Balance changes

[Belsameth]

taken from the Planetside messageboard, posted originally by SporkPS

After reviewing gameflow data, the Design Team has come to some decisions regarding certain items. In an upcoming patch, expect the following adjustments.

1) Heavy Assault: The Mini-Chaingun and the Lasher will both be enhanced to help them meet the power of the Jackhammer. The Jackhammer's properties will not be altered. We'll announce more details on the enhancements as they get closer to implementation.

2) Thresher: The Thresher will see its armor brought up to be equal to the Marauder and the Enforcer. Its weapon will also see some enhancements as well. We are also planning to resolve the terrain damage issues that the hover vehicles may suffer, as well as their difficulties leaving the vehicle pads.

You will be able to preview both of these adjustments on the Test Server before they go live.

all I can say is w00t!

 

[Belsameth]

I just came back from a testfly with the Liberator too, and this thing could make air superiority vital.
with clusterbombs it can decimate any infantry loitering outside, waiting for a hack.

it's still quite manuvareble, and has a nice turret in the back that can shoot almost anywhere exept to the front and too far up, so reavers shouldn't be a death on sight either.
overall I really love it, but it will bring quite a shift toward (anti) airpower to the balance of the game, and I don't yet know what I think of that

 

[Gekul]

Nice to see they're not following mythics idea of balance and are actually enhancing the sub-par weapons instead of nerfing the good ones

 

[Belsameth]

an amount of nerfing will always be required, else we'll end up flinging nukes at eachother (tho that DOES sound apealing )
but I agree in this case.
big guns that bring lotsa pain are more fun then those that don't..

 

[Turamber]

Excellent news -- it does get very tiresome having to fight the jackhammer masses with our pop guns. I daresay we'll still have to aim, but hell thats why we chose a side that needs some skill to play

Also good news about the hover vehicles - the damn things are always getting damaged when they leave the vehicle pad and roaming across hilly terrain can be *really* bad for their health.

 

[Sarum TheBlack]

Every "Balance adjustment" is a nerf to someone. If they improve the power of the Lasher and Chaingun, jackhammer users will call it a "stealth nerf" since they are no longer as powerful in comparrison. It happened in DAoC.. casters getting self BT was called a nerf by the archer community, and SC ubah-resists was called a nerf by the casting community.

Each case has to be taken on its own merrit, a strict "No Nerf" policy is stupid, and would ruin gamplay. Everything would end up 1 hit killing everyone.

In this case, I think they are right. HA is an expensive cert, and given it's cost (and name) you'd expect it to be scary. Currently, only the Jackhammer really lives up to that.

 

[the_smurflord]

I'm all for having parity between the 3 heavy assault weapons, but not having played as VS or TR, I must ask how good their HA weapons are at range. Certainly the Jackhammer is damned good at close range, no denying that, but its effectiveness rapidly decreases with range. The mini-chaingun and Lasher still look to have a minimal spread of shot, so they retain their effectiveness at range as far as I can see.
I would definately not like to see the other weapons brought in-line with the jackhammer at close range if they still maintain an advantage at medium / longer range.


Can players from those realms comment?

 

[Belsameth]

the chaingun's cof is silly, it just spews out bullets VERY fast, and the cof doesn't change....so it's fairly effective even at long range

the Lasher is nice for medium to close range, silghty better range then the Jackhammer, tho not even close to the chaingun. seems to be better at damaging vehicles too, something you don't even have to try with a Jackhammer without AP ammo

 

[the_smurflord]

Sounds to me like the mini-chaingun doesn't need it's power increased.

At close range: JH > MCG
At long range: MCG > JH

Sounds balanced to me.

 

[[PS]Mung]

Originally posted by Turamber
.....Also good news about the hover vehicles - the damn things are always getting damaged when they leave the vehicle pad and roaming across hilly terrain can be *really* bad for their health.

Yes, but in reality when do you ever see hovercraft going over hilly terrain?
Anyway, the vanu technology probably aint air powered but some freaky ailen levitation device. Probably called "anti-ground replusion thingy". Or something.
Eurgh....damn slimey alien lovers.

 

[Belsameth]

Originally posted by the_smurflord
Sounds to me like the mini-chaingun doesn't need it's power increased.

At close range: JH > MCG
At long range: MCG > JH

Sounds balanced to me.

except that 90% of the 'important' combat, ie. base and tower caps, are indoors and thus close range.
I'm playing NC on Markov, and you wouldn't believe how often I shot an infi trying to sneak up to me, simply because he was somewhere in the aproximate direction of the guy I was trying to kill. they might be crap at mid/long range, but their closerange damge and spread is silly

 

[Esoteric]

Lasher is best in bases with crowds of people tho the nc jackhammer beats it. The lasher at any other kind of range is not very good, your opponent has time to file his nails order a cocktail then press any strafe button oh and then offload his ammo.

Lasher for 4 certs is too expensive jackhammer isn't and I have used both. <shrugs>.

Glad there bringing things into line rather than nurfing jh.

 

[Belsameth]

the slow firing rate has an advantage too tho. you can empty a clip on someone before they know you're shooting at them.
I find it quite effective, but needs a bit of getting used to.
you are right tho when you say it doesn't beat a JH. it doesn't even come close

 

[Sarum TheBlack]

Originally posted by [PS]Mung
Yes, but in reality when do you ever see hovercraft going over hilly terrain?
Anyway, the vanu technology probably aint air powered but some freaky ailen levitation device. Probably called "anti-ground replusion thingy". Or something.
Eurgh....damn slimey alien lovers.

It's called "anti-grav", but for some reason, this doesn't work over water (water obviously gives off "the wrong type" of gravity, much like the wrong sort of leaves on brittish railway lines). So it uses air jets over water, but can only sustain this for limited periods. Silly if you ask me.. if it's got an anti-grav drive, it's got an anti-grav drive, and can sustain hover regardless of what the surface below it is.

The problem is more about the vehicle pads than hilly terrain, everything takes damage flying off a cliff, or landing at silly angles after taking a ridge too fast. The MagRider and (to a much greater extent) Thresher take damage rolling off the vehicle pad.

 

[Jonaldo]

nerf strikers imo!

oh and just for Belsameth..

Damn overpowered Vanu Zergs with laggy laz0rbeemz that lag us all and kill us even if we dodge!!1 nerf stuff plzzz!!

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

My Sparrow MAX > Liberator.

I think I got about 20+ Reavers and Mossies with that baby last night. It truly sucks against anything else but boy do those Top Gun wannabes go down fast.

bwing on teh f00king Liberator!11
*goes to cyb0r with pixie*

 

[Faeldawn]

If they want to adress balance issues, surely they should look at the different realms rifles, as the Gauss is nowhere near as powerful as the cycler or the vanu equivalent.

Gauss has aweful burst effects that makes it hard to use over mid-range, the cycler does not suffer this drawback.

The vanu rifle is simply r-click to change ammo from AP to soft target, changing magazines on the gauss takes a long time, longer than the cycler by a small amount.

The ONLY advantage NC have is the jackhammer.

NC max isnt as good as TR.

Our Vanguard isnt half as effective as the Magrider (face it, its the truth).

If they really want to adress an issue it should be the Magriders ability to run you over when you are 10 yards clear of it.

 

[Belsameth]

as mentioned before, by others, all vehicles, and most noticibly tanks, have that. not just the magrider. the mag is just a tad more maneuverable then it's counterparts (which it makes up for by lacking in firepower)

 

[Sarum TheBlack]

The giant hit-box is a lag issue.. it's more apparent with the Mag than other battletanks because it moves faster and is more manoverable, and therefore there can be a greater disparity between where two people think it is. I've been "run over" by buggies and such which, from my point of view, didn't run me over. The server thinks I was.. and you can't really argue with the server.

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

Fael is right - supposedly our weapons have the biggest punch.
The cf of the Gauss is a joke, though - even when crouched.

Cycler? I just keep the button pressed and straft = target dead, magazine half full still. Something is wrong there... cf hardly widens on full auto.

Oh, believe me - last thing I want is all the factions having the same strengths and weaknesses - but if you advertise NC as the "slow but powerful" faction, make it so.

 

[Flimgoblin]

not really tried out the pulsar improvements enough to comment (Though I didn't notice much difference... to be honest) but if I got my hands on a gauss I was well impressed - can't just hold down the button on it unfortunately but firing small bursts it's superb.

 

[old.Hellskor]

even if they make a weapon too powerful (in your opinion) ... just loot it and fill your locker with 'em

... got a nice load of Cyclers in mine

 

[CliffyG]

Originally posted by Sarum TheBlack
The giant hit-box is a lag issue.. it's more apparent with the Mag than other battletanks because it moves faster and is more manoverable, and therefore there can be a greater disparity between where two people think it is. I've been "run over" by buggies and such which, from my point of view, didn't run me over. The server thinks I was.. and you can't really argue with the server.

I thought so too but the other day i got run over by a magrider when i was crouched underneath a rock reloading and waiting for my health to regen, i was there for at least 30 secs and still got run over even though it was impossible for it to fit underneath. I did have a similar episode with a Vanguard when i was hiding behind a tree but the magrider ones are a lot more fequent. Getting run over by vehicles that are no where near me is the most annoying thing in the whole game .

 

[Sarum TheBlack]

Depends a little on how the "run over" calculation is done. I guess they've gone for pretty simple collision detection, to reduce the overheads involved. ("full" collision detection is incredibly time consuming to calculate, and time is something real time MMOG's (with thousands of entities to check), don't have on their side) so it could easily be a combination of lag, a simplistic detection algorithm, and the time slices at which it's operating (not necessarily every frame, like most FPS's). It would appear the MagRider is the worst offender.. but I'd still argue this is probably a product of it's greater speed, and the fact it's more intentionally used as a mower than the other tanks, which tend to engage other vehicles and MAX's, due to the fact they aren't manoeuvrable able enough to hit infantry that knows they're coming.

Alternatively, you could always argue that it's an effect of the anti-grav drive the MagRider uses, some local field around the tank (which the occupants are shielded against) that kills infantry in a small area around the tank.

 

[Jupitus]

Originally posted by Sarum TheBlack
kills infantry in a small area around the tank.

 

[Sarum TheBlack]

Originally posted by Jupitus
<lots of empty space>

That's your intelligent contribution then Jup?

It's not like a Mag can squish an entire base at the same time.. small area is relative to things like bases, and continents.

 

[[PS]Nova]

Although screaming a magrider at full speed through a packed enemy base is FUN

 

[Gekul]

VS foot troops are just as annoyed with the magrider tbh

 

[Faeldawn]

Originally posted by Gekul
VS foot troops are just as annoyed with the magrider tbh

Have to say i see a lot of magriders ploughing through close-combat situations killing NC and VS troops in abundance.

Train yer drivers better

 

[Sarum TheBlack]

Originally posted by Faeldawn
Have to say i see a lot of magriders ploughing through close-combat situations killing NC and VS troops in abundance.

You've seen Turamber in action then? A quote from the other day was "I've only run over six VS so far! "