[Suggestion] Bio Dome base design revision, revisited.

he's saying there'd be more things to do in that trade off though.
as the game is now you'd lose the core gameplay element........ because the core gameplay element is almost 'pew pew' only.
in the game he's proposing, infils would have way more to do than just 'invisible guy with a gun' that it is now.

Yeah but I still think all infiltrators should be able to hack. Even if they change it to take twice the time if you are a combat infiltrator, why do you want to take away the few combat options a class with lesser shield and health really has?

Because the other type of infil doesn't get to kill so easily. You want there to be consequences to chosing a loadout so that players feel the consequence of a choice in long term capacities.

Balancing is about situational advantages and weaknesses. If you go sniper, you choose to go long range killing power. You don't need hacking too, it doesn't really fit your role in a class based setup.

Now, if we had an inventory system and your character could only have a limited amount of certs and a total of say twenty cert choices as character specialisation, then you might as well give heavy assault the option to use hacking in exchange for other equipment he or she wouldn't be able to carry. But something as powerful as hacking should come at a cost, as should the other way around (sniper rifle).

personally i don't think infil should be a 'combat' role, they should be able to fight but not focused on it. combat should almost be a last resort for someone with invisibility.
makes the class system almost pointless for everyone to be doing the same 'role' regardless of what class they picked.

Well consider...
I mean this is war. What do our snipers/scouts use? Certainly not pistols only regardless of how good their camouflage is. I know this isn't meant to be hyper realistic, but why would a person who can use temporary invisibility to approach enemies and get the drop on them not use a smg. I mean if you've been through any basic military combat training (like I have) then you know the first they teach you is about positioning. Have a better position is way way better than having better firepower every time. Infiltrators get the ability to pick their position at will as long as they are careful enough not to be detected. So we punish them by taking away their ability to damage enemies at distance? Come on guys.

I'm all for making the infiltrator have more functions than combat. But don't take AWAY those combat options to give it to them.

thats not it at all, you want an epic gun, thats fine, but you're not getting all the sweet hacking abilities AS WELL AS the gun at the same time.

The key words in Zbranningans point is "at the same time".


And preferably a good balancing system also has your choices be affected on the long term, so spanning roles and classes.


To me, a character should be unique. That is the character should not be able to take on all roles. Whatever suit he wears, in PS1 the character still had the same abilities, just not the same amount of space. This is essential, because the suit doesn't make the man, the certifications do. So over time, the character has to make due with his or her "training", regardless of suit.

In PS2 the suit changes the character fundamentally. The skillsets of a character completely change depending on the suit, because of the use of classes. Changing a suit is like donning a completely new character.

The biggest effect of this is that a character over multiple lives has no real weakness in PS2 and is not essentially dependent on other players to acquire certain equipment for protection, supplies or transport. Per life, they only require temporary aid, like healing (all non-medics that run out of med kits) or repairs (MAX) or ammo (all non-engi). But essentially these are all easy to acquire since someone will change to the appropriate role out of nowhere and unrelated to their certification. So over time, you got an army of jacks of all trades, whereas in PS1 you had an army of specialists mixed with jacks of all trades who couldn't perform in a lot of fields because they couldn't afford the certification training.


Basically, the latter makes for a much better team game and personal excelling and personal name making.