3 things that have nearly ruined PS2 that can still be avoided (applies to all factions)

These are the top 3 things which I have observed over my time playing PS2 to have caused the most damage to the game-play experience of PS2:

1. allowing players to have characters in different factions on the same server
(the '4th' faction).

2. Lock-on weapons.

3. Medic revive ability.


Please have a read of the expanded points below, before you post a heated response about how I'm supposedly gonna nerf your godlike medic or your SC bought RL or that your 'alt' has taken you hours and hours to level and you are entitled to play it on the same server as your 'main'...


1. '4th' faction.
Allowing players to have characters in different factions on the same server and thereby creating the '4th' faction... This wasn't originally the case and I have no idea why SOE allowed it to go ahead.

HOW TO FIX - prompt players on their next logon to choose which characters they want to keep on which servers, with the caveat that different factions cannot be on the same server. There, no more 4th faction and players still keep their 'alts'.

BETTER WHY? This will stop the population swings in favour of the current Indar north WG owner and during alerts. It will also stop 'spying' and TK'ing by unscrupulous players and all the other exploits / imbalances that this has brought.


2. Lock-ons.
A horrendously poor reaction to the Zephyr and Pod spam of the early days and a very bad idea overall in this kind of game (supposedly skill-based game-play).

HOW TO FIX - get rid of all lock-ons. Replace the effect with a 'guided missile' system, where the player has to keep the crosshairs on the target until strike.

BETTER WHY? More skill, less whining, better gameplay overall.
A lot has been said on this subject, mostly nerf this or nerf that. I've read most of those threads and the one common fix to all of them is this. No faction will disadvantaged more than another. This changes the fundamental mechanics of 'lock-ons' for the better.


3. Revives.
In a game with 10 sec respawns, spawn beacons and AMS Sunderers, do we really need Medics that can raise the dead? No, no we don't.
At the moment, it seems almost obligatory for half a squad to be medics.And we all know that this is only the case to provide quick revives to dead teammates.
The revive ability cheapens gameplay. If a player pulls off an exceptional kill streak by using cunning, skill and a bit of luck, all that hard work shouldn't be undone by a lone Medic tailing the squad who can just toddle along reviving everyone again...

HOW TO FIX - change the medic tool and Revive grenades to cause an 'over-shield' effect on friendly players. This will give them a temporary boost of health allowing them to survive a few more hits than otherwise. Players with full health can be 'over healed' by medic guns. Revive grenades become 'Over-shield' grenades.

BETTER WHY? Medics will still be relevant and valued (especially before a building entry / MAX crash!).
Spawn points, Sunderers and Spawn Beacons will become much more valuable again, as they should.
Players now have an incentive to take a risk every now and then and try to do something cool to cause maximum damage to their enemy as they know if they are successful their hard work won't just be undone straight after by a medic. Players will also be more careful as the instant revive will no longer be right behind them.


P.S: I've played PS2 for some time now and have given a lot of thought to these game-play aspects that seem really 'cheap' or could be removed and have only a positive effect on the game. So, please, have a really good think about what PS2 would be like without these things. I'm fairly confident you'll agree it would be a better game.

1: It won't actually fix anything, since people can go around that by simply making different accounts. That's probably the reason why they haven't put in any timers.

2: Lock-on's were nerfed and changed to wire-guide from what i read. Not 100% sure though.

3: I don't see any problem with the medics revive. Some places are so easy to defend that people might not be able to storm them at all without the revives or it would require way too much people.
Overshield would just do the same in a different way. Also it would bring in other problems, such as having overshielded squad wiping out everyone who doesn't have the shield. It would be giving an edge that revive doesn't give.

Just my opinion.

As a Briggs player, your point 1 is ridiculous. Briggs is the ONLY option for NZers and Australians, to play without ridiculous lag. I have a rarely used NC, used just for learning reaver dynamics basically, a br35ish TR for random fun especially when my outfit isnt on, and a br65ish VS main. Your changes would force Briggs players to delete their characters just to try the other factions.

Except it wouldnt. If your change was implemented, people could simply create additional accounts. Sure, itd take a minute longer to switch accounts, but all they would lose is NS weapons bought with SC. Thats it.

2- people damn sure thats the plan. For air-locking anyway. Likely a good change.

3- Lol. Welcome to TF2, where all you do as medic is hold down left click and overheal every friendly near you. This would just cause more medics due to demand and constant cert gain, and as it would be completely necessary to win a fight as the other team would be overhealed. Max level revive tool could be slowed down a bit to be fair.

Then again, you have an hour played as medic. If revives are so OP why do you never do it? Dont want to be "that guy", but I cant really take the opinion of a br84 with 1kd very seriously, especially as most of your play time appears to be HA, inf and vanguard which would tend to higher KDs.

1. No, don't agree.

2. Yes, agree.

3. yes, agree.

Removing the other characters on the same server now would be bad for the game. They shouldn't have done it to begin with or not change it anymore. It's something they decided and are stuck with now. Because removing that is removing freedom of choice. It will also lead to the current overpopulated factions to get the entire 4th faction. This won't fix it, it will make the problem worse and more permanent. At the moment all they can do is cater to the 4th faction and give them incentive to play the underdog.

Lock ons have been in the game for as long as I can remember. But then you had to choose between either G2A or G2G launchers that had dumbfire alternatives. And now you have G2All lockons. It's just an expected step in the evolution to be honest. It would also make no sense to remove them now. SOE would have to refund a lot of money to a lot of players to do so anyway. Lock-ons are ok, you can easely evade them most of the time, just don't be in the open.

Medic revive ability, I don't see what the problem is with this to be honest. I really don't, but my opinion is quite biased on that. My role as a medic makes me an important pivot in the group. My failing is part of the defeat of the group, the group depends on my performance. My healing and reviving keeps the fight going, and if I'm taken out the chances of defeat will be higher. Medics aren't an anti-everything class.

1. Threads like these.
2. People who take losing as meaning something is OP.
3. See the above two.

There are plenty of things ingame which from time to time, spoil my experience and make me wanna cry OP, then i go watch some top players on youtube, and realise those players truly are awesome sausich...

Without lockons, air units would rule the game, it's fine despite the frustration it causes me as a pilot to.. (it's where it needs to be)..

Revives are fine..

4th factioners, that's not going to change anyway you slice it.. learn how to lose gracefully..

Well, while I'm musing about this idea. They could change the AV launcher into guide by wire and the AA launcher into a flak cannon with a powerful single shot and relatively fast velocity. Striker could be some fast guide by wire projectiles with flak capability against air vehicles.

Give Medics a break it's a dogsbody job just the same as a Maxes pocket engineer.

Stupid noobs and the squeal of "I need a Medic" almost makes you want to TK them.

Even though they can cert Med/Resto Kits they seem to think you are always responsible for restoring their lost health.

Constantly restoring health and re-equipping your Assault Rifle is infact so much of a chore that some people actually avoid the class like the plaque.

Any time my Assault Rifle is not equipped is a time I am compromised hence the "Revive noob Infiltrator" question mark.

Stupid Medics exist just be grateful when you get a revive, which you probably are, but then again when do you return the favour by reviving teammates?

1. Totally agree, every-one which are against this is a 4th factionner, want the death of this game or born without brain

2. Lock on could be avoidable with skills (at least with Reav/Mosqu/Scythe and GunShip ) But I'm agree with your idea it could be cool with a 15sec timer (for exemple) before the rocket auto-explode or something

3. Disagree , Medic is here to revive you when you"re far of a spwan room , not to break the 10sec waiting-time
But maybe we can make this harder by allow to revive with the Medi Tool FINAL certification , like with the Engie tools about the defuse mine. Maybe that can avoid a big spam of medic in base which revive 10person/sec.

I completely agree with everything except number 3. Medics are not just about healing and rezzing even if you have a place nearby to respawn, but if you drop from a galaxy and have to wait something like a minute to respawn a medic is a valuable asset in your squad since your squad can be up and running again. Also, Max's cost 350 resources, if they were unable to be revived (since medics would not be able to revive) then basically that is a big f*ck you to the Max class unless you make them dirt cheap and remove the acquisition timer. Something that costs that much and can die to 1 brick of C4 or 2 rocket launchers just isn't worth it.

Really? No such thing as a person without a brain, you've only made yourself look dumb with that statement.

I was initially against the idea, but after seeing people post how they play several factions on the same server, and seeing a statement from Higby about how a significant portion of paying players do so, i'm more interested in seeing how they tackle that problem... (higby is confident they'll address it by other means)..

Your statement, is as silly as me saying, "if you don't believe in god, you don't have a brain"... (see how stupid that sounds?)..

And lockon weapons are a necessity, don't like em? Ok, remove vehicles and aircraft.. (and i say that as a driver/pilot who loathers lockons), they add a necessary balance, from my point of view, and i won't call you brainless for disagreeing..

He's not really saying remove them, he is basically saying make them require you keep your cursor on them in order for the rocket to hit, which means no more fire-and-forget BS.

As much as I love driving my Harasser(s) the ONLY thing I fear while rolling around are lock-ons I even became paranoid and most use SmokeIR while going against the TR. Basically wut I'm trying to say is Lock-ons is the only way to go vs fast moving targets, I could already see experienced pilots/drivers dodging/juking Wireguided missiles and Flak. These assuptuions made by pilots and drivers that Lock-ons are basically "Skill Free" weapons is utter ********e and with the upcoming update lock-on users would be yelling "I'm here shoot me"

1) 4th faction players are a pain and therefore some system of making over pop more of a weakness then a guaranteed method of conquest needs to be implemented, as well as those that switch faction to get the free certs.

If you ask players to delete characters some of which have had real world money spent on them expect calls for refunds...

2) Lock on weapons. Fire and forget with high damage? Lets wait until after the change to the lock on weapons and reassess.

3) The constant stream of medics, fine as it is, but maybe with a cooldown on the medic gun like the engineer has (and make the medic able to heal himself with the gun).

Resources. The more restore kits I buy, the fewer anti-tank mines, the fewer MAXes, the less C4, the...

And, well, you are responsible for restoring lost health. It's kind of in your name.

Your ability key is your friend.

If you don't like repairing, don't pull an engy. If you don't like healing, don't pull a medic. This isn't rocket surgery...

1. The problem with this is something they saw very early, this is a FTP game so its damn easy for someone to just make another account of they are really in the whole 4th empire thing. All it really did was add inconvenence to people who want to play a diffrent faction once and a while.

A better solution would be to have a Delay time between switching to a diffrent empire character on the same server if you were on a diffrent one just a short while ago. While this wouldn't stop people from switching to whoever has Indar north (honestly this can not be fixed until there is better balance on how Indar is layed out), it would help slow down or stop people from fliping to whatever faction is winning say an alert.

2. Lockons are being reworked, and to be honest the biggest issues with lockons come more from Omni lockon weapons then just the lockon consept to begin with. As was seen in the Annihilator and Striker, when a person can choose a lockon that can be used for all situations, it becomes an enharent boost compaired to having ot pick and choose which lockon you have (Ohh crap here comes a tank but I only have a Air lockon).

I'm wating to see how the new lockon mecanic ( you have to follow the target to keep locked, hey thats a wire guided mecanic) changes stuff though.


3. Revives are a Tricky subject. The biggest thing that revives do to swing the balance is more from teamwork then anything. If the revive speed was slowed it might be more of a diffrence, but You have to remember that unlike an Engy repairing a Max, a Medic healing a soldier in Combat has very little effect on their survivability.

I good balance might be a Revive limit, in that a Soldier can only be revived X times in Y minutes. This would in essence give a squad with medics so many lives, limiting how long they can hold in a Constant attack, while still allowing the medics to be useful in a longer drawn out battle. The revive count can always reset each time a person respawns as well.

Another possibility Way of doing this:

Medics have X revives they can preform (ammo count) which can only be resupplyed at a Terminal much like grenades. As a Medic puts certs into their med tool this count increases (cert tree changed so that med tool certs increase revive count and Heal over time of the gun, current max guns revive HP/Time is now given from the start). It could also be possible that this Ammo count naturaly regeneates over time. This would Give the Medics the equivilent to the Overheat mecanic that Engy guns have, which was given to prevent them from keeping a Bombarded target up almost indefenetly.

Remember the Burster X2 back from launch? Oh wait.....

Think what you want dude but yes I claim it

A person who are against a lock-on multi-fact on a server (mostly when we give you the possibility to switch server for your actual char. ) is for the destruction of the game or really stupid

Don't try the God argument with me kid, instead proove me wrong. Give me an INTELIGENT argument against a switch server system + lock on char per server.

What are you trying to get at? Not sure where this sarcastic message leads