[Suggestion] NPC Gunners - solution to lack of gunners problem

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Mozgoved, Dec 8, 2014.

  1. Mozgoved

    NPC Gunners - solution to lack of gunners problem

    Hi there everyone!

    Being an old PS1 player and occasionally playing PS2 since beta, I find it near to impossible to find gunners for my vehicles. The majority of players just tend to do footzerging more enjoyable and/or rewarding in terms of xp/cert grind.

    I can find gunners for a Sunderer in a footsoldier swarm at an enemy base assault for sure, but that's about the only scenario there are plenty of gunners available. Finding someone to gun a Liberator or a Galaxy is near to impossible. Occasional people who enter a Liberator tend to eject from it in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reasons. Flying a Galaxy with two gunners has become an art in and of itself :)

    As it is now, there is just no incentive for a player to gun for someone: either it be lack of fun and/or lack of in-game rewards, so looking for gunners is an abysmally frustrating challenge.

    Which it shouldn't be. It should be fun and easy to go for a Galaxy run with your 4 gunners - the only gameplay deterrent to this should be the resource costs of fielding a Galaxy. If I can fork out the reses - why shouldn't I get my gunners?

    The solution to this lack of willingness of players to play as gunners is quite easy - introduction of NPC gunners. If you cant find anyone willing to gun for you - there should be an option to pass on control of the guns to computer (AI, NPC gunners - whatever you wish to call it, I like the term NPC gunner). To make it so that NPC gunners don't take over human gunners (in the very rare scenario where some human player actually wants to gun for you) there could be some gameplay deterrents implemented - say the vehicle owner gets less XP from NPC gunners, or they take a bit longer to reload their weapons, or they require some resource cost to be activated.

    I think introduction of NPC gunners will make Planetside 2 a more fun game for players that like to fly and drive heavy stuff.

    As a side note, in Everquest II for example, NPC mercenaries were introduced, that can be hired as missing party members and fulfill a variety of roles in your party in case of absence of human players.
    • Up x 2
  2. Lemposs

    Well I will first of all suggest writing in chat and find people that are willing to gun for you (and ask if you can friend them for future gunning sessions). In my experience a lot of people actually wants to gun for liberators and tanks etc. but for the most part they are either shy about it, or simply don't agree with the driver/pilot so they abandon them.

    As for the NPC part itself, I am gonna say no, I think it is giving too much incentive into further lonewolf play. Even if the NPC was worse than a player, it still means that you can take the same amount of people that would be with gunners, and get them all to only be pilots and have double the firepower, that likely would make up for the NPCs lack of efficiency.
  3. JudgeNu

    Lol.
    Nope.

    It would be funny though.
    The NPC gunner would be better than 60% of the pop.
    • Up x 2
  4. FieldMarshall

    Flying past a fight and getting free random gunner XP as a Liberator sounds fun.
  5. Paragon Exile

    Can't spell "NPC" without NC.
    • Up x 1
  6. Mozgoved

    Ah, you can't even imagine how much time I have spent yelling "Galaxy looking for gunners" at the Warpgate :) Only to get trolled by smthn like "omg farmers spamming this lolz"
    There were a couple of occasions when I found a dedicated Lib driver and we were flying non-stop for three hours taking turns at driving/gunning, but, regretfully, not much dedicated heavy flyers out there. Flying people tend to solo in ESFs most of the time
  7. ElastaPlast

    Isn't this solved by joining an outfit, specifically one that runs air ops?
  8. KnightCole

    AI Gunners would be amusing actually, and in some cases, prolly better then a player. Although the AI wont distinguish whats a more important target.....and it would depend on the CoF given to the AI.....
  9. WTSherman

    As a gunner, I oppose this proposal to have AIs take my job. ;)

    It's hard enough to find vehicles that aren't solo-locked as is. If we automate the gunner seats, then pulling a second vehicle will be a more efficient use of manpower no matter how good your human gunner might be. After all, he can still use his gunnery skill on the driver's gun while the AI doubles his firepower for free.

    Human gunners would be obsolete and finding a vehicle that isn't locked would become nigh impossible.
    • Up x 1
  10. DFDelta

    Be honest. How often do you get a random gunner who can do that?
  11. KnightCole


    Idk, ive only ever had maybe 2 gunners, and they were both surprisingly good.

    But otherwise, prolly never. Atleast the AI would fire and NOT be TKing cuz the other guy stole his kill or something...
  12. MotionBlured

    Stop locking your vehicles. I love gunning for people, but since I'm just another random (lone wolf type) I rarely get to.
    • Up x 2
  13. John_Aitc

    I do not want to see NPC anything in PS2.

    I have learned to not get into vehicles in PS2. Tanks prefer to be 1/2. Harasser drivers prefer a 1/3 vehicle. Sunderers will kick you out if you are in a seat that a friend of theirs wants to occupy. Libs will kick you out if the pilot forgot to lock it as he was landing. It is Pavlovian, I have learned over time to not bother trying.
  14. DFDelta


    You should tank more with randoms.

    I often run my Vanny open, one of the first things I learned is that no matter how low I put my standards it never takes long for someone to manage to disappoint me.
  15. FateJH

    When I see a 1/2 tank on the front lines, I always try to jump in it. If it's not a Halberd, which always seem to be unlocked, and even if it's just a Basilisk, I occasionally run into a Vehicle that I am locked out of, making it obvious why no one is gunning for it.
  16. Joexer

    I like this Idea. But the guns would need a debuff (reload speed and/or accuracy) and possibly a resource cost (100Nanites extra for AI gunner mainframe and a utility slot. could work out well.
  17. Nick Riviera

    This is how Skynet takes over.
  18. Uncle_Lou

    I dont get it, I am always looking for a vehicle I can gun for. Four times out of ten, the driver boots me immediately and charges into the fray 1/2. The other 6 yimes the driver will either run straight into the highest concentration of enemies on the continent or randomly drive 4 miles into nowhere, get bored and redeploy. Gunners do not have a monopoly on bad. But I would much rather gun a vehicle than footzerg. I even enjoy running engi so I can repair. Nope, guys rather drive around 1/2.
    • Up x 1
  19. MonnyMoony

    The ejection "for no reason" is probably because they still have their Eject and Reload keys mapped to E and R. The times I have gone for a reload only to find myself staring at the **** end of a magrider just isn't funny.

    As for finding gunners - I used to try and gun a lot, but got pissed off running up to friendly Mags in the heat of battle only to be told "this vehicle is locked" and getting run over by said Mag as I tried to make my escape. Either that or getting ejected from said vehicle because the driver wants to farm certs.

    Many vehicle drivers are very hostile towards pub gunners - and so many decent gunners have got jaded and don't bother trying any more. It's a two way street.

    I think friendly vehicles should have an indicator to show whether their secondary is open or locked or a toggleable indicator to show that the driver wants to find a gunner (I know you can offer this via the Q key - but its cumbersome).
    • Up x 1
  20. KnightCole


    I used to run my tank a fair bit more often till it became...spawn...liberator...

    Or if a Liberator didnt kill me, id be humming along and some random quirky ******** bug in the terrain would blow me up. And hten came the endless Splash nerfs to tanks and it became gay......LAME.