10 major problems with the game right now

#1. Hard to find decent fights + dwindling population/pop imbalances. Too often it's just spawn camping, for your team or the other, and sitting at a spawn camped base or getting repeatedly gibbed trying to escape a spawn cap are both pointless and boring. I list this as the #1 problem, but it's really a result of many other problems. The symptom not the disease kind of a deal.

#2. Lack of ...atmosphere. The game is just ugly and dull and it wears on you. Aesthetics matter and we've still got a lot of awful looking gear, awful looking bases, and the only continent most of the action happens on anymore is quite bland when it comes to terrain. I am not talking graphic fidelity as I'm fine with the graphic level, but visual design overall is very weak.

#3. Base design sucks period. Spawn exits in easily camped/spammed locations, spawn rooms with no way to clear liberators just camping above them. Turrets placed in locations that make them practically useless with limited angles. Cover around spawn rooms that gives offense a nicer place to camp the spawn rather than doing anything for the defenders. Etc. etc.

#4. Gunplay. Nanoweave is stupid, and ruins gun balance. Extra bullets to kill does not equally affect all weapons and this is very obvious and really makes many already weak weapons even more hopeless against anyone wearing nano as the usually should be. Longer range automatics also mostly suck in most situations and TTK on them is too high to kill anything once damage drop-off kicks in, plus most bases don't facilitate this style of combat very well and/or vehicles/air shut down outdoor infantry too hard.

#5. NC is the best faction and I'm just sick of dealing with it and crossing my fingers something will change, and I'm not going to roll NC. Best MAX weapons easily(dual shotguns were a stupid idea to put on MAXes - from a balance perspective) and their AI guns double as anti-MAX with no major downside like Pounders/Comets, Pheonix spam is utter nonsense and shouldn't be in the game, the Jackhammer is clearly an overpowered shotgun, they have the best SMGs, the best mid+ range guns in every category. They got the only decent ESSR. They get all the fun stuff and most of the "Wow that is BS" weapons.

#6. Resources. The revamp needed to happen sooner, and at this point I'm not expecting much from whatever they'll eventually come up with. This affects the spam of everything in the game and it means serious rebalancing will be needed if they ever do bother with the revamp. It's getting to the point that it's going to be too late.

#7. Liberators. Out of the blue a buff to their survivability for no perceivable reason, and currently they mostly just ruin good fights by easily destroying everything in their path if there's no air opposition to them. Ground AA is terrible against them and Skyguards in particular are just cert pinatas. Their weapons are too good against all targets, and they're more ridiculous KD farming tools than MAXes or tanks which says a lot.

#8. MAXes. I know as well as anyone these are unhealthy to the infantry game. They are nothing but KD farming tools of the easiest kind to use. Can't fly? Suck at tanking? You can lumber around farming infantry with this easy suit instead. Put enough of them in the same area and infantry has no hope of dealing with them without spamming their own MAXes, and good luck with that if you're against NC.

#9. Community decline. This is a more subjective observation, but I feel like there's more hostility/childish bad sportsmanship and less comraderie than there used to be. When the people you're playing with and against aren't enjoyable to be around, that definitely puts a damper on the experience.

#10. Lack of clear direction/Confusing updates. This may be a bit vague, but the lack of confidence in their ability to improve the game. We've had a lot of very bad updates, things that the community overall was not supportive of like implants and the liberator buff, and that big performance update's improvements have been slowly chipped away at while long overdue improvements and additions are nowhere to be seen. We're still using copy/pasted gun models for most of our weapons that were supposed to be placeholders, while new weapons get much better models. The roadmap is also a joke at this point.

Honorable mention: Certs and stats. Players are simply not rewarded for objective play, and farming is the most rewarded. KD is tracked when it really shouldn't be and discourages objective play further.



I feel like this game has a lot of potential so it's kind of painful watching it die. Unless SOE pulls a hail mary save sometime soon I doubt the game will be around in a reasonably playable state much longer, but I don't expect it. We'll see if Hossin goes better than the Amerish redesign I suppose. One continent with good base design and a better aesthetic than Indar might at least extend the life of the game.

Last, a question: What else should I play? I am bored and the only reason I was playing PS2 as long as I did was how completely out of other games to play I am. I've just been dinking around in minecraft when PS2 is dead during off peak hours.

Cheers.

I can agree with #1, 3, 4, 7, and 10.

I don't expect everyone to agree with all of them and I assume #5 will be the most controversial, but please go into why you disagree with those you don't.

#5 - So you really think the Vanguard is good at something now? Reaver is a little better now than it's been previously, but its so short range with all weapons, and so big at the same time that its hardly worth watering your mouth over.

Agreed.

I would only add that
VS faction traits should be reworked
Cloak needs to be buffed now that there are a plethora of counters
I kind of see HA as you see the Lib/Max issue, be all end all class. Spammable rockets that don't cost resources (lol), Master of AI and AV at same time (should have to pick one specialization in your current loadout), and shields that should only be effected by either explosives or small arms, not both at same time.

2) I find the atmosphere in the game to be reasonably well developed. It's bloody difficult to have new and interesting terrain formations everywhere in a 64 square km map. I do wish there was more variation in structure types, although the newest work from the mapping team (i.e. Amerish) does a great job to create this feel. I do agree that Indar terrain between bases is particularly uninteresting, and would add more rocks and trees to the SW gate area and more doodads such as abandoned or submerged bases, fossil structures, etc. to the northern desert. Not high priority for me though.

5) Regarding MAX shotguns, a significant balancing feature is their ridiculously low damage per mag and firing uptime compared to the machine gun alternatives. Sure, you can toast the first 2-3 infantry or 1 max that walks through your doorway, but then you need to spend twice as long reloading as you were firing. If the enemy makes a coordinated push, having sustained firepower is incredibly important to repel them. I do agree that NC has a lot of the "fun" weapons, but neither the Phoenix nor Railjack are particularly useful in general circumstances, and the Jackhammer, while effective, doesn't do anything that the Baron or Pump-Actions don't - it merely offers versatility. One point I am willing to concede is that NC have unmatched long-range infantry weapons in the SAW and DMR. These weapons do kind of suck at short range, where all the fighting over control points actually takes place, however.

6) The current resource system works reasonably well to prevent chain-spamming vehicles and MAXes. Is it perfect? No. Does it prevent members from doing this? No. But it does cut down on the ridiculous potential of vehicles and MAXes to dominate the battlefield. It could definitely use a revamp, but it isn't top priority.

8) There would be no way to break indoor defenses without obscene pop advantage (2.5-3x) were it not for MAXes. They are a necessary evil. And while I find it distasteful that players use them to farm etc. instead of actually using them to break sieges and *gasp* risk dying in the process, if they weren't in the game it would be impossible to take a base from entrenched defenders without a zerg.

9) People are leaving. I don't think there's a disproportionate number of jerks either leaving or staying behind. It's just that you notice more when your friends and friendly nemesis disappears instead of Joe Jerkwad.

Hit detect....11th and number 1 issue with the game.

Paired up with the pointlessness in the game and a cause as to why the playerbase is declining and getting worse. People get tired of it. Then to compensate they get cheats. PLus the players who are coming in to replace them are little kiddies who heard about it from other kids at school, online...facebook....and they are dumbasses anyway. So yeah, games pretty much all do that. Good community to start, overtime it degrades. However, most times games get better with time, PS2 is turning into a PoS overtime....

As for NWA, I would honestly be curious to see how this game would play for a week if there was no NWA. I know BR1s who have none are easy to kill. Seems NWA paired with horrific hit detect really makes people invulnerable.

Vanguard has its strengths although overall I'd agree it's the weakest link in the NC's arsenal after the shield nerf. It's the worst stock tank and the worst solo tank, no doubt.

However, it's still probably the strongest tank vs. tank when fully decked out and 2/2. I wouldn't trade the Prowler or Magrider for it overall but it's still good at something even if it's not versatile.

It's also the strongest tank against air I'd say, the main cannon is great for sniping ESF and you get to use the shield to occasionally survive getting bombed from above where a mag or prowler would be completely doomed.

Basic rule, Whichever faction you play as you will always perceive as underpowered.

Come play NC for a while, see how long before you start thinking all our gear is underpowered.

Not one of these issues you have with the game are a problem to me.

Infact a majority of these can be solved by yourself.

Joining a good outfit means you get access to teamwork and you open yourself up to work together as a team.

Dislike being farmed by liberators? Join an outfit that does air on a regular basis, and clear friendly airspace with fellow pilots.
Dislike base design? Grab a repair sunderer and some MBT's with your team. You can plonk that down anywhere on a good fight. Make AA or AV nests on good high ground territory. Farm dudes by joining even fights .

How can you complain about the community decline when you don't even participate in it or only come here to post about negative things?

#1 is destroying the game for me. I get so tired of looking for fights that I usually just end up suiciding into a bunch of camps to have some fun. I can't stand having a pop advantage and I love playing infantry so it's becoming increasingly rare to find something I want to do. Either spawn and be hopelessly outnumbered, spawn at some long ranged fight or spawn and get spammed by vehicles. Every day it seems like fewer and fewer battles are taking place.

I feel this during much of my play time. Hard to find fights that aren't one sided zergs and I hate being on either side of a zerg would prefer sustained battles that move the map back or forth.

Wouldn't say they all suck, they morphed over time, some that needed small tweeks like Quartz Ridge are no longer enjoyable, others that sucked have some incentive spawn room exits but those aren't all perfect e.g. when Clegg showed a picture of intended changes for Quartz Ridge it showed a couple of boulders to allow some Sunderer deployment, that was perfect it didn't need much more than a foot hold change, but the end result was huge tubes and walls which now makes the base not only butt ugly, lacks any plausible purpose (I mean big tubes do what exactly) but took the joy out of both defending and taking the base. This was one base that required me to play every class available, it was fun, not so now.

Overall base redesign from my view is simply overkill, too much when most just needed little additions like the large boulders outside to provide a foothold.

Netcode or hit detection, something broke and deaths happen without seeing the animation, characters die to inferior aim. Perhaps by design but it's not a design concept I support.

Resources need to happen but not piecemeal. All the components that will overtime make the resource revamp work should come out together, as a whole and not staggered one piece out at a time.

Overall balance from my view is near perfect with the exception of the Liberator. It laughs off damage and gives damage from my view more than it should and could use slight tweeks to make them more vulnerable and less powerful.

TK's are rampant, better than though - do as I say attitudes are rearing their ugly head more frequently. Personal view on this is that players are frustrated with the game for a variety of reasons.

Piece meal updates. Instead of holding all the components that should go hand in hand we're getting pieces or components that negatively impact play in some form. Think about Hossin, they're going to ship it without the Interlinks or the battle islands... Ugh!
My suggestion - again - hold these back, think in terms of an expansion pack, get all the pieces working, save em up and ship them together.

As i have said in the past. SOE's best option currently in order to retain player interest. Garner new player support, and rebuild trust with existing and previous user base needs to take this game offline for a few and rework the CORE MECHANICS. They completely removed them when this game was released and we are now stuck with a watered down combination of COD/BF, and SOE is desperately (all in futility) trying to "fix" this game via piece meal. Which won't work because this game is in fact complex.

It's like trying to change tires on a car while it's driving on the highway

• New Weapons WON'T FIX THIS GAME
• New Continents WON'T FIX THIS GAME
• New Camo WON'T FIX THIS GAME
• New Decals WON'T FIX THIS GAME
• New Events WON'T FIX THIS GAME

Reworked Core Mechanics WILL FIX THIS GAME

I apologize for sounding like a *******, but i am willing to seem like one to get my point across to the devs. Most of which are on Reddit (???)

This game needs to be taken offline for a few months while the CORE gameplay is reworked. But we all know that won't happen, not with PS4 release right around the corner.

#1 - hard to find decent fights. Well what I do is gather my squad and go to a continent with less population. I start at the warp gate and slowly start capping territories. Eventually the enemy takes notice and a decent fight is formed. It usually doesn't take that long and this is not an instant gratification game.

#2 - Atmosphere - I disagree, I think it looks fine.

#3 - Base design - I agree with this and think they should have made them more like PS1 bases.

#4 - Gunplay - this is a two part answer. Gunplay is good, Nanoweave sucks. That makes better sense.

#5 - NC is the best faction - Totally disagree I played NC to level 46 and switched to Vanu because some friends play there. I was made at the switch and now I think NC is one of the worst factions. And only worse by a fraction. I play all three factions now and all of them have strengths and weakness that I absolutely love. But regardless, I do very well with all factions so that to me says the game is balanced no matter what the numbers show.

#6 - Resources - I think it is too easy to get resources currently.

#7 - Liberators - I disagree with you. They can feel OP if your faction doesn't counter them property. Pull your squad back and have everyone go anti air. This will deal with anything that flies allowing your team to take the ground forces. This is a game of tactics. And I don't like or fly liberators.

#8 - Maxes - I disagree with you here also. Put enough maxes on the ground and you have a team working together using one type of tactic. I find them easy enough to kill.

#9 - Community - I don't play with randoms so I don't know. But this is a problem in all games.

#10 - Updates - I think they are doing well with updates.

Conclusion - I think this game is not something you are looking for. You come off sounding like you want and instant action infantry game like COD or Battlefield. That's fine if that is what you want. But for PS2 you need to look at the BIG picture when battles are going on. If its a liberator bothering you, group up and stop it. If its maxes, counter them. Don't just expect the game to be a perfect infantry only battle. This is a large scale war game and everything has a weakness. I suggest you change the way you look at the game and play it for what it is, and not what it isn't.

I knew there would be an NC QQ section in this paperlamp thread.

Agree with most of it, to a point. Also dont understand why nanoweave is in the game, just seems like a lazy way to balance out damage.

All this coming from a player who spends almost all their time in a MAX suit with over 2k kills each with Pounders and is part of an outfit known for camping any NC warp gate with bursters and lock-on spam since well before the Helios->Genudine/Helios->Connery merger.

So the NS Baron wasn't enough to stop Jackhammer complaints I see, even though it is extremely similar. Most NC that I have seen talk about it (including myself) don't use burst fire anyways on it the majority of the time. It has access to slugs but lacks the mag size of the jackhammer. Same spread, less damage per pellet but an extra pellet to compensate. I don't feel like getting in a debate about all of this right now so I'm gonna skip some of this and go straight to you talking about our max shotguns doubling as anti-max. You mean how pounders double as AI? Because they seriously do. Pounders are extremely deadly against infantry AND maxes, yet I'm not here calling for a nerf of them. How you feel about our shotguns I feel about them. Want to know the major downsides of max shotguns? Range. It doesn't exist with them unless you use slugs. I just wish they'd make NS shotguns and NS machine gun weapons for maxes to end all of this crying about they have that and we don't!

My list:

1. Bad hit detecion and lag create inconsistant gameplay.
2. A plethora of bugs that dont get fixed. Some of the bugs are in the game since launch!
3. Indarside. Only Indar has big fights nowadays because of low server pop. Fighting on the same map all the time is boring.
4. Lack of content. New weapons are nice, but there is still only a single goal in the game: Kill other players. What about the announced NPC enemies, resource collection, player built bases and player made missions? Hossin and continent locking also take way too long, people are alreadi leaving the game because they are bored with Indarside.
5. Libs - They ruin most small fights and when people pull skyguards and burster MAXes they move to the next small fight.