Long past due: LA update (remake)

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by Demigan, Dec 31, 2014.

  1. Demigan

    This is going to be a long read, you can skip to the suggestions part if you want (general idea's in the next post). All suggestions will incorporate idea's that will give LA's something else to do or completely replace C4 in the utility slot, this will in any way reduce the amount of C4 fairies. So anyone with any complaint about that, don't shoot the thread down about "C4 fairies OP" and the like.

    First, why does the LA need an update? The LA is build for confusion and mobility. It's got jetpacks for mobility... and nothing else. The jetpacks allow him to flank and cause confusion. Further he's got smoke grenades to cause confusion, which were then giiven to every class that could equip underbarrel smoke grenades. Smoke grenades also force the LA to equip IR scopes and go into ADS, reducing their mobility.
    Then there's flash grenades, which take away vision. These have to compete with EMP grenades, which takes away vision to a lesser extend, but also removes shields and all deployables. And it also has to compete with concussion grenades, which takes away vision, reduces movement and turn speeds and can even invert your mouse with two hits.

    A large comparison to other classes:

    HA: Designed for full-frontal combat and anti-vehicle.
    +has LMG's and ES heavy weapon
    +Has overshield
    +Has a rocketlauncher of any type he wants to better engage vehicles
    -Is slower when using it's shield
    -Implant is available to specifically reduce the ability of the concussion grenade.

    Updates for the HA: the ES rocketlaunchers, lock-on rocketlaunchers, Kraken auraxium rocketlauncher, various tweaks to shields, damage etc.

    Engineer: Designed for multiple support
    +Can place turrets against infantry/tanks (now with automatic turret)
    -Immobilised and vulnerable when using an AI/AV turret
    +Can place infinite ammo for himself and others
    +Can repair vehicles and turrets
    -Repairing costs time and the engineer can't fight back while repairing
    +Can carry the most types of explosives including the AT mine, and can carry the most explosives at a time of any type
    -only one class-specific grenade available
    ++Class specific grenade is the sticky, arguably the best AI grenade available atm.

    Updates for the engineer: AV turret, Spitfire turret. (if I'm missing updates, please tell me. the Wiki's aren't very forgiving in searching for updates)

    Medic: Designed for on-the-front heal support
    +Has access to AR's to better support this role
    +Has heal-gun that can revive as well
    +has AOE heal or AOE shield regenerator beacon that works on himself
    ++Has access to incredibly powerful revive grenades
    -Has access to heal grenade, which has little used due to the availability of the heal gun and AOE heal which are for free and unlimited
    -self-heal implant makes the heal ability less useful
    -use of healing tool makes the medic vulnerable

    updates: AOE shield regenerator, access tweaks and ability tweaks

    Infiltrator: Designed for scouting, infiltrating and long-range support
    +Has access to sniper rifles
    +has access to various cloak abilities
    +Can hack turrets and terminals
    +Has recon-dart/motion sensor that can scan targets from a distance for friendlies
    ++only class capable of using wraith flash
    +best class to use the OHK knife with
    +can avoid spitfires when stealthed
    -100 less health
    -limited access to primary weapons compared to other classes, low mid-range options
    -cloak disables weapons
    -Cloak quality degrades the faster you move
    -No access to C4
    -Implants specifically to negate the EMP grenade
    -Decoy grenade good for almost nothing aside from Spitfire turret distraction

    Updates: Wraith flash, stalker cloak, motion spottervarious tweaks to weapons and cloak, ES sniper rifles, Spitfire turret (Gives EMP and decoy grenade more functionality)

    MAX: Designed for heavy-duty tanking and high power on the front line against specific targets.
    ++Can carry two (mediocre) weapons at the same time
    ++higher effective health due to high resistance to most weapon types
    +capable of getting the best infantry-based AA
    +Only other class capable of getting non-utility AV options (not counting explosive crossbow), arguably the strongest AV options depending on faction
    -slower walk and sprint speed than other classes
    -incapable of being the driver/pilot for vehicles
    -costs 450 resources
    -no access to grenades
    -Few long-range options

    updates: ES ability, AV weapons added, tweaks to weapons and resistances.

    LA: Designed for flanking, mobility and confusion (smoke grenades&flash grenades)
    +has a jetpack
    +best infantry class to use C4 with
    +best infantry class to use shotguns with
    -Flash grenade is outclassed by concussion grenade in everything but AOE, concussion slows movement, turn speed, can invert mouse, defocuses vision. All that against vision reduction from the Flash grenade, which can be futile as IFF transponders (dorito's above people's heads) can still be seen and used.
    -Specific implant to reduce Flash grenade effectiveness
    -Smoke grenade is given to every class that uses an underbarrel smoke grenade launcher. Underbarrel smoke grenade launchers do not suffer a throwing animation when firing. They don't cost resources, you carry 2 automatically and you can resupply them at ammo packs. Furthermore Smoke grenades can be countered with heat vision scopes. LA's using heat vision scopes slow to a crawl, negating the whole mobility of the light assault.
    -incapable of using weapons properly when jetting
    -Likely not in range of medics when dead
    -Worst off when spitfires are around, most likely to be alone and Flanking fails

    updates: some tweaks to the grenades, some extra carbines (available to other classes as well), jetpack tweaked to get it's actual fuel consumption/capacity as was intended.

    It's a ton of information. But I hope that the gist is clear: LA doesn't have tools, barely any utilities, what special abilities that can be named are all based on it's jetpack alone and the LA has no unique special weapons to speak off. It lacks in teamwork, it's grenades are either given to just about everyone or are weaker versions than other class-specific grenades. On top of that, the LA hasn't had a single update that was solely dedicated to improving the class as a whole, where just about every other class was given a unique weapon and most have gotten a new type of ability somewhere along the line.

    Now the list below contains many idea's that have been posted by me, Movoza and some other people on the forums before. The aim of these idea's is to increase the versatility of the LA, give it more to do than C4 fairy, and make it an actual teamplayer.

    Suggestions and idea's on next post
    • Up x 3
  2. Demigan

    In keeping with the LA's abilities, most of these idea's will be focused on increasing either it's mobility, or ways to create confusion.

    General idea's
    Smoke change
    Public outcry: Low
    Ulitity: Medium-high
    Teamwork: Medium-high
    Smoke has a great utility, but it's effect is greatly lessened by the Q spotting in the cloud. Change this mechanic, that smoke prevents all spotting when looking at a cloud, unless an appropriate sight that penetrates smoke is activated.

    Give infil their spotting to the LA
    Public outcry: Extreme
    Utility: High
    Teamwork: High
    The LA would gain all the teamwork utility of the infiltrator. Because of his movement, he is better suited to drop the darts/spotter at good places, and he will be able to identify his way in better. The infil would get jammer signals.

    General speedboost
    Public outcry: Medium-high
    Utility: Medium
    Teamwork: Unaffected
    As the LA is focused on mobility and possibly is lighter than all classes except the infiltrator, they are faster than them. If the boost is maintained below stuttering movement speed, the storm will be medium, as people will blame a lot of their deaths to this higher speed. In reality, this boost will be only a minor asset.
    Alternative: increase strafing speed, including ADS strafing speed.

    Louder sounds for jetpacks
    Public outcry: Low-medium
    Utility: Unaffected
    Teamwork: Unaffected
    The sounds would be empire specific and much more clear in normal sound situations than it is now. More like the infil his cloaking. This would make C4ing and stealth tactics from the air much harder.

    Jetpack
    Jetpacks do not affect teamwork

    Burstpack
    Public outcry: Medium
    Utility: Medium
    This jetpack was used under several names. It is a more one on one fighter pack. Trading flight for a quick boost in the direction you are moving or in some idea's a burst to the point you are watching. This enables something like a small MAX charge burst, to avoid some damage or closing the gap more quickly.
    As no other details are given, I imagine this pack to give max COF after use. The jetpack fuel will just use one burst quickly, stop and it can then be used again. Certing will simply gain more bursts with a full fuel gauge.

    Rocketpack
    Public outcry: Low-medium
    Utility: High
    The rocket pack is like the normal jetpack, but works differently. When activated, the jetpack will slowly consume fuel. When you release the button, the pack will instantly use all consumed fuel for a burst into the air.
    This pack will limit forward momentum of the normal jetpack greatly, but can be used in fights. A LA is very vulnerable when he uses his jetpack in LOS of an enemy. This pack reduces that, as the burst is quick and high to instantly get onto a building. Downsides are overconsuming and due to less horizontal mobility missing targets, both resulting in longer times to climb and possibly damage or death from a too high jump. Also, the pack needs to consume enough fuel to reach the top of a building, needing you to time your activation right. Underconsuming would also result in more time wasted and possibly damage.
    Problem is when it will be activated. Do you have to jump first for the activation? Or can you just tap the spacebar for jump, and holding space will not activate a jump, but will start consuming fuel. Another option is to just hold "F" to charge.

    Speedpack
    Public outcry: Medium-high
    Utility: Medium
    The speedpack will also trade flight for groundassault. The pack is activated at all times, making the LA lighter and more nimble. The strafe speed isn't upgraded much, but frontal speed is increased because the pack is angled best for running. Jumping is also increased, but not to incredible hights. Speed increase is a difficult subject, so expect resistance for this idea.
    Alternative: When activated the LA will start sprinting and lose access to all weapons. The LA will speed up to a maximum speed and stay there until the energy depletes or the user stops. While sprinting your turning speed is incredibly diminished similar to a concussion grenade hitting you. Hitting objects too fast could cause damage. When you stop, you have a slow-down period of 2-4 seconds before you have access to your weapons again, this is to discourage sprinting to tanks and give them more time to deal with you. It also makes sure that hitbox problems are reduced (with the turnrate reduction the hitbox can be better calculated by the server/players PC)

    Grapple hook
    Public outcry: High-extreme
    Utility: High
    This replacement of the jetpack is over the top. The idea is like the grapling hook from the Zelda games, but with some changes. You can keep hanging from wherever you used this on, being able to ADS and such. This would give an incredible advantage to the LA, as he can hide or get to his destination quicker by just using this on an object in front of him. It can be used again and again, and the only downside is that you can't get on top of every building.

    Teleport beacon
    Public outcry: unknown, possibly extreme
    Utility: High
    This replaces the jetpack with spawn technology, enabling teleportation. A small disc is thrown like a grenade without bounce. When the ability is activated at will at a later time, the pack will have a startup time of 3-5 seconds, and then you are teleported towards the beacon. You retain the health, armour, ammo and momentum you had at the moment of teleporting. If the beacon is destroyed in the meantime, you will die, and the kill goes to the person who destroyed your beacon. The pack has only a few beacons to start with, which will be resupplied slowly over time. All beacons have faction specific colours and a very small faction specific light on top. Teleportation only works within 300m of the beacon.
    The pack can be used to teleport onto structures or hard to get places, like the jetpacks, but can also be used to flank more easily. Attracting the attention of an enemy and then teleporting to flank from an unexpected position. As the ability can only be used sparingly after the first few times, a lot more planning is needed. This to balance out the negation of movement over the distance between you and the beacon.

    Extra upgrade: Smoke screen
    Public outcry: Low
    Utility: Medium-high
    Teamwork: Medium-high
    Smoke grenades of the LA are severely outclassed by underbarrel smoke grenades. No costs and they can be resupplied. To further augment the smoke ability of the LA, he will receive a smoke screen. Pressing (f), the fuel of the jetpack will deplete. Higher cert levels will slow the depletion. The LA will start generating smoke for the duration. This can be used to either cloak your friends, or to shroud the enemy in smoke. This can give an extra element when attacking or defending solo too, as you can hinder sight, moving them into ADS and thus slow them down, and if they don't, you can shake them more easily. The smokescreen is also an ability that can be used where a jetpack is useless.
    jetpacks can still be activated during activation of the smokescreen.

    Extra upgrade: False signatures
    Public outcry: Low
    Utility: Medium
    Teamwork: Low
    Pressing (f), you will activate the ability. You will show up on the enemy their radar, along with a spread of false signatures around you, much like shotgun pallets (one area is selected, pellets spread around in that area). The signatures will follow you at that exact distance they where created, until the ability is deactivated. This will drain jetpack fuel. The difference with the infiltrator his decoy grenades is: this ability is locked onto the LA himself, the LA himself will be visible on the radar, and the way the false signatures move the enemy will know one of them is an LA. So it is more confusion than concealment.
    Extra upgrade: Fire nozzles
    Public outcry: Low-high
    Utility: Medium
    Teamwork: Low to medium
    The LA is build for quick fights and confusion, this weapon combines it into one. Two fire nozzles are mounted on the LA’s shoulders, pressing F activates the ability. You get a directional explosion in front of you in a cone up to 5m distance. In the first 1m it deals 200 damage, at 5m it deals 1 damage to anyone inside the cone. This weapon can be used in the middle of a fight for extra damage.
    Immidiately after use the explosion turns to smoke that stays for a few seconds. You can use this for extra damage, or keep your enemy at a little more range and confuse him with a sudden smoke screen. Alternatively you can use it to create an emergency smoke screen for yourself.
    Every use burns up jetpack fuel. At the First level it uses half a tank, highest level it uses 1/5th of a tank per use. You can only use it once every second.
    Alternatives could be to make it empire specific. The nozzles can be NC (flamethrower like weapon), VS could have an electric/plasma based weapon up to 10 to 15 meters, the TR could fire multiple darts for longer ranges, possibly messing with a persons view through mini flashbangs or similar.

    Tools
    Goggles
    Public outcry: Low-medium
    Utility: Medium-high
    Teamwork: Depends on goggles (low-medium)
    Goggles should add another layer to the LA. The LA is very sensitive to it's own tactics, which no other class has trouble with.
    HV scope & IR scope
    These scopes augment the vision in visually bad situations. IR has a much larger sight than the HV scopes. You can quickly identify and dispatch of enemies, even if you create chaos yourself with smoke. Also, the LA will be more resistant against other LA their disruption tactics, making them a more valuable part of a team.
    Augmented HUD (spotting/radar)
    These two will work on the HUD. Any person spotted by these goggles will outline the target with a small glowing faction specific colour. This outline will persist even behind obstacles or smoke. This will give a little more information to you and all friendlies about the position and orientation of an enemy, but is bound to the LA himself. This in contrast to the infil, who has a very general way of spotting with his tools, and does not need to be present.
    The radar ability will add an indication of the position of enemies on the vertical axis. This means a + or -, or maybe arrows or multiple arrows to give an indication how high or low they are relative of you. ˄ or « (but upwards or downwards facing).
    EMP/Flash protection goggles.
    This goggle prevents any visual impairment to the wearer. The EMP effect won't happen (you'll still lose shields and activated abilities though), and you are immune to flash grenades (or the effect is heavily reduced). A concussion works on the wearer himself, and not on his goggles, so the goggles won't reduce a concussion. (head injury=/=goggles HUD)

    Scrambler
    Public outcry: Low-medium
    Utility: Medium-high
    Teamwork: High
    This works just like motion sensor darts, but with half the time and half the range for each level. This only works against other motion spotters/motion sensor darts. Spotting and vehicle radars will still work as intended.
    It can work in several ways. The first is that it will just deny any sensor/motion spotter in range around the dart. The second is that any sensor/motion spotter within range of the dart stop functioning as long as the dart is active.
    Alternatives are showing false radar signatures, but this is too much like the infiltrator grenade.

    EMP pistol
    Public outcry: Low-medium
    Utility: Low-medium
    Teamwork: Medium
    A pistol that shoots a small pellet, doing 20 damage. A hit results in the same effects as an EMP, but his pellet has no explosion. 170rpm, 2 shots per mag. Total of 6 carried. An infiltrator weapon re-purposed for singular targets. It's use is debatable, as you have to switch weapons, but better for teamplay. A single hit takes out 500 shield and possibly any other active abilities. Alternatively the EMP effect is only visual and/or the EMP has a small explosion.

    sticky boots
    Public outcry: Medium-high
    Utility: Medium-high
    Teamwork: low-high
    When activated the LA can stick to any surface, including vehicles of both friend and foe. The LA will have a standard COF increase while hanging from it's perch, as well as increased COF per shot.
    • Up x 2
  3. Demigan

    Utility
    Keep in mind that if there are good utilities, people will have to choose between those and C4. This reduces C4 fairies, one of the great banes of vehicles without situational awareness/good positioning/proxy radar/with backup. This would reduce the complaints.

    Stimulate kit
    Public outcry: Medium
    Utility: Medium-high
    Teamwork: Unaffected
    Instead of a restoration or medical kit, you can choose to get a stimulation kit. This will increase reload speed, knifing speed, weapon switch speed, walking speed and running speed for 10 seconds. There is a second delay before it takes effect. Each extra level in stimulation kit gives extra injections. Weapon fire, be it automatic, semi-auto or pump action, will not be affected.

    Revival kit
    Public outcry: Medium
    Utility: High
    Teamwork: Unaffected-low
    There's two ways how this will work. One is a deployable platform, put down like a beacon. It has faction specific colours and a small light. This platform costs nanites. On death you can spawn on your platform, which destroys it. When re-spawning this way, all utilities can be chosen except C4. This will not count as reviving, but will mitigate one big problem that the LA has. As it has little to no medical attention, he cannot be revived as often as others. This will give him a little more edge in the respawn business. The pad should cost a considerable amount of nanites, to prevent from chain-spawning at an incredible good location (150-200).
    Alternatively, you get a stimulation kit. The nanites that you inject will stay active for about 10 seconds. When you die, you will immediately get a prompt for reviving (lasts the normal 10 seconds). A glow around the character is recommended to show he used the kit. High risk, possible high gain from this utility. I want to make clear again, when a utility is chosen, you can't equip C4.
    Third alternative: Place a personal beacon with all the same restrictions. It has less light than the normal beacon. After one use the beacon is destroyed.

    Grenade launcher
    Public outcry: Low-high
    Utility: Medium
    Teamwork: Low-medium
    As the LA is a lighter version of the HA, it gets a lighter variant of the rocket launcher. The grenades can either be bounced or explode on contact (switch modes with (X)). The grenades can be shot about twice as quick as underbarrel grenades, but you need 4 body hits to kill another man. This means that it's utility is more in the chaos department than the damage department, as you could have a weak form of area denial. Other grenade options could be implemented, again with weaker version of the normal grenades.
    Alternative: Spider grenade launcher. Fire a bunch of low-grade AI grenades. You can guide them with a laser. They don't detonate automatically or on contact, only when you detonate them yourself or when a timer expires.

    Rocket rifle
    Aparently discussed by Higby, I'll not say anything about it.

    EMP strip
    Public outcry: Low-medium
    Utility: Medium
    Teamwork: High
    An exclusive anti tank weapon. You can cert up to 6 of these strips. They work much like C4, only they don't explode. When dropped onto a tank, they will immediately stop for about 5 seconds, making aiming, shooting and driving impossible. Will also work on a MAX. All abilities of a Sunderer (spawning, repairing, resupplying, shields) are unaffected.
    The tank won't die instantly, several targets can be affected, and the LA still has a disruption ability for the tanks.
    Alternatively the strips can be dropped on the ground, an enemy vehicle that drives across it will be slowed down rather than deactivated to prevent cheesy kills.

    Thermite charge
    Public outcry: Low
    Utility: Medium
    Teamwork: Low
    This brick does more damage than C4, but does it over time. This gives the driver time to escape, maybe even repair the tank.

    Half charge
    Rather than a full C4, the half charges are exactly that: half a C4. Offering longer utility and less loss when you miss one. You can carry 4 of these, but it takes longer to place all 4 than 2 C4 would take to compensate.

    Grenades
    access to all grenades
    Public outcry: medium-extreme
    Utility: High-extreme
    Teamwork: High-extreme
    Give the LA access to every grenade in the game. It's probably wise to remove the Sticky and Revive grenade as exceptions due to the extreme power this would give them. Every other grenade should be available.

    Damage cloud
    Public outcry: High-extreme
    Utility: High-extreme
    Teamwork: High-extreme
    This grenade creates a transparent cloud that deals damage over time. Damage is low, but will prevent any shields from recharging. Another benefit is that damage indicators give more confusion, as it is harder to identify where attacks come from.
    An alternative that I think is more acceptable is a cloud that does not damage nor prevent the shields recharging, but does give out false indicators. If you use this in combination with a smoke cloud, the chaos would get amplified. Public outcry, utility and teamwork would drop to medium, medium-high and medium-high respectively.

    Gel grenade
    Public outcry: Medium
    Utility: Medium
    Teamwork: High
    The sludge grenade would work on either vehicles or units. The grenade affects area's and possibly the units that get caught in the blast. The gel makes it harder to move, reducing speed of everyone walking over the affected ground, or people who where caught in the blast. It lasts 5-10 seconds. Light assaults could be less affected by the grenade. It will increase the LA's effectiveness as it augments their movement. It is like a concussion grenade, but with a bigger area of effect, longer time duration and no visual or mouse change.
    • Up x 1
  4. breeje

    where do you find the time ?
    and who will read everything, the devs ?
    i think you have more chance if you write an open letter to SOE
    people on the forum ?
    as soon they see the three posts you made they will run away, i will
  5. quickbeam2

    Unfortunately the devs have said that they will no longer do class updates as the end result is not worth the time it takes to create the updates. we may get small things from time to time but they will most likely be more nerfs.
  6. Demigan

    And the LA now needs these small things! Other classes have gotten enough small things, with and without specific class updates. The engineer already had an update with AV turrets, now it's got an automatic anti-flanker turret as well?
    • Up x 1
  7. Demigan

    I remade this thread since they removed a part of it earlier on.

    Some of these speed boosts work nothing like the ZOE, and would work more like a Flash but without the actual vehicle. This could work as a prevention method to make hitboxes stay on them, and also prevent the incredible power of the ZOE. Although that was actually an entirely differen problem. Letting MAX's walk&sprint faster than infantry while still toting the incredible power plus extra ROF and almost no extra damage? The higher speed was barely the problem there...

    The HA has an LMG, shield, ES heavy weapon and rocketlauncher to help attack from the front.

    Infiltrator has stealth to attack from behind, but also has sniper rifles, great synergy with SMG's and OHK knives, wraith flash, EMP grenade which is partly the same as flash only it explodes instantly and destroys shields+deployables as well and can help his team and himself with motion spotters/darts, not to mention that he can hack terminals and turrets.

    LA has jetpack, which has great synergy with C4... and that's it.

    You can state that HA is for the front, LA for above and infiltrator for behind, but then why do the other two get more gadgets to accomplish that? That's not fair is it?


    Now that's an idea... This could work very well I think. Nice addition!

    The automatic scout rifles on the LA could be an idea.
    I'm not sure about the jetpack frame. It can be useful for short-term jumpjetting but you also just cut your total achievable height by about 25% I think? That's a lot of height lost for 25% extra speed... It could still be useful though.
    Icarus jumpjets, I've never used them and am hazy if they occured in beta or during an absence during the first year or so. Even so, they seem miles better than any other jumpjet, at least how I use it...

    Yes! There's nothing wrong with the actual killing power of the LA. It's just his utilities and abilities that lack, especially in the teamwork environment. Heavy is a mainstay and shocktrooper, infiltrator can spot, hack and soften up in both defensive and offensive battles, engineer is incredibly useful for his ammo, turrets, additional explosives and repair gun, MAX is a more powerful Heavy but costly, medic keeps the team alive and well, but the LA... the LA is just a watered down engineer in teamplay. He's got barely any utility then.
    • Up x 1
  8. NewwbStyle

  9. Movoza

    My own setup would be:
    - Smoke upgrade. Let only people who are active in smoke penetrating sights able to q spot. People who where q spotted without and move into the cloud will lose q spot.
    - Smoke screen for jetpack.
    - Goggles, all of them.
    -EMP pistol.
    - Revival beacon (I read it like you spawn onto the pad directly, and not by way of drop pod).
    - Gel grenade (instead of flash).
    - Allowed to hold twice as much smoke grenades, which are half nanite cost of what they are now

    For the EMP pistol there might be a slight change too. I might say that the LA would get a underbarrel EMP. It would shoot out a small pallet that gives the player it hits a full EMP effect. This means you can shoot a pellet at an enemy, you EMP them and you switch back to the carbine to finish them off. It is more personal than the EMP grenade, which fits the LA, making it not encroach on the infiltrators turf.

    The goggles I really want into the game. Not only is the LA very sensitive to it's own tactics, there are ample upgrades people can choose to negate all effects. With the goggles you would increase the tactical way the LA has to be played, and it would be more resistant to it's own tactics than other classes, making it a valuable addition. I mean look at all other things. EMP and concussion effect only the people you throw it on. They can be negated by implants. Smoke hinders everyone including yourself, but can be negated by NV scopes and simple q spotting reduces it's effectiveness. Flash is just general bad and can be negated by implants. If you don't go for the NV or IR goggles, you have a personal better spotting or are immune to your own flash grenades (and others).

    The gel grenade would be a nice addition too. Slowing down the enemies if they walk on the effected ground would make bigger targets of people trying to move over open terrain, or just simply slow their advance or moving behind cover. You don't need to lead anymore, as they are standing nearly still. Big area, long effect, no visual or turning effects of the concussion. It seems balanced.
  10. Exalted Exile

    I like the Ideas you had for more jet packs they were well thought out. The goggles were probably the best idea for a light assault tool I have ever seen. The emp strip, thermite charg, and half charge were great ideas as alternates to c4. Finally I like the louder es jetpack sounds and the smoke changes proposed here well done.
  11. Waratorium

    Smoke change
    Maybe. Q spotting through smoke is the one thing that helps players counter smoke if they aren't carrying HSNV. I would agree with this change on the proviso that HSNV becomes more available (HSNV goggles for Light Assaults maybe? More HSNV scope types?)

    Give infil their spotting to the LA
    Disagreed. While the LA is better able to get to tricky spots to place the TUGs, the detection is the main way in which an infil is useful to his squad. I feel providing detection does not add to an LA's role of being mobile and causing chaos. Perhaps give the LA the jammers that you suggested for the Infil.

    General speedboost
    Agreed. Speed is what the LA is all about.

    Louder sounds for jetpacks
    Agreed, jetpacks should be loud for the same reason infil cloak/uncloak is loud.

    Burstpack
    Agreed. Having a pack that quickly boosts you forwards or to the side would be beneficial to the LA without being OP.

    Rocketpack
    I would prefer the LA to have to choose- getting up high, or being hard to hit in the air. I would rather see them keep the current standard jetpack for getting up high, but getting a low fuel capacity, fast recharge alternative that is good at dodging fire in the air but bad at getting to high places.

    Speedpack
    Sounds good but perhaps too much overlap with burstpack.

    Grapple hook
    I would change this to a tool that they can use with the jetpack- they fly onto the roof, then drop a line that other classes can climb up.

    Teleport beacon
    I like this idea. Has worked in other games. Would be the LA's premier contribution to room clearing, which the LA is currently not so great at contributing to.

    Extra upgrade: Smoke screen
    Yes please. Currently engineers with UB SL are far better than LAs for smoke.

    Extra upgrade: False signatures
    Good idea but maybe a little too much overlap with decoy nades. Maybe just give decoy nades to LA.

    Extra upgrade: Fire nozzles
    Interesting idea but I think there were reasons they canned the ideas of flamethrowers.

    Tools
    Goggles
    Goggles are a good idea.

    Scrambler
    Good idea that would make LA more useful to team.

    EMP pistol
    Too much overlap with infil.

    sticky boots
    Good idea but probably impossible to do in this engine.


    I will give more feedback on the other stuff when I get back from going out.
    • Up x 1
  12. Rovertoo

    Things I'd love:

    Ability:
    Burst/Strafe Pack

    Tool:
    Grenade launchers ala mini-mobile HA that the LA is
    -and/or-
    Stim packs/Adrenaline hypos

    Class-specific weapon:
    Bull-pup rifles (longer range than Assault Rifles, better Hipfire, longer reload, possibly only burst fire?)

    Class-special weapon (like the HA heavy weapons):
    Break action double-barrel shotgun (NC), AA-12-esque, very high RoF, autoshotgun (TR), Flashlight-shotgun for VS

    Suggesting shotguns since LA is famous for 'em.

    Class-specific suit slot: spitballed ideas
    Carry additional medkits (?)
    Carry additional spawn beacons (?)
    Respawn timer reduced such-and-such % (?)



    Of course, we REALLY need to make posts like these in General Discussion, where they'll hopefully receive more traffic and potentially dev attention. We also need to make sure we ask Higby next Higby Pls for an update.
    • Up x 1
  13. Demigan

    If you can post it in general without them moving it to the deserted and unseen Class discussions, be my guest... It's actually very weird. They remove vehicle discussion forums for some reason but keep class discussions, even though it probably suffers from the same things as vehicle forums? At the very least it's seen much less than in general discussion where every other class discussion about HA shield isn't immidiately moved here, if at all. How to avoid that? Talk about the overshield rather than the HA?

    I would like to know more about your Bull-pup weapon. It sounds almost like some kind of upgraded Battle Rifle. Assault rifles have pretty good range due to good accuracy and low damage falloff, it would come close to scout rifles but better, especially with the good hipfire.
    Maybe limit the ammo capacity and give it normal reload speeds? If you need to hit almost 100% of your ammo at range/get a few headshots in between the weapon gives enough time for victims to at least get into cover or retaliate, especially since the LA can easily surprise people at range from unorthodox places. At long range a long reload speed is much less a drawback, especially for the LA that can find cover in places other classes can't reach.
    • Up x 1
  14. Rovertoo

    True. I'd hope a general discussion thread about LA could be cobbled together if the topic had to do with 'overall game health' or something else the Mods would notice. Maybe I'll give it a go sometime.

    As for the Bull-pup, it does seem a bit like an upgraded BR. Though that may be attributed to the fact that BR's are a touch UP anyways.

    So maybe instead, we could have the Bull-pups be just as accurate at range, but have the same steep damage drop-off as Carbines. At the same time, we could have fast reloads but low Mag capacity. Assuming they'll be 3-round burst (semi auto optional), we can have 21 (NC/VS) and 30 (TR) round clips, or something.

    That way Light Assaults can utilize perches for long range fighting, would still be able to do well enough up close thanks to the hipfire and reloads, but wouldn't be overtly powerful in either due to damage dropoff and low mag sizes.

    The problem I'm struggling with the idea though is just how powerful they should be. Being accurate, they have a lot of potential to be a Headshot machine in the hands of an LA, which may cause some disturbance. I assume they'd have a low refire time, as penalty for their accuracy at range, leaving burst carbines to be a faster-refire niche of burst weapons. If that niche even exists of course.

    Which leads to another problem, which is what to do with Carbines? While it would certainly be nice to have the LA have a unique primary weapon, it wouldn't seem very fair for them to have two (Carbines+Bull-pups), and I doubt anyone would like to have their carbines taken away for a bunch of burst fire guns, as good as they may be. So maybe instead of giving the Bull-pups to the LA as a unique primary set, we can have a single TR/NC/VS version to give to LA in the same way the HA gets it's Heavy Weapons. "Light Weapons" could be the title. Give them some sweet Faction-flavored attachment and viola! Maybe NC's gets a third fire mode that fires a single long range, powerful round at a charge-up time cost, TR's gets an underbarrel bouncing grenade, VS's gets a continuous beam laser, etc.
    • Up x 1