So with the recent addition of a deployable spitfire auto-turret, It came to mind the idea of making a deployable hard-light shield/ cover that Engineers could place for themselves and their teammates. For example a energy shield from Halo Star Wars: The Old Republic - Deployable Cover Such cover could be used as temporary barricades as well at doorways. They could be disabled by EMP grenades but provide immediate protection in the field from enemy fire where there is no cover. This would be especially useful on continents like Indar and Esamir where cover can be little and far between. Another type of shield cover that is deployable could be a bubble-shield like from Halo 3. Such cover would provide protection from air attacks and heavy ground based projectiles like tank shells and other types of bombardment, but would be penetrable by walking through it, unlike the deployable energy shield / barricade.
This is one of those things that consistently comes up. Why the devs don't just do it I don't know. They have everything they need in game to make it, just add some code and boom you're golden.
Deploy-able Cover was in the official engineer class description when the game came out. It's kind of strange that it never made it into the game.
I really love this idea. Because in open areas its always a bad idea to use turrets for too long (sometimes only a few seconds) --> easy to spot and a perfect target for snipers (and there is always a sniper). So a deployable cover would really help in those areas. But the way it is now i use the normal AI-mana as deployable cover. It works relatively fine and 2 or 3 in a dorway are also a good blockade. But yes, i am a fan of your idea.
Love the idea! It's not very practical for me as a mainly LA/infiltrator but I definitely see a great utility and need for it!
Since I cannot edit my original post I thought I'd place this here. Another much older game yet within the same spiritual family as Planetside 2 is Battlefield: 2142 which also had deployable cover. Also a suggestion from 2142 to possibly bring into this game. The Titan gunship... or something similar.. large caliber ground assault batteries and fast firing anti-air guns accessible from the flight deck, cargo decks on the rear, heavy shielding, can be destroyed through enough damage or by eliminating the shields and destroying the power core inside bringing cause to parachute from the deck, in this case light-assault jump jet, or air-lift your men out before the explosion.
This has been posted hundreds of times since beta. With the same images, btw. The deployable cover was actually there in the certification panel during beta but it was deactivated and it has eventually never been implemented. After 2 years of requests for the deployable cover guess what we had? The sentry-gun. Which means that 1) Devs didn't listen to Engineers community 2) we're not gonna have another chance to get another item for years in the best case. Read this: https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/automated-turrets-really.204622/ Every feature suggesting some kind of cooperation between players is despised by devs. Like saying "Casual playes don't want to waste time with team mates, they want to kill. And if an item doesn't kill people, then it's useless".
I think the main issue is that if they gave these shields certain abilities it could bug and that is a coding nightmare that I for one don't want.
If they did add it, the deployment should be almost instant. If an enemy rounds the corner and you have a turret (or shield) in your hands, your pants might as well be around your ankles
