PlanetSide Universe - View Single Post - How do you like the new Liberator?
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Click here to go to the next VIP post in this thread.   Old 2011-09-29, 03:49 PM   [Ignore Me] #35
Malorn
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PlanetSide 2
Game Designer
 
Re: How do you like the new Liberator?


It would be interesting if the Lib was more like a Bomber-Gunship hybrid. It would certainly fit the look of it.

Looks as though there is a weapon point on the nose of the gun. Could be a turret for air-to-ground support. The bombardier would have the nose turret for support when there weren't targets lined up to bomb.

I would expect the lib to have different variants and upgrades also. Some possibilities for Liberator varients with that design.

Bomb-Bay Options:
- Cargo: Troop transport - replace the bomb-bay weapon entirely with a cargo hold for a small number of infantry and maybe a MAX. This would fill the role of "light air transport" that myself and others had discussed. Sort of like the Star Wars troop transport that it resembles.
- Bombs: Cluster for Anti-infantry
- Bombs: Anti-Tank Mines (instant-minefield)
- Bombs: Tank-busters, drops fewer than the cluster but does tons of damage to armor and hits them on the top where armor is weaker.
- Bombs: EMP (disables vehicles and implants, blows up mines, disorients infantry)
- Empire-Specific Air-to-Ground Anti-tank weapon.

Empire-Specific Weapon options
- Striker Barrage: Lock-on. Imagine a set of missile dropping out of the bottom and then firing towards a target which the bombardier locked-onto. Not an instant-lock, more like the Stinger from BF3 - the gunner must maintain the lock for several seconds before it is ready to fire. TR-specific.
- Heavy Phoenix: A single missile drops down and becomes Camera-guided. Less DPS than the striker but does tons of damage. As above, only camera-guided. NC-specific.
- Heavy Lancer: A pair of constant-beam lasers deployed down from the bomb-bay. Does more damage the longer it is on target (like the Warp-Ray from StarCraft 2). Bombadier has to hold it on-target.

(All of these have the common theme that the gunner must hold or maintain the target in order to hit them/ do heavy damage).

Front-Turret Options
- AI cannon, fires explosive rounds that has significant AoE effect so near-misses still do damage. Can suppress groups of infantry by bombarding the area with grenades (like the gunship cannon in the battlefield games).
- AV cannon, fires heavy armor-penetrating rounds, no AoE so it is less effective against infantry but does more damage to vehicles (like the original liberator nose gun)
- EMP cannon, fires little EMP bursts to disable vehicles, disorient infantry, or clear minefields.
- Plasma cannon, fires plasma discharges at a slow RoF but the plasma burns the area for a bit making it unsafe for infantry and vehicles alike. Low initial damage, used for suppression and area-denial. (think the Radiator only a lot more damage)


Tailgun options:
- machinegun (base 'free' weapon)
- machinegun + lock-on missile (upgrade for more air-to-air defense)
- flak gun (super upgrade)

I always felt that Planetside was missing a true gunship and mixing the Lib with a gunship and performing both bomber and air-to-ground VTOL support like a classic gunship would fill the role.

Pros:
- gives the bombardier something to do *all the time* not just when bombs are lined up since they have control over the forward gun.
- nosegun is far more effective on a front turret
- fills the role of bomber, gunship, and light air transport in a single vehicle
- lots of configuration options for this gunship
- upgrades give tailgun real value and effective AA defense.

Cons:
- pilot no longer has a nosegun, though it is possible the pilot could be given something else. I don't see a pilot gun as necessary on this vehicle. I would like to see the pilot given countermeasures against lock-on-weaponry.
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