The state of PS2 and what I feel must change.

We do it all the time. The important thing to realize is that the option is still there for everyone.

It wont work. I will sit here and say it because it simply wont work.

Shakaree, listen I respect you and GOTR like I respect any other organized outfit but I think you're imagining the game the way you wish it was played compared to how it really is. The only reason I go after what I go after is to get me and mine to the biggest fight ASAP to have a good time.

All the hex system is doing now is hindering structure and getting in the way of any real strategy or complex (and meaningful movements) from happening.

I would think this was how it was in planetside 1, and personally make for some insanely epic ambushes and not make sunderers free kills for my mines or ESF.

Instant action into non faction owned hexes needs to be removed end of story. This does nothing to further enjoyment of the game when as an example 200 people drop into some fight with no chance for the defenders to react at all. There should be an option for the attacking forces to instant action to some adjacent owned hex, which helps define battle lines which you can't instantly bypass with some poorly thought out 15 minute timer currently.

The base should have defenses to take out drop pods. Drop pods should be very risky because the are basically a free pass into enemy territory right now.

Your drop pod should be a free kill if you ground team hasn't taken out the defenses.

Damn. I may not always like buzzcut, but when I do, I want to have his children. 10/10 would read again.

I like your idea about trying to keep the fight on a front by keeping the spawn choices constrained to adjacent territories. However, it does hurt players who want to fall back and get a vehicle that may not be available to them on the front. I don't think it is reasonable to expect a player, casual or not, to drive 3+ km to bring armor back into a fight, or to have to spawn a Flash to drive to a base to get something they prefer.

One way to alleviate this would be to allow vehicle pads to spawn any vehicle at any base. With the stat of AV and AA as it is right now, I don't think this will result in the game being overrun with vehicles. Bad and inexperienced players will still get blown up quickly. This would also make the outposts matter more if they could spawn fighters and MBTs.

With Instant Action becoming random, it would also be better for coordinated groups to be able to mobilize via Galaxy by being able to spawn them in more locations than Tech Plants and Warp Gates.

And this right here is the biggest problem with talking about Planetside 2. Even the developers do this.

+5 You presented great ideas very well. I agree with it all and say to you Bravo sir.

SoE should also look into the Heat Shells for the Prowler. I have FLAK armor fully certed on all classes I play and yet I die instantly to any single heat shell from a Prowler that hits a tree 5m away from me. This simply seems to be ridiculous. I've spent a lot of Certs into that armor upgrade and it seems to be completely pointless against tank that uses its default weaponry.
In my opinion buff the AP Shell for the Prowler to make it a better anti tank tank, it was extremely strong against infantry before the buff anyway.

Good points, I really want the lattice system introduced.

The instant action should be reserved for defensively owned hexes, which will not hurt casual players in anyway. They will simply drop into an ongoing fight like they can now. This removes a blatantly boring and not enjoyable mechanic where there is a 15 minute timer where large numbers of players simply drop into a poorly defended base where the defenders have no reasonable chance to defend. It never was an enjoyable experience to both be a part of and the recipient of such a tactic where you can instantly drop say 200 persons into the center of a base which nearly always ends the enjoyable fight.

The mechanic should still exist for defenders as some sort of defenders advantage, but on a reduced timer (20-30m).

If there is already an effective fighting force at the base being dropped into then the difficulty in surviving a drop pod landing rises exponentially. Rationally the ratio of defenders to attackers should be something like 1:3, but due to a game of class systems (lol, class warfare) the ratio doesn't equate as well from reality into the game; too many added factors alter outcomes.

I digress and apologize, I'm getting off track here.

You're suggesting some sort of anti-pod defense and I think that's a fine idea with some interesting issues you may want to consider when making the suggestion.

1. How long are drop pods in the sky?
2. Due to drop pod spread, how organized is any approaching attack force?
3. How would the anti-drop pod weapon system work? Stuck facing the sky for the occasional blip? Point and click victory?

I simply don't believe another weapon system is the solution to this issue.
I also dispute that drop pods and how they operate is an issue.
Instant action is an issue.

Higby read this and said: "@mhigby: @ReactionDT lots of good ideas. Unfortunately ideas aren't the problem, it's time, and getting _everything_ done as fast as everyone wants."

Good read, I agree on all points.



I really think Biolabs need to have their attacking "flow" reworked as well(people attacking through satellite teleports end up being spawn camped because those tiny rooms NEED to be camped), it's not just hex-to-hex flow that needs to be changed. Biolabs are just ridiculous currently, though I agree with their design intent. (allow infantry to fight away from vehicles)

Then nerf the infantry capabilies. The issues now with tank balance is down to stupid people in a 1/2 HE tank (prowler) going up against a 2/2 AT tank (magrider) and crying cuz they lost.

But this is off topic and should be discussed elsewhere.

Not if every infantry can spawn a tank

This, in my opinion, again calls for multi-crew tanks

I agree with much that is said in Buzz's posts, pretty much all of it is rather great sounding stuff rather than nitpicky balance whines that most people seem to concentrate on in these forums.

Personally I think the hex system is the biggest problem with PS2 right now (and lack of additional continents which could enable an intercontinental lattice system as well, which would pretty much be required as more continents are introduced since you can't keep 3 continents fully populated simultaneously, let alone 5 or 6). I would settle either with a good lattice system or see how influence walls with the hex system (such that a certain hex doesn't allow the capture of another even if it is adjacent) would work out since that could create the logical chokepoints and frontlines the lattice system introduces anyway. The free hex system that the game current uses just has to go.

I think I've personally seen attackers successfully push defenders out once their SCU went down maybe two times. Honestly I can only recall one, and I remember that one because it's so incredibly rare I was shocked.

One last thing as well, we don't need to give people options. This is one of the major problems with the game currently. We are giving players far too many options in how they can play. The average player isn't very good in terms of strategy, planning, and skill. That's something that's glaringly obvious with all the gameplay problem we're encountering. It's all well and good if you have someone competent to tell them what to do, but even then you get people not contributing to the battles. That's also not accounting for the majority of players who don't play in organized outfits. Or they play in outfits that shy away from the larger battles due to technical issues with the engine itself.

Hand holding is needed for players, period. All the people who think PS2 being dumbed down is a bad thing are wrong. PS2 needs to be dumbed down, pretty significantly in fact. The game is clearly too complicated in it's current form, and focus is scattered to too many objectives.

Why do you think The Crown is so popular? It's one of the most dumbed down areas. At first I was like everyone else, I hated the Crown. Everyone always fought there, and didn't bother to explore the rest of the map. That was before I understood that we didn't need less bases like The Crown, we needed more. The most basic of objectives, hold the points. You don't have to worry about shields, or shield gens, or SCU's. I think what many people have found that bases with no secondary objectives are on the list of favourites, and major bases aren't seen as fun.

Vanu Archives is probably the best designed bases in the entire game. It holds no shield gimmicks or SCU's. It's a great base because it's simple, not complicated. Lots of people understand what you need to do to attack and defend it.

Don't get me wrong, I wish we could have linked bases with multiple objectives but it just isn't feasible with the current player base. They would desperately need to be linear, a simple flow of objectives. Even two objectives is counter-productive. However I'm all for change and something drastic needs to be done, that part is fairly obvious. Contrary to what the fanboys want to hope, this game is dying, and quickly at that. Populations are pathetic, to be nice. I know game companies view server mergers as a failure, but it's already a month overdue. SOE really needs to suck it up and plug their leak. Give people other players to play with. No one wants to log on to a near empty server that can't even populate one continent, let alone 3.

About the pain field in the spawn room after SCU dies. With the amount of people I've seen suicide in this game (primarily pilots) in order to prevent the person trying to kill them from getting XP, I think a lot of people would rather just sit in the pain field instead of give the enemy XP. Gonna die either way, why let the enemy benefit? Hell I've even seen people bail out, deconstruct their aircraft, then die from impact, robbing me of both the vehicle XP and the kill XP.

If a base gets taken while I am in the spawn room, I blow the equipment terms for a last bit of XP and then hide while the pain field kills me.

I think the best thing would be to do like Ascent first said, where it drops the shields and the pain field along with disabling the spawning in the facility, allowing attackers to kill the remaining defenders. If they set up AP mines or C4, so be it. Just don't be the first wave in or throw grenades in first to blow up any ordinance.

Other than that, I agree with everything else Buzz said.

Please do cloak those AMS's because when we get our orbital strikes they could be used for AMS fishing.