Remove Capture the Flag, misc...

You guys really REALLY need to remove capture the flag from this game.

It's just a bad design. So bad.

That and containment sites contribute most to my log outs.

Pop is declining already. These things have never helped. Le sigh.

And please consider reworking the spawn system--move away from the prior central planner mindset and let players decide where they will spawn and when.

Yes ctf is horrendous, especially at Matthersons, it takes so long to cap with even a small amount of defenders.

It should only have been bought in on a few bases to tweak the format, now we're stuck with dozens of awful bases to wade through between the few good ones left, e.g. what it did to splitpeak was horrible, rarely ever a decent fight there now.

When I heard about CTF, I thought it would be something like... 1. Capture the flag, 2. Bring it to designated spot, 3. Defend it for x amount of minutes.

simple solution, move containment sites and ctf bases to oshur

Yeah, going back to that spawn system was the 'deal breaker' for me come renewal time. There is other issues but that was the last straw for me.

I totally avoid containment sites. Nothing but a pain in the butt.

Mixed feeling over the flag bases. My issues, if I saw it correctly, is that they're able to do it even if they don't have a connecting base? Am I wrong? Correct me if I am.

I have no idea who created that CTF system.
Capture the flag should be an extremly action packed system.
You trie to attack a flag, brake through enemy lines, take the flag and run away evading enemies.
Not wait minutes for that darn thing to respawn...

Imo, a ctf base should have a normal point to cap.
After the 3 min cap,
a flag appears and need to be taken to a spot +/- 200 meter away to complete the cap.

Transform CTF from infantry gameplay to transport gameplay. It is necessary to move special vehicles between two hexes in order to capture the base. At the same time, so that the defenders have a transport respawn point right next to the Respawn Room. Let the traffic be slow.

Ye dev spawned harassers from one region to the neighbor region. Harassers with flags.
Either that or a few bases designed just for CTF.

you could make the drop point for the flag a construction, that way it needs to be bought / certed and can be monetized.
(when you don't have the construction to drop the flag any faction with a lattice connection can build the flag drop point,outside the 200M range and steal the base)
Also the flag could have skins that could be monetized.

I find nothing wrong with the system as is. No part of the mechanics needs to be changed, especially not fundamentally. More systems can be added in the future for variety, but this is fine as it is.

The thing that the most mustn't be removed is the delay between the flags becoming available. Having a minute and not is the difference between Quartz Ridge being capped in 12 minutes or 120 seconds. Removing the delay will only encourage blitz ghost caps.

Only suggestion I can give would be cosmetic changes:

• Currently, it's too difficult to tell at a glance that a base on the other side of the map is being captured. A new indicator (as visible as the circular progress bar on other bases) would alleviate the issue.
• Make announcements of the flag's status more interesting than the current nondescript sound clips. Halo's announcer comes to mind:

Imagine something similar done by Papa Vanu.

I don't see any major issues with capture the flag system. Maybe some tweaks are needed.

-Retaking capture depositories shouldn't be an automatic resecure, it should start re-adding flags at a rate (maybe 1 per base flag per 30 seconds?).
-Flag spawns or depositories directly adjacent and with LOS to spawn room doors should be moved.
- bastion assault should reduce the respawn timer on flags, bastion lockdown should increase the respawn timer on flags (and possible increase the reset timer countdown?)
- please let me hit people with the flag, it would make for some clutch gameplay situations. Also, you could add a directive for flag kills with the reward being a melee weapon that looks like a flagpole with some auraxium glow.

They have seemed to ruin many great base fights since the beginning of retooling Esamir. The capture points fall in favor of the highest population in the zone. Places like Bastion with the highest numbers on defense are basically impenetrable. Flag points are to easy to camp from higher elevations at the Bastion base on foot.

LLU’s were used in the first Planetside where you had to run the football to an adjacent friendly base capture terminal
at a capture point and you could get rides. No one wants to run with a flag and just get’s blown away. I am usually like hell no let someone else run the flag.

I often find myself bored at capture flags. It’s camp or be spawn camped.

Reworking CTF isnt what is needed, removing CTF is what is needed. Return those bases to standard capture.

I say this as a guy who has played (and enjoyed) CTF in early Team Fortress (Quake mod in 1998), Team Fortress Classic and Team Fortress 2 and in Tribes 1 and 2 (Shifter Mod).

Tweaking CTF in PS2 is not needed, removing it altogether is needed. Sooner the better.

Also, please consider:

1. Remove weapons from Stealth Flash (We know a certain person loved playing infil, but we can fix this now, right?)
2. Put AI modules and pain spires back in for base building (We know, a certain person loved playing infil, but we can re-fix this now, right?)
3. Remove the "Central Planner Determines Where You Can Spawn System", put choice in players hands.

And just in general, this is supposed to be an MMOFPS....more player choice, not less. So please steer away from the prior development direction of dictating and instead consider pursuing, freeing.

Hey Mithril. Didn't think I would post again but came across this figured a reply might catch attention.

I quit playing the game you see. Playing since PS1. Over 9k hours, probably closer to 10k in planetside 2. Paying member for years. Always buying bundles supporting the game all that.

But I quit. And CTF was a tiny part of it. If I sum up all 9k hours into just two suggestions it would be this:

1. Do not destroy old content when adding new content. I hate that you guys do this. If you want to add CTF to the game for example: Make new CTF bases, don't destroy existing ones. Between CTF, Esamir overhauls, base reworks, etc you guys have destroyed a LOT of content that I love and it just wasn't necessary.

2. The game has clientside which is here to stay so design around it. The network telling you a player is there AFTER you are dead is a terrible play experience. Basic psychology: taking actions and having an outcome is fun. Even if the outcome is bad, you learn. Having a bad outcome regardless of actions is objectively NOT fun. And this is what players experience vs an invisible enemy in a multiplayer game. Fix the infiltrator. 10 years of worrying about pissing off those players has cost you 10 times their numbers.


#1 and #2 are why I left but #2 is what will keep me away. LOL just sick of that ****, nothanks.

Number 2 hit hard there, i came back after a long break from the game, talking before Oshur was even a thing, and seeing all the changes that honestly have only gotten worse is upsetting.

It hit me the other night while i was at the crown something felt way way off about it and make it feel super bad, and then i realized, they removed the rock arch bridge from the alloy planet.

So the crown went from a place that had about 3 points of ingress, 2.5 really. to one 1 point of ingress and its aweful now. This is kinda one of those "Lets make a chance for the better....oh...its worse? Oh well."

Agreed. Played all these games too including competitive Team Fortress Classic and when I roll up to a CTF base it's almost impossible to tell what is going on from the map & HUD indicators. Having two flags and two capture points is really weird in itself and confusing. It may work for one or two bases (Traverse?) - otherwise it's not fun and many otherwise great bases go unused.

Its a clunky mechanic that i dont think suits a combined arms style game.

If the goal here is to find alternative play modes for capturing a point, I would suggest that they do away with CTF because its way to easy to deadlock it since all a defender needs to really do is camp the flag and only needing to defend it for like...what? 5 min then the entire thing resets?
A king of the hill or a payload game mode would have been WAY better in this case.

I could see a king of the hill game mode working where it sort of works like capture points, but it would be a 2 out of three, or in the case of a big base, a 3 out of 5 game mode were in the combat zone, one of the building or rooms is designated 'the hill' and the team needs to have control of it for x amount of time, and once they do, a point goes to that side, the hill then randomly changes to another room/building in the same combat zone, and the process repeats, first to 3 or something wins the zone.

If you are defending, a King of the hill match will start once a faction captures the first zone, and is successfully defended if you capture the hill 2 times, or 3 times if its a big combat zone

Payload could be another game mode that could work, with the goal being moving a given items, or something from one location to another and it requiers your team to stand on the objective to move it.

The ONLY way I could see CTF working in PS2 is that if at each base, there are 3 deposited locations, which are also the flag spawns. The defenders always have a flag in that location, when a faction picks up the defenders flag one of the 2 other locations is then designated that factions drop off.
Example, Defender is VS, one of the 3 flag locations is the VS location, the other 2 are neutral. If a NC comes in, grabs the flag, he has to run to one of the Neutral locations, at which point that locations becomes the NC location, the other defaults to TR. Attackers need to collect 3 flags from teh defender in order to win, but attackers can run over and take their flags back from the attackers that captured them.