To be honest, when the Alert System was first announced I was not impressed. It seemed like a cheap gimmick they were throwing in that wouldn't really accomplish much in the end. I was wrong. Despite being a long time PS player (ps1 beta - now), I found my interest fading. Indarside was getting stale. I would only occasionally check the Esamir and Amerish maps to see if by some miracle there was something else going on, but there usually wasn't. And then the Alert System hit... and we had poplock fights on rotating maps. It might not be the same as the PS1 continent locking scheme were each faction was trying as hard as they could to sanctuary lock an enemy (faction sanctuaries were there own "continent" in PS1), but the system is moving the fight around. In the last few days I have really fallen in love with Amerish. Infantry fights in forests, moving tree to tree. Lengthy combined arms battles inbetween bases... its just... Planetside. So... while I look forward to the new lattice system, and to the addition of Hossin and other continents that may one day lead to intercontinental strategy, I want to say thank you to the devs for throwing in this "cheap gimmick". Oh, and thank you to the Mattherson players for some truly excellent battles on Amerish recently!
The alert system is *awesome* for less populated servers, seeing as it entices people to go and fight on better continents - Amerish is easily the best in the game so far. I'd go as far to say that the lattice would be unnecessary on Amerish due to how it's actually designed, but that's just me. Ceres has been absolutely jam packed since it became recommended server for the EU, so Alerts haven't been on during pre-primetime or primetime for quite a long time, from what I've seen. It's definitely a great step in the right direction, here's hoping Hossin won't be as sparsely populated as Amerish was for a long time. I think the alert system made players realise that the other continents were, mostly, far better than Indar. Still, the VS Archives is one of my favourite bases in the entire game for some reason.
the archives are fun... but something about Amerish has a more Planetsidey feel to it (and you're right, lattice is likely unnecessary on Amerish)
The alert system is a great way to get to play on a full, pop balanced, continent, every few hours. And when it's over, unless a team has a dominating victory, which is rare, it's free exp for everyone. These days, even if I don't want to play, I log on, and see if there's an alert going, just for some quick exp. I'm happy with it for the most part. Plus, it makes people actually want to take territory for once, in stead of just sitting in a cert grind.
I agree! I didn't give the alerts much thought when they were first announced, but they have done a lot of great things for gameplay. My only complaint is that alerts can be extremely frustrating when the population is out of balance, but when the split is even (or close) I find myself having the most fun I've ever had in PS2. A few things I really like about alerts: -Playing on Amerish! Wow, this place not only looks amazing, but has some of the best bases for great infantry fights. -Balanced population. (when the continent is full) -Fights that seem to matter. Now there is a reason to grab territory (besides minor resource incentives); you want to see your empire victorious. -Nice XP bonuses -Packing all 3x factions into one continent means more fighting and less ghost capping.
Amerish is the only continent where a solo infiltrator can reliably outwit a ********* TR in a scout radar mosquito.
I have noticed that, unless a fight is particularly fun, people seem more willing to relocate for territory control than your typical Indar cert grind. Now.. I like Higby, but his philosophy of "not wanting game mechanics to dictate player behaviour" is kind of how we ended up with Indarside. I'm just glad that the devs are taking steps in the right direction.
