Fun Mass Infantry Fights RIP

what if they pull what Warhawk did and make AT rockets also work as AA?

maybe adding some doors to some of the entrances that only open for infantry that vehicles can not open on some of the entrances might work until the bases get a complete refit. but the tower style buildings IMO which is a death trap for infantry is the worst i believe.

I have an idea that may actually work regarding infantry getting farmed at spawn points. You know the big shield that is protecting your warp gate? Make one of those over every town/city with generators at 2 different points on the base and the attacker must deactivate/activate one of them to bring the shield down/up. This way infantry is protected from air rocket pod farmers and maybe we will have more infantry fights. Secondly, a standard in war is "you don't own it till you have boots on the ground" is sorely lacking here. Pilots should NOT be able to capture points no more than a MAX unit can. Make them land their precious aircraft and sit on the point like everyone else. Thirdly, of course no (enemy) vehicle with the exception of a MAX (if you consider that a vehicle) can enter the area that is shielded.
Something else that may help is to either increase the cost of vehicles or make them have a longer cooldown, or both so that people actually have to think and be cautious of what they do with their precious vehicles. Consider, is is worth it for me to nose dive in for one run at spawnkilling and then not be able to do it again for another hour? Or running that tank thru the spawn and sitting 30 meters away killing anything that moves outside the spawn door? Well if my idea of the shield gate is implemented then you don't have to worry about that tank!
Infantry has and always will be most vulnerable moving from one objective to the next, this is where vehicles have their chance to shine. I am not suggesting to make vehicles/aircraft useless, but to make them play the game in a way that is fair to everyone involved.

Still seeing huge infantry and combined arms battles on Woodman EU. Still seeing massive, clearly defined battle lines etc.

No issues.

Well firstly I must admit I haven't played yet as I'm stuck offshore working, so feel free to tell me to "**** you have no idea....:, fair enough. However, I have read lots of forum posts and watched a load of youtube vids, for what it's worth.

Sounds to me like there's an abundance of tanks and flyers getting about pwning everything in sight, more or less right?

Would it be feasible to maybe put a cap on how much air/armour that's active at any one time depending on how much infantry is in the field. An example could be that for say every 30 grunts you faction can spawn 1 of each attack vehicle, I just plucked that outa my butt so bear with me.

Of course you would have to incorporate some kind of cuing system, first in best dressed. You enter into a list and when joe blow gets blown up the next guy in the list gets a 5 min warning to spawn a vehicle if he so desires or he drops down one spot and the next guy after him gets the chance.

This of course could be fine tuned for better results but you get the jist.

Cheers,

Madscot

As long as everything is completely freely available to everyone at anyone time, you're not going to balance anything successfully.
Something is going to be unbalanced, and it's going to be abused instantly because everyone can get it at will.

No infantry / air / ground is going to be fixed as long as all this is free for all.
And SOE is not going to change that unfortunately because that would cut the $$ source

I hear what your saying.

Shame really as that's a bit of a double edged sword as people will get pissed off and leave, so where they getting their cash then.........?

I know it's FTP but people still get hooked and end up forking out anyway, I know I would.

So really they need to keep their player base happy, free or not, that's irrelevant.

Madscot

We tried to push them systems rather balanced between limitations and acess (so buying) to everything in game, during beta.
There has been numerous proposals of different format.
They NEVER answered on that front.

Solve the problem much easier than you think.
Battle tanks.
The tank must withstand more than 3 hits and a pistol in the forehead. In the back, should be destroyed with one hit. Anti-tank missiles to be anti. Should only do damage by direct contact with the target. After contact with a number of 10%.Recently, tanks rolling around with these guns - as they are universal.
Aviation.
There is no need to add value, not reduce the damage. Just do what would not be immune to conventional firearms. It is still not tanks and planes (with 72 tons of armor). Yes. and that would be a rocket hit (not suggestive) destroyed immediately ... it is still not firecrackers and rockets actuators intended to destroy tanks (with armor weighing 72 * tons). Or do whatever samalet flew and maneuvered accordingly the mass ... with the turn in 1 mile!

Yup..This is the reason I no longer play this game, its a vehicle spam fest. This is the same reason why most people wont be playing much of this game within the next few months. Base design imo is out the window, all this game has turned out to be is a air and veh spam fest and im sorry but not interested. PS1 did design way better, way better. Tanks were pulled to counter tanks, air was used to counter air etc. Infantry fights in PS1 is how you took bases, not this crap we see today. Notice how there arent alot of vets playing this game anymore, ya its getting sad. I hate to say it, I do respect the devs with SOE and I appreciate what they tried to do, but the ball was dropped on this game.

I hate to add to a whine thread but this is becoming a familiar evenings play now.

Brilliant idea! I like this!

And to OP. Biolab fights is something I started to enjoy lately. Well, at least when people don't use that exploit with rocketpodding biolab rooftop.

Unfortunately people have noticed that infantry is at the bottom of the food chain. Why would you play something else than a tank, lib or esf with pods when you can farm kills and certs so easy with those? You never really run out of resources if you aren't sucking horribly.

Then there is the issue of spawns that can be shelled from some distant mountains, that is not good design.

I find myself logging in less now as im an infantry style of player and outside of bio labs attack/defense there is little point in my feet actually touching the ground
MBT HE rounds ESF rocket pod spam is so prevalent at least on Miller it becomes boring real fast
if your forced back to the spawn room the base is lost 99% of the time defending gives no reward except satisfaction which just does not cut it in a modern day fps(a pity)
poeple like to play tank commander
people like to be the red/blue/purple baron air ace
people like to be grunts
how do you balance this all out
try resource costs its a joke that everyone can travel around in a lightning so make them cost 750 mech reduce costs as dropping certs ibto respawn timer pumped into them for the tank players
MBT cost 750 and require 2 people reduce cost as above
Sunderer cost 750 reduce cost as above
all air costs 750 reduce as above
this allows dedicated tankers/flyers to get their favourite kit out just as fast and as cheaply but will stop every tom dick and harry spawning them over and over

Planetside was never a vehicle centric game, it's a COMBINED ARMS game.

Read that again: COMBINED ARMS.

http://wiki.planetside-universe.com/ps/Acquisition_Timer = Working as Intended

You are doing something wrong. I am getting mad, wild, VERY enjoyable combined arms battles, and I play as nothing but inf.

Massive, epic.

Perhaps you should try fighting away from your spawn. My advice: the next time you spawn into a camp, spawn at the next closest spawn and walk towards the camp. You'll find others doing it. Some may even put a sundy up, some will even do it intelligently. You can too! This will be your first exercise in how to find the REAL fighting in PS2.

And get locked into some sort of contrived battle map that is always the same? No thanks.

I remember a battle in the Beta, During the time AA prevented ESF from RocketSpamming at the stage they do these days...

I spawn in with the Outfit I am rolling with during Beta, we had just captured back a peice of land in the Canyons that the VS had pushed into, big Zerg of VS being pushed back by us NC to the Tech Plant. The road between the base and the Techplant was littered with both Vangard, Magrider and Lightnings either fighting to the death, dieing or just smoking scrappiles. Along the Canyons walls were small buildings and such where NC were pushing up on foot. Taking out the small VS groups hidden behind each corner while firing rockets at the Techplant's only opening from out angle as Magrider after Magrider spewed out...

A few Scythes skirted across the only Visible sky above, shooting a few Rockets at some tanks before disappearing, knowing that they would need to wait a moment before turning for a second run, as they would be prepared. I watched as three scythes Chain hit a Sundy to death with their Rocketpods before disappearing. It was a beautiful method of Teamwork...

It was a sight to behold, I was running along the left side dodging around trees and smoking scrap, popping a few seconds of Repair into any Tank that I passed before finally reaching the Forward Sundy that had Suicidily charged pass a few Tanks into a "Safe" location. There was already some Engies working on keeping it up so I flipped to HA, and started firing rockets after rockets into the flanks of the Magriders. I turned to look back down the road we had pushed down, Vanguard, Lightning and Tons of Infantry were charging along it while the Magriders took their shots...

If this was even attempted to be done today, ONE SINGLE LIB WOULD HAVE STOPPED US. The Canyons are the "Fish in the Barrel" moments for Libs. They can sit just off to the side, stick their side over and stick their belly gun down into the canyon, their Zeypher or Dalton takes their shots then rock back out of LoS of any G2A/AAMax/Tanks aiming at them. ESF's would be hovering above just raining down Rocketpod after Rocketpod after Rocketpod. Twisting out for a second then hovering once again firing more dispite AA attempting to shoot them down. G2A Missiles flying off away from them despite no Flares being fired. A Lone ESF hovering over a Sundy killing everyone that spawns at it while shooting it, with no one shooting at it cause their dead. Or elsewhere in their own ESF killing... I mean Farming, like crazy...

I too miss the inf battles that happened across large fields... its now a Zerg fest in my server (at least when i am on for a few hours a day).