[Suggestion] The Ultimate Combined Arms Gameplay Thread

Well even though that was your last post I will say that you gave me good additional insight and further convinced me that the AA situation needs to be made better for pilots, and that the current AA situation is not balanced for any pilot. I'm happy to have learned from you what I did. That being said this is my overall opinion on ESFVTank balance after listening to your opinion and the many other pilot's different opinions is as follows.

1. On a new non-spammable amd rarer 3/3 MBT the rear armor damage bonus needs to be reduced to perhaps 70-80% of what it is now. A team oriented vehicle that requires at least 2/3 to function properly shouldn't be instagibbed by the fastest solo flying air vehicle in the game.

2. The rear damage bonus arc angle needs to be reduced so an ESF cannot easily exploit the top armor of the tank and still have it count as the rear armor.

3. An ESF becoming the Jack Of All Trades class in one loadout by choosing rocketpods, much like the HA can by choosing an ESRL, is imbalanced for overall gameplay. An ESF should have to become more specialized and sacrifice some sort of utility like most infantry and vehicle classes are forced too. So for instance if you get rocketpods you lose afterburners or the nose gun, but get the option of signifcantly more flak resistance like that of an A-10 Tank Buster.

4. AA Maxes need a range reduction nerf so they are only good close range AA counters, and Skyguards need a projectile velcoity and COF buff to make them good ranged AA counters.

5. Lock-on rockets and ESRL's, which are low skill cap rocket launchers, should have a low set resource cost. Dumbfire rocket launchers like standard one and the Decimator should be free so medium skill cap AV counters are always available. This will mean endless rocket spam will not constantly ruin dog fights, and won't make tanks insignificant outside of a zerg as they are now.

I know on a few elements we'll just have to agree to disagree as gentlemen. In the end I still respect you as a great player, the best Reaver pilot on Mattherson, and as an obvious contender for the best ESF Pilot in Planetside 2. Thanks again for the great feedback ThundaHawk, I'll look forward to out next encounter on Mattherson.

Thanks for the Feedback Selerox, we need more Galaxy Pilots in this thread!

1. Your ideas for hot key auto-drop sounds like something that could only improve gameplay and like it could save some lives out on the battlefield. This is an all around good idea.

2. Galaxy cockpit optics would only make gameplay better and would help pilots navigate better, I have no idea why this wasn't already in the game.

3. I see way to many Galaxies getting accidentally flipped so making a giant sky wale more graceful and majestic in flight and in landing would make sense.

If you have any other Galaxy Pilot friends who may have ideas feel free to invite them in here to see if they have any ideas too.

Nope, the Lightning with a Skyguard didn't sacrifice enough AI/AV utility in other areas to make it deserve that sort of short TTK on an ESF. Wait a minute... Lightnings can't kill tanks and are much less of a threat to infantry with the Skyguard equipped.... That might just be balanced!

I don't think it will be overpowered if the highest damage gun remains on the non rotating bottom as I had suggested. Only the secondaries would be rotating so it would be like adding another AI turret beneath the Saron in a sense. Do you think the Mag would remain balanced if the main gyro turret gun was still on the bottom of the Magrider as I had suggested in this picture?

I'm not sure how that would fix it, Maxes are already on cool down timer and cost resources. Maxes with ESRL's would only make pulling vehicles even more pointless than it is now, and tank combat is already for the most part destroyed outside of a MBT zerg right now.

I suggested that medium skill cap rocket launchers, like the standard launcher and decimator , are always free. At the same time I want to make ESRL's and lockon launchers, which are low skill cap weapons, cost a low set amount of resources to get rockets. Av Turrets need a major range reduction, and also shouldn't be 5 shooting a Vangaurd either IMO.

US kicking smaller countries around is really not a good example. The last time their air superiority met a competent and up-to-date equipped AA forces - Vietnam - they ate dirt.

WWII-era of air combat had ridiculous amounts of casualties in both personnel and vehicles. Fighter aces of those days recieved their titles for something like 100-300+ confirmed personally downed aircraft.

Check your facts please.

So it has the Supernova in the hull, a new gun in the turret and the Saron on top of that?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoreDakka

Yes it will have the current supernova hull. The picture I posted of the Magrider looks very nice. The Prowler already has a big ugly gap in the turret to make this work (after all just look at my avatar it would work great). The Vanguard would have an AI secondary placed as seen on the much cooler Alpha Prowler design concept.

Slightly more Dakka on Tanks if done so the weapon systems are pleasing to the eye, and mechanically sound so fun for the player will result in great things if the proper balancing is taken into consideration as I have.

I approve of this! Maybe we'll be on par with prowlers at last!

On a more serious note, the viability of this will entirely depend on what the tertiary is. At the moment, any decent tanker has no choice but the roll with any primary + av secondary. Thus, a tertiary that allows for either pure AI or AI/AA could work. Further increasing AV power would be ... unfortunate, at least without tripling tank HP.

Lol Qaz what a joker , the recent Magrider buff already put you on par if not better with the Prowler. It's actually difficult to hit good Magrider tankers at 200m+ now

As for the third seat on the MBT I was thinking it should be kept as AI only as infantry are the biggest threat to vehicles and infantry have unlimited spawn, no cool down, and come right back at you after a 10 second death. An AP vanguard with an Enforcer, another AV secondary, and an uber shield would just disintegrate any other vehicle in the game.

I think you misunderstood me. I wasn't suggesting giving also maxes ESRL, but moving them from heavies to maxes, so heavies keep the comparatively less effective statndard launchers and maxes, which need resources and a cooldown, have the more effective anti vehicle - anti air weapons.

I see now, sorry about that. Well that is an interesting idea, but I like the idea of heavy assaults having sole use of any type of rocket launcher and think most of the people playing heavy assault wouldn't be very pleased they could no longer use their fancy launchers. Plus SOE is already planning on giving grenade launchers and other weapons to the Max, if the Max got almost all the rocket launchers SOE would focus even more on the heavy assaults to give them something new. I think other classes need to be looked at first heh. Thanks for the interesting idea though.

that's basically what i said though. AI would work, AA *maybe* (fine line between giving tanks a way to deal with tanks, and making ESF obsolete as counter), and AV would be hilarious.

Well wouldn't AI weaponry like a Kobalt still do sub par damage to an ESF anyway? Anyhow, I'm not sure I would agree with having 2 AA secondaries. I'm already suggesting a reduction of rear damage arc, a rear damage reduction to about 70-80% of what it is now, and after tanks are 3/3 give them a Health buff. I'm with you in that I want ESF's to stay as one of the primary counters to MBT's, which is why I think 2 secondary AA slots would be pushing it. Plus all MBT's should have at least one AI slot, considering it's their number one threat.

you're probably right on that. i threw that out without thinking about it too much.

tertiary should be AI only, but as that would be boring, additional stuff (defensive measures, improved spotting tool, or ... something) is probably going to be needed to fill that seat. And yeah, i know that going with a driver/dual gunner system would solve that problem, but i really don't want to tank if i can't use the vehicle i've certed to actively shoot the targets i want (armor, not infantry).

What made planetside 1 so great?

The vast epicness and diversity of the battles. I primarily played infantry because it's what I do. But I loved looking left and seeing magriders take down grunts, looking up and seeing mosquito's and reavers going at it, looking right and seeing a swarm of vanguards engaging enemy bunkers. I'm not going to say it's lost in planetside 2, it is definitely heading that direction though.

I like the part where OP says, buff tanks at the COST of players required to operate. If it required 2-3 people to operate one tank then they should be feared and there would be LESS of them. We already have the lightning...... that is a one mans tank, why are the MBT's as well?

Well that's why I had two different possible loadouts suggested in the beginning of the thread. However the one where the driver stays the main gunner I have defaulted to Compass's idea of having the main turret always be active. However if you're 1/3 you get hit with like 3-4 times slower reload speed. What do you think, is that a harsh enough penalty? The last thing we want is people trying to drive these MBT's by themselves.

Thanks for the response Metallic.

I'm glad you found something to relate to in my thread, and I agree that Planetside 2 combat is currently headed in the wrong direction. Did you have any other ideas pertaining to what was said regarding infantry, air, or maybe there are some ideas of your own you might like to add?

I like a lot of your points, and a lot I dont like but i will just ask about this one.
Why is a Jack of All Trades a problem when all and everybody in this game is a Jack of all trades?

Every vehicle can use AA / AI / AV weapons as secondary
Every infantry has a possibility to do AA / AI / AV
(im not talking about how effective you can fulfill those roles just that everybody has possibilities)

I would much prefer to specialize everything to have a better scissor / rock / paper balance. For example take away ALL AA of ground vehicles. The Skyguard, as a a specialized form of armored AA, should be buffed and the only option as a mobile AA.

The Burster Max needs to be toned down to be some sort of point defense AA with a low range.

Id give you my rocket pods for those changes At the moment i dont have time to kill anything with the M18, a lot of things are shooting me and the main gun needs more time to take down things. If you reduce the AA spam on the battlefield i can live without pods.

The big difference is that the ESF can mount a Rotary, which is very good at A2A but also mount Rocketpods which are good in the AI and AV role, with no drawbacks in any form.

You are a Jack of all Trades without switching up any loadouts or real sacrifices. A Tank needs a second person to really activate the secondary AA weapon, which takes longer to kill an ESF than the ESF needs for the Tank through the rear weakspot.

And running a AA secondary on a Tank costs you AV or AI firepower. To be honest, instead of the AA machineguns which are worse than a Skyguard, you better have a second guy in a Skyguard or better a Burster around.

Everything that is AA, other than G2A Launcher on a HA is actually very specialized and can not effectively engage other targets than Air.

The ESF can with only 1 person in it, take out Air, Infantry and ground Vehicles very effective by using a Rotary and Rocketpods. I know that everyone can use everything, but they atleast need either to pull the Vehicle new or swap classes. The ESF press "1" for Air and "2" for Ground.