Lattice Lanes - PS2 For Dummies

http://imgur.com/a/s94TS

If you think playing a video game based on shooting other people is at any point a proper stimulation for your mind, I've got news for you.

Proper stimulation of the mind isn't what this post was about, but nice try....

edit: sp

I couldn't help myself.

But no, you still have to think. In fact, now you have to think harder.

Why? Because you have limited choices to work with. It's like taking on a project at your work and having limited funding to get it done. An idiot can make something good with unlimiteds (eventually), but only an intelligent individual can produce the something good under restrictions.

So in the hex system if I were to go to, say, Seabed Listening Post, I would have 7 possibilities afterwards. Well, that's not a hard choice. Just go to an enemy hex without resistance! That's what everyone was doing in hex, anyway. "Strategic base capturing".

(BTW, this map looks fantastic with this design - devs, if you're reading this, this should be worked in)


But as you can see with the picture, Seabed now only has 2 possible routes of progression. This is not dumbing down the game, this is restricting you and forcing you to make wiser choices rather than just going "eenie-meenie-miney-moe" and going to the closest, emptiest territory to capture.

You have to make a choice on how you're going to get that project done (capturing Indar) with what you've got (do I continue up towards Dahaka or do I back off and go up through the Crown? Could be risky because the Crown is almost always hotly contested, but Dahaka might throw off some alarms that I don't want set off just quite yet... and then there's the lane going up from Hvar...). It forces you to think about how to approach. It forces you to actually fight.

That's the big one. You have to fight now. You can't just blatantly avoid combat in this First Person Shooter. It's nice, actually. The fights are larger and more intense, and that's exactly what the game is supposed to be.

Also: I won't deny that hex could have worked with some modifications, but lattice works just fine as an alternative.

1, you were doing ok till after moe, just assuming everyone wants to go to the closest emptiest territory is a broad generalisation and doing intelligent tacticians a disservice.

2. So in your game if someone did want visit a smaller base and fight a tighter battle for a while with a dozen or so each way, youd rather deny that, shove them into the zerg or kick them out of the server than let them enjoy their small squad fun which is no skin of your nose if they do that?

(and before the 'go to other games for a smaller battle' comment comes up, other games dont have the same variety or options of vehicles, the player may not have spent money, have high level unlocks or even like the 'other' games suggested, and even a small battle for an outpost here adds to the larger war effort, no other game has that)

Lucky for SOE most of the PS2 playerbase are too stupid to go places without lattice.

I have ready run into I defended bases with lattice and the past several days have had some amazing fights on Amerish.

So not really seeing the point if lattice except making it so I know where the noobs are coming from.

It's eh. Not groundbreaking nor game killing.

I type entirely too much sometimes.

To break down what would have been an otherwise massive post, I'll go with this:

I understand the squad tactics that people want to utilize in this game. I get that. But it just doesn't work in Planetside. Yes, you can toss 12 people into a Galaxy and try to fight all by your lonesome but eventually you're going to get rolled by a toon that will recap everything you've capped. To truly be effective in this game, you need to be a large force of at least a platoon if not more. The game was designed for this kind of gameplay, and is why outfits only the size of squads are being over-looked.

The game was targeted at those who wanted grand-scale, epic battles. It's being built for that purpose.

Can you still have smaller engagements? Sure, if it helps the greater goal of capturing Indar or removing another factions cont lock. I just don't want four separate squads worth of people off in random hexes fighting against insurmountable odds and failing over and over when they could band together into a platoon - form a larger, more effective force - and deal some actual damage.

I have more fun playing in a small group now, since you can actually tell what's going on around the map and know where the enemies are at, and we can flank and ambush enemies more easily.

What people who think the Lattice dumbs things down are failing to take into account is the fact Lattice makes DEFENSE viable. Before it was just all Attack/Redeploy 24/7. Flying around all over the place because establishing any kind of defensive line was almost impossible. By making defense viable though lattice has opened up new strategy when it comes to actually winning a war at peak populations. Under the HEX I never saw a continent get capped under peak populations as it was too chaotic. I still have not seen it under lattice but it's getting a LOT closer to happening. Only a matter of time as Outfits learn the system better. What does this mean? It means tactics/coordination is starting to overcome numbers.

DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT TASTES. NEITHER OPINION NEEDS BE INVALID.

Here's how to cater to all those people and not alienate a big part of the community.

Lots of games have different game-modes, all of which took development time. Some are more popular than others, but that doesn't mean there should only be one.

We have three continents. Why not keep one a Hex continent and use the developers previously working on figuring out the rules of the Lattice to improve upon the Hex until it no longer has the flaws it now has.

Everyone will benefit from this.
There will be more types of people attracted to the game, therefore more players, more payers and thus more money to pay for devs.
There will be more content overall. The odds will be smaller for the game to turn stale. Fatigue will be lessened due to diversity.

IN STEAD OF ARGUING OVER WHICH SHOULD BE EVERYONE'S FAVORITE COLOR WE SHOULD LOOK TO COMPROMISE TO THE BENEFIT OF ALL.

The hex system has been changed and "improved" upon several times since it was first introduced, but in the end it was still a failure. Just let it die.

Don't agree at all. With the alert system it was really coming alive and platoon leaders were just getting to grips with strategy etc.

Fair, and agreed.

I'd rather not spend all day explaining lattices positive improvements so I'll probably just link people to your thread from now on.

Yeah, but choosing to go through the weakest, most uncontested spot is the smartest choice. Why work your *** off to cap a spot when you can simply go to the spot where the enemy isnt? Make them retreat or contend with you. Lattice makes the game cookie cutter and its like..ok the enemy HAS to be here.......Lattice really makes the game easier. Now its going to be entire servers battling over 1 spot on the map because now they KNOW they cant be flanked or anything.

Its like playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 on the RUSH mode.....you know where the enemy is where hes going where he has to be and that you cant be flanked in anyway........turning the game into one big solid all the time slugfest. Who needs strategy or brains to play...just get the biggest zerg and pound away until you win. Now there is no splitting forces, no thinking where you could attack next......ugh.

Thanks God. Finally. *bows and grovels*

Have you played an alert with lattice yet? It's far more fun and strategic than the hex system ever was. Strategy with the lattice involves becoming an effective force multiplier for your empire, rather than deciding which empty bases to capture. This change is forcing you to adapt and you clearly aren't ready for it yet.

This is fairly over-dramatized, and also the kind of thing PS2 doesn't need (those who don't want to battle others).

But as I said, I'm done arguing the point of lattice. Drone has a good post, and I'd rather not argue with people all day. Click his signature and thumbs up his post so SOE might consider it.

Not to mention outflanking and defence are actually viable strategies now. The loss of freedom is worth it...nothing more annoying than having to stop playing the actual game to hunt down one annoying infiltrator...who somehow is able to take over and hold an entire base. Yeah, there were more elegant solutions, but I for one am glad to finally have something that works.

Hex would have been great if factions were made up of one Outfit only or we had some kind of actual chain of command... but we don't... Factions are made up of tons of outfits and individuals constantly working at cross objectives or in some cases just being plain idiots and so it ended up just a massive *********** where everything took 100x as much effort to get done as it should have... not to mention most of the people who think they are "master strategists" couldn't plan their way out of a room with one exit