need buff against C4 placed on doors. It would also mean that you wouldn't have to clear the enemies' whole squad out of an area to get rid of the MAXs as long as you can keep the Medics suppressed for some time after the MAX goes down.

The time taken to revive a MAX certainly could stand to be increased, but I don't think alone its a solution to MAX spam. It doesn't matter much how long it takes to revive a MAX if you control a room. This means that you'd still need to take out 100% of the squad or the MAX would be back on its feet by the time you respawn. As well as this MAXs are exactly brought back in combat ready condition, so MAX revives during combat isn't the world's biggest issue.

Edit:

Except that the side that looses losses everything and the side that wins takes no losses because they can all be revived. This leads to a horrible snowballing MAX zerg. The side with the most MAXs wins (unless its NC MAXs in an open field), which is the opposite of thoughtful and tactical.

LA

C4

Nuff said.

I don't agree with OP at all. Only way i can see an increase in resources to be MORE then a tank would be to make them even more of a pain to kill. In prolonged battles the only maxes you should be seeing are the max lifers seeing they are more skilled with not dying. There may be an initial boost to the amount of maxes in the battle but they never last. Since OP is TR i'm going to assume he got his face eaten by perhaps a NC max but more likely a venu max.

The higher resource costs have limited people from pulling them not to the extent of how it was done in PS1 where you had to cert into the max line to even use one. With the upcoming venu max there should be a decrease in venu maxes pulled. Which would solve the venu pulling of them.

LAs detract from MAX experience.

More like subtract, but .. yes, yes they do.

This

And this. Although AV weapons should get an exception and only be good against armor (maybe a COF to make hitting far away objects only easy if its harasser sized?)

The entire issue stems from the fact they can be resurrected. TR and NC maxes can take on multiple players and win, but are expensive, have a cooldown, and their cost overlaps with the cost of their counters, and in many cases, are more expensive than the items used to obliterate them.

The fact these items are expendable, while the MAX can be resurrected repeatedly tilts this balance a little too far.

other players being able to kill me detracts from my game experience... can we focus on that problem?