News: Roadmap Resource Revamp & Continental Lattice Updated

[Malorn]

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

[Calista]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

Would be a good time to introduce the Deliverer (appropriate name too) with an ANT variant that had no weapons. Or just call the ANT a Deliverer that has weapons based variants.

[Carbon Copied]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

I'd like to see the Sunderer and ANT become more defined - bolting on the modules to Sunderer I understand was easier and less time consuming but if the ANT is an unarmed support vehicle then surely it would make sense for the repair and re-supply ammo modules to move over to that to make it a more defined support vehicle and the Sunderer taking up a more defined role of land troop mover rather than "jack of all trades" wagon.

The Sunderer in my view should be the base smasher so things like the shield diffuser, weapons and composites etc. belong there - but it's over used for too many different roles (albeit mainly spawn deploy racing). I mean in a convoy it's not obvious to pick out one Sundy from the next (i.e receive order "go for the spawn Sunderer" and there's 10 down there) it's a separate issue but I'd like to see something like:

AMS - Singular, non troop transport, high value target fulfills one role - easily identifiable from all other support vehicle types.
Sunderer - Troop mover, base and line smasher - you see it you know it's going to hit hard somewhere and have a lot of problems coming out of it.
ANT - Fills support roles of base power, but equally importantly supports a convoy outside catering to ammo and repair supplies (separate modules) - to a degree has to get involved with the fight to keep things going not just linger at the rear and hope to get through.

Each have their own support roles to play by creating more vehicles and spreading what they do; players should have to put abit more thought into what they're pulling to support the push - if the zerg or ops outfit pull too much of one type then it fails so the ops leaders get their management roles, equally players can start to become specialists in what they're pulling; by that I mean you get the "go to guy" if you need a specific Sunderer config or the "go to guy" for ANT runs. This doesn't alienate anyone from generically pulling but just should make them consider what they're pulling more carefully with what is rolling out the garage around them.

[Ragnafrak]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

5 reasons why I think that the ANT should be its own separate vehicle.

1. Having a unique silhouette allows for instant priority objective recognition
2. Being a separate vehicle does not further dilute the sunderer's already (un)reasonably diverse array of roles.
3. Being a separate vehicle allows for having a relatively low resource cost to help facilitate its use.
4. Being not intended as just another passenger or combat vehicle, it does not need guns nor gunners (lore-wise, this could be to avoid explosions near the power source), making a protective force outside of itself a necessity rather than an option.
5. Being unique allows for it to have unique hill-climbing abilities for traversing more difficult terrain, possibly having to temporarily leave protectors a short distance behind, or necessitating air-support (possibly something a galaxy could be good at!). This would also allow for creative placement of resource nodes.

In short- Making the ANT its own separate vehicle allows for design opportunities that would not be possible otherwise.

[Lonehunter]

Originally Posted by Malorn

what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

I think an "ANT" brings back the discussion of a mobile spawner for small vehicles. I can imagine something like an ANT-XT that is larger then a sundy and consumes power for people to spawn ATVs, Harassers, and Lightnings.

Maybe an Armored Floating Zeppelin that consumes power to repair and rearm ESFs? Maybe a floating ship that spawns ESFs by blasting them out of a launch bay?

EDIT: ANT could have some support roles. Like a cloak field bubble that runs off the power juice, or a force bubble that reduces projectile damage for allies.

[typhaon]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

Super-charging station for vehicles? Vehicles could get +5% bonuses to armor/weapons for a short duration/number of shots.

Perhaps it can periodically give off "bursts" that disable enemy radar within a certain range for an amount of time.

Radars/wall hacks have gotten a little silly and this seems like a far more interesting gameplay way of dealing with it - rather than having everyone get a nowallhack implant.

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

Waste some development time and make it a trailer. "CTF" you said yourself, and trailer is a good flag for vehicles. Make it so the trailer can be attached to MBTs, Lightnings and Sunderers and there you have it. If IFVs are implemented later, they could be allowed pick up the trailer depending on their size and power.


Additional notes:

• An interesting mechanic would be if you allow hostiles to "steal" the trailer.
• It should have guns and/or passanger slots.

[WSNeo]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Whether it is a module, what can equip the module, or whether it is a standalone vehicle is something we'd like your feedback on.

Can you offer up some good uses of an ANT beyond a space truck? We want all the vehicles to have a well defined role and to be fun. Being a space trucker doesn't seem like it is worth the trouble or worth investing in...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

How about the ability to discharge the energy in the field to create the equivalent of the Aegis Shield Generator from PS1.

[Fenrys]

Originally Posted by Malorn

...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?

-Mine layer
-Deployable invisibility dome
-Deployable shield dome
-Deployable vehicle overshield generator - park your tank nearby for a few seconds to get a temporary shield that can absorb one extra AP shell/rocket
-AoE stealth field, nearby tanks take longer to lock on to
-Massive bomb when charged
-Resource denial/theft (pulls resources out of unfriendly bases)
-Area denial - a gun that shoots 'charge' and acts like a PS1 Radiator
-EMP gun, uses 'charge' as ammo, sets off mines, disables shields, slows vehicle movement and reload speeds

[Biscuit]

Originally Posted by Malorn View Post
...what other cool uses do you think the ANT and its power mechanic might bring to make it an interesting and fun vehicle to invest in?



What about having ANTs be equiped with weapon Refitting Capabilities.

Much like a Ammo Sundy, a Weapon Refitting ANT gives people the option to change out weapon loadouts on the fly vs. having to dump your previous vehicle entirely, losing all those resources just to grab a vehicle with a different weapon loadout.

So with a Resource Discount (perhaps half or 3/4 discount) or based on what the Ant is holding in its resource banks:

A Tank can go to a Refitting ant, and change their weapon from a Anti-Infantry, to Anti-Air

or

a ESF can switch from A2A missiles load out, to A2G or afterburners.

[Ragnafrak]

After seeing so many replies suggesting that the ANT be a new kind of sunderer addon, I felt I had to come back and repost to say NO NO NO NO!

Originally Posted by Carbon Copied

Also you say from the attacking side that it should be indistinguishable but it's kind of counter productive if you're in a public convoy ... The fact that you know you have these visually "that is an AMS/ANT" high value targets should make you more aware of the ESF suicide bomber threat...

if pubs need to know there's an ANT or AMS loaded in a particular vehicle i am pretty sure it could get any number of hud and minimap indicators.

To me, this is one the biggest reasons the ANT should be its own vehicle with its own unique silhouette. Simply adding a decal or HUD indicator to a sunderer that says okay this is an ANT now won't cut it. 1) No one would know until it were spotted, and 2) the sundy holograms and modules all look exactly the same in thermal (NV too imo). ANTs NEED to look different!

An interesting mechanic would be if you allow hostiles to "steal" the trailer.
It should have guns and/or passanger slots.

I like the idea of stealing vehicles, but it should be for any vehicle left unattended, not just the ANT. The Devs know that this is something some of us want, and they'll implement it when/if they're ready.

On the guns/passengers, though - NO, again! The ANT is exactly what Malorn suggested it to be, a space truck. The sunderer is your battle bus! If you put passenger slots or guns on the ANT, you inevitably allow it to be used as just another troop transport (guh, I don't have enough nanites for a harasser, everybody hop in my ANT). Having guns invites its use as an attack vehicle, which it should also not be! Having either or both of these features would influence the resource cost of the ANT as well. I'm of the opinion that the cost should be minimal so that it can be pulled any time one is necessary.

They dont have to build an ant to make this work. A new module for the sunderer would be perfect just make it look like a fuel hauling truck. The new module would add a large tank to the back of the sunderer. Would be limited to driver only. You would be able to use all the other defensive certs that you have. This seems like a quick dirty fix that would really hit the spot.

That's exactly what it would be, quick and dirty. Would you really want the developers of this game to bandaid patch in new functionality every time we asked for it? Slippery slopes are slippery.

As downside of such heavy load, there could be 2-4 less player space in sunderer (risk/reward).

What you've mentioned though, are the exact things others of us have asked for. You want it to be visually distinct from normal sunderers, and you want it to not have as many (any, in my case) passenger slots. What you have then is a very expensive not-a-sundy that still drives like a sundy and has your sundy's guns. At some point, we must recognize that wanting to change so many things about something we have is really wanting something completely different from what we have in the first place.

the reason i thought of using infantry space to load these things is basically what i already said; 1. that it will be harder for (asshats like me in a) Liberator to just swoop in and obliterate, and 2. not dependent on loadouts and the problem you mentioned.

Again, this makes the ANT too much like a Sundy in my opinion. ANTs should be protected by other vehicles in a convoy. We should not encourage convoys of nothing but ANTS filled with troops, nor should we encourage ANTs to go off on their own because they have a few troops inside them. Sunderers already can do that.

I fully understand and appreciate economy of scale but seriously we need more variety of vehicles not just variety amongst the vehicles we have.

QFT!

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by Ragnafrak

I like the idea of stealing vehicles, but it should be for any vehicle left unattended, not just the ANT. The Devs know that this is something some of us want, and they'll implement it when/if they're ready.

On the guns/passengers, though - NO, again! The ANT is exactly what Malorn suggested it to be, a space truck. The sunderer is your battle bus! If you put passenger slots or guns on the ANT, you inevitably allow it to be used as just another troop transport (guh, I don't have enough nanites for a harasser, everybody hop in my ANT). Having guns invites its use as an attack vehicle, which it should also not be! Having either or both of these features would influence the resource cost of the ANT as well. I'm of the opinion that the cost should be minimal so that it can be pulled any time one is necessary.

I actually suggest it to be neither if you didn't notice:

I offer it to be a trailer (truck-trailer, hind-carriage), not a separate vehicle, nor sunderer mod. This means that the ANT (Advance Nanite Trailer) is not capable of moving by itself and henceforth it needs self-defense tools (even passanger slots are self-defense tools). Not to mention that in PS2, the maximum number of hostile to converge on an ant is 666, not 133 and thus the defense may get a little harder, or actually ~5 times harder.

[Climhazzard]

Originally Posted by Hamma

This one confuses me though.. do they mean equipping items?

Originally Posted by Necroe

i think that means that you have infinite amount of grenades/c4 etc. everytime you use one, it deducts x amount of resources.

Originally Posted by Lonehunter

I think you'd always have a grenade on you, but throwing it removes resources, instead of spending, inventory, and using.

That seems pretty ridiculous to me. I'm assuming the same resupply mechanics will be in use (minus the stockpiling), which means the resources would be deducted when you respawn or resupply at a terminal.

Also, automatic, in-field replenishment would make the second brick of C4, for example, an utterly redundant certification.

Originally Posted by DirtyBird

Could a group/zerg stand there lobbing nades at nothing chewing up resources and manipulate the power levels.

As I understand it, a facility's power drains based solely on the number of people in the area and not how quickly they blow through their personal pool of resources.

Also, I'm assuming the facilities will dole out resources indiscriminately. By that I mean the facility's power level is drained based only on the number of people and not how many of them actually need resources. I could be wrong about that, though.

Originally Posted by DirtyBird

How the resource bonus will work on the Boosts/Membership.

I assume they'd work exactly the same way they do now: +X% to resource income.

Originally Posted by ringring

re: removal of inventory.

Does this mean that someone can simply spam grenades or mines - will a trip back to a terminal to resupply be required?

I see no reason to believe otherwise.

[Climhazzard]

Originally Posted by typhaon

* Transition between continents/warpgates: So we're not getting Normandy-style beach landings... yet?

That's a looong way out.

[Methonius]

Originally Posted by Fenrys

-Mine layer
-Deployable invisibility dome
-Deployable shield dome
-Deployable vehicle overshield generator - park your tank nearby for a few seconds to get a temporary shield that can absorb one extra AP shell/rocket
-AoE stealth field, nearby tanks take longer to lock on to
-Massive bomb when charged
-Resource denial/theft (pulls resources out of unfriendly bases)
-Area denial - a gun that shoots 'charge' and acts like a PS1 Radiator
-EMP gun, uses 'charge' as ammo, sets off mines, disables shields, slows vehicle movement and reload speeds

I like these ideas, make it happen. lol