Extremely Dissatisfying Gameplay

CONSTRUCTION:

I won't touch on the initial implementation of construction--that was beyond bad.

For now, ONE person. ONE PERSON, can destroy an entire base in a few minutes when it took the builders HOURS. Driving back and forth with an ANT (dealing the terrible game engine physics for vehicles, dealing with DBG's horrendous bureaucracy-like regulation codes for what can be built where....

All to be undone in minutes by ONE person. ONE PERSON. Base gone.

DBG, that is bad...very bad game design.

Just a few areas to consider:

Effort vs Reward.
Constricting Rules.
Time vs Result.
How a base contributes to the CORE GAME PLAY. Or NOT.


Very very very bad Construction in Planetside 2. And it has SUCH promise.

It's true...
As a game, PS2 is always bad at mitigating frustration.

Theres a few solutions for this.

1: PMB's arent supposed to be low-player events. The AI modules are supposed to give limited protection until friendlies arrive to defend. The change to make PMB's more part of the lattice is a good one.

2: Make PMB's that are build nearby a PMB capture point invulnerable to damage until either a lattice-link is created or an OS is fired from the invulnerable PMB. This gives time for Players to build and man a PMB without it being destroyed while the defenders are busy defending the next base.

3: reduce the effort to create a base. For example, give players access to a drone that can cycle through all construction templates and place them. This gives you a better view and faster placement.

I'd have to disagree somewhat, I think the bases are too big, I went up to a base with a light assault used my C4, used my rocklets with the upgrade thats better for explosive damage... Then after that I think I took out like 1 structure and ran out of ammo. I think the base is very susceptible to things like tanks that never really run out of ammo and don't really have to get anywhere close. But its also like very variable etc etc, bases that are fully kitted out with sky guards etc etc are impossible to kill whereas bases with no unlocks litterally serve no purpose but to try and scrape a few points towards the 25k total before someone decides they want to casually blow something up.

I also had this frustrating thing on amerish the other day where we were almost warpgated, and then the TR decide to put a massive base between two mountain ranged which completely stopped us from getting a sunderer to their next base so it litterally forced us to play out this grand scale fight with definite terrain disadvantages, kind of like imagine taking quartz ridge was your only option and you were already underpoped. Then that didn't even cap a territory to destroy their base, thats how demoralising it was.

Did cyro or someone blow up your hive? They are going away for a long time soon so stop your fussing over nothing.

PMBs are very vulnerable to infantry, you just need a sunderer nearby to respawn/resupply at.
1. Take a Stalker and sneak in, identify places you can hide from the Anti Infantry Guns and get an angle on critical modules.
2. Redeploy as an infiltrator with an SMG and pistol combo, sneak in and kill AI module.
3. Repeat process until all Anti-infantry towers are inert.
4. Wipe out base at your leisure.

You are right, however, in that tanks are much faster at reducing a PMB 2-3 MBTs will crush a base's defences within minutes.

Have you been to test yet? The construction changes we've made are beginning to push the system into a more support-type role, with an emphasis on group building and maintenance/support of bases.

This should shake things up a bit, and will go live next week. We're still working towards making more changes to better fit the role of the construction system into PS2 gameplay as a whole.

I agree bases should have been a support role used for defense which is what was wanted in the first place. However though the rate to a which such base is built still does not fit in line with the current rate of how the game flows. Even at points using PMB are fairly weak and don't do much without using a sky shield to stop its destruction. I suggest keeping the current rate of obtaining cort. , but speed up the build rates of buildings drastically to keep in line with the flow of combat in the game. Idea was to use them for defense but it takes way to long to use them for that purpose without them being destroyed before it even has a chance to fully build.

If this can not work in the mainstream then there should be more connection points between main bases with the PMB capture points. as currently most of the bases only have 1 or 2 PMB capture points blocking them but they are countered with other bases around them which makes them pointless. Maybe create zone 3 way section between all the maps that have PMB capture points in them to allow this to be more useful for PMB so that way they have to capture a PMB point to continue onward. As to fit in line with the flow of combat have the points increase build rates and keep the same rates out side of the PMB capture zones. These are just some ideas to help make building more interesting and useful.

his issue about one player being able to destroy a base is amplified tenfold by the fact that on the PTS even walls and bunkers can be mowed down with ease, whereas on live they are invulnerable until repair modules are taken down.

some changes are great (like the flail!) but destructible walls will prevent a PMB from being any kind of obstacle what-so-ever.
that one simple nerf will all-but remove construction from the game.

i'm of the mindset that MORE structures should be invincible with a repair module
(like turrets that are usually the first thing to get obliterated)!

Invincible anything is really unsatisfying gameplay to both the defenders and the attackers. The point of removing hives and making bases destructible, is to make them be used more as quick set up, roadblocks that actually affect gameplay rather than what they are right now, hiding in random crevices around the map to keep their hive alive.

Also, if you're able to kill a base in minutes solo, then the defender isn't defending.

Will OS be made useful? I get that you don't want bases hiding away but unless you make OS have a purpose again (eg firing into lattice bases in some capacity) then I've wasted a lot of certs.

They will be able to fire into lattice bases, yes. Catch up on the PTS notes, there's quite a bit in there.

Having a base destroy in seconds is unsatisfying gameplay. I can play as a HA an kill most modules faster than a repair modules can repair it. That is really said same with the new pain Spire. I am not really happy with the wall and stuff getting nerfed. It will not help construction at all. People will bast through it like paper, so there will be no point to build a base and spend all that time to see it gone in less than 3 mins to a small squad or a platoon in 1 min.

Good to hear that changes are on the way.

I agree with the other posters above, the issue is time to build, upkeep and how and where building can occur. Since construction release, I have had zero issue destroying walls and concerted fire is even better, even with a repair module and enemy enginers supporting.

Walls should be hard to take down. That is why they are walls!

If anything on test makes destroying something easier, it is the WRONG WAY to go--except for Orbital Strikes which last I saw were possibly bugged in that it takes 10 minutes of zerg fire spam to destroy.

Construction needs to blend in with the core game battle flow.

Today, I try to predict battle flow to give me enough time to build, on very rare occasions we can get a good fight going via construction and the game shines--it gets us out of the normal bases. It is also challenging to resupply a base while it's seiged--that can lead to some excitement.

Good to hear changes are on the way, bad to hear walls are being made easier to destroy.

Honest assessement: If walls are made easier to destroy, I won't touch construction.

Yay I've been waiting forever lol.
Btw wanted to mention some construction stuff and ideas that could make game play better, if anyone cares lol (I've already posted a bunch but here are some very simple small ones):
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-So walls are too tough and turrets are too weak...I think they need to be evened up. So my idea is for the repair module to be repairing faster but it will be sharing repairs...more objects it will repair at the same time the slower it will repair them all. The less objects the faster it will repair....so basically turrets will be repaired faster as all structures inside are in good state, what this will do is make it harder for outsiders to remove turrets...it's the only way you can defend your base, it cannot fall so easily as it does now.

-Decrease shields on structures. Walls and other structures effected by shield are too tough. If your turrets get downed, your walls have very little use.

-add more ways to defend yourself from armored vehicles and artillery, or make it so you can place more turrets than only one from each. We did get the pain spire which a useful structure but it doesn't help against vehicles. A single prowler for example can destroy your whole base from areas you cannot defend from. The flail won't help one bit to defend against these attacks.

-Increase damage on AT turret!!! Completely under powered. Same with other turrets but AT is very important, all it does right now is scratch the paint off a vehicle, not penetrate its armor.

-Glaive IPC, Flail need to be more fun to use, you basically need to suicide to even fire it at the enemy, I'm pretty sure no one enjoys driving a long distance and then suicide.

-Glaive IPC is super useless right now, it needs a change or buff.

-Orbital strike. I'm very sure the majority of players do not like the OS, including me. It's unfun to defend it and it's unfun to use it.
Nothing strategical other than designing of your base. It shows up for everyone on the map, and to shoot it you need to suicide dive into the enemy and shoot it where ever to kill everything lol. I would be happy with OS being completely changed or removed.
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Here are just some little ideas.

But seriously there needs to be done something with gameplay, everyone's point here is true about construction being unfun.
And also it's taking way too long for the updates to come out. I bet it won't be good either, why is everything taking so long? I don't get it. It's like as if we are waiting for the best update in history lol.

occacional:" my ping is to high on PTS to propperly test stuff" ...

because

because wheneever they do a update it, it always overrides a big part of the game ...
it´s not like you add/change a mere couple megabytes but depending on what is affected it can be gigabytes of data that get rewritten .. and more updates means more servershutdowns meaning more downtime were players can´t play .. so instead they prepare a number of small updates to then release it as a bigger package ..

any changes on glaives? with OS and artillerystrike available as well as hives going away i don´t see much reason to invest into them ..

Oh Hi Drew! I didn't notice you. Here is a better explained issue I have with construction: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps...-outcome-of-it-what-i-believe-is-best.249565/