If that was me then I sort of apologize, I've been on a mission lately to get the flashed nerfed by abusing it's cheesiness. It wouldn't be nearly as broken if it couldn't cloak. I ran down half a MAX crash as they left their sundy at Briggs lately. I don't think vehicles should be able to cloak at all, as the ant is even dumber when cloaked, but it at least has to gather fuel first. At the very least a cloakable vehicle shouldn't be able to mount a weapon, sort of like how a stalker infil can't have a primary. What I really need suggestions on is how to make the flash painful to light assaults and infiltrators. As long as it's only vehicle and MAX players complaining I'm not really holding my breath, but if I could make pain for LAs and Infil mains to they point that THEY start screaming that would probably get results.
Back during Planetside 1, there was two ATV types. If I recall correctly, it was called the Basilisk and the Wraith. The Basilisk was the armed variant of the ATV, carrying twin chainguns. A single seat ATV for any soldier. The Wraith was completely unarmed, but could stealth. A single seat ATV meant only for Infiltrators. If I recall correctly, the Wraith could remain in stealth indefinitely, however the way players could spot it was when it is driving at high speeds or when struck by fire. It would become an opaque translucent color that was partially visible to players. Thankfully Planetside 1 had enough sense to never give players an ATV that was both armed AND could stealth. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Back during Planetside 1 a MAX was... actually more like a vehicular exosuit with a person in it. Rather than a soldier with extra armor. A MAX was formidable, dangerous and would not be taken down by a single measly brick of C4 as pathetically displayed in PS2. It was a force to be reckoned with. It would also be able to withstand several hits from a vehicle, with the exception of being hit by a tank. Additionally, back in Planetside 1, MAX units also had what was called "travel mode". It was essentially an "auto run" feature that allowed MAX units to almost run as fast as an ANT. An ANT being one of the slowest vehicles in game. The drawback to using "travel mode" was that you couldn't fire your weapons, and there was a speed-up and slow-down mechanic where MAX suits would require several seconds to begin running or come to a stop - they were unable to defend themselves during those moments. Additionally, when a MAX unit was in "travel mode" they had very, very poor steering. It would likely take several swipes on the mouse pad for you to make a full 360º turn, which would be very wide turn as well. This is where the term "MAX Crash" came from originally, because players would assemble a team of MAX's which would run at full "travel mode" speed and rush into a base. And it was actually scary, because it would require 3 decimator hits to kill a single MAX. Also, back in Planetside 1. Not only did MAX's essentially have 2 full armor bars, they also had 1 full health bar. Meaning MAX's technically had 3 HP bars. After depleting a MAX's armor pool, you still had to finish them off by killing the operator's HP pool. If people only knew how much of iconic PS1 gameplay was lost to PS2, they'd be upset. And if more aspects of PS1 were in PS2, it would have been a much different game that might have had a much more successful past. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Planetside 1 - MAX action (NOTE: Be sure to observe closely at 3:50 you will get a brief glimpse of the "travel mode" of a MAX lumbering at full speed and breezing past a nearby friendly VS soldier. Also as a "fun fact" VS MAX's special ability in PS1 could perform a "jump jet" allowing them to reach the top of buildings. No other MAX or vehicle could.) (NOTE: In the bottom left of the screen, the red bar was your health pool. The teal colored bar was your stamina [originally depleted when being hit or using implants]. And the blue colored bar was your armor pool. Observe that MAX's also had HP pools.)
The average ATV will weigh more than 300kg. If that hits you at 90km/h that EOD suit with some armor plates on top isnt going to help much. The things I would change on the Flash: 1: hitting a MAX is as damaging to the Flash as to the MAX (and with 500 less health the Flash would die sooner and kill itself, only high speeds can instantly kill both the MAX and Flash) 2: Each time the Flash deals damage through ramming infantry it receives a proportional hit to its speed. This slows it down whith each hit. 3: the damage of ramming infantry is lowered. Only at high speeds do you get a OHK. 4: Flash cloak no longer has the cooldown before it can cloak again. Instead its decloak time, sound and weapon lock are extended to between 3 to 5 seconds. The loudness of decloak is also increased. Anyone who does not react to such a lengthy decloak is fair game. 5: Flash cloak reduces ramming damage to infantry even further. Only in access of 100km/h can you OHK someone. 5: change the Flash Cloak into a class-specific boost module. Infiltrators cloak, LA's can jumpjet with it, HA's get a big shield/overshield, Medics and engineers I'm not sure off maybe just a high-powered pulse or deploying low-yield AV mines or something. Cloak is not inherently bad on vehicles and neither is ramming damage. A proper change makes it useful but not OP.
Well, since you mentioned the 300kg ATV I have to counter point your light assault suggestion that those jets are meant for a 100ish kg soldier with probably about 40kg of kit tops. Adding the ATV would more than triple that mass, making the jets rather useless.
*cracks knuckles* I made the mistake by not showing my work, but let's delve down this rabbit hole just a few hops. If a MAX can receive a direct hit from a HEAT round and not die, it can survive an ATV. But, here's the math. Kinetic Energy Equals (in Joules), One Half times Mass times Velocity Squared KE=1/2mv^2 300 KG ATV traveling 50 km/h = 28,935.2... Joules of Energy A modern US tank KE (Kinetic Energy round (120mm)) weighs 2.75kg traveling at 1700 m/s = 3,973,750 Joules of direct energy A MAX can survive ANY lightning shot, direct fire. But I digress... the game itself states that a tank round is 500 points of damage. Assuming that both tank armor technology and weapons scaled through this fantasy world equally, otherwise a single technology would dominate. E.g. A tank would one-shot everything... or armor would be impervious... the analogy works for game theory at this level. Using the scale that the tank round deals 500 "points of damage" assumes that equates to almost 4 million joules of damage. Cross multiple and divide at this point. 500dmg per 4,000,000 Joules Thus, 1 dmg point is worth 8,000 Joules (500/4,000,000 reduced) Using this damage to point conversion with real world physics converted to Planet Side 2, an ATV delivering 29,000 Joules of energy should only deal about 4 points of damage (29,000 Joules / (1dmg/8,000 Joules) = 3.625 dmg (Joules cancel each other out) So, I submit to you: Should 4 points of damage kill a MAX?
