Gameplay: Tactical Warheads

[TheAadvark]

Core mechanics

Basics

Tech Plants – Explosive / Chemical.

Bio Labs – Biological.

Amp Station - At least one Amp Station must be connected to either of the above facilities, to provide power.

Factions within a continent that control an amp station that is connected to any of the other two facilities will have access to warheads mounted on

(a) cruise missiles.../...(b) Dumb bombs dropped from a Galaxy.../...(c) launched from a modified Sunderer.

Continent control leads to control of an ICBM. Reliable and competent Command structure.

Warhead

Explosive - I suggest a decent area of effect on the warhead, but the effect should not be to devastating. For Explosive warheads vehicles and infantry at the center of the blast radius should go down immediately , and should peter out towards the edge of the blast radius leaving vehicles at below or at half health.

Chemical- These should affect only infantry and have an area of denial effect for at least 30 seconds to a minute. Anyone caught in the middle of the AOE should die with the DPS. With players on the outside there will be a drop off on the DPS the moment they exit the AOE. Also an infantry exiting their vehicles in the AOE should be affected as well.

Biological – The biological warhead will have lasting effects on players. To differentiate this from the Chemical warhead I propose, that if two or more players encounter an uninfected player he will develop “symptoms”. Symptoms might be (a) Half health but full shield (b) Slower movement (c) Nausea affecting players balance, coordination and sight such as concussion grenades but not as severe. Also if an unaffected player comes in contact with an infected he in turns develops symptoms as well.

Delivery Systems

Cruise missles-

Pretty much self explanatory. Now on a previous post discussing Empire Specific Orbital Strikes. There were some issues regarding the sudden death factor of it, that players had no warning of the impending strike, solution?

(a) Respective faction intelligence reports the launch of a Cruise Missile and (b) an audio and visual cue that the missile is e.g. 5km away.

On top of that the missile should be vulnerable to Flak and should have enough health as a liberator and travel at slightly faster than a mosquito with afterburners. This gives a chance for opposition to shoot it down and the direction should be determined with a glance at the map which shows the potential tech plants/bio labs the enemy posses and has fired from.

Dumb Bomb-

A modified galaxy takes off at the facility this galaxy is basically a WW2 Allied bomber with it’s turrets and a bombardier.

I don’t believe there should be any warning as to it’s location but an announcement can be made that an enemy bomber has taken off.

The bomb will be dropped by the bombardier who basically has the liberator camera modified to show speed and altitude, which he uses to judge the right time to drop the bomb.


Vehicle Mounted Rocket-

Here’s the tricky one. The sunderer picks up the rocket and proceeds to site of launch.

Now how does it fire? It should have the capability to be pin point precise but also have a margin of error if not done correctly.So use three infiltrators with laser designators that help guide the rocket.

If the margin of error for launch is say 40 meters for every Infi on point the margin decreases by ten giving it a margin of error of 10 meters if all lasers are pointing at the same place.

This will be difficult as to set up three Infiltrators in three vantage points in the middle of a battle as well as encountering other infiltrators most likely sniping in the same area will make this interesting


Bonus Feature

Within a continent whoever has access to the facilities have these tactical strikes unlocked. Now what happens when you are pushed back to the warp gate? For every continent owned by an empire they have the option of three types of Warheads which will be in ICBM form only. The timer on these ICBM’s will be pretty long but should be powerful.

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Commander

I have never played Planet side 1 but I understand there were certain players who gained CR5 and (having read Malorn’s document) these individuals had a great impact on strategy. But soon every Tom Dick and Harry attained this ranks and unfortunately most of them were dicks. So there should be a select few elected players who enjoy global and continent wide powers. This is essential for any further implementation of commander powers such as orbital strikes, Fleet carriers and so on.

[Hyncharas]

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no...

Perhaps some plasma and incendiary-based grenades and ordinance for Liberators, though.

[TheAadvark]

Remember these strikes are not Armageddon proportion, they are tactical strikes and very localized.

It's just that we need some form of artillery, problem with that is it will get abused, that is sadly what will happen regardless of how you try to curtail it, artillery by definition is OP.

So i have proposed these strikes as an alternative. They are time and resource constrained (not to mention dependent on the facilities I have outlined). Warfare dictates you must have some type of a Force Multiplier to use against overwhelming numbers i.e., If the other faction pulls a Zerg and you are maybe a platoon strong YOU ARE ENTITLED to the use of such a weapon.

I have also given the players at the receiving end very fair chances to respond to the threat.

[sgtteddybear]

I agree with this. Chemical and Bio bombs do sound pretty freakin' sweet. I would like to add the option of Gas-Masks. So if a bomb DOES come, you can throw a mask on and be fine. Of course you would have to buy a mask, so not everyone is immune.

[TheAadvark]

Hmm the question is would people be willing to give up whatever they have in the slot that that gas mask would occupy. Seeing that it would be a situational item.

Some more insight please and thanks for the comment SgtTeddy

[PrISM]

Originally Posted by TheAadvark

It's just that we need some form of artillery

No, we don't.