[Vehicle] Liberator rework

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Psinobious, Feb 27, 2020.

  1. Psinobious

    From playing planetside 2 the liberator has been in a rather odd place for quite some time making balancing the thing an interesting spectacle to watch. At this moment Liberators in its current state can only fill a very niche role in the meta which is just simply to go patrol around the map looking for small to medium size fights to oppress on people. It however is completely useless in a large scale fight where planetside shines the most. How is a liberator pilot supposed to even get close enough to a target to do damage without getting absolutely spammed by rockets, burster maxes, AA turrets and AA lightnings. You could say that because the liberators effective range is so short it makes up for it with sheer damage and speed, but that just is just not the case.

    The dalton in all its pride and glory has only one shot, a long reload time, non-existent AOE damage, and a travel time that requires the liberator to be in arms reach of everything that can kill it. The shredder requires that the liberator pilot hover above a target to do consistent damage leaving it vulnerable to everything around it. The dusters are extremely inaccurate with a huge cone of fire forcing lib pilots to get absurdly close to infantry to be effective. Finally the zypher is basically the heat cannon for air vehicles that requires at least three shots to down a soldier at full health.

    The liberator needs to be a vehicle that can get in, do the damage that it needs, and get out quickly for it to be relevant. The best way to start doing that is to remove the tailgun seat and instead have the tail gunner be in control of the nose gun of the liberator, not the pilot. With the tailgunner controlling the nose gun it provides enough consistent damage to quickly deal out necessary damage to infantry or vehicles then retreat. The pilots job is to simply make sure the aircraft is safe and that its gunners have a proper shot to do damage. It makes no sense for the pilot to consider using the gun since it can only really shoot forward forcing the pilot to align the craft so the main gun may not even have anything to shoot at.

    For the missing tail gun, it should be replaced with module options that can enhance the liberators ability in some kind. One module could be a temporary shield that can help the liberator eat flake rounds for the NC to stay in the fight a little longer, while another would allow the liberators weapons to go into overdrive for a short time to make sure the target is dead for TR, while another module can just turn the liberator into a purple dragon and make it go fast for VS. Or even have a targeting module that would allow gunners to better identify targets to shoot at so pilots don't have to communicate as much with the gunners. But the modules purpose should be to help the liberator excel at getting in, doing damage, then get out.



    PS: Nice to see that the dev teams not getting shafted as hard by bureaucracy and they managed to add a fleet carrier. If they are willing to go this far then maybe they may consider giving the liberator another look.
    • Up x 1
  2. JudgeNu

    I agree with the "utility" options.
    Here is the problem imo.
    Every upgrade/balance pass must take into account several factors.
    Mainly the size of the fights and the way players (VS) will exploit it.

    The Lib can go into small fights and dominate over solitary vehicles but in larger fights it is less effective because of this. It is a threat so it is a priority type of thing.
    Seems easier to get a lock-on to Libs as they can be slower. (idk if they got rid of the afterburner boost, my decked out Lib collects dust and rust)

    So i agree that a "module" as you say would be interesting and possibly faction unique.
    Personally i like Synergy.

    I think ill re-install Overwatch.
  3. Psinobious


    I don't really think balance is the liberators biggest problem to deal with right now. The reason why I made this post in the first place is that liberators do not serve a meaningful role in the game right now. If supposedly the point of liberator is to just go on patrol and search for small fights or lonely vehicles to oppress then why not just do the same thing in a valkery. Unlike liberators that cost 450 a pop valkeries only cost 250, has a gun that can be kitted with an anti vehicle turret, seats 4 passengers with lock on rocket launches, and can also spawn teamates in them if the heavy decides my gender is a C4 fairy. Would you really go through the pains of making sure that you have a crew with mics properly kitted to fly a lib when you can just run valkeries and have squad mates spawn in as necessary?

    Right now we can't really find a place for the liberator because not all of its guns are being used to its fullest potential. This change seeks to at least address it so we can move forward.
    • Up x 2
  4. iller

    Lib needs to remain VERSATILE.
    If you want it to have Roles, that should be done by drastically changing its DEFENSE's slots intended survival effects.
    ...maybe even assign them Vulnerabilities in trade for the specialty purpose it's taking on...

    Composite is kinda Garbage right now, no real protection from Flack ... no real noticeable resistance to ESF Rotaries which arguably if anything should resist those, it SHOULD be skywhale & Lib heavy plating because you're giving up almost all in-flight Reparing for it

    Stealth is alright for buying an extra second on Lockons but it needs to do more to obscure the craft's long distance OPTICAL visibility and maybe even reduce Q Spotting range

    Nanite regen, Suppression, and Engie passive??... yeah you're pretty close to being Wolverine already which is exactly what makes that Small-Pubby Fight DOMINATION role actually a bit overpowered so maybe this combination of auto-repair is the one thing that needs its "role" changed the most by giving it vulnerabilities too? It's the one almost everyone runs and then complains that they have no "role" slowing down Zergs. So it's probably the main problem with everyone else's perceptions of the Lib's "Feast or Famine" backlines bullying

    Also, Why is there only 3 of these Defenses to pick from still? Can't they think of anything new? they've only had 7 years now
  5. Psinobious


    I'm not really sure it should have a role right now, I just want the devs to take another look at the liberator since they aren't getting shafted as hard. Most of the time when I use liberators or see them in massive fights lib pilots have about 5 to 6 seconds to do what damage they can before everyone decides to turn this beluga whale into illegal black market. I think with the liberator it is important to play into the flow of how the liberator currently functions with just being hit and run. Allowing a second person to use the nose gun instead of the pilot lets the pilot focus on keeping the liberator alive while the gunner deals the damage it needs.

    Also I don't really consider small base fights as a metric of performance for a vehicle. It can be said that a mosquito equipped with anti-ground can absolutely dominate a small base fight. If the liberator currently steamrolling small base fights will the change that I am proposing really make the steam rolling hurt more? They are probably already getting steam rolled to begin with so why is that such an issue?

    And I'm not really sure why everyone keeps saying anti-air is so weak. We have burster maxes, lock-ons, AA lightings, base turrets that can easily be repaired, even the spawn itself has an invulnerably shield everyone and their mother decides to camp under spamming all AA out that its silly at times. Its only made worse when much of these spawn bases has vision of most of the objective zones so no hiding from it. Your not gonna smooth criminal any base when 8 heavies with lock-ons decide your dead.
  6. PlanetBound

    It's rare but when people take advantage of the Valk for battle they are devastating to a single vehicle.
  7. TRspy007

    ...max height libs raining hell on a fight.

    That's all I'm going to say about this thread