[Suggestion] Tent's huge mostly useless suggestions thread

since most everybody seems to use the gameplay forum to suggest nerfs and the like, I thought I'd start a thread purely for the sake of suggesting actual new material, content, and factors

please no complaining about present balance, there are many, many QQ threads to go post in for that

just what I have on my mind today, feel free to debate theoretical balance and so on, aware some of it may move away from the real "planetside" feel and that some of it might be plain impossible

infiltrators:

• some sort of CQB option, not necessarily shotguns again, but perhaps SMGs? though I'd like carbines to be more carbine-esque
• different cloaking options
• anti-materiel rifle, for Maxes and perhaps capable of damaging vehicle crews and passengers more than actual vehicles

CQB I'd like purely for those situations where you feel like doing more than just sitting a mile away or running around with a pistol, perhaps for when you wish to infiltrate rather than snipe, still a bit bummed at the loss of shotties

cloaking is right now a bit tedious, you're often quite easy to see and it lacks a lot of usefulness if you're a mile away sniping, perhaps more requesting an alternative to cloaking, honestly not sure quite what I do want

there is sometimes a degree of frustration when I see a Max or vehicle, all too aware I'm nigh useless even with a headshot, I'm already tired of the rocket spam and so on, but think rifles that shoot nearly a mile accurately should have the power to punch armor or there should be an alternative weapon for such engagement

Engineer:

• turret options, turret options, turret options
• turret replacement options, turret replacement options, turret replacement options

I'd enjoy the ability to use my turret for more than one form of anti-infantry, perhaps some ability to place something akin to a mortar or artillery, as much as I hate explosive spamming, furthermore maybe some anti-air and anti-vehicular options, why not have options for say less damage but prolonged fire and vice versa? pic included for idea

what if I don't feel like using a turret? maybe I'm assaulting a position or there are already a bunch of people using them, perhaps some placeable temporary or destructible cover which would need a lot of work to not become exploit-worthy, other things that I've thought of are barbwire to slow movement or alarms, motion detectors, traps, and cameras that allow the engineer to keep an eye on an area which would then create a need for infiltrators to actually move in and counter these sorts of things

Heavy Assault:

• entrenchment, entrenchment, entrenchment
• more weapon variety

want more defense? why not look up at engineer there a bit and why not some sort of HMG for the heavy that requires setting up and entrenching in place, of course this has the downside of inducing campfests, but I think that's a symptom of a larger problem with base design in general, which I'll play with later

kind of bothersome that the only class to have some of the more interesting weapons is the Max, certainly the Max can dualweild the largest guns in the arsenal, but the HA can wield a single minigun already, perhaps give him the option of a single flamer (iffy), heavy shotgun, anti-tank, or anti-aircraft gun as well as separate from the rocket launcher as we're all a bit tired of rocket spam

Medic:

not that I doubt medic could use more stuff, I just haven't thought of much

Max:

Max actually feels alright in terms of variety, though I think it'd be nice to have varieties of "heavier" Max builds that are walking tanks and "lighter" Max builds that are more mobile weapons platforms or just plain more mobile than their heavy counterparts

Light Assault:

• more CQB options
• reverse of the drifter jetpack
• alternative to C4

it'd be nice if there were more things than the handful of carbines and faction identical reskinned shotguns, this is where I'd be interested in seeing flamethrowers the most, not to mention SMGs and some shotgun variety

maybe I want to use my jetpack to go almost purely up and have little interest in side-to-side motion? this would be a nice option for that, it'd be useful for certain situations already in game and could be even more so on other map types to be suggested

C4 is useful as hell in some situations, but perhaps I don't want to be a little bomb layer, maybe something like a target marker for artillery strikes

Maps:

• variety, variety, variety
• basic improvements

seriously, there are a handful of the same bases which are just pasted on the landscape, bunches of little prefab structures may be a bit reasonable for a colonized planet, but this is leading to some repetitive and boring play, what little variety there is exists in slightly different position of cap points, things I'd like to see for maps are

urban environments: all these soldiers and no civilian population centers? why the three nigh abandoned continents with all this infrastructure? both pretty big logic gaps likely created out of a need for fewer objects but I'd dig some neighborhoods and office complexes to fight in

Trenches: mother of god, these things might have been awful in WWI but damn they've made for some interesting play in the few games that feature them, open landscapes with pillboxes would also bring combat out of being almost exclusively mid-short range and reward those who have the weapons and skill for long-mid range, of course mid-shorts would still have purpose in actually clearing the pillboxes and trenches **would need to be careful to not turn it into actual WWI with nothing but suicidal charges on the enemy position and sniperfests**

make combat more than just bases: right now it's just going from one identical base to the next, how about on top of making those more varied we somehow get fights into the fields and hills? will need to think about how this would work

base design improvements: right now, defending is just a pain in general and the attackers often have an advantage aside from the beautiful landscape of slaughter that The Crown becomes, on top of this the vast majority of base combat is resolved in spawncamping the defenders or in the few successful defenses just blowing up the enemy Sundie, this too could use work

Air Vehicles

ESF:

• rocket pod differentiation
• make flares less necessary

I'd like rocket pods to get a bit of tweak in this respect, as much as they're not the big problem people paint them to be, dividing them into anti-vehicular and anti-personel options would probably help the situation a tad and keep the ability for ESF to act as a strafe-bomber or ground attack chopper give or take, though more on that sort of idea later

right now all air is essentially summarized in this macro

it's an expensive and tedious cert-sink that is going to likely be made even more necessary with the AA launcher being buffed soon and I'm plain tired of all combat being reduced to no-skill just getting a lockon, firing, and forgetting about it while possibly unleashing a wee clip on the enemy while you wait for your kill

Lib:

actually not much to say about the lib, perhaps make it feel like either more tankbuster jet or more bomber, but it's kind of a meh issue

Galaxy:

• spawning
• gunboating
• survivability

just going to throw out there it'd be great if we could spawn from these fellows or use them as a resupply, but can talk about resupply later, another great feature would be the ability for them to deliver or spawn light vehicles like the ATV or a buggy if one were available

who doesn't love gunboating a Galaxy? not going to say much but turning these things into floating fortresses of death is nice

this is what keeps the Galaxy as a bit of a peripheral feature of the battlefield I think, aside from the Sundie being the exclusive spawn, these guys are just plain easy to annihilate, I'm not sure what would be a good option for this since making them tougher would throw off balancing for gunboats, let's have that discussed

dare I say, a suggested new vehicle?:

o yes, yes I shall, the idea is basically letting the Lib be a bomber, letting the Gal be a troop transport, letting the ESF work as a air superiority fighter or tankbuster jet, but introducing another aircraft specialized to behave much like the modern attack chopper, capable of comfortable hovering and delivering fire, probably a slow mover with good maneuvering, likely not that tough to prevent being completely OP

Ground Vehicles:

Sundie:

• spawning and resupply tweak
• mobile air denial platform

okidoke, let's take a trip into this, let's say the Sundie has three weapons slots instead of the two on it now? a bit beefier right? well let's hope that doesn't become a balance issue while we take that a step further

now, make it to where you can only spawn from it or resupply from it and to do so, you trade one of those sweet weapon turrets, introducing a need for vehicular teamwork, slightly less ability to zerg out of a single vehicle with infinite ammo, grenades, and explosives perhaps making it to where sunderers have a slower respawn timer when in enemy territory would be useful as well, this all applying to the Gal spawning idea

mobile air denial is a sensible continuation of the above, without the spawner a sundie with all AA would be a good bit of protection for your convoy from enemy air, of course that's just the beginning of it in terms of specializing the Sundie as a weapons platform or if you wanted to make it just for inserting troops, trade a gun for extra HP or armor, lot of options here

Lightning:

I'll actually break from my no-balance talk rule for this one, I don't want much changed about it aside from no more 1-man-army tanks except making the skyguard a bit less ****

MBT:

no notes really, except let's keep these as a mid-class or swiss-army knife tank and consider either letting them spec into being a heavy tank with less offensive ability, artillery piece of terror, or consider making these separate vehicles that I don't feel like making a section for

light and mid-weight vehicles:

what army doesn't use various light vehicles, from armored scout cars all the way to humvees they're a staple of the battlefield, I'd love to see these sorts of versatile non-tank vehicles make it onto the planetside warzone, hopefully in faction specific fashion, maybe an armored scout car for the NC, Speedy buggy for the TR, and some sort of little hovercraft or something for the VS

in closing:

planetside2 has a metric tonne's worth of potential that really could be improved with a bit more variety and depth to the maps, classes, and vehicles, one of my biggest present grumps is the graphical homogeneity as well, why must all the weapons look about the same? understandable in some cases where the only difference is a new fire mode, but even then it could call for a different receiver, barrel, or stock, furthermore please put in more variety in how things look for factions, perhaps the Vanu could use an energy shield on their turret, but wouldn't the NC more likely use a bulky iron shield? little things like that

also, please add some stocks to guns, it bugs me

When it comes to Infiltrators VS MAXs, it helps to remember that the two classes are practically perfect opposites.

MAX:
+ Close-Range
+ High Health and Damage Output
- Slow as ****
- Big Target

Infiltrator:
+ Mostly Long-Range
+ Capable of Cloaking and Running Away Easily
- Low Health
- Unable to Contend Well with Big Bastards ike the MAX at CQC-Range

To fight a Max as Inf., you just have to use your long-range ability and high-damage rifle to hit him where he can't hit you, then duck, cloak, and run your *** off to get away when he gets within murdering range. Then you fire at him again. Rinse and repeat until he dies.

I have ideas pertaining to bases [ http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/how-to-make-planetside-two-a-better-game.52304/ ] and new aircraft [ http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/new-aircraft.60512/ ]. However, both could utilize variety, and should be modified somewhat. I enjoy the ideas pertaining to emplaced turrets, trenches, and cover, as this would improve the flow of the battle and improve the capabilities of a single squad.

well the thing is I'm more suggesting variety of playstyle than claiming it's impossible to do kill of a Max as an Infiltrator, however don't overestimate the damage of the rifles, vs a Max even the bolt action does next to nothing with a headshot

I'm not saying "go for the head", more along the lines of "pelt him from afar and whittle his health down until he runs away or dies". Best used with non-bolt-actions.