Comparing orbital strikes

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by RabidIBM, Jul 9, 2020.

  1. RabidIBM

    Hello, I am a regular construction player, and want to take a minute to compare the orbital strike uplink to the outfit asset orbital strike. The uplink takes a while to set up, carries a lot of risk, and is restricted to an 800 meter radius. You have to defend against cortium bombs the whole time it is charging up, and find time to run your ant around without getting kill. You also have to be alive to fire it. There is a high barrier to using it, and I often second guess myself about THIS being the moment to fire it.

    Now let's talk outfit OS. I've heard someone on comms say "I just go running around where I think there might be a good target, make sure to die on it, then use my death icon on the map to right click the orbital.". I've seen them fired after a battle has been lost just for the sake of salt. I've seen them fired into a 1-12 vs 1-12 battle because someone saw a router. I've asked for a couple extra people to help me kill a base I see being built dangerously close to mine, only to have an outfit OS go down on the target base. It was in range of my OS uplink, but had skyshield. The guy firing the outfit OS didn't care enough to ask if it would work, or even ask why I wasn't firing my own OS that was in range. These are all examples of how casually the outfit OSs are thrown around.

    There is clearly an imbalance between the sources of orbital strike, and the outfit OS feels like a slap in the face to builders. But enough negativity, I actually would like to suggest a couple things. 1, take the 800m range limit off the uplink. If no good targets come under the yellow disc of death, let me keep expanding it. It costs me 240 cortium per minute anyways, and if I spend an hour charging it for the sake of one long range OS, I'd better make it a good one because that was expensive. 2, double all costs associated with the outfit OS and cut the storage to 1. You get 1, every half hour, and it costs as much as a collosus, make it count. 3, increase the actual amount of time when firing. Given that it can be deployed on a whim, balance it by making the beam give people a few more seconds to get out of the way, giving the uplink the benefit of being the version of OS that gives less warning...other then then the yellow disc of death.
    • Up x 5
  2. NotziMad

    I agree with you. I agreed with you even before you wrote that, even before they introduced them, simply when I was reading about it in the patch notes.

    However, and this isn't easy, but I think it's important to try to put things in perspective.

    When you speak of Outfit OS, you're usually speaking of a whole bunch of players who have played together many hours and succeded in conquering territory that provided them resource.

    Imagine that all those players decided to make a construction base. It would be up and running in less than 15 minutes. Right? I mean, I don't really know, the last time I built a construction base was when they were used as HIVES in ALERTS, so that's a long time ago hehe, since then I haven't bothered.

    But you see my point?

    If you and however helps you make a construction base were to create an outfit and then go out and try to obtain the resources necessary for droping 1 or 2 OS, I'm pretty sure it would take you longer to do so, and maybe, depending on population, that it would be harder as well.

    I say this because I'm a solo player, and I've got my own outfit in which I'm the only member, and I use OS a lot. But to be fair, I get most of the resources for them when the population is really low, like at 3 am or something, cause at prime time, I just can't compete unless there's another contiennt open that is empty.

    So what I wanted to say was, I agree with you, in principle, and I get that as a construction base builder you may feel cheated, I probably would to if I built bases, but just to put things into perspective, getting the required resources for OS is expensive.

    Lastly, you probably know better than me about the recent changes made to OSs, they are a lot weaker than they used to be, especially with regards to killing infantry. Most infantry dying from an OS are outside a building and die not from the OS but from fall damage.

    That means that they aren't as usefull as they used to be, personally, I only ever use them for killing sunderers (and most of the time I need to drop 2 OS to do that), for killing routers that are otherwise inaccessible, and (you're gona hate this one) for destroying construction bases.

    I mean, you can't simply drop them in a big fight and get a ton of kills anymore. (because you can drop them anywhere in the map, I used to do this, I would look on teh map for the biggest fight not with my faction but between the two opposing factions, and drop 3 OS on them, bam, it was awesomse, well .. for me. But that's changed now and I think it may not be as bad as you may think.
    • Up x 2
  3. RabidIBM

    Well, thanks for the reply, I'd like to go over a couple points. Making those outfit resources is doable with large numbers of inexperienced players who don't need to understand the resource system. They are just playing an FPS, and happen to produce them without realizing it. The same cannot be said of construction, and frankly quite the opposite is true. A construction unit quickly becomes unmanageable with more than a few people, as getting newer builders to wait and not place buildings that aren't part of the plan is an exercise in herding cats. If the noob runs at the enemy spawn room and dies, that's only a problem for the noob. If the noob is placing bunkers in random places, that's a problem for the base owner. So, adding player count to construction crew is a matter of diminishing returns after about 4. You can't compress the time by adding that many players.

    For your point about smaller outfits struggling to make resource, I fully agree with you. The current system is too simple, motivates base stealing between outfits, and leaves smaller outfits empty handed. It needs to acknowledge assisting outfits, top scoring player's outfit (for the non zergy outfits) and reward defenses. In the current build, it pays to deliberately lose territory so you can re take it to start production.

    At the end of the day though, I have to reiterate my point about how the two are used. The construction OS is used sparingly, while the outfit OS is casually thrown around. I think that right there makes my point.
    • Up x 2
  4. Crayv

    Outfit OS should be an EMP OS that goes through walls and temporary disable vehicles, shields, spawn capabilities, and implants. So it is exactly what it needs to be: A tactical tool for outfits and NOT a tool for trolling and farming kills.
    • Up x 1
  5. sIcGER

    OS is out of hand - on Indar/Cobald we just have seen 15 OS in 5 minutes... Add bastions to it, you get nuked all the time. No fun anymore. I rather play Solitaire :(
    • Up x 1
  6. Desann

    Need to incorporate some sort of laser designator for the Outfit OS. Something that takes like 10-15 seconds and gives opponents the chance to stop it. Hell make it only consume IF it goes off, but require a squad-mate to actively "LAZE" the target. This would make it more of a team effort and not just an easy mapclick.
    • Up x 4
  7. TR5L4Y3R


    agree with this .. should get the orbitalstrike/airstrike marker from unreal tournament 2003/04 .. takes about 5 seconds to charge and a couple few seconds for the strike to come
    • Up x 1
  8. Pelojian

    a better idea is to give each hex a 15 minute cooldown on any outfit OS being used, then a cooldown of a couple of hours for the outfit using it.

    it would cut down the spam by alot.
    • Up x 1
  9. Caesar_REDMIST

    The orbital strike simply should cost more resources.
    • Up x 1
  10. NotziMad




    I just thought of something which should have been really obvious from the start ! (I do that a lot ... think of something a week later lol)

    Basically, one of the most (just my opinion) important factors that have to be taken into account when dealing with balance is the counter element;

    What can you do to protect yourself from it?

    Not having a suitable course of action, or one that is convenient makes the balance really unfair. (this is true for whatever pvp relationship).

    In this case, if I want to OS your construction base by using an outfit OS, there is NOTHING you can do about it.

    There is literally NOTHING you can do.

    You can't see it coming, you can't prepare yourself for it, you can do NOTHING.

    I don't even have to be alive. I don't even have to be spawned at all.

    I don't even have to be in the same region as your construction base. I could be on the other side of the continent. All I have to do, is open the map, right click the position on the map, click "OS" and BOOM your base is gone.

    THATS unfair.

    THATS not balanced.

    ___________________________________

    Now compare THAT to the construction base OS.

    You can see it coming :

    If you open your map, you can see the yellow circle that grows and you can tell whether there is a risk that your base will be hit.

    You can counter it, because the enemy's orbital is in a fixed position, you can go there and destroy it before it destroy you.

    _____


    I think that for this topic, that's the strongest argument, it's unfair, plain and simple.
    • Up x 1