actually, I think it's more a problem with moving flame that was a problem, as well as the frame-rate eating problem of having 100 blobs of moving AOE damage going through the air with frame-rate eating details on top. I think that a single non-moving AOE damage could easily work with a system like the painfields, but with faster damage ticks and maybe lower damage. We already have fire in the game on vehicles, so I don't think it should be that much of a problem if the fire isn't some kind of supa-dupa graphical thing. I think that smoke could be updated as follows: Smoke cannot be de-activated in the .ini files, or something crucial is connected to that part of the files so all your IFF tags for instance dissappear as well giving you a huge disadvantage. As you mention, Smoke needs to be equally vision-obscuring no matter what setting you have it on. If necessary it just creates a large black bubble and sets your max vision range to 2m or something. Smoke now has an AOE bubble. Anyone inside the bubble is unspottable and loses any spot they had on them. They are still visible on motion spotters and sensor darts. However, anyone inside smoke AOE will also not be able to spot enemies themselves If possible, spots that move through the AOE bubble will also fail. Make smoke on vehicles create a much larger area. Currently it's barely useful for anything, with this change you could shroud your friends or try to much up enemy aim when fleeing or approaching them.
Yes, let the devs take their time with the ANT and the heavy changes. I'd rather they take the time than rush it out. There have been loads upon loads of suggestions for special abilities and tools for the LA over the last years. I'm actually more of an engineer person.
expand jetpack abilities: Combine Jumpjets and Drifters, press F to switch. Allow Icarus to press F for a mostly forward boost mode (like the bug when you spawned on a slope) of about 30 degrees up. Press crouch for a (once per press) boost assisted descent allowing you to better react to attacks while in the air, uses x% fuel create LA play space: LLU bases More bridges Split shield generators (3 on a 45 second timer rather than one on a 2 minute) Buff grenades: Flash timer change is good, but more importantly it needs full blindness across it's radius (with a reduction in duration as you get further away) because as it is now, I can't trust a bounced grenade when there is a chance that even if it hit you it didn't do anything. Smoke grenade should be a contact grenade that creates a dome full of smoke (like a shield dome) upon detonation which makes enemies inside glow like if they were in a friendly shield dome. This allows offensive use without having to coordinate IRNV scope use with your team, it is also faster acting unlike current smoke which is throw, wait 15 seconds for smoke to build up to maybe a puff if the enemy is using low settings. LA tool to replace C4: I understand the frustrations regarding it, there are many things a good tanker can do to prevent it, that's why you don't see klypto getting his vanguard popped much by it, but it is very binary in that when it doesn't work, it doesn't do anything, when it does it wins (unless it bugs out and teleports back into your hand before exploding) and the fact is as long as half of everyone hates on c4 fairies and thinks we have something OP, right or wrong we cant reasonably expect buffs. I'm thinking some sort of harpoon gun thing, 1/3 ammo, does about 20% of a rocket on contact, does 7% damage of a rocket per second for 45 seconds. easy enough to out heal with an engineer tool, actually brings more potential firepower to the class, but it does potentially force players out of their vehicles or to drive away for repairs (or to face the right side of the tank twords the LA and use it as cover, there are a lot of considerations which is one of the things I like) and it requires the LA to use more hit and move style tactics to eliminate engineers before taking on maxes while being very effective against overextended or rogue max units, esf, etc.
Aside from all the Jetpack stuff, it seems like the one thing the LA could use is a Class Specific Piece of equipment like the others. Infiltrator has The Detector. Medic has Health Tool, Engineer has Repair, Heavy has Launcher. The LA is clearly lacking in a useful piece of equipment like that.
Heavy has the shield to toughen up against vehicles and the rocket to attack them, as well as extra attack and defense against infantry in the form of shield and bigger magazines. Engy repair tool greatly reduces the enemy's ability to take down your vehicle, and since vehicle play is more attrition based it serves the dual purpose of making you more effective but even if you aren't in a vehicle you have the AV turret and AV mines to both expand your attack capabilities and limit the enemy's. Being the only self sustainable class in terms of ammo is an added perk. Infiltrator has both the motion spotter to expand its capabilities using radar while also having the ability to lower radar effectiveness using cloak. anything cloak does to visibility, having the best grenade, and having the most, if not only effective gun outside 100m can be considered added perks. medic has the ability to expand it's toughness, although not as much as a heavy, but it also expands every other class' toughness (except LA) it has no extra capability for itself except for maybe choosing c4 more easily due to the added perk of being the only self sustainable class in terms of HP. There is a reason they aren't very popular. They also have the added perk of being the only class who can reverse death, for others. if shield dome did both health and shield, but at maybe 60% speed, it would expand the class' toughness as much as current shield dome while leaving the self sustainability perk of NRD and I feel that would do a lot more for the class than 2 separate abilities. LA can expand it's own mobility, but can't really do anything to limit the enemy. This is where ideas like Molotov grenades and slow fields came from, but they cant be implemented so I expanded more on the jetpack and made it able to carry medkits as a bonus perk (although I would actually take c4 away with my changes, since the stress on other players isn't needed with them) It's also a reason why strapping jetpacks to medics could actually work. the breakdown (laymans) HA gets something to do to enemies (extra attack) and something debilitating to enemies (extra HP) Engy gets something to do to enemies (vehicle attack) and something debilitating to enemies (vehicle HP) Infil gets something to do to enemies (radar) and something debilitating to enemies (-radar) Medic gets nothing to do to enemies () and something debilitating to enemies (extra HP, not as much as heavy but for everyone) LA gets something to do to enemies (surprise attack capability) and nothing debilitating to enemies () the last 2 classes don't follow the formula of the first 3, and need the most attention, or to be combined. Heavy got nerfed because it's abilities were "across the board" type and not specialized like engy and infil, while not being weaker to make up for this. This breakdown is the key to class balance. every class has a sword and a shield, except medic, who has no sword and a giant shield to make up for it if you are a team player, or just a tiny buckler if you are more self centered (which there is nothing wrong with, video games are for everyone, you hippy losers) and the LA who has no shield, but a greatsword which makes up for it according to people who play heavy, or just a regular sword that sometimes is a greatsword and other times is a pocket knife, but no better than a regular sword overall according to players who actually know.
I think light assault should be integrated into the engineer, and you can switch between stick bomb and flash grenade also with jetpack to repair tool
Nor can you do it consistently, as eventually you'll run out of nanites. Or you will get shot down en-route. Or you might miss your mark and get mowed down by the wave of HA's below. Not to say the LA needs some love, but it has it's uses. I have a lot of fun playing LA, but sadly I defer to HA more often simply because of the greater impact I can have on the battle.(Also, going ham for that TR Directive LMG... *foams at mouth*) Take a player well known for his LA play, iHack's. Has an amazing KDR, tens of thousands of kills with his trusty Pulsar C... But how much does he really contribute to the fight while farming from a biolab leg? They respawn in about 8 seconds anyway, at least when I knock ya teeth out while humping my control point you've spent a decent time walking there... Maybe not the best analogy, but in the end it boils down to HA's being more useful in PS2's dynamic. If we had more Infiltrator/Engineer/LA based objectives, they would be more useful. Currently the 3 highest scoring classes, HA, MAX and Medic, all fill valuable roles in the planetmans grind for A point. Hopefully, ANT's will be a step in that direction, at least for Infil and Engi, not that engi has any shortage of roles(But a severe shortage of rolls )
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/shotguns-and-elitists.236752/ Not using shotguns is nothing to be proud of. I assume you consider shotguns OP cheese. Yet you don't have a single shotgun kill to your name to back up your claim? How asinine is that?
They could rip off the EA games and offer walking on walls/ceilings. That could be the niche, or maybe a grappling hook that would allow for the LA to take multiple people to a set location ? I'm not very good with the class and almost despise it as much as the Heavy-my shield is better than yours class, but like you said its basically a engi with a jumpack. Great mobility at the cost of low health. I feel its a fair trade. I also think a infil should get 1 brick of C4, and the heavy shouldn't get any kind of healing kits and be more team dependent on the medic.
Implying anyone has a reason to care about contributing to fights. While straight up farming disgusts me as well, there is zero reason to selflessly throw oneseslf at the objectives either. And in more moderated playstyle - i.e., the one not involvind doing MAX crashes and galaxy drops on point 24/7 - LA can be just as useful as a HA. That's what I choose to believe, at least.
I made my choice not to use shotguns in PS2 back when it first came out, so that's a long time. VS being my main, it certainly didn't fit the whole "pew pew lazors" scheme of things, and it wouldn't feel fun to use it (for me), with how I imagined the gunplay of PS2 to be in the past. Shotguns are wonderfully useful within its range, but there's enough combat outside of its range that wouldn't make me go back on my decision back then, I don't feel it's necessary for me to use shotguns in PS2. I could have, but chose not to. I don't have problems with other people using Shotguns. I myself used it liberally in Destiny. I spammed that Invective pre-Omnigul because it made Crucibal grinding that much easier. I don't play PS2 to grind however, I play it to have fun. That's why I have +10k kills on a Solstice VE3 and 0 kills with shotguns. If I unlocked the Eclipse VE3A I might consider using the UBL shotgun, but that's like 3 years out at the rate I play now
