Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

1: NC

2: NC and TR

3: NC, TR and Vanu

[Knight of Fools]

The last big patch was one big patch.

[dogstile]

This looks like it will be as well. They're rolling out a hell of a lot, why not do it all at once and let the bug reports fly in?

[PTTG??]

So, here's how you balance this:

1: Eliminate factional differences- or rather, merge them. All currently-unique faction units are now available to all, in whatever paint scheme is appropriate if you like. I don't care about the lore, it's just plain not balanced for one side to get all of the most-useful weapons while NC, for instance, gets guns that do more damage when they hit, but are a, less likely to hit, and b, fire much less often.

2: Add some method of pausing attacks, or breaking them up into waves. I think one way to do this is shield bubbles that take time to tear down, then must recharge (for 10 or 15 minutes or whatever), at which point they can be reactivated. In this way, the large facilities, at least, will have staggered attacks.

3: Give defenders XP commiserate with attackers.

4: Make the engineer sentry useful. For a start, it could be made to rotate more than one degree, and could be given the ability to do some minor damage to aircraft and vehicles, perhaps enough so that a prepared engineer in a good location and a small portion of luck might be able to defend against a single tiny crappy tank.

[Flying Dice]

Okay, I didn't think I'd ever have to pull Poe's Law out for one of PTTG??'s posts, but him trolling us with that first point is still less frightening than the thought that the 'VS OP, NC UP' whining has escaped the festering sore that is the PS2 official board. I've played from both sides of that particular divide, and I didn't see a whole lot to back it up. Not least because a good number of the alternate weapons for each side are intended to lean towards the other factions.

Granted, "Short, controlled bursts" applies a bit more to NC than to VS, but by the same token NC (or TR) are more likely to come out on top in sudden CQC encounters.


For fuck's sake, what's the point of having factions at all if there aren't any differences beyond paint job? Did Starcraft become notable because it had three factions of Terrans with different kinds of decorations on their armor? There are balance issues, and some of them are faction-specific. The game is also fairly new. Heck, PS1 didn't get many of the features that made it noteworthy until after the first year.

[Thexor]

I definitely agree with PTTG's second point, at least. Currently, whether an attack succeeds depends on whether the Sundie powering the zerg rush is killed. If it dies, the attack peters out almost immediately, or at least until a new Sundie arrives. If it remains up, the attackers will eventually overwhelm the defenders through attrition.

I wouldn't suggest a wave delay of more than a couple of minutes, though. Big attacks consist mainly of random pub players, not organized platoon-level assaults. Throw a 15-minute delay at them, and the unwashed masses will get bored and wander off. I'd also suggest a more reactive system - some generator that's normally offline, and which the defenders can choose to power up. Once turned on, there'd be a ~3 minute omni-shield that prevents all attackers from approaching the facility, and then the generator would have to recharge for ~30. It'd give the defenders a few minutes to thin the resistance, deal with massed tanks, and get some generators back online, but competent attackers would be able to hunker down, wait out the shield, and then resume the attack full-scale.

[Geneoce]

1: Eliminate factional differences- or rather, merge them. All currently-unique faction units are now available to all, in whatever paint scheme is appropriate if you like. I don't care about the lore, it's just plain not balanced for one side to get all of the most-useful weapons while NC, for instance, gets guns that do more damage when they hit, but are a, less likely to hit, and b, fire much less often.

Can someone explain the benefit of such a change to me? I don't think it would change a lot for the good of PS2. I've notice a few people who are concerned about balance just skip around with the monthly flavor build to maximize there efficiency. To me it seems the majority player base is more concerned with "patriotism" rather then getting the most effective DPS and I can see alot of people hating it turn into a RvBvP bland team shooter.

Personally I dislike the concept of this kind of balance in a game like this. I like the factions due to there differences and taking that away would be a bit of a downer for me.

[Kanil]

Did Starcraft become notable because it had three factions of Terrans with different kinds of decorations on their armor? There are balance issues, and some of them are faction-specific.

StarCraft became notable because it's balance issued were managed. If Terran was the only race worth playing, nobody would remember the game. I'm not sure how valid the comparison is, though. The difference between a Siege Tank and a Reaver is much greater than the difference between a Scythe and a Reaver.

As for balance in PS2, it's alright, given it's age. I'm not sure you can argue that the Mercenary is a good weapon, but the GD-7F is fine, provided you grind up the 1,000 certs to get it. Doesn't do much against tanks or planes, but that's not a faction-related issue.

[kaian-a-coel]

I play both VS (because I like their lore and appearance, despite what my TR friend whine), and TR (because that's what my friends play). And I have yet to see a notable balance problem between these two sides. For all I see, it's simply a matter of numbers. The biggest zerg win, the faction don't really influence that.
Merging the factions would be the worst error they could ever make.

To "my faction is UP, all other are OP" whiners, I give you this choice: Change faction, or STFU.

[Vattic]

I've only played TR and NC with far more time spent on my NC account. I will be sticking with NC because I'm part of a faction. I do find my k:d is much higher when playing TR but having played so little it may be an anomaly. Their guns feel a lot deadlier both up close and at range.

[da_nang]

For the "Faction is OP/UP" discussion, I'll redirect you here to a post I made on the PS2 board. I'd like it if SOE could fix the leaderboards so I can make more accurate statistical analyses.

[miauw62]

Well, NC is at quite a disadvantage because of how important RoF and infantry are, and even at close range I easily get killed by vanu and TR.

But then again, the real fun is had when you're playing in a squad/platoon.

[GreatJustice]

Not to mention that airpower, especially A2A missiles and rocketpods, are disproportionately powerful, and presently the NC Reaver is inferior to both the Scythe and the Mosquito (but especially the Mosquito).

[Vattic]

One of the main differences I found between TR and NC HA is that I could far more easily fire from the hip with the standard TR weapon. The time spent shouldering the weapon makes quite a difference.

[dogstile]

General
Bonus of Composite armor for ESF reduced by 5% each rank (10/15/20/25 down from 15/20/25/30)
Base time to reload increased by approximately 25% for tank HE
Fixed an issue where lock-on rockets and missiles would sometimes not damage the target they hit
Fixed bug with Lightning 100mm AP where its outer radius was set to high
Reduced amount of decelerating that occurs after afterburning
Acceleration of Reaver afterburner increased
Addressing a server memory issue

Flak Mechanics Changes
We now remove the flak projectile when it bursts near an enemy aircraft. Previously the projectile was allowed a chance to continue and strike the aircraft directly, which would deal additional damage (burst damage + direct hit damage). We have increased burst damage to compensate for the loss of direct hit damage. This should result in an overall increase to flak damage and make it more consistent

Skyguard
Flak burst damage increased by 20%
Direct hit damage against infantry and other targets increased
Turret movement is now slightly smoother

Phalanx AA
Flak burst damage increased by 14%
Turret movement is now slightly smoother
MAX Burster
Flak burst damage increased by 6%
Burster projectile adjusted to more reliably hit infantry that are in close range
Direct hits with the MAX Burster can no longer damage the heavy armor of tanks, Sunderers and Phalanx Turrets

Oh goodbye air ownage.

[miauw62]

Aw yes. Thanks SOE!