Would you be more motivated to play PS2 if it had a meta game?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Obscura, Aug 4, 2013.

  1. Obscura

    I know I would. Something about an open world FPS with no long term goals just turns me off, I've been playing since early beta and have loved the game for it's unique gameplay and it's huge epic battles. But what about when that novelty wears off? After doing dozens of outfit ops, lots of killing, and certing everything out that I desire... I'm left wanting. I think alot of people that play would like to have a greater goal to work towards when they play besides "Farm Kills, Get Certs, Gain battle ranks", which is fun, don't get me wrong. But eventually the sparkly shine of it wears off and I hesitate to log in, instead waiting till theres some new content or a patch to keep me interested for a few hours. Anyone else feel like this?
    • Up x 15
  2. rayvon

    Not really for me, I am content with playing the game as it is myself, I dont care about battle ranks, rankings, kills or cert points, I just play for fun.
  3. The King

    I'm already playing it.....
  4. LT_Latency

    PvP can never have real long term goals with major effect or consequence.

    No one wants to play on the losing team that has trouble reaching these goals when they can just pick the winning team and have them handed to them
    • Up x 3
  5. Obscura

    idk, I guess I would like to feel like my factions/outfits efforts are worth something in the long run.
  6. Obscura

    Sure it can, PS1 did. Continent locking, base locking I think?
  7. UberBonisseur


    I dunno, but the idea of a big evil empire taking over the game, only for a ragtag group of rebels to form a Liberation army seems rad.


    Otherwise, you can just award a medal to the winners and reset the map, like every game ever.
  8. Degenatron

    Wow, maybe you should watch some of the dev Q&A vids before making a post like this.

    The devs are building out the meta game. The long term goal is to have a global lattice system with at least 6 full continents, plus battle islands. The meta goal will be global domination. All that is already in the works.
    • Up x 2
  9. LordMondando

    I think this is the major reason so much of the PS1 crowd is staying away, my outfit for one has dozens of people not currently 'into' PS2. I think the whole 'its just TDM' and 'theirs no point' a lot of people assert missing the fact playing the objective is allready more than possible and a game only has the 'point of having fun'.

    THat being said, I do think my members of the community, when they say 'It just doesn't feel like theres a purpose to what we are doing' do have a point.

    But, Its getting one and I define metagame, as your actions at a tactical level (so the fights) having a larger strategic context. So we are fighting at X, for the purpose of A on map Y. That is what metagame is.

    Resource revamp is a massive step in the right direction in producing a tangible logistics system. Will need a lot of tuning no doubt and may even have to be more radical than as is currently suggested. But it'll finally give taking resources a clear and again importantly tangible purpose. The fighting across a continent will then be about expanding resource collection and maintaining logistcs routes.

    Then we have continental lattice and cont locking coming in a month or two after that, again giving a large purpose of winning globally to each fight and fighting on a map to the purpose of gaining access and control of another map.

    It would have been nice if this has been in at launch (though mapping hossin and the BI slowed things down a lot and cont lattice wouldn't really work without them, resources however took far too long) but there we go. Its full steam ahead with fixing the issue.
    • Up x 1
  10. Obscura

    Making a post like what? I'm not being condescending or sarcastic, just simply asking a question.
  11. SikVvVidiT

    I have tried to get 5 people to play this game, all of them are gamers. Two friends at work, my Brother and sister, and my girlfriend. Four of them tried to for a few days and suddenly were not around anymore. They all had the same reason of why they quit playing, "It's ok but what's the point?"

    And they are right, this version of Planetside really has no point. The first one really didn't either compared to most MMORPGS. But still there was a ton of stuff you could do in that game other then shooting and killing people. It was more tatical more challenging required more use of that brain matter upstairs. It also was more of a time sink and actually felt more like a war instead of a COD deathmatch map.

    I have given up on thinking Planetside 2 is anything long term for me like Planetside 1 was. Instead I look at this game for what it is. It is a filler game a Call of Duty if you will. Something to fire up when your inbetween games you really want to play. And as soon as some of these other games release later this year (WILDSTAR!!! Trust me its awesome) I will be shelving my Filler game.
    • Up x 2
  12. LT_Latency


    I never played that one but i assume it's not really meaningful at some time it will get unlocked just like any piece of land.
  13. Jkar

    It would be nice to have the warp gates actually work and connect continents so that you have to push through them into enemy territory instead of just sitting on your preferred continent all day and everything else is dead, but that's just for long term gameplay and currently not really possible with only three continents.

    However small things that can influence a battle like objectives that don't require you to slaughter everyone and push them back into the spawn room to farm them but rather things that force the enemy to deal with you like the LLU system would make things a lot more interesting. Having to hack doors and shields to get your team inside a base. Also some automated defenses and more beneficial things around bases like ammo and repair stations that you can take over to make the fight easier for you or harder for your enemies would be a good start.

    I'd also rather have a meaningful character specialization and a decent inventory system where you can decide what you carry around with you. I hate classes with a passion, I'm always unsatisfied with something on them. Be it lack of meaningful hackable targets and no C4 for infiltrators or just simple things like not being able to carry a weapon of choice and not just class specific ones.
  14. Sen7rygun

    I'm highly interested in hearing exactly what your version of "meta game" is beyond the land grab. Even after they revamp the resource system, add ANT's or whatever they're going to be called and overhaul every other aspect of gameplay the main objective of the game will still be to kill the enemy and capture their land.

    Do you feel better about moving from A to B via C, D and E? Do you feel that we should all have to jump more hoops in order to achieve what we're already doing now? Do you not spend time watching the map, assessing enemy movements, looking at your own teams movements and coming up with battle strategies for the coming hours or alerts?

    I think that even now this game has got plenty of depth to it, but people can't see the forest for the trees. When you and your outfit respond to an emergency call for reinforcements and wind up heavily dug into a base fighting off superior enemy numbers for what seems like (or sometimes IS) hours while squad and platoon leaders are frantically relaying information back and forward over leader comms channels searching for a tactical solution to the enemy surge, that IS meta game. When you manage to hold out through that tooth and claw battle till the enemy is routed or forced to retreat its because somewhere out there, kilometers away where you can't see, there are players just like you fighting a battle that has a real and tangible effect on what you are doing whether you know it or not.

    I would argue that if all you get from this game right now is killing bad guys and grinding certs then no amount of additional game content or structure is going to make you feel any better about it. The heart and soul of this game is and always will be, combat between opposing teams of players. If people are looking for a resource management simulator they will go and play Sim City or whatever else. There is only so far they can really complicate the gameplay before playing it becomes a chore and people will get bored or frustrated with it.

    Not to say that I'm not interested in upcoming changes to the game but in order for this game to survive there needs to be a level of simplicity that the casual player can understand and get into and feel excited by. Of course there will be several diehard PS1 vets right behind me telling me I'm wrong etc but at the end of the day the dollar rules, this game isn't being provided as a free public service and should its financial viability fall below certain key performance targets it will be scrapped. As much as all the vets here hate it, over convoluted gameplay doesn't bring people in, it scares them away.

    I think there are far more pressing concerns that needs addressing before the "meta game" situation. There are tasks to perform in this game that are extremely time consuming and totally unrewarding at the same time.

    The experience system needs an overhaul. Things like leading a platoon beyond simple zerg herding with a single waypoint, manning the weapon mounts in certain vehicles like Liberator tail gunner, Sunderer weapon mounts in AMS mode, being a secondary gunner in a tank thats using an anti-air secondary but engaging in medium to long range tank v tank combat etc. I think gunners in vehicles should be getting partial exp for kills the same way divers get partial exp for gunner kills. How often realistically do you see a fully crewed liberator wreaking havoc on the battlefield?

    Who's looking forward to the glamorous, exciting and probably exceptionally unrewarding job of driving a truck full of resources to a base under attack from the enemy while every hostile trooper and his dog uses you as target practice with their tanks, jets, turrets and ESL's?
    • Up x 3
  15. LordMondando

    Yeap a lot of the wealth of pre-existing 'metagame' comes from emergent gameplay coming from playing in an outfits and outfits interacting with each other.

    A lot of people are blind and deaf to that however.

    A lot of it comes down to the PS1 crowd, just being really jaded as the game didn't start with more continents, gens, ants and so on. In effect that PS2 prehaps was a bit rushed to market, but that it was not also a carbon copy of PS1.

    At the same time, giving the game even more objectivs and systems to inteact with and progression of taking maps, really can't hurt.

    I for one, am actually looking forward to the logistics system and have for months now been a advocate of it, because its more than simply space road truckers. As with PS1, driving the ants was to quote my good friend the dukeofbreakfast "busy at times boring work." however, the system build around that (and I contest running blockades or ambushes is at times going to be far from boring) actually gives the resource system on a large scale a proper context and effect on the gameplay. Battles and bases will not have to also be concerned with how safe the territory around them is in order to effectively fight.

    Its also going to give smaller outfits something to do (ambush/run logistics through blockades) and might even revolutionize the airgame play away from lolpodding the edges of large battles and random people running around and fighting each other, whilst of course running like mad away from any AA. To actually trying to keep enemy air away from logistics routes or attacking said routes, across the entire map.

    Its also a head and shoulders, night and day, improvement over the arbitary you have x territory, get y resources every tick k thx bai, despite the fact that how many maxes, vehicles and aircraft an empire can field is hugely important to their success.
  16. LordMondando

    TL;DR The argument for Metagame has been one. 3 Systems are in development that will significantly improve its depth. These will be in play if not before, by the start of 2014.
  17. Cromell

    I find PS2 to be a lot of fun anyway, even without meta game.

    When I first heard of PS2, it was presented to me as "endless and massive three-way TDM". That's what I signed for and that's what I like about it.

    Some days, I hate PS2, when my empire is loosing at every base, and we're outnumbered, etc, etc. But then are days when everything WORKS, like it should be, I pull a tank, and there are people that want to help me and keep it alive. There were times when I was the only MBT driver around, and with help of few lightining we held off a huge NC push... thanks to those awesome engies that helped us until reinforcements have arrived. Or when I pull my AA MAX or skyguard and fend off enemy ESFs to help my team. I also like that I can be an asset to the team even if I have a terrible day for combat, so I pull my engie or medic.

    And then there are awesome people that sacrifice their time to set up a platoon and lead it properly and when I join them I literally see how we make a difference on the battlefield. It really doesn't matter that there's no "ultimate point". It's the satisfaction that I outplayed somebody, or that I helped my squad push back enemy attack, or that I managed to do a neat killstreak; that's what drives me and makes me play the game.

    The fact that the game is beeing constantly improved and the amount of content is expanding is also a nice thing; even when I finally move on to other games (and it's only natural - players come and go, and it will be like this in every game) I'll be sure to drop by to check out the new stuff.

    I spent way too much money on this game and I actually do not regret a single penny. I've had lost of fun here and I'm sure that I'll have tons more.
  18. PWGuy93

    With respect

    The meta game is a mess. Sorry devs, not trying to downplay your good work but to me the meta game is a visual and functional mess, like a boys room with too many toys under the bed and a layer of socks hiding the cheese sandwich from a month ago. It's not that the meta game doesn't exist, it's just hard to conceptualize, hard to visualize, hard to understand looking at the maps and the dotted or solid lines. Simply put, it's not user friendly.

    Yes it all can be understood, given time, given a the willingness to keep the map open and zoom in or out to visualize activity on a map. The map and how it displays or doesn't display information in a quick glance are the socks covering the toys. The dotted lines are the cheese sandwich, tasty when first created but now just covered in mold and hard to recognize. Again I am not trying to upset any devs are artists who put hours into making this, just pointing out that from my view it needs some UI help to assist players to quickly understand what is happening.

    Take for example looking at the map, the circles on a base that look like infiltrator dart radar on the map. That is a visual queue, it quickly helps players to see that there is activity on a section of the map. Hovering the mouse over that base players can see estimated number of enemies or friendlies. The lightning in a circle icon shows that a shield generator needs repair. Then look at the lines and dotted lines, these mean connections but why don't they always have connections? If your just entering the game and want to teleport to the action to check things out before committing to a squad you look at the little green almost circles and see a teleport available. Yet the connection lines don't always make a direct connection, often players will need to teleport hop getting closer to where they want to go, but the connected or dotted lines go all the way to the players goal. Sometimes the lines don't go to the objective but there's a teleport icon... This UI information feels inaccurate, like there's a missing Roseta stone on how a player should read it.

    I could list out suggestions on what might make it more user appealing but I think I've made the point. Meta game from my view needs some UI work that will help players quickly understand what is happening, how they can get there or which location is best suited for them to help. Today while the information is mostly there, it's not easily understood, is easier to look past and just jump into the action and let someone else deal with it.
    • Up x 1
  19. Obscura

    First off I'd like to say I'm in a very organized tight knit outfit that I've been playing with since the beginning of beta, and they have a rich history dating back to PS1 with our outfit leaders Squad Primer being featured on the SOE site back in PS1's heyday.


    This is what keeps my interest in PS2 going actually. Coming up with new tactics and playing with an organized outfit is the most entertaining part of the game for me, but I would like to feel like that our efforts and careful planning to overcome overwhelming odds is worth something in the end. Whether thats in the form of continent locking or something else
  20. LordMondando

    I'm glad your enjoying it, but its not TDM, why? TDM doesn't have objectives.
    • Up x 1