[MRP] Riot Shields (A Remedy for Base-Camping)

[Reynolds 69]

Introduction

I really don't even need to explain why base-camping is an issue, as this idea has been dissected and scrutinized enough by the community, and the issue has been understated by the community for almost a decade. This suggestion aims to really put a good effective solution to base-camping that I am sure will be well received by the entire community. I believe that with this suggestion, it will not change too much or negatively impact any classes, and will not create a huge imbalance in the game. Here, I am going to really focus on the Riot Shields and how powerful of a tool it can be against basecamping.

Use of Riot Shields

Riot Shields were bugged and completely useless for the longest time, as it did not protect anything and were essentially just meme weapons you spawn to RDM your friends during peacetime. However, because of the most recent update, the riot shield has now regained its function and works as it was intended. For those that don't know, the riot shield is a glass shield that protects the entirety of the right side of your body, including your head, chest, arms and lower abdomen. The viewmodel of the riot shield reflects generally where the riot shield is in relation to an enemy player. It does minimal damage (~15) and restricts your access to weapons. It is currently only available in the Armory NPC for $1000. The only spot that the riot shield does not protect is the feet, as well as the entirety of a person's side and back. Here is a picture of what it looks in game.

Value of Riot Shields

One may wonder, how riot shields would have any effect on base camping? Well, by using the riot shield you have quite possibly removed all incoming sniper fire from the feet and up and you are completely protected, so long as you are looking in the general area of base-campers and snipers. The feet here is the silver lining, because as a sniper you can still shoot at players feet and still do a marginal amount of damage. Also, these shields block ALL bullets, meaning no amount of sniper fire head on with the shield will penetrate it. Sure, the aspect of vulnerable feet as well as different angles of sniper fire can still harm and even kill a new player with a riot shield equipped but for the average 11B PVT, they will have a higher chance of living when running out of the base as they literally have a shield protecting their entire body. When this shield is deployed in mass, you can ensure that all troops will be running to safety and have protection from sniper fire with this. Here is an example clip of the riot shield in practice: https://streamable.com/q409mc Again as seen in this clip, I still took a decent amount of damage that could have very well killed me if I was low, but in the end me and another player survived and managed to circumvent the base camper.

 

Balancing of Riot Shields

Now I already know a lot of people may be turning their heads at the idea of enemies having full body protection with a shield, but when taking a look at the riot shield it is pretty balanced as is. Even though the shield protects almost your entire body, it can still be countered by snipers who shoot from a different angle facing away from the person with the shield. This doesn't completely kill the concept of sniping, as it now encourages players to think twice about their positioning and also encourages attackers to be more aware of their surroundings. Also, concerns may come in to how this effects CQC combat, but when testing out the riot shield bum rushing the objective is not practical as in CQC there is much more room to circumvent a riot shield player as you can quickly strafe around a person to secure a kill. Also, the riot shield leaves you completely defenseless and unarmed which will definitely be a factor of when a player decides to put it in use.

 

The Proposal

After outlining how and why riot shields are beneficial and how they can aid in the community frustrations to base camping, what I mainly propose here in the suggestion is to do two of the following :
 

1. Add the Riot Shield to the in game credit store, and add the riot shield with a price of 20 Credits for 2 Hours. 
2. Add the Riot Shield to US Army : Demolition and Taliban Army : LMG

First off, having the riot shield in the credit store just means it is universally accessible to everyone, and allows for more leeway in people's playstyles and a good counter to base camping that is accessible to anyone on both countries regardless of faction. Setting the price at 20 means that in just 4 hours of gameplay, a new player can pick up a riot shield if they haven't already gotten a class for it, and further adds an item to encourage players to grind and AFK for credits. Second, having a widely accessible Riot Shield to base factions, especially US will prove to be very beneficial and would greatly benefit new players in avoiding aggressive sniper fire from base camping. Also, from an RP perspective it adds to the desire for the LMG class and can introduce some very cool and exciting ideas for tryouts as well as RP scenarios in game. 

- Reynolds

 

[Nelson 33]

+1, I do like the idea of LMG/Demolition being able to access the shield during wars considering they're well suited for holding OBJs and suppressing enemies from pushing up, another thing with shields I've found is you can surf them in a way just like in payday 2. Overall this sounds like a good way to balance, along with the idea from the spartans (Roman) to create shield walls, so new ways to hold OBJs.

 

[Shwade 85]

+1 

LMG classes are the most vulnerable to the current basecamping issue. Adding a riot shield would increase survivability. However current the shields do about 20 DMG per swing(I think). Rather have the damage per swing reduced to like 10 dmg. It can get abused if the damage per swing is high. But overall shouldn't be much of an issue. 

Edited March 29, 2023 by Shwade

[THEHUNTINGUY 37]

Accepted
We will push this to the development team.