Development Update: Critical Mass

Discussion in 'Official News and Announcements' started by Mepps, Aug 16, 2017.

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  1. cobaltlightning

    I still miss facility alerts.
    Capture all of a continent is fine and all, but I miss where the main objective was to capture All the Tech Plants or Biolabs of a continent.
  2. Uziriel

    So... When it will appear on PTS?
    • Up x 1
  3. TheDarkSlayerX

    Still dissapointed you deleted the Indar Reward of -50% Air Vehicle discount because the air combat is a great source of potential that has not been exploited yet, well... at least on this era. It will take time to people to understand how locking a continent works, yet you are destroying the few mechanics that EVERYONE can understand.
    • Up x 1
  4. JibbaJabba

    For the reward system:

    Please add some type of reward for the faction with the least population. Something.

    If you don't then the cumulative effects of the reward system will exacerbate faction population imbalances. The low pop faction on a server will eventually be at both a numeric and a cert+equipment deficit.
    • Up x 1
  5. Nihil

    I'd give an XP bonus to low global, continent and regional pops. And have an empire switching lockout period of several hours.
  6. Courtnie

    Only a couple days left...still getting it out at the end of the month or will this end up like the other update to vehicles that we never saw again?
  7. Inseerlink

    Very nice update! That improves so much the whole gameplay experience with those things that are already working properly.
    However there are few things that are still messed up:
    - Long range Infiltrators are still weak,
    - Respawn time is still too fast;
    - Vertical thrusters are still too unmaneuverable + with fuel consuming too fast;
    - The fact that you are not able to grab over a tank when near it is still awkward (running over people at the street with a slow moving vehicle shoud be the last option at hand: the way it is right now gives much less sense of reality in this point to the game while also discourage how tanks shoud be played).

    We are talking about a internet game in which some players have delayed reaction inside game. That + the fact that infiltrators need to uncloack to hit makes for all players with bad internet conditions an unpleasant snipping time (being reducted to actions like aiming those who are standing still or sniping other snipers).
    Now imagine how long it takes for a sniper to get a bike, turn all the battlefield around, climb up a hill and begin to snipe people, just so that they spawn 7 seconds latter and just run towards the sniper with a jetpack.

    Most strategical actions and skilled moves are frustrating for the simple fact that people respawn as if they hadn't even died. A nice teamplay + a nice strategy shoud be more rewardable, even though you want to capture that objective you should also care about not dying at the wrong spot for no good reason.
    The way it is now is more like, spawn and run to the objective and make sure you are faster than the enemy to kill more people before dying (this may seen fun for a new players, but not for players looking for a reasonable match)
    If you want a good idea of what could be done about it:
    - I would easily allow infiltrators to atack while invisible and remove the long range weapons supressor and bullet flash supressor to make it a fair hunt, you still want to pick the right target so your position is not spoted while also making sniping other snipers a game that needs more skills in observation then just spoting the guy standing still without cloack.

    - Gives vertical thrusters more fuel and more horizontal maneuverability;
    (Could also give normal thrusters and horizontal thrusters more fuel and horizontal maneuverability to balance up if it is the case;)

    - Add more respawn time (+-1 minute is fair enougth, don't you think? we need some break to go to toilet too)

    - Add another knife weapon: magnetic gloves. When you wear it you are able grab over an enemy tank by its sides (or front or rear depending in which direction the tank is currently moving and if is moving)

    Want some fun addons?
    - Magnetic gloves can hijack vehicles after grabing them (disabling their movement for some time (half a minute maybe?)) the process is similar to hacking, but takes more time;
    - Vertical thrusters have so much fuel that it can easily reach airplanes;
    - Use vertical thrusters with gloves at the right timming to hijack aircrafts!
  8. elkikko92

    When they will release this patch!?
  9. Roxxlyy Community Relations


    There's no set date for when the update is coming to live yet, but we'll be doing another playtest later this week (or early next week) to gather more feedback. Depending on how that goes, we'll either get ready to push the update to live or iterate based on the feedback we get.
  10. JackSparrov

    Please Turkish Flag Decal Add
  11. Blam320

    @Inseerlink Are you crazy? I don't want to spend a minute or more waiting to respawn, and I'm sure 90% of the playerbase doesn't want to as well. You can take a bathroom break between respawns anyways.
  12. rawdev

    I think this is a problem because a lot of players won't know what's going on when the Meltdown alert hits... Capturing territories and building HIVES is good enough (actually, it's genius). And this also makes it simple for new players to do the objective (which would be simple... capture territory and/or build hives). If it also requires defending territory, then how does the defending faction know how much and what to defend? It now gets much more complicated. And our lives are already complicated as it is... just keep it short and simple. "Simple to learn but difficult to master" I believe is the saying...
  13. N3M0

  14. Inseerlink


    I am sure not crazy, and that is exactly the point: Noone want to wait a whole minute to respawn, that is why people should not play recklessly.
    Don't want to wait? Don't die. Big fights? Bring a medic. Want to win? Be creative.

    I assure you that only by adding this seamingless small penalty for reckless play into the game will make all fell much more psychological impact, adrenaline and will to get better and win.
    The most basic thing I can say about this is that even if this may be just a simulation game, it is still a war simulation game, and in a war we don't want to die, do we? The simple fact people are not caring right now for basic things like paying attention to the sides before trying to shoot the first person they see in front of them because they don't care about dying already mess up with most of the "simulation" thing.

    Not to mention that right now if you play as a medic you will notice that 80% of the players you were going to revive just decide to respawn instead when you were actually 10 foot from them, if not already reviving.

    Right now people are simple scared of nothing (in the middle of a war!!!), few are really trying to outsmart something somehow, and these few who do it do it mostly do for their very own fun, few strategical events are really game impacting right now and the 5(6) different classes have much little difference in their roles right now than in what they could and would really have.
  15. Graubeorn

    Currently the best alert strategy is attacking the weakest (=lowest pop) faction at the start of the alert, the main goal being capturing the bases that lock down lanes. This process usually generates a zerg (often intentionally induced using platoon-play), quickly maximizing the benefits of the current overpop (versus the most underpopped faction). Later in the alert the two dominant factions turn on each other, the ultimate alert winner being decided by several factors (including effective platoon/squad play, which is a positive thing).

    However, this has led to an alert dynamic that severely punishes the faction that has the least pop, as both other factions immediately turn on them at the start of the alert. Having to fight overpopping zergs (usually with platoon-support) on two (or even several) fronts is an impossible situation, which in turn leads to a lot of randoms (= not playing in platoon/squads) moving to other continent, for a more meaningful gaming experience. This in turn generates a positive feedback for the overpop-zerging alert strategy. It is currently not unusual to see the currently smallest factions pop drop even more (%) at the start of the alert, as players immediately change continent or log out.

    The only continent that currently plays with a different alert mechanic is Hossin. This, in combination with more players coming over to Hossin as an alert start at the other unlocked continent, has improved play on Hossin considerably, which is a good thing (tactically Hossin is the best and most challenging continent, IMO).

    However, overall this has led to deteriorating alert play, and to many players actually preferring to play during non-alert times. The current alert zerg-strategies also impacts base building. Base-generated points is the only viable option for the smallest faction, but being zerged from two or more directions in combination with quickly shrinking areas under control and the impossibility of defending a base against the zerg (when it arrives) leads to a situation where base-building basically is a waste of time.

    IMO, the new locking system seems to be a solid solution to the above stated problems (not all consider this a problem, some like to be part of an overwhelming zerg :)). The strategic bonus for attacking the weakest faction will simply be removed, instead turning the attacks towards the currently "strongest" faction. This is simply brilliant. At the same time, the currently weakest faction will get a new incentive to go on the attack against the strongest one, even potentially getting a bonus from stopping the continent lock. This is a new interesting option, especially for organized play (squads & platoons).

    The new system will also generate a new strategic need for base-building, since a continent lock will be impossible without the 2 hive points. At the same time it will (of course) generate a strategic need to destroy enemy bases, which will focus more fights to bases, which in turn will increase both variability and complexity (since bases can be built "anywhere"). A risk with this is that solitary base-building will become "obsolete", since there is currently no viable way to defend your one- or two-man base against an attacking squad/platoon. Putting half an hour into building a base just to see it dismantled in a couple of minutes as soon as your hive goes active is not that rewarding (currently at least). On the other hand, the need for cooperative base-building will of course increase, and base-building will become a larger part of organized play.

    The possibility of getting new & better drops might matter to some players (or even to most players, who wouldn't like it :)), but ultimately it will be the improved game experience that is the big win. And that will keep PS2 alive and and well into the fore-seeable future as well as generating and supporting a player base that at some point will lead to a PS3.

    Planetside 2, while not for everyone, is one of the best games available, and a large part of this is that it actually is both complex and hard, that you have a lot to learn for a long, long time, and that what you learn also affect the way you play and what you achieve. So many games nowadays "adapts" to player skill in order to "increase the enjoyment of the experience". It is g-damn refreshing playing PS2, where you get absolutely nothing for free and there are hundreds of opponents doing everything they can to kill you. And a dev team trying to keep everything even while generating new options and improving gameplay. Like I said, one of the best games ever (at least from the VIC-20 onwards ;)).

    Planetside 2 is already good enough for me, and the Critical Mass update will make it even better. Of course it will need to get tweaked and improved, as the PS2 community will do everything in it's power to utliize the new mechanics for their own ends :)). The only other thing I wish for would be an even more effective anti-cheat system, and a non-tolerance against cheaters that would encompass total forever bans across all characters on all servers. Cheating in PS2 is not a big problem, but it is g-damn irritating when it occurs. As I understand it the current report system is partly broken, since so many players report others for cheating due to other factors (mainly lag, seems that so many doesn't understand how net traffic actually works).
    • Up x 1
  16. Demigan

    This is a terrible, terrible idea.

    Long-range infiltrators shouldn't have similar power to other classes because their longer range would let them murder enemies who have little way of defending themselves from such long ranges. Also, have you ever tried sniping with a buddy? Shoot the same target in the chest with a bolt-action and he's dead, that's a pretty good power.
    It doesn't take a long time to get into a good sniping position. Then again, when you do take sooooo long to get into a sniping position, then it takes longer for someone to come kill you as you are defending yourself aren't you? You can snipe them on their way towards you, you can put down recon equipment to detect enemies that approach you, you can put down mines in likely approach spots to murder someone who just took more time to approach your spot than you did to get there and screw them royally over by making them do it a second time, you can... Oh gosh I can't believe I'm saying this... Change position once in a while so you won't be counter-sniped or backstabbed that much. If you can't make a long-range sniper work, it's in your hands rather than the enemy.
    Also you don't seem to understand that the game uses clientside hit detection, and the immense goddamn power it would be to allow Infils to shoot from stealth.

    Respawn times are more likely to be too slow. PS2 isn't build for long respawn times. Death is too whimsical with tanks, snipers, SMG infiltrators, latency, spawncamping and whatever else you can think off everywhere killing players without having a lot of options to defend themselves against it.
    What your "genius" suggestion would do, is promote super-zergs to stay alive while punishing anyone who tries to defend while outnumbered. You promote the use of HA's and Infiltrators as they have the best life expectancies, and doing something else that makes you vulnerable is not-done. No one would attack a choke-point because even with current 7 to 10 second respawns people avoid running into one, if you now punish someone with a 1 minute respawn no one would do it. Entire bases would flip simply because by the time people have respawned and gathered enough of a force to counter it the timer ran out, twice. You promote redeployside to avoid 1 minute respawntimers, meaning even more people scumming others out of the XP and kill by using this over and over again. Zerging and redeployside are already in the game, and these are practically the only "stragetical" cancer things you'll be promoting. Anyone outnumbered will instantly redeploy and move to another zerg to prevent getting stuck at a respawnscreen for 1 minute at a time.
    There is nothing, nothing good that can come from what you propose in PS2's setting. In fact, the game would be better off with even less punishment for death. Remove the D from KD so that people don't care about death anymore, and are free to experiment, assault, jump into the chokepoint of death over and over again until they discover a way to break it etc etc.

    Magnetic gloves don't work because of, again, latency and the way tank hitboxes work. Say you climb over a tank, the tank user would see you "climb" over thin air behind them, or if he starts moving he'll kill you anyway. You might be able to do something with "neutral" rumble seats that any player, friend or foe, can get on so you can "climb" the tank without getting killed or sliding off.

    What on earth do you mean with "vertical thrusters". Do you mean LA Icarus/Skirmisher jets? You want them to have enough height to jump over Skyrock Mesa (or whatever it's called) again? Even as a dedicated LA-player: No, that wouldn't be a good addition to the game.
    • Up x 1
  17. Halkesh

    I'm fine with increasing respawn, but 1 min is far too long.

    Add a queue system on each spawn :
    every 10 sec, spawn room spawn all the planetmen in queue
    remove fast respawn feature
    people have a 20 sec respawn timer
    in practice, you'll need 20-29 sec to respawn, depending of the spawn queue timer.
    You can spawn immediately in the Warpgate and the nearest big facility (bio lab, tech plant and amp station). If said facility is adjacent to enemy territory, you follow the standard respawn timer (20-29 sec)

    If many people respawn at the same time, you'll have a higher chance to have a coordinate action.
    Also, higher respawn time will make transport vehicle a faster option than redeploy from base to base.
  18. Who Garou

    Leave the re-spawn timers the way that they are.
    It takes long enough to re-spawn across the map when you have to spawn-jump to a location.
    Is it faster than a vehicle?
    Most of the times, yes. Unless there are enemies between you an the base you are trying to spawn to that you potentially have to engage or get destroyed by in route.

    Sitting around waiting for the spawn timer is no fun as it is. It breaks momentum.
    Let people get into the game and play and not sit around waiting for re-spawn.

    Someone wanting a spawn timer increase sounds like a KDR player that really isn't getting into the action at any rate.

    If the DEVs really want to improve this game they need to "even more" actively go after the hackers.
    I would suggest going after the Outfits that have hacker based names first -- pretty much anyone that plays on a server for any length of time has seen these outfits and know who they are.
    The feeling is that the DEVs allow these cheats to cheat because they are on the "in" with the DEVs.
    I'm not saying that they are, and I would hope that any DEV-biases aren't affecting game balance either.

    Population on the server that I play on is dropping.
    Something needs to be done to re-invigorate the player-base for sure.
    I honestly think that the ghost of impending changes to vehicle combat has had some impact on this.

    If you are going to make the changes to vehicle weapons and game play, do it and get it the higby over with.
    If you aren't going to do it, state that you won't make the changes so that it will stop stifling game play for those hesitant to equip their vehicles because they are afraid that they will have to start purchases for their vehicles from scratch once a massive change to vehicular combat hits.
    I know people that have stopped playing over this "phantom" lurking out there waiting to pounce on their game play. They would rather leave feeling like they left in a good place than to play the new vehicular combat system and leave in disgust.
  19. MuggieWara

    Never in my time in these forums have i read more idiotic,ad hoc,wishful thinking.

    What you write is simply UNBELIEVABLE!Balance is a concept completely beyond your grasp.
  20. Akuzimo

    A minute respawn time? That that nonsense out of here.

    Also, as an infiltrator, if you snipe someone who knows where you are and you sit there trying to get more kills, you deserve to get counter-sniped/assailed by light assaults. When I'm spotted, the first thing I do if I don't kill the person who saw me is beat feet to somewhere else.
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