Quit planetside 2 after 20 hours - or a look of a new player at the game

Hi everyone so, Planetside 2 is slowly dying ( as you can see from the steam chart - it has been steadily loosing players since the launch, and the peak players column speaks for itself) - and I've decided to give it a try! I'm a big fan of Battlefield and Arma series, I loved the idea of huge scale combat, so I've decided to give it a try anyway...

Well, this has been a fairly short try, hasn't it?

I honestly wanted to like and enjoy this game - but I didn't.

And I honestly believe that there are hardcore fans who love this game - great, it's good that you enjoy it! This is just my opinion on all the problems and issues that the game has.

1. PAY 2 WIN (OR SELL YOUR SOUL 2 WIN)
So, I've chosen Vanu as my faction, got through the tutorial, etc etc - now it's gun time!

...oh wait, there's only one default gun? Okay, fine, I guess I can just by a new one for a few cents....
WHAT?! $7 for a gun?! I could easily buy an indie game for that! AND if it's a max then you have to buy the left and right hand guns separately?! AND they do not transfer to any other factions you play?!
Seriously, they prices are so ridiculous it's not even funny.

Well, I guess I can unlock the guns just by playing the "F2P" game...oh wait, if 100 certs an hour is a good rate, and a gun is 1000 certs, that means...10 HOURS FOR JUST ONE GUN?! I don't wanna wait for 10 hours for a new gun, I want some gun variety! Running with the same gun for so long just isn't fun to me.

All right, maybe the default gun is pretty good...oh wait, it isn't.
Vanu infiltrator - default gun sucks
Vanu max - default guns suck
Vanu Scythe - flying without missiles sucks

The others seems to be okay. Which leaves you with four classes, two tanks and one flyer AND being stuck with the same guns and running/flying/riding around with no unlocks for hell knows how long.


MY SUGGESTION: first - lower the gun prices significantly.
second - either make cert acquisition much faster, or create some other way to get new guns/unlocks - maybe have a free guns weekly rotation system? Or award guns for certain achievements. Or make it very easy (in terms of XP) to unlock the first several guns/perks and then make them progressively more expensive afterwards.

2. POINTLESS
Ehm, how should I put it? The game is pointless
Killed 10 people? Died 10 times in a row? Total pro? Terrible feeder? Captured a facility? Captured a continent? Doesn't matter - it not only has 0 impact on the game, but also 0 impact on yourself - yup, you get a little but more certs, but the difference is almost negligible. It's the type of the "entertain yourself" game - except that there's not much to do apart from shooting constantly respawning enemies for zero rewards.

There have been a lot of times when I've joined a squad, and the member were spread all over the map, because...well, unless you're playing with friends - what' the point in being in a squad? Yeah, you play more organized and capture/defend points better...but what for?

MY SUGGESTION: lots of them.
First, make squad objectives bring you triple cert points or something like this. Make sure that when choosing a squad to join you can see all the available squads and their objectives, AND if you join a squad, then you get no XP or anything for fighting anywhere on the map apart from the squad objective. Make extra bonuses for resupplying/ reviving member of your squad.

Second - give us rewards for playing! Took part in faction continent capture - get a couple of new guns or camouflages! Captured 3 tech point or bio labs (in total) - get a big chuck of certs! there HAVE to be missions and rewards in this game, not just randomly running around shooting people for no reason.

3. SPAWN CAMPING / SITTING IN THE SPAWN ROOM.

This one is really annoying. People just sitting in the spawn room and not going out (since it's really easy to camp the spawn room entrances), and just patiently waiting until the base gets captured. Out of around 10 defenses I've played so far, only one managed to push back and reclaim the base.

MY SUGGESTION:

For example, make a final capture point (if there are several) INSIDE the spawn room, and make the spawn room shield go down when all the other points have been captured.

4. SPREAD OUT SERVER POPULATION.

First, you're making a huge FPS game with massive battles...but then you not only spread the population across three continents, but also across 10 different servers! As a result (at the point of writing), there are only semi-massive battles and only in peak times, the rest of the time the scale is actually smaller than Battlefield.
My desire for large-scale combat remains pretty much unsatisfied.


MY SUGGESTION:
First, merge three continents into one big one (containing all three as parts of itself).
Second, make just one or two servers! EVE online can do this, why can't you?


OVERALL, I've really wanted to like this game - but I couldn't. Ridiculous pay2win system, no objectives or point to play whatsoever, spawnrooms getting camped and no true massive scale battles - all of these factors and a lot of others made me quit the game just after 20 hours of playing. Maybe some of my suggestions are inaccurate or plain stupid, but in the current state, this is not the game for me.

I hope some of theses issues (especially number 1 and 2) get fixed, but it's quite likely they never will be.
So, sadly, I have to quit.

And, as you can see, lots of other are quitting as well.
Planetside 2 is slowly dying.

You've obviously have wasted your time with this post.
It's not pay to win, and steam, not everyone uses it.
I had steam since 2001 or 2004, I forgot really. I don't use it, especially for this game, there's no reason to use steam....
When you wrote number one, you obviously didn't really bother. At least, not in my eyes... Pay to win, lol.....

Every game has a hype phase when it is first released. Population drops are a very normal thing for new games like this.

Is the game really dieing or is it simply regulating now that the hype of its release has long passed?

Also who cares about rewards? I don't play for my faction to win rather I play for my personal victories.

Statistics don't matter , We get people to fight , we get people to kill , steam can't cover EVERY statistic given.
P.S : these numbers are for people who downloaded PS2 via steam I believe and even sometimes people run the game without steam.(Correct if wrong)

You should see the 2000SC (around $20) pistols.
Can't believe people are stupid enough to pay that much for a set of values.... yet there they are running around in the game...

They have paid2win. My default pistol cannot outdamage theirs.

Some statistics are better than NO statistics.

Have you subbed yet? How come?!?

I sure as hell don't use steam for ps2. Why go through the hassle of having a third party program open my game for me?

What if I tell you, that the default weapons are some of the best?
How can you even be sure, if the others weapons are better? WIth 20 Hours gameplay?
1 Big continent? You´ve missed the coming systems of planetside?
You want to have a reason to play? Right now the game offers only small stuff like BR and Medals.
So what people do is, building their own metagame.
For example, as br 100 andd aurax at many weapons i like to use, i diceded to focus on small close squadplay withhin a big battle.
Training this stuff with your OUTFIT (the most important thing in this game, and no, not a ZERGfit with 250+ )
About some points you are right, but the others are trash... pay 2 win? play APB, Microvolts, etc.
Since you can gain everything important without paying real money, you are just buying time. time you are to lazy/rich/impatiant to sacrifice.

The steam fact is this:
16000 average players at launch.
around 4000 average players now.

Since the steam and planetside 2's own client are identical, there's no reason to switch from one to another.
That means that 75% of the people who were playing the game initially on steam aren't playing now.
It's not the whole population, but it's a very big sample and therefore is very likely to be quite precise.

http://sirisian.com/planetside2/population.php?
You're wrong for the right reasons.

Flying without pods is the best way to survive in the air. Pods get you slightly more certs, but will only end up getting you killed more.

First of, this game is not even CLOSE to pay to win levels of others. The default guns can be some of the best in the game. Just look at the GodSaw for an example. Also, MANY guns can be unlocked with 100, 250, or 500 certs and personally, a lot of my favorite guns cost very little (Pulsar LSW: 100 certs, Serpent: 250 certs, SVA-88 500 certs). Also, you can't buy certifications (like nanoweave, C4, tools) with station cash. Sure you can buy boosts but you still have to put in time. Some new person can't just walk in the game and make themselves a good player using their credit cards.

PS: the $20 pistol is purely cosmetic. the exact same pistol is available for $7
PPS: your (entlty) logic that something that has a higher damage is automatically better is flawed, so flawed....

what's wrong with the default vanu / NC weapons? until they released the smg i didn't had anything other and it was good. the first thing i bougt was a lock on missile launcher in the anti air bundle.
yes, you can't compete with SMGs and Pump actions in CQC but then just get certs and stay away from them.

ah and don't forget - there isn't anything FREE.

you don't have a clue what you're talking about either! the 2000sc pistols are that price purely for aesthetic reasons (gold version for example), there are 700sc versions which are identical in every way apart from aesthetics. Furthermore, I have the Commissionaire, and I still prefer the default TR pistol the Repeater (I use the golden version which you get after getting 10 auraxium medals but again its identical apart from looks).

As far as your statistics are concerned you cant be further from the truth. I am a Biologist with a MSc and working for my PhD and if one simply shows the data they want to show it can be VERY misleading. Therefore, it does more damage than good, if you ask any scientist they will tell you the same, its a fact! Show all the math or nothing at all.

Sharpe

When I saw his post, I thought he had to be joking.... lol
Anyways, I like the beamer over those pistols. The Magshot is the best though, IMO. It's default too, on the NC side.

Default guns are AWESOME! TRAC-5 is bad ***, NC default I love. Jaguar is cheap as is the AMC. All those guns are great for the TR. VS I'm not sold on though, but that's just me not liking the feel of those guns. The NS guns are good for the most part but not really that much better, and their pistols despite being powerful can still be beaten by the default empire pistols. All in all this game is not Pay to win.

In the outfit I'm in, less than 1/4 of the members play via Steam.

Umm, yes I do.

That's nice, you still paid $20 for a pistol.

That's nice, but that's just you. What you like or don't doesn't apply to every other player.

Some statistics are better than NO statistics. I have been using Steam and watched their stats on games and gameplay and have found them to be accurate. Of course they are limited by only being able to observer players registered through Steam, but the results are the same. Some statistics are better than claims with nothing to back it up.

I don't care, Biology doesn't apply here, and arguing from authority doesn't make anything you say have any more weight.

Sure that can be the case, but it doesn't matter. If one party presents some statistics and cites a source, and you have nothing to counter it with...

you lose.[/quote]

9 of 10 players I know in real life already tried and dismissed PS2 and will no longer return.

Blah blah game is dying, blah blah I know how to fix it, blah blah if they don't listen to me and me only this game will DIEEEEE!!!11one1~!!

Another one of these posts that appear every day that have nothing new or insightful suggestions in them (with a complete lack of knowledge of the game to boot).

Yawn.

PS2 is a pretty ****** game if you want something beyond casual zerging. It's pretty enjoyable for what it is though. Bye and hope you find something you like.

It's not pay to win. Not all weapons are 1000 certs, and obviously you have to spend a certain amount of time before buying an item without money.

I agree $7 per gun is high, though not all guns are $7 if you actually looked, but apparently it's worthwhile for Sony because they haven't reduced the price. That is not what is keeping people away.

Every MMO ever in existance has more people at the start and then loses some before becoming stabilized, which it has over the last few months. I can gaurantee you there are more than 6k people playing at primetime though.