Any Noob-Unfriendliness we could fix quickly?

I'm with this guy.

You know you're doing it right when those aircraft you just obliterated all pull various vehicles to hunt you down.

That was seriously, seriously a sad thing I just read man.

So much effort spent just to come in and take a crap on something that other people like.

If this was some kinda one-off, ok. If this is something you find yourself doing a lot, seek some help. This kind of thing may be a canary in a coal mine for more serious problems.

Hope you find a game you enjoy. Take care.

All vehicle weapons have 1.25x zoom unlocked & equipped by default.
It costs 1 cert normally, but it's not uncommon to get into a sunderer gun with nothing.

Also lower the cost for 1.75 and 2x zoom on vehicles already (or the max zoom equals on air). There's no need for 2x to cost 500 certs.

flakweapons should get some general AV buff, walker should be good enough against infantry, there also should be a walkeroption for the lightning imo ... because that is the main problem with these kind of dedicated AA weapons ... they are TOO dedicated to that and useless outside of that role ...

Tactical game means effective rock paper scissors meta with many variations. What happens is that people who like rocks hate scissors blah blah ad nauseam. DBG keeps trying to balance a tactical game with many variations while keeping the paper people and the rock people and the scissors people happy and none of them will be happy unless they have a good chance against all other tools and still excel at their role.

In a true tactical game it should be you brought a rock and tried to fight paper so you lose - not hey I have a really big rock since I have played x hours and spent x on the rock so that paper loses. Nope sorry the paper should win every time. The only time the really big rock should win is if it runs into scissors or a smaller rock.

• Fix air controls: to start, S = float backward. Long term, loose cross-hair manipulated with the mouse and the aircraft automatically orients to center on the cross-hair.

• Greater difference between Heavy assault and Medics/Engineers besides the size of their gun and special ability. The latter two are basically the Heavy Assault's ***** in combat, and you're playing an FPS - "engineers/medics shouldn't be on the frontline!" isn't a valid argument. People don't like dying because of raw statistical differences with no real drawbacks to the statistically superior option.

• Infiltrator's can't go invisible if they're packing a sniper rifle. Alternatively - no shields. Alternatively, sniper rifles have severe damage fall off, and are unable to OHK outside of 100 meters. "Let's put OHK weapons on a guy that can strike most targets with near impunity and can't even be seen until they want to be (ready to fire) and any stray rounds that are fired in their direction, across a distance where most small arms damage is severely nerfed and not even guaranteed to land between recoil and CoF, are easily shrugged off due to shielding. It would be literally useless to shoot back at distant snipers with anything less than another sniper rifle, and those snipers should have little to no reason to move in closer towards the danger zone." - Some moron that shouldn't have ever made it to a lead design position and I hope never finds a job in the industry again.
• - Final alternative to dealing with infiltrator snipers - bolt-action sniper rifles are available to ALL other classes as a secondary weapon, at least the 1-6x scope bolt-actions. By default.

• A.S.P. system to kick in right away, not after making it to level 100. Way to destroy making the game open to new or returning players unless they're either god like or literally mentally damaged. Doubt the majority have earning thousands of exp a minute on lockdown, so the first 100 levels will take quite some time (read: TOO MUCH TIME.) Also, maybe let medics pack an SMG or a shotgun in the secondary slot instead of just battle rifles, and LMG's in the primary? Can't do any rezzing from 70m away, eh?

• Nanoweave shouldn't be a thing - it should be the default.

• Head shots reduced to only doing 1.5x damage tops, ideally 1.2x. Head shots should be rewarding, but they needn't be night and day rewarding to favor the shooter with the skill to string them off. Actually, it takes more skill to get mileage with 1.2x, a stray round can favor the lucky with 2x. When a new player hits the ground following a single ping, best case scenario they're reporting the killer for aim hacking after the umpteenth time that happens, worst case they quit outright for a game that was designed by actual developers, not rejected interns.

• No reloading while sprinting.

• And in consideration of the last three suggestions, more client-side leaning hit detection. Nothing should turn someone off Planetside faster than plowing round after round after round into a target only to die to short burst of fire that sounds like "thumpthumpPING!" Also, sprinting around in circles shouldn't grant near immortality because of the horrible net-code springing a body all over the place and disagreeing with the player's client. Seriously, on paper TTKs should be long, but they feel short on the receiving end, and long on the killing end unless your net speed is awesome (sub 10ms isn't as common as people make it out to be, even within the US.) I quit for the last time because I was tired of piling rounds into targets but never quite killing them, yet dying like a noob frequently.

• P.S. Medics still need a viable AV option that isn't suicide runs with a brick. Seriously, where's the thumper grenade launcher?

To me, the development of a new continent is a desperate attempt at revitalization. I doubt it will save this game without some sweeping design adjustments that frankly, a lot of the remaining player base won't like, mostly because they're comfortable abusing the current poor design of... everything.

One thing I'll say is: Give the newbs faster access to lvl 1 implants.

Holy hell, my playstyle as an infiltraitor completely got buffed when I got Catlike, even at rank 1.

If newbs get certs faster? Show them how to buy implant packs!

I would also suggest to start having double XP events on a weekly basis, even for non-members. Or make it +50% XP for non-members, and a +100% XP for members. Them battle-ranks and universal unlocks take a lengthy time to get. And boy can you tell when a vet has those ASP unlocks.

If you feel that, you need to explain how you're playing Combat Medics and Engineers (so very poorly). It's certainly not something that is encountered as long as you don't play against the Heavy Assault's specific strengths as a class. I do mean more than the extra shield power.

It sounds like a dramatic overreaction.

The ASP system was designed to be an end-level content. As if to demonstrate the old heuristic that battle ranks are meaningless, even to demonstrate something like time invested, that even gets reset each time you select something. Unlike a lot of games that do "end-level content," the ASP system offers mainly variantion rather than power growth. Even the ability to pack a Carbine and a Shotgun at the same time is relatively meaningless as long as the user can still only fire one at a time, with typical switching delay.

Can you build on this point? It sounds like there's an interesting story.

After reading that, I think you mean less "server-side hit validation" and I can't agree with that. The server not second-guessing the client enough is the main reason shenanigans happen. Even if you leaned more towards client hit detection as a reliable source, the damage has to go to the server and into the other person's client, so you're incurring a mandatory network delay one way or another. The difference is that you'd never really know if the server ever knew you killed the other guy on your client.

For pure Infantry purposes, isn't that called "Heavy Assault?" (MAX AV also works.)

Are you mad?

ASP still doesn't offer anything of great benefit to a new player, it's literally just gimmicks that are supposed to provide some meme opportunities for roleplayers.

This reads like satire.

Way to bring in unnecessary changes to make the gameplay stale and slow.

If this happens to you frequently, you either need to stop playing on Connery, or start aiming better.

HA and Engineer exist already.

As far as I can see we as players can make the biggest impact on player retention. I mean Noobs make mistakes and the next thing they know some **** is TKing them or dog cussing and making threats at them. We see it all the time and I actually kick people from the outfit who do these sorts of things.

I don't know that anything will ever change in this area but it needs to. I made a mistake yesterday, immediately apologized and offered to fix it. I was then subjected to a bevy of hate and nasty that would make an old sailor blush. Of coarse I have been around long enough to just laugh it off as the attacker was just a joke. Made a nice vid though....

Now just maybe some of us older players can make the extra effort to befriend and help new players when we have the chance?

This is why I try not to discuss the Skyguard that often, its really easy to just throw out random statements and then I have to write walls of text explaining how things are because:

Yes, you even point out one of the reasons why. Outrageous CoF also means most of your shots wont hit the target and you will never kill them, other reasons are already covered in my other post.

??????? Stealth doesnt do much anymore, engagement radar on a Lightning takes up the utility slot and is borderline useless, joke or troll?

^ is easy, quick to write and answers your statements but it doesnt really explain why.. but thats the TL;DR of it for anyone that cant be arsed to read the rest.
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I didnt build more of a scenario than your post I quoted where you claimed this:

I showed you the facts, even with 100% accuracy with a Skyguard which is hard to impossible to get unless its fairly close range it still takes 5+ seconds to kill a ESF, you have to be sleeping and deaf not to wake up and fly away well before the Skyguard has the time to kill you. My first post also details why the ESF can simply fly away even after face tanking one or two seconds.

I also dont see why you think its such a 'scenario' I built, a ESF can easily dump rockets on a Skyguard in one or multiple runs and unlike the ESF the Skyguard cant zip behind a mountain and repair in 99% safety because its well outside the combat zone. Its a much higher risk for a tanker to jump out to repair compared to a pilot due to several obvious things that I dont think I have to list but being stuck on the front lines and all that comes with it is a large one. Being much easier to damage to interrupt auto repair is another.

Lots of ESFs also play in groups, even randoms likes to keep other ESF around while Skyguards are usually the complete opposite, too much AA and you dont get any air at all after the first few die and then you are stuck shooting ground targets with a Skyguard, something most people want to avoid.

While it might not be impossible to hit a ESF at range you are also hilariously far from 100% accuracy while doing it. Plonking ESFs at range is a good way to keep them away and annoy them but its about as dangerous as the AOE damage from a incomming orbital strike, its just there to remind you of the possible hurt if you stay in the area or for some reason go closer to the source.

Why wouldnt a ESF use composite and why would a Skyguard use radar?
Stealth used to be good before radar, now you still show up on radar even with maxed stealth up to 200m away, the times that is a large enough advantage to warrant using it is probably about as often as you will find needles in a haystack. Maxed stealth also only adds 1 second to lock on weapons, not exactly a huge deal. 10% added health on the other hand is a very good thing in any fight, auto repair also gives you a large advantage on how often you can dip into fights and reduce downtime to almost nothing, saving your fire suppression for when it is really needed.

Radar on a Skyguard would only help if you somehow have a hard time spotting aircraft which in my opinion would put the user on a solid 0.5 on the 1-10 scale of skill with a Skyguard, kinda the training wheels you remove when you get any sort of competence with it. The reason its possible or in many cases easy to sneak up on a Skyguard is because when they fire they cant hear anything else, it takes at least 5-10 seconds per ESF target they think they can kill which means they are essentially both deaf and tunnel visioned for those 5-10 seconds or longer. Getting markers on the screen showing other aircraft around you wouldnt help because the choice is between shooting at the target you think you can kill or do decent damage to before they escape or stop shooting just to look around at everything flying around <- something you do anyway when you dont think its worth shooting at the running target anymore, key point being 'not worth shooting at'... if its worth shooting at something you dont want to stop just because something came up on the radar.

Hey, I thumbs-uped your post BUT... don't agree with the sniper on secondary thing. Not good, sorry.

There is already a big difference between these classes. The Heavy Assault has an advantage in Direct Combat because that is ALL the class is for. It's the class you choose when you want to break things, but aren't too picky about whether it walks, flies or rolls. You can spawn into random combat with a heavy and be reasonably confident you'll be able to harm the majority of the enemies in the area in one form or another. It it pays for this by being the cannon fodder class with no subtlety or self-sustainability.

Medics and Engineers are not exactly helpless in direct combat, but most of the time, yes they will lose a 1v1 with a Heavy. The problem is combat doesn't happen in a vacuum, this is a team game and your teammates are there for more than just ambiance. If I'm playing as a Heavy and I'm the last alive on the point I'm infinitely less useful than a medic in the same position even if I am many times more skilled. Same if I'm an Engineer next to that Sunderer that's on fire.

Snipers are already rather gimmicky past about 200m due to random player movement playing an increasingly large factor in whether or not your shots land. Your maximum range is largely theoretical, because your target has to be either stationary or moving in a straight line otherwise almost any random movement (including flinch) is enough to cause a miss. Closer than about 70m and many automatic weapons become a threat. There are a select few players who can be effective in CQB with a bolt action, but they are
1) An anomaly
2) Are not reliant upon the cloak to be effective, and
3) Possess enough of a skill gap over the general population that the gun they are using is practically irrelevant.

Now think very hard about the ramifications of this suggestion. If the reasons why this is a very bad idea do not make themselves manifest to you, go play a round of Battlefield 1 and then come back and try again.

Besides this, the Battle Rifles, both old and new, are perfectly adequate to the task of killing or at least driving away the majority of the bolt babies. There are a few ASP options will facilitate the option to accommodate this without sacrificing a close ranged option.

This defeats the entire purpose of the ASP System which is end-game content which was put there as an end-goal for veteran players.

Why would a medic nerf themselves by taking an LMG over an Assault Rifle? My first ASP point is going to be the BR secondary, because that plus a close range AR gives you one of the most versatile engagement ranges in the game.

This game quite literally gives you some of the best weapons in the game for some classes right from the beginning, plus attachments, utilities and implants. I don't know in what universe that is not competitive to you. Nanoweave armor is 5 flipping certs!

Again:
Nanoweave armor is 5 flipping certs!


You gloss over the new continent but I don't think you appreciate the significance of what it means. You can count the number of games that are still releasing new content for their players this far after launch on two hands. The fact that we're not only continuing to get new weapons but a whole new continent is impressive. The support for this game is still there, and they're still investing in their playerbase.

To the people that responded to me:

Remember, your game is still petering out, and everything I listed is the compounded list of problems that convinced me this game isn't worth reinstalling. I merely need to think of that list to remind myself "yeah, that's a waste of hard drive space." Of course you would defend the current state - you're the only people still playing.

I doubt a new continent will change much. Maybe a boost in player count and some influx of capitol from people that very easily bust their wallets open for new cosmetics. However, people left because of a myriad of issues, I know many of what I listed contribute to their grievances, and of course content drought, yes, but a new continent isn't going to fix the problems that drove them off.

The game's a design mess, and no other game has class balance or vehicle control handled the way PS2 does it. If that isn't enough of a clue mistakes were made, there's no getting through to you.



P.S. I have to point this out because this IS the most ridiculous concept: Bolt Actions for everyone is being broken game design!? Got news for you - you're clinically unfit to speak if you think OHK BA's on guys that can go invisible and fire with impunity even though "it's hard to land a shot at that range" is somehow okay, but guys having to land that shot while always being visible would just be broken design. Like, that's all the evidence I need that the people defending this crap don't know $#!% about game design or balance.

I'd say good luck, but what y'all need is a priest because Oshur is the defibrillator, but the disease wearing the game down still exists.

I'll start with saying that I never play as a long range sniper, so this isn't in defense of my own playstyle. Look at this from a different perspective. All a cloak does is let snipers somewhat replicate hiding in grass and shrubs, which most computers can't render at range. Ideally we'd have enough concealment that invisibility wouldn't really be necessary. The only other option for balancing snipers against other infantry without cloak would be to tune down everything else's effective range, and let distance protect snipers. But then they'd be sitting ducks for vehicles. Given the technology we have to work with, I think this cloak is an alright solution.

Yeah but name me a better game and I'll play it. The few players that are still around will be around for a long time to come, sure if a game featured the same sort of complexity, then offered a better fixed time mode game end feature and still offered elo based match making I'd probably swap in a heart beat, but thats impossible for any game to offer right now, no game is as detailed as complex still has that playerbase. It probably won't happen now, it probably won't happen over the course of 2020 and onward because I keep up with games that are coming out and the only ones that mostly interest me are games that will be single player story line games. I assume that player base is tied up in games like overwatch, pubg, and fortnite and until some company with a lot of money and a different direction for more complex gameplay wants to challenge that, it just won't happen.

1. Responding to the "people that responded to you" without quoting them is the tactic of a person who does not want his ideas challenged.

2. Pissing in the sandbox where other people that aren't you are still having fun is poor form. We get it, you don't like the game. It's okay, you can move on, dwelling like this on something you allegedly no longer care about is bordering on unhealthy.

The people who left because of mechanics have been gone for years. Most got over it. Not all it seems.

No other game has the same scale. I guess those fools at Sony should have just copied Battlefield right? A continent with multiple fights of 100+ people happening is lame. When will these game developers learn that all we want is the same thing every year, not just from one company but from every company?

Speaking of Battlefield; no other Battlefield game has had class balance like Bad Company 2, I guess that game was a colossal failure too, right?

I'm sorry, did you not read what I said? It can't be that difficult, I used little words. I said that it was and I quote:

And then, to put this quote into context, I gave you a homework assignment, so that you could see firsthand what happens to a game with a disproportionately large sniper population.

I specifically did not say that it would be broken, in fact farming the bads that think they are snipers would be very very easy. But it would be bad for the gameplay, and for the game as a whole. But as we've already established, you don't care about either, so let's just move on.

I'll just assume this sounded witty and profound to you when you typed it, so A+.

Honestly, the biggest issue in Planetside 2 that is driving players away at this point is the queue system.

It's great that things are set so things are more balanced, but players log in to play the game and not wait even 10 minutes to get to the continent that their Outfit, friends, or squad members are fighting on - let alone over 1 hour.

Honestly, I have run into players that are not members that can't get to the continent that their Outfit is fighting on for over an hour -t these players simply give up and log out.

i don't blame them.

if new players can't get on continent then they are going to log out and not bother trying to log back in.

In this area, I would have these suggestions.
When only one continent is open, do away with the faction queue (also see below).
Once a second continent is open, lock in the faction queue. Announce in-game that another continent is open and give a reward for members of the over populated faction if the move over to the new continent within the next [insert short period of time].

Give new account holder priority for queues for the first month of their account (move to priority one position after 5 minutes).

Give increased queue priority (in this order) to players :
1) in Outfit squads with outfit platoon leader and squad leader on target continent
2) In outfits squads with Outfit platoon leader on continent
3) in outfit squad with squad leader on continent
4) in Platoons with more than 23 platoon members with Platoon leader and squad leader on continent
5) in Platoons with more than 23 platoon members with Platoon leader on continent
6) in Platoons with more than 23 platoon members with squad leader on continent
7) increasing priority based on how many other outfit members are in the squad/platoon that are on target continent

Decrease queue priority (decreasing in this order) for players that are
1) in platoons (or a single squad) of less than 6 members
2) Solo
3) Player has switched factions in the last hour
4) Player has switched factions in the last 1/2 hour
5) Player has switched faction in the last 15 minutes (everyone else always gets first priority in the queue)

This is in addition to the system for Max server population and faction balance.
The queue priority modifiers would stack, so being in an Outfit Platoon with four squads and only 6 members would negate the advantage of being in an Outfit Platoon with the Platoon leader (and/or squad leader) already on continent.

Why do I suggest this?
Players will become invested in Planetside 2 if they are in outfits.
Players will be more likely to play if they take part in large unit actions.
The game is about teaming and working with others.

There should be an auto (option toggled) message that Alerts players "[Faction] Command is requesting that you join a squad, solider!"
And, yeah, I'm serious about that.

--
I seriously think that the current queue system has driven down the population.

Second biggest issue is having times of the day when there is only one continent option.
I would much rather see a system where Alert/Capture gives less rewards and CERTs for under populated continents than not having an option of where to game.

It should be overly apparent how much Hossin-hate is out there. (Personally, I don't mind the foliage for the fog).
I'm going to go ahead and add that my eyes are light sensitive and Easmir is not the most pleasant of gaming experiences for me because of the large abundance of white on the screen.


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If the populations were any lower, I would be suggesting that a Battlefield type queue system be put into effect in addition to the current system.

Set-up ready rooms on dropships or give the option out of VR, for squads to assemble under a squad lead with the squad lead stating a squad to target a certain battle area.
When 24 members of 2 factions are assembled, drop each group in the spawn rooms of two lattice attached bases. Those are the only two bases on the map. First to take the other base wins -or- set time period runs out and there is a scoring metric for who wins.
Alternately, do the same with 24 members from all three factions and only three bases - all attached by lattice. First to take another base wins -or- set time period runs out and there is a scoring metric for who wins.
If continents are active, these groups could even be deployed and restricted to those active areas during that time limit. Perhaps having it locked out from influence from outsiders due to some Alien-device or another such as a force-shield that blocks passage through the areas.

I don't know.
Population decrease is a concern to me at this point.
Prime time is good, the rest of the day the servers have really thinned out.

I have been in a 40 minute Que for Hossin at times as it was the only continent open. I personally think there should always be an option other than Hossin as most often I just log rather than be on SwampA**. That and I am very reluctant to put money in the game even though in the past I spent a good bit every month. For instance I used to give away up to 5 2500 DBC cards to outfit members who had gone above and beyond. But then when Construction was added the card price doubled and I said no more. I also predicted construction would fail and as far as I can tell it has. So much co that the devs have scrambled too make it relevant in game.

Now apparently I have been insulting people in the forums thus I say this. First I didn't realize I have insulted anyone but I apologize anyway. I do hope that no one has found this post offensive as I don't want to get banned for upsetting someone.