(warning wall of text) Grenade Launchers for Light Assaults is an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a while now and I would like to know what the more experience LA players think of it. Currently in Planetside 2 the only class that can be called incomplete or lacking because the light assault is the only class that doesn't have a tool all of the classes have a class ability and a tool or some sort the LA, on the other hand only has a class ability which although useful still is not a big enough advantage to make up for the lack of a tool. As is see it compared to the heavy assault the light assault should trade durability and sustainable firepower for mobility and some utility, currently compared to the HA the LA trades durability, sustainable fire power, and the ability to damage vehicles without out the use of C4 for mobility. I believe that adding a grenade launcher as a tool of the light assault would make it more desirable to play as and give then some utility that their heavier brother lacks. In exchange the LAs C4 carrying capacity will be reduced to 1. The Grenade Launchers (Note the first 1 will have the same stats across all factions) Single shot (Default): The default grenade launcher is meant to be a weaker version of the default launcher available to the HA class although it doesn't do as much damage per shot as its launcher counterpart it reloads faster, has a bit more aoe damage(although it can't kill in one shot) and has better velocity Mag size: 1 Ammo pool:10 Reload Speed: 2 seconds Damage 850 (note 200 of the damage comes from the impact of the grenade) AoE Damage: 200 before 1 meter 1 after 5 meters Velocity: 200 ms Fire modes: HEAT grenades shoots grenades that are effective against vehicles and infantry and detonate on impact Stats: Damage 850 (note 200 of the damage comes from the impact of the grenade) AoE Damage: 400 before 1 meter 1 after 5 meters Pain field grenades: pressing b switches to pain field grenades, the grenades have an area of effect of 7 meters and any enemy in the field takes 200 damage every second that they are in the field, the pain field ignores any resistances(such as resist shield, nanoweave armor, the resistances that maxes have to damage) the field lasts 15 seconds and anyone enemy in the field is unaffected by concussion grenades to prevent large multi kills. the purpose of the PFG is to disrupt dug in groups of infantry and maxes. Alternate grenade types: Bounce grenades: these grenades replace the default HEAT grenades, instead of detonating on impact they bounce one after which they detonate on impact with the next thing that they hit. They trade the ability to damage vehicles for increased AOE damage though it no longer dose any damage on impacting with an enemy. Stats Damage 400 before .5 meters 1 after 6 meters Empire specific Grenade Launchers TR: Meteor grenade machine gun Fire mode: full auto mag size: 20 Ammo pool:80 Reload speed: 6 seconds long. 4.5 seconds short Fire rate: 200 Damage: 150 AOE:150 before 1 meter, 1 after 2.5 meters velocity: 300ms Basically its a grenade machine gun that has little AOE but is good against maxes and vehicles. NC: Sledg Hammer Shot gun grenade launcher mag size1 ammo pool: 4 Reload speed: 3 sec Damage 150 Number of Pellets: 10 AOE: 50 before .20 meters 1 after 1 meter velocity 150 Sledg Hammer do tons of damage to vehicles and maxed at close range but suffer at longer ranges. VS:Omega (if you can come up with a better name then feel free to suggest one) laser pointer of death Notes the Omega does not use ammo and instead uses a cooldown mechanic like the phaseshift and has two fire modes the default fire mode shoots a continuous laser beam and the second mode shoot sticky grenades that do damage over time to their target if their target is an enemy, if their target is not an enemy they will detonate after 5 seconds doing 300 damage out to 2 meters. Up to 2 grenades can be stuck to an enemy at a time if a third grenade is stuck to an enemy then all three will detonate doing a combined total of 600 damage with a fall off of 300 before 1 meter and 1 after 3 Laser stats Damage: 150 every .5 seconds Over heat time: it can fire continuously for 15 seconds before over heating Reload speed: 4 seconds Velocity: 700 ms Max laser distance 200 meters Sticky stats Damage 50 every half second for 10 seconds (can stack up to 100 every half second up to 10 seconds) Number of shots before over heat: 4 Reload speed: 4 seconds Velocity 200 ms The Laser mode of the Omega is meant to be a longer range option that trades risk for the ability to reliably damage targets a longer ranges than most AV weapons but does lover damage because of that, the other mode does damage more reliably than the first mode but is risker to use I added the third grenade detonating the first to prevent the DOT from getting two high and to give people using the second mode the option to get a bit more burst damage at the cost of damage over time. For those who didn't read most of the thread I'd like to give LA grenade launchers to make them more similar to their HA brother and to improve the class. One of the thing they got was pain field grenades that are meant to be used to disrupt entrenched enemies and help with sieges in exchange for these changes the LA can only carry 1 brick of C4 at max. Thanks for reading my thread pleas post feed back in the comments, and fi you have a better idea for making the LA better please post that to. Also if anyone has any more ideas for non-empire specific GL please post them. Thanks in advance for Replies! EDIT: Changed the AOE damage of the Default Launcher
1) So right after two patches that nerfed hard all explosive AOE damage because everyone got tired of this stupid cheesy tactic of explosive spam, you decided it would be a good idea to bring more explosive spam? No thanks. 2) Light Assault is an in-fighter. Close range specialist. Point assault, base capture and defense, flanking - these are our perks. Having a weak grenade launcher that would require a lot of uptime on a vehicle to do meaningful damage does not synergize with that.
@Iridar what would you give the light assault class to make better then? Also thanks for pointing out excessive AOE damage of the default launcher now that I look at it again it is a little excessive, I've changed that now, the point of the GL was to be about killing vehicles not farming infantry, besides the uptime to kill a tanks wouldn't be to high it would only take 5 or so rear armor hits to take out an MBT and considering the GL reloads faster than a launcher could potentially kill a tank faster than a launcher. Then again your idea of what the LA should be might be a bit more accurate than mine, my idea was based it name Light Assault which in my mind suggest some sort similarity with the Heavy Assault and it took that to mean that the LA would trade the power and sustainability of the HA and trade it for Mobility but still keep the ability to tackle vehicles though it would have to rely on its mobility more than on raw damage, hence my suggestion.
It's a good question. There's been many ideas, and I don't really like any of them. I don't thin LA needs a tool as a tool. Some generic buffs would be enough: faster movespeed in all stances, 75% ADS on all carbines, better carbines for long range, access to Assault Rifles, faster Jet Packs, increased accuracy while in flight. These are to increase the direct combat potential of the Light Assault, especially indoors. Not necessarily all buffs at once. It is fine that Light Assaults are useless for point defense, that's not their motto anyway. But LAs also have a distinct problem that they are ineffective in organized squads that rely on medics to revive people, and don't constrain themselves to hard spawns. The ability to spawn in squad-occupied Galaxy helps, but not quite solves the problem. So if LA dies on the roof, he won't be able to get in the fight back with his squad. This problem can be solved in many different ways: 1) Personal Spawn Beacons You can place a spawn beacon only once per life, and after it is placed, you can spawn on it once, then it expires, and you need to place a new spawn beacon. 2) Pathogenic's Insertion Module 3) An ability for Light Assaults (or any other class) to revive Light Assaults. So any ally, including another Light Assault, can approach Light Assault's corpse and hold action key to revive him.
While probably not allowed by the engine, it would probably add a lot of fun to the LA class if you could jump off a wall, or "cling" to a wall and slide down the surface a slower pace while still having the option to jump off the wall. I think they can get away without adding an extra utility slot if they find a way to make LA more agile. Currently jetpacks are nice, but you don't really feel any "faster" when playing as LA since you can just run at about the same speed you can use the jetpack. OT: I don't think something like this really fits LA, would be better on an engineer or HA as a rocket replacement. Just the idea of grenade launchers in general that can bounce around is a no-no in a game with this scale, too much spam. And if you're looking for contact-explode grenades UBGL fits the role quite nicely for LA.
Hmm... maybe Upgrading Device, placed on ground like Motion Spotter but not showed on minimap until q-spotted. It will upgrade one nearest friendly device, bigger radius of Motion Spotter (maybe 2 meters), less downtime on Spawn Beacon (some seconds), faster reload on Mana Turret etc. LA can place only one at a time. Upgrading Device will have 5 meters radius and will connect with nearest friendly device. Upgrading Device can't upgrade other Upgrading Device. Rewards: I see two options, assist xp (example: from enemy killed by upgraded Mana Turret) or some xp over time if there is enemy in hex. Something like that, just to give LA support option (or give it to engie and let LA have ammo packs or to infil and let LA have hack ability). ps. sorry for colors, dont now how to fix it.
Im not sure what game you are playing but my LA already has a grenade launcher and it works like a charm when flanking up on roofs and fire on small groups hiding behind walls etc. Makes thread about adding grenade launchers to the game Already are grenade launchers in the game ???????? Profit?
Reaction to: was pretty positive http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/2cbwpf/suggestions_for_light_assault_updates/cjdwtuq
@Botji Sure the light assault can under barrel grenade launchers, the launcher that I was suggesting would have more utility than the UBGL because of the pain field grenades which could be used to held break deadlocks in infantry fights by forcing enemies it its AOE to move or die.
Not going to argue with you since the fact that you think they would be a good addition to the game is.. to me the craziest thing I have ever heard and we would never be able to agree on anything. Bye!
I thought of something like this before the UBGL nerf, to take UBGL off engineer and make it an extra rail attachment that took up the tool slot for LA. LA don't always, as a matter of fact rarely, have access to an ammo pack, and are one of the least played classes, so it would have dropped a lot of the UBGL spam we had seen before the nerf, and LA gets to use such a tool much more effectively than other classes, as you can flank large clusters pushing a door or corner rather easily. Plus it would have given us that much more firepower, nothing sucks more than getting in a good position with 40/35 as your ammo count, with no access to supplies as you aren't on the front line, and it used to be accurate while flying too, in a pinch. Since the nerf tho, this would just be a crap idea. What LA could use is some added speed, and not necessarily straight velocity, just better acceleration/braking on jetpacks, with maybe a slight boost to velocity (like +10-15%) would go a long way to increasing effectiveness. Not being starved for infantry resources has helped a good bit. The most comparable class for off the front line fighting is the infiltrator, which comes with a lot of kill potential in their weapon for when you don't have access to engineers, a weapon that can fight at safer ranges when you don't have access to medics, takes less uptime to have an effect, and can clear spotting to avoid being hunted down while further minimizing exposure to targets. With LA, it's just a matter of time before your health gets chipped away one engagement at a time (although regen helps with this) and you generally are looking at 7-12 kills before you need to secure more ammo, depending on range and how quick the targets react and move evasively to your shots. This isn't considering the fact that just one dead guy can, before he sees it on his screen, instantly end your streak with the "Q" button. This is the biggest problem with the class imo, we just lack sustainability/survivability when away from our allies. oh and like iridar said, when we die, even in a base flooded with allies, all it takes is for us to be on some crates 5 feed above ground to be unlikely to receive a revive.
I want rocklet rifle, but only because it sounds cool I think I'm just gonna call my pump action shotgun with slugs "rocklet rifle".
Light Assault is the most fleshed out class of the game. I have been playing since beta and while I do prefer the long range of the sniper, when yit hits the fan or I need to do some CQC or mid range, I always switch to the LA. They don't need anything they don't already have. They are the beyond front line fighters. Pushing the enemy back so the HA, Medics, and Engies can advance and keep the main front line moving. You can get phenominal positioning with the jet pack. I have gone on longer kill streaks with the LA than any other class (including vehicles). The LA is just fine the way it is. Their tool is there jet pack.
my ideas: -adrenaline shot(temporarly increases movement speed(even while ADSing but to a smaller degree) and jump height) -climbing equipment(allows to climb even perpendicular surfaces for a limited time,disallows weapon usage,regenerates while not moving(just like stalker))
I never got this notion LA's are weak. Being able to flank and attack from directions most lemmings would never think to look is an insanely powerful ability. New toys would be cool and fun but also dedicated grenade launchers wouldn't work in this game. it'd just be LAs across the board loling as they spam nades. It worked in Planetside 1 because the TTK allowed for it.
The problem is that you can't flank with other classes. That's a personal problem and does not make LA strong...
