PPA Changes on Test

Discussion in 'Test Server: Announcements' started by d_carey, Oct 15, 2014.

  1. vanu123

    Any plans to buff the magrider itself to keep it on par with the others?
  2. Maljas23


    PPA looks fine, if your watched the video. It might even get some Forumside whine threads the it is on PTR.
  3. vanu123

    People complained about it being spammy so they just made it more spammy in close. It is just like an AI vulcan IMO. Again, what is the magrider exactly supposed to be good at because the vanguard and prowler are both better at AV and the prowler is by far the best AI and with the nerf and cannister buff the van and mag are about equal against infantry.
    • Up x 1
  4. Maljas23


    Magrider is the mobility tank. You get the enjoy the advantage of being able move in any direction at all times. Your tank makes the most use out of cover and is by far the most difficult to tank to deal with at long range for pretty much everything. Your tank is the most difficult to hit with dumbfires. Your tank is the most difficult to hit with C4. Your tank also gets a turbo that makes it the tank with the best escape and hit and run tactics.
    • Up x 3
  5. vanu123

    The strafeing does not have any impact within 100-200 meters due to the velocity of the prowler and vanguard. Strafe speed was already nerfed long ago.
  6. Maljas23


    I'm not talking about strafing to avoid attacks. I am talking about being able to move in any direction in general. If TR is the DPS tank, and the Vanguard is the Defense tank, the Magrider is the mobility tank.

    Also, avoiding tank shells that close to an enemy tank would be pretty overpowering if you honestly imagine it. Finally, your tank is the only tank that can accurately fire on the move, even after the stabilization changes.
  7. STR1D3R109


    Try shooting the marauder & Cannister (Empire equivilents) over 40-60 metres and see how many kills you get ;P
  8. AdmiralArcher


    you realize that the PPA has a shorter TTK vs harrassers than the vulcan does right?
    • Up x 1
  9. vanu123

    It needs to have something decent, it cant kill infantry past 20 meters without tap firing but at least it shreads harassers within 5 meters. I expect that it will be taken out because the ppa and mag as a whole can't be allowed to kill any one thing effectively like the van can armor or the prowler can infantry.
  10. UnDeaD_CyBorG

    I frankly thing the Magrider doesn't need a CQC point defense weapon.
    It's mobile, it should have weapons that require it to be ranged.
    If I'm closer than 15 meters to anything, I am obviously out of position and deserve all the C4 I'm going to get.
    Still, if that's what it's going to be... I guess it's serviceable. I'll prefer a Kobalt if I ever need an AI gun, but I'm not much of a Tanker either, and the dedicated Tankers I know run with AV weapons anyways.
    Bad idea, decent execution.

    Could you maybe increase it's elevation a bit? It'S a good air deterrent.
  11. Strikejk


    If this turns out the be an actual PPA BUFF. I'll stop playing planetside until it gets nerfed so hard to **** that nobody will ever use it again!!!
  12. Yeahy

    Flipping itself over.
  13. Linus

    Greetings David.
    Since you have welcomed us to express our feedbacks, perhaps the feedback of someone who have used the PPA (and the Magrider) during hundreds of hours, would interest you.
    I will try to stay objective and as open-minded as possible.

    THE NEW PPA AKA THE ANTI -INFANTERY SARON

    This is exactly what comes to my mind when I test this new version on the PTS, for the first time.
    The idea is interesting, you took almost the same approach for the Saron, and the goal is to reduce the effectiveness of the PPA at long range.
    We are close to a solution, but not yet, almost. Let me be clear on what I mean.
    After one hour of test (with a fully certed weapon), here are the points that i would like to underline:

    • The TTK (time to kill) against an ESF, an Harasser or a Valkyrie is insane.
      The PPA is now too much competitive with its AV counterpart, the Saron, against light-armored vehicles.
      For exemple, an Harasser coming close to a Magrider with a PPA and an AP primary, will never have the time to escape or to react before being destroyed.
      This problem is mostly due to the new rate of fire. The PPA should be 25% to 50% less effective against this kind of targets. However, the PPA needs absolutly this new rate of fire to be effective against infantery at close range.
      So this is not about reducing the rate of fire, this might have very bad consequences.
    • The new COF from 0.5 to 2.75 is an interesting feature but it needs to be tweaked a bit
      The time it takes to reach the maximal COF of 2.75 is way too quick (3.6 seconds)
      A CoF growing 0.55 degrees per shot (instead of 0.75) might be more suitable (5 seconds)
      Mostly, this will give the chance to shoot two accurate plasma balls before that the COF starts to make the gun losing its accuracy a lot, instead of after only one ball at the moment.
    • The splash damage is now related to the COF increase
      Not directly, but if the accuracy of the PPA decreases quickly over time, the splash damage is what helps the PPA to stay effective and to be able to kill.
      I find that the radius of the splash damage could be slightly reduced, only if the max COF is reduced or if the time it takes to reach the max COF is increased.
      If you decide to change this splash damage radius in the future, you will have to take those parameters into consideration or the fragile balance of the PPA will be broken.
    • The new CrossHair illustrates well the increasing COF but it needs to be more discrete.
      This new cursor should be 1/3 smaller. It is way too big at the moment and it does not help the visibility.
      The outer lines of the crosshair need to be thinner, as thin as the middle lines of the crosshair in fact.
      You can barely see a small target such like an infantry player, when you point at it with this new cursor.
    • Projectile speed reduced from 300 to 150 is totally ok since the PPA is now less usefull at long range.
    • Magazine size reduced from 20 to 12 is ok only if the player chooses the increased magazine size over the reload speed.
      12 balls of PPA are quickly gone with this new rate of fire but with the increased magazine size, you can deal with up to three infantry targets before being obliged to reload.
    • Ammo Capacity reduced from 200 to 180 is a bit an useless change
      Especially if you have certed the ammo capacity which is granting a good amount of additional ammo.
      The primary weapon will always be out of ammo before the secondary weapon.
      If by reducing by 20 the max ammo capacity you wish to limit the time of use of the PPA, you are totally wrong because it will change absolutely nothing.
    • If people imagine that the PPA is unable to kill at long range anymore, they are totally wrong.If you control the pace of your shooting, you can come back close to how the PPA was before this change.
      The main difference is that you cannot simply let your left mouse button clicked continually.
      Overall, the PPA will be a bit less accurate and it requires the user to play smarter and to keep control over the weapon (which is good and less boring)

    That is all for the moment. I hope that my feedback will be useful so to help making this weapon better, more enjoyable for everybody, but also playable.
    • Up x 1
  14. Finalizer

    You can still tap-fire the new PPA and achieve the same effect as the old one. So tap to barrage a doorway/spawnroom for ez kills, or go full-auto to quickly remove anyone approaching your farm chariot. If anything, it's just an outright buff.

    The gun needs a flat-out maximum range. These other changes just seem to dance around that simple issue.
  15. Rigsta

    At really short range it is devastating. Banshee level. Outside that you have to tap-fire it, which results in what feels like exactly the same RoF as the current version. However, the best CoF you can get feels a bit larger than before (might just be the crosshair making it more obvious though), the velocity is the same as the crossbow, and the max-damage radius is 0.1m.

    The 90% reduction in AE radius and poor velocity are very likely to make it difficult to land hits on moving targets in actual gameplay.

    It's very likely to see further tuning, especially after it hits live.
  16. minhalexus

    Is it under-performing? News to me.

    And no, Magriders do not use more AV gunners than Vanguards, only AI gunners.
  17. minhalexus

    Nor can the Canister or Marauder.
    And neither the Canister and Marauder can shred harassers.

    Canister's once were really good at it, but recently Harasser resistance to Canister rounds increased from 67% to 76% (or something like that).

    Now it takes quite a while to kill harassers, still competitive, but nowhere as good as it used to be.
  18. AdmiralArcher


    the resists against MAX units are really reall messed up too
  19. Sparrow

    I'm assuming that this change is only going to effect the magrider and harasser version of PPA. I'm hoping that later down the line the Scythe PPA will be brought more in line with Air Hammer and Banshee.
  20. UnDeaD_CyBorG

    I think you should probably create a new damage class for it, if that isn't too much hassle. The numbers are off.
    It might be a good AA deterrent with a bit better elevation, but comparing it to other AI secondaries (yes, the Marauder is a bit meh atm) falls flat due to the Platform.
    Tanks tend to get hurt if they get too close to Infantry, and should keep at least 10 meters between them and those pesky footsloggers. 15 are ok, too.
    I feel a weapon that rewards you for being out of Position is generally a bad idea, you may say Risk vs. Reward, but I still insist that rampant idiocy shouldn't go rewarded.
    The difference between Platforms is that Magriders actually have the tactical mobility to keep that range open a bit more easily.
    They admittedly also can avoid C4 and the like a bit better, but with higher distance, the capacity for evasion grows exponentially, at 30 meters, it's already very hard to hit with Rockets.
    I feel a Kobalt is just a flat better choice for a Magrider now; which would have benefited more from a weapon with damage ramp up, or something that requires actual precision.

    I know your choice is to make all ES AI weapons specific for close range, in within those parameters, it probably works, but I question the parameters themselves.