ideas new maps !

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by CalineLaBourrine, Feb 7, 2021.

  1. CalineLaBourrine

    Hello Wrel,

    i am a former fore planetside player.

    can you please create more mapss!
    a lot of players get bored of the same areas.
    why not create small islands or continents or even moons with different sizes: 1/12, 12/24, 24/48 etc ???
    or otherwise Searchus.

    with a map rotation to concentrate the players!

    thanks to you
    • Up x 1
  2. Demigan

    Hello CalineLaBourrine,

    New maps are currently a very very bad idea. Building new maps takes an extremely large amount of resources and time to develop, with no guarantee for success. Hossin is a great example, its a railroaded continent with lots of problems and was never actually finished. It took years for the devs to actually fix problems with tiny scrubs blocking entire vehicles.

    On top of that the game has many problems with its gameplay that would take much less time and effort to solve and improve the game. Problems with how the current goals and mechanics encourage players to avoid all combat for example and just overpower everything, or how the focus on kills to get ribbons, medals for weapons and directives encourages players to create farms that avoid the entire end-goal of capturing the continent.

    And its not like there aren't solutions for this. To fix your "bored of the same area's" for example you can create multiple versions of the current continents, only with the warpgate and starting battle lines in different places so that players get to fight through continents differently and will fight at bases that rarely see action at the moment.

    Other things that can be looked at are things like a higher focus on stats that involve killing high-value targets like MAX's and tanks so players are encouraged to fight these more than kill the weakest unit in the game (infantry) over and over again. On top of that an update to the current hotspot system could identify area's like chokepoints and reward players for breaking through or pushing the attackers away from the chokepoint permanently.

    Or adding new capture mechanics that are randomly assigned to each base upon the continent unlocking. PS2 could create unique versions of CTF that wouldnt be possible in other games, as well as some VIP modes (like picking up the point and running around with it to let the timer run up/down).

    Each of those idea's would have a greater effect on the game because they affect all continents at the same time (except the continent variants), they would all take less time and have a higher chance of success compared to making an entire new continent from scratch. Not only that, building a new continent would just duplicate all the problems we currently face. On top of that new continents could create similar effects like Hossin, where a large part of players just logs off the moment they are forced to fight there.

    That is why new continents are currently not just a waste of time, but actually bad for the game. Too many resources, too much time for about 1 month of hype. Its not worth it, spend that time on worthwhile things instead.
  3. csvfr

    Some of the initiative for this would also need to come from the player community. Specifically the recursion tracker that adds an overlay that gives the player praise and "unofficial" ribbons for completing acheivements. The thing is that most acheivements are focused exlusively on the infantry parts of the game (https://recursiontracker.com/?p=c&c=achievements). While it gives an acheivement for e.g. killing 5 guys without dying, taking out an MBT with C4 is not considered special notwhitstanding that the in-game XP is more or less the same.
    • Up x 1
  4. Demigan

    It's my biggest problem with stat sites like Fisu, they focus so much on infantry murder even when it concerns weapons designed to take on aircraft or tanks.

    Kill 12 tanks in one life but never get the drivers and you are ignored.
    Get 12 infantry kills with a farmtool and you get praised.

    Shouldn't the stats encourage you to play the game as hard as possible rather than find a place to farm or only picking fights where you have an overwhelming advantage to quickly capture the base?
    • Up x 1
  5. MonnyMoony

    I don't think more maps are the answer. What we need are ways of bringing fights to lower traffic areas of the existing ones.

    For example - how many times have you ever fought at Copper Ravine Station on Indar? I don't think I have ever fought at that base in the 8 years I have been playing.

    Most fights tend to concentrate in the centre of the map (Ti Alloys, The Crown, Ceres Hydroponics, Crossroads) or to a lesser extent at the border bases equidistant between the warpgates (Palliside, Howling Pass, Quartz Ridge).

    It's only when one faction has a big overpop that some of the bases near the warpgates see some action - but it doesn't happen all that often.
  6. Demigan

    This is why I had the idea for adding alternative layouts of the current continents by moving warpgates around and changing the placement of current frontlines. So each time Indar comes around you get one of the two or three options available randomly assigned.

    Example:
    First map is the current Indar continent.

    Second map has each warpgate shifted clockwise. Indar Eastern warpgate is moved to around Berjess Overlook (between scarred mesa and Regent Rock), Indar Western warpgate is relocate to around Indar Excavation and Quartz Ridge and the Northern warpgate somewhere around Howling Pass. Again these are approximate locations the exact placement can be changed based on what would be best for balance.
    Some lattice lines would be changed to balance out how players leave the warpgate and fight through the continent from there. The most important part would be where the frontlines start when the continent unlocks. In this case you could place these frontlines right on top of what used to be the warpgates, making these warpgates 3 or 4 point bases to be captured.

    Similarly a 3rd option could be made availabel with the warpgates shifted a bit counterclockwise. Frontlines could be placed somewhere else, along with another change in lattice lines so the fights make sense.

    This can be done for each continent, and would be a start in allowing players to fight in places we don't see often right now. The key advantage here is that you don't need to make defending a useless task to force bases to flip and allow players to reach those less frequented bases. Because all that does is make sure you can see the bases you want but not actually fight for it as the defenders don't bother and try to just attack something else instead.
  7. JibbaJabba

    Agreed. Need some new maps.

    Yes, everything else still needs some work but at some point stop putting lipstick on a pig.

    Recycle some content. Battle islands, Koltyr, remnants of Oshir, Desolation. The overhaul of Esamir tells me they have the resources. Get the continent lattice interconnected in some weak resemblance to PS1.

    New content will trigger old players to return, and if you can actually connect the lattice it will give a drastically new metagame instead of alerts.
    • Up x 2
  8. elkikko92

    I think it would be good for the game put variation of capture system for each continents. Actually the game is very boring and ripetitive.
    The capture system could be:
    -Actual lattice system
    -Macro lattice system (lattice only between big bases)
    -(old) hex system
    -...
  9. OneShadowWarrior

    I’ve requested new maps for eternity, it falls on deaf ears.
  10. MonnyMoony


    Yep - that could work and probably wouldn't require that much work to implement. Additional land could be added to the perimeter of the map to accommodate the new warpgates and new lattice links made to the new warpgates.

    They could build say 9 warpgates around the perimeter of each map - but only have three active during any particular time. These could then be rotated/randomised to give more variety in the way battles are fought.

    I also wonder whether a dynamic variant of the "TI alloys being disabled due to orbital strikes" could be implemented to throw a bit of randomness and variation into the mix. For example, each time a map comes on line, the server looks at how many orbital strikes were used during the last round the map was active. Any bases that exceed a certain threshold or which saw the most orbital strikes are inactivated or have their lattice links severed for that session - before coming back online again a session later.

    It would help move fights around the map a bit more and would also fit with the lore in as much as the maps respond to the way battles are fought in them (i.e. the battles actually cause lasting damage to the map).

    These two relatively simple things could really help refresh the existing maps and push fights into underused areas, or make fights follow non-standard routes.
    • Up x 3
  11. Demigan

    That's actually an incredible improvement on my idea. Warpgates are basically lost real estate on the map anyway, so why not place them just off the "real" map instead? Although I do have to put a big question at completely randomizing those positions, as it would create a high likelyhood of 2 warpgates being closer together. That would quickly create scenario's like Esamir's old 2 north bases that had relatively few bases inbetween and an almost constant battle being there no matter what.

    Shutting down and starting up bases on certain conditions (or even randomized) could actually help change the game in some ways. Suddenly having to drive twice as far to reach the next base could create more vehicle battles, and some bases and tactics could change quickly. There is again a questionmark on how to deal with larger bases being excluded. You don't want an easy to take tiny base to basically be the link to a base like Crossroads with a bunch of lattice links in all directions.
  12. MonnyMoony


    Yep - there would have to be some constraints (e.g. there must be at least one inactive warpgate between active ones), but it would at least throw some more variation into the mix.