Drop-podding is horrible. Get rid of it.

The pod always has South at the top of the screen (at least when the spinning pod bug/feature isn't active). Always.

cos of massive designer egos, they wanted to "invent a wheel" again and put they own "fingerprint" to the game ?, while all they should have done is copying most of the good things from ps1 what have been proven to work for years(towers/chokepoints/genholds/caves/baselayouts/doors/overall complexity) and put all those good things in new bigger shiny packet with lots of "eyecandy"

in other word , we want the complexity of planetside1 with 2013 craphics

you maybe, half of the community? probably not.

Planetside 1 was boring, this game is far more exciting, need alot of changes and balance, but if turns in PS1 eyecandy.... yeah.... NO.

This question is regarding the Squad Spawn change to Quick-Deploy-to-Squad. Here's how it is proposed to work.

Currently if you are in a warpgate and in a squad if you press the auto-join squad key (default is insert) it will do a quick-deploy-to-squad which will instantly spawn you to the nearest available spawn point to your squad leader. This includes Sunderer AMS. It's a very good way to hop in game and get right into the action with your squad without having to figure out where they are, what continent they're on, or how to get to them. Just push butan and you are there.

The proposed change is to make this the behavior for Squad Deploy, only you don't have to be in a warpgate to do it and unlike the current Squad Deploy there would be no cooldown to use it. It would function the same as Redeploy and Instant Action. So you'd be able to press that auto-join squad key anywhere to deploy directly to the nearest spawn point to your squad leader. If you are not in a warpgate it would have a 10s countdown just like Redeploy, and you are in a warpgate it would still be instant.

There would also be a change to the quick deploy logic. Currently if your squad leader is in a warpgate or dead the quick deploy doesn't work and there's no feedback. Part of this change would be making it so it always works even if squad leader is dead or at a warpgate. In those cases it would put you to the closest spawn to the SL's corpse or put you in the same warpgate as the SL.

Malorn,

The current deployed beacon disappears when switching SL. The new SL has to place a new one., And that's if it doesn't bug.

This is a massive nerf to small squads that wish to attack outposts / bases's where its next to impossible to maintain a AMS [Spawn point]. As being the Defender has a huge advantage over than attacking. As you can just spawn back into the base.

Just making the Spawn beacon only allowed to be placed on "Ground level" is enough.

This is all a valid tactic, And part of many outfits playstyles to keep themselves in the fight, on a already huge disadvantage. So why change?

Make them show up on radar, or give some proper warning, so that aircraft can avoid them.

While this is a much better solution, I still feel that this could be abused by the defenders too much for calling instant reinforcements to a position. While most issues in this game stem from not being able to defend against a zerg, there are still some issues with defender's numbers growing rapidly and without warning to the attackers that causes frustrations and disrupts the battle flow.

However this is a major step in the right direction for the spawning mechanics (all 4 points of your original post are great).

There still may need to be a cooldown on the squad deploy just to prevent abuse.

planetside1 was not prolly desigined to todays average ADHD players who have extremely short attention span but that game went strong for years cos of some fundamental parts of it and it seems they have realised that in soe ,after all this is business and i think they rather LISTEN loyal customers who spend money for several years to the game insted of players who spend hardly ANY cash whine a LOT a few months and then dissappear and never to be seen again.

I know this is focused on the spawn part, but while you're at it have you considered changing the de-spawn for landed drop pods so that they crack open instead? Meaning players wait 1/2 to 1 second before exiting.

This would give players time to render each other; the drop pod would be solid and could be destroyed by focused fire, tank shells etc. to discourage landing right in front of targets you really shouldn't; it'd give defenders a moments warning and, once opened, it wouldn't block the view of either faction (the current drop pods do as they take a moment to disappear).

I'm all for surprising people by drop podding behind them / somewhere high, but the advantage here should be quickly transporting to an advantageous position. Not appearing out of nowhere and killing people with very little warning (you might hear the drop pod land), and certainly not because of render issues. Up to a second is enough to react but if they're smart they'll have landed somewhere in cover.

.... i guess that's the point of the nerf.

The defenders need to have advantage, and right now it's just stupid the forever beacon exploit. I warned about it i believe right after this game left the beta stage.
I Double warned it, and i Went to a point where i and 5 friend EXPLOITED IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR STREAM, yeah we were following them and wiping any and every vehicle in the radius of the bases, what ended in the nerf to tank mines.

It's impressing how it took SO LONG for them to fix it.

This "trick" is stupid, and completely take out the point of having a good positioned beacon.

Beacon is there, at least IMO, to be a tactical choice to organize a flank attack, not to completely deny the importance of Sunderers.

You are a good example of player who SHOULDN'T be heard.
Why? You make yourself look like a "elitist" and there's no better way to ruin something then hearing the "elite".

Don't take me wrong, but you actually believe this game would work with the 400~1000 players of PS1? it wouldn't fill a single server. SOE is right in shooting at the biggest audience possible.

And SOE is right about trying to make something "NEW". And not just copypaste PS1.


PS: and "strong" is about opinion. In my opinion PS1 had a player base, VERY niche, and that isn't in any color or shape a strong community.

Nice change, but still too much mobility. Hope this will have very long cooldown to avoid quick travel of platoons for their leader from one corner of the map to another. Venicle transportation must be important.

Malorn,
The only proposed change I would seriously reconsider is item #4.
I realize that squad leader swapping isn't an intended mechanic for spawn beacons but I believe it brings in more value that should be preserved. Currently this change would be a very minor mechanic change for large battles, groups participating in large battles, and large outfits. For smaller squads and outfits this would be a major hit.

Smaller squads generally relish starting fights, establishing new fronts, or defending against the establishment of new fronts. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and fun that wouldn't be achieved in the larger fight were they have a minimal impact on the overall battle.
Defenders have the natural advantage of a non-destructible spawn location which a small group needs to overcome.
Sunderers are really easy for defenders to eliminate with any air, an engineer with tank mines, c4, etc. When you have a 5 man squad or fewer folks, you just don't have enough man-power to defend a sunderer while trying to maintain the capture point and position in the base. Often a combination of sunderer, squad deploy, and spawn beacon are used to keep a winnable fight going.
My concern is that it will become too easy for defenders to stop fights before they even start unless the attackers bring overwhelming force.

The spawn beacon is already highly destructable, and has a timer on how frequently you can deploy from one. I think a minor tweak would get better results without having to eliminate a tool that smaller squads and outfits have come to rely on.

Here are the issues with squad beacons:
1. The render distance is small. A squad beacon in certain places just isn't visible and can be continually used unless infantry both get within render distance and are looking in that direction. Please increase the render distance and make squad beacons spottable (not just the ground deployable but the beam).
2. Nobody enjoys getting podded and there is very little defense against it. Please remove the damage that drop pods do to vehicles.
3. Drop pods are almost impossible to stop. In combination with making the pods less maneuverable, slow down the descent of the drop pods. This will make them more susceptible to AA fire and would discourage dropping directly in a hostile zone of influence without support. If a group is unnecessarily abusing the drop mechanic, pulling a few skyguards would put a stop to it.

Thanks for reading!

The Lack of Cloaked AMS. And huge air presence is next to impossible to open up a new front on the lattice with smaller numbers.

Not only that as i said. the defenders have such a huge advantage with the ability to spawn in as many numbers as they like across all the continent within 10 seconds.

This is apparent even more so on the lattice. As the only things being taken is by big numbers.

12 Men squads Simply cant Defend an AMS from the abundance of AIR. and a Point all at the same time.

Deny spawn. And its game over. And the game becomes slow paced whaka mole.

I for one. Dont want to haul a AMS 1000 meters just to get a fight.

Current drop pod mechanics are ludicrous, same with squad spawn. You can reach quite far with the beacon/sl still in spawn. Even well defended sunderers stand no chance.

Also, no-one but you cares if a pod got your airplane; stop hovering.

Sounds good, although as Zeblasky pointed out this could create a mobility problem, for example if a squad member is sent to scout to a far away base under attack, the rest of his squad would still be fighting while he was flying there, once he arrives he could be made squad leader and have his squad redeploy to the nearest spawn 10 seconds later.

I guess the spawn hopping vs vehicle transport isn't an easy problem to fix and this problem is far beyond a few drop pod changes and would need some serious brainstorming but less drop podding is still a good change as, right now, they tend to bypass a bit too much obstacles.
I appreciate that you're taking the time to share with us what you guys are working on by the way. (even though we had to whine about it a little)

Your comment sounds like a pointless rant, you need to be specific to why is it bad? What is your reasoning its bad, what suggestions do you have to change it.

Example: Instead of Drop Podding on to the squad becon have people spawn next to it.

Drop Pods are a great way to get into the fight quickly, it offers an alternative strategy in the game and it allows for counter defensive measures instead of being stuck in a spawn room.

If you are a ESF and get drop podded, than don't hover move. I fly a mosquito have been drop podded numerous times and actually congratulate the person who hit me because it isn't always that easy.

As stated above, the proposal is highly exploitable for defensive rush, you might want to consider the impacts.
For anything else, since usually the squad AMS is amongst the spawn options, it's not a big change.
Just, expect a lot of quick high spawn rate last minute defense to appear.

^This. I play the game for the battles, not because I like passively riding in a vehicle 20 minutes out of every 60.

Edit:
I love drop podding. It's the use of secondary weapons that's the biggest problem. Just make it so that anyone drop podding can't switch weapons for 10-20 seconds. Done and done.

If this and spawn room camping is all ppl have left to whine about then I'm hopeful for this game.

I think it is a matter of the issue with having both beacon and squad deploy, allowing for people to kill sunderers and still relocate to their squad at a very rapid pace.