[Suggestion] The Ultimate Combined Arms Gameplay Thread

1.) Will not help you against a good pilot unless the Walker or Ranger suddenly kill the ESF at a similar speed than the ESF the MBT.
2.) Not feasible all the time
3.) What indicates me were my empires AA is? There is no tool or circle showing up "there is AA".
4-7.) The good, dedicated Tankers do that

I no longer directly have issues with Air because I run nonstop with my outfit and we always have AA in our Columns. The issue I see is that 1 player in an ESF "forces" X numbers of players to do something highly specialized, meaning AA. While the ESF stays multi role with one loadout.

If the ESF has to sacrifice A2A capability to be so good at A2G I would be OK with it. This way it's pray to A2A ESF's. But that's not the case.

Thanks for the response Smokemaker but what if I told you that
1. 95% of the time I'm rolling with an organized Platoon
2. Having an AA weapon on your tank puts you at an extreme loss against infantry and tanks
3. I drive within protection, hence the rolling with a platoon part.
4. I'm always on the move and already was forced to do that because of the prevalence of C4
5. I look up on a regular basis, and am connected to Team Speak.
6. I have a rear armor weakness?!?!?!
7. I've put over 5000 certs into my MBT, and I have a Prowler (The tank with the most useless ability in the game and no shield)
8. I don't like zergs, they often ram TK my tank or get me killed by not allowing me to reverse when I need to.
9. I still have a problem with ESF's 1 second killing me with rocket pods above my turret's angle of fire, what do I do now?

AA is highly specialized, your ESF is not, you can do A2G and A2A effective with one loadout, you sir are a special snowflake that needs to lose Afterburners but gains FLAK armor for running Rocketpods or gain extra Afterburners while using A2Am ...

This can't be your last post, unless you can take this one standing down

1. All that video illustrates, is that for a Tanker to be truly to be safe he needs a few ThundaHawk's or Pro ESF's in the sky at all times around him to be safe. To which I say, "But ThundaHawk you don't play TR on Mattherson and we don't have enough pro ESF pilots to protect me at all times"

2. The game is dangerous for everyone sure, but only a tank has to worry about getting 1 second killed by the fastest vehicle, a one manned vehicle, in the game at all times.

3. Enemy Flak is not present at all times, only when there is significant enemy air presence do people start pulling AA because they have to sacrifice so much AI and AV utility to do it. Therefor ESF's do not always have to sneak, they can often get a few tank kills before the AA Maxes come out. The ESF is the easiest vehicle to perform a quick attack in the game and the approach is not always perilous if there is not significant air presence or AA presence.

4. I can fight fine in a MBT medium battles 20-25 FPS, and okay in large battles 15-25. I'm not going to dink around in an ESF on low settings just to get destroyed endlessly in smaller battles. I have other great pilots and their opinions to guide me on balance, and numerous good and experienced pilots have already come in and agreed with me that MBT's die too fast. You are one of the few pilots that do not agree. That's fine, but stop ignoring all the other good pilots that disagree with you and agree with the Tankers.

5. There are special snowflakes, I should know, I'm Inuit Eskimo

Alright. Your points deserve to be refuted but I really want to quit this thread. Understand it this way.

'for a Tanker to be truly to be safe he needs a few ThundaHawk's or Pro ESF's in the sky at all times around him to be safe.'

-- okay, first of all, if I'm patrolling the flanks of a tank group and they all stay together and faced, they're not going to be safe: they're going to be immune to ESF pod runs on their rear because I'm going to tag the ESF as they approach on radar and alert the tank(s) on Voice. There's no way the ESF can even launch their pods without the tanks knowing it, and being able to rotate/reverse at the same time to avoid being 1-shot. 1 Person can do that, flying in their ESF guarding the flank. It was like that all along. Why am I telling you? I'm tired of baseless complaints. It's time to innovate: I've shown you how your valuable precious tanks can never be caught unaware in their group and now it's up to you to implement it.

-- second of all, a pilot doesn't have to be great to deal critical damage to ESF locked in their ground attack run because said craft are either hovering or travelling forward and down at a fixed trajectory and therefore easy to land rotary hits on. Combined with (1) flak source on the ground and the attacking ESF will melt faster than a tank would melt to them, especially now that nobody can abuse the rocket pod refire glitch.

-- lastly: "Enemy Flak is not present at all times... Therefor ESF's do not always have to sneak, they can often get a few tank kills before the AA Maxes come out" wat da *** mate. Really? You're upset about this? Planetside 2= war game.
In war there's this term called 'air raid'.
'Pearl Harbor'. If ground forces aren't prepared to repel ESF and the ESF swoop in to pick of tanks when they're not ready then they're not ready.

Do you see how ridiculous it sounds? Your posts are essentially: 'we don't want our tanks to die when we're playing dumb, unaware, and unprepared'.

Hopefully, Eskimo, I've convinced you. If not, hopefully I've convinced sensible individuals and most importantly the devs in charge of balance-- if you're reading this, thanks for the game and keep it up. Tread lightly when buffing tanks, definitely don't give tanks a major strength increase before the bases get a redesign.

Peace.

I run a lot of Armor columns on Mattherson, never head you on voice, but not that I need it I run dedicated AA within the outfit column. Yet we are not immun to Air, we are immun to one ESF, yes. Organized ESF's, whole different story, the pilots also did adapt ...

Oh they will launch rocketpods, seen it several times that ESF's with a friendly plane behind him during a dodge under a Biolab just unleashes half a salvo on a Tank. Sure not killing the Tank but affecting the battle.

So you are saying it is balanced that you need atleast 2 Players to shut down 1 ESF Player? Does not sound balanced.

Well it's their fault to not have AA up, which is the only point were I agree with you, but the fact that AA soaks up more menpower than the Air needs in menpower to be effective in a multi role purpose.

I hope the devs listen to you, Eskimo and every other Player. But most of your points are invalid. The ESF needs to either be A2G or A2A that's the imbalance. You are a jack of all trades and master of many ... this should not be the case if this game should be balanced.

#1 is completely unviable. A Saron or Halberd is a necessity for Magriders. Without it, I don't stand a chance against any other solo MBT, and i won't be able to fulfill my job as a tanker--dealing with hostile armor and suppressing infantry.
#2 is inviable as well. Whenever it's possible, i park with my rear close to a building, or on an upward slope to minimise the chance for getting podded. However, most of the time we have to stay mobile in our tanks, making it very hard to protect the rear armor.
#3 is good, but it still won't protect me from getting podded due to the ridiculously low TTK.

As other have said, #4 - 7 are good, and they're things that most competent tankers do/should do.

Despite needing to see Driver / Gunner Tanks I don't like it. Simply because I have never played a game with it and I have spent nearly 7K certs into a Tank I cannot now use myself. If it was their from the begining I would have no issue but I have gotten used to using my Tanks as it is and I have yet to simply find anyone I can say "He is a good gunner". They maybe good with the Secondary Enforcer but the centralised barrel makes it easier to hit stuff with it and I have rarely seen anyone attempt to hit stuff at nearly 500M and get them successfully with its something as small as a turret (done it a few times when you see the missile). Increasing cost / Cooldown or even option C . You can't use the Main Gun unless you have a second person. I really do like a lot, still forces two people into the tank but still allowing the Driver to use the Main Gun and therefore not relying on a second person to be able to hit anything with the Main.

Maybe be a bit late to the party but I seem to of lost some motivation with play PS2 for lack of anything from the Devs about A2G Balance with the ESF to the point where I have stopped looking at the forums because there is no reason to.

Yes tanks are too numerous, Yes tanks need to be more rare.
But changing a core mechanic such as Driver = Main Gun will hurt more people then it will help. Limiting when the Driver can use the Main Gun However is a different story. One I do not mind doing as long as I have some Point Defence on the tank encase I do not have a Gunner in, Coax MG or what ever.

A cert reset and more interesting choices for the Lightning might change your mind about the mandatory part.

If they give the driver a Koablt you get a point defense, but I really think if they need to make Tanks more powerful, the maingun needs to go to a dedicated gunner.

If the lighting can get the VG shield and the Power of the AP and HEAT. Then sure. I would take the lighting. But I do not like the play style of a fast, nimble tank as much as a slow heavy powerful tank. Hence I got 7k certs into my VG and almost squat into my lighting. Bought the HE when it was on sale and got the HEAT. Thats about it......

More Interesting choices you say? What choices are you on about?
Hasn't got the VG shield
Hasn't got the power of the VG
And if you are talking about the SG? I would rather pull my Dual Burster.
I would like to hear these interesting choices the Lighting has that would suddenly want me to change the way I play.

Check the thread in my signature, basically what I want with Vehicle Customization is that you can set up your Vehicle in different ways. You want to set it up as the more heaver armored Vehicle ... you can do that but you lose mobility or the other way around or you go for a balanced approach.

Also there are suggestions for other upgrades, like ERA to help absorb a certain amount of damage. But also other stuff.

I have read it and I do like it. I like the idea of being able to be a walking tank with a massive cannon of doom moving at a pace slower then a snail. Whether it would get implemented is another matter.

were did I mention a massive cannon of doom? It's more about adding more choice and playstyles. The Lightning should have upgrades that reduce mobility but gain a good portion of resistance, than there was the ammo switching mechanic, different playstyle for guns, like a higher dps brawler gun with worse shell properties or the other way around.

The result should be that you can build a mini Vanguard out of the Lightning through more choices.

ummm must of been someone else then Oo.
If anyone can build a Mini-Vanguard then I can build a Mini-Magrider yes?

It will not hover but it can actively mitigate damage through positioning with the damage model changes.. well you should read the thread.

I don't wanna derail this any further

There are 3 ways I suggested to deal with this issue since myself, and many other Tankers, personally don't want to be driving a MBT they can't shoot in some way but at the same time really like shooting at stuff with their buddies.

First option: Give the driver a Anti Infantry Gun like the Cobalt or Maurader. The First Gunner gets the main turret, Second Gunner gets an AV/AV/AA MBT secondary

Second Option : Driver gets to keep the turret, however when the Tank is 1/3 the turret's reload speed is increased by a very significant amount, triple-quadrouple the time it currently takes to reload, and will remain as such untill the tank is at least 2/3.

Third Option : Both alternatives are allowed.

I already posted a picture how the Magrider would change. The Prowler would get itsturret placed in the center of the tank so the shells land where they are supposed too (currently the turret looks really ugly and out of place, and with that huge gaping hole in the center of the turret makes it look worse ), its AI gun would then fill gaping hole on the right side of the turret. The Vanguard's new AI gun would look like the Alpha Concept Prowler. (I wish the Prowler looked this cool instead of an old sega gensis consol.)

http://4.bp.************/-h2HBbkTz6fY/UKviSXcyrFI/AAAAAAAALqI/S931gd3gxYI/s1600/planetside_2_pre_viz__2a1_prowler_by_ukitakumuki-d58wkcm.jpg

I'd kill for a flamethrower.

As long as it doesn't totally kill FPS it would be totally awesome to bring it to Planetside 2. Imagine the driver or secondary gunner getting to control this scenario whenever they wanted to.




When a LA saw a Flamethrower MBT guarding a Sunderer on the outside of a new and improved base I could only imagine their reaction as nothing less than

I might be the only one ... I think LMG's or Canister weapons would be more scary against LAs... yet... well they look cool.

LMG's or canister weapons may be more effective against the LA's sure, but it's more demoralizing to approach a giant metal tank that's shooting a column of flame at you hehe. A flamethrower would be very effective for rushing and surpressing the infantry in the area around a sunderer while the turret tries to blow it up. High risk, high reward. This could also be a good Lightning Main Turret idea for your Ultimate Thread Aesir. (Don't worry I'll get to making a full response soon enough)