Firestorm Sub-Forum + Ideas

[Mystic~]

Firstly, is there going to be a sub-forum opened for discussing the Firestorm expansion anytime soon?

Secondly, for my first game point...

 

Vehicle Repairs

Having seen some of the game play video, does anybody else have the feeling that the engineer role when it comes to repairing tanks on the battlefield is going to be more redundant or even inadequate for the faster pace of the game and the maps seem much larger now... they seem much less practical than the alternatives.

I've not explored if there's a free engineer versus an advanced engineer in this yet, but irrespective of this, I sense repairers are going to be very easy targets for getting picked off by almost anything - a fast tank or gun vehicle, many scoped classes or snipers that deal good damage, more air units etc. This will leave tanks with a much shorter life cycle and possibly without access to repairs and I get a sense that engineers themselves are also going to have a shorter life on the battlefield when they leave cover to move to a tank and there are going to be less of them due to how much distance they must cover.

I'm thinking players in vehicles should have access to a repair ability that either calls in a repair drone or puts the tank in some sort of less/or unresponsive mode to heal itself that works on a cool down rather than constant access. Or maybe when not firing for a period of time it activates passive self-repairs equal to that of a standard engineer so another player doesn't need to stand around doing this? The obvious benefits of this are not forcing so many people to take up a really boring support role and having less people need to radio spam "I need repairs", but if enemy tanks do decide to face one another off directly, then players can still support in this way with repairs if they choose and they get the healing bonus and greater chance of winning the fight.

I also sense in terms of vehicle repairs it might be a very burdensome task for players compared to the none Firestorm mode and relying on them will only stagnate game play for everyone? It's already really boring in the present version being a tank repair person, but it will be even more boring when people see how much more combat/action there will be in comparison to right now unless they're given some sort of other battlefield role or task to do like setting up gattling/laser turrets, explosive barrels or calling in ammo re-supply drops.  

[Nyxblow]

3 hours ago, Mystic~ said:

I've not explored if there's a free engineer versus an advanced engineer in this yet, but irrespective of this, I sense repairers are going to be very easy targets for getting picked off by almost anything - a fast tank or gun vehicle, many scoped classes or snipers that deal good damage, more air units etc.

I wouldn't be so sure though, can you imagine sniping constantly moving targets from a tremendous distance ? I doubt it will be THAT easy.

I'm very curious too what the meta is going to be when it comes to repairs. At this point we don't have enough information. Wait and see? I'm sure the devs know what they are doing.

To me on the current game version, repairing feels fun only under certain conditions, like when there are multiple vehicles around the same spot, requiring you to make a choice as to which to repair in top priority. With larger maps in Firestorm, I imagine there will be less clusters of vehicles (which occur in choke points), thus more repairing of a single vehicle at a time. This is fun when the driver is a skillful player, you become like a pair. If they're not, then I agree this is a boring task.

 Now, if a dev feels generous on the forums about this topic... 

Edited September 4, 2020 by Nyxblow

[Mystic~]

I think there's enough video footage of game play already out there to suggest that everything is much faster, hectic and lethal and engineers doing repairs are easily the most undesirable and boring aspect of the game in general, I'm not saying some people don't enjoy doing this role, they do, but not every game is going to have enough of these none combat players enthusiastically repairing tanks and there are things that can be implemented to remove some of the laborious and unnecessary chore work from some areas of the game. It's not just risk of snipers though, it the new tank classes, it's the change in elevations, flying infantry, digging tanks, higher explosive rounds, fast bike/buggy with decent guns etc. Much of existing ren depends on surviving by hiding behind the tank or in cover, which is changed by the new tank profiles, but also the maps are much larger and more open... and do we really want to make it necessary to force so many into a repair role? 

Constantly listening to "I need repairs", especially when it's just for minor/moderate damage does my ears in and it's frustrating there isn't something one can do to self-heal, at least partial damage. I'm not sure what radio commands will be like in firestorm, but they can't stray too far from the original else it will be too confusing, but these are my predictions, maybe others who have had the opportunity to play it in a competitive game can comment on this side of things.

[slashes]

9 minutes ago, Mystic~ said:

I think there's enough video footage of game play already out there to suggest that everything is much faster, hectic and lethal and engineers doing repairs are easily the most undesirable and boring aspect of the game in general, I'm not saying some people don't enjoy doing this role, they do, but not every game is going to have enough of these none combat players enthusiastically repairing tanks and there are things that can be implemented to remove some of the laborious and unnecessary chore work from some areas of the game. It's not just risk of snipers though, it the new tank classes, it's the change in elevations, flying infantry, digging tanks, higher explosive rounds, fast bike/buggy with decent guns etc. Much of existing ren depends on surviving by hiding behind the tank or in cover, which is changed by the new tank profiles, but also the maps are much larger and more open... and do we really want to make it necessary to force so many into a repair role? 

Constantly listening to "I need repairs", especially when it's just for minor/moderate damage does my ears in and it's frustrating there isn't something one can do to self-heal, at least partial damage. I'm not sure what radio commands will be like in firestorm, but they can't stray too far from the original else it will be too confusing, but these are my predictions, maybe others who have had the opportunity to play it in a competitive game can comment on this side of things.

should this be the case for the general firestorm release why not suggest some alternatives. for example 

1.allow players to buy a basic or advanced repair crew.these crew could be like 1 or 2 ai controlled by your command engineers or techs. they will be fully in your command like if ya tell them to get in if there is space the 1 or 2 techs/engineer will get in if ya use the command i need repairs they get out to heal ya.

2. another thing is buy a short or permanent till death buff to repair ya overtime. remember the footage of the game with them having certain features like repair beacons,turret(darn it i want that back wasent around at that time).they could inplant that with the cons of not healing enemy's ofcourse like buy a temporal repair,heal whateber beacon for 300 credits it activates at 50% then for 30-60 seconds it just heals/repairs ya for like 2%-3% a second. then the permanent repair 2000-3000 credits this one heals ya overtime always 1%- a second but comes at the cost of it not working if an engineer/tech/whatever start to heal ya also.ones every 60 seconds if ya under 50% hp ya get an emergency repair of like 10% 

[Mystic~]

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should this be the case for the general firestorm release why not suggest some alternatives.

I did:

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I'm thinking players in vehicles should have access to a repair ability that either calls in a repair drone or puts the tank in some sort of less/or unresponsive mode to heal itself that works on a cool down rather than constant access. Or maybe when not firing for a period of time it activates passive self-repairs equal to that of a standard engineer so another player doesn't need to stand around doing this?

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allow players to buy a basic or advanced repair crew.these crew could be like 1 or 2 ai controlled by your command engineers or techs.

You could allow engineers entering some vehicles as a passenger and still giving small repairs, this feels like the GDI Marv, but they would have to exit and repair externally for the full benefit, although I don't want to encourage idle players just sitting in vehicles and the enemy team still needs a way to counter constant repairs.

My idea is of a drone that is a bit similar to what happens at the war factories in C&C3, a quad-copter hovers around the tank welding plates with an appropriate animation. A different look for this could be some sort of plasma/energy ball that does the repairs, but there's a bit of risk the game starts to feel more fantasy than science-fiction. It's possible an engineer could control the drones doing the repairs from a mobile control terminal and the drones get shot out of the sky instead of the player unless they want to risk it.

I like the buff power also as you've mentioned, I suggested this a while ago for the current version, just turn the tanks an emerald green colour for a while and allow it to repair x damage over x time.

I even think engineers should now be setting up some sort of tripod repair gun for building repairs, instead of having to stand in front of an MCT for ages, *yawn*, 2-3 of these could be setup in place of the players, who would then be free to either do another engineering task like repairing tanks or even allow them to change class for a bit to provide some sort of fire support whilst defending. From time to time they would need moving, replacing or being setup elsewhere.

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tell them to get in if there is space the 1 or 2 techs/engineer will get in if ya use the command i need repairs they get out to heal ya.

Absolutely do not want Star Wars type 'droid' AI repairs getting into the game though, this would look so wrong. 

[N4CR]

These situations already exist in some maps. The trick is to provide cover points for engineers to run to if it's hot or you have to have a good driver who will shield you. 

Repping can be very good fun if you have a good group to do it with. Two or three techs and a small squad of tanks can be a formidable force if working together and lots of fun for all involved. Very few maps do I get bored with repping plus it's a great way to make lots of coin if the ref is gone. 

[Mystic~]

I agree, I don't want to entirely remove engineers from the game. The situations where it becomes monotonous or frustrating are when the advanced engineer classes aren't available or when you're operating on maps with a lot of distance to cover like Outposts and you can't get the cover from snipers picking you off. I think healing and repairs needs looking at again in general for this game, the fact infantry can't self heal and must also seek out engineers doesn't make much sense in my mind, but there's a medic in the upcoming expansion which is a really nice addition to the game I'd even bring it to present ren, I'm wondering if Nod also has access to this despite faction differences. 

I still think a drone option for repairs in firestorm is going to be / could be necessary and desirable, I'm predicting the pace of the game is going to be a lot different than present and a repair support power would also be welcome for certain situations.