What would you do to MAX's to make them useful, skillful, balanced?

I understand what you're saying; though I tend to think Starcraft does a much better job at it. It's also a game where one player controls an army, whereas PS2 everyone controls only themselves, and that kind of makes a difference.

Now, if PS2 had much more emphasis on metagame and strategies, then maybe asymmetric balance could less of an issue. But it doesn't, and it's obvious in the way they emphasize helping new players, but doing it in ways that don't involve encouraging strategic play.

One thing that would help, even though this is a more tactical thing than strategic, is if they added a Focus Target/Attack My Target spotting feature, that lets people know they need to focus fire on the same tank. Inb4 someone says that's not different from regular spotting; of course it is. Regular spotting, theoretically every enemy in sight could be spotted; this would be something people would have to select as a cert line and use with specific intent.

-Remove a weapon arm, refund certs and give SC credit (or change it into the other arm).
-Add support arms, AOE healing, shields, projectile deflectors etc.
-make them slightly tankier in return
-no revives
-Remove most of the AI weapon's ammo to bring them down 50 or less rounds per mag.
-nerf pounders in AI. Maybe (maybe) bring AV capability down a tiny bit to get more range for them (velocity/gravity)

Let me get this straight MAXES ruins the game but TANKS/ESF/LIBERATOR/ETC do not?

Max dies from basically 1 rocket+ bullets or 1<<<<< ONE c4 and cost the same resources as tanks. However I shall contribute to this thread with my AMAZING ideas.

Make DIFFERENT KINDS OF MAXES!

-INFILTRATOR MAX (Nothing worse then a max that can ****** cloak and snipe)
-MEDIC MAX (You can now revive without getting shot to death)
-ENGINEER MAX ( Maxes can now repair maxes with other maxes + engineers)
-HA MAX (**** JUST GOT REAL)
LA MAX - (Now MAXES CAN C4 OTHER MAXES WHILE FLYING)

Get rid of anti-infantry weapons on MAXs.

They are and they aren't 1x they are, 2x not so much (0.3 second TTK).

Pretty much, yes, in PS1 MAXs worked pretty well, they were effective and did their jobs, but they were much more infantry tank than they are in PS2.

If MAXs had the survivabilty of say KA5 and Flak 5 (together) now and they reduced their DPS they'd be much more PS1-like and I think much easier to both balance and define into a role.

Part of the problem currently (certainly in the context of being complained about) is they are more Extra Heavy Assault than Infantry Tank.

Well I would make them less useful by not allowing them to be revived and nerfing their AV weapons
I would make them less 'skillfull" by drastically reducing their rotate speed
and I would imbalance them further by giving them a run mode and increasing hitpoints by about 30%.

All is ruining my game if it kills me

MAX units are ok like all other units. And they are needed in the state of things they have. It is a very useful tactical unit and a nice and useful solorunner. MAXes are required by the game. After a MAX nerf or new MAX structures who would fill the space? HA´s.
After a while they wouls say: oh, look, the HA is to strong it is game breaking.
The MAX is there to break and defend the doors, hallways, spots and whatever. I am playing MAX units with fun and a get killstreaks and regardless my MAx is time and again down. It is relative easy to kill a MAX if you know how. Sorely afflicted i know about the weakness

And MAX units are giving new Players certs if the revive or repair them even with starting tools without any certs in. Especially a new player with an engineer can earn a nice ammount of certs if he is following a MAX and the MAX Player is capable to save most of the bullets that are targeted to engi. So, MAXes can be a helping hand too.

Maybe the Harassers and the Galaxy´s armor is a bit heavy. Harasser are to small to have such block and an airplane like a Galaxy - in real life a big one like this would be taken down easily. They are always flying with convoy escort. But ok, it is a game not reality.

Maxes are fine as they are. No changes required.

Your forum name proves it

What about MAX MAX, Lib MAX and AMS MAX? And lets not forget about giant Biolab MAX, so we we can fight with MAX MAX in MAX.

I like the melee only idea.

Honestly though I still think they'd be better if they were just turned into:

http://3.bp.************/-xeAfDkPT7Lk/UYQ4tCNF6YI/AAAAAAAAA38/vUD-R7BMliQ/s1600/bioshock-big-daddy.jpg

Forget Biolab MAX, Bioshock MAX all up in this place.

In fact what if the biolabs were MAXes like giant ones. Each biolab controlled by a faction would be able to be controlled by a player - and they'd have these huge fistfights with one another as soldiers crawled all over them shooting at each other and trying to jump over onto the enemy BioMAX and sabotage it.

They could be like...huge...titans.....oh. Wait.

Is someone in this thread willing to explain how skillful MAX play is supposed to work, as opposed to merely positing to make a change?

(And please don't say "look at PS1" and be done with your argument, if that is what you wish to go with. I may have a clue as to what you imply when you say that but not everyone has familiarity with the heyday of PS1 gameplay.)

Realistically speaking, I would like to see an NS mid range weapon that gives NC more versatility, and then flamethrowers to give VS and TR to give them short range weapons.

There ya go, everyone's happy.

Current max play or proposed max play?
It's more about situational awareness than mobility, aim, etc. You have to be able to read the flow of battle to tell if you have enough infantry around to be bolstering their strength, or if they are going to get slaughtered leaving you with a large bullseye painted on your chest.

It's more about reading the situation with your allies than anything. A medic just goes to where people die. An infiltrator goes to where people are not to sneak into an advantageous position. A max needs to be mindful of where he is needed and where the line is weak, but not so weak that his ability to bolster the force won't be wasted.
And sometimes you just need to grab dual AV arms and sneak out the long way so you can destroy a sunderer that individually, no one can get the numbers to take down with rockets or get close enough with C4.

Obviously we're not talking counterstrike skills here (unless you are dual falconing people ). But there are some skills that can be utilized to make you a better MAX than other players.

Outside use only...problem solved.

Make them cost 751 nanites.

i would delete from game... i hate play with max and i hate who play with max

You did just describe how MAX play currently works and I could waste a paragraph re-iterating what you said, only to have Axehilt and co. dismiss everything either of us said as frivolous bunk. That's how the last dozen or so MAX threads where we've traded opinions and realities play out. What I want to know how proposed MAX play is supposed to be skillful, or, rather, what the optimal level of skill behavior for a MAX should be, if they believe the current incarnation is too brute force.

If you're expecting something constructive from the "Remove plz" crew who would happily play "Call of infantryside: uranus warfare 2" I think you're going to be disappointed.
At any rate, my proposal is in the OP, but as I'd predicted most took the title and ran with it. More agile but less range, more tank but less dakka. Sphess marheens.

Quite a depressing topic actually. I was staying away from this topic because I guessed I would be disappointed, and I am.

There are some positive posts with seemingly reasonable suggestions, but then there are the usual class hate stuff that I'm fed up of reading here.

I snipe a lot. Peeps hate snipers and want to nerf OHK headshots, or simply remove the class from the game.

And now that I have just got into using a MAX suit, same thing...

Take those two classes out of the game and I would be reduced to healing and repairing duties inside spawn rooms and towers...


Oh... wait a minute... this game isn't all about me is it

carry on