On Planetside "dying"

I don't think continent locking is going to magically fix the metagame. SOE needs to convince people that playing the game "properly" can be more fun than farming a tower, or failing that at least give them enough incentive to do it. For a lot of people meat grinders are the best way to earn certs, as long as that holds true they're just going to ignore the broader metagame.

FYI we had this problem in Planetside 1 too. People tend to forget all those times when commanders needed to shout at people in /orders for half an hour or more because 50% of our pop was dicking around in an interfarm while we lost our home continent. It's a tough problem to solve.

You're absolutely right with your thread. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels sad about this.

I don't get why four guys using their vehicles resources to jump in ESF's (on timers) is a crappy mechanic? It is much less crappy than no risk teleportation.

If you have a large numerically superior force then it is unlikely to be a long stand off. Plus at least a battle occurred beyond camping the spawn room while on the offence, or trying to destroy the sunderer on the defence.

Ah yes, I remember those days. Getting stuck in the South East corner of Cyssor was a must for any zerg.

And I agree. Continent lattice won't fix everything. It'll just be the first step in the right direction for making territory have some value.

For Biolabs and other bases, some sort of gameplay mechanic needs to be in place to allow people to break sieges. Not vehicles or weapons, but different ways to wear bases down. I'm down with long fights but there should be a limiting factor for how long can stay.

In PS 1 you had NTU to power bases (once the base ran out of fuel, no more spawns), generators that powered respawn tubes, you could kill the respawn tubes themselves, cap point... The fight could be ended in a number of ways. None of them were quick and all options allowed the defenders and opportunity to save their base.

That's kinda the direction of the resource revamp but I'll wait to see how they implement it before patting them on the back.

Lemme put it this way, as a sniper it's much easier for me to pick off amorphous blobs of ******* all the while watching them **** their pants in frustration at their attempts to remove me, then it is to fight against a large organized force of somewhat trained *******.
However, just because it's easier, doesn't make it funner, it's 10x fun-er to do the same thing to a highly organized group whose attempt at counter sniping actually requires me to be evasive, and use my under deployed bag of guerilla trickery.

Basically, I'll stick around longer if I'm more engaged, and while easily dispatching a whole outpost of ******* from behind a bit of rock in the distance is fun, it's /nowhere/ near as fun as fighting a group of highly trained ponces who will punish my slightest mistake with instant death at their incomparable team efforts.

And that's my opinion, tl:dr for all you lazy ***** out there, -encouraging people to work together, and making tools to make that cohesion easier so they may in turn dominate the battlefield, thus forcing more groups like that to form, thus making combat more interesting at the sheer number of complex survival situations you must dominate... is what made planetside good.
Neglecting that, well, that just makes you stupid, and make your flails to keep your audience all the more pathetic, and well deserved.

I do believe that SOE knows about this painfully obvious problem, it's just that with continent locking and the resource revamp months away, I don't know if it will be enough to drag a large group of new/old players in. Besides, we've already seen firsthand just how long it takes SOE to bring out something on the roadmap *cough cough hossin cough cough*, and how just how "elaborate" their updates are... *cough cough* infiltrator and medic update *cough cough*

There was a time where Gal where spawn on warpgate, and randomly picked people to throw them into the action. pilot got xp with each kill by the passengers.
Now, they are only needed to ram libs and for outfit thingy stuff, and are all squad only.

Why they shouldn't be ? we all got "reinforcement needed" spawn, and a instant action each 2 min.
You don't even spawn on the warpgate at connection, so logistic stuff seem doomed before creation.


Who care for territory when the player stats scream only score and KDR ?
When was the last update upgrading teamplay, since the new squad UI ?

With their last big update, "the reign of the skygods", tank column are becoming rarer too. all powerful libs are better, and need less teamplay with others vehicles. The implant are making people more viable on solo, too.

The more patch I see, the more independant the player become, and thus less prone to teamplay.

You must have forgotten it was PS1 vet, mega-outfit leaders like BCP that called for the Crown nerf because too many people liked playing there and didn't want to fight elsewhere.

Why do I need an Outfit? I play with the same people all the time. I see them in the same fights and I help them just as much as they help me. I watch their back as they watch mine, I heal them when they need healed, I repair their Max's and vehicles and facility defenses without being asked, I fly when needed even when I hate to, I seek out those pesky snipers alongside everyone else, I pull a Sundie and place it in the most advantageous area so you can continue to fight, I grab a Prowler and fight till my untimely death, I tank mine VSA's in advance of your arrival, I claymore to help even the odds when we are undermanned, I pull Burster Max's to repel the Aerial Intruders.

Teamwork, Tactics, and Strategy is not the sole area of concern for Outfits. We all employ our own Stretegy and Tactics as players. I do not rely on you to help me acquire my position. I make my own position offensively and defensively as needed.

I could go on and on but why? I am TR. I play for the TR. I am what I am but I am not with an Outfit. I remain Unaffiliated and unwavering in my support and dedication for my fellow TR brethren and OUR cause. I am your comrade, I am your brother, but I am Lone Wolf.

It's interesting that you note the old crown. While it wasn't a good thing for the continent, it is worth noting why crown fights were so popular. Actually, I think it was so popular for only 2 reasons:

1st, the territory meant something. It was the most fortified base in the game and could be defended almost indefinitely. It was the center of the map and let people jump to numerous hexes.

2nd, because of it's value and difficulty assaulting, it was a feat to capture it. I remember Gal parades after capping the crown and the amount of ecstatic yells was mind boggling. There was an intrinsic reward for getting that territory.

It needed to be changed because it was the only territory that people actually cared about fighting in and whole continents would be lost because the entire population would be at the Crown. We see similar problems with biolabs.

Amen, brother.

If I have a mic and communicate with my fellow players isn't that Teamwork? What you're suggesting is that Outfits are the sole purview of Tactics, Teamwork, Strategy, and Coordination. With every patch SOE is freeing the individual player to be more effective in a smaller way compared to Outfits. It's more challenging to operate with a smaller footprint and it is most certainly more rewarding when you know your efforts were critical to the overall success of your faction on that day.

I am TR. I play for the TR and I will die as a TR defending or assaulting with my TR brethren. Whether you are with an Outfit or not we will do it TOGETHER. I wish you well my brothers at arms and pray you do not fall in harms way. Godspeed TR. May the wind always be at your backs. I am what I am and I am Lone Wolf.

You are not the problem. The problem is that SOE is making changes only for you and not for the outfits/team aspect.

I don't mean to put you down here, but the teamwork that you speak of pales in comparison to what solid outfits carry out. Not even close. Yes, pubbies are necessary to assaults. Yes they are critical to the game. But I think you have no idea how important coordinated outfits are. What a lot of lone wolves don't appreciate is how much they are aided by the outfits they are fighting a long side. It's a level of coordination you can't get with random people in a squad. As a BR18, you may want to explore what it means to take team coordination to a new level... because that's what planetside is about and you are missing a huge part of what this game offers. This is not to dismiss those who prefer to run on their own, but the backbone is the outfit system. For SOE to ignore that makes PS2 simply a large BF/CoD type of game. (Of course, we've seen how long those games last... they have to release a new one every year to keep people engaged). PS2 is becoming a generic shooter when it has the potential to be so much more.

Play as you want... solo or team. But don't be foolish to dismiss the importance of outfits to the game... especially if you haven't been immersed in one. And make no mistakes, outfits and the team game are getting no love as the game evolves. As they move further from this (as they have in their changes), they continue to lose people.

The greatest allure of this game is the scale and the ramdomness. Every competitor has X vs X fights on a limited map, it is predictable, it is boring.

I play almost always solo, because if I join a squad, it will turn into a ghostcap campaign or a huge zerg battle. Or we get to a base where I do not like playing. Then I redeploy to a better fight.
The other issue with squads is the downtime between fights - often too much.

This does not mean I do not teamplay, I do. I pull a medic if I feel we would be better off with revives at the cap point. I switch to engie to repair sunderer. I also pull a sunderer and move it to next base sometime. It often works beautifully even with random players.

What is lacking is the purpose. Everything is expendable, resource costs and bases matter almost nothing.

The other big issue is the pop inbalance, even with a purpose given, the game will fail if one faction has 40% on a continent. I only have one idea for this: increase spawn timer for overpop factions, so in-play character numbers are balanced per continent. People will not fight 2x their number even if the base is vital to the faction. Respawn timer will fix this, as overpop faction players will relocate to better balanced areas.

The game has been out long enough that you have some with lots of time invested who are now burned out. And there are always a percentage of those that think the game should stop when they stop playing. Or they think if they have been playing a game that long then they should win the ability to set it's direction. So they turn into gadflys or just talk down about the game.

yeah people seem to really feel the need to justify their decision quit playing by talking on and on about how a game is 'dying' or whatever.

'as soon as you're born you start dying, so you might as well have a good time'

Are you seriuos? population IS dropping like a rock...and you say its just veterans burning out? Dont worry, it will become apparent soon enough even for you...

I will most certainly play as I want. You may choose to think of me however you wish. Coordination is key to what we do on a daily basis. Assuming that we don't communicate and go Rogue simply means you have no idea how I play and with whom I play with. I will keep it as such and simply say I wish you well in all your endeavors with whatever outfit you play with. Just remember if you see a small group of players holding a point, breaching a room by the numbers, defending The Crown, assaulting a Biolab, or Gal dropping in to turn the tide of battle it could be an outfit or then again it could be.... Lone Wolves. Be well Macho.

Geeze, drink some coffee. I didn't say that was the only issue. But people burning out and then talking it down are a problem. If you create a chorus of "game is dead" then you create a self fulfilling prophecy.

Hey! I resemble that remark.