This section of the forums is mainly you players who main a MAX. I respect that. You may have noticed though that there alot more MAX running around. I think the fact people are putting away their chosen classes, like infiltrator and ESFs to use MAX shows there is a problem; I'm sure some of you disagree and will let me know. I'm curious though what some of you think who've been maining a MAX for a while now, how would you guys change things so that people who want to play as HAs and tanks don't feel like they are doing the wrong thing by not selecting a MAX? First off I just think ZOE is broken, but so are strikers and such, so I think that's irrelevant to the overall picture and gameplay, I also think ZOE will get nerfed anyway. It's interesting because overall I think the MAX feels like it's as strong as it should be (though fractures, ZOE, and bursters could use minor tweaking). I think the problem is MAXes are revivable even though they function like vehicles, and they are just too cheap and easy to pull everywhere. I think a standard AMS terminal shouldn't spawn MAXes, MAXes need to be restricted to being pulled for base defense or manually transported, and they should in no way shape or form be relivable. If I kill an ESF or a tank, it dies, if I kill a MAX it just gets back up - yet the MAX has just as big of an effect on a battle (or even bigger) then a tank or ESF; they should die like vehicles. How many of you really think MAXes are currently fine and well balanced in gameplay?
How would I change things? well for NC a lot of **** really Current NC max: CQC range limited all AI weapon is shotgun AV weapon require to stand still and aim max ability is meh need a lot of tweaking and many bug fixes Slug are unreliable require to crouch/still/semi-auto shoot to hit anything How I would fix our max: Remove all shotguns from it Give it medium range weapon like dual Gauss arms 187 damage Make the shield BIGGER to actually protect infantry Give AV weapon to TR and give NC something more NC Now the other issue -Make max unrevivable -Infantry resource 200 Right now NC max is not a threat at all in open battles to infantry/tanks/air any smart ESF player will go fight NC instead of tr/vs since NC don't have any AA beside burster with no damage buff.
^^ I hear you from the NC perspective, the shotguns feel too week now; can't even win 1v1 up in an AI MAX's face. I really need to try dual falcons though, the dual comets are so beastly; with the second comet and burster I've never felt wanting in my VS MAX. My TR MAX seems great with a mercy to go along with the cycler - I wish I had 2000 certs for dual fractures, but that's not going to happen for a while, and TR's anti infantry weapons seem much better then the NC's shotguns (haven't tried slugs, maybe i'll give them a go). Have you tried out dual falcons, are they anywhere near as good as dual comets for AI duty?
Yeh I use to be pretty good with the falcons but after the change it really sucks now and the comets ARE WAY WAY better then the falcons. The comets have 2 rounds per arm while the falcon only has 1 on each so if you miss both you are basically screwed but who know I haven't touched the falcons in ages you can give them a go in VR but I doubt you will like them.
lol, here is what i would do. All MAX's Not allow a MAX to swap guns at terminals.(to solve the AA problem, and to make spawning MAX's more of a tactical thing) Give all MAX's a missle pack as a special. It fires 6 salvos (3 on each side) of swarm rockets that randomly pelt an area at the targeted location doing 143 damage per rocket with a 3 meter range randomly over a 30 meter area. They would also launch up to prevent their use indoors. Mainly used as a form of light artilery Add Travel mode (can't shoot but you travel 40 kph takes 5 seconds to start/stop) Give charge the ability to knock players back and do damage (most likely just the damage as the servers can't take that much collision detection) Triple damage from headshots with a sniper rifle. Make engineers rez MAX's instead of medics, they have to repair them to full for revive. (to make max's harder to bring down and harder to get back up). NC Allow 1 gun to be used with the shield Add a ranged AI Gauss Machine gun Change the falcons into a low velocity AP canon with no AoE lower damage vs infantry so raven's no longer 1hk with 2. TR Allow for 360 degree aim while on lockdown. Add a new chaingun that has a high RoF, carbine range, but low damage. Increase the fractures Rof and clip size and lower the damage to be more in tune with TR's theme (same TTK and everything) VS Add a 15 second charge that lasts 30 seconds to ZoE and in ZoE forum up the damage done 20% and the damage taken calculated before MAX armor (IE 60% resist) Increase VS AV about 15% Change the Vortex to add a small Vortex that does it's damage over time and increase the vortex 30% and a 3 meter AoE (remove the charge completely) Increase the AI weapons to have the same range as the NC and TR ranged guns
I would add a new "ability" that can be certed into. At default a MAX should cost >500 infantry resources, what can be reduced by certing into the new ability to 50 or 100 at max rank. (Re-)Spawning a MAX is not a problem at all at the moment - you just always have enough resources to spawn one max after the other all the time. That negative could be ballanced by not letting a MAX beeing a OHK for a C4-brick without Flak-Armor.
First, a few things I'd like to point out. Yes MAXes are sort of like vehicles, but they don't share all of the benefits, just like they don't share all of the weaknesses. MAXes are vulnerable to small arms fire. Tanks are not. MAXes may not repair themselves (outside of NARS). Vehicle drivers can. MAXes can't exit the suit, cap a point, and then return to the suit. Vehicles can. Also, a MAX pilot can't bail out of his MAX when he's about to die. And I can't give my MAX to a squadmate like I can with my Vanguard. What I would do? Reward dedication, but make playing a stock MAX not really worth it. -Increase the CD timer by double, but also increase the CD certs the same amount (make them cost more if that's what it takes). -Increase the Infantry resource cost to 250. A good MAX pilot will make that back easily with an average run. -MAXes may no longer be revived by medics, BUT they may be revived by an engineer fully repairing them. -Increase the armor cert costs by 50% across the board, but also increase their benefits by 10-25%. -Aegis Shield: increase the cert costs by double, and make the shield omnidirectional. -Lockdown: Double (yes, double) the current firerate bonus, and a small increase in accuracy. Increase cert cost accordingly. -ZOE: increase cert costs by 50%, leave the rest alone. (or give them their jetpack back from PS1) -Charge: Add two more tiers to this certification to reduce CD time down to 20 seconds. A stock MAX should be slightly tougher than a certed HA. A fully certed MAX should be an indoor death machine.
I'd maybe quibble some of the ability numbers, Doubling lockdowns ROF bonus will back fractures damn neat instagib vehicles (TR player speaking) otherwise I'd prefer this direction, make MAX a Juggernaught that is an investment to pull, I'd also add limitations to WHERE they can be pulled, Facilities Only from a dedicated Terminal linked to a Generator, -Means that Attackers have to transport in MAXs to a fight, give a logistics element, Defenders have them but can be denied spawning them by knocking out the generator. (Possibly make it so the spawner and generator are the same unit outside the spawn?) Could make them Hackable as well, MORE BASE OBJECTIVES!) -I'd also make the MAXs have more sustain with higher health at the cost of making engineers take 3x as long to repair a given amount, so more health but much less repair, a MAX has to fall back to be repaired, an engi in cover wont cut it. -Possibly make it so Engineers have to actively reload a Maxes ammo reserves? Put the supporting element as crucial.
Changes I would make to the MAX suit. - Resource cost 200 in turn C4 won't one shot MAX suits without flak armor but put them down to about 10% health - MAX suit can only be pulled at base infantry terminals, weapon switch at any infantry terminal like a Sunderer would still be possible though, MAX gets travel mode again in return - Acquisition timer set to 15 minutes (currently 10 minutes), timer cert will shave off 1 minute per rank (currently 30 seconds), so there will be no change for highly certed MAX suits (still 5 minutes if timer is maxed out) For the NC MAX in particular, if you equip slug ammo your ammo pool will increase x3, you've got three shotguns on each arm so each should be able to fire a slug. That would set your ammo to 18 shots per magazine before reload with 162 in reserve (180 shots total). The damage of each slug might have to be adjusted downwards accordingly, also the cone of fire bloom and accuracy would need adjustment but basically the slug cert would make the NC MAX weapons more viable in medium range engagements. For other faction MAX weapons add ammo types that also alter the behavior of the weapons, also potential alternate slug ammo types or buckshot ammo types for NC. For Example: - Phosphorous / Plasma ammo for a burning dot type with lower initial damage per bullet - Armor piercing ammo for increased damage against MAX suits and lightly armored vehicles (Flash / Harasser / ESF) and minor damage against heavy armored targets like tanks but lower damage against infantry. As for Bursters and the current air / AA balance, without massive revamps I don't see how you could really change much there. You can't take away from the range of Bursters or you can't hit those Libs anymore that are pounding your Sunderer and armor into the ground from the flight ceiling. Lock on launchers don't have the range to get to them and only a MAX can scare them off. If we would take away rocket pods from ESF or make them into non explosive armor piercing rockets so their best choice against ground troops would be the nose gun then changing the Bursters into more of a Walker like weapon without explosive damage might work out to focus them more into an anti Liberator role. I think the empire specific abilities are either bad, ill suited or bugged for the role a MAX should take on the battle field. The Aegis shield probably is the most MAX like ability of them all and ZOE really doesn't have much of a place in this game. Jump jets would have been a whole lot less bothersome and finally forced a decent redesign of bases (locked doors!).
Good post and I agree with most of your points. I agree that certifications should matter more, especially on the max since it's such a forced multiplier, and it should require investment before it's very effective. Also I think that instead of doubling the fire rate bonus giving the MAX additional damage resistance would be good.
NC should always have shotguns. A Gauss LMG weapon would be far too generic, and would blur out the uniqueness between the Empire's MAXs. I'd say they're pretty much fine as they are. Maybe boost the infantry cost to 200, and that's it. They should be revivable. Taking that away would hurt the Medic's role. SOE needs to take their sights OFF of MAXs and onto Infiltrators. MAXs are just fine the way they are.
I would prefer jump jets to ZOE, although I don't see any reason that JJs should be VS specific, apart from PS1 precedent (which has never mattered before much). ZOE would be better balanced if it started off at full bonus damage and speed, but with a much greater resistance penalty at rank 1, scaling down to current level at max rank.
ZOE is currently out of line and it looks like we all are gonna pay for that with blanket MAX cost increase. I'd say that MAX needs access to optics slot, better reticules for its guns and to differentiate the effective range of the weaponry more than "hugging distance/spitting distance/slightly longer spitting distance" for all factions.
I would change the way resources are. I would combine mechanical/aero/max into one resource, since I feel like a max is like an indoor vehicle. This way a player would have to choose if they want to support as a tank outdoor, air support, or indoor tank(max).
