Surge nerf

[Chadly]

There goes Surge...

SporkFire writes:
Once we have the 2.5 update out the door, we begin testing on version 2.6. In that update, weapons will be automatically holstered when surge is activated, returning the implant to a travel/defensive function as opposed to an offensive one. You'll see this as part of Monday's Weekly Dev Activities post.
Victor Wachter
Community Relations Representative

[Chadly]

I've played for about a year now, giving Sony >$200 in the process, and this is the most disappointing thing I've been faced with yet. Personally, it might be the straw that broke the camels back when it comes to renewing my subscription. It's a direct assault on the playstyle of at least 30% of the players.

For the record, here's (http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum16/HTML/002829.html) the official link.

[Tojax]

YES! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! My only regret is that they're leaving it in the game at all.

*EDIT*
Why do I say this? In most games, there's two ways to deal with damage: absorbance and avoidance , so to speak. With absorbance the goal is to merely try and sustain as much damage as possible so you can inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy. If you kill him before he kills you, you've done your job. This is, in my opinion, how infantry should work, especially with the heavier armors (MAX, RExo, to a lesser extent Agile). Of course, they should always try to avoid damage when they can, but more often than not it should come down to just their plain old armor.

As far as avoidance goes, it is a very valid tactic in most games. Yes, you don't get hit as much, but when you do the consequences are generally much more dire than if you go for the other method of defense. The problem with this in a game like this is that for many people the game doesn't run too well and with a lower framerate such tactics are devasting. More importantly, with something as manueverable as infantry in this game and with the poor Z-Axis net coding and warping, such speed is absurd. In most FPSs avoidance is a very annoying tactic. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-11-07&res=l) I won't even use surge anymore because it's so cheap.

I believe someone once said it gives skill to the skillless, and I also believe I'd have to agree with them. You can even hear the desperate and haunting screams of a thousand n00bs calling out to the devs in the PS forums. If not being able to shoot while surging would make you quit this game, then by all means leave. I would not want you here.

[rev]

I guess this is their server lag solution. Piss enough people off so that they play less or quit all together, thus more spare CPU cycles and bandwidth. :)

[martyr]

I guess this is their server lag solution. Piss enough people off so that they play less or quit all together, thus more spare CPU cycles and bandwidth.

indeed (indubitably)

[Rahl]

This is total bullshit. I've just recently become a sugile jackass. Its a ton of fun. I've had to dedicate my certs and alter my playstyle to play this role. What a bunch of cocks. Surge is not unbeatable. It just takes balls to take on one of the surgemonkeys.

[martyr]

i pulsar them regularly.

[SirKibbleX]

More heavy armor would mean fewer maxes. If we all forgot about surge, then we'd start focusing on our anti-vehicle weaponry more, and fighting maxes would be even easier. Before, Agiles beat rexos, rexos beat maxes, and maxes beat agiles, usually. This rock-paper-scissors battle type might not be fun for everyone, but it's the basis for many video games. Right now, it's very difficult for a surgile to beat a rexo, especially one with the personal shield. While I (with my amazing skills) can usually defeat one or two, I have trouble beating even 1 without the advantage of surprise, especially if they're using heavy assault. I think I'm going to recert to fit these changes(if you can't beat em', join em!). I think this will affect the game quite deeply, however, as it will make the agile armor nearly useless by comparison to the rexo. Also heavy assault weapons tend to beat medium assault weapons, unless you're firing at them from far off with a rifle. I've had times where I'd sneak up on a rexo while surging with a sweeper and he'd turn and mow me down with heavy assault. My biggest point is that without surgiles, this game will have little use for agile armor users, making rexos more common. With rexos, maxes will have little use, as rexos tend to keep AV weapons on them. Soon, the game will be overrun with rexos and there may be transportation problems. I just don't want a game where everyone is using the same thing. What I really wish the devs would do is make the AV max a 2-point cert, make unimax a 4 point cert, make rexo a 2 point cert, and take away 1/2 of the buffs that it got in the recent patch (-25 armor, -1 absorption). This would solve a lot of problems IMHO.

[saris]

i like it but mainly for the fact it pisses of the nc :D honestly think just making rexo prereq for HA is a better solution but thats just the grunt in me. never understood how someone in agile armor with that big honking gun can still fit in the driver seat but a rexo cant...

[Tojax]

I'm still in favor of buffing the MAXs. Notice how I altered my signature. They need to give them at LEAST 800 armor, if not more, imo, but that's for another thread.

I personally think the Surge nerf puts armor in its place. RExo is for the heavy-grunt with lots of room for weapons and ammo; if he needs a ride he can just get it from someone else or cert a buggy/ATV. Agile, on the other hand, is the armor of choice for the driver. Something you must remember is that you can drive ANYTHING wearing Agile, as well as move faster than RExo. You also must pay 3 certs for RExo while Agile is free.

I feel no pity for the surge-monkies. They abused it and now the hammer drops. I was getting tired of seeing mosquitos fly over the tower in my AA MAX , and watching a guy bail out in Agile running circles around me and killing me with a Decimator, respawning, charging back upstairs to have him leap around a corner and JH me, etc. etc. etc. Then you finally kill him and he's back in another mosquito or a Reaver in less than two minutes. Now at least they'll move slow enough to be able to shoot back with decent accuracy, and this'll become a less viable tactic require a little more tact to pull off successfully. BTW, you ever try to track one circling you while in a MAX suit?

No more Surgiles charging into large groups of friendlies with MCGs blazing laughing as they gun us down and make us tear each other apart with friendly fire.

:D

[elana]

This seems a tad extreme. Surge has it's nemesis just like everything else. In this case, it's clever use of the jammer.

Mostly it seems that the problem with surge is that it's just too fast relative to their network code. Clients don't keep up properly and that's what makes it nasty (but not unstoppable). I suppose this is easier for them than fixing the net code.

[MuffinMonkey]

I think they should jsut slow the speed of surge in when you have a weapon out. I would make less people mad and blah blah blah.

[Brtw]

Oh well, it was fun surgiling while it lasted. It'll put surge back to a movement implant rather than an abusive uber powerful charge everywhere kill people who cant turn fast implant.

[elana]

I think they should jsut slow the speed of surge in when you have a weapon out. I would make less people mad and blah blah blah.

Yeah, that would be the obvious solution. And have the speed change be dependent on what kind of weapon. A pistol slot item would only slow you down slightly more than normal. A rifle slot would slow you down substantially.

[TwistedPaladin]

I've had surge for a long time, and I only use it like 1/3 of the time I'm in a fire fight. Most of the time I'm crouched trying to get my lasher to be acurate. As for the max buff Tojax suggested, maxes don't need a buff, lastnight I was playing as TR on Ishunder and a lone quasar some how got into one of our facilities. I don't how it got in, but the freaking thing rocked us. Everyone that was in that base was either a pilot or a driver, and no one had AV. The freaking thing mowed us all down, and somehow got into the spawn room. BTW last night on Ish really really sucked for the TR. For a moment there victory was in our grasp, we had recapped the north and were working Zaqar. I nearly shit my pants when the VS hacked and capped Enkidu.

[BuzzEvil]

That was me!! hahahaha . Not kidding! That exact thing happened to me. I had quit the game in an owned base on ish and restarted the game later to find the base under enemy control and it seemed that everyone there was devoid of deci's. I must have killed 8 guys before a surger with a mcg finally took down the last of my armour and the only reason he got me is that i was focused on killing the spawn tubes.

[rev]

Found this reference on the Planetside-Universe site.


We did further analysis of this. Since there is a deactivation timer on the Surge implant now, we agree with you that there's really no reason to require pressing the hotkey to deactivate Surge before equipping a weapon.

So...basically, equipping a weapon will auto-turn off Surge...but you still have to wait for the deactivation timer to expire before your weapon will actually equip itself.

This satisfies both sides of the issue. No extra button press to equip the weapon AND it still defeats the Surgile tactic.

Thanks for the feedback, folks.
(P.S., The Surge deactivation timer is only 0.5 seconds right now. That's subject to change during testing, but we intend it to be short.)

[Mushnator]

I am getting ready for the fix, as I have certed Rexo and got Personal Shield. This implant used to blow, but now it rocks! I can't tell how many times it saved me, but once your Stam runs out and there's an enemy or tank still there, you're screwed royally. :(

[SirKibbleX]

The best way to play this game is to focus on one thing, get good at it, and then branch and learn other things (why drive a magrider when you're a master pilot and lasher user?). Anyway, before, many of the best players used speed while on the ground to dodge enemy fire somewhat, as well as get into range to effectively fire their heavy assault weapons. Now, I believe people will be more focused on fight at longer ranges. People will start focusing on heavier armor and defense and sacrifice mobility. I must say, having 400 hp for an infantryman that moves as nearly as quickly as an agile with a weapon out seems a little unfair to me, but I suppose things will work out.

Anyways, if you can't beat em', join em'. Whatever tactics the enemy is using to defeat us should be used by us against the enemy.