PART 1: I know they're two completely different genres of games, but hear me out. UT3, as some of you may know, has a game mode called Warfare. This game mode is home to the largest maps in the game, and vehicles at each team's leisure to hop into and pilot. The objective in Warfare is to push your team's node connection to the other team's base and destroy their prime node, basically their reactor. You do that, you win the game. With the vehicles, there are two categories: Axon and Necris, as seen below. In my eyes, the Axon would closely resemble the TR or NC, with their rugged industrial look, and The VS would obviously take the side of the alien Necris. It's THIS kind of faction flavor that I would like to see in the game, a kind of overall visual theme that hits you like a truck. When I started playing, and I first heard about the Magrider, I thought of the Nemesis, as shown in 10:08. It's a tank of sorts, but has the unique ability to adjust it's overall height. The taller it is, the slower it goes. The Fury has also caught my interest (though the insta-gib lasers would most likely have no place in PS2.) Heavy vehicles, like the Darkwalker and the Leviathan would be tricky to deal with. The point system would have to be changed to grant the most points to the players that contributed most to the team (savior, suppression[Seen it once, so rare], and all the assists are a good start, ANTs would make this easier.) The top 3 players that have the most contribution points to that particular battle would be able to spawn the heavy vehicle if it's a large base (i.e. Bio lab, Tech plant, Amp Station) but only 1 heavy vehicle per faction can be in a hex at a time to prevent abuse. These things would be powerful, huge, and have loads of HP, but would be slow as all hell. The vehicle itself would probably have destructible turrets which engies would have to repair and such. To blatently refer to halo, there would probably be a generator with a 30 sec overload time in the vehicle to make it hard to get to if it's carrying infantry (physics rework?) but worth it if they pull it off since the vehicle would be destroyed. The Mechanics of Warfare are also intriguing. With each node your team possesses, you gain another spawn at that location. An armored core floats above, marking for which faction that node and spawn belongs to. At any time, the other team can destroy the node and take it for themselves. However, there are only two ways to claim ownership: Step on the pad below when it's neutral, or bring a specialized orb to instantly take the node. Also, there was only one way to heal it: with the Link Gun's alternate fire mode. Nodes can be thought of as similar in terms of the current Lattice links in the game, but it works a lot slower. Once the zerg reaches the base, it's all dependent on if the defenders can hold them off long enough to gain a secure foothold. There are a few Amp stations which have something similar, with ~2 separate spawns that either side can take. I'd actually like to see more of that, both to keep spawn camping from essentially happening, and to keep the battle fluid, as most of the time, its one sided due to the lack of vehicle spawn timers (seriously, where did they go?) Obviously, not everything in that game can be implemented into PS2, as most of it would cause rampant issues. however, the basics of it really shine as a real war to push the enemy out of a location and a constant fight that essentially matters. I know some people don't particularly like it that much, but I can see a VP-esque system being used to capture a base. Having objectives only certain classes can do would certainly bring purpose back and get HA toned down in terms of population. points on rooftops for LA, destructible barricade building for engies, and infil-only generators would be great. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'd at least like a re-skin of the vehicles, if not ES ones for a while. And I'd also like to see the Warfare flow within the bases themselves. PART 2: This is to say a long shot, but I'd like to speak of this anyway. Most, if not all of us have heard of DBG being a shadow of their former self in terms of staff size. It's understandable, but in a game this huge, there's only so much you can do as a dev with a team so small. It's the main reason why we don't see new content that often. I've personally worked with Autodesk Maya, and have practiced a bit of C++ programming, and I know how long it can take to make a single virtual item. Without a large team, their hands are tied when it comes to resources. But there's a possible answer to this: Player Studio. I haven't used it myself, but I assume its to make cosmetic items? Anyway, I'd essentially love it if players were given the opportunity to contribute to the game in more ways than just fancy helmets. We all know that each base is just a different setup of the game's building modules. Player studio can be expanded to have players design base layouts and strategies to defend and attack them. This would essentially resemble Halo's Forge mode, or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater "Park Builder." Custom built halo bases are the main reason the game still has some replay value to the fan-base. Players could also create ES vehicles, armor, and weapons from scratch, be they re-skins of the current stuff, or brand new things they could donate to the devs. There are some games who do this already: Warframe, for example. Some of their best melee and primary weapons have been a result of the devs having a design competition that the players could submit their entries to. One contest had over 300 entries for melee weapons IIRC. The devs looked at them, picked the winner, and the Aegis and Silva were born. The creative artists with higher end PCs could design maps, even. Blender is a free open source 3D modeling software system. Those that have VUE could use the [rather impressive] software to create vast landscapes in record time. Granted, this is only if Player Studio does NOT currently have the ability to do this. If it does, then word just needs to get out there. I feel that we are missing an opportunity to give DBG the greatest resource they could get: ourselves. After all, we love this game and would hate to see it die. The devs would have complete control over this, by all means. I've seen some of you that suggest non biased improvements to the overall game (senpai has noticed you!) and by all means, continue. I'd just like it if we were all involved with keeping the game fresh and alive while DBG gets back on their feet. Also, I've seen the recent posts on the subpar game play of the light assault: we could give them a jetpack dodge ability like HAWKEN and Titanfall's mech dashes. The side-to-side ones, know what I mean? And give them a tool, for pete's sake. I've similar threads that go over some of my personal opinions on improvement: Lots of tiny things: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/thoughts-on-multiple-things.235359/ Faction FLAVAH!: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/faction-traits-make-them-prominent.234997/
