Here are few of my ideas on new suits and suit mods that I'd like to see in Odyssey. I will update this topic when I come up with more cool ideas, but for now these are the things I'd like to see the most.
Annihilator (Heavy) - extremely heavy suit, designed for front line combat. It should be heavily armored and have "double shields" (if one goes down, other pops up instantly) and ability to wield 2 main weapons at same time. However it should have slow, short period sprint and very low jump ability (just enough to step over some small fences or boxes). Also very small inventory, maybe like 4 assets + 2 goods.
Guardian Exo-suit (half suit, half vehicle) - This idea comes from various games and movies and I don't mean iron man (PlanetSide 2 and Subnautica have good exo-suits and the robot from Lost in Space looks quite similar to my idea too). I'm talking about more realistic suit, something that is about half the size of SRV and requires planetary vehicle bay to be deployed from, so you can't go into SRV with it. It should have 4 "hands" and should look something like guardian tech and should be unlockable via guardian tech broker after you have collected some guardian materials and data. It should be multi-purpose and support some module / weapon options. for example you could have 4x primary weapons enabled at same time and ability to add them on different fire groups and buttons, so for example you could have 2x kinetic and 2x thermal weapons. Or you can use those arms to pick-up cargo (1 arm = 1 ton of cargo). Suit should be able to "hover" when sprinting, so you can go faster than normal sprint with it and it should have "jump jets" like SRV. There should also be possibility to equip it with suit tools, such as the plasma cutter, genetic sampler, scanner and energy tool and it should fit thru the settlement airlocks (just barely).
To make it bit more fair, you could limit sprinting, that it takes you like 1-2 seconds to engage sprint and it would also take 1-2 seconds to stop sprinting and then about 5 second re-charge time before you can sprint again. Same with jump jets, it should have reload time, so in other words .. limit the agility of the suit, while keeping it realistically strong vs troops.
Stealth Camouflage - This mod should replace suit shields with stealth capabilities. It should take bit less energy than shields and make the suit 99% invisible to naked eye. NPCs should not detect you at all, unless you pretty much bump into them, however ofcourse they should still hear your footsteps and actions. Interacting, shooting or using tools should NOT disable the stealth, however it should make it bit more visible while using any tools or weapons, like a shimmering around the suit, which would be quite easily noticeable, but should instantly disappear after you stop using tools/weapons. We're in year 3000+, I can't believe we don't already have stealth mod.
Thermal Vision - Shouldn't need to explain this, but just in case, it should be counter to stealth mod. So you can see stealth camouflage when thermal vision is on. Otherwise it's like a real life thermal, it can see heat sources. Maybe make it so that you can only have either night vision OR thermal vision mod on your suit, but not both.
Thermal Manager - Mod that manages your suit's outside temperature, making it invisible to thermal vision. We already have such tech in real life, so I see no reason why we can't have this in year 3000+ on a suit.
Hover Scout - Something similar to what we see in star wars. Something between a hover car and hover bike. Bit smaller than Scarab and Scorpion, but a lot faster. Either no weapons or some kind of frontal plasters. 1t cargo space would be good enough.
Explorer / Hauler - Big planetary vehicle, that can carry troops or cargo. It should also require class 5 or 6 planetary vehicle hangar with about 16t of cargo space. It should look more like an BTR APC in real, but bit taller, something with 8 wheels. It should have 2x turrets on top and support multi-seat.
Explorer / APC - Another big planetary vehicle, but bit smaller than other one. Should have 6 wheels and maybe about 6t cargo space and requires class 4 planetary vehicle hangar. So it's similar to the bigger one, but simply has more agility and armor, but less speed and cargo space, so maybe like 6-8t of cargo should be good enough.
In general, I just want to see variation in planetary vehicles. Scorpion was a big disappointment .. that plasma rifle is so useless, it's so in-accurate. Scarab is far better for fighting than scorpion .. I only tested it couple times and meh. I've always liked variation in games, I don't understand people who are stuck on same vehicle forever and find it fun. We already have bunch of ships (could always have more), but I know things like this take time to make, so they should focus on things that we don't already have. We have tiny ships and large ships, but only 2 same sized SRVs and only 3 suits that are almost identical with no significant difference. I can fight NPCs in any suit, even tho dominator is best ofcourse, but they're still too similar. If we talk about ships, you can have Vulture with 2x large hardpoints, that is fast and agile, you can have FDL or Mamba that can have quite good shields and firepower or you can have Corvette or Cutter, heavy, bulky, but packs a punch and can take a hit. Why not have same choices for suits and planetary vehicles?
In my eyes, games with most choices and freedom are the ones that attract most players. Driving that same old SRV just gets boring ...
The ultimate idea for devs - look at PlanetSide 2 and try to make similar combat style while on planets. Imagine having a hybrid of PlanetSide 2 and ED Odyssey .. we already have on-foot action in Odyssey, so why not make it the best ever? This would also mean more combat in style of conflict zone, where your death is not punished by spawning 10 years out from where you died, so if you die, you can re-spawn nearby and re-enter battle. Imagine a planet-sized battles for ENTIRE PLANET! Where players and / or NPCs are fighting over entire planet, which can last for days. Anyone who is not familiar with PS2, battles there can go on for days. So objective would be to conquer entire planet by capturing all settlements and holding them all for at least 5 mins at same time.
I'm slowly getting bored of Odyssey again, I've done enough grinding and exploration, I'd like to do some combat sometimes too, but right now we only have same conflict zones .. same thing over and over. I'm actually considering getting back into PlanetSide 2 for that same reason - epic scale battles that are not chaotic nor too fast. If you don't like one area, you can just go into another area. PS2 combats are not just in one place, maps are huge and you can go fight in a different place (mountains, flat area, caves ..etc). So similar thing would apply in Odyssey, if you don't like fighting over same settlement (cuz area or other players is something you don't like), then you can just leave that area and go on other side of the planet, also if you don't like daylight or night, you can fight on other side of the planet.
SUITS
Cheetah (Scout) - lightweight suit, that can only carry 1 sidearm, has faster sprint and jump and special tool would be having a drone / skimmer. You should be able to control the drone either manually or have it auto-hover above you and map the terrain. It would replace normal suit radar with bigger, enhanced radar, that covers a lot bigger area and is able to spot and mark everything that you can interact with in any way (troops, biological life, loot ..etc). Additionally it should have remote hack function, which allows either you or suit to hack into data ports and other terminals from distance. Drone could also have some sort of "sabotage" function like the overload on the charge tool, so it can "zap" certain electrics.Annihilator (Heavy) - extremely heavy suit, designed for front line combat. It should be heavily armored and have "double shields" (if one goes down, other pops up instantly) and ability to wield 2 main weapons at same time. However it should have slow, short period sprint and very low jump ability (just enough to step over some small fences or boxes). Also very small inventory, maybe like 4 assets + 2 goods.
Guardian Exo-suit (half suit, half vehicle) - This idea comes from various games and movies and I don't mean iron man (PlanetSide 2 and Subnautica have good exo-suits and the robot from Lost in Space looks quite similar to my idea too). I'm talking about more realistic suit, something that is about half the size of SRV and requires planetary vehicle bay to be deployed from, so you can't go into SRV with it. It should have 4 "hands" and should look something like guardian tech and should be unlockable via guardian tech broker after you have collected some guardian materials and data. It should be multi-purpose and support some module / weapon options. for example you could have 4x primary weapons enabled at same time and ability to add them on different fire groups and buttons, so for example you could have 2x kinetic and 2x thermal weapons. Or you can use those arms to pick-up cargo (1 arm = 1 ton of cargo). Suit should be able to "hover" when sprinting, so you can go faster than normal sprint with it and it should have "jump jets" like SRV. There should also be possibility to equip it with suit tools, such as the plasma cutter, genetic sampler, scanner and energy tool and it should fit thru the settlement airlocks (just barely).
To make it bit more fair, you could limit sprinting, that it takes you like 1-2 seconds to engage sprint and it would also take 1-2 seconds to stop sprinting and then about 5 second re-charge time before you can sprint again. Same with jump jets, it should have reload time, so in other words .. limit the agility of the suit, while keeping it realistically strong vs troops.
SUIT MODS
Meta-Alloy armor - This mod should give 100% resistance to human weapons, however it should still be vulnerable to heat (shooting at it for a while with thermal weapons, would cause you to lose health due heat). It should also disable shields and remove jump-boost ability. you can still jump, but not use the jump-booster. Jump would be purely for getting over small steps, so you don't get stuck on some nonsense. And also significantly reduce sprint speed. So only way to destroy this suit, would be by using AX or Guardian weapons (which also means you'd have to have them available while on-foot).Stealth Camouflage - This mod should replace suit shields with stealth capabilities. It should take bit less energy than shields and make the suit 99% invisible to naked eye. NPCs should not detect you at all, unless you pretty much bump into them, however ofcourse they should still hear your footsteps and actions. Interacting, shooting or using tools should NOT disable the stealth, however it should make it bit more visible while using any tools or weapons, like a shimmering around the suit, which would be quite easily noticeable, but should instantly disappear after you stop using tools/weapons. We're in year 3000+, I can't believe we don't already have stealth mod.
Thermal Vision - Shouldn't need to explain this, but just in case, it should be counter to stealth mod. So you can see stealth camouflage when thermal vision is on. Otherwise it's like a real life thermal, it can see heat sources. Maybe make it so that you can only have either night vision OR thermal vision mod on your suit, but not both.
Thermal Manager - Mod that manages your suit's outside temperature, making it invisible to thermal vision. We already have such tech in real life, so I see no reason why we can't have this in year 3000+ on a suit.
VEHICLES
Hover Tank - We're in year 3000+, why don't we see tanks? My idea would be having something similar to hover tank in PlanetSide 2. This tank should require minimum of class 6 planetary vehicle hangar, so only bigger ships are able to carry it. It should be main battle tank, very strong and effective vs anything and ofcourse it should support outfitting. So you can equip it with anti-ship turret or you can have another ground to ground weapon on top. So basically 2 main weapons and should support at least 3 multi-seats (1 driver, 2 gunners).Hover Scout - Something similar to what we see in star wars. Something between a hover car and hover bike. Bit smaller than Scarab and Scorpion, but a lot faster. Either no weapons or some kind of frontal plasters. 1t cargo space would be good enough.
Explorer / Hauler - Big planetary vehicle, that can carry troops or cargo. It should also require class 5 or 6 planetary vehicle hangar with about 16t of cargo space. It should look more like an BTR APC in real, but bit taller, something with 8 wheels. It should have 2x turrets on top and support multi-seat.
Explorer / APC - Another big planetary vehicle, but bit smaller than other one. Should have 6 wheels and maybe about 6t cargo space and requires class 4 planetary vehicle hangar. So it's similar to the bigger one, but simply has more agility and armor, but less speed and cargo space, so maybe like 6-8t of cargo should be good enough.
In general, I just want to see variation in planetary vehicles. Scorpion was a big disappointment .. that plasma rifle is so useless, it's so in-accurate. Scarab is far better for fighting than scorpion .. I only tested it couple times and meh. I've always liked variation in games, I don't understand people who are stuck on same vehicle forever and find it fun. We already have bunch of ships (could always have more), but I know things like this take time to make, so they should focus on things that we don't already have. We have tiny ships and large ships, but only 2 same sized SRVs and only 3 suits that are almost identical with no significant difference. I can fight NPCs in any suit, even tho dominator is best ofcourse, but they're still too similar. If we talk about ships, you can have Vulture with 2x large hardpoints, that is fast and agile, you can have FDL or Mamba that can have quite good shields and firepower or you can have Corvette or Cutter, heavy, bulky, but packs a punch and can take a hit. Why not have same choices for suits and planetary vehicles?
In my eyes, games with most choices and freedom are the ones that attract most players. Driving that same old SRV just gets boring ...
The ultimate idea for devs - look at PlanetSide 2 and try to make similar combat style while on planets. Imagine having a hybrid of PlanetSide 2 and ED Odyssey .. we already have on-foot action in Odyssey, so why not make it the best ever? This would also mean more combat in style of conflict zone, where your death is not punished by spawning 10 years out from where you died, so if you die, you can re-spawn nearby and re-enter battle. Imagine a planet-sized battles for ENTIRE PLANET! Where players and / or NPCs are fighting over entire planet, which can last for days. Anyone who is not familiar with PS2, battles there can go on for days. So objective would be to conquer entire planet by capturing all settlements and holding them all for at least 5 mins at same time.
I'm slowly getting bored of Odyssey again, I've done enough grinding and exploration, I'd like to do some combat sometimes too, but right now we only have same conflict zones .. same thing over and over. I'm actually considering getting back into PlanetSide 2 for that same reason - epic scale battles that are not chaotic nor too fast. If you don't like one area, you can just go into another area. PS2 combats are not just in one place, maps are huge and you can go fight in a different place (mountains, flat area, caves ..etc). So similar thing would apply in Odyssey, if you don't like fighting over same settlement (cuz area or other players is something you don't like), then you can just leave that area and go on other side of the planet, also if you don't like daylight or night, you can fight on other side of the planet.