ESCALATED in wrong direction

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by IVANPIDORVAN, Feb 7, 2020.

  1. IVANPIDORVAN

    All we need is just a bunch of new content to break stale gameplay, new locations, some balance tweaks and old stuff overhauled\reworked, like aurax weapons. But what is coming next patch is just another big avanture like planetside arena. Instead of giving us new map, they strict it to outfit wars, but how you can guarantee what it will avoid aerial anomaly fate? (poor english doesn't have "avanture" word: escapade, venture with big risk)

    When AA allert first launched it creates some huge air battles, but look at it now. No one give a ****, it's literally became a 30min of free A2G spam. Thats about it. And instead of adding more working stuff you continue to create new entities, new concepts, new game modes, while people just want a pew pew not in ******* biofarm or ti annoys.

    How can you guarantee what after certain ammount of time people will still have interest to participate in outfit wars? Do you remember what happend to arena? It have not enough players to create a ******* match, but here we go again.

    I have a bad feeling about all of this.

    _____________________________________________________________________________________________

    Floating islands?
    City map?



    uploaded 1 Aug 2014 where all this stuff? Oh, it's gone, right?

    And there is plenty of other map concepts what can be used. For example:

    Ocean planet? Just another way of making "floating islands" type of map, but more realistic (we know what everyone will ask "why the **** there are floating rocks"). And we just gonna have a lot of bases in the middle of ocean,some really big bases, size of 1-3 amp stations. Not a single piece of dirt on this planet. Obviously galaxies(valkiries?) must have ability to deploy, like sundies, nothing to crazy. Cortium nodes poking from water? Perfect map for utilizing that special valkiry with mining laser don't you think? Bases like Ikanam Biolab prime and ready for construction system. Giant bridges, jump pads, teleport network...

    Underground map? Similar to caves at "The Ascent" on Amerish, but bigger, a lot bigger. Giant hallways, underground highways, cities, factories, offices. Big enough to even fit vehicles. Above ground we may have some special "resricted area" zone, because... i don't know, maybe surface is too hot, so your take X damage per second(what prevent you from redeploy) unless you inside vehicle or underground so you gonna die in minute or two. This damage may be even bound to nearest star, so you will burn during daytime, but can cross map during short night time. That surface may be used for logistics and transporting troops, but highly restricted for infantry fights.

    Space map? Again, nothing new, just concept from original sw battlefront, where giant ships are bases and infantry can break in, overload generators and tear it apart from inside. THAT would be cool. You saw how many peoples are asking something like "can i stand on BFC?" or "can we go inside?" and i understand why you say no, because it's still a vehicle and we still don't have proper physics in PS2. So instead of creating just a LIB 2.0 and some basic lunar map, why you wouldn't make a space map for your outfit wars? Where last (of 3-6) BFC standing is a winner. Who knows.

    All this stuff except BFC battle in space is totally doable without adding new mechanics, game modes, strange resources or whatever. It's not rely on outfit leaders which gonna do all organisation work for you. And that's what came from just my imagination, a lonely man. What a bunch of level designers may came up with?

    I really don't think what outfit wars is a right way, we just need new battle grounds and some objectives to grind, like worthy auraxium weapons, but it's too late, hype train is already accelerated towards the abyss.

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    • Up x 1
  2. pnkdth

    If more focus on outfit cooperation (and toys!) and faction loyalty + outfit competitive meta is "going in the wrong" direction and "I just want more stuff to grind for" is the right one, I am glad to be in the wrong.
    • Up x 5
  3. JibbaJabba

    BTW, you don't even know what's in the next update. It WILL pull players back.
    • Up x 3
  4. Skraggz

    Welp OP, some may agree with you, some will not. I am of the latter, I have re-upped my sub that I have not had in along time. All the stream demonstrated to me yesterday was ways to bring new outfit teamplay, new players experience, rewards, and a bit of content... and they can have my money for it...
    • Up x 4
  5. IVANPIDORVAN

    You maybe don't understand how majority of games attract players. We play for mastering strategies and we play for gathering stuff. Creating loadouts, farm gear, upgrade our gear, if everybody will have everything unlocked from the start majority of people will lost interest very quickly, as soon as they try everything. So games like this must contain obstacles to force players gather what they want piece by piece, this is just how our brain work. When you have no weapons to master, when you know each corner of every map what you gonna do then? And this is current state of game, same bases, same vehicles, same weapons, everything just repeats over and over again. We need raw content in large quantities. For me this update give possibility to buy carapace and then my journey will complete, i grinded it from 2017 when implant system was reworked and still not succeed. I have shortbow and showdown, i have every single piece of composite armor for each class, most of implants are maxed, every single gun at least been trialed, nothing left. With new vendor i can finally switch to other factions, but it's only me who stuck in one faction forever because of stupid implant system, what gonna do others who already have certed chars on each faction?

    Outfit is just union of people. People =/= Planetside. People can play other games and they gonna do this as soon as all content will be discovered/mastered. What we seen in this new update is just a BFC which is aerial anomaly 2.0 (and we know what happend to 1.0) + some basic map. I assume they gonna add more diversity to bases on this landscape, but still, how long you expect to play there untill you get bored?

    Look for example of auraxium reward for sidearms. Their descriptions literally says "Equipped with a special suppressor, this silenced pistol remains effective even at longer ranges." But stats says the opposite. They have 20m less max damage range. Jesus christ "president" even have 18 bullets while repeater got 21, this is ******* rediculous, it's just downgraded version of original weapon which even isn't the best in class. Autoshotgun is still the best shotgun, it should be nerfed from 125 to 100dmg per pellet ages ago and i am telling that not because i am shotgun hater, but because i am shotgun abuser, this is just EASY MODE, this is so dumb, i can't force myself to not use this overpowered piece of gamedesign. There is plenty of auraxium weapons what not worth any efforts. Literally all of them except NC LMG, NSOPS stuff and some vanu heat mechanic(LMG, carabine, assault rifle) are garbage. This weapons supposed to be something to grind, something what player should be proud to achieve. It supposed to be one of the objective to play, not exclusive one, don't get me wrong, just a piece of a puzzle. Games must have things what requires some time investment to give certain things a value, a weight so player can say " i am ******* done it, i made it, that was a journey and that was awesome".
    • Up x 1
  6. TRspy007

    Honestly, the new update sounds pretty cool, and it adds to the social layer of the game, which is a pretty good thing.

    The only problem with all this is that the game lacks players. So basically, creating these huge outfit fights (which remind me of battle royal, please NO) will just result in the 3 most populated outfits participating.

    Sure we had beast outfits before, but now there's very few that actually have enough active players to form a full squad, much less a platoon. An outfit with few players, no matter good they are, can't compete in score with outfits that have 100x that pop. So, I'm not seeing this update benefit the majority of players, since most outfits now are extremely small, groups of 5 or 6 friends who just play the game.

    For example, on Connery, the only outfits that are likely going to be able to spawn a bastion fleet carrier are the wild cards, the space pigs and the dim outfit, which are rarely all on at the same time. That's great for them, but I feel the other players will just be salty, or simply redeploy away and let that particular outfit ghost cap (with their bastion fleet carrier) as it happens now.

    I would have much rather see some quality of life improvements, a new continent (Oshur) which they promised years ago, better bases/improved lattice system and some more faction specific stuff. I get that they are hoping this update will bring back tons of players, but I think its really pretentious to base an update on the amount of players you expect to gain, instead of the ones you already have.

    I hope nothing but the best for this game, but I feel like even if people do come back, populate outfits and use the new systems to their full potential, the population will just die off like construction and DX11. Planetside 2 still doesn't feel like a game new(or returning) players can enjoy during the long term. Hopefully that gets fixed.
    • Up x 1
  7. IVANPIDORVAN

    This is exactly what i mean when i quoted planetside arena - lack of active outfits will most probably create situation similar to lack of players for arena. Miller can be described in very similar way. It's just a server with a bunch of solo players or small groups of friends. There is few zergfits here and there like BHO, ELME and ZOM. But currently active outfits for TR is SNGE, FU and i see BRTD from time to time, thats it. Also it worth to mention presence of VS HOPM, but without any significant impact. So my question: who's gonna play in this outfit wars? And even we somehow gather ~150 folks - who's gonna play outfit wars 3 months later when hype is gone? Thats why i am so worried about devs decision to make ps2 focused on social part.
    • Up x 1
  8. Pikachu

    About these exotic map designs, I have a pet theory that people don't know what they want with map design. They think they like special stuff but they all gravitate towards daytime sunshiny deserts, cities and grasslands. Caves and ocean worlds will attract a minority of players.
  9. IVANPIDORVAN

    Cities can be built underground and above water surface or even floating mid air. We already have general landscapes: desert, grassland, iceplains, jungle. It have to be a bit more exotic, just to break enviroment's tediousness. Once again, just my ideas and i try to be creative, you can watch youtube video in my original post to see prototypes what DEVs have in work a long time ago. Maybe cities been canceled bacause of perfomance issues.. we all may notice what amp stations are bit more laggy than other types of bases, this probably because there is to many objects, so building citylike base in the middle of endless ocean\floating in the air might be a perfect solution for that problem.
  10. pnkdth


    Right, and the type of player you want them to appease will consume whatever they put out in a matter of weeks, maybe even days, fostering a community which has no loyalty beyond the next auraxium medal. Like I said, continuing down this path will slowly but surely bleed out PS2 till there are no one left.

    Every single big outfit which has left PS2 did so because we lacked a meta or activities which catered to outfits. Updates like this is what can cause these outfits to come back. New weapons and abilities are important too but if you have nowhere for old players to use them what is the point? Then it simply becomes nothing but pointless hamster-wheel grind leading to nowhere. Now I certainly wouldn't mind a big fat balance/overhaul pass on suit slots and abilities to create more of a meta around which loadout you have since there is little to no variation to it (and much of it is just so dull and lacks character).

    This is why this update is so important. The game NEEDS something bigger to fight for than just personal stats and skinner box rewards. Every single successful MMO has always had a way of creating a community around guilds or outfits. Every single successful FPS have something that goes way beyond just the guns and toys in the game. Just look at the RPGFPS s***shows who's come and gone because they have nothing but loot and identical challenges.

    So for me this like raids and competitive PvP in MMORPGs. In other words, content for me to use all my skills and gear I got to achieve more than the standard/everyday grind. My only fear is that it is too late and this game has already bled too many players and lost too much goodwill for people to give it another chance.
    • Up x 1
  11. IVANPIDORVAN

    Well, i have to agree with you. Both the "content" and "social" are important and it's probably too late. Hopes for the best, prepare for the worst.

    edit: and prepare to fight for privilege to participate in battle what gonna happen not on TI ******* ALLOYS/BIOLAB
  12. Wadelma

    My only concern for this bastion update is that I fear they might add to the snowballing effect. A large faction will always have one while a less pop'd one at start will struggle to pull one and has no way to counter the big new threat as territory was lost in the first few hours of a continent. So now a faction can cheese most of the territory and hold it all too at the end with less effort. Hope they can balance it right.

    As for outfit oriented approach, hell yes. Big outfit action is what made the game great and cooperation will add to the ghost town experience of today. Bring it on, metashaking is good. No more bad maps and reskinned sidegrade weapons.
  13. Towie

    Personally i'm quite surprised at the scale of the upcoming changes - there is a lot in there and the social side is my personal favorite aspect (probably the only reason I still play occasionally despite declining friend numbers).

    Good to see continued development after all. Let's hope enough decent people return - and i'm not talking about those one-night wonder warriors with their 1000+ SPM or 200+ k/d...
    • Up x 2
  14. Liewec123

    what worries me is the idea of a 48 person vehicle offering FREE ESFs to every single person inside.

    does anyone really want the zergfit on their server to have 48 free ESFs?

    also as the only way to destroy the carrier is to deal massive damage to the weak spots
    (many of which are ontop) i don't think these things will ever die.
    a zergfit with access to free spam A2A ESFs, good look getting a single aircraft near that thing.
    • Up x 1
  15. Wadelma

    Oh yeah that's a horrifying thought. Didn't realize they would be free. I guess in their playtesting they have only had colossal fights, in more sedate times of days it's going to be just kamikaze runs to the weakspots before defenses get you.
    That is unless you pull a bastion of your own, in which case it's going to get silly real fast... I just hope they're not that bad to take down without one either.
  16. Campagne

    I'm rather annoyed with the outfit loyalty system.

    It punishes solo players for no real reason, yet ignores faction loyalty? Why stick with the losing faction if I get nothing out of it? Especially when I'd get more rewards for having no loyalty at all?

    It's not like it even forces a player to cooperate at all. I could just join a zerg outfit that wouldn't notice or care if I didn't play for six months in a row, or even just create my own private outfit.

    Really once again it comes down to being punished because I choose to play a certain way and got unlucky with it.
  17. Johannes Kaiser

    It gets more people from XIII to play, and thosw with high chars on the wrong server (read as: server in the wrong timezone for the majority nowadays) are even comtemplating to switch by creating new toons. Good news to me.
  18. adamts01

    Right off the bat, you're right. But think of how many good midfits and small outfits there are. It's always bothered me that they'd never squad up to the point they could make a huge impact on the map. This change gives them a reason to make an outfit that can compete with those zergfits. Just on TR for example, they have 56rd, foxhound (are they still there?), CIK, MERC, fool... Right now they can't compete with PIGS, but just imagine if those members started playing more or even grouped up. I'd honestly take 1 squad of MERCs over a platoon of PIGS any day. And on the NC side if Recursion, 666, WTAC and FEFA joined up they'd blow DGIA away. And when you consider there's a championship match at the end of every month, those competitive players have a real reason to consolidate players, bring in and train more members.... Being a small L33Tfit won't get you to the competitive scene. And playing for "fun" and not the objectives won't get you there either. Give it a month or two on live and I think we'll see some great results.
  19. fanboynomore

    I see how outfits needed an upgrade from being another friend list, but man, they said this would be the "biggest update ever" and forgot to add "for top outfits".

    • New map for outfit wars
    Maybe an optimistic 5% of PS2's population gets to experience it. There will be drama inside the outfits to see who gets to play the match. Some players will feel frustrated and quit the outfit or even the game altogether. Maybe we'll see the spawning of a new breed of "elite" outfits, which again, will make loyal players from older outfits feel frustrated, left behind.

    Then you have everybody else without a new continent since Hossin (2014) and bad gameplay at low pop hours because a smaller map isn´t provided to cope with that.
    • Increased focus on capturing territory
    This has been proved wrong time and time again. Players are there to fight planetmans. Factions will spread through the map avoiding fighting each other in order to achieve the new shiny thing. This killed the gameplay before (WDS, anyone?) and now they are doing it permanently with even less players around. Territory capture is the MacGuffin for fights to happen and will always be, not the other way around.
    • Bastion
    Small outfits don't have the manpower to fully operate it and most players suck at flying (because of weird controls) to fight against it. Once the novelty wears out, I bet most players will just redeploy when this thing starts spamming A2G so they don't have to deal with it. Many people hate how helpless they feel against Liberators and it seems Bastion will be 10X worse for them.
    • Outfits spawning orbital strikes, giant shields, vehicles and whatnot
    Outfits already have the numbers and the coordination to dictate the outcome of most engagements over everybody else. Giving them more power makes no sense at all from a gameplay standpoint.
    • Sanctuary
    What seems like a decent idea at first, ends up being completely counterproductive the more you think about it. There's no legit point on talking to enemy factions. This isn´t a 3d chat room, we need people fighting. This will increase truces, idle population and weird stuff.

    It's like one of the most famous shows from a now dead Spanish humorist, Gila. He would wear military clothes and talk by phone something like this:

    CONCLUSIONS
    • This isn't the right update at the right time, with the game being in maintenance mode since construction launched (2016).
    • This update isn't inclusive. It's made for a portion of the playerbase which RPG deems more important.
    • This update isn't attractive for solo players, small/RL friend's outfits, returning players or outsiders/potential players.
    • Solo players, small/RL friend's outfits are important to the game too. They ARE content, spend money, talk other players into trying the game, stream, upload videos, leave comments on forums/steam/youtube/reddit... They shouldn't be neglected.
    • This update doesn´t solve any problem, but brings more problems to the table.
    • Overall game dynamics could be compromised.
    • It's easy to build hype... Let's see how well it does once released.
    • Up x 1
  20. TRspy007

    I really don't care about the map designs as long as they make nice fights. I just wanna be able to fight on them, instead of having them restricted to the same 3 outfits every month.