Game Update 13: What to expect and when.

With the eventual over abundance of certs and nothing to spend them on, it makes sense to turn them into a resource. But I just think that's a big hint how broken the xp/cert system is already...

Fueling something like implants with certs/station cash is a ugly shade of pay to win, where those who have played many hours of PS2 will get the upper hand in the Implants department, since they have certs in abundance and possibly have already bought every weapon/visual they want. They will always be able to afford Implants, while the newer players and the ones with little play time can't keep up.

meh, seems pretty small update ... i guess i check back in a month

temp implants for certs ?! and not infantry points ... i guess its great for those who maxed everything already out.. for the rest of us i guess its cash

Correct, as it was done in the original Planetside. At first, implants were pretty powerful. (Surge was definitely a fun one in the beginning.... there was nothing as terrifying (or irritating) as the Jackhammer + Surge combo)

Implants were then modified for balance, for example, the implant Surge allowed for a burst of speed but caused the player to holster any and all items/weapons while in transit. The use of Surge also accelerated the depletion of the stamina meter.

Darklight allowed the user to locate cloaked units, at the cost of render distance. (The ability to see was greatly diminished, so long as the implant was in use)

Implants could also be deactivate with EMP grenades.

... Why fix what isn't broken and has been tested for years? I wish the developers would bring back the manner in which implants functioned back in the original Planetside.

QFT.

If implants aren't permanent, can't be bought with certs, or aren't bought with infantry resources (even if it's all 750, forcing you to go back out and use them again), there is -absolutely no way- they should be in the game at all. It's a horrific idea. ESPECIALLY with such completely OP implants as Thermal Vision invisibility, Radar invisibility, and autospot. It's completely laughable.

Also, if the timers on these are consumed inside the warpgate, you're just adding further irritation to an already irritating lack-of-AFK-system.

Please think a -lot- harder before implementing this patch. It sounds horrific.

Unfortunately, in the current environment of F2P and with the boat under the helm of Captain Higby, appeal matters "a lot" more than balance. Thus, the subtle costs of the implants may be minimized, or even ignored, to simply provide players with a suite of limited-use cheats that they'll have to purchase; and honestly, if this is a cash grab, it's probably going to anger a lot of people if they see they either cost the same in Certs and SC or, worse, that the SC cost, like with the tier-4 weapons, is actually cheaper than the Cert cost. They'll be at their most appealing if they are simply straight-up boons.

In the context of a subscription game, or even in a game with scheduled DLC bundles, it'd make a lot more sense to have balance because your eye is towards keeping your current base satisfied; but with F2P, it demands you have enough glitz to keep a steady income stream, both in terms of pulling in new players and to try and create impulse buys for people who are hooked. For the average player, it's a lot harder to turn down the naked ability to hide from the minimap, even as I blow people up with my UBGL; then it is to mull over whether or not I want to hide from the minimap, but, say, have a reduction in my shield strength (say, from 500 to 300 HP) or to have a similarly blind minimap because my IFF's being blocked by the same shield that's hiding my signature from others.

Which is exactly the problem

No update today then?

Was looking forward to trying out the new SMG.

as a premium member, I recognize the fact that SOE is in business to make money, and as such those who are willing to pay should have something to show for it above the players that want nothing but handouts on top of a free game.. That being said, making a temporary perk available for station cash with no other penalty is a bad idea.. all MMO games depend on their free players, ALL of them.. they are what sustains the population base on the servers, if for no other purpose than cannon fodder (not saying that there aren't good freebie players out there, as I know very well that there are, just as there are piss poor p2w players).. by creating a system that irrefutably caters to players with disposable income you will aggravate your freebie players to the point they leave the game, and with the rate of attrition already present (the main reason for all the server merges, and don't try to deny it, as we are not all idiots here), the last thing that SOE should be doing is alienating the solid user base, which is the freebie players, not the premium ones (I will guarantee that there are at least 5x more free players than premium ones).. So I say, if you are going to make these implants available for SC, then make them permanent (charge an ungodly price tag if you want, there are plenty willing to pay it) if you want them to remain temporary, then charge a combination of Cert Points (to open the slot, and I would suggest a max of 3 slots costing 200, 500, and 1000 certs), and infantry resources (to replenish the consumable) just as you do with Grenades, C-4, mines and the like... this will keep the implants balanced throughout the playing population, as paying the high cert cost for those slots will keep players from upgrading other things, and so basically keep a rein in on how many of them are actually out on the battlefield at once, especially in the early stages of the implementation, when players are not so used to seeing them, and gives a buffer during the fine tuning phase where tweaks can be made without overly messing up players' game styles... As I said at the beginning, I am a paying member, but this idea is way over the top, and I only see how this is going to negatively affect the game.. if you run off all the free players, there will not be the massive battles that make this game worth playing, and then the paying players will follow suit, and the game will implode on itself, and when that process starts there is no rescue... no game has ever come back from that kind of a downhill slide, and none ever will.. the audience is too fickle, and too reliant on word of mouth reputation.. If word gets out that the game is no fun anymore, it will stay that way, and word has been out already that you guys can't or won't fix the engine problems that make the game unstable.. this will only add to that problem..

As for the rest of the update, the platoon leader VOIP options and the waypoint enhancements are going to be well received, as this helps to strengthen the chain of command necessity that every army since the dawn of time has required.. "Without a chain of command, and army is nothing more than a useless mob."

The changes to Esamir are a mixed bag to me, as I am not very fond of the lattice system personally.. As a former Army Ranger, the idea of doing Gal drops behind enemy lines to disrupt c3 (command, control, and communications) was very appealing to me, and the lattice system put an end to that practice... too many ghost caps you say? well, armies throughout the millennia have had to deal with being flanked, surrounded and cut off, armchair wannabe's think only of tactics, the real pro's consider logistics, and keeping ahold of what you have taken is part of that equation... and armies have always made strategic moves against resource targets to cripple their enemies ability to replenish, and PS2 is no different...

the updates to the ESF for GU13 have been needed for quite some time, and I am glad to hear that they are finally being implemented.. I'm not much of a fighter pilot myself, but I can empathize those problems they have had, and am glad to see something being done about it..

as for more weapons........ I am usually a huge believer in more choices, but I really think that more could have been done with the game mechanics, and software compatibility issues than using up resources creating more guns, especially focusing on secondary weapons that few players ever have the opportunity to use anyway... I can say that the addition of another SMG is probably warranted, but the pistols? resources could have been better spent addressing the client's random CTD issues, or perhaps doing some better remodeling of the existing weapons (the TRAC-5 really needs a stock, otherwise it looks more like an SMG than a carbine)

SOE, I have never been a vocal member of the forums; nor have I been overly active on Planetside 2 as a player, BUT I have been playing since beta. The game has been out now for around eight months, since the beginning there have been changes for the better such as the reduced flinch, improved vehicles, and arguably the lattice system.

But there have been changes that also have been for the worse, such as the introduction of 2nd generation weapons of the SMG and Pump-Shotgun, Nanite Systems weapons and armor, Camo coverage, and arguably the Harasser.

Please notice where the negative changes tend to coincide with each other... Yes that's right, they can be bought and they cripple Faction differences and identities, and in certain cases provide advantages to the player whom bought them.

Now you intend with FULL UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR ACTIONS to implement an item system that can only be described as pay-to-win. Now why is it pay2win you ask?

1. They eventually disappear, but can be earned back immediately with the expenditure of money.
2. They are a guaranteed UPGRADE to a player who has an EMPTY implant slot.
3. They favor higher BR players who have certs to spend, but forces lower BR to pay to remain competitive.
4. They provide no additional 'fun' mechanic to the game besides guaranteeing that you will do better than someone without one.
5. They invalidate mechanics in the game another player may have spent TIME and/or MONEY to achieve, such as conc/flash grenades.

There are probably a few more, but these are the ones that I can think of in the short break that I have to type this out. My recommendation is to NOT IMPLEMENT IMPLANTS IN GU13, but rather wait and in that time period reconsider their functions and method of procurement.

even if it comes from marketing - this is so insanely stupid.
Either SOE's marketing team is completely clueless on how to make money out of the game in a productive way, or...well, i really can't think of another reason...
so stupid, so obvious...

I personally am looking forward to seeing those who bought the $20 gold plated PDW, as I have been seeing the gold plated Commissioners and Underbosses running around. Though this leads to the pay to win points above - premium members don't all have that many spare certs to blow on consumable implants (namely, those of us who suck, like me) and free to play members generate XP even more slowly. My point is -

Are implants designed to give the skilled here a boost in giving them an advantage against the mediocre masses, and to have those with disposable incomes blow cash on items that again, are there to assist in giving them an advantage? To me, it seems this implant system is catering to the few and screwing over the majority of the player base (but I could of course be wrong)

Sh@t man, sorry. I was totally focusing on Infantry play (face to face combat) over there about my opinion. Sorry if I offended any infiltrators!

Higby, please, freaking make implants cert or resources only! Otherwise, Pay 2 Win

No, you're not wrong. Implants will be only a viable option for long-time vets that have everythin noteworthy unlocked, people that have nothing to do with station cash, and occasionaly "normal" players, looking for an edge during really hard battles.

Typical player, that has yet to unlock most of stuff he would want, will ignore implants to not slow down his progress. I would imagine that for a relatively advanced player, that already has a fair amount of certified upgrades, implants may be perfect during alerts, when there's always a lot of fighting and cert flow is pretty good.

Other than that, yeah, terribly unattractive option.

Awareness: auto-spots enemies who damage you or that you damage
Battle Hardened: reduces camera shake from explosions and flinch
Clear Vision: Protects against concussion and flash grenade
EMP Shielding: Protects against EMP Grenade effects
Enhanced Targeting: increases the range that you can see enemy health bars and names
EOD HUD: Allows you to detect enemy explosives in a short radius around you
Regeneration: Slowly regenerates health over time when not in combat
Safe Landing: Reduces fall damage
Sensor Shield: Makes you undetected on enemy radar/motion sensors
Thermal Reduction: Prevents the wearer from being highlighted by thermal vision

Wow i love how they just took a dump on my infiltrator.....

If no one buys them.. they will be made more OP until people buy them.

********, you wanted implants, they're giving it to you and you don't like them. They should not have had implants be an option in the first place, but no people from PS1 insisted they be in this game as well.

Game destroying changes. There are enough problems with the game in terms of performance and trying to balance it without piling on and stomping it with this nonsense.

These are fine little perks that give a little advantage without being completely over the top. More like these.

I could go either way on this one. Perhaps add a range variable to the perk (i.e. the closer you are the more prominent you become in thermal view)

Please just either throw implants out the window and ignore the system entirely, or remove the ability to purchase them through Station Cash. It's a pay-to-win system and is only going to tarnish SOE's reputation outside of those wearing fanboy blinders.

No one said they didn't like them. They said they don't like the way they are allowing the use of them. Are you trolling this thread?

Finally, implants. Now, waiting for some reload speed and run speed ones as shown during the beta.