Currently, it's possible to destroy a Sunderer in about five seconds if you spend about 5k certs on the right unlocks. I don't know exactly how it's done, because I'm not the sleazeball who was running around blowing up sunderers at low pop fights the other day, but I know it's possible because I watched it happen on the killcam after dying to said sleazeball. 4 C-4 and maybe the archer? This wouldn't be possible if the deploy shield was impermeable to enemies. Instead, the deploy shield would fulfill its actual intended role of making it impractical to solo a sunderer quicker than defenders can respawn on it. Enemies also wouldn't be able to bypass the shield by sticking the barrel of their MBT through it, another common method of cheesing the shield. Yes, sunderers should be well-defended if they are to stick around for any reasonable amount of time, but making them so weak to solo players seems like poor design in a game that ostensibly encourages "combined arms" tactics.
Yes, deployed Sunderers now are actually weaker than they used to be to direct grunt assaults. The only thing I'd change about the suggestion is to make the shield go through its cooldown each time its deployed. To stop that silly battle bus squatting to turn the fight BS.
while i do absolutely despise when people kill the fight in low pop, sunderers as they are currently are stronger than an MBT. I play with a small group of friends and I can easily level several MBTs if i space out my encounters between my dome and nanite armour. (maybe 30-40 seconds apart is enough to re-engage right now) i would love to see the deploy dome not have enemies be able to easily go through it, but if that is to be done, please also increase the cooldown time for it to redeploy after breaking once+ slow down the regen rate. nanite armour is also STUPIDLY powerful, i love it, but again, way too much; might need to reduce its burst heal amount.
You're absolutely correct about Nanite armor being too strong. It makes Heavy assault rockets, Harrasers, solo tanks, and AV turrets frustrating to use. It also did NOT solve the sunderer weakness to 3 tank mines/C4, dying to one sneaky engy easily. Devs did a poor job balancing the sunderer rework. I hope they eventually come back to polishing the balance but man it seems like balance is not on the Devs menu. P.S. Scout radar is also too good. You bring 1 sundy to a fight and now you have constant UAV.
yeah the radar is crazy powerful as well. though im not sure how to nerf it without also making it just a copy of infils tools, might have to just outright remove it. I don't want to completely disregard the Dev's efforts however. the reactive armour works wonders against C4 and in their defense it is a bit hard to figure out that perfect balance between keeping it alive while not being tankier than our actual MBTs. the Devs took many steps in the right direction I believe (thank you devs!) , its just some small details were left alone and now those have become a bit of an issue. make all the changes i stated earlier, but also make the reactive armour built in, but only when deployed. this way its harder to kill when being used as a spawn (as in a push cant be completely soiled by a singular LA) while also not being so powerful it can take on multiple MBTs at once. AT mines being placed and shot after the sundy is deployed is also a big issue, so i would expand the reactive armour to the bottom as well, being separate from the mine guard defense slot. HOWEVER! AT mines are purpose built to destroy vehicles. they should still be able to do so. 3 AT mines should still be able to kill a sundy not using mine guard, and if ya don't like it, have sweeper hud when driving.
I think they should just replace an nanite armor with the resistances of blockade armor combined with mine guard. That way the sunderer survives more than 3 c4.
Recently I survived 5 (five!) direct Orbital Strikes in a row with my deployed Sunderer. Is there any other vehicle out there, that can do this? Now let me copy/paste some arguments from this thread, which lead to my conclusion: mcmuffin6o: "Yes, sunderers should be well-defended if they are to stick around for any reasonable amount of time,..." Baneblade: "To stop that silly battle bus squatting..." tobysstandpoint: "...sunderers as they are currently are stronger than an MBT." 23rd enigma: "...Nanite armor being too strong. It makes Heavy assault rockets, Harrasers, solo tanks, and AV turrets frustrating to use." 23rd enigma: "Scout radar is also too good. You bring 1 sundy to a fight and now you have constant UAV." 23rd enigma: "Devs did a poor job balancing the sunderer rework." tobysstandpoint: "...Devs took many steps in the right direction I believe (thank you devs!) , its just some small details were left alone..." My conclusion and easy fix, make the Sunderer more expensive, at least Galaxy level, or more. It must be clear for everyone, that the Sunderer is now the most important, most powerful, most valuable thing on the battlefield and if it gets destroyed, replacing it with just another one shouldn't be an easy task. Also don't make it available at player bases. Job done, fixed! Defend your Sunderer, people!
Orbital Striking a Sunderer has never been an efficient way to kill em, just to get rid of the defenders keeping it alive if they aren't quick enough to jump in. But enemies going through the shield to directly kill it is more effective than the old shield they had to get through no matter what. So yes, anyone who can get through the shield can kill it pretty easily. I could see the New Sundy being limited the same way MBTs are. Which will keep it from being pulled at most bases and seriously hinder zerg Sundy spam logistics.
Orbital strikes are just fancy fireworks, fit only for little more than annoying enemy players, and wiping out routers and spawn beacons.
A deployed Sunderer it the only vehicle, that can deal with Orbital Strikes and can protect up to 11 people from them. It's a strong beast! Yesterday I had some time for a Lightning session and these Sunderers are my worst enemies now, they are everywhere. I'm constantly on the run with my Lightning, which supposed to be a TANK. There are too many Sunderers on the battlefield in my opinion.
Well, to be fair, a lightning is supposed to be a scout tank, not just a watered down poverty MBT, which, of course is what the worshippers of the great smooth brained one have made it over the years
To be fair, Lightning driving behaviour was changed quite a bit in the past. They turned a scout tank into a stubborn donkey. But this is a Sunderer thread and hopefully we can agree, that the Sunderer now is the one and only MBT of PlanetSide2.
agreed, they should be impermeable... HOWEVER, already it is easy to abuse the shield by placing a sundy near a wall so that part of the dome is inside the building and using the shield dome from the inside of a building to be essentially immortal. so if the shield should be impermeable, they shouldn't be able to allow the shield to go through walls.
Nanite Armor Should just be a buffed Nanite Auto Repair. Make it So that it delays repair for 6 seconds if the vehicle gets damaged and resumes when it is not taking fire.
Deployed Sunderers require a currently inordinate amount of babysitters to keep them alive. You basically have to dedicate an entire squad to hold the bus, which due to no-deploy zones, is far removed from most capture points
