Battle Suits - Funcom please read

[______canadian bacon]

Well this is no news to anyone, but I never see it addressed because no one wears battlesuits at all. The only people who wear them are new chars who see them and think "WOW how cool is that, I need one!" THen they realize how horrible they are.

That's how it was when iI was a newbie, and I must say, I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen in an MMORPG. Stuff like this is what makes AO different from the other fantasy ones. It's a shame such a neat and cool piece of gear, is so broken it's not funny.

I recently began wearing a red battlesuit with my agent, because regardless of the crappy ac, evade negatives, run speed negatives and TRIPLE nano cost, I figured I wanted to be different. Not to mention a 1 foot tall R2D2 looking character appeals to me a lot. I knew when tank was broken, colored battlesuits were as well for zoning and losing color. Well I though they had fixed it in the last patch that fixed tank, how wrong was I. Since nobody actually wears this piece of scrap metal I had no way of knowing. So after an hour of implanting and buffing I got a heated plasteel suit on, and thought "wow this is so cool, im red and the size of a trashcan!!" then everyone tells me "it's brown to me". I mean..... The ONE thing they are good for is getting a cool omnipol or plasteel one and looking neat, but guess what?!?! You're BROWN ALWAYS.

I mean If you fix one thing from the bugs im going to point out, LET IT BE THE COLOR PLEASE. It's the same problem tank had so maybe you just overlooked it, if not just cut/paste the change you did to fix tank onto the battlesuit code. You might actually see more people wearing that really unique item you spent all that time coding.

Current Battlesuit Bugs that get NO attention whatsoever:

a) Discoloration when zoning, as tank was up until recently.
b) Weird damage accumulation, will miss 2-3 hits then all of a sudden will hit mob/player 4 times in a row, very confusing and hard to tell if you're actually doing the same amount of dmg.
c) Punching animation for ranged weapons......
d) Doesn't show any form of weapon model, and for ranged you hold an invisible gun.
e) Can't use emotes (this isn't a priority to fix though imho)
f) When sneaking with suit you appear to be running at high-speed on spot.
g) the "in-range" indicators on the targeted enemy's health bar dont work.

My suggestions for the next patch:

1 - Fix the color, Im sure all it would take is a small chang ein some lines of codes, just copy how you fixed tank armor.

2 - Reduce the nano cost to double, triple makes the suit absolutely impossible to use on high levels where nanos cost WAY more than they do at low levels.

3 - Fix the bugs with the messed up shot accumulation, it makes using it in combat messed up seriously on top of all the other crap.

I know fixing animations and making weapon model show when waring suit might be tough, but at LEAST make it so with a gun you shoot the gun's ammo animation and not swing fist. For melee weapons the fist animation is fine I think, for now anyway.

I know funcom has a lot on it's plate, but please guys, at very very least fix the color in the next patch, and look into changing one number in your code to lower the nano cost some. As it is there is NO advantage whatsoever toi wearing this armor. It has the same or lower acs as a full set of armor the same ql, not to mention you can't wear bracers with it on. Even if it gave double the ac it gives now, withthe triple nano cost it would still be useless. So please, leave the ac the same just lower the cost to that of tank and fix the color. You'd make one customer extremely happy and I'm sure would be making one of the neatest things in this game actully a viable thing and not some novelty you look at for 2 minutes when a newbie and never give another thought.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this (if you do)

[WhistlinJoe]

One more thing,

Im not sure if this was fixed in 13.8 or 13.9, but in 13.7, if you tried to grid in one, you would get in a crash loop.
Im scared to test it. Last time it happened, I had to get an ARK/GM to teleport me out of the grid, while I tried logging on 20 times in a row.

[________________Ecce]

tank armor and battlesuits need to be useful, they are very cool, but the nano cost is a bit out of proportion.

Perhaps have the same doubling of cost (like with tank armor), but have the battle suit lower your nano-init, while the tank armor shouldn't since it's not on your hands/arms.

Also, since the battlesuit is a converted spacesuit, why isn't it good for more defences, like a coat. Right now, coats offer way more protection to things that a sealed armored suit should be much better at.

Let's add some ac/protections to the suit, making it more a trade-off issue for the wearer and more competitive with coats.

Ecce

[____________slimebot]

Originally posted by Ecce
Also, since the battlesuit is a converted spacesuit, why isn't it good for more defences, like a coat. Right now, coats offer way more protection to things that a sealed armored suit should be much better at.

That's a good call. If coats offer more protection (along with your normal armor) than a fully sealed and controlled battle suit, then there is something wrong.

[_________Kalashnakof]

I think you should change the nano penalty from a % to a direct add. Like instead of 100% make it +100nano point cost.

I say this for several reasons. [1] Everthing that adds damage is done linearly like a ring that adds a incredible 10 damage to your 800 shot. [2] the +100 would change tank from crappy for everyone to a privledge to look foward to. This is because the +100 is torture for lower lvls but barely noticable for higher lvls.

Krisko

[lvl51] Krisko MA
[lvl76] Kalashnakof Soldier
[lvl8] Myztical MP
[lvl2] Bluechipz Trader

[_______Kyrie Eleison]

About the grid crash loop, don't even try... it's still around after 13.9.

And I agree, tank armors and battlesuits need some change. Either keep the nano delta and increase the added AC value, or lower the delta and keep other stats.

Another modification could include a -n% damage from DD or AOE.

Well anything which would let use them for other reasons than "looking different".

Sine Nomine
Hand of Chronos

[____________Haljuken]

I dont think that would be a very good thing to do becouse then all general buffs that usualy take 40 nano to cast would be 140 points instead. and that would be very anoying to someone that buff alot.

[________________khem]

The way to realise your true loathing for the neglect of Funcom is to wear a battlesuit.
I could go into the pros of wearing a battle suit. There is however no point because that would be like praising them for the errors that are part of it! The point is that these problems need to be fixed and fixed fast because they are trackable and reproducable and there is probably nothing stopping Funcom from fixing them except a messed up priority list. Grrr. The reason there is not much people shouting about them is because they are broken not because nobody would like to wear them!!!
Bump by the way.

[_______V.T. Stampede]

Battle suits are heavily broken.

at lvl 100+ everyone is wearing blue ... it's freaking boring.

I actually put on my plasteel battle suit . and hell, i was excited

then i tried to grid... sends you into a crash loop. basically makes the character that is wearing the battle suit unplayable until a gm/ark can unstick him. and the funny part is i had to tell them how to do it....... sigh...

The Gm told me it was top priority.. and what happends in 14.9? still not fixed. Top priority my a$$.

There are no negatives to coats... but negatives on tank armor/battle suit.. It's already starting to look borring, everyone with primus this - primus that..... sigh....

Nerf the coats plz

[________________Necc]

well...bump.

Funny how something so soldierly looking as tank armor can suck that much in comparison.

Last I checked a tank armor has higher stat reqs than a coat at the same ql. The ac increase is equal to my knowledge, even better for coat since it adds to other dmg types as well. Not to mention the decrease in run speed and increase in nano casting cost u get from the tank armor.

Now none of this wouldn't be so bad if the coat had some drwabacks as well. Funny thing, it has NONE at all. What's that all about?

Please explain to me, Funcom, why my soldier MUST wear a dress into battle in order to not be 100% gimped. Imo the tank armor is one of the absolutely coolest looking items in the game, and should be some sort of trademark for soldiers. But now wering our "uniform" makes us crap at our job.

If this is a sick joke, I don't get it. There are a few things that still keeps me in this game, for instance the belief that AO could be great (Needs alot of work tho), all the friends I've made, and the hope of occasionaly one day accidently stumble upon an event without crashing.

A word of advice tho. Your priority should be to keep as many players as possible happy, or AO will be dead before your planned storyline is.

btw...I think doctors have a too big advantage in PvP and PvM, they should have their heals removed. And don't get me started on MP, Eng, and Crat, remove the pets plz, it's unfair. Enforcers should not be allowed to use melee weapons, and agents and soldiers should have they're weapons removed aswell. Now chop the hands of the dang MAs. Ohh, and remove all nanos, otherwise NTs get ahead. Traders should only be allowed to actually trade with other ppl, nothing more. Now, don't touch fixers and advs, and u got a well balanced game.

Ohh, make everyone only able to equip pillows, then we could have pillow fights up in mmd.

Alright already, stop the sarcasm. Look at my fingers go.

=)

[_______V.T. Stampede]

Bump!

Yes!

NO MORE PRIMUS!

Funny if after they fix it all you see are trashcans walking around in BS.

[WhistlinJoe]

I think this would be a good chance to implement a tradeskill.
Attach a Notum Tank or something to the suit so you have direct access to the nanobots.

Of course, gridding would be a plus also.

[________senatorjesse]

I think that battlesuits should have +damage effects, give more AC, and have a smaller nano delta.. much smaller, in fact possibly able to be countered by the combination of an MP buff and CPU upgrade item. Also, it would be nice to be able to wear rings and bracers while in the battlesuit. At least rings...

With these changes, an MA in a battlesuit and all the +damage buffs they could muster would have amazing amounts of damage added with each hit. And then they really would be a fighting machine.

To go along with this, I think that Tank armor should have a lower delta, slightly better AC than the coats and no evade penalty. They could then increase the runspeed penalty to balance out the new benefit, because if you're ready for combat with tank armor you shouldn't need to run really, and could easily counter it with a runbuff from a friendly fixer or adventurer.

Finally, I would like to see more non-dress back armor. I very much wish that my crat's suit was an actual suit instead of a coat. There are pieces of armor/clothing that can do this (omni-tek armor), but they are not completely working because they disappear when zoning.

This can be easily fixed I'm sure, and would lead to a lot of very nice alternatives to the blue coat craze that's sweeping the planet.

[_____________Halbert]

FYI,

I wear battle suits. Main reason is that I'm sick of trying to find so damn man pieces of armor at a quality level to match my character level and them try and keep them all up to date as I level up. So I said screw casting nanos, screw omni-pol and tank armor, and put a battle suit on. Now all I have to worry about is my battle suit, my weapon, and my rings. Major headache removed! I don't care if my character is not optimized. I'd rather spend more time out hunting than parking my arse in Omni Trade/Ent trying to find every damn piece of gear over and over. Its just too anal to put up with.

So I for one am very glad about the Battle Suit changes to nano cost and prices.

--Halbert

[________BrontoCowboy]

Go Battlesuits!! I remember that they were the coolest thing a newb could lay eyes on @ launch... sad to see they've fallen so far by the wayside...

[Bionitrous]

Really good idea with the optional Notum Tank up there. It could use Tradeskills to combine with the Tank Armor.

Basically, for a Qlvl 200 Battle Suit, you could add maybe 2500 to your Max Nano. What they could do then is keep the stiff NanoCost penalty for wearing the suit.

While executing nanos may cost three times as much, you would have a nano pool that's three times as big. The 'penalty' comes in that it becomes 'expensive' to fill it up. I think such a penalty is right in line with wearing this item.

For Soldiers and Enforcers that would not even be able to execute some high cost nanos this might even let them squeak out a second one before emptying the nano pool.

Likewise, I think the penalty is in line. And as always, if you want a quick full recharge of your 'Notum Tank' there is always the MP or NT to charge you up as you sit down.

Once again, great suggestion on the Notum Tank.