I've seen a couple of VS on the fourms and reddit say that they think the VS ZOE ability is boring. How do you think the TR feel!? Do you think sitting immobile is entertaining in any way!? At least you get to zip around like crazy!
its boring in that: -they haven't bothered to animate it -you take TWICE as much damage from small arms fire when fully upgraded(3x when lvl 1) -speed boost brings you up to infantry speeds but you only go faster if your sprinting and even then takes several seconds to get up to speed -The damage buff makes it take a whopping one bullet less -They plan to remove the synergy between bursters and the max abilities anyways So speed wise charge is better, damage other than anti-tank is negligible, and it makes you a glowing easy to kill target. What more do you need?
After playing Max on live a bit more and thinking where I would use Zoe I don't seem near so impressed. AA and AV at long range is about it. Will be worthless at most point defense. I really think the NC will come out ahead in this one but only time will tell
The MAX should yell something corny like: I AAARM ZEEE UBBAAAMEEEN! But yea, the animation and effects are placeholder. Personally I don't really care about cosmetics as long as I get to test the final stats before release.
Because unlike TR and NC, the VS does not get their faction ability from planetside 1. Instead they get what can only be described as a lazy 'MMO' style % buff, taking more damage and giving more damage. Doing more damage per bullet does not make you feel more powerful, (unlike shooting faster, having faster reload speed and more bullet velocity, Lockdown actually makes Heavy cyclers shoot as fast as they should have been shooting from the start) Taking more damage is pretty much the opposite of what you want to be doing in a MAX, you feel less empowered because of it. The movement speed is the only remotely 'fun' part about the ability, because it lets you strafe faster (hopefully when it's animated you'll actually be hovering or something) Me personally (And I imagine many others) main disappointment about the ZOE abilit however, is how uncreative it is, it is not the reason why I joined VS. The magriders hover and strafe. The lasher being the only automatic explosive infantry sidearm. Or the PPA vehicle varients for scythe and magrider. The lancer/Saron being anti tank projectile weapons. These are the reason you play vanu (and the lore obviously), you picked the purple spandex faction because they got to have the cool toys that TR and NC couldn't have. And finally most importantly because it isn't this: (go to 2:10 to see how freaking high you could fly with this thing and tell me that doesn't look Fun) Now I understand that they're pretty deadset on not giving the VS jumpjets, however the ZOE substitute isn't even a shadow of the awesome that the VS MAX once was. A damage/speed buff is a NC/TR trait, not a VS one. The only thing VS about the ability is the faster strafe speed.
this is exactly what i was afraid of negligible damage buff with a RIDICULOUS HP debuff (3x the damage? really? wtf? where are the downsides to the NC Max then?) just give vanu the jumping maxes back, they dont have any overly accurate weapons to snipe people with and wont be OMGWTFOP TR gets a damage buff actually usefull on long range NC gets an ability usefull in EVERY situation VS gets a movement and dmg buff but makes the MAX even weaker than it was Some logical problems with the ZOE: 1) You get a speed buff, yet in situations where it would be usefull (CQC against infantry) you get a debuff against infantry, who thought this one out? 2) The damage buff is way too low, making it even in long range-fights against armor almost useless, and against air all MAX abilities are useless anyway, giving the ZOE even less reason to exist and the NC MAX AGAIN the only one profiting from the MAX ability against air fights call me overreatcting, but i dont think this was thought over ONE second
LOL you do not get the point of the Anchore mode rigth ? You shoot as twice as fast with the new AV weapons you could make some insane fortress defense with those kind of maxs TR: Flak armor + Anchor + Eng back up = Freaking OP VS: ZOE ( mean fast and not slugish maxs ) + extra magazine + kinetic armor + dual Ai weapons = Freaking OP NC : lame and smalls shield that almost barely cover your own maxs + cant shoot with it ON = extra passive and pretty lame power Basically the NC maxs got no offensive or defensive power into all this just a Situational edje in QCQ team combat where you will reply on your team to breach place where NC maxs are already dominent (( NC maxs = shotguns )) so yeah this design agains force the NC to be mostly competant in QCQ combat with their maxs but we got a sweet *** new AV weapon tho
LOLLLLLLLLLL every situation ? is it good agains air ? Is it good agains LA + c4 ? is it good agains mines ? Is it good agains others maxs since you cant shoot with is and its a front shield only is it good agains HA rokets on your sides and back ? The one and only situation where it can be good is with a huge team effort the NC shield could make it possible to moove under up front ennemy incoming fire if they are on top of the building on sides or on back it become totally useless So in another word this shield is good for 1 single purpose DOOR breaching so stop dreaming buddy and wake up please ! VS speed + extended magazine + dual Ai weapons will destroy infantry like no freaking end even if they got more damage from smalls fire arms they will conter it with kinetic armor so yeah SOE will be more op than anything also the anchor mod will make it possible to make insane defense for tower and big bases
you realize at lvl 1 you take 40% less damage resistance from small arms(stock is 80%). kinetic armor raises your small arms defence by 5%. The damage boost is by 1 whole bullet while you'll take 3x damage from gunfire-op I think thats ridiculously up actually. Boosted movement? guns get even less accurate with movement so I doubt it'll be all that effective.
*typing bigger makes arguments sound more right* lol how exactly does a max getting 3 to 2 times more damage from infantry weapons destroy infantry? your shield helps you against taking damage, way better against infantry than a freaking defense debuff for a MAX having a ridiculously low damage output anyway, which isn't even buffed that much and infantry will still destroy you with c4 and speed and agility, don't pretend the NC max is the only one not getting stuff against mines and C4 the truth is that the NC max has an ability usefull against all bullet weapons, which some aircrafts use, while the ZOE and Lockdown have no buff against air whatsoever
Except Kinetic armor doesn't cancel it out, not to mention you dont get the usual benifit from kinetic armor. Before kinetic armor gave you 85% damage reduction, or 33% more effective HP against bullets. (you soaked 13333 damage) With the new numbers it's 87.5%, or 60% more effective HP (you now soak 16000 damage) With ZOE activated your kinetic armor is rendered useless. (At your most generous you'd say you were as tough as a stock MAX, but you aren't). You still just lost 6k health vs bullets you'd otherwise have had from kinetic. I'd take those 6k extra health over having a 0.14 second faster TTK against infantry (and that's only if you use nebula or blueshift, quasar and cosmos don't get a faster TTK)...
Can't they just let the VS Max fly like in PS1 ? Just make it so they can't fly as long as a lvl 5 light assault and basta.
agreed, and give the NC max a useful shield while you're at it (as long as C4 and mines still OHK it)
The most likely didn't give the VS Max jump jets becuase of all of the recent complaining about LA. A ton of people on the fourms have been complaining about how the LA is to effective, especially at towers. Now could you imagine giving Max's the ability to do this?
It's less that the LA can fly and more that the LA can fly, while having access to C4 and pump action shotguns. A VS MAX has neither or those, not to mention he cannot cap points, overload gens, place spawn beacons and he's a huge target unlike the LA (who can also be mistaken for an ally with all the camo going around) I think it's more the LA QQing that they wouldn't be as 'super special snowflake' if VS MAXes could fly, even though they stole the ability from us <_<...
What bothers me much more than the balancing stuff is simply this huge lack of creativity. This game has so much potential, and VS as an alienfaction has even greater potential for something that is fun to use. So why don't they use this potential? AS far as I see this ZOE simply involves the change in a few stats of the VS Max - crap produced within 5 minutes. It's like "VS won't get their old ability. So what could they get instead? Hmmm, too lazy to think about that right now... Let's just give it a buff." Come on, guys, play your own game and look how boring some aspects are!
Yeah, that their priorities are in the RIGHT place for this. It's a test, you want to be sure this is what you want to go live before you spend time making an animation for it, because if they make the anim and then through testing decide that they don't want it in the game, they now have a useless animation they wasted time and money on.
Actually ZOE is pointless: even 1.5x damage would be a seriou disadvantage with the actual, near-zero damage buff, and now it is 3x at first rank down to 2xat last
