I have to say I am impressed

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Alan Kalane, Jun 15, 2016.

  1. Alan Kalane

    A while ago I made a post about how nothing changes and the game is pretty much dead. I have to take that back, this is the biggest and best patch I've ever seen in this game. It also seems like the playercount went up and it certainly feels better. So congratulations DayBreak, you've made some good decisions recently. I even came back after a long long break and so far I am having fun again.

    But the biggest issues remain unsolved. I've always said that this game would be so much better if it didn't have so many faulty mechanics. The top priority for me is (and always was) dealing with redeployside, spawncamping and zerging. Nobody likes to get camped 96+ to 24. And don't take me wrong, it SHOULD be possible to have a pop advantage, after all that's partially what the game is about. It SHOULD be a valid strategy to swarm in and overpop your enemy with sheer numbers. But currently it's the ONLY strategy worth considering and that has to change, because right now finding a battle that's not largely overpopped is a rare find and battles last too short.
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  2. Eternaloptimist

    Doesn't bother me - target rich environment........and zergs tend to peter out after two or three bases most times I've been on one or facing one. So a couple of tactical withdrawals - OK, retreats - is usually enough.

    Try Hossin. it's mostly poxy little fights where you can only be overpopped by a large margin if you are the only one there from your faction, or maybe with a mate. OK I exaggerate, but not by much.

    And on other continents (EU servers where I play) I am regularly in drawn-out battles where the imbalance is often not much more than 60:40 on average.

    My personal gripe is explosive spam but that is as legitimate as the population issue. However, I would like the ability to spawn into a fight where my faction is heavily outpopped, or even just to a base nearby, which is not always possible.
  3. SwornJupiter

    Zerging is an entirely player-driven problem. There's nothing the devs can really do about this. The individual player should be redeploying to underpopped areas to help out their faction efforts, but 99% of them prefer to be sheep and just zerg with all of the rest. Seriously, it's completely the product of the average player's mindset.
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  4. Slandebande

    Aye I agree with this. I also suspect that part of the issue many (or at least some) people are having with "overpop fights" is that they aren't reading the map correctly, in that yeah, your faction may be outnumbered 24v96+ in a certain hex, but in the adjacent hex, you are outpopping the enemy with 96+v24, meaning, in effect it is actually an even battle. It is just taking place in the no-mans-land between the bases, and thus the population seems very unbalanced. There are actually numerous bases where this happens regularly.
  5. Alan Kalane

    Every player-driven problem is a result of bad design. Nobody does anything just because "they have a bad mindset". If everybody spams ZOE maxes, is that because "they have a bad mindset" or because ZOE is OP?

    If everybody zergs is it because "they have a bad mindset"or because it's the easiest and most efficient way to win? Surely they wouldn't do that so often if it wasn't so effective. If, for example, having a large army in one place required logistics(such as delivering energy which is required for people to spawn in the hex) it could be much more efficient to spread out than put everybody in the same place and need to import large ammounts of energy. I believe it was talked about some time ago as one of the phases of the resource revamp.
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  6. Imp C Bravo


    I can't agree with this. While often true, I don't think so in the case of zergs. This is a game, people come to unwind. A lot of the time they don't want to juggle all of the nuances of the game -- because let's be honest here -- the number of players, the variety of combat tools, and the plentiful environments creates a fair amount of depth as far as how you want to approach a goal. That's counter to just mindless bampowkablooie of a large group of people. So, zergs are pretty un preventable.

    A great example of this is EvE online. The single most cerebral game out there (learn to love spreadsheets!) and people will often zerg to win. It's punishment, respawn, and travel mechanics completely differ from ours. Same concept as it's also open world.
  7. Sulsa

    Yeah that makes very little sense in the case of zergs.
    The easiest way to accomplish the goal of conquest in PS2 is with superior numbers. The devs left this a sandbox game as much as they thought they could get away with.
    How on earth could you restrain a side with the most players without it seeming arbitrary and artificially contrived?
  8. Sulsa

    Yes it is awesome :D
    For every base being zerged, you have your choice of at least 2-3 others that are left completely undefended for small team ops.
  9. Alan Kalane

    I do not want to restrain anyone from zerging. As I said it should be a valid strategy to outnumber your enemy, it's partially what the game is about. I just want to make it so it's generally not as efficient as spreading out.

    In a real war it is very rare for a faction to group all it's troops in one place. Because if you do so your troops won't be able to respond to an attack elsewhere. In Planetside 2 you don't have this kind of consequences. You can mass redeploy an entire platoon across the entire map in a matter of seconds, so it's like your troops are omnipresent or something. Large armies also require importing huge ammounts of supplies, creating a need for convoys. The convoys have to be guarded, otherwise they can be easily intercepted by the enemy, which requires additional manpower just to maintain the army.

    You simply do not see any of the above in PS2 and this creates a meta, where a single, concentrated force can easily defend and attack multiple facilities at the same time, by simply redeploying and crushing their opposition wherever they go. A platoon can, for example, be capping one base, then redeploy to defend another base on the other side of the map, destroy the enemy sunderrer with overwhelming force and be back in a minute.
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