Class Playtime By Server and BR

That's actually kinda AA heavy considering it's a mechanized platoon... a typical rifle platoon would be more normal. With three of these:



And one of these:



And whatever HQ unit is around.

Overall, your rifleman class should be the most common. Out of a 4-person fireteam, 3 are riflemen (one with a fancy grenade launcher, but still). In PS2 we have a small problem where the rifleman has been combined with a medic. Instead we might consider a "Medium Assault" which is just your normal soldier armed with an assault rifle, UBGL and slightly better armor for direct combat. Not unlike the "Assault" class from BF2.

Your LMG soldiers are less than 25% of a rifle squad. That's because LMGs are situational and hardly the best tool for most jobs. And heavy. Note how we do not equip LMG soldiers with both a LMG and a rocket launcher because that would just be crazy.

GPMGs and AT weapons are contained in a weapons squad for the entire platoon. That means you have 2 GPMGs and 2 AT weapons for an entire platoon of 39 people.

You might notice that medics are missing in this diagram... and that's because platoon medics are taken care of at the battalion level. Usually you get one medic assigned per platoon.

There's also no AA. Unlike mechanized platoons, normal rifle platoons need to rely on outside help to deal with aircraft (not that MANPADs are super effective against modern aircraft either). Even the platoon AT weapons are much more close-in than anything really effective (though the AT weapons of a mechanized platoon would be those Bradleys who actually have nice ATGMs).

Infiltrators and Light Assaults would either be part of smaller 19-person scout platoons or be sniper teams assigned at a much higher level than the platoon.

Engineers also get their own 30-person platoons. Or they might be tank operators or pilots, which would be something else entirely.

So how does this break down by percentages?

Leadership/HQ- 7.7%
Riflemen- 51.3%
Grenadiers- 16.7%
LMGs- 16.7%
GPMGs- 5.1%
AT- 5.1%

Compared to PS2...

Leadership/HQ- ?
Riflemen/Medics- 11-16%
Grenadiers- ?
LMGs- 24-29%
GPMGs- ?
AT- 24-29%

I think this is mostly because LMGs are too effective beyond a specific niche role (suppressive fire) and that AT weapons are simply too common for a platoon to have.

I was thinking about an earlier class-based FPSRPG game called "Renegade" from awhile back. Essentially if you wanted to spawn as "advanced" infantry (anything other than a rifleman or light engineer) you needed to spend resources to do so. I think this might work in PS2 where anyone can always spawn as a "Medium Assault" or an Engineer for free, but to spawn as other classes you would need to spend a small amount of nanites (say 50 or so). This would create an economy of force where the most common class would indeed be riflemen and everyone else would be a specialist.

I hardly think irl pertains to planetside. There are no classes irl.
Anything Irl definitely is NOT innately good game design.

Buff Combat Medics.

I think the engineer climb as ranks increase is more a product of players certing into vehicles and using them more...

I still say that the Heavy should lose access to the rocket launcher (should be an engy option where they can select turrets for defence or RL's for offense) and to shotguns and SMG's. When HA is no longer the answer to pretty much anything, we'll see less HA spammage. I'd also like to see some buffs / expansions to the heavy weapons pool. Maybe some sort of NS flamethrower or something!

Ppl just don't known how to play medics.
Problem not in balance, problem in (\/)_(* *)_(\/)

you do realise that HA is the standard soldier / frontline soldier on the battlefield do you?
engi is a support class not a combat class hence no rl for the engi .

i play engi alot and tbh a rl don't fit the role of an engi . engi is for repairing stuff / ammo supply / defense (turrets mines). itsn ot an offensive class like the HA.

you need to learn more about the classes in general... it doesn't seem that you've understand anything about the class system.


and about the medic problem... as mentioned before.... medkits need a cooldown

I see that even the facts can't deter the HA nerfers. The comments about some of the other class profiles are, by contrast, helpful insights. I think the points about engineer numbers linked to growth in tank and mine use are pretty explanatory. And I doubt anyone would disagree with the suggested reason why LA numbers drop off rapidly. I think there is more to be said about Medic and Infiltrator though...........but I don't know what. Perhaps the issues are a bit more complicated than for other classes. I was a bit naughty and just dissed the Max figures in my original comment. Still don't have anything to say about them because I know jack about Max. It's the only class I don't play at all.

I dont think HA need nerfed directly they need their role better defined as is they are the good all around front line killer and this is why people play them significantly more because they are the killers and most people playing an fps like to kill. Right now your heavy is your pick for all combat situations as infantry and the other rolls are for die hards that actually enjoy the niche that roll provides for a battle or people cert farming or directive farming (again ide like to see pre directive numbers).

Now my number 1 reason for disliking heavys is because i play infiltrator and if i ever joing a squad or platoon if they already have 1 infiltrator i get yelled at to switch to a heavy assult or get kicked and its a little irritating. and yet do to my class being probibly the most useless in actual battle its still used more than the support classes probibly do to people sniping by themself outside a squad.

What i would do to heavys is maby make them less sustainable a heavy needs its overshield to absorb as much as it does to do its job however with medkits they can do their job too well god knows how many times ive ambushed a heavy just to run my clip out because overshield+ spamming medkit then turns and owns me while im reloading so my solution would be either A. take medkits away from heavy assults make them rely on medics this might encourage more people to play medic or B. cooldown or something on the medkits because it makes them overly tanky this is probibly the reason people want the overshield nerfed because they feel like even when they catch a heavy assult with their pants down if its a semi experienced player they still have a good chance to win the exchange and when you feel like you played well caught them off guard and still lose you cant help but feel that they are OP

Actually, no... you're making an assumption that you know exactly what the classes roles are, and that they're perfect and should never be questioned. And we all know what they say about assumptions.

My opinion is based on the idea that some theoretical "role" box is less important than game balance. As it stands, HA is currently one of the best answers to all infantry (except snipers), most MAX's, many vehicles and (unless you're a skyknight or have shelled out for dual bursters and have lotsa spare nanites) even air. Hell, they can even heal 95% of their heal up to four times before they need a medic - and even then, a quick trip to the equipment terminal resets that counter. And if they're running an LMG, unless they're laying heavy suppression fire, the average player will be dead (or have access to an equip term) long before they run out of ammo.

Pretty much every other class hits walls, e.g. your average sniper is boned if anybody competent gets close. HA has few (if any) serious roadblocks. THIS IS NOT BALANCED, and anybody who claims otherwise either mainlines HA and is desperate not to see them balanced, or is mentally defective in some way. It's time that HA wasn't the answer to everything.

Notice how so many low-level LAs there are, and how that percentage quickly drops after the first column. I wonder why. New players think it will be fun, but get destroyed too easily so they give up? Or new players realizing it's just not the class for them?

il love that sheet infi is the worst class and need some love see how infi he's never play and need more tools.

the only thing infils really do well is sniping other than that our cloak is just to easily seen anywheres near close to the base so actually infiltrating and hacking stuff is danm near impossible unless your really good at choosing when to go but with that technique i can pretty much have the same success without a cloak even used as somone may not notice me out the corner of their eye while im cloaked the trade off is people will activly search for you if they hear the loud sharp sound of you cloakin/uncloaking. Theres also a delay between being able to cloak once you have uncloaked and lets all not forget that you cant shoot while cloaked and you have 100 less shield than the other 4 classes. Our neiche roll i believe is supposed to be getting in scouting and hacking but we can really just set a motion spotter on point and call it a day.
The problem is even tho infil feels under powered at anything other than sniping people still really enjoy the classes playstyle to a point to where tho i believe it to be far more useless than engy or medic people still find it more enjoyable for some reason.

Balance is perfect.

Support classes (medic or engineer) will lose 1v1 against heavy but will win 1v2
Flanker classes (light assault and infiltrator) will win 1v1 against heavy if they flank but lose if they don't

/thread

I'm sorry... I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, or if you're actually as braindead as this comment makes you appear. Please advise?

My advice is learn to play

Right. Braindead it is. Or troll. Could be troll. Hmmm... decisions, decisions.

yeah flank regular player is win flank a pro heavy and they medkit tank till your reloading then gib you

medkit+cooldown = profit?

it seems thats the only problem.

the shield is fine tho.. it runs out of energy and while its active the HA is slower so you can just use the environment to your advantage and kill the HA ( did that with the engi xD)

oh and i never seen any HA that can eat a whole mag... don't lie dude

Since this thread isn't about balance but foremost just for general musing about the details stated ... You should hold back on claiming to be some /thread Guru ..

Ijs