I would pay $20/month for a subscription based Planetside

But here's what I want to see in it:

Inventory system. Class-less. Build your own loadout.

Certification system similar to Planetside 1. Special note: You will -never- unlock everything in the game. Your character is specialized.

• Armored Assault - Lightning
• Armored Assault 2 - MBT
• Air Support - Valkyrie
• Air Support 2 - Liberator, Galaxy
• Buggy - Harasser, ATV
• Buggy 2 - Skyguard, ES Buggy
• etc etc, not going to list it all, but you get the idea. The first level of cert will give you general use items in the category, while obtaining level 2 or 3 will give you more specialized and effective equipment.

Advancing through ranks with weapons unlocks attachments. You do not purchase them in any way.

Sparsity of lattice-linked bases from Planetside 1. Link large outposts that support 100v100 fights for the front lines of the battle.

Outposts from Planetside 2. Smaller outposts are not lattice linked, but instead can be used as spawn points near larger facilities.

Large outposts and bases are used as Main Facilities.

• Maybe the Amp Station and Bases such as Quartz Ridge provide the same benefit.
• Lattice-linked bases will have means to disable lattice links and cut benefits - similar to generators in Planetside 1.

All spawn points are underground. Painfields will be placed in such a way that the defenders must leave the spawn room shields to attack. Each base also has an SCU that is very close to the spawn room and very easy for defenders to hold.

Capture mechanics vary. Hack and Hold from Planetside 1. King of the hill(s) from Planetside 2. LLU Runs. Attrition (deplete resources by spawn tickets, destroying things, etc to neutralize the base.... Then re-fill it) is always a possibility.

Vehicle roles are specific.

• Tanks are there to dominate the vehicle game - each tank has AP-style guns that are faction specific. If you go against a tank and you are not a tank and you're on the ground - you probably lose.
• Lightnings are 1-man light tanks. They are a mix between decent vehicle combat and infantry killing. HEAT-style guns.
• New vehicle - a buggy variant called the Skyguard. Fast moving with a Flak Cannon and Kobalt.
• ES Buggies and Harasser are crowd-control vehicles. They only receive AI-style guns.
• ESFs are built to dominate the air game and air game only. They get coyotes and lock on A2A (yes, whatever), as well as nose guns.
• Valkyrie is re-formed into a liberator-style gunship meant for infantry control/insertion. Armor is increased to match liberator, crew is 100% protected from Flak damage. Model is re-designed so it becomes a high-wing aircraft - giving infantry shooting out the side a clearer shot to the ground. Front gunner gets a Duster (except it has the accuracy of the Zepher).
• Liberator is A2G domination bomber. Tailgun removed. Gunner gets a 5-round Dalton. They can be unloaded completely in 2 seconds. There's a catch, the Dalton can only be aimed forward or reversed. And cannot be fired if the aircraft rolls past a certain point. Liberator has a walker on the tail to ward off attackets.
• Sunderers can be outfitted with 2 defense weapons as they are now, a deploy shield or a cloaking field. All of these options only come online when the sunderer is deployed.
• Galaxies are used as air transport. They can carry light vehicles (Lightning, Buggy, ATV, ANT) They are given a deploy ability on the ground. When deployed at an allied base, they become a spawn point for the whole empire. When deployed at an enemy base, they get wing-mounted shields on one side that are impregnable. Pressing X will change which side the shield is on, but takes a number of seconds to switch.
• ANT makes a comeback. Basic vehicle, no weapons, moderate speed. Meant only for delivering Nanites to bases.

Cosmetics are now un-silly and unlocked by certain actions. Whether that is leveling up your character, acquiring points using a gun, healing people, etc - they will unlock empire themed cosmetics for your character.

Anyway, that's just my wish-list if ever Planetside were to exist. Seeing as SOE was bought out, I honestly don't hold much hope for the future of the game. But in the off-chance....

I would pay 20 bucks per month if the game goes not subscription based.

Since it would be exceptionally difficult to entice new players to join the game at $20/month....

You can play for free up to a certain low rank. At that point, your character stops progressing. You earn points, but it doesn't tally up to increase your battle rank and therefore number of certs. This is not P2W in a F2P game. This is an unlimited trial version of the game so you can decide if you like it enough to upgrade to a full membership. Cancelling a subscription will first save your progress - then revert your character to the level cap of a trial user. Your certs are re-funded and put back at the trial user cap, so you can decide how to spend them.

If you can commit 10,000 people willing to subscribe at that price for at least one year, SOE will have enough funding to actually implement it. Problem is few people would.

Kick-starter and pre-order style benefits could help. You can have supporter decals, beta decals, alpha decals, special skins, voice macro sets, titles, anything cosmetic and non-intrustive for anyone paying 3, 6, 12 months in advance while the game is in development.

What is the point of a thread like this? It's never going to happen, so why waste your time writing all that?

I agree that I would much rather pay a subscription and get a non-F2P game, but it's just not viable in this day and age.

It wasn't viable when PS1 came out. That game never got the playerbase it deserved. When I told people about it every friend I knew would say "You expect me to pay a subscription for a shooter?"

Let's start our own metric for this thread: people who want a PS1 experience, but don't currently play PS1.

News flash, a PS1 Sub was cheaper and it didn't work out.

Yea.....no I don't pay and that means I get to play and be your entertainment either killing you or being killed.

I already invested over $200 into this game, I'm not dropping another cent, I'll still play it as long as I have people to shoot at but the second they try to charge me to keep playing I'm out.

How free to play works on planetside 2, free to play + MMO style attracts many free players.... this availability of large fights and so forth attracts the much smaller % of players who are willing to pay for a first person shooter and are willing to fork out more than a month's sub worth in money as they sub and/or buy cosmetics & upgrades. If PS2 went subscription it would likely fail in a week, sorry to break it to you. The fact of the matter is while the MMO style of PS2 is highly attractive along side the other diversities people will always have the smaller scale alternatives which are still going to be free.

F2P players make the game more fun for those who pay & paying players whether for cosmetics or to win or get that edge quicker make it possible for those who don't pay to play. Just be glad in this game that a BR1 can still kill a BR100 even if it's a little harder. Somebody who's moderately good at shooters and is adaptive will be able to keep in the game and get kills & points.

You are practically saying you want the content from Planetside 1 with Planetside 2 graphics.

I miss many of the things from planetside 1 that you list as well, but there is no chance for all of this to happen. Perhaps we can get a galaxy that can carry vehicles or animated exit/entry of vehicles so people can't insta-bail.

I dunno if they'd been sensible and dropped PS1 to $7 a month rather than trying to keep it at EQ1 levels ($15) it would have have kept and likely gained more subs (also PS1 was never well advertised), I'm sure it would have been profitable at that level in those days, even if they'd had to put in X hours a month (or you had to pay more) of playtime.

Also in those days internet gaming penertration was not what is now, and PS1 was pretty demanding for the average spec PC in those days, so even if PS1 had been F2P then I doubt it would have gained mucn more than two or three its peak subscriber numbers so I doubt it would have even then equalled EQ1.

At the time/for the time PS1 had reasonable subscription numbers (60,000 - the most popular MMO around, by far, EQ1 only had 450,000 subs), it just didn't hold on to them for very long (although it still maintained that level for about 18 months).

and space sims weren't viable in this day and age,

star citizen is about to top 72 million.

not with that attitude it won't

Planetside 1 is Free to Play right now bro, go do that jazz.

why not play wolfenstein on dosbox if you just want an fps?

That's a good point. Why wouldn't you do it?

The problem with this, is that SOE has totally abandoned PS1, leaving it in a broken state. Core Combat and Aftershock do not work, but the caves are still stuck in the same condition they were when F2P happened, making the cycling caves unbalanced and unchangable.

Hackers run rampant and unchecked because SOE does not have any GMs assigned to police the game. Corpses are also broken and stuck in a holiday state, and wont be changed back.

and, as SOE did through most of PS1s life, it is unadvertised and hardly anyone knows they can download and play it, if they arent scared away by Hackers.

PS1s death was not because of its sub cost, it was pure, 100% neglect by SOE.

I would gladly return to paying 15$ a month for PS1 if SOE would fix all its problems, or make a real sequal that has even a fraction PS1s spirit.

i'd stop playing PS2 if there was a subscription and go back to BF4

Probably in it's current state, noone would pay a sub to this game.