Walker/Mech/ Heavy Tank Ideas, anyone?

So are you really saying you don't want the TR to have a MAX who has fractures on his arms and a gatekeeper on his head?

Battle Hardened becomes the new meta, just to combat the screen shake that mech would cause.

I hear what you are saying, but I don't think you guys understand how bad this would be for the game. It would absolutely kill Planetside 2. Why do you think John Smedley made the following statement:

THAT'S how controversial Mechs in Planetside was. Planetside 1 players wouldn't have even considered this game if BFRs made a comeback. The amount of players this game would lose overnight is just...incalculable.

There's no way to do this without causing MAJOR problems. I honestly don't think the game could recover from adding this.

We already have MBT players that complain that tanks in Planetside 2 don't meet their expectations. How are we going to make balanced BFRs and still meet players expectations of a rock-em sock-em robot?

Hyperbole to be sure, but I get what you're saying. I do think it would be possible to find a reasonable sweet spot where the machine was usable and fun, yet not invincible and game breaking. Just a fat MAX with a second guy and a bit more mobility/firepower. Then, your pocket engi could really be a part of the team instead of just a rocket catcher.

I would put mechs into a support role, giving them 2 arms to use which can be customized for various things.

Repair arms - Having 1 arm for repair could give a repair aura similar to the PTS repair base module, having both arms be repair would give you a sundie strength repair aura but also repairs structures far better.
Ammo arms - Having 1 arm for ammo gives you a small ammo aura, around 10 meters. Having both be ammo gives you a large aura about 50m & gives ammo to infantry and also the ability to deploy ammo stations that are very weak but refill ammo to infantry & vehicles.
Revival arms - Having 1 arm gives you 7 revive grenades to help infantry, however they can only be resupplied by main facility ammo towers. Having 2 arms gives you 15 revive grenades and 15 healing grenades.
Radar arms - Having 1 arm gives you 50m proxy radar. Having 2 arms gives you 150m scout radar.

Other than that it would be pretty weak having only a Kobalt, Basilisk or Ranger for defence, and be about as tough as a harasser armour wise. It would move slower than a sunderer but have very rapid turn rates. It's size would be slightly taller than a harasser.

The best place for a mech in PS2 is to play the sweet spot between an ESF and an MBT while allowing "infantry" level control. Solo pilot only. Slowest ground locked vehicle. Armor like an MBT (and a little taller.) Light armaments, like a machine gun and a secondary like rocket salvos. An alternative to the lightning would be a walker that can move like infantry/a magrider, has the durability of a magrider, maybe a little less, but has all the fire power of an ESF. Meaning "nose" guns and appropriate secondaries.

It couldn't be too tall though, as it would have to spawn and exit the bays of many interior spawn pads (amp stations, tech plants, towers, etc.)

Alternatively, install a machine gun next to the turret on the lightning and let it go spider tank, Arkham Knight Bat-mobile style.

Really, it's about that super simple infantry/shooter control scheme in vehicle form. That's the ONLY reason to introduce a mech (or a hovercraft, or a spider tank.) There's really no reason to struggle to find a niche for the mech to fill - just about anything we come up with can be done with something that moves around on wheels or treads. It's really about how we want players to be able to maneuver the vehicle that brings us to sticking legs onto a vehicle, instead of wheels.

i personally like the idea of a HMAX , in the way of it being somewhat like a ESF on legs in terms of weapons ( maybe we can repurpose those max GL's that got cried into extinction before release) and being somewhat like a ballistic glass cannon with movement/stability being its upside , not the hulking behemoths ps1 veterans have vast hatred for.

on a side note the idea of a lightning like spider tank sounds somewhat glorious.

WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU BRING BACK BFR'S?!

This is a Chicken-Little the Sky is Falling response.

Your scenario could have been the Valkyrie. But when it was added, it was not OP in the slightest (UP by most accounts). Its role was defined but it took a year before the community actually started to see the merits and using it to its somewhat average potential.

With that said.

I have no clue what role the Walker/Mech could play in the Harasser, Lightning, and MBT dynamic. In reality those vehicles have very little role in themselves. This may change after the addition of the ANT and construction. Depending on how impactful the construction system actually is.

My personal thought is go ahead and make the Walker/Mech an OP vehicle. Require a multicrew to realize its fullest potential (pilot, gunner, and 2-3 secondary gunners), sort of like a tougher Galaxy on the ground without transport ability. Similar damage resistances and armor as a MBT but with twice the HP.

The downside being the cert cost. Something like 2700 nanites. Holy sh-t but we can only have 750 at a time. Yup. You need the cert pooling mechanic I've suggested in the past. Requiring at least a squad and everyone contributing nanites for the squad to be able to pull this thing. A squad could pull 3 of these and fully main them. But then the entire squad is in literally 3 vehicles. Three Large targets and losing one is losing 4 player's worth of full nanites. Who aren't going to be able to afford a full loadout of medkits, C4, and grenades, nor pull vehicles.

That's a big vulnerability. Which means zerging with these things is a bad idea. I'm also toying with the idea of only allowing the things to be pulled from Techplants and Warpgates. Meaning.. you've got to take this thing for a bit. Making you vulnerable to air ganking squads (two walkers on the shoulders... may not be enough to stop a Lib and a few ESFs unless you've got Skyguard support.

Course a squad which fully supports this thing, say using 1 or 2 of them. And uses a repair sundy and a Skyguard will be a force to be reckoned with. But there's nothing wrong with that. This is the epitome of combined arms.. and takes some serious coordination to pull off.

Of course foolish commanders will zerg with them. Let them. Defenders can merely hit another lattice and ignore them. Forcing them to either ghost cap (and lose something important) or drop their rides and redeploy. So pulling them at the right time and place will be a challenge.

The idea that just because a vehicle was poorly balanced in a previous game means that all vehicles of that type will always be poorly balanced is totally illogical.

I can't see anything with a mech that makes it fundamentally stronger against a tank in ALL scenarios. There are some where it might shine, but if it is weaker in armour and weapons it's not going to be able to win everywhere and if it is slower it can only pick the battle where it has terrain advantage. Otherwise its probably just harasser bait.

Not at all. This is watching history repeat itself. I saw the exact same discussions before BFRs came out!

And the Planetside 1 Devs were good. They were DAMN good. That game was a full decade before it's time. It was revolutionary. And mechs were still a disaster.

What makes you think this bunch can do better?

Because after 3 and a half years, this game is alive and well. PS1 is dead. If PS1 was so great it wouldn't have been killed by its own sequel.

Just like Everquest wasn't killed by EQ2.

Besides, Walkers in Battlefield 2142 weren't OP. A game PS2 mimics far more than its predecessor.

This

This

This hulking death machine

I agree. But in that case you would ALWAYS be better off using something else. So what's the point?

Am I the only one who understands "balance" doesn't just apply to those it's being used against, but also those who will be using it?

Believe it or not, I don't want worthless vehicles added to the game.

PS1 was "dead" long before PS2 came out. It wasn't "killed' by this game, you're speaking nonsense.

And you just compared a lobby shooter to Planetside balance. You lose outright just for that.

Exactly. Notice how everyone FOR this idea are people who didn't actually play Planetside 1? They really have no clue what they are asking for.

They were fine in bf2142

Just because they were done wrong in ps1 doesn't mean it can't be done right here.

Personally I'm all for anything that adds more futuristic, sci-fi, tech-y feel to the game

Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Battle frame Robotics imbalanced PS1 or broke it, I feel the Devs did that all on their own. They completely broke from what BFRs were suppose to be,and broke them. They were suppose to be implemented as advanced MAX suits. Same design as MAXs, TR-Lockdown NC-sheild VS-Mobility/jumpjets. Instead the gave -all- empires BFRs with Lockdown and Sheild, then gave them a mobile BFR with Jumpers (completely breaking ES methodology. Then tried to differentiate them by their weapon systems, which they made far superior to tank weapons (instead of making them comparable to tank weapons like they were suppose to be). And none of these breaks from the original intent and ES design balancing struck them even in the least bit OP vs everything else in the game..

(and to "balance" all the OP-ness.. critical hit locations, that could be hit with small arms fire, not to deal any significant damage, but disable BFR systems.. If you lived long enough to get inside the shield.. Where you were better off using a decimator..)

Nope.. Wasn't BFRs, it was their very, very poor design and failed implementation.

If the current team can avoid all that, think their design through, and not foist (well I'll just call it silliness), on the game.. I'll be good with any walker variant they add.

Ooo, idea. Have them only pull-able from special built vehicle terminal at ANT constructed bases

Likewise, that doesn't mean it WILL be done right here either. Does it?

That's what the pts is for.

What you need is planetside Jesus lol.