New to the forums, but as a (former) NC MAX Main, MAXes definitely need some love. They haven't seen any real development, the only time they're ever touched is when they get another nerf. Fortification is case in point, MAXes aren't even worth the nanites anymore, even with the lower cost, and I rarely see them used at all. When I do, they drop almost immediately, and those playing them don't grab another. A lot of ideas have been floated here for improving them, some simple, and some complex, and while the complex ones are interesting, I'll present some more easily implemented ideas that should help, for now at least: First off, much better armor/resists. I've seen 80% small arms and 50% explosives resistance mentioned in various places, apparently MAXes used to have similar to that, and that seems like a good number, though perhaps could be better, and/or added to or adjusted with different armor packages in the equipment slot. More health would be nice too, perhaps partly in the form of an infantry shield. I think there's this idea that MAXes are fought like infantry and face to face, and so the numbers being used presume a stand up fight between infantry with small arms and grenades, and a MAX, in an empty hallway. In reality, a single Light Assault with C4 can kill a MAX effortlessly without even stopping or using all their C4 packs, and there really isn't any defense against that because they can do so while flying over, either out of sight of the MAX, or just moving too fast for the MAX to react. If at least one LA with more than a week or two worth of skill is present, a MAX simply isn't an obstacle, yet they still cost as much as a light tank. Second, un-nerf the NC MAX's weapon ranges. The NC MAX is already a close quarters fighter, and vulnerable outside of a building or tunnel, this shortcoming didn't need to be made worse with nerfs that put the effective range of some weapons barely outside melee range. Third, remove the passive decay on the NC MAX's Aegis Shield. It's the only defense they have in the open, it's not as if they can effectively fight back against enemies more than a few dozen meters away. If an infantry shield is added to MAXes, equipping the Aegis Shield can reduce the effectiveness of the infantry shield, and/or deactivate it when the Aegis Shield is active. Fourth, Fallout Hardening seems like a good idea, but could be made a bit more dynamic: It should be standard equipment on all MAXes, rather than using an equipment slot. All MAXes should be pushed about 25-50% less than standard infantry by the blast, due to weight. VS and NC MAXes should have the same amount of Fallout Hardening resists, while TR's MAX should have less on the sides and rear, but significantly more on the front. VS MAX's Fallout Hardening resistances should be uneffected by their Zealot Overdrive Engine, allowing them to flee the strike zone, or get under cover. NC MAX's Aegis Shield should remove about half of its passive Fallout Hardening when inactive. When active, it should increase the Fallout Hardening to the same or more than the TR MAX has, but only in the direction the shield is oriented toward, and the shield should take damage from the blast. Crouching with the Aegis Shield active and oriented toward the blast should reduce the push from it by 10-25%. TR MAX's Lockdown apparently already prevents it from being pushed by Orbital Strikes, as it should. Ultimately, when a strike comes, VS MAXes would sprint for cover, while TR and NC MAXes would turn toward the blast, TR MAXes locking down, and NC MAXes crouching behind their shields. Fifth, standard MAX weapons should be almost, or completely, unusable underwater, and dedicated underwater MAX weapons that are almost or completely unusable on land should be added. These could include underwater guns similar to those for infantry that have a wide cone of fire when used in air, and/or locking and/or camera guided torpedoes that drop toward the ground when fired in air, for dealing with vehicles, which are almost completely untouchable underwater at the moment. An underwater thruster pack that is slow, but extremely long ranged, can be made available for the Ability slot on all MAXes. Sixth, allow MAXes to be revived again, but require use of both a medic's med gun and an engineer's repair gun simultaneously. This seems like a good compromise between easy revives and no revives, and encourages teamwork. Seventh, increase the nanite cost of a MAX to what it was before, or higher. Eighth, limit MAXes to spawning only from certain facilities, or even only the Warpgate. Infantry terminals in other bases and on deployed Sunderers/Galaxies can be used to swap out equipment only on already spawned MAXes. Nineth, make MAXes unable to ride in Sunderers, unable to be redeployed by Steel Rain, and take up two side-by-side seats in Galaxies (7 and 8, 9 and 10, 11 and 12, maximum of three per Galaxy), and able to be specifically ejected or blocked entry by the pilot. These two ideas would make transport for MAXes a logistical concern, to offset the heavy increases in power and survivability. The overall idea here would be to bring MAXes more in line with vehicles, and make them a weapon rather than an infantry class. They would be big, powerful, and capable of surviving enormous amounts of damage, while inflicting significantly more than standard infantry. Single MAXes would be dangerous in a fight, and large numbers of them would be able to end one decisively, however the logistical challenge of fielding and transporting them would make them a rarer sight further from a faction's warpgate. A lone MAX would need to walk, or get lucky by stumbling on a willing Harasser or Galaxy (in addition to sacrificing some armor capacity for self-repair like they do now), while a MAX crash would require time, planning, and coordination to conduct, and could be relatively easily spotted and intercepted on the way to its destination.
I think the very first thing that the devs should try before editing the damage resistances is to give the NC MAX a new faction specific ability; they still keep their Aegis shield of course, but give the other two factions their own faction themed Aegis shields and increasing the size of the Aegis shields for all three factions by 30%. What new faction ability would be good to offset the two new shields abilities the TR and VS are getting? I don't know, I haven't thought up of a new NC MAX ability yet. Even before that MAX update that released the first faction specific MAX abilities we have been asking for a protective shield that was large enough for fellow teammates to take cover behind while a MAX advances, for ALL factions. They hardly delivered with their MAX personal riot shield but it was close enough for us to shut up about it. The NS MAX is "sort of" what we were looking for but having it tied to just the NS faction and to the MAX's health pool made it null in many discussions about a shield max. Wrel practically declawed the MAXes via Headshost damage multiplier nerfs and the shotgun adjustments with the #WENFISHING meme update back in March so don't get me wrong the MAX's damage resistances do need some type of buff if they're not going to act as stalemate breakers like they had been before that update. As for reviving maxes? Return the revive mechanic to the MAX but you'd need an Engineer and a Medic to revive a MAX (1 repair bar needs to be filled, 1 medic revive bar needs to be filled, Revive grenades have no affect.) That way players have to be mindful of actual teamwork from both engineers and medics to revive a single MAX. It would impose a logistical head ache for some players to rely on both a Medic and an Engineer but it is a whole lot better than what we have now with our perma-death MAXes.
If your looking for a lore friendly set of new max abilities, why not throw a variant of ZOE to every faction NC: Gauss overclocking/ Gauss Accelerators, does a ZOE style damage increase but with an NC flair that does damage to the shooter when firing, ie 25 damage per shot or something. Ive pondered something similar for TR but i keep running into engine limitations with a simple "increases fire rate" style of augment for them.
For TR all they really need to do to bypass the engine limitations is make the Miniguns 2 pellet shotguns with its accuracy patterns to boot. That way it would simulate a high ROF but all it really is is just half damage pellets of the original single bullet; and for the ZOE themed TR ability it would just add one half damage bullet to the shot burst making it a 3 shot Minigun.
Yep - they should have been made vehicles when the revive mechanism was removed. They should be resistant to roadkill cheese, they should have a composite armour option.....for example.
I mean if you want mechs then they need to put back in BFU/BFRs. MAX suits are actually just that a suit. Just as iron mans suit. In PS1 it was a chosen armor set for you to use and select it. It never came from a vehicle terminal and the reason they made them cost nanites was to keep people from constantly spawning them originally. It is actually even in the name of MAX ( Mechanized Assault Exo-Suit). BFU/BFRs were the mech units that came from a form of robotics vehicle terminal. https://www.psforever.net/vehicles/BattleFrame_Robotics/ https://planetside.fandom.com/wiki/MAX https://www.psforever.net/armor/Mechanized_Assault_Exo-Suit/
Then why are NSO MAXes so **** and not just another infantry unit, but beefed up? After all -- they're not exosuits, but literally new bodies.
