Well after re-reading the post, the ANT probably does Transform into the Turret after you select which Turret from the Terminal. Or if it doesnt Transform, maybe you use it to continue farming to deploy another turret, maybe the Turrets arnt player locked. "Using a new vehicle, the ANT, you will be able to hunt down and collect a new resource out in the world. After you collect enough you can travel to an area of your choice, deploy your ANT, then interact with its terminal to deduct the new resource and place a structure. Our first set of structures are planned to be medium sized base turret towers"
I'm torn between being excited that player construction is finally happening, and being disappointed at the anemic state it's going to start out in... Expanding and improving it quickly would be too much to hope for, I suppose?
The only way I can see this not being too awful is if they were AI controlled, or had superior defensive stats to the preset turrets every Tech Plant has. I'd imagine the ANT being able to place turrets anyone could use if they aren't AI controlled since hunting for resources, only to potentially be killed and have the resources be wasted/dropped on death(unless they act like Certs, which I imagine they totally would), with all the effort going into the ability to transform into what people only use when nothing better is available. Like... Why use an AA turret when you've got dual Pounders/equivalent Max weapons? Why use an AV turret when you've got a decent tank weapon or just an Engi's AV turret? And there basically is no AI turret IMO atm. I mean... the AV base turret can be easily used for AI and kinda doubles for it, but there's still the Engi's AI turret. Like... just be those classes since kills in Turrets (as far as my experiences have observed) give nothing to class directive kill requirements. Basically what I'm getting at is... if the ANT transforms into a turret and said turret doesn't have superior stats to the normal ones, maybe with additional, upgradable functionality (Like lock-on for AV turrets, or increased muzzle velocity for AA turrets) then it won't be worth it. If it lays down turrets, then it could be worth it to have a squad get a bunch and lay some down for everyone in clutch base-defenses versus heavy armor columns/huge air fleets. If the turrets are AI controlled with a much farther range than the AI for Spitfires, then it'd be worth it in those two cases. All three of these "Ways it can work" cases have the ability for it to be horribly broken though if the AI (if there is any) to have too large of an auto-attack range, or if they're too powerful/too awfully weak, or even if it has AI and is too spammable. I would like it to have AI but to also have the possibility to manually control it, though if you could lay down manual-only turrets, I could see some very interesting defenses and even offenses going down with it. I imagine though that finding the resource will either be fairly difficult if it doesn't store like Certs do, since it'd be a complete pain to stockpile, die, and lose all of it, or they would store like Certs do and it'd be decently easy given enough time, since you could go on times where some continents have barely any players and just farm for resources. Either way, I'm excited for this to happen. Some ideas I've thought of: Some kind of energy shield defense to be deployable, like an actual barrier that'd act like spawn barriers without pain fields, you'd damage it to bring it down, but doing this option would transform the ANT permanently since you'd be sacrificing mobility and offense for sheer stationary defense. That or you could create bot infantry that are basically players, only their AI just sucks enough to be fair, that the ANT would act as an SMS for those bots, but each spawn would sap resources. You could then maybe shoot some kind of flare or put a flare onto a map which they'd do an attack-move sort of thing or something. No matter what the ANT is like, there'll be a buttload of upgradeable options for it, I'm fairly sure. Other than the usual vehicle upgrades, like Performance, Defense and the ANT-specific Utilities.
ANT turrets? Taking out turrets works best with long range weaponry. Meaning vehicle, Rocket Launcher, or AV Max. - Every faction has vehicles, relatively balanced there. - Then you look at rocket launchers, common pool don't lock on turrets and hitting with dumbfire is extremely unreliable due to drop, but look at faction specific ones and you notice that VS can easily hit stationary target from 300m+ away with lancer, NC are limited by 300m on Phoenix, and TR have nothing for that range.... Striker is extremely inaccurate at those ranges. So TR is the only one with disadvantage here. - Max AV weapons again, ridiculous velocities on Vortex and no drop make it absolutely trivial to hit turrets for VS, NC can at least guide a little with Ravens and decent damage per shot so they're somewhat ok, TR have insane drop on pounder and fractures are inconsistent high drop low damage per shot. Again TR in bad spot here. That's a problem. More turrets popping up all over the place will disadvantage TR and benefit VS by a lot. NC stay in the middle.
You don't see that as a disadvantage for the entire faction? It's like native american tribes "getting closa" to use melee weapons against europeans with firearms, want to look up in history book who won that one?
I'm really pumped for this, except for the start. I'm hoping that it will be more than just Phalanx Turrets sticking up and presenting an easy target, but will actually be able to make small buildings that can give real strategic value in a fight as a good, defended position for a Sunderer and somewhere safe to fire from. I'm also hoping that resource gather speeds are balanced so that factions with lower pop will have an increased gather speed (nothing too drastic) just to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Also that all the constructions are removed when they get locked, so the next time that continent comes up, its fresh again. Otherwise, after a month's time, all hell will have broken loose and the map will be so screwed up that it is legitimately unplayable. But yeah, if this project goes well, it sounds like it will be awesome!
zing Anyway. If the ANT wasn't limited to just turrets, if bases and Ammo/Repair/Spawner Sunderers had a Nanite pool that could run out without resupply, then I think the ANT would be a useful addition to the game. Right now, being able to only deploy turrets is a step... it would be interesting to see where this goes.
I tell them how often do you run into situations where shotgun gives you advantage and disadvantage? I'd say for NC max right now that would be close to 50/50, AKA balanced. Now to relate it to our situation, TR are weak at long range, introduction of large amount of turrets will make long range more important, and therefore weaken TR. Same as it would for NC shotgun max if I were to increase the amount of situations where long range is better than short instead of it being 50/50 I now make it 25/75. Is that clear or should I explain it further? (Without being mean or anything, I'm asking seriously).
How I'm guessing they'll work is: New ANT vehicle 'harvests' crystals This gives you a new kind of resource. You can use this resource, tied to the vehicle it's harvested with, to then build small towers with a turret on them (varying types... AV will be most common, AA would be damned useful as well) Probably simliar to those small towers at some bases with a little elevator lift to a small platform with 1 turret In the future they may add the ability to create a wall or whield wall between 2 turrets (NOT at launch) This new vehicle will NOT be used (at least initially) to resupply bases and sunderers with the limited power supply for spawning nanite cost items/vehicles that has long since been the forgotten Resource Phase 2 revamp.... HOPEFULLY, they'll one day add limited power that is used for nanite consumption. I would NOT expect the power to be harvested the same way, but rather from behind frontline bases/ammo towers to be shuttled to the front, where, without power resupply, would leave frontlines the inability to spawn vehicles, MAX suits, or consumables. It sounds like a NEAT addition, but NOT the long craved for resource phase 2. Hopefully this same vehicle will be utilized for that as well someday (soon™)
Seeing as they jumped across PTS just for some surprise! factor that no one really needed, I'm inclined to agree. There is bound to be some hilarious and not-so-hilarious bugs.
And look at where "steps" have taken us to in the past. Resource revamp, mission, tank-infantry two way lethality downgrade, and if you count the Roadmap as a step, the countless things that have been nuked from it without a trace.
This thing can't deploy in bases. So we build a turret tower to defend...what exactly? The sand between bases? Random trees on Hossin? The only time people are not fighting in/at bases is because they're moving between bases. People tend to move between bases via a. Redeploy or b. Armored zergs. Neither of which a tower is going to stop. The ANT sounds like a f-ton of work/effort for very little decisive impact.
Not really. After all, you get to pick the engagement range. Just as it would be silly to pull Hacksaws against long-range Engineers with Archers, it would also be silly to try and use Pounders against a Vanguard perched on a hill. The NC simply have learned to be situational with their AI MAXes. Knowing when and where to deploy them is half the battle. Likewise, the TR simply have to learn that their AV MAXes excel at close-in situations. If there's a long-range Vanguard pelting you, the easy thing is to fall back to a built-up area where you can force the tank to come in closer. That and of course, the AP Prowler is a more than adequate substitute for long-range AV work.
According to the old roadmap resources pools will disappear from players and it's likely instead be moved to each base. This mean that you won't have anymore 750 nanites to spend all the time, but the base you're closer to will instead have its very own nanite stock. Every time a player in that base will get a new grenade, a new tank, a new vehicle, that nanite stock will decrease. When the structure's nanite pool is completely depleted the base will probably go offline (no shields, no terminals). This is a huge change (depending on how each vehicle will affect the nanite pool) because it means players cannot spawn vehicles forever unless they keep their structures supplied with nanites. Spamming vehicles without someone refilling the base with the ANT will in the long run be counterproductive because it will make you defenceless. At the same time it brings new tactical options: a good way to win the battle could be to intercept enemy ANTs and prevent them from refilling the nanites pool.
