[Suggestion] Lock Ons Need To Change

Simply too many weapons able to lock on to tanks, aircraft and all other ground based vehicles. not only that but the ranges on all of them are so long it makes any vehicle combat impossible for all sides. Yes we dont have mass ESf and tank spam no more which I agree was over the top too. But right now there is no enjoyment nor skill involved when every man and his dog has a lock on weapon for every occassion.

Perhaps its time to buff all vehicles against infantry based lock ons so that VEHICLES are the ones taking out vehicles most of the time.

The game is now far too heavily focussed on Heavy Assaults, Mines, AV turrets and AA Maxes.

Planetside 2 differs from the likes of BF3 and COD due to its massive scale combat which is heavily vehicle based out in the open and infantry based in the facilities. At the start the game was far too pro vehicle and bases too open causes rocket spam and tank farming. Now its role reversal.

We need balance and I wonder if SOE has a clue to what or how to do it at all?

Please lets find a way so people who want to play vehicle can do so without being spammed by lock ons and people wanting to grunt it can do so without being spammed by tanks and ESF.

A LOT more cover for infantry from Aircraft and tanks.

The game would need a fairly major redesign to make infantry and vehicles happier. Basically, my ideas are as follows:
-Make bases more spread out and remove several outposts. This will remove those open outposts that are subject to vehicle spam, and vehicle-vs-vehicle combat will be more common between bases, since you cant spam them at almost every base.
-Make bases have larger, more elaborate and enclosed interiors that cant be spammed by vehicles. This way, infantry can play their game once vehicles have pushed into a base. Create large courtyards in the major bases with well-placed cover for vehicles to avoid locks.

Ok shorten Tank and Lib range as well.

Full base interiors would be nice where no tank Lib or ESF can hit no matter what. Then we can take away some of the AV from infantry. Making the open ground Vehicle vs Vehicle and base infantry vs infantry

Full interiors would be a start, but I think a more urban feel would do more. Tight areas that tanks can't get to, but makes a air vs ground fun. Also the addition of sewer systems or something would help to balance the game play. That way you could have all 3 elements, air tank and inf, and the option of what you want to do.

I think that better developed bases would help divide the forces enough that lockon range wouldn't be as much of an issue. Outfits would be forced to leave only a few ppl to do av work, so the lockon weapons could perform as intended, and devote more resources to defending objectives.

Just my thought on it.

Would only work if they nerfed them a lot vs Infantry .. A lot if not most Armour users would rather farm infantry than take out the oppositions armour .. Hell its why we are in the position were are now with Infantry needing tools to protect themselves, because those that were supposed to be protecting them from enemy vehicles were to busy farming .

Should make infantry only give vehicles 10% of the XP they currently do ( or zero ), then make vehicles tougher and increase the XP a vehicle gets for killing another vehicle

The real problem has always been the number of vehicles being spammed, not their effectiveness. The fact that anyone can pull a solo tank or ESF at practically any time makes them incredibly hard to balance. They're either abused for being too powerful or used as throwaway transport because they're too weak.

Right now it doesn't really matter if I pull an MBT, a Lightning, an ESF or just run around as an HA or engy, my role on the battlefield is practically the same. Everything seems to counter everything in one way or another so nothing has a clear purpose. It's fun for a while, but eventually you get tired of it.

I don't think this is an issue that can be solved with balancing. The game is missing a mechanism to limit the number of vehicles being used, since resources obviously don't cut it. PS1's cert system and crewed tanks achieved this, but I guess these things were deemed "not fun" in someone's opinion. Well, sometimes it's actually worth giving up a little bit of fun in one area to get a lot more fun overall.

Then you've done away with the only purpose of a lock-on weapon (since they don't lock-on to anything else).

So, you take away lock-ons and we're back to pilots and tankers farming infantry.

Not my idea, but a decent one...solve this problem by making ESF weapons only capable of damaging ground/air vehicles.
Heavies with dumb fire rockets can still deter tanks, especially now since tank splash damage has been reduced.
This would also free-up the ESF's (who won't be distracted farming spawn points anymore) to engage the Liberators, so they wouldn't be such a pain to infantry either.

When I first started, I didn't pull vehicles. I thought there was a factional limit to resources, I didn't realize that was just personal, so I could go pull multiple vehicles myself. A factional cap of some sort would seem to preclude spamming them, but managing that would be really difficult.

Lockons ok
buff flare timers.

easy solution....double most vehicles HP yes double or just about that and also double resource cost, or slow the amount of resources gained per tick in half and perfect, vehicles are no more or less powerful so no problem there, they are just the way they should be much harder to kill but also MUCH HARDER TO GET, no more spam, tanks are now tanks again infantry still can counter them very effectively not be equally gunned they way it is now, and liberators are gunships again not made of glass like everything else

I agree that the balance has swung to far in favour of infantry at the moment....tanks now get farmed by infantry, unless they hide in a ditch, even then TR and VS tanks still get hit by the Phoenix. The worse thing of all is when what is hitting you doesn't render, and all you see is your tank/sundere getting hit with absolutely no clue where its coming from

vehicles should be a powerful reward for capping territory and playing infantry not a different skin that is no more effective at anything than a heavy is...

I doubt that the mechanisms of PS1 were not used because they were not fun, to be honest majority of the poor decisions surrounding this game come from its business model and the company trying to cash in anywhere it can. Ask yourself, looking at the game as a means to make money which way could they make the most amount of money? The answer is simple allow vehicles to be pulled and used by every single player with little to no restriction and therefore you get to sell more weapons/cammos or whatever for vehicles and at the same time you release more AV and AA weapons to counter the vehicle spam and cash in on both fronts. Thats pretty much all there is to it, they need to make money out of this game and thats just the easiest route.

Sadly, this is what most of the anti-lock diatribe seems to amount to when you get to the heart of it. Good pilots/drivers don't get slaughtered by lock-ons, only the inexperienced, cocky, or out and out stupid.

I've probably fired hundreds of lock-ons at air and ground, and out of those hundreds only a small percentage have probably done anywhere close to terminal damage (especially with ground having infinite repair potential). How is that OP? How is that damaging the game, or driving vehicle users away? What will drive players away, and did do for a long time, is vehicles farming the hell out of infantry. We've been here before, and we don't want to go there again.

As long as vehicles continue to zerg around, they'll be some HA waiting to greet them. Deal with it.

https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/258804630522327040

I'm sure he said something about "everyone having access to everything is more fun" too at some point, but you're right. Bottom line some of the decisions are focused around selling as much as possible in the cash shop.

The way I see it lock on aren't really a problem, especially when you are flying. Would be nice to see some statistics, but when I fly its either other esf, buster maxes or the ground that kills you. I think I died more times to dumb fire and phoenixes then to lock on launchers, because you get warnings so long before the damage comes. In tanks I really don't see it as a problem either, even if I am running with lock down rather then smoke. It bugs me a lot more being hit by phoenixes that I don't have los to, rather then a weak launcher that give 4ish seconds warning before the damage comes that require los for that period.

I can see that you may have an other experience fighting terran, as their esrl is lock on, but same disadvantages still apply.

• Create more cover for infantry and create more full interior bases for infantry fighting.
• Make Tanks require a driver and a gunner.
• Increase tanks damage and hp pool
• Make AP and HEAT more specilised so it's a real choise
• remove a couple of AT weapons from infantry.
• Change ESF to pure air superiorty fighters with very light capabilities for ground support
• Decrease the ammount of avaialable AA that's viable against ESF

Oh the Stryker is indeed a barsteward and rips us up but its not as awful as many make out and I think the Lancer is under used and if more VS use it then they might change its image.