[Suggestion] Balancing the Zerg

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by sauna, Sep 10, 2014.

  1. sauna

    I love Planetside 2. I loved Planetside 1. I hate zergs and zerging, in all games, shapes and forms.
    Having fights ruined by alliances and 100+ man outfits time and time again is what makes me quit playing Planetside. I don't think it's fun. I don't think it takes any skill, it's just some-what organised chaos that makes my FPS be cut in half.

    "Go play Game X!", "This is not CoD/BF/etc", "This is combined arms, live with it!", "Yadayada"...stop reading/answering this thread now...also, **** you.

    I live with zerging every time I play PS2. I try to avoid it, always. Nothing, however, can be done about a cool 12-24 vs 12-24 fight being ruined in 5 seconds by some roleplaying "WE MUST SAVE THE BASE AND ZERG EVERYTHING WITH MAXES!" outfit dropping in.

    How to fix this then? Or at least try?
    Well, I trust there are brighter people than I at SOE that have some more refined ideas.
    Here's some at least:

    - bring back the SOI (Sphere of Influence) system from PS1 wherein people would get exp share for the amount of time they invested in defending/attacking a base. Dropping in at the last second would give you very little.

    - if enemies suddenly zerg the crap out of you, they will get less experience based on hex population. E.g. a 1-12 vs 1-12 fight turning into a 24-48 vs 1-12 fight - due to the enemy doubling their presence - would only give the zerging side 50% of the exp.

    This would incentivize people spreading out. This would at least give _some_ con for the zergs for zerging people and ruining their day. As it stands now, there is none. Just ally up with all the major outfits, send outfits to zerg the crap out of every fight, win and receive rewards.
    The people farming for kills would still do so of course, since it's their life to stay on some leaderboard (or maybe they just like to frag, I know I do). But for everyone else it would mean a more natural way of distributing forces and creating more equal fights.

    Learn from PS1. Do something about zergs.
    • Up x 8
  2. Ol' Brownfists

    No. The zerg is some of the most fun you can have in this game.
  3. sauna

    I realize that people are of different opinions. This is mine and my clans. Zerging would not go away, ever, in PS2. This would just mean it's not the be-all end-all way of winning and gaining certs. Which it is now.
    • Up x 2
  4. ShoeFlip

    Absolutely, +1. I always hate when I join a small 1-12 v 1-12 (the only fights I actively look for most days) fight and after a few minutes my framerate drops to near-nil, I look at the map and oh hey (insert faction) has brought 50+ reinforcements, half of which pulled individual vehicles.
    • Up x 2
  5. vsae

    Zergs are fun. You can join the fight on the underpopped side and kill a ton of clueless people that are just wandering around, lots of afk infantry/tanks.
    You can jump inside a group of 10-15 people and knife the half to death before they realise you're the enemy. You can run around an enemy sunderer with 20-30 enemy around it and kill endlessly before some half decent player will notice you.
    You want to take all of this fun from ps2? Then it will be even less fun than now..
  6. sauna

    Read please. Why wouldn't you be able to do that? Do you think people will STOP zerging in PS2, ever? No, they will not. But this would make people think twice about zerging **** and ruining everyone's day. This would guaranteed produce more fun smaller fights.
    Reasons stated above.

    As it stands now, people zerg around mindlessly (and organised) and gain the most certs in the game. Zerging is the most effective way of doing EVERYTHING in PS2.
    You want ALL fights to be zerg fights? I don't, I want to meet more like-minded people that actually want to invest in an outpost capture/defense and be able to take a loss or win without ruining it just because they did /oufit invite *.* in warpgate or allied with everyone and their mother.

    I have a hard time getting my old time FPS friends to start playing PS2 since they ALL say "too much zerging", "no downside to zerging", etc. We quit PS1 because the zerg got out of control at the end and most of my outfit doesn't play PS2 any longer since noone likes this type of gameplay. Big fights can be fun sure, to this everyone agrees. But why make it the best and easiest way of winning, getting certs, griefing, etc. You want to bring 100 guys to a 24-48 fight, go ahead, but you should get a penalty for doing so. Or else everything just escalates exponentially.
    Thus resulting in players like me quitting a game they'd otherwise be happy to pay for for eternity.
    • Up x 2
  7. Whatupwidat

    I agree...in sorts. I don't think the zerging side should lose XP - but I do think the XP bonuses for being underpopped should be at a local level rather than a continent level. And should be much higher.
    • Up x 1
  8. Diilicious


    agree.
  9. patrykK1028

    Zergs are part of PS2 - can you find them in any other game ?
    Starcraft xd
    • Up x 1
  10. NinjaKirby

    Wouldn't it be awesome if we could keep the current Zerg sized forces but ENLARGE THE BASES A BIT, PLEASE.

    Then they would actually all fit in, and have more points to capture and not cram 2 whole oufits onto each of the 3-4 points available (If you're lucky to even have that many).

    This is a large scale MMOFPS; make the Bases larger scale, and the damn bases further apart, and the Zergs would naturally spread out in at least a single base and have to work a bit harder to capture all the various points. At the same time helping alleviate spawn camping because there could be 3-10 spawn rooms.

    Seriously, feels like CS_Office is bigger then a damn Tower outpost.

    If the future fifth continent isn't larger scale, some one is going to be getting a lot of emails. *DUN DUN DUN!?*

    Edit: Removed the naughty word out of fear of Moderator reprisal. So naughty~
    • Up x 1
  11. Rift23

    You know what balances the zerg (In every freaking game)? Splash. You know what gets nerfed every other patch because the zerglings won't stop clumping up like dryer lint and think they should be able to bum rush across an open field? Splash.
  12. Axehilt

    The SOI change would be beneficial regardless of whether we feel it balances the zerg. It was just flat-out a better system which rewarded players closer to their actual contribution.

    The XP penalty for zerging is unnecessary. If your force doubles the enemy XP is already weak because there are half as many players to kill (per friendly player) which means you earn just a little over 50% of normal XP (which is crap.) So I already avoid these fights because (most importantly) they don't need me, and then also because they're less fun and less rewarding.

    The better solution to incentivizing players to spread out is to get more meaningful base benefits for every base again. Previously if you played badly (ie overzerg every base) then you would lose 2-3 bases for every one you capture, and eventually you'd discover your resource income was crap and you had no tech plant. Nowadays only tech is a factor.
  13. gibstorm

    Massive battles are the reason I play the game. If i wanted battles of 64 people I would play battlefield.

    Battlefield has a engine setup for small size battles PS2 doesn't
  14. gibstorm


    Get backup. What are they going to do.

    "Sorry 12 enemies are here, your massive army needs to go somewhere else please and thank you??"
  15. gibstorm


    Why?? It's the other sides fault for only having 10 people at the base. Help can instantly redeploy to help defend from anywhere on the map when the odds are like that.

    The penalty is you used 100 guys to cap a base that only needs 15.
    • Up x 1
  16. Shalalala

    problem is help is not always available. during prime time there surely are more than enough people active on command chat but outside of prime time it becomes a whole different story. when you organize a zerg outside of prime times, your opponents rarely have a chance. is it strategically smart? yea of course! thing is it ruins the day for other players

    i am not saying zerging is bad or it needs to be removed. i support the idea of zerging having certain strategic and tactical drawbacks, but i see only a few ways of implementing such downsides. this idea surely is one possible answer to make zergs less profitable and it is in my humble opinion not something brainless like all those nerf calls.
  17. gibstorm



    So then you just punish the other side cause they have more players playing?? That is not going to work.

    Now we get to stand around for 20 mins to capture a point cause the enemy didn't send a defense force??
  18. Champagon

    There is no fix to it, the fact of the matter is, you have have a group of 100+ that will steam roll you, or you do the steam rolling with them. It's just the nature of war.

    You can also call anything a zerg, if you are in a 5 man squad and then all of a sudden a 24 man platoon come and surround you in tanks, that can be considered a zerg if you are on the wrong side of it.

    What i don't get is why some of you really hate to work together. in a TEAM based game. You won't have a good time if you lone wolf it, ya know? If a zerg on zerg battle is not for you then lead your platoon/squad some where else and flank.

    Or as you said in the OP, play something else /shrug
    • Up x 1
  19. Lolroflcake

    This game is about large fights as much as it is about small fights, sure it sucks to be ten people on the receiving end of an entire enemy zerg but that's just the way it goes people don't just want to lose their territory for the sake of some random persons good fight so they'll move to save that territory if it appears to be threatened.

    The manner in which its done though can be considered a problem. It shouldn't be a matter of redeploying and popping out of said bases spawn room in a tidal wave of fresh bodies, it should involve an actual counter attack from the warpgate or the nearest friendly base with sufficient facilities to provide vehicles for transport. Make it so its an actual undertaking that requires more than hitting the redeploy button and waiting, you know?

    Maybe make it so outside of instant action, squadspawn etc. you can't redeploy directly on a base under attack and have Sunderers only available from towers and the large main bases.
    • Up x 1
  20. patrykK1028

    You dont want zergs? Join Briggs. It has 4000 players daily, while Emerald has above 20 000