Just get rid of it. Here are some suggestions for Vanu MAX special abilities. Jump jets- Drifter JJ ought to be okay. They were around in PS1, so why not allow them here? Cloak- you can make Vanu MAXes cloak like infiltrators for maybe half the duration that an infiltrator can do. Transform into vehicle- A Vanu MAX can transform into something similar to a harasser for a few minutes.
Before I start, Yes ZOE is basically useless. Jump Jets: Drifter or Not, PS1 had Doors everything, PS2 Has no such Doors, Elevation is a lot more important in PS2 Cloak; You want a large moving Max to be able to walk around camouflaged, with large-caliber weapons.. This will bring a tactical advantage of hidden maxes, let alone at night, the Max able to cross a open field at range unseen, is pretty effective. Okay, this last one is creative. and I mean that in a positive way.
aaaages ago (2015!) i suggested a rework that i think fits the "overdrive" theme. ZoE 2.0 duration, 15 seconds cooldown 30 seconds upon activating the skill you now get a heat bar, the more you fire the more the bar fills up (like normal heat bars) cooling down over time if you don't fire. as the bar fills you deal more damage (5 stages, 4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, 20%) and move faster (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%) if the bar overheats however, you get the complete opposite effect while the system cools, as it cools down over several seconds you will deal less damage (20%, 16%, 12%, 8%, 4%), and move slower (10%, 8%, 6%, 4%, 2%) both effects gradually falling off as the bar cools. overheating also ends the overdrive early. honestly though i'd take any rework, i can't believe it has stayed in such a useless state for so long!
I think the ZOE, Shield for NC and Anchor for TR maxes should just be built in like they did with the Prowler. Maxes need lots of support and scramble enough with repairs. Stationary or head to head combat has to be timed and is very short lived. You can get 15-30 kills with a max, but medics and engineers make that difference.
1. I agree with LordKrelas that drifter MAXes would be very powerful you'd be able to reach some pretty OP spots with Ammo Printer and auto repair too. 3. The vehicle idea is interesting but I'd need to hear more about how you think it could work. 2.The cloak I REALLY love this, there are so many ways you could control for its balance that it's really flexible. I'm assuming it wouldn't be able to shoot while cloaked, you could make it have a similar no fire period during decloaking as Minor cloak (or tweak it as needed for balance). You could tweak the level of the cloak effect, whether or not it shimmers when taking damage. You could even chose between it being a toggle on and off ability or an activatable thing for X amount of time that can not be shortened, or maybe it can be cut short if you try to fire but it doesn't shorten the cooldown before you can use it again? Or maybe it does? Like I said, so flexible.
Nice suggestion! The way you suggested it also made me think we can add a different ZOE. Like the Aphelion you charge something that can be unleashed (eaxample: damaging bolt, stun or EMP area, damaging running attack). On the other hand, your suggestion gives more tactical management. You could even replace the mags with heat bars (maybe you meant that) for further management. The damage profiles do seem to go up quite quickly. Maybe the stages also get much smaller the hotter you go, so you'll only encounter the last stages briefly before overheating.
You know, I've found these arguments always fragile on their own. They can add to a list of arguments, but on their own it's obvious they're empty. Why not activate ZOE and now you're the barbarian from Diabo. It worked there, why not here? Or the guns and health from UT? Or insert Master chief? It worked there as well. How about changing them to Mario from Mario tennis? It worked splendidly in Mario Tennis, so it should work perfectly in PS2.
The Cloak, unlike on the Infiltrator, is on a unit that can survive pretty damn long, unless C-4'd: It also has AV weaponry. The No-fire period of the Minor-Cloaking, is one reason, it's impractical -- from the massive risk, on the Max, this is barely a thing. At a distance, or at night, the ability to move unseen by the enemy, unable to locked onto, spotted, or similar, is a severe advantage. With it, all long-range targeting or spotting of an armored Max unit, is rendered null for one-side. It also is actually hard to tweak: As mirror-cloaking shows, it's either strong as down-right useless. Infiltrators sacrificed a lot for their Cloaks. Mirror-Cloaking has numerous problems with it, that neuter it hard. Most of these exact issues, are however nullified by the sheer health & weaponry of the MAX unit. Past the stationary bit; Which as a MAX ability, basically puts it pure ambush-only, IE very situational. If the cloak effect is too poor: You basically have a Max ability ineffective at all ranges, past sniper range or aircraft-level. if the effect is too good: you have a walking mini-tank with AV weapons, or AI Weapons, unable to be seen till it can strike first. If it's in-between, you still have an High-health unit, armed quite well considering, that can basically vanish. If it's static-use only: You basically have an ability only useful for an ambush, or emergency hide-button that isn't reliable. If it's too short of duration, it's useless past breaking spots. If it's too long, that's a Max unit unable to be reliably seen even during the day, across open terrain. At Night, it gets worse, as now we have a Max unit able to easily close distances. The only way it could get worse, is it if had Shotguns while doing this. IE, I disagree that cloak is able to be tweaked easily. It's one of those 'Its either grand, or ****' abilities.
I probably played Doom too much but what about making ZOE a berserk / glory-kill ability ? When active, it disable your main weapons. But increase your mobility and massively buff your MAX punch. Plus, you passively regain HP based on your missing HP while killing things with MAX punch. Now we talk about a real zealot ability.
I like the berserker idea. I'd prefer to keep weapons, raise the damage and movement bonus a little (probably a bad idea), and add a carefully determined amount of life-steal on kills. This forces aggressiveness to keep HP up, which fits nicely thematics wise. (Would need a set active duration + cooldown to prevent rapid activation/deactivation)
like the lib, like the prowler; give our maxes the empire specific ability. and rework the zoe to something that is useful like the other two maxes abilities. and increase the nc shield angle a bit, as i wroted an article about that in the max class discussion.
Why not make it like Max Charge used to be - except that the Max weapons are reduced in damage or disabled while it's active. This would compliment the other factions Max abilities. TR - Anchor - removes all mobility for a massive boost in damage. NC - Shield - removes all damage dealing ability for a massive boost in defence - still has limited mobility VS - New ZOE - gain a massive mobility boost, but with a big reduction in damage output
Everyone suggesting damage boosts on ZOE: Thats crap. Just make the calculation and then tell me how much more damage you need for needing one less bullet... Mobility would be great. I would even say VS ability should be "travel mode": Disable weapons for runspeed. Ability should be toggleable, but ofc with a delay.
You can still do a ton with damage. Building up a charge like the Aphelion, firing through people, make it AOE, increase it by % for less TTK on other MAX units or vehicles, decrease/eliminate decreasing damage over distance, have the damage ramp up over distance by one tier so the guns are more effective at a distance.... I'm sure with creativity there can be more. Damage boosts can easily make differences and shouldn't be disregarded because "you might not make a difference". With the right setup it can make all the difference and be balanced.
Ofc there can be usefull applications of increased damage but "just" increased damage is stupid. Most VS MAX weapons use a 143 damage model, needing 4 shots on dual wield on standard target without nanaweave. In order to just save one bullet, we have to boost damage up to 20%. This additional bullet does only effect ttk if an uneven number of shots is needed. Still damage upgrade is something "lame" in terms of gameplay. Increase damage over distance does not much, since accuraty stats are more dominant then. The new update on PTS has in nice implant feature, pushback. That should have been the new VS MAX ability.
At first you seemed to dismiss damage increase outright, so it's an important distinction. Now damage boosts of lower than 20% can still be a great deal in AV scenarios, so I wouldn't simply disregard that either. But I can understand the sentiment of "a damage boost is lam3". So other damage typed like a charge shot similar to the Aphelion might be more acceptable? Movement improving was a great flop the first time it was introduced, so it should be well thought off before implementing. A charge mechanism and pushback are interesting, but cloak and jumpjets are right out for me.
As an NC primary let me just throw my chip in. VS MAX special ability needs an overhaul. You get a thumbs up from me on any ideas you have to do this.
