Came back to PS2 after a year.. disappointed.

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by xpsyclosarinx, Jan 6, 2014.

  1. xpsyclosarinx

    Hrm, how to start this. This is a bit of a rant expressing disappointment, giving credit where its due and the TL;DR is that I'm not going to quit playing, I'm just....disappointed..

    I stopped playing a year ago because the game was going nowhere, I had been in the closed beta and loved every second of it, the devs seems to pay attention to the community and interact a lot and it was great, then out of nowhere they announce they're going live in Dec 2012... most of the community flipped at this screaming "this is no where near ready!" "it's missing half the game!" "What about outfit progression!" "What about continent locking!" "Why no lattice system!" and more....

    I decided to reinstall PS2 again after half a year of not playing to see the only thing that had changed was that the Harrasser was added and the levels had been redesigned. Next to no change to UI, a bit more rebalancing but still no new features (just little things like slight cover additions/base redesigns), so I packed up the horribly performing game and went back to other games.

    Yet another 6 months passes and I reinstalled, well I have to say hooooollyyyy crap the performance is amazing now. I can finally get a solid 60FPS with high settings (like I used to be able to in beta) and everything felt so much better as a result...but.. Still no new features (I'm not counting alerts as that is basically just text and a timer).

    I'm so saddened that this game that I've poured so many hours into and so much money has done so very little by comparison to what was promised during beta, it's been a freaking year and an entire continent is still without a lattice... seems very beta to me..

    Now just going through the roadmap: (I may be wrong or off on a few of these, but this is what I remember from over a year ago)

    Unscheduled - Missions System = This was meant to be on release
    Unscheduled - Continent Locking = This was meant to be on release
    Unscheduled - Vehicle Zoning = This was meant to be on release
    Unscheduled - Player Generated Missions = This was meant to be shortly after release (within 6 months)
    Unscheduled - Implants = This was already in the game during beta.....
    Unscheduled - Outfit Progression= This was meant to be on release
    Unscheduled - Outfit Recruiting = This was begged for during beta
    Unscheduled - Outfit Base Capture = This was meant to be shortly after release (within 6 months)
    Unscheduled - Server Transfer Token = This was meant to be on release



    All these promised features have the potential to completely change the way the game feels, cont locking allowed factions to force the server population to another continent! How rewarding would that feel! Player generated missions could add more life to the game. Outfit progression and outfit base capture, now this was a huge one, it was hinted at that you would actually be able to redesign a base with an editor (within preset blocks/tiles) and put turrets down along with having an outfit flag showing to display how awesome your outfit is.
    On top of that the lattice system you now see in game was begged for months on end to be added into the game, so many threads hundreds of pages long went into great detail showing battle flow, choke points and strategy that could be used with a lattice system and at least that's in and thank god for that. It's now less about the zerg and more about who can actually coordinate better which is absolutely fantastic. One other awesome feature (which took too long to get put in) is the player studio, I love so many items people have put in and it puts SOE's art team to shame, so much talent from these players, all my equipped cosmetic gear is player designed.
    Basically, at the end of the day I love PS2 as a concept, I have hundreds of hours in this game both in alpha, beta and release and I'm so very disappointed, not to mention mildly aggravated when I read through the forums and see the same damn threads that have been echoed for a year and a half yet are still never addressed by SOE. I'll still continue playing every now and then but I've lost all passion for this game, I keep trying to get back into it but it only lasts maybe a week before I shelve the game for another few months.
    I just hope that SOE pulls their finger out and injects some more life back into this with a massive update.
    Thanks for reading ;)

    P.S: I haven't been reading/watching dev diaries or any regular updates, so if anything I've covered is already in the works or other awesome things I don't know about have been announced, please link them :D, Cheers.
    • Up x 8
  2. Nocturnal7x

    Yup, they did very little over the last year. Its quite sad.
    • Up x 2
  3. eldarfalcongravtank

    basically, the devs overestimated their own productivity with this game. many many things that are currently featured on the roadmap are delayed and put on hold because they want to get the optimization process finished to port this game over to the playstation 4 which couldnt run the game before due to its weaker hardware

    then again, the dev team is also working on everquest next, not only planetside2, so that means even less people to work on this game. not to mention, SoE doesnt have the capacity and resources that other big developers have, so providing fixes and creating content is rather slow

    most of the players on this forum have pretty much accepted this and either moved on or keep playing. yes, most stuff on the roadmap isnt even close to being finished. i'd even go so far and say over half of these things wont even be implemented after two years. but what can you do. have fun playing this game but dont expect too much fancy new stuff soon, that's more or less the advice i'd give you here
    • Up x 1
  4. xpsyclosarinx

    That's basically what I knew, from what was speculated during the beta people thought that PS2 was essentially going to be the testing ground for Everquest Next as they're both running on Forgelight.

    At the end of the day they shouldn't be over extending themselves, they're just going to let both communities down if they can't maintain a good standard with the first game.

    "We have this idea of the major beats we want to hit – like player owned bases – but in the shorter term we’ve got things like eSports we want to focus on and all kinds of cool new ways for players to fight wars. Players are paying the bills, so as far as I’m concerned that puts them in the driver’s seat." - John Smedley.
    Unfortunately it seems the money came before the quality, another 6 months of beta could have had the performance issues resolved and avoided non-alpha/beta players from screaming for constant rebalances, not to mention releasing without the performance issues would have avoided PS2 haemorrhaging players who couldn't play due to FPS issues with well over the recommended specs.

    Ah well, I had my rant, glad to know that the other older players are sighing as much as I am. Think I might drag a few mates back on tonight for sh1ts and giggles.
  5. KnightCole

    Yeah, I gotta say im becoming rather disenchanted with this game to...the whole thing seems to have very little point to it. Its like randomly running around fighting really skilled bots or something.
    • Up x 1
  6. Pikachu

    Not even half the current stuff in 2 years? Dayem. :confused: This year my guess is they will finish 2 things I care about: galaxy and continent lock.
  7. Pikachu

    True but most stuff isnt noticeable enough. Or one has got used to it or it was just a fix. People keep saying harasser is the only thing because its the only thing they notice all the time and which doesnt feel like a repair for something broken, unlike base update, lattice, performance update etc.
    • Up x 1
  8. Tatwi

    I liked the snowmen.
  9. Traxiconn

    Implants put the game on the Pay to Win train.
    • Up x 2
  10. xpsyclosarinx

    As if being able to buy rocket pods from the get go isn't pay to win? I think we're beating a dead horse with the pay to win argument these days.

    If they actually just left Auraxium in the game then there wouldn't be an issue with microtransactions, paying players get to buy items outright and spend their certs on whatever whereas non-paying players have to save certs to get items AND use those certs to advance, I've ranted about that before and it was entirely unfair to remove Auraxium as the currency for items and instead penalized non paying players by using certs as the only currency. (sorry a little off topic)

    Now Implants if implemented correctly wouldn't be a problem, they were mild modifiers like run speed, reload speed, recoil reducers, health recovery rate, xp boosters and whatnot. None directly made you win by any rate, you still had to actually point and shoot better than the other person.
    • Up x 1
  11. Traxiconn

    Okay, you make a valid point. The problem isn't implants, but the way they were put in. Also I have NOOOO problem getting 1, 000 for lolpods, so I find the sytem fair assuming you are good at the role(s) you play. But I do miss Auraxium and agree that it would stop this whole debate. Now the game isn't 100% fair, but it could defiantly be a lot worse.
    • Up x 2
  12. xpsyclosarinx

    Yeah, is wasn't exactly the most balanced thing in the world so it was good they took it out, but it should be able to be implemented well. I'd like to see them done properly rather than rushed, I'd like them to be a noticeable change and come with a noticeable penalty so you can work it into a build with proper thought.

    But yeah, I have made so many ranty posts about Auraxium haha, they had it perfect near the end of beta, would have definitely stopped the pay-to-win debate in its tracks. I think about the only think you couldn't get with AUR was cosmetic items; as it should be.

    Argh, I'm not going to give up on PS2, hopefully 2014 brings some gamechangers, I'm being naively hopeful but I have other games to play if it doesn't happen haha.
  13. zaspacer

    There are a lot of reasons for PS2's progression rate:
    1) SOE laid off a LOT of the PS2 Devs. They don't have the manpower they used to have, and they can't be as productive as they used to be.
    2) PC PS2 Dev content projects were put on hold for everyone to work on improving frame rate
    3) PC PS2 Dev content projects from the Roadmap section started to get backed up by individual projects that were just too overwhelming and bottlenecked the whole process
    4) PS2 Devs are busy working on PS2 for PS4
    5) PC PS2 is not making enough money to justify hiring or allocating more staff to work on it
    6) PS2 Devs aptitudes are strong but limited. They can add more of stuff you like, but they don't really understand how to fix stuff you don't like. Some things they don't know how to balance, only how to make it OP or terrible. And they only play certain classes/units/ways, so changes outside that perspective won't happen or will be rather blind and clumsy.
    7) SOE typically steers game changes to support specific target users. Typically this is full groups (squads) and raids (outfits) and higher graphics users. If you are not them, then you get what get so make the most of it or convert to the target group
    8) PS2 isn't aggressive in fixing bugs/balance. News bugs or OP units will often stay in game for long periods of time. Some bugs will continue to exist in one form or another forever
  14. NC_agent00kevin


    If by very little you mean completely redesigned Esamir and Indar, fixed the terrible performance, balanced the game and added new vehicles, weapons and gear, then yes. They have done very little. (sarcasm)
    • Up x 3
  15. xpsyclosarinx


    We're all very aware of most of that, I did cover some of this already. A very major point is #5, because of the lack of effort on SOE's part to actually allow the testing to continue, they chose to release a severely unfinished product which very quickly bled players like no tomorrow, primarily because of performance reasons. But yes, basically what you've said is that SOE (PS2) went down the proverbial sh*tter and it's now a half arsed project that will probably fall apart. At the end of the day, PC or not, the game is missing features that were initially promised and are still only occasionally mentioned, what is in the interest of the PC platform is also in the interest of the Playstation platform (see: Outfit base capture/progression/recruitment, continent locking and player generated missions.

    Not sure if you were directing 6 and 7 at me or if you're just generalizing, either way "higher graphics users" is a very broad term, optimization is done based on various hardware, not on what settings they use, having good optimization is part of good game development and SOE did an atrocious job of it at the start. I had spoken to the devs several times about both metagame and outfit related topics, they're all aware of things to do, they just hadn't shown much in the way of actually what they're going to do. Which again, the point of this thread is that is disappointing.


    Balancing is fine and has been fine for a very long time, if anything a few things need a little buff but 99% of "nurf dis" "x is OP" threads are the people who do only play 1 class and have no concept of game design or balance.
    • Up x 1
  16. xpsyclosarinx

    Partially redesigned Esamir and Indar, to fit in with the lattice system that was demanded from the closed beta. This was (as has already been stated several times) the very good major change they did which was demanded then given. This gets SOE a gold star.

    Managed to finally balance the game after overnerfing and overpowering several weapons and units in the game over 8 months.
    Added 1 new vehicle, the harasser which was cool.
    Weapons and gear, eh, that was always going to be the case

    ^ These however, are not major changes and is not what we're talking about. Major changes are the things I highlighted in the OP that have been sitting on the Roadmap for a year and were discussed at length 6 months prior to the roadmap being released.

    So, by comparison of performance to expectation then yes, not much has been done. If you were in during the beta then you would understand much of our frustration.
    • Up x 2
  17. NC_agent00kevin

    Oh well I didnt know you were part of the beta. That certainly makes your opinion of game progression and change far more valid than mine could ever be. I mean, I only played solid for over a year day in day out. You sir, were part of the beta and though have been away for a year, clearly more up to date and accurate about the changes to the game. Hats off to you sir, elite beta player.
    • Up x 1
  18. Kristan

    Yup, it's still Beta. Just look at the version of the game client in windowed mode.
    • Up x 4
  19. Spartan 117

    I get where your coming from OP & yes, this past year has been very....very painful. Every single person I played Planetside 1 with (7 of us) quit playing shortly after release. Players with 1 year subs, who I played with for thousands of hours in PS1. They said they would be interested in returning once PS2 is no longer a endless TDM, once metagame is added, base design wasn't a complete disaster, more than 3 continents existed, once the game had proper emote system was added & classes were more well thought out. Needless to say they haven't come back. A damn shame since, they were hardcore fans of the franchise & invested in it financially, but couldn't even bother to log in.

    The only reason I continue to play is I feel PS2 has the potential to be PS1 & more. This past year however has been very discouraging & I am concerned that it may never reach the popularity/audience it deserves due to lack of updates, content, communication from SOE.
    • Up x 3
  20. xpsyclosarinx


    Ha! Would you look at that v0.38.18.255241.

    Though to their credit, version numbers don't have to follow the usual format for release editions.


    Exactly! I really do still feel they can do so much with PS2, but I really worry that the PC community is going to be so low by the time it all happens it it'll be hard to get a solid player base going to actually support the size and scope.

    I still log onto the forums every few months to check what's changed, the performance update got me to reinstall this time and I'm glad I did. I just hope for more.