Is steel rain underpowered?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by RabidIBM, Dec 13, 2020.

  1. RabidIBM

    I very rarely see this used, and that's a shame. It's a cool concept, but between resource cost and weight, I just can't justify it. I have a couple ideas on how it could be better:

    1. Downgrade its cost to green resource and reduce the weight cost.
    -or-
    2. Make it grab the whole platoon.

    Either way, reducing the delay would help as well. Steel rain and Citadel shield both have delays, so why it the meme beam instant? (yes, there's typically a couple seconds of lag, but that's not by design).
  2. JustGotSuspended

    Also maybe stop broadcasting to the whole continent that "THE RUMBLINGS OF STEEL RAIN CAN BE HEARD OVERHEAD!!!!!!!!!"
    • Up x 3
  3. Zipr

    First off I'm not sure that everyone really understands how Steel Rain works per say... I mean I still do not quite get the Bastion limited to Outfit-only Happy they didn't try to do the same thing w/ the Colossus...

    But yeah, I think the development team is constantly looking at numbers and getting feedback on how best to manipulate the ability to spawn (fight) leading to somewhat fair fights Some guys put all their eggs in one basket to defend a specific base it's nice to think the enemy is gonna have to earn it A squad leader can already drop a beacon so it's hard to say an extra twelve is unfair Up to 48 players at once? Doesn't sound too balanced if you want my two cents

    Going back to current usage tho... Does everyone understand that its whoever is in the squad? Does everyone know you can grab a Max before being Rained OR Folks can grab a router to place

    I'm not sure what to say about the timing I mean some folks still read through a Mickey D's menu Safe to say most every squad is gonna have one person who is taking sweet time choosing their loadout etc. OR They didn't pay much attention if at all to the squad discussing the planned drop so you start hearing questions when they get the message on their screen

    I also wouldn't believe I would go so far as to say it's not used so much because of costs I mean just because a drop appears to sound good doesn't exactly mean it is gonna go over all that well Such things as number of players in an area only get updated so much like every 30 seconds or something

    I hear you loud and clear on the costs tho... tbh I'm not exactly sure why they have everything the way they do I've even talked about considering a tweet to Wrel about what I think would be some good changes I dunno tho I can't exactly see things from a large outfit point of view where things are probably more volatile Maybe they start the day w/ 4 Colossus but by the end of the day (night) there is not much need so it gets gradually adjusted I dunno...

    What do you think about increasing the costs but making it a package deal where the squad leader also is granted a Heavy Anvil to drop Maybe make a Steel Rain cost's 20 -25 Synthium OR As you just suggested perhaps 100 Auraxium?

    Honestly, I somewhat hope it's still a work in progress on how they balance the costs and weight I mean right now two Steel Rains and lets say four Heavy Anvils is going to be 1/2 the Outfits available resources (150 out of 300) Throw-in two Orbitals and they can't even place a Citadel anytime soon
  4. Liewec123

    isn't it like a galdrop to anywhere on the map?
    thats pretty powerful.
    imho that is about where the power of outfit abilities should be, no bastions/OS spam, just tools for squads to use.

    as for the cost i think it is quite good, 15 is cheap as chips.
    and it is good making it blue and not green, if it was green then they'd be spammed every 15 minutes.
    but being behind the conversion wall makes them less spammable.
  5. JibbaJabba

    Where it's useful:

    When performing a point hold against superior forces that will crush the point within seconds of the base cap. A forward cap needs to be established but galaxies can't tank the AA fire and solo beacon+ESFs are not getting through. THEN steel rain is useful. It's rare.

    Outside of that it's utterly useless and just gets people killed.

    1. They are too slow. The timer is too long.
    2. They tell everyone it's coming with a hex wide announcement and an icon exactly where it's going to be.

    I watched enemies max crash a tech plant last night with steel rain. It was hilarious. By the time the blob of maxes arrived there was a line around the block of people ready to kill them. I think more enemies died to friendly C4 and rockets than the maxes.
    • Up x 1
  6. Zipr

    Here is my three situations where Steel Rain can be helpful/useful

    1) An important base on the lattice is being capped (Across leader channel you state my squad is coming to assist holding C point) Sometimes resorting to holding two of three points is needed right...

    2) Johnny who is like the squads map reader appearing to sometimes counter most any direction/orders w/ some words of wisdom notices that a base is possibly being ghost-capped or something (SCU history) which may require somewhat immediate reaction (Hard to put to words exactly) More like the words hit different hearing someone say it but you get the jest

    3) Squad is just about to help finish a cap and the defenders have for whatever reason all along been planning to take it back by force Situation may have two-three tanks at the next base perimeter along w/ a few ground pounders @ the point They may not be sufficient forces to prevent 12 men from taking a point hold AND IF the previous point gets held for a min (ie. Router not destroyed) It basically may become a game-changing experience

    My feelings is you can choose to ignore or refute both one and two above Three seems to be a real feature (possibly needed) by design tho OH, you just hoping most attackers redeploy upon capture gaining a possible even more numbers advantage Surprise Surprise brother this battle is both won and done... (Think of it as sending an infil to the next base on steroids)

    Obviously there may be other situations ie. Bases cutoff This is just the way I see things as to how a squad leader on top of things may find it as a good tool Hard to say it is something that I'd really like to see as being all that cheap to acquire (IF usage increases) I mean based on how the game has played in the past you are practically stealing a cap more or less in example 2 and example 3 usually just has not happened