[Suggestion] The Ultimate Thread Dedicated to Refurbishment of Infantry

For the bunker, I don't really think it necessarily needs a rumble seat mechanic. It would perform its job entirely adequately if it was simple a structure that you could walk inside through a door.

Though of course that would mean the engineer would have to be careful to keep the door facing away from the enemy.

I definitely agree that we should remove sources of infinite ammo where possible. Staying topped off on ammo for a long time should actually take some work.

But nanites..

I have to agree with this.

There are some really great ideas in here, but there's a lot of stuff that requires too much overhaul for little to no real gain in gameplay.

That deployable/contructable bunker idea? That's awesome.

Changing to inventory system? I just don't see this happening. Inventroy system was in place of classes. Having class system, we don't need inventory, we have class slots instead. 2 different systems with different pros and cons. Personally I like class with modules/slots over inventory which can make balancing certain things difficult, or would require too many rules to be immediately intuitive like the class system is.

Melee weapons seems particularly out of place.

Weapon sights have long been messed up. It's a long standing problem. I'd worry more about just getting these more reliable before complicating them with actual reflex sights. Also, because this is a "Gun Camera" model game instead of a "Gun barrel" (that is, bullets fire from center of camera, not where gun barrel is in 3d modeled world) it'd be fake anyways. And we can't have "gun barrel" firing with so many players. This is something sacrificed for player count. (Even BF4 does gun camera. Only hardcore games like ARMA and Insurgency use gun barrel firing model. Insurgency has amazingly well done sights)

As for movement. I do want faster movement (and please, proper toggle sprint) but I'm an avid opponent to bunny hopping and ADAD strafe mechanics. That crap only belongs in arena shooters like quake where constant movement and dodging is used in lieu of actual cover. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome in those games and why those games work at all... it just has no place in a "military shooter".

I like the jump pack ideas.

Medics already got BR's... I think when you started this project, they didn't. This gives them the same # of options as Engineers for primary if nothing else, and typically, there's not much reason to want a carbine over an AR anyways.

There's just so much here that it's impossible to summarize an entire bit of feedback.... these are the main things I guess... I'll get into other details in response to other people talking about stuff

Also... MY GOD man this was a LOT of work to put together

Yeah, I'd leave both of these out of Planetside as well.

Too far to travel to limit sprinting, and too much terrain to allow prone

If there is anything I can contribute to this thread: there were rumors that SOE was going to give the Aegis Shield a hussle mechanic of some sort. The real question is, what would have been the point of Charge to the NC if they did that? Also, a running shield would be a turtled form of ZOE, whether or not the shield is consumed after the run.

A lot of this stuff brings planetside closer to a high-damage, stamina based arcade shooter like halo or cod. I like my infinite sprint, super soldier. Sure small tweaks should be added to differentiate each class, but already people QQ about "no bullet drop, too high damage, bullet hose" mechanics already. If I had to make 3 changes, I would say add more immersion in vehicles to take farming infantry out of the game. Secondly I would adjust lattice to remove the collection of zergs lattice promotes. 3rd, I would adjust net code to allow people to play without lagging terribly.

Love the posts. Especially the amount of diversity in gameplay it includes basically adding things like specialized explosives and jump jets. My only concern is the suggestions to changes in melee with an actual combat system. Now don't get me wrong I think it would be interesting and probably benefit the game if I thought that anyone could pull it off. But as mentioned the netcode leaves something to be desired the thought of those problems with a intricate melee combat system like described fills me with dread.

On the whole I understand what your saying but saying it and doing it are two different things. I mean how do you take farming out of the game without removing vehicles to prevent them from interacting with infantry? Adjusting the lattice how the entire idea of adopting the lattice as it is was to guide players to the next base along a linear line of advance the only way to discourage zergs would be to have every base connect to all the surrounding bases so you were not guided and isn't that just the hex system with lines drawn on? And lastly the netcode and while I agree that it needs to be worked on. You make it sound like its current problems were a conscious choice on the part of SOE as if there was a meeting early on where someone said "I have been looking at the netcode and you know what we should do. Make it crappy so everyone lags. You know for balance purposes" and that a few minor tweaks turning a flag labeled lag to 0 is all it would take. So specific suggestions on how to fix these things please.

I'm really sorry but there are loads of ideas here that just do not work especially in the classes section. I'll start with one of the most dumb ones and that is the limited resources for support classes, resupplies for medic/repair tools is ridiculous, the new player base already find the game confusing and unguided, imagine if we told them that the most viable new player classes were restricted in their specific roles. Making ammo packs have a limit is silly as well, there are already not enough engineers giving out ammo to classes that need them like heavies or MAX's but making them also necessary in every aspect of both support and infantry roles is stupid.

I agree that the light assault needs a tool but none of the ones you mentioned, a grappling hook? That would be glitchy and reduntant with jetpacks. And a net gun? How useless would that be when you can just shoot someone with your primary for a quicker and less clunky kill?

I really like the idea of Anti-material rifles, I also like the idea of the railjack shooting through multiple enemies but that trait shouldn't be limited to the railjack, if that trait was added to anti-material rifles it would add some really interesting dynamics. However the AM rifles should not OHK MAX's, it's very easy to shoot a big slow moving target in the head with a sniper and I can't imagine the frustration of spawning a new one to find it got instantly killed with no warning. They'd also have to be very slow firing, with slow bullet velocity, heavier so you can't run around as fast, ping you on the minimap for longer and very skillful to use so they can't be abused to one hit aircraft.

Movement is a tough one in this game, if you add climbing and vaulting it makes LA less and less useful but proning would not work at all in PS2, there would be so many glitches and exploits, snipers would be impossible to see and almost every cover asset would have to be readjusted in the game as they are designed around the crouch limit. And just imagine the heavy abusing your heavier shield ability with a new cover system, it would be OP as hell as you could tank a ton of damage and you wouldn't have to care about your movement speed when you're already standing still.

Buried mines is also a no go, mines are already surprising/hard to spot if they're placed correctly. Burying mines would be the most irritating and tedious mechanic for anyone, imagine if you had to get out of your tank just to dig up a mine to move on every time you spotted one, and if you weren't using a stupidly situational but otherwise useless implant well you'd just die every time you pulled armour, good fun for newbies and veterans alike.

Mortar? hahahahhaah... ha - NOPE.

Seriously some of this is way too over thought, you need to realise that this game feature a ton of casual players who wouldn't be OK with changing perfectly fine mechanics, the game is fun to pick up and play as well as grind and I'm sure veterans wouldn't like the changes, SOE would also not like to waste resources unless it earns something back as well. There are some nice new ideas, some repeated ideas, but a lot of useless ones, you could of limited this down to two pages of meaningful ideas and I would of been very happy.

While many of these ideas are fantastic, all of them counter one of your main important points: The game needs to be accessible to new players. The more complex loadout system, the bunny-hopping, the side strafing, the added combat mechanics, all make the game vastly more complicated, which not only makes it less accessible to new players, it widens the skill-gap between new players and veterans which is discouraging to noobs as well. You have an excellent concept for a game, but it is not Planetside 2

But I really want mortars .

Out of curiosity why not depending on range and actual damage levels they could be made primarily as a way to get people to stop cowering behind rocks all the time. They could also be used to fight against the top camps along the valleys in SE indar. Make the 45 degree angled shot hit at the render limit as the longest possible shot and have the spread 10' across making them very inaccurate. It will also give TR and VS the same ability the Pheonix give the NC being able to fire rockets from behind cover.

Just wondering if you have actual objections to the concept or just a kneejerk reaction to the idea because you think it will be broken.

Well as far as rebalancing and lattice, restructuring the "linear Zerg from point a to point b" should be addressed. Hate to bring up realism but in a game that is "open world" only 1-2 lanes of combat are used, effectively funneling players into fights they don't want. As an infiltrator I should in theory be a lble to pick my targets but instead am rushed by 50+ HA's out of their base, as many people mentioned lanes of combat are often poorly designed towards spawn rooms, allowing farming, spawn heros, and HA/max crashes. As far as netcode, it's hard to get it right but equally as hard to get it as wrong as SOE did. In games decades old like CS 64 man servers thrived with little lag. I could play on east coast when I live in the San Diego/ LA area. Now I get ~200 ping when I'm in the backyard of the connery server? Pretty mind boggling. The solution isn't simple, but having a game this I optimized running on what I can only guess are the cheapest servers SOE could acquire, makes for the kind of lag people always complain about.

I plan to address territory and resources in a future thread.

You want to include prone and prevent dolphin hopping. But a paragraph under that you want to include bunny hopping because its more skillful. Both bunny and dolphin hopping fall into the same category of, silly, arcadey style gameplay. You're trying to improve on immersion and skillful positioning while bunny hopping encourages the opposite of that.

I try to appeal to both sides. As it is, I view dolphin diving as worse than bunny hopping. The former is a glitch; the latter is a mechanic. How would you improve movement?

What classifies dolphin diving as a glitch, exactly? This is all just opinion.

Indeed, it is the opinion I hold. Others are free to differ.

I think though that this one opinion you have (that bunny hopping is a good thing) is a bit contradictory to several of your other opinions (more fluid infantry motion and immersion for starters). It really struck out at me too when you mentioned bunny hopping... it just seemed so out of place amongst your other ideas.

And adding mechanics to the game simply because they require skill isn't necessarily a good thing if it clashes with all the other elements of the game. For example, making it so that every time you respawn there's a Tetris mini-game to make you respawn faster would mean adding skill to the game, but in doing so it would disrupt a great number of other things. Or making tank cannons not OHK infantry would destroy immersion.

I love everything on this thread except for:
1. Are you saying we must PAY for our ammunition? Like that crap from 2003?
2. The inventory system. I hope there is an option that disables it for those who do not want it.
3. Infinite sprint is okay. No need to limit it, as using a vehicle is better than getting to a destination on foot.
4. The inventory system would affect sprint, and many people do not want this.
5. The armor sound okay... But I don't know if you're saying we must pay to preserve it. If we can simply resupply it, then take this one of the list
6. The health change sounds horrible, many people would not like this.
7. I don't know about the "shoot different parts" mechanic. This is an epic sci-fi action war game, not a simulator.
8. Bleeding out is horrible, yet again, this is a game, not a simulator.
9. So, VS get more damage degradation over range? If this is the case, recoil, sway and accuracy must be GREATLY reduced/increased respectively, in order to land more hits easier than the other factions.
10. Not all sniper magnifications need sway, why do you think sway was removed for 4x and less scopes?
11. If you are giving the VS a heat mechanic, THERE SHOULD BE NO AMMO. Or, keep it the way it is.
12. The Phaseshift is special because it has no bullet drop, can semi-auto at will, and has no ammunition. Take away the no ammo part, make it stronger, and it's just another SR. Didn't you say you like variety? Because the Phaseshift, along with the RailJack, are the most unique sniper rifles in the game.
13. The revive part is simply horrible. You say medics are less unique than engineers? Well, reviving their teammates quickly is perfectly fine. Instead, medics could buy the medical applicator you have listed, so that they are given a choice.
14. The whole ammunition pack idea is terrible. NANITES regenerate over time. THEY ARE UNLIMITED. Ammunition packs are okay as they are right now.
15. AI turrets are weak as hell, infinite ammunition is one of the only good things about it. I support the slope part, though.
16. NO JUGGERNAUTS. MAXes are enough.
Besides these 16 (Or 15) disagreements, I really love the ES variety you are offering, plus the enhanced gameplay. Thanks for giving me something good to read

I really like everything but the idea for some kind of stamina bar. Stamina bars, in general, are just fun-walls. I never understood how you can be a supreme, super soldier in the future but you get winded after running 50ft and have to slow to a walk to take a rest. Modern soldiers, athletes, and just regular people have no problem running quite quickly for miles. Imagine how fit a genetically (nanitically) engineered, super soldier of the future would be.

Now a suggestion would be a new speed mechanic. So there's walk speed, run speed which is currently our fastest infantry speed, and then sprint which could be a panicky "oh **** I walked into a spider web" kind of reflex. Just enough to get into cover, hide from a lib, etc. I could totally see this as having a stamina bar to balance it, and it wouldn't take away from the regular run speed which is fine without stamina bar.

Great post