[Suggestion] ~ Engineer Notifications, Tool & Bit more ~

I have played primarily and an engineer switching out to other classes if needed but my main class is an engineer. There have however been a few things I have found in the countless hours of playing. These suggestion are to put an end to unhelpful and at times a hinderace to our job on the field. My role as an engineer is to stay back in order to keep vechs/max/assault units repaired and/or stocked up with ammunition. Support before aggression is my play style, I will do all I can to keep units running but there are however a few things in the way which these suggestions will help clear up.

« = Main suggestion
» = Food for thought

« Engineer Notifications
When an engineer switches to and wields the repair tool the icon used for the class should appear on the mini-map in the same way asking for repair puts a wrench on the map. I have lost count the times I have had to chase after a vech or max unit to repair and at times I just get fed up and stop chasing. This is an issue that stops us from doing our job. All units can ask for assistance, ammo, repair and even support but there is no way for us to answer. Making the icon appear would mean that units who need repair can see exactly where we are which in turn means we can do our job quicker and they can get back into the fight. I really hate chasing vechs from section to section.

« Engineer's Repair Tool
This is of no shock to know but given our job on the field, the one thing that prevents us from doing this is being killed by the very vechs we are trying to keep up and running. This is a huge and quite honestly the main issue with reparing vechs as other units are too busy to concentrate on where we are and how close. The above suggestion would help with this but we can already be seen on the map and if there is a unit really close and your being repaired its safe to say thats us but it still happens.

What I suggest is another cert path for engineers which increases the effective range of the repair tool to what can then be a safe(r) distance in order to keep us alive to do our job. This helps in two main ways, first of it meas our chances of being run over are reduced and lets be honest it will still happen just not as much. Secondly it will help repair constantly shifting vech/max units. Vechs will often shift side to side in order to reduce their chances of being hit but this makes our job harder as we have to get closer and back away. Having an increased range means we have a larger impact of the field.

To those who are thinking this seems too powerful then I suggest and compramise. A repair too can have I think 5 upgrades applied which is what I have to increase its power. If I where to then upgrade the range to 2 then my effective repair would be that of 3. More range less power, 5-2=3 so you can still have a descent repair rate but with better range.

» Turrets
Often I find myself too busy to occupy a turret seeing as I help keep things running which means there is an entire part of class which I do not use. I know there are auto-turrets which could fill that for me but that does not fit into my support play style to which I wonder how people would feel is our mana turrets could be open for use by anyone, not just the owner.
Y/N Leave your comment.

» Alternate
As said above turrets do not fit my support play style to which I have an alternate. If turrets are restricted to ownership then how about adding a support replacment for the turret in form of a deployable shield. NC max units have access to use a shield so the coding is already in place. What is engineers could place temporary shields in key places to provide on the go cover. This of course would be susseptable for attack and if taken enough damage will be destroyed. Either have it so they can be deployed anywhere or only outdoors for field cover.
Y/N Leave your comment.

» Voice commands
All units have access to the voice commands which when pressed brings up a list of audible commands such as support or repair. Do you think there should be another page of commands for specific command. I can ask for support but support for what. How about a command that stated...
"Help me defend capture point"
"Help me restore the generator"
"Need cover fire"
Its all somewhat specific but for me, I will run out against all odds to try and get a gen repaired. Honestly more times than it should it works. It would be nice to ask for cover fire to help me with that. These would be open for anyone to use.
Y/N Leave your comment.

Reserved ~

Ok I cannot seem to edit any of my posts above which is incredibly annoying, can for the love of god a dev make an edit button if it does not exist and im not being blind.

» Advanced Training
Having the training facility is a great way to try equipment out and I do understand that is its primary function but I feel there should be either an advanced version or incorperate this into the current. I believe it would help new and old players to try the equipment on moving targets. This would help new players get used to firing upon moving targets and every airborne targets such as LA's. I feel this would be a benefit to have to practice prediction firing (cannot think of the term). This could go for just infantry which leaves the trainging map vastly open to make movement paths or both infintry and vechs.

i like the PS1 voice commands better

You can't edit a post a while after its been posted (30min I think).

Yes.

The Edit button is along the bottom of the post you create, near Report, but it only works for 30 minutes (and that includes time spent editing the post; you will be blocked from posting if you go over 30 minutes while on the edit screen). Also, if you get a whitened-out text window, use the More Options ... button to continue editing.
Your best best is writing it all out in Notepad first and then posting it.

At the launch of the game, deploy able cover was in the official description of the engineer class. I don't know why they did not release it yet, there are a countless number of threads asking for a deployable shield too.
Any way I like all of your ideas and would love to see them added to the game as I play mostly as an engineer myself.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/34w8ea/voice_macro_commands_vgs/cqze3us

I've been working on an application that uses in-game chat to emulate voice macro commands (check the link above), but before releasing I need check some legal stuff (overwolf ToS?), need permission from DBG to use it in the game, permission to use the voices, maybe something else .

Thank you to everyone who helped with my editing issue, kinda sucks as I often forget to add information to my post because im a forgetful idiot so thank you there.

It would be great to have a macro with command additions in place. I very much doubt DBG would have an issue running it in game seeing as it does not affect primary gameplay and not spamming untrusted links like some people on other games do. I could be wrong but most games seem to be fine with utility macro's.

I can completely understand the time, effort and money needed in order to get the recording done so I cannot blame them there and it is nice to see that they do take an interest in their community.

On the subject of new commands, one I left out which is needed is "I require gunners"

Defo up for more voice commands, Planetside 1 had a tonne of them and they were easy to use. V brings up the menu, then you select what type of thing you want to say, for example Defend macros are listed under D, Attack under A, Warning others players about enemies is listed under W. Ive listed some of the options below:

Quick commands
VVV - Help!
VVX - Stop
VVT - Thanks
VVE - Your Best Is My Worst
VVZ - You Start It I Finish It
VVY - Yes
VVN - No
VVH - Hail!
VVW - Hey
+more

Warning commands
VWS - Warning Sniper!
VWV - Incoming Enemy Vehicles
VWT - Incoming Troops
VWM - Incoming Max Units
VWA - Incoming enemy aircraft

Attack commands
VAS - Attack their spawn room
VAM - Destroy their medical terminal
VAC - Hack their control console
VAG - Attack their generator
+more

Defend commands (all the same options as attack, but with a 'D' instead of 'A')
VDC - Defend the control console
VDG - Defend the Generator
+more

Tactical commands (these could only be used as part of a squad)
VTW - Move to waypoint
VTX - Command Declined
VTE - Enemy has breached perimiter
VTR - Requesting assignment
VTC - All Clear
+more

The taunts (VVE & VVZ) were also personalised depending on which voice type you chose, i.e grizzly, greenhorn etc..
Makes PS2's small amount seem feeble and pathetic tbh.
The excuse that 'VGS is too difficult' is just a cop out, no1 in their right mind would find that difficult and id wager 90%+ of players have already used such a system.

Those are exactly the commands that should be put in place and it seems odd that is PS1 had them and PS2 does not when it seems such a vital part of the game to get information accross quickly rather than stop, type and get killed.

Ye agreed, the only logical reason i can come up with for the devs not doing it is the fact that the inbuilt voice system in this game is actually very good, the problem is alot of players turn it off so you cant communicate effectively with them.

I must also mention that the voice macros also had their own character movement macro associated with it, for example if you typed VVH your character would say ''Hail!'' and youd see it salute the other player, little things like that really make a game worth playing IMO.

You are so right, just the small details here and there help make the game. Its just sad that a tactical team based FPS which needs communication lacks it. I know there will be some that would say just use a mic but for me Im mic shy and it just raises problems for me. You never know, the devs might get enough cash to invest in a better commands system. Personally I do not know what it wrong with the dev team using their own voices for such a thing, it would be a damn site cheaper for sure.

yet another thing higby ****** up because he wanted to copy CoD, instead of making a planetside game

Thats an excellent idea, or they could request fans submit their voices.

I also wonder why the devs cant just use the voice macros from the original game, thats 100s of voice recordings that are already bought and paid for (unless theres some legal aspect to it, broadcast rights or whatever..) and im sure the vets who would recognise them would not care in the slightest, infact id love to hear some of the old ones in game again.

I never had the chance to play PS1 so it would all be new to me which would not be a bad thing. I should imagine that legally the voice package would be owned by SOE which may or may not have passed to DBG. It would be a great community event oportunity. Most software which is easily accessable can produce high quality audio and the only other factor would be as long as it is of clear sound.

Or my personal fave idea !Get freelance voice actors in! Who would be greatful for the work experience and bit fairly cheap. I can even put forward a name of someone who wants to be a voice actor.... Gawgus deep voice and he already has the equipment and is very popular.

Reserved ~

Yeah yeah >.< hehe since I can remember when I have posted on a gaming thread a suggestion I always reserve the second post for additional text as most of the time forums have a char limit to them

I thought I could edit posts >.< haha how wrong was I

« Target Painting
This was an Idea I thought of last night while defending a facility and would make squad leaders more potent on the field. Now this idea does not affect any gameplay features. No balance loss or gain with this and that is target painting. A squad leader would target an enemy which would then be outlined in red (as long as it is visible) for all squad members.

Why this I hear you ask, think about it, if you point out a specific target and all HA launch at that target. The kill chance goes through the roof. Co-ordinated fire, the ultimate supression.

Example, if 6 HA lock on the same vech and launch as one, that vech is history. Yet another stragegy to play with/defend against.

I think this would turn other players too much into direct tools for a leader. This would result in perpetual chain-nuking of targets, which would not be fun at all. Players should develop their own team skills and not become mindless robots. The former is improvement, the latter is the road to damnation.
One could consider such a feature with a timeout, but it would become less useful, since any target is quite vulnerable anyway, and it would still be frustrating to have such concentrated fire against you.
The tools the game provide should focus more on strategy than tactics, otherwise it takes away from the individual player.
Certain approaches of this kind are already possible if you have a well-working squad and use voice chat, and that's the level of organisation I consider the sweet spot.