DEV reddit AMA- "ANT will most likely be the Sunderer with an ANT module" says WHO?

[Ogre]

about the Ant sunderer, and planetside in general. I personally feel the game is still very much a paid beta. I enjoy the product enough that I am happy to give SOE my monthly fee. The game has to have cashflow to get better, so whatever. I got the money to burn, not everyone does.

I suspect the future modules will dramatically change how a sunderer looks/ feels. I imagine it looking like a short Semi Truck with an empty bed. What you slap on the back changes what you can do with it. Crew compartment? Get guns. Ant module? Get energy. Respawn AMS? Get a cloak unit. The sunderer will probably go on to have a dedicated two man crew cab up front.

I personally feel that this is not the end of the changes. That our current equip system is in its infancy, and even simple things like "frames" racer/ etc, will actually change a vehicle's appearance or operation. Thats my hope, time will tell. If planetside 2 for PS4 is a good seller, I suspect we will see more rapid changes. Just sucks that PC was a beta test for it, still, I like planetside and can deal with that.

To finish this one up. You guys, as a community, are really unorganized. You need to get together here, pile up a list of concise questions to ask the devs at the next AMA, and make that happen. "hey how will a sunderer ANT work? Will it have weapons? blah blah blah" instead I see complaints with no solutions offered, no further thought put into them.

[Bobby Shaftoe]

Originally Posted by Ogre

instead I see complaints with no solutions offered, no further thought put into them.

The vast majority of people who would bother to put the effort into that have long since stopped playing or bothering... because SOE didn't listen to them anyway and will do their usual stumble along making the mistakes pointed out here months in advance.

PS2 won't change significantly because of SOEs design decisions from the start, tacking on random PS1 mechanics won't work because there is no inter-relation between the mechanics for them to work/be useful/have a real impact anyway.

[Whiteagle]

Originally Posted by Ogre

To finish this one up. You guys, as a community, are really unorganized. You need to get together here, pile up a list of concise questions to ask the devs at the next AMA, and make that happen. "hey how will a sunderer ANT work? Will it have weapons? blah blah blah" instead I see complaints with no solutions offered, no further thought put into them.

Originally Posted by Bobby Shaftoe

The vast majority of people who would bother to put the effort into that have long since stopped playing or bothering... because SOE didn't listen to them anyway and will do their usual stumble along making the mistakes pointed out here months in advance.

PS2 won't change significantly because of SOEs design decisions from the start, tacking on random PS1 mechanics won't work because there is no inter-relation between the mechanics for them to work/be useful/have a real impact anyway.

You see Orge, a large number of us did this kind of critical thinking WAY back in Beta, in fact...

Originally Posted by Ogre

about the Ant sunderer, and planetside in general. I personally feel the game is still very much a paid beta. I enjoy the product enough that I am happy to give SOE my monthly fee. The game has to have cashflow to get better, so whatever. I got the money to burn, not everyone does.

I suspect the future modules will dramatically change how a sunderer looks/ feels. I imagine it looking like a short Semi Truck with an empty bed. What you slap on the back changes what you can do with it. Crew compartment? Get guns. Ant module? Get energy. Respawn AMS? Get a cloak unit. The sunderer will probably go on to have a dedicated two man crew cab up front.

You're suggestion was one of the first threads I made here...

Originally Posted by Malorn

Says me!

I had a good discussion with Kevmo about it a few months ago, we agreed that the ANT made sense as a Sunderer mod and not a standalone vehicle. The reasons are:

1) It adds more value to the Sundy, so all the players who certed one up and have weapons and cosmetics will get more mileage out of their investments. It's essentially a support vehicle, so giving the support vehicle more value made more sense than creating a new support vehicle.

2) The ANT as a standalone vehicle wasn't compelling enough to warrant a new vehicle. If we're going to make it, it needs to be more interesting than just a power transport vehicle, and that feature-creeps it a lot more than is reasonable.

3) We have already created the Sundy as a utility vehicle by putting the AMS module, the repair module, and the rearm module. It makes sense to add to that for other support utility functionality.

And yes, I would like to see some significant cosmetic differences so you can easily differentiate an ANT sundy from an AMS sundy, as well as the difference between a full ANT and an empty ANT. Don't know how far it'll get, but that's the goal.

But Malorn, not only does the Sunderer already do practically everything, adding MORE features are just going to devalue the ones it already has!

Assuming the ANT Tank is going to be a Utility Slot, it's going to compete with AMS and maybe the Gate Shield Diffuser, while further marginalizing the Smoke Screen, Proximity Radar, and Fire Suppression System options.

Now I like that, like the Harrasser, the Sunderer is a rather beastly combat machine when properly crewed, but if it's the go to vehicle for EVERYTHING in the game you are going to create nothing but Sunderer spam.
ANT's not having weapons is there defining Tactical flaw, they either need to avoid detection or depend on the rest of their Faction for protection.

While it would be awesome if you could overhauled the entire vehicle load out system to be more than three poorly implemented Slots, I doubt you guys have the resources or time to do so.

So here is my idea...

You use your current Sunderer ANT model, but tweek it so that it is a stand alone vehicle.
No weapons, seats two, but can use all the cosmetics that the Sunderer can and MAYBE has a bit better handling.
BAM! "New" vehicle!
It's not a perfect solution, but...

Originally Posted by Carbon Copied

• Seats 12 no matter what utility you put on it - wheres the logistic management, deeper customization and risk/reward of that? If I chose to AMS/ANT my sunderer (as example), shouldn't there be sacrifices to accommodate this and create the "you pull an S-AMS and I'll pull the escort Sunderer?" decision/thinking - the fact it can defend itself and essentially not rely on third party support I believe is what makes it considerably more boring in the first place.

It does provide deeper metagame options due to forced diversity.

[raw]

Originally Posted by Whiteagle

But Malorn, not only does the Sunderer already do practically everything, adding MORE features are just going to devalue the ones it already has!

Couldn't disagree more. In fact, adding the ANT as a module to the sunderer would finally bring some choices & consequences into the game.

Assuming the ANT Tank is going to be a Utility Slot, it's going to compete with AMS and maybe the Gate Shield Diffuser, [...]

Exactly. That's the prime reason the ANT should be on the Sunderer.

[Whiteagle]

Originally Posted by raw

Couldn't disagree more. In fact, adding the ANT as a module to the sunderer would finally bring some choices & consequences into the game.

Uh, how?

There are already three Utility options you almost never see on a Sunderer because AMS is mandatory and a Gate Shield Diffuser is situationally useful, adding yet ANOTHER required device is not only going to further devalue those three but also make the Sunderer disproportionably more necessary than every other vehicle!

Why pull TANKS if a properly crewed and equipped ANT Sundie is a far superior Armored Fighting Vehicle?
The game will turn into Sundererside if this happens...

[Baneblade]

Originally Posted by Ogre

I see complaints with no solutions offered, no further thought put into them.

Well, you can't just crash a party half way through and expect it to be as awesome as it was in the first hour. This forum is filled to the seams with good ideas and changes that SOE has ignored or outright mocked when they tried to implement them.