[Suggestion] Problem with C4 spam

I hope I'm in the right place.

About my problem:
I've been playing Planetside 2 for a little over a year now and I'm still getting pulled in, but there's a big problem that keeps coming up.
Somehow the excessive use of C4 has to be stopped. Especially from the light units. Actually just those. They kill every fight with their mostly suicidal blasts. There's no art to jumping in/flying into the crowd and using C4 to take everything out.
Even if you pull a Max, you can be sure that somewhere a Light Unit is waiting to fill you with C4. Which makes their use obsolete.
I'm glad infiltrations don't have C4. Even if it bothers a lot of new players. Boohoo, why can't I use C4 as a spy?

Well, either the use of nanints must be increased or the C4 must be removed from the light units.
I play it on the PS4 (Server Ceres). If that should be important somehow.

And i used a translator because my English is not the best. And underneath I write the "original" text in my language. I have no idea if the translator translates everything correctly.

------

Ich hoffe ich bin hier richtig.

Zu meinem Problem:
Ich spiele jetzt seit etwas mehr als ein Jahr Planetside 2 und es zieht mich immer noch dahin, aber es gibt ein großes Problem das mir immer wieder aufällt.
Irgendwie muss der übermäßige Gebrauch vom C4 unterbunden werden. Und das besonders von den Leichten Einheiten. Eigentlich nur von denen. Sie töten mit ihren meist selbstmörderischen Sprengangriffen jeden Kampf. Es ist keine Kunst in die Menge rein zu springen/fliegen und mit C4 alles zu beseitigen.
Selbst wenn man eine Max zieht, kann man sicher sein, das irgendwo eine Leichte wartet um einen mit C4 zuzumüllen. Was deren Gebrauch schon wieder hinfällig macht.
Ich bin schon froh das Infiltrationen kein C4 haben. Auch wenn das viele neue Spieler stört. Buhu, warum kann ich als Spion kein C4 verwenden?

Naja, also entweder muss der Naninten Verbrauch erhöht werden oder das C4 muss bei den leichten Einheiten entfernt werden.


Ich spiele es auf der PS4 (Server Ceres). Wenn das irgendwie wichtig sein sollte.

C4 doesn't have half the AOE to clear a room. It didn't even before the nerfs, and it especially doesn't now. Hell I've dropped it in extremely busy hallways filled with infantry and not gotten a single kill because the AOE killzone is so small.

C4 is used as an expensive grenade against infantry but that isn't a big problem. The big problem is that it's a universal weapon with little other choices. You can always carry it with you and if an opportunity presents itself you can whip it out and blow something up regardless of it being a vehicle, MAX or a group of tight infantry (and I mean very tight, you can only really kill in a bubble half the length of a Sunderer which usually doesn't fit more than 2 or 3 people at a time if you are lucky).

The solutions are obvious:

1. Create multiple different C4 types. One for infantry and one for vehicles.
   1. These types can have different detonation methods as well. Some could be timed, some deal damage over time, some are detonated manually and other can only be detonated when you shoot them with small-arms.
2. Add alternative options for the utility slot. If you have a choice between C4 and various resource-costing weapons that might have more use, such as large and powerful deployable shield generators, AV/AI grenade launchers, various AA equipment etc then the amount of players carrying C4 drops automatically.

Make C4 a deployable like in the original planetside. Boom, no more flying C4 faries.

(I am a light assault main btw)

Yeah no that's not going to work. It makes it far too hard to really use C4. As one of the available options? Yeah sure. But as the sole option? Screw that it makes the weapon nigh useless unless the target is a stationary tunnel-vision player. Don't get me wrong, most vehicles are such targets anyway, but having to deploy it manually especially with PS2's already wonky deploy methods? Can you even imagine trying to deploy something on a vehicle that has seen you?

"Finally got close enough, going to deploy..."
*vehicle moves an inch*
deploy canceled.

I'm a Light assault main btw.

There's tons of options that don't involve nuking the capabilities of C4 to only enemies who don't pay attention, and starting with simply dividing the C4 into AV and AI variants will work. Making a range of deploy methods would also be great. The thrown one, one where you manually deploy like you say but those should have a larger AOE to compensate. One that rolls around and is thrown more like a grenade etc.

Or you could treat C4 like an actual vehicle deterrent based around anti-armor charges and tweak grenade structure AOE as well as provide more faction-specific splash damage options.

In reality, anti-armor based explosions honestly don't make that much of an outward boom. Its a waste if the destination to have the energy explode outward so it's projected as a more directional mine. Essentially, they place explosives on a dome-shaped charge that pulses inward causing more of the explosive kinetic energy to shoot towards the armor.

Honestly, I'd be in favor of having c4 do overall reduced damage but with a larger area but the cap points are ALWAYS these small, cramped spaces where 24+ people just aren't designed to fit.

I think that needs to be fixed first before the AOE issue matters.

We must be playing a different game. I've never seen any fights killed by LA's dropping C4.

I now know how the population looks like on other servers and platforms. But I'll say on the PS4 and Eu Server there is not as much going on as BSP. US server or the PC.
I know that with the US server of the PS4 there is more going on, but because of my bad internet connection it is not much fun to play there.

But 2 loads of Auraxium C4 and the B flag at the bastion is almost empty. Actually, this applies to every flag, especially those in enclosed spaces.
Surprisingly only NC'S are using this tactic.
I myself play primarily only with the TR.

It is true that if there are enough supplies, this is not the case. But still nothing changes for me that this constant C4 of the Light Units is annoying and that a hard fought position goes up in smoke in a few moments.

----------------------


Ich weiß jetzt wie es mit der Population auf anderen Servern und Plattformen aussieht. Aber ich behaupte mal auf der PS4 und dem Eu Server ist jetzt nicht so viel los wie BSP. US Server oder dem PC.
Das mit dem US Server der PS4 da weiß ich das mehr los ist, aber auf Grund meiner schlechten Internetverbindung macht es nicht viel Spaß da zu spielen.

Aber 2 Ladungen Auraxium C4 und die B Flagge bei der Bastion ist so gut wie leer. Eigentlich gilt das für jeder Flagge, besonders die in geschlossenen Räumen.
Erstaunlicher weise sind in erster Linie nur NC‘S die diese Taktik gerne nutzten.
Ich selber spiele in erster Linie nur bei der TR.

Es stimmt wenn genügend Nachschub nachkommt, ist dem nicht so. Aber trotzdem ändert für mich nichts daran, das dieses ständige C4 der Leichten Einheiten nervt und so eine hart erkämpfte Position in wenigen Augenblicken in Rauch verpufft.

the C4 spam issues were already present in the beta, and 7 years later it hasn't changed much. I wouldn't get my hopes up about things changing at this point.

Or just make the c4 not available to LAs so blowing up a tank is still possible, but the risk is actually substantial and not hovering out of reach and tossing a couple of bricks. I know, I know, this is bad because you can't blow up tanks in a jetpack, but tanks are supposed to be killing machines, and should be feared, not a magnet for every single light assault (including me) to go blow it up.

Also tanks are potato cannons and are nigh useless (at least to me) to hit anything over 200m, so there's that. Might as well cert into that overpowered buggy to get more kills.

I'm just gonna repost this from years back when I first posted it and people called me CRAZY for asking for such a teeny tiny acknolwedgement of the main technical hurdle that everyone now has had to recognize ever since people began to realize that "Round Trip" Latency plus older servers that are falling apart often means you have up to 350 second delay before you're even allowed to SEE the C4 block come out, and then try to get out of its inner radius:

This wasn't about any of my Vehicles getting C4'd. Ironically when Driving, I have a much easier time spotting and Avoiding LightAssaults. But that didn't stop everyone who replied to it last time of assuming that I was QQ'ing about my Tank being blown up....when I DONT EVEN DRIVE TANKS. I'll gun for them when good Ol Dr Moneypants is on but that's the extent of my tank toe dipping. This is all about being C4'd as Infantry/MAX where situational awareness still does not help at all against these goddamned fairies, esp now that they have Ambushers

PS: Also, Stop underestimating the Influence that those of us in Fly-over-States have. We proved that in 2016 and we'll take this whole entire TURD straight into the punch bowl this year if we have to because you politically correct Coastal Elites (Wrel especially) still haven't learned ANYTHING

Ye id be pissed at my ISP aswel if i had 5 minute and 50 second latency
Just kidding, i know what you mean.

What always amazes me is when you see a c4 fairy, reverse your tank / sundy / harasser, see the c4 land on the floor 10m+ away.
Then BOOM your dead, as the c4 on their screen was on your vehicle.
So ******* anoying, if id seen the c4 on my vehicle i would have reacted to it, seeing the LA miss but they actually havent is gamebreaking.

Some information about how C4 works:

A normal gun is clientside. You fire, the bullet flies, if it intersects with a hitbox on your screen it's a hit.

C4: You throw it, but it takes until the server receives the signal and sends you confirmation that it's received it before the C4 actually appears. During server spikes it can take several seconds before your C4 actually appears.
Then the C4 drops... clientside for all clients once they receive the signal from the server that C4 is dropped. You see the brick fall normally, but according to the server it falls differently. During good server ping the actual C4 more or less falls along with the visual representation of the C4 brick. During bad server ping the C4 can take a while, so much that when you see the C4 lying on top of the target and you detonate it can detonate halfway in the air, or in some extreme cases even in your face and kill you despite the C4 being thrown several seconds before.
That the server has trouble with C4 can even be tested. Placing C4 on an ESF and having it fly fast while detonating often means the C4 detonates behind the ESF because the server doesn't update the C4 position as much even during good server ping. ESF's often survive this with little or even no damage at all.

So your stories are kind of disjointed from how C4 actually works. If you dodged it on your screen you dodged it... But maybe if you were too slow? The other option is a difference in ping. If you have 350ms ping while your opponent has 100ms ping, then it takes 125ms and 50ms respectively for the server to send confirmation of the C4 so it can appear on your screen. This means that there is a 75ms difference between the C4 appearing for you and for your opponent. If you died to a 75ms ping difference I think the problem is at your end and not your connection.

It also makes no sense to try and dodge thrown C4. It's like trying to dodge a sniper bullet by side-stepping it when you see the bullet. You dodge the potential paths C4 takes! Also a nice way to dodge C4 is to run at the C4 fairie's escape route. They throw it expecting you to walk backwards (which most people do) meaning you run into the C4 path rather than away.

Absolutely and whole hostedly incorrect.
I have a unique perpective on this in that i almost always play with my brother, who sits at the computer right next to me.
A slight turn of my head, and i can see everything on his screen, its in my peripheral the entire game session.
The amount of times ive seen c4 stuck on my vehicle on his screen, but not on my screen is uncountable.
One time i even reversed 30m away from the c4, aim to shoot it, and my brother shouts 'nooooo stoooop', i shoot the c4 WHICH WAS MORE THAN 30M AWAY FROM MY TANK BY THIS TIME and boom, we die.
He explained that on his screen the c4 was attached to my tank, and that i shot empty ground.
We took vids of it an all that, submitted support tickets or bug reports whatever you call them, they cant fix it.

So this is purely a case of you havent played enough to experience this.
Sorry.

I dont care how you think the server works, or how you think the game sends packets.
I cannot deny what i see with my own eyes multiple times a week.

I cannot believe this.

When I play with friends and dont see this kind of difference in C4 placement even though some of them play from different countries.
But you experience this when you are playing from the same damn ROOM? Its already hard to believe that you experience edge-cases where C4 misses on one screen and hits on another this much especially since this is the first time I actually see someone complain about c4 this way. This cant even be explained through the server lag you mentioned unless you are throwing the c4 at eachother all the time. But your example is clear:
You are playing from the same room.
One enemy throws c4 at you.
You want to clear it by shooting the c4 on the ground.
Your brother says its on his tank on his screen.

So despite having the most equal ping in the world by playing in the exact same room you still see a difference in when and where c4 is placed even though you think this is a latency problem?

Whats worse is that I play both sides of the coin and dont experience what you are experiencing as either the LA or as the vehicle crew. And when playing with friends we dont see differences in C4 placement as either a tank crew or C4 fairy team. We see a lot of other problems, some that have been and can still be tested like placing C4 on high-speed ESF and see how they can survive it. But we dont see and have never seen C4 at different places at the same time.
Worse, C4 is server-side just like a mine. You can be at the other end of the map and if you detonate it or someone uses small-arms to detonate it you can and will hit people who arent rendered to you. The render of c4 updates itself when a vehicle moves for example. Why would this definitely server-side item be in two different places when the server can only tell you where it is now? Why arent mines doing the exact same thing? C4 and mines work the same, so we should be seeing mines that arent exploding on the right spot. When that floaty explosive bug happens when a mine or c4 floats off in the sky for everyone, it also explodes at that location because it is flying and when someone hits it we should also see discrepancies but we dont.

I would post the vid for you, since it is easy and in my youtube channel, but you simply dont deserve my attention and im not going to give it to you.
Believe what you want, i really dont care.

Allright just dont spread lies just to nerf c4.

I would post the vid for you, since it is easy and in my youtube channel, but you simply dont deserve my attention and im not going to give it to you.
Believe what you want, i really dont care.

What about making C4 an anti-construction tool only ?

Keep it's high damage against construction but reduce it's damage against vehicles, and make it somewhat less effective than frag grenade against infantry.
Then make it cheaper in nanite and increase the number of C4 you can carry.

You make a claim that its a latency problem.
Based on two PC's that quite literally are in the same room and should not experience latency problems when an opponent is the actor.
I point out that this problem should bleed through to other deployables like mines and that we can see those re-rendered when the server notices they moved.

Yet you dont want to show the proof despite even your opening statement being based on contradictory evidence and your story not matching up with anything else we see in-game? This is definitely not my problem.

Either the story DID happen, then it's not a latency problem (physically and technically impossible). Or it DID NOT happen, then it could be one.
Now, it isn't entirely unbelievable either way, C4 does not only have shown latency issues over the years. Even such drastic desync would not surprise me too much.