Planetside 2 vs Planetside 1

Well Im wondering if / when they drop the sub, how many people are just going back to PS1 since its a superior game. Well in my opinion and others opinions anyways. I know I myself will be playing PS1 more often then PS2 until the game gets some further development, BFRs or not, its still more fun.

I'm not so sure about CP aircraft since A2A combat then was such a friggin' joke. Relatively instant access rocket pods maybe. MAXes actually being tough and the REK being required to get through a set of doors much less hack anything else however, as any "class"/armor, now THAT might raise an eyebrow, but could also frustrate players refusing to adapt or learn.

Still, the game still doesn't have that same sense of polish PS2 offers. It has the more massively multiplayer minded gameplay mechanics, but it definitely feels archaic in comparison. I actually prefer PS2's gameplay, but some things from PS1 really could make a return. Some of those things I even used to be against making a return. Enough PS2 has taught me that certain mechanics just don't work well with an MMOFPS, and the restrictive weapon sets found in the class system is one of those mechanics borrowed from other games that just doesn't work well here. But hey, at least I gave the concept of classes in an MMOFPS a fair try.

Responded and fixed.

and I didn't mean for them to play PS1, just put these things into PS2.

Which I believe the lattice system is in the works, not sure about the rest of it.

Otherwise I agree, certain things don't work well in a MMOFPS, but at least PS got alot right.

But I digress, this is Planetside "2".

I'm not too certain about a lattice. The hex grid would work fine if everything man made didn't form it's own hex to conquer, offering up 42 different attack lanes from a single point at any given moment.

As support to this "too many options" mentality being detrimental: did you know some brick and mortar retailers offer only so many different brand names, such as those found with cereals, precisely because too many choices will actually hurt sales? Most people either go to a store with a specific cereal in mind, or on a whim decide they want cereal, and the latter group is the one the retailer wants to present with "variety" in tandem with an easy choice. Cosco, for example, only really carries six or seven different cereals, so the number of choices isn't daunting, but offers enough variety most people should find something they like.

PS1 worked because there were on average nine bases per continent, and the average number of links from any single base was three or four, with one of them assuredly being towards a friendly base. It was easy to predict the zergs movements, because the zerg didn't have to make too many choices.

PS2 has entirely way too many links for the zerg to follow, so it often passes up opposing zergs while simultaneously breaking up along the way because everyone is making a different, random choice based on several variables like distance, heat map, "I'll follow this guy," etc.

I know I'm going to give it a try. I hope you're not overrating it too much, because I have some hope for that game to be even better than this one. And I'll be able to play with my console user friends too, since the computer requirements are low. Also gotta pray for them to do sensible, non-gameplay impacting cash shop. Since it's such an old game they might as well.

But I don't know if I should be hoping that PS1 is even better, would that be more sad or stupid than it is fun?

Well, you couldn't have deep and rewarding character progression if the game just let you loot and store weapons now could you?

PS1 was much superior to PS2.

PS1 had this natural flow both to the overarching metagame -through the lattice system- down to the base design. Bases in PS2 are, frankly, a mess. With no ebb or flow to their taking and a design that still confuses me after 10 hours of playing. Taking a base in PS1 also had real benefits that the victor could immediately feel and real circumstances that the loser had to deal with. In PS2 losing or winning a base is a trite affair.

Planetside 2 does not deserved to be associated with Planetside 1.

Planetside 1 "There is no Substitute."

I keep hoping they will make it free so I can go back and dump PS2.

As much as i miss ps1 stuff , i cant downgrade to such visuals compared to ps2 lol all it needs is time ALOT of it,
Its a 3 year plan development it hasnt even been a month yet...

The game was/is really good, depends entirely on what type of game you enjoy. It has a more arcadey quakeish gunplay over the current generations CoDish feel, hard to explain. The game is clearly dated but when it comes down to it if you like this game for its core values of what it tries to be you will like the first one more.

Honestly If visuals is a reason for why you won't play a vastly superior game then I feel sorry for you. Gameplay should ALWAYS matter over how it looks. Also, 3 year plan and all doesn't mean s**t when the game is vastly lacking at launch I can understand in beta sure, that still development, this is live. We are supposed to be past development, they can add the fancey extras later but it doesn't make up for a game that feels half baked at launch.

Give PS2 some time to grow . PS1 is 8 year old . And everyone bashes PS2 1 month afther release.
1month vz 8 years . Sounds fair .

Just keep the constructive feedback comming and I think PS2 will become as good as Ps1 eventualyy

I was hoping Planetside 2 would be Planetside 1 with better physics, netcode, and graphics. It go all 3 of those correct... just not the PS1 part.

What I miss most:

• One player could make a difference
• one squad/platoon could completely trash an entire empire's offensive
• Infantry fighting existed
• Skill was as important as numbers.
• Gameplay was more linear (lattice/tower system)
• Players were allowed to play how they wanted. Inventories. No resources. Just veh timers.
• Capping bases wasn't based on standing on a node (nothing will ever top those clutch base resecures with seconds remaining).
• Bases/towers separated vehicle combat from infantry combat. Now it's all outdoors except for small indoor base cluster **** s.
• Infilitrators infiltrated.
• The inventory system. There was no need for classes. It was better that way and allowed you to truly customize. Screw this CoD setup.
• Hacking system for bases/doors/vehicles

I'm sure I could go on and on, but those come to mind immediately.

What I like about PS2:

• Graphics/Physics/Netcode
• Aircraft Physics
• Engaging Terrain
• The scale (which is admittedly annoying too. Zerg zerg zerg gets old fast).

Planetside 2's biggest mistake is it's simplicity. It is too simple, and too pointless, and as an individual you hardly matter. We complained about the lack of endgame in PS1, yet it had 20 times the depth of PS2. PS2 lacks depth, period. People are already leaving in droves.

Planetside's prime was probably it's first 2 years. Then it got overly cluttered with stupid additions (such as BFRs) and just went down hill.

Ah the nostalgia. I'll pipe in a few things that may have been missed or not to give you some more perspective.

Implants - I think it was BR18 you got your 3rd implant slot. These were kind of a specialization that was personal preference. Some of the were personal shield, surge, audio amp (radar), darklight and advanced targeting (showed enemy name and health). I always kept darklight and advanced targeting. The 3rd I would swap around. You had to go back to sanctuary to have it uninstalled if you wanted to change it.

Galaxies - Every base and tower had doors and catwalks on the top level so "Gal Drops" were really handy because the base walls were effective, unlike PS2. When you bailed out or the pilot kicked you out. There was a force field beneath your feet that slowed your fall.

Common Pool - There were weapons that everyone had access to no matter the faction. Such as the Sweeper, The Punisher and the Decimator if you had the AV cert. The Punisher had a grenade launcher that could use EMP grenades to remove mines or disable tanks. Basically they went click click click until the EMP wore off.

Infiltrators - These guys were invisible and could only carry 4 1x1 items in their inventories. If they had advanced hacking and most did, they could hack out whatever they needed. They usually shot people in the back at very close range. NC had the Magshot, TR the Repeater and VS the Beamer which NO VS used. All VS used the common pool pistol. They also stole vehicles and if they had the cert for it they could drive away in it. If they found an enemy AMS they could hack it, and deconstruct it which usually meant people stood guard over their AMS for this very reason. Also, good luck shooting an infiltrator unless you had the implant for darklight which was sorta like thermal. You could not leave it on forever because implants took stamina.

Maxes - Each faction had a special ability for their MAX units. TR had a lock down mode that nearly doubled their rate of fire. NC had a short duration shield that allowed them to get up close before taking damage to health and armor. Vanu Maxes had "jumpjets" which allowed them to do crazy things like camp trees or enter a tower from the top if someone opened the door. NC and VS had lockon AA maxes but the TR had the only Burster MAX. Maxes also had a ton of inventory space, so they could carry loads of ammo not just for them but also for squad mates during spec ops like gen drops.

Anti Vehicle - Each faction's Av was different. VS had the Lancer which charged up and fired a near instant shot that was accurate at great distances. TR had the Striker lockon missle which also locked onto Maxes. NC had the Phoenix which was a camera guided missle. Most the time you couldn't tell where it was being fired from because infantry shot them over hills and guided them in. It took a lot more shots to kill tanks and Aircraft with these weapons. I think it was 16 Striker shots to take out a Vanguard, but you could also carry tons of ammo if you set your inventory that way.

Combat Engineers - These guys had deployables. I think they could lay 10 spitfire turrets and 20 mines. The mines were not super strong but if you drove full speed through a field of these you died pretty fast. They also had boomers which are like PS2's C4. People had EMP grenades that destroyed or disabled all the Combat Engineer stuff. Which was nice when there were 60 mines around a tower. It was also loud and usually alerted someone.

Main Battle Tanks - We still have the same names in PS2 but the similarity kind of ends there. For starters, all MBTs required a driver and a gunnner. The driver kept driving and made sure not to run over people because he could drive in 3rd person view because he wasn't shooting... Except for the VS. They had a PPA gun in the front that was kinda bad but it could kill stuff if you really wanted to. It also had the Rail gun on top which fired FAST and straight and made a big blue spash when it hit stuff. No joke you could shoot down aircraft with this thing. And no Mag story would be complete without Mag mowing, which much to my chagrin A TON OF PEOPLE did. They would get a mag and just look for enemies to run over and never fire a shot because it was super easy. The Vanguard had a driver and a gunner. The gunner operated the 150mm and the 20mm. It looked a lot like the current one. The Prowler. Ah yes always lagging behind. The Prowler required a driver a main gunner for the dual 100mm and a 3rd man if you wanted one for the 12mm MCG.

Command Rank - If you were the squad leader and your squad mates took a base, you got command rank experience while the rest of your squad got batttle rank experience. The max rank was CR5 and it took 100s of victories to reach. At each level you gained new abilities like show friendlies on the map, show enemies, emp pulse, baby orbital strike and big orbital strike. The big OS could take out half a courtyard of vehicles and troops. If you revealed enemies before using, you could see a cluster around any nearby cloaked AMS and get all the kills and AMS without actually ever seeing it. It also had a 24 hour cooldown.

Bases - In general they all look very much alike and it took some time to give them purpose, but once the game progressed they got abilities that were useful unlike this game. Normally there was only 1 interlink facility per map so it was very common to see the generator down at your interlink facility and guarded by enemies because it shut the radar off for all the connecting bases. No explanation needed for the perks of radar.

10 Continents - Each faction had 3 continents connected to their warpgate at launch and you attacked their continents from yours provided you owned it. There was a 10th continent named Searhus which I believe is the next up coming continent for PS2. I didn't get much action because it was sorta nuetral but when there was fighting there it was a lot of fun.

Terrain - You could actually drive and shoot on PS1 terrain and it didn't feel like you ran over a Volkswagen every 5 secs as you drove top speed. (This does not include Ishundar or Ceryshen which were impossible to go offroad) It was NOT two sides sitting accross from each other lobbing shells until something dies. People drove around and fought at the same time. It was fighting at high speeds and FUN. See MBT ^^

Caves - Ok, at this point, the Devs started coming up with funky stuff. It took me hours and hours to figure out how to navigate the tram lines in the caves. In the caves you could spawn these node things that you took to the surface and installed in your base which gave you all kinds of cool defense like base shields! The weapons were just weird. The maelstrom had a grenade launcher that sent a lightning bolt through enemies if they stood to close together and usually resulted in instagibbing everyone. The Flail was an artillery launcher that looked like a gravy boat for Thanksgiving dinner. Anyone could use this if they had the expansion Core Combat.

The Sundering - Basically they took one of the VS continents (Oshur) and shattered it into four pieces. To this day I don't know why they did this. IMO it was just silly. So, VS effectively had 2 1/2 continents after that.

BFR's - Some big robots that they put in that were stupidly powerful at first but later got nerfed into another vehicle that walked.

Well said, well said.

I knew that everything was generally better in PS1 than their PS 2 equivalents... But I never considered this! My mind is blown!

Which is arguably correct for every game. The fact is a bad launch especially like this is a bad sign for things to come. Yes its one month, but the thing is every little 40MB update they bring out seems to break just as much as it fixes. People are feeling the discontent with the amount of new weapons being released to buy / unlock. We are still looking for fixes for things that have been major issues since early beta and we are already feeling the effects of a never ending balance struggle between several different forces in the game. All of this combined and the game is hemorrhaging players at an alarming rate, which means we are in need of server mergers already but there are issues with these things being done and they are being forced to wait. Planetside 2 is fun but its launch was early and rough, almost unacceptable and as far as anything goes. We are forced to feel the effects of a rushed launch and it has really ruined the experience of many players. I enjoy this game and will continue to play with my outfit but if PS1 goes FTP before this game is fixed I will be going back to it until this game catches up with itself.

F2P PS1 would be incredible.

Also for any non PS1 vets, look at base layouts on youtube and see what you're missing out on.

And some actual small unit teamwork:

Planetside 1 had a robust minimap that showed projectiles to everyone. This allowed for potent anti-air weapons that weren't unfair to pilots.

Planetside 2's minimap is beyond words worthless/unusable.

Pretty much this. One of the problems with Planetside 2 is that while its infantry game is a bit more exciting, they've managed to make vehicle dominance even worse than its predecessor and you can't even find refuge in most bases besides the Bio Labs now. And while there's more variety in base design now I find that the old underground complex system made for some of the best fights I've ever seen.

The best infantry change would have to be medic guns... PS1's were freakin annoying when trying to heal other people, even if I loved the secondary self-heal function.

This is a fantastic point that I mentioned in a post I made a few days ago about the stunning lack of geographical consideration given towards the design of the continents. There are no choke points, or forced movement routes and there are certainly far too many bases. Picture a mountain range with a pass funneling troop movement. A path through a densely forested region. Waterways and landbridges. Etc... Deaf ears.

A lot of good posts here mentioning the differences.

A few things I miss that weren't mentioned much:

Being able to loot an enemy's weapons (as each faction had highly unique weapons, especially AV, this was a big deal), then tricking his comrades by using a weapon they are not accustomed to be on the receiving end of. 8) Heck you even got scavenger medals for it, I think I had the gold medal.

Customizable inventory. Being able to equip AV even if you want to play support. A common loadout was repair tool, hacking tool, rifle and AV, with an extra med tool / grenades in your inventory. You could sacrifice ammo to carry more utility and medkits with you. My MAX loadouts usually had only a few boxes of ammo, and the rest was filled with glue, juice (medtool / repairtool ammo), medkits and rifle ammo, that I could drop to help the guys supporting us from behind - in towers you often get cut off from the terminals so you can't resupply for a long time.

Speaking of MAXes, they weren't just infantry with extra health. They required you to use AV weapons, or AP bullets. This made mixed assaults very effective as enemies had to switch weapons depending on target.


A few things I don't miss:

Orbital Strike spam. Since everyone had multiple CR5 characters by 2010, you couldn't walk 10 feet in a base anymore without getting hit by an orbital strike.

Flails. They were long range artillery. By 2010 many people (I was under the impression they were chinese farmers) memorized the angles for hitting entrances / veh terminals of any base on the map, they would just sit their own base and spam an enemy base nonstop. You'd walk out the door and BAM! Instant death within a giant radius.

Reaverside. If you think rocketspam is bad in PS2, you should see PS1. They completely destroy infantry and vehicles, including the skyguard which is supposed to counter them (and did counter them until they buffed the already dominating reaver). Almost everyone in PS1 certed air. The controls in PS1 were far worse too, but people got used to it somehow. The typical elite PS1 player would spend 95% of his time either farming people in a mosquito, or parking his mosquito at an airtower at a remote location of the map and farming people inside by waiting in third person view at a corner.

Infiltrators. Especially ones with combat engineering. (Infiltrators in PS1 could fire while remaining cloaked). They would just drop spitfire turrets around the person which pop up and start shooting automatically. Zero aiming required. They were no problem if you have darkvision, but to anyone without it (like my friends who weren't level 12 yet) they were very frustrating.