I agree with you that specialization is important. I loved the PS1 system--that is, when the max BR was 20. When they raised it, it allowed players to gain more and more versatility, and soon enough, everyone had repair kits, heal kits and REKs to carry around with them all at once. Did you play the game after the max BR was raised? If you did, you would understand what I'm saying. It ruined specialization in that game. I'm mostly fine with the class system as it is because it completely denies that trend. Sure, you can switch to a different class if you're near a terminal, but you aren't always near a terminal, and odds are, if most people are like me, they have a preferred class they choose to play more than any other anyway.
Default HA rockets are universal, but have a huge drop and are dumbfire. The dedicated AV rockets are definately more useful for AV then the default ones as they actually have good accuracy at range, however they do far less damage to air targets. I haven't tried the dedicated AA rockets but I'm going to assume that they function much like the dedicated AV rockets and do far less damage to ground targets then air targets. I don't think a single shot shot gun is all that useful to anyone. I haven't tried it yet but most reports I hear on it are that it's more or less useless because it is a single shot. This statement also assumes that everyone certs UB shot guns and has them. Again part of the point of weapon attachments is to allow users to specialize in their load outs. I'm assuming your point here is to point out how "universal" PS2 players are compared to PS1. PS1 had AMSes that did exactly the same thing and provided exactly the same service. So no real argument here. To be clear, "In the field" refers to situations where you don't have immediate access to a terminal, and yet are faced with a situation which requires actions your current load out is unable to perform. These situations were far rarer in PS1 then 2. A major example of this is the simple fact that you could knock out, damage, and destroy tanks and air with medium assault using jammer grenades and AP rounds in PS1. You can't do that in PS2. Another huge example is that you could essentially gear up in the PS2 equivalent of HA and be effective against all targets at once (each empire's AV weapon was effective against all vehicles), AND have both medical and engineering capabilities allowing you to heal and repair yourself in the field. It's not spammable. The thing holds 1 grenade in the magazine and you can only carry 1 additional grenade at a time. Neither grenade bandolier nor ammo belt increases that number. I think the grenade launcher is fine how it is, as long as LA don't have the ammo box ability themselves. And frankly I don't want that ability, or any other ability for replenishing the grenade launcher.
AA rockets, fired dumbfire, do full damage. They also travel much faster than the default dumbfire. They also OHK infantry (not MAXs) just like other rockets. Is it any problem that Engineers can do that trick with the Carbine? Woodwof82, by the definition of "in the field behind enemy lines" that you provided, I don't even know how much class matters, especially because anyone can potentially come along and help you find the nearest friendly Sunderer from the respawn screen. A single soldier of any class behind enemy lines is able to capture points and mess up generators (without doors needing to be hacked) and an infiltrator can hack terminals and turrets. That being the case, there's nothing Light Assault or Engineer would be able to do more or differently than any other class, aside from maybe Light Assault hopping over the shields at some larger facilities to get to the capture point faster. Killing power is great, but only HA and Engineer can kill an enemy Sunderer on their own, though other classes can C4 smaller stuff. JesNC, watch the "J" word please.
You seem to have a hard time understanding definitions. Yes you can be helped back to the nearest sunderer. That doesn't help you much "in the field" though does it? Half the point of the game is to NOT be helped back to the sunderer. No I personally won't agree to your suggestion of combining two classes into a super class. Argue however you like, it doesn't make sense and it's stupidly over powered no matter how you look at it. No there is nothing wrong with engineers being able to retrieve ammo from their own boxes. Why? Because they can't get onto rooftops or little nooks and ambush people. There is a reason why the ammo box was taken away from LA in the first place (yes LA originally had the ammo box, back in alpha/tech-test). LA can C4 Sunderers to. It's posted all over the LA forums. And finally the DEVs are looking into ways of fleshing out the LA class. Your super class isn't going to exist so I suggest you get use to the idea of choosing between walking with a glue gun, or flying with some C4 and a prayer.
Oh I never though for a moment that SOE would actually do this. This discussion has simply been an exploration of the idea of rolling them together into one class.
As a committed LA player, sure, give me more options. As a player interested in a balanced game...this is a B A D idea.
I can effectively spec into every single class and just play them as I feel like it. That is not specialization. Will I have max nanoweave for every class? Not for a while. I've got a ton of points in Medic, engy, HA, and LA. You're telling me this class system is so complicated that it's truly difficult for me to change my loadout when the time demands it? I roll with an organized, combined arms, out fit. Air, armor, infantry, we've got it all in many different forms. I almost always have a terminal or sundy available nearby, or a squad beacon, for me to swap my loadout and deal with the situation accordingly. On top of that I'm specialized enough into enough classes that I can, and do, play as the jack of all trades. I'm not the only person who is capable of filling many roles. On top of that if I want to fly I've got a kitted out lib and reaver with enough basic certs in them for me to be plenty viable at what I'm doing. There is less specialization is PS2 than PS1 by a large margin. It isn't a more exciting gameplay experience. The only thing loose feeling about the whole deal is it's sloppy idea of what depth is. Though the devs have mentioned a lot to be added. More continents, Navy combat, massive outfit carriers. Sure all of that sounds great but bases still feel hollow and are mostly just scenery. The classes no longer have depth. Infiltrator was butchered in to the abomination of a sniper and sneaky guy, while light assault remain the most effecting 'inflitrators' in PS2 since beta launch. Standard infantry were the snipers before. They really should have kept the armor system, atleast, if not the inventory as well. The guns have barely any forum of variety. Carbines, assault rifles, and LMGs are all the exact same thing with varying amounts of bullets and slight differences in accuracy. They have no situational purposes other than this gun has more bullets so you can shoot more guys before reloading. That isn't depth. That's a mockery. Now we absorb into vehicles because they were literally too lazy to create enter/exit animations for all vehicles and code entry points. That's the only thing I feel from that change. It's not better, it's not more 'casual' it just feels like they were too lazy to do it. We can't even holster our weapons. Base capture? Man has that ever been dumbed to a child's level. Capture A B C and maybe blow up two strategic points. No more viruses, no more disabling parts of the base to make the process more difficult for defenders to manage. Cutting power from everything? Gone. Destroying tubes or terminals so they can't gear up? Lockers? Boy I remember how smart it was to play ahead with lockers and pack a few essentials, and keep it stocked with trophies too. I honestly, truly, feel that they just cut corners in a lot of areas to make the game 'more accessible to casuals'. If that were remotely true they'd have a training simulator. It was just a glue **** together spree to get the game launched and get the cash grab started. Now I'm sure depth will be added over the months and years. As I said up there somewhere, they've mentioned a good deal of potentially nice additions. Navy combat in particular sounds amazing. Right now, though, the game feels stale and hollow. It needs more fluff. Needs more depth. Needs more mechanics and less leapfrog base capturing. Most bases mean nothing, and that leads to stale experience farming. Right now it feels like the objective is to just kill the other team. It's just a big team deathmatch and that leaves base objectives feeling worthless. Baring SCU shield gens and SCUs themselves, which is a grand total of one out of the many different ways of ******* with the mechanics and functions of a base in PS1. I already feel myself growing tired of this game. Which is a sad thing. It truly lacks fluff and uniqueness right now.
