[Suggestion] Make Fire Suppression Automatic

Again, you are incorrect.

http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Fire_Suppression_System?diff=40495&oldid=34700
(GU13: 7/24/13)
'When ready, the Fire Suppression System can be activated at anytime.'

http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/ESF_Update_January_16,_2014
(ESF Update: 1/16/14)
'Increased the amount of damage repaired by fire suppression on ESFs. Increased from 3/6/9/12% to 6/12/20/25%'

So, all vehicles got the ability to use FS whenever they wanted six full months BEFORE the ESF one was individually buffed to heal 25%.

Do you understand what this implies? We played for 6 months with an on-demand 12% heal in ESFs, it was found to be both underutilized and underperforming, and as a result, SOE buffed it to 25% for ESFs only. Notice how the name remains 'Fire Suppression' following the reworking of the utility.

Good pilots don't wait til 75% to hit a 25% heal. They wait til ~85% and continued incoming fire. That's just using your cooldowns intelligently (getting the most out of your utility when it's off cooldown + using it as frequently as possible).

Your second example casts a negative light on using it to prevent a 2nd lock-on from destroying their plane, by using the Nanite Repair over time utility to heal themselves after a damage spike. So, you have an issue with using a clearly designed and implemented healing cooldown to heal, because it has a small overlap with a different utility? Why not just have 3 people shooting at the plane, which would destroy it everytime, regardless of Fire Suppression, unless the pilot is running flares?

You are trying to prove your case by using an isolated example with very specific balance on each side. If there is anything besides those two lock-on heavies shooting at that ESF, it's almost going to certainly die after taking 2 lock-ons and using a 25% FS, since it's nearly on fire again, and Fire Suppression is on cooldown. As I mentioned above, if either HA is smart enough to pull out their LMG after firing their lock-on, they could just burst it down with small arms fire without even bothering to reload.

Not to mention that this whole thread is predicated from a false dilemma that FS and Flares are the only two viable choices for ESFs. That's why I'm having such a hard time understanding how you can see the game like this. If there's any sort of ground force and, for some reason, I'm actually pulling an ESF to engage it, I'm going to play in a squad and take my Rank4 Scout Radar bird. You cannot support your argument based on these two utilities being the only viable options, because what is a viable option for each player is actually a playstyle choice.

TL|DR: The utilities are relatively balanced, play with a squad and get those kills.

I simply said that "Fire Suppression" was given two buffs. That is correct.

As for you correcting me on how pilots abuse the health padding at 85%? You only prove my point that its being abused. People are using it to mitigate damage. This needs to either be taken back, or its health recover needs to be dropped back to 12% like the rest of the vehicles.

I am trying to prove my case by showing that the other utilities are completely situational, while "Fire Suppression" has no situational requirement what so ever. This is what makes it abused. The fact you can hit it whenever you want for that free repair and never having to worry about using it only when you are on fire as a last resort.

Congratulations for making the 100th post by the way.

You said, and I quote:

Emphasis is mine. You have the order wrong. Increasing the value to 25% was fully intentional with the current, 'use whenever you want' mechanic. They didn't make the ESF repair 25% only while the plane was on fire, then allow all vehicles to hit FS whenever they want.

It's not abuse: it's working as intended. Abuse is defined as intentional misuse: Fire Suppression is an on-demand heal over time that can be used at any current health level. You can say abuse in every post, but you're using it incorrectly. Your interpretation of what the skill is seems to be lacking, perhaps you should spend your efforts petitioning SOE to change the name of the utility, since they seem pretty set on the mechanics, interplay, and balance with the other utilities. And, yes, I'm not even arguing that I'm using it to mitigate damage, because I am, since that's what it's designed to do.

Again, as mentioned in my first post in the thread, Fire Suppression is 15% for the Valkyrie. The ESF is not a special snowflake, there are two vehicles with unique heal values.

I understand the argument are trying to make. My point is this: If you're under continuous fire, it doesn't matter if you hit FS at 85% health, or 8% health, it's still going to heal you the same amount, over the same duration, and if you take more damage in one FS cooldown cycle than your plane has + the heal from FS, you're dead anyways. It doesn't matter when you hit it, it's always performing the exact same function.

I fail to see how that message isn't getting through.

The order doesn't really matter, I was getting the point across on the two buffs that it received. You simply said "Incorrect", You can't really say that without being specific, especially when the order is not a concern of mine.

You fail to see how it isn't getting through because you fail to see why "Fire Suppression" is being abused as a health pad too much. ESF's in particular are being given too many freebie heals. They are the fastest vehicle in this game and can pretty much pick and choose when to engage/disengage from a fight if its not another ESF.

The "Fire Suppression" utility can block 55% of a lock-ons damage. This is where I feel it is causing flares to not be used as much because it is only slightly weaker at blocking the lock's damage with no situational requirement whatsoever. It performs all roles and all combat types with no drawback what so ever.

render distance could be solved by simply preventing infantry weapons hitting beyond render. Boom, that easy.

I will continue to bring up medkits, as long as you claim self heal is somehow abuse of game mechanics. If you report me, I will contest the report.

I am just going to leave this here. Thanks for this!

Now with RED INK!

Yeah, its probably how they were intended to work anyways, making them automatic reminds me of the second wind implant from planetside 1, where if you dropped below 25 health you'd immediately be bumped up to 50 I think it was, which was a real nifty implant if you cared about surviving what could have been something fatal, which in this case for vehicles I imagine it would work the same way, which if you are in a vehicle and it dips into the red you'd immediately receive a boost of repair maybe to help tank what would of otherwise been a fatal attack.

Currently serves as a reusable health kit type deal for vehicles, which is nifty, but I think that ruins the point of ever taking any other ability over it.

Yes! My idea stops it from being abused. That way if someone fires a shot at you that would be enough to completely destroy you, "Fire Suppression" can't be used to pad the damage and unfairly deny the shooter their kill.

I could raise the point that the cooldown is significantly longer than flares, and while it helps against a single lock on it is by no means a get out of jail free card against an ATA esf wielding tomcats. Activating it for a free repair have meant I often start the next engagement without it, and this has lead to death more often than not.

I mean your majority point is against ESF because of the 25%, but the airgame as an isolated part would be even worse without the added padding, and for ATG bombing you would be safer against instagibbing when you get targeted by 3-5 flak maxes so technically there are downsides to manual activation here that you would fix with your solutions thus making it easier for the pilot.

Second Wind healed 25 health and 25 stamina upon activation. It also had the longest initialization timer of all the implants (3:10, twice the average init time) and had to re-init every time it fired off. I forget if you could turn it off (though why would you want to?).

MedKits also healed 25 health, and their cooldown timer was only 2-3 seconds. Unlike in PS2, you didn't even need to put your gun down or stop shooting to use a MedKit, a surprising lack of a common feature as PS1 is all about occupying your hands with only one thing at a time. Slam dat F1 (default bind).

Yep- it's true, fire suppression is better than flares. This means flares need to be buffed, not that fire suppression needs be be nerfed.

Or, They could simply fix the single utility that is being abused over the others versus having to rebalance two utilities.

Again, free health is not abuse. ESF's have as much right to it as do infantry.