A few ideas on support-based abilities.

[The Cyan Dragon]

So, long-time lurker, first time poster, all that jazz...

I wanted to throw a few of my ideas into the ring on support-oriented abilities, one just to see if they stick, and, two, to maybe get some interesting thoughts flowing on how to really make support playstyles 'shine'.

A lot of sci-fi based games, regardless of genre, relegate support abilities to basically fantasy-trope abilities with some sci-fi explanation or backstory to them, and that... sucks. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a very good reason to buff allies, to debuff enemies, healing, damage soaking, it's all *very* necessary. But, it's also done *to death* and EM-8ER has the potential through story, lore, and the world design to really make some support playstyles stand out and be unique.

Take, for example... MechWarrior Online. Love it or hate it, one of the most valued roles in that game is the one that the Raven light mech provides, which is spotting and target designation for heavier mechs with long-range missiles. Through the TAG laser and the NARC Beacon Missile, a good Raven pilot can give a way for heavier, artillery based mechs to rain death on opponents they can't even see. It's reconnaissance done properly, and I love it.

Something similar to that could very easily find it's way into EM-8ER, with heavier weapons getting a buff to accuracy, or even removing line-of-sight requirements for indirect fire weapons (long range missiles, artillery, etc) when tagged/highlighted. It can be an ability, hell, even a 'weapon' in the form of some fancy high-tech binoculars. (honorable mention, Battlefield 3 and 4's SOFLAM gadget)

Another mech game with a fantastic and vital set of 'support' roles was Chromehounds. With the Commander, despite being support, being an absolute *necessity* on the battlefield for giving voice and text comms to a squad, as well as real-time radar within your radio network area, and the Heavy Gunner being literal artillery for shelling an enemy base, I feel these are also roles that could find a way into EM-8ER. A 'Commander' style loadout could involve being able to highlight enemies and hostile structures/bases/etc to all nearby allies, and a 'Heavy Gunner'/artillery style loadout could provide indirect fire and damage support from afar. Hell, you could even get super-fancy with it and have different howitzers/cannons that fire different rounds, one type for sheer damage and ouch-factor potential, one for wide-area debuffs (like damage decreases, armor/damage resist decreases, etc) or even the option of niche 'enviromental' support like flare rounds for lighting up huge swathes of the battlefield, or smoke to give all allies in the impact zone stealth or similar.

I don't know if any of these ideas make sense in the theme and scope of EM-8ER as I've spent the last two days giving myself a crash-course on everything I've missed in the past year of development and progress, but... at the least, I hope it gives people reason to think outside the box.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Kassatsu]

I imagine there will be some form of homing missiles and a 'spotter' type ability or weapon that will make them more effective. A good example is in the EDF series, where the air raider class can equip a laser designator or guide beacon, and other classes with homing weapons can lock on to the beacon or laser. This also allowed weapons that normally required multiple locks and would only fire one projectile at a target enemy to lock every single projectile on to that single target, which is always fun. Some of the missiles (particularly equipped by the Fencer - probably the closest that game has to an omniframe, excluding the actual mechs and giant mobile suits of course) actually required an air raider beacon or designator to even obtain a lock at all. I definitely didn't turn around a pair of cruise missiles mid-flight to land directly on top of my team the first time we tried this.

Going way, way back, BF1942 had a great artillery mechanic. A recon player could tag a location with binoculars, and then anyone driving an artillery tank could right-click in the turret, switching their camera to the target location. Aiming was a bit awkward as there were no indicators or crosshairs so you had to take a wild guess and then compensate from there, but a good gunner could wreak havoc on just about any location that gets designated this way.

 

[Omnires]

A lot of the abilities from FireFall will be added into Em8er. This means there will be a version of the Recon SIN abilities in the game too. In FireFall the Recons units (including Nighthawk and Raptor) as whole was scouts and snipers. So besides having the highest DPH (damage per hit) in the game out of all frames in the game they also had extrasensory abilities that would let them spot and mark enemies. Marked enemies would glow and could be seen even if they was behind rocks, walls, and other things, they also toke extra damage. This ability also shared they radar location to every other player within the area even if they was not in your team. So they would see the enemies on their radar and maps long before they go to the fight. Marking enemies with SIN also sometimes highlighted their weak points telling people where to aim to do the most damage (like how some enemies has a weak point at back of their necks near the base. Going for head shots didn't do as much damage because they was where helmets or was an animal with a really thick skull. Or how some the elite enemies had things like shield generators so would highlight where the weak points in the shield and armor are.) A skilled Recon using their SIN abilities the right way while overlooking a battle was great help in both taking out large armies and giant monsters as fast as possible.

Now add in SIN abilities with the use of things like homing missiles and other such gear and tactical support units are easy to picture in the game.

For example. Think about how ghost units can help win a battle even without firing a single shot themselves. Like this video. The stealth sniper guy helps to win the battle by marking the target for the battlecruiser to get a clear hit on.

 

[Drakin5]

Can we use our arkships as Orbital bombardment platforms not just moving guild bases?

 

[The Cyan Dragon]

I totally agree and think that's awesome, but I'd also love more 'active' versons of Firefall's SIN Beacon. It was a step in the right direction for sure, but it was definitely catered to more of a 'boost your own damage' kinda setup, it just *happened* to boost everyone's damage as well.

I know it doesn't suit everyone, but I don't mind dropping my own damage to sewer-grade levels to be able to buff and support someone else to make up that difference. It's why I also mentioned Battlefield 3 and 4's SOFLAM designator, it's an active-use pair of binoculars, but provides a 'target lock' for allied missiles. (I also completely forgot about Battlefield: Bad Company's Tracer Dart Pistol, which replaced your sidearm, but allowed *any* rockets to home in on a lased target)

It's not optimal, and it's not for everyone, but I'd love to have the freedom of choice to take more 'active' support abilities and be that forward observer, or sniper's spotter kind of playstyle and ability loadout. With the size and scale EM-8ER is looking to have, there's definitely a niche to fill there, and so few games pull it off and make it work. (Aside from MWO and Chromehounds, the only other game that comes to mind was MAG.)

 

[Mahdi]

Can we use our arkships as Orbital bombardment platforms not just moving guild bases?

There have been discussions on this a few times. I believe there will a function like this with a similar lore to it. With more demos the following ideas have been more functional and less dreamy. Loving this progress of the game and the community!

 

[Omnires]

One of the good thing about Em-8er is the fact that we do have mechs and just doing a few things that real life militaries do would both add to the options of game play but also add in a bit of realism. For example take the radar dome you see on top of some attack helicopters like the Apache. It gives the helicopter a lot more sensor range at the cost of making the helicopter bit larger and heavier lowering fuel economy to some degree. But it is still able to do all the things a normal Apache helicopter can do and by sharing that data with other members in the unit they can easily track targets and lead coordinated assaults.

I would like to see a system in place that balances things out in a more logical way. Where all the gear in the game has size, mass, and energy/fuel usage. And you have to pick and choose your load out based on how much mass your omniframe can support and how much power it can give to the systems. The good thing is that you can have more equipment than your power source can run all at once on your frame, but you have have to turn on and off different equipment to free up enough energy to power it. For example of this in scifi in like how in things like Star Trek when they shut down power to everything else and reroute all power to the shields to survive something they would not be able to do so normally. Or like how in some mecha shows the pilot will reroute all power to the thrusters to move way faster than normal or reroute all power into their weapons for extra powerful attack at the risk of doing things like overheating, putting to much stress on parts making to them break, and/or causing the power source to shut down/burn out/explode.

For example.
My teammate has an extra powerful shield generator that is really designed to be on small battleships on their omniframe. Because of its size and mass the don't have as many weapons as most people do and move at a slower rate than normal. But the shield can protect an area large enough to fit how many ever omniframes can fit inside of a bubble slightly larger than a small battleship. But because of the large power drain to takes to make a shield that large and powerful they can't fight back nor really move while it is up. Because they have to allocate power from all nonessential systems into the shield to protect us for how ever long they are energy and systems can hold out. This would be great for me because than I can allocate power from all nonessential systems into my gun and attack the enemy without worry of being hit and killed because I powered down my defenses. Teamwork makes the dream work. I use that tactic in almost every MMO with my friend, because they like to main as tank while I main as DPS (oftan assassin or sniper to do unmatched raw damage in just one hit as long as I'm given an opening).

 

[Markolis]

Can we use our arkships as Orbital bombardment platforms not just moving guild bases?

That would be a handy feature...Giant Kai-ju appears, starts to stomp around then we hear " orbital incoming " - Kai-ju looks around to see us looking up - KAAAA-BOOOOM ! - enough meat left over for an Alien burger party !!!!