So I finally played Planetside 1

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by orangejedi829, Jun 18, 2016.

  1. orangejedi829

    And it was terrible.
    Seriously. The idea of being more MMO-like was cool, but the implementation was just... well, it was not fun at all. I spent 98% of the time walking, and the other 2% of the time struggling with the controls and interface before dying and having to wait 60 seconds for the privilege of going on a super long walk again. The shooting felt like firing a BB gun, and the hit feedback was nonexistent. I get that it's an old game. But even today you get some people saying that Planetside 1 is still so much better than Planetside 2. Well, I'm afraid these folks have some serious rose-colored glasses on. Planetside 2 isn't so bad. It might not be as ambitious as its predecessor, but it's so much more fun to play in the moment, which is what counts.
    • Up x 5
  2. Kubor

    People that play Planetside 1 now in 2016 are pretty much like the people that play Half-Life for the first time and wonder what all the fuss is about.

    Planetside (like Half-Life) is a 'you had to be there' game. It was amazing for its time and made a lasting impression on people when it first came out. Nobody wants to play Planetside as it is now - a 13 year old game with ancient graphics and clunky gunplay. Nobody played it for the looks and less than stellar shooting, even when it was new. Planetside had a depth that was way ahead of its time. Planetside 2 has the fancy looks and modern gunplay but it is not the Planetside that people fondly remember.
    • Up x 7
  3. Pikachu

    I remember how impressive it was to see the shotgun reload animation. :D Or the lifting robot you seen while in the train with it's piston legs moving.
  4. Taemien


    PS1 has some.. interesting ideas. And I can appreciate that it existed and paved the way for its sequel.

    Beyond that.. it cannot ever hope to stand on its own. Some mechanics are simply bad, and PS1 is riddled with them. Sorry to say.. but it was probably bad when it was current. I mean EQ1 has its issues, but its still tolerable. Its gets a pass for its limitations just like a NES Mario game. But that is also why its had 3 new servers in the last year added, while PS1 is being shut down.

    I still recommend people give it a go however. It will be shut down in less than 2 weeks. It gives players a bit of perspective and one last chance to at least see what it had to offer. But I will say this.. don't get your hopes up.
  5. FieldMarshall

    I dont recommend people "try out" PS1 in 2016.
    The gunplay was very basic, and had some of the same problems PS2 has with ping.
    (it also had terrible rubberbanding, leading to ADAD spam).
    But going into the game now, you will get the wrong impression. Its not as super awesomely godly good as most people make it out to be, but it was certainly not as abyssmally bad as it is nowdays.

    Like PS2, the gameplay and mechanics are less shallow than they appear.
    Which also suffers from new players thinking they know the basics but still only scratched the surface. (Leading to frustration)
    For example, most people cert mossy/wasp (etc) for transport, even surge for indoors. You shouldnt have to walk around even 20% of the time.
    And what about interlinks and 3rd person corner camping.
    Anyway. To a new player the whole explerience is going to be frustrating and bad unless you know what to do in every situation.

    Not only that, but the game itself is dead. There is no way anyone can get a good impression of what PS1 was like nowdays.
    Its like trying Team Fortress 2 for the first time, except there is like 1-2 guys still playing it.

    If anyone wants to "try" PS1, i suggest looking at the things that would have been pretty cool to have in PS2 instead:
    Like weapons that holster on your back/hip. The huge selection of voicelines, fitting any situation/response possible.
    The enter/exit vehicle animations. The large selection of (pretty weak to be honest, but fun) deployables. The coffee room.
    Matrixing. MBTs that require a gunner (personal opinion). Lootable enemies. Empire spesific MAX AA.
    The (limitedly) customizable HUD. Weather effects, rain/snow. Places with water and vehicles that can move on water.
    Displayable merits (directives) on your shoulderpatch. The darklight implant. Outfit points. Etc. Etc.

    Again, dont try PS1 if you want to see "what it was like". Cause its not possible.
    • Up x 6
  6. badname123

    It was good then. it's in the past now. You should not play it now. it will feel clunky and bad.

    Still PS2 gave up things from ps1 it shouldnt have. and i dont mean the clunkiness. It had more depth thats for sure.

    Do you ever get the feeling battles in PS2 are meaningless?
  7. Kubor


    If there is a Planetside 2 server still running in 2025 - which is highly doubtful given how rapidly the PS2 player base has shrunk in the last 2 years - people will probably be saying the same kind of things about Planetside 2. In 2003 most people still had dial-up internet. The GeForce 4 was king of the hill. There were no such things as Youtube and Twitch. Planetside launched to next to no publicity. The social media juggernauts were still no more than vague ideas in clever minds.

    Planetside is from a different time. Our expectations as gamers are much different now. There is no denying that Planetside was a revolutionary game and had a lot of things in it that would still be enjoyable today. It's a shame that SOE picked a modern gamer like Higby to steer the Planetside ship. He was more interested in e-sports, kill-streaks, and all the willy-waving stats that accompany modern shooters. The importance of community, togetherness, teamwork and objectives was replaced by the importance of score and individual recognition. Selfish advancement replaced the need for Empire territorial progression.

    Planetside 2 is a shallow fustercluck of giant TDM encounters. Planetside had CoF restrictions and penalties that discouraged solo play and pretty much forced teamwork on people. That's why you will hear people describing PS1 as a much deeper and rewarding experience. When I played PS1 I only ever played as TR unless I played on the Test Server. When I play PS2 I don't care which Empire I play and half the time I can't even remember which character I'm on anyway.
    • Up x 6
  8. Taemien



    Planetside 1 got popular because it rode on the coattails of Everquest. That and it was shiny and new and did things shooters hadn't tried before. Any great game will stand on its own throughout its lifetime. Everquest 1 had THREE servers added last year. Planetside 1 is shutting down.

    PS2 has had the benefit of increasing its population by 50% from the construction update. Its also done something I haven't seen many MMOs do. It's held my attention for the last 4 years. I don't play it every day. But I have played it off an on for the last four years. No other MMO has done that.

    I personally think it will last longer than PS1 did. The only thing that can kill it is a PS3. Or another similar franchise if someone is bold enough to make one.
  9. TeknoBug

    PS1 had a lot of depth, it wasn't just about pointing and shooting at enemies, it had a lot more going on and PS2's construction patch is showing a bit of that. I loved the combat engineer cert tree, soooooo many toys and so many ways to kill someone from them.

    It would have been much more popular if it had the free2play model that PS2 has, not everyone was into paying $14/mo for one game especially Planetside, I played it from late 2002 to about 2008ish but I was more occuped with Star Wars Galaxies back in the days before SOE laid down the NGE.
  10. Nie_Tutaj

    I played planetside 1 in 2013, and I thought the same way you did. I did manage to get into a few fights that were fun though. I had no clue how to get a vehicle nor how to pick a continent. The UI was clunky, but the gameplay as a soldier wasn't so bad. I managed to get into a friendly Sunderer, and I loved the animations for it. Then I looked up the animations for other things, such as getting into the BFR, and I was astounded at the detail level in such an old game. If they could bring that back, and make it a bit more fluid, a lot of people would play this game for the experience it gives. for example, adding an entry animation to tank turrets so you can see yourself jumping in and starting to mow down enemy troops, providing support for the team.
  11. Vamperial


    Fun to play is highly subjective. You may find it fun to grind certs and buy weapons that feel slightly different than other weapons. I don't. You might find it fun to redeploy, redeploy, redeploy. I don't. Your experience with Planetside now was bad because it's old. It's not user friendly. It's got an odd way of doing things.

    Lets compare content content pound for pound.

    Places to fight.

    Planstside: 7 conts. 6 caves.
    Planetside 2: 4 conts that are smaller than PS1 conts and a newbie island.

    Weapons
    PS1: 18 - 20 weapons. Each unique in their roles with a cert system that allowed total customization and an inventory system that allowed you to loot ES weapons from the enemy.
    PS2: Class system with 100s of weapons that feel nearly the same for each class. No inventory. No way to loot bodies.

    Vehicals
    PS1 2 NS light vehicles, 3 ES light vehicles, 1 NS light tank, 3 medium tanks that take 2+ players to run, ES BFRs 2+players to run, 2 troop transports + ES variants.

    PS2 1 light vehicle, 1 light tank, 3 ES tanks.

    Air
    PS1 Mosq, Rever, Lib, Gal, Loadstar. All fill different roles.

    PS2 Mosq TR, Scyth VS, Reaver NC, Lib, Gal, Valk. Probably the only category that PS2 wins out on in terms of content.

    Strategic game play:

    PS1 Lattice lanes that can be cut by gen holds or other special operations that can determine fight outcomes in a unique way. Depth that allows a faction to work together for a common goal. A fight on continent can be determined by actions on another continent that has a link. Continents can be unlocked by draining and holding a base allowing any continent to become a fight zone at any time.

    PS2: Alerts to gain certs. VPs to gain certs or lock a cont. 2 conts open at 1 time with no way of accessing the other 2. Lattice lanes that cannot be broken by back line SpecOps like a gen hold or other such strategic team play.

    There is some depth to PS2 but not as much as their should be. Redeploy side allows a large group of players to drop on a linked strategic base only to eat **** within a few minutes done specifically to divert attention from the real objective. Again, you might find that fun but compared to what we were allowed to do in PS1, it sucks.

    Maybe these difference don't mean much to most Planetside 2 players but to me it makes all the difference.
    • Up x 5
  12. Metalsheep

    For PS1 air vehicles you forgot the Wasp, Vulture, Phantasm and Galaxy Gunship.

    PS1 only died due to sheer neglect by SoE/DBG. Not because of older mechanics and design. Their failure to police the rampant pull hacking, as well as allowing all the bugs to persist after the free to play transfer is what lead it to that state.

    Tons of people tried to go back to PS1, but when 1 pull hacker can wipe a continent and not be banned, people leave.

    I will keep playing PS1 until its shutdown date. Because even to this day, with only 100 or so players. I still find PS1 way more fun than PS2 and I'd gladly pay $15 a month for it.. The only one to blame for Planetside 1's decline is SOE/DBG.
    • Up x 3
  13. Crayv

    I played Planetside 1 for the first time last year and I understood what made it great despite its flaws. I also tried Half Life for the first time that year as well and didn't really see what the big deal was. Another thing to note was I tried the original Deus Ex a couple years earlier and think it aged WAY better.
  14. MuNrOe

    Yes complexity in FPS games doesn't cater to the stupid.
  15. FriendlyPS4

    Holy Fballs those last two sentences hit home. PS2 its whatever. But in PS1 we were damn near mental about Empire loyalty.

    This is coming from a guy who does not play well with others. But in PS1 not only did I have to play well with others. I corralled other players who were prone to solo like me. I would be like look, play your game but if you EVER need me. Give me a holler. I'm there.

    Do that enough times. You go from one player, to a squad, to a platoon that has your back. # nostalgia
    • Up x 1
  16. Keiichi25

    Thing is, back in the the day... Planetside was innovative compared to all the FPS games out there. No where could you pull off massive fights with vehicles.

    The game was also designed to force cooperative play. In comparison, the flight mechanics was MUCH simpler than what it is in Planetside 2.

    The game was also aimed at Casuals, so nothing in the game was 'instant death'. And unlike Planetside 2, you didn't have 'classes'. You played as a soldier. You kitted yourself out for the combat choice you want, but you couldn't be a heavy in a tank, you had to be wearing either Infiltrator, Standard or Agile armor, which means you aren't as well kitted out as a heavy. You couldn't fly a reaver or a mosquito, lib or galaxy as a heavy either, but you could air drop 2 MAX armors onto a base from a Galaxy or an Harasser, Lightning or Ant from a Galaxy.

    Planetside had much more epic battles before Battlefield came out and that 'run' would have been mitigated if people did what they do in Planetside 2, bring an AMS and deployed it near the objective and protected it.

    Planetside 2, as it is right now, is a mixture of what Battlefield/CoD gaming is, with what Planetside pushed for that we have yet to see decently with other games... Large Continents with a faster game aspect.

    Also, don't forget, not many people are playing Planetside now in comparison to Planetside 2. If anything, what you are seeing in Planetside is basically fighting on one of the continents in Planetside 2 where there is only 1-12 indicators all over the map. And unlike Planetside 2, Planetside has 8 Continents, 1 battle island type continent and 9 cavern like places, which spreads out the combat even more than Planetside 2 with a much smaller population playing.
    • Up x 1
  17. Sil4ntChaozz

    Pull hacking?
  18. Metalsheep



    A "Pull Hack" uses Planetside 1's netcode and clientside hit detection to perform a hack where the Hacker is usually in a remote location, sometimes above flight ceiling in the skybox. The hack "pulls" ALL enemy players to a coordinate designated by the hack. So on your screen, due to clientside, you are still doing whatever you were doing, wherever you were doing it. While on his screen EVERYONE is standing in 1 spot directly infront of him. The hacker then kills them. And you die, because clientside told the server that he killed you on his screen.

    Like I said, pull hacking pulls EVERYONE on continent or in a wide area to that spot. And he can kill you without retaliation. Using Rate of Fire or Infinite ammo hacks, he can wipe the other 2 empires in seconds. If you use an Anti-Vehicle MAX, he can even kill all players who are driving vehicles.

    This is an extremely popular hack in PS1 and it completely ruins and shuts down any fighting on an entire continent.

    At about 13 seconds in, this video shows what a Pull Hack is. You can see how it would ruin everything for everyone else.

  19. Sil4ntChaozz

    Appreciate the explanation. That really sucks for anyone that doesn't use i. And the devs never addressed this?
  20. Metalsheep

    No. It was never addressed. But im not sure there was anything they could do to really limit it aside from making the game Pay to Play again.

    When PS1 was pay to play, it naturally filtered out most hackers. It wasnt worth wasting the $15 to just get banned. But once the game went Free to Play SOE just took all hands off it and stopped policing, fixing or updating anything.

    It was already tough before because the game didnt always have a GM online that could speedily ban the hacker, so sometimes you'd have to deal with him a while before he was banned. But at least it was SOMETHING.

    PS1 is notoriously easy to hack, and really easy to hide the hacks from its rather poor anti-hack. So the only thing to do is to have GMs intervene. But that doesn't happen anymore at all. When they organize these events, its usually because they talked a GM into being online to keep hackers out for a few hours. Otherwise the events would go up in smoke too, like the rest of the time.