Wow, this guy called it 3 years ago

Developer promises don't mean much.

As for the game, TBQH I don't play it much anymore. I just get a bit of uh...the german word.

Which reminds me of this hilarious interpretation of its pronunciation.




But honestly, even though I deleted my high BR characters(someone bet me I wouldn't hah) and only log in to muck around with changes out of curiosity, I do still wish this game would make a magical comeback. But I'm not betting on it.

First world problems heh. A nice bourbon and some forum banter and I'm pretty entertained at least.

And I truly appreciate that. Respect.

Yup. This is the funny thing about the industry; a lot of the terms are always in flux like the damned stubburness of people to think a MOBA is still an RTS... like what the 'eff... Just because it's using an RTS engine with RTS interface; doesn't make it an RTS but... I digress.
The point about PS2 being no more or less than it's origin title is more or less; what I'd be refering in the hopes that the devs would've taken PS1's meta game and evolved into something more - but that's a topic best left to a seporate thread for theory crafting purposes.
I obviously, prefer the latter term for MMO; and single online and persistently dynamic world with a massive player population. I only count PS1 as MORE MMO than PS2, in this regard; because in PS1 capturing bases and territory actually had value (of which the resource revamp for PS2 when complete should accomplish as well). That alone added the "Dynamics" to the Persistent World. The original Dev idea to let players re-design lattice lines would've thrown that ball even further.

It's decline was ironically lead by the two content updates (Core Combat) and the BFRs, which were released '03 and '04. The subject in question by the OP.
But despite it's decline, my point stands. It was still Pay to Play even in '09. It didn't go F2P 'til 2012.

Ok, I'm truly confused by this; you said and I quote:

"...Planetside 2 was originally based on Battlefield as stated by Higby, as Planetside (1) was influenced by the release of Battlefield 2142...."

If you're referring the Xpack, again it doesn't make sense because BF 2142 released in '06 and Core Combat + the BFRs were released in '03 and 04 respectively.
Do you see why I'm kind'a confused? lol

Ether Higby was lying or he was misunderstood. BF2142 is literally a whole gaming generation after PS1. The only BIG updates after the BFR update was "The Bend" which restructured the continents into being individuals planets and introduced the Battle Isles.

maybe the "1" and "2"s were... misplaced? Erm... IDK

No, no no. No no no.
I meaning in technical sense. Mechanics. Functions. The literal FUNCTIONS available when playing.

I'm aware that CoD can be very tactical. I've done pro-play before my self and like you, I can say the same thing about Starcraft.
Very simplistic RTS, doesn't add anything new or unique to the genre; but it's simplistic mechanics are so polished that it's probably the greatest pro-platform available for pro-competitive RTS gaming. Same could be said with CoD pro-team matches.

I'm referring to the mechanics/technical functions only. PS2 doesn't utilize mechanics that would otherwise make it a "Tactical" shooter because it doesn't have Prone, Lean, Acrobatics, Suppression ect. ect. ect.
It's designed for twitch play; primarily a muscle memory and reflex skill game rather than cognitive or strategic. This is a designer's way of making a game "easy to learn" but "hard to master". Two practices that go well with Arena applicable multiplayer games but... not so much on Niche games like the scale of Planetside.

Tactics still apply though; so much so that they break the balance of the game if people would just... you know... work together >.>;
A well co-ordinated squadron of ESFs with Hornets is hilarious; super bad flight mechanics aside.



While this delightful banter is quite exhilarating? I'm imagining myself talking in a British accent now which means I'm tired as f__k.
This is a good convo though.

Ever try peach schnapps?

It's horrific, but it's the good kind of horrific, the kind that endlessly captivates you and leaves you wanting more. If I wasn't loaded right now it's be on the top of my "consume in vast quantities" list.

I haven't, I guess I'll have to try some. I mostly drink whisky and rum, sometimes gin/vodka cocktails if I want something more light/fresh/citrusy.

<3

I try to avoid using the "Definitions" as a bible and more as a guidline, using them to establish what I think best describes it. The landscape of gaming is far too varied in my opinion to consolidate it under umbrella terms. I suspect many feel the same.

Check out Vindicore's post on reddit he made a few hours ago. Higby even makes an appearance. Good sign considering his comment.

Definitely, though I personally find the first game a bit plodding at the best of times. But the map changed much more slowly and your actions had much more far-reaching implications than here, hopefully that changes with continental lattice and whatever else will make this game more like that.

Sounds horrifying and broken; it'd be a ***** to get right and make it fun.

But would the game have been better off if it was F2P? That's the question that's important. I'd be willing to say yes, provided the pricing model wasn't p2w.

I may have misread it or misinterpreted what was said. Whatevs lol.

I'm getting a "Zerg" vibe from you, filthy casual.

In that case you're correct to an extent. Planetside 2 still does however, have active abilities, medical packs, quick revives, squad mechanics and perks, vehicles and verticality to an extent most other games lack. These are a whole new can of worms.

I'll have to disagree on one thing though, I find this game is much more reliant on map knowledge and mobility than "twitch" like in Battlefield and Call of Duty (where it is admittedly still very important). The relatively slow TTK (1.5 seconds effective TTK) further reinforces this in my mind.

It's even better after you lay yourself to waste with hard liquor.

i'm still loving to play this game but i must admit it's not going the direction i would want it to:

- more and more bugs with every patch, a new update fixes 5 things but breaks 10, and so on

- gradually getting worse hit detection and server latency. my connection speed remains the same but my average ping in this game gets higher and higher

- ridiculous things being added, like halloween face masks, flaming skull helmets, space pumpkins, silly horns... what started as gritty war game in alpha phase slowly goes down the road of comicstyle casual game. only a matter of time until PS2 becomes nothing but TF2 with vehicles

- many key developers already left the game, meaning it's probably going down the drain soon. meanwhile, the roadmap is a former shadow of itself. many things aren't even looked at. most posts are from january 2013 (!) and still left unscheduled. there is no real progress on crucial game elements (resource revamp, battle islands/nexus). meanwhile, devs work on terrible halloween events that are just useless


i predict this game will be dead in one and a half years unless the ps4 release may make for a solid revival. hopefully, they can pull it off and the pc version may benefit from it as well

Most people I know get less neurotic and crazy as they drink

Psh, I'm not crazy. I'm one of the few sane people.

I've been tested and I know for sure that I'm not bipolar, schizophrenic, or autistic at least. Maybe a little obsessive-compulsive and depressed or something like that. I probably also have an existential and identity crisis but it's under control. Sense of humor + lots of media to distract me from the apparent meaningless of life and that kind of stuff.

I get the distinct impression you're fun at parties Paperlamp, with all your not telling dark jokes and doom 'n' gloom stories. Very cheery vibe.














That was sarcasm btw :3

No body said taking a risky design path was easy. It took RTS quite awhile before it figured the whole Asymetric Balance idea. Many games with great potential had to fall before Starcraft finally came a long to become the shining example we think it is today.

This would really lead to some interesting discussion because we just.. assume, it would work.

I pay a sub for PS2 because I feel it's worth it to continuously INVEST in the game. I feel I may get a bigger return from them if I continue to pay their salary on a monthly basis, no sales pitch required.
I won't buy weapons individual because, like my striker (the only thing I've ever bought with SC) it was nerfed into a oblivion that my 7$ item was practically stolen from me.

There are certain repercussions that happen when you go F2P. F2P requires 1 of 2 things; expiring and purchase exclusive content (like boosts) or constant content updates (new skins, guns, blah blah blah).

In the long list of the best way to F2P micro transaction? Skins are probably the only thing I really support, and here's why.

Boosts, while accessible to everyone, tread the fine line of P2W. This is game content which increases some sort of performance for the player passively but is only attainable through hard cash. Leveling boots don't cross that line; but it's easy to put up another item that does using the same system. And some games make leveling/progression SOO ******* SLOW that you're practically FORCED to buy the boosts (usually Asian MMOs do this). PS2 isn't guilty but I still don't do it.

Constant Content seems great but unlike a standard Sub-based game like WoW, there's a part of the dev team that has to constantly come up with new items over and over and over. Not only does these mean a few members might not have any cohesion with larger projects but it also means that they dilute the diversity of the current content. Guns in PS2 can only be so different before they just saturate the crap out've it and you have what we already have - uninteresting items that no one in their right mind spends SC on anymore because the starter weapons ARE BETTER/MORE INTERESTING. In short, in-game Player items as a source of money dilutes the creativity. For the sake of player experience, Less is often More. VS, NC and TR would feel a lot more diverse if their weapon armory was likely cut in half and many of weapons of the same type had all of their features combined into a single weapon; for example.
It was kind'a like this in PS1. There really wasn't that many guns, and it's stupidly redundant to spend an obscene amount of progression points to unlock an (S) model weapon of a type you already have, JUST so you can pay MORE to unlock the feature it brings to that item ( a ******* silencer...).

The skins is the only thing I support, even though I have no interest in them when they are 10 bucks a pop and stupidly obnoxious/troll worthy... Personal opinion.

I actually mained Zerg in the Brood War days, trying for WCG with my coach. I modeled myself after JulyZerg and preferred builds similar to his "Sauron Zerg" play style. I loved the heavy macro game. Once you got good at it and knew how to make strong tactical decisions, you only needed 150 APM to pull it off; leaving the 300+ apm micro kings pissed off when you simply swarmed them from all available flanks. (cant stutter step out've an envelope, Boxer).

Oh I agree, but on a different scale. Map knowledge pays off more on the larger scale, I think. So long as you have people orginized enough to do so, you'll easily dominate when you know there is a huge hill some where or where a good choke is. Too many platoons lose a large fight because of the lack of any strategic fore sight in utilizing the terrain on a macro scale. It's sad really. The problem is in the bases where infantry always want to hide because of the vehicle spam and where the base lay out is super small and all bases look the same... Every one knows the layout of a Watch Tower so it's really "who abuses the Lag Comp/Hit Detect first" type of scenario more than anything else.

I have some Crown Royal in the cabinet... I'll think about it.

The dreaded "SOE gamebreaker patch" is yet to come...

Technically it's already here. Most of the servers are playing with the latency of the dialup era and hardly registering hits (in a FPS game). Yeah sure could I go "craft" some implants in the meantime in order to explore other aspects of the game while not being able to shoot at other players properly, but I don't know if my brain will be able to handle such amount of information.

I agree with this except I think PS2 is guilty as a "pay-to-not-grind". New players are very lacking in options for dealing with certain situations - particularly when it comes to vehicles and air. It's also particularly noticeable as a MAX unit which I ended up spending quite a bit of time in. You can really feel a difference when facing new players that don't have AV/Conc nades on their Heavy or C4 on their Light Assault yet. I could go on 25+ kill streaks against noobs with just autorepair. And their vehicles...oh god the default vehicle situation is bad.

Even nanoweave 5 is a bit over the top. It's a fairly significant chuck of durability in the long run and all it does is give players who either play a ton or pay a substantial advantage against those who don't.

Then there's just the result a reward system has on the gameplay. This is really the worst thing about it. You get people choosing their actions based on how it will personally reward them so they can get new unlocks faster, rather than playing for the intended objectives of the game. And I was totally guilty of this, total farming dbag I have to admit. I abused the hell out of the pre-nerf viper lightning just being a vulture outside fights with decent amounts of infantry running around.

Definitely in agreement with this. It has felt for quite awhile like many weapon releases have been cash grabs that easily could've been effort spent on existing weapons that were lacking in purpose/design. For example...every burst fire primary other than the SABR-13 have been pretty much pointless downgrades since the beginning of the game.

I think part of this is just the scale and number of players. It becomes exponentially more difficult to organize when going from tighter knit groups of players up to platoons of 48 players or outfits of hundreds of people.

And I agree that indoor areas are definitely too cramped. That's one reason I cheesed MAX suits so much - you really can't go wrong with them indoors and they're almost objectively the best choice for contributing to a fight and not spam-dying to close range weapons.

Surprisingly I'm quite liked at parties, although I don't go to many. Of course I put on a lighter character when necessary for them.

TBH, it isn't all that bad; it's just playing support is that fruitful compared to a pure damage class.

Each class should have support options of some sort. LAs should get C4 or Demo-pack as a class item starting and get massive exp for nuking terminals/turrets/gens (new mechanics required for this to work) and HA LMGs should reward you for suppression.
But then again, I know my thoughts on making the game a Tactical Shooter is highly contraversial so I'll leave it at that.

As for the progression; it's really not that bad. Play a medic for a few you'll get everything you need rather quickly. Most of the weapons are garbage and the only good reasons happen to be your starters or some of the 250 cert ones.
NW 5 is expensive but in most sitauations, NW 4 is actually all you need.
Rushing to get C4 early is only worth it if you're playing the class that's best at it (LA), other wise other additions in gear really don't matter.

It's the vehicles that are terrible as hell. The Stock ESF is a laughing stock (see what I did there? HA! I'm tired). Just be glad the resource system is in favor of spamming vehicles, other wise as trainees would never have the time to learn.

Yup. The new pistols were pretty bad (are). My $7.00 T2 Striker is still pretty bad post-nerf (YES IM AWARE IT WAS BROKEN BEFORE.. but still).
Don't like the idea that the weapon you pay for can be drastically changed after purchase. Don't support the fact that constantly cramming new weapons because you need them for more revenue is good for the over all health of the game.

People need to keep playing the game because they enjoy the experience and want to continue to have that experiance, not because they want a new toy to Auraxiam and throw away a month later when it's old. If you have people screaming for more content so soon, than it's clear your CURRENT CORE Content is simply not good enough.

I've been apart of many tightly working full platoon. The results are horrendous when you have a good leader and every man/woman following orders. These are obviously rare and are usually "Spec Ops" type of nights, pre-planned days every one sets a scheduled time for. But man oh man, is it fun to absolutely BREAK the game when you're that organized.

What's "wow" about this exactly?

It's a hyper generic prediction that players' expectations won't be met, that games will gradually grow old to players (who will blame it on certain updates,) that a developer won't listen to every single player, and will deliver new things that weren't asked for.

Are you new to games? That describes every developer ever.

He's just spreading the dirt around.

The game is basically going to go the same direction as PS1 and only difference being is that maybe more ppl will keep it active some because of the F2P. The Road map has basically been a joke, rather than implement things that the community wanted they adding things they hadnt even discussed. So many things to fix and they plan on still adding more weapons.

They had initial ideas behind Heavy MBT, nothing heard from since the CC vid, They had Ideas and concept already done for The Rocket Rifle, nothing heard from, LA has been useless without a tool and on the Road map since Jan 2013 meanwhile they have fixed and patched other classes more than once. T-ray has self SOE for a company that hasnt even developed a game yet, he is apart of their first game project which is a F2P shooter, plus 4 other ppl of the team left also, i was told 30% of Cobalt has left, entire outfits have gone on to different games because lack of Meta game and reason to fight. SOE will always cling on to EQ for the subs the same way Sega have always clinged on to Sonic for dear life.

Several games SOE have had have all gone same way, great start, good community, decline in pop, server merges, less communcation with fans, pay no attention to community then close.

im Planetside for life even thought id still be playing PS1 over PS2 if there was a big enough community, I knew it wasnt headed for a long period when they decided against putting any of the good elements from PS1 in it despite lots of PS1 vet input

How is the game not better off then it was 2 years ago??

The problem is people forget about the good changes quickly but remember the bad ones.

All games go through this there will always be bad ideas that don't work in MMOs

PS2 was never intended for the PC crowd in the first place IMHO.

SOE took and established FPS with a loyal following (PS1) and sought to expand on the theme to sell to the console crowd.

It took the PS1 brand with hope that the game would sell itself with minimal input especially after the institution of the Player Studio.

The game is a prettier, but ultimately simpler game designed specifically for the FTP market with an eye toward fleshing out the population with drop-ins to maintain an "epic" feel.

It's designed around player frustration to make membership seem worthwhile and as such, is ultimately unfriendly toward new players.

The game had a lot of promise early on, but I think the game was "hijacked" when the original art team was let go back in 2011 or so and sent in a different direction.

Pure speculation I know, but that last statement is based on several lengthy conversations with a former artist.

The game still holds a crapload of promise if the devs can get some SOE support, but I think the "bloom is off the rose" and not at all likely.

We'll see...

Not really they took a game that never reach mainstream popularity and made changes in hopes it would be more popular based on other games that ARE currently popular.