DBG: I Just Canceled My Subscription

I just canceled my subscription and removed all billing information from my account. I will no longer spend a single dime on this game. Why?

1. Faction balance issues. If you look at the alert win board, the VS win a vast majority of the alerts. For whatever reason(s), that faction dominates. I doubt it is due to superior leadership, as I have a VS character as well. I hear command chat when I am running a squad. It is not any fun to play TR now.

2. ESF balance issues. Want to know why most sky knights fly the Reaver? Because it has a damage advantage over the other ESFs, plain and simple. The game practically forces you into using the hover frame; air duels heavily favor the Reaver. Say what you want to the contrary, you won't convince me otherwise.

3. Cheaters abound. Whether they are using aimbot or hitbox hacking, cheaters are turning up everywhere. I am not going to waste money on a game that continues to let this happen.

4. Your servers are crap. I am on a $6k gaming rig with Google Fiber. On any other game, my internet connection is fine. However, with PS2, I am frequently disconnected. I have tried all of the back end troubleshooting that is possible (too many to list). It's not me.

You have lost my monthly subscription and extra purchases of DBG cash until your game gets cleaned up on multiple facets.

1: faction balance is always tricky. A small thing can mean all the difference and people might not even know it. Or something completely inconsequential like 0.75 ADS gets fingered for all the problems. VS was supposed to be superior due to 0,75 ADS but their stats barely changed 1% after it was removed.

2: the damage is easily balanced by hitbox size. If you are much easier to hit you are going to need more damage to compensate. Also I have yet to see numbers that prove the Reaver to be used more or superior to the TR or VS. As is customary for the air-game in PS2 the people in it prefer not to prove anything they say and use pointy fingers to get their way. Examples are superior fire-suppression, auto-granted nanite repair when using engineers "against plink damage". Flak turrets getting their range halved "against plink damage". Auto-granted air-radar which got turned into an anti-newb gadget after requests of the veterans etc.

3: theres cheaters just like any game. Although I have a suspicion too many people are called cheaters because they dont understand the latency system.

4: Its a shame you have problems. Are you sure you have tried everything? I have no problems getting DC'd.

Personally - I don't blame you.

Regarding your reasons -

1. I'd say it's frustration borne from balance, double-teaming, population issues - i'd agree.

2. Can't say - I don't ESF often

3. Agreed - and it seems to be getting worse.

4. Personally I don't have an issue although weird things happen often - although I can't make out whether this is related to 3 !


As the population continues to decline (and we've lost 25% in the last 6 months), I feel we're left with a bunch of people who simply love the game (like me), a bunch of people who are really good - and - a bunch of people who cheat. The apparent concentration of the latter is exposing the issues the game has had for a long time and forcing even more to leave.

Is it a downward spiral ?

Hell previously we'd get hackusation threads locked down quickly (while they quietly removed the offender) but now we're just posting to the same thread for the same person day after day while his stats get even more bizarro ! Geez...

No, not superior leadership, just all around superior playing. That is what happens when you so badly nerf a sides weapons and equipment then finally start balancing out their stuff. You forge battle hardened soldiers by training them in the absolute worst conditions possible. While I am not seeing V.S. win most alerts, I do see us holding bases a bit better even when outnumbered (which is ALL the time...). Our issue is actually TAKING bases... But hey with what we have to use, I cannot expect much more than that.

People fly the Reaver because it is not only the strongest, but it is also the fastest. It (so called) balances this out by being the ugliest, which (visually) is supposed to translate into it being meek. So for that reason fewer people were supposed to know the power of them. (Psychology RULES,) That pretty much goes for the entire faction. Yeah, that is only works for a short time....

Cheaters? I have to give it to you there. I deal with them on a regular basis, but it is something you have to get used to. If there are not those who cheat in a game, you will find those who exploit; it is just apart of a Gamer's life. Do not let it ruin your fun. Instead find ways to beat them. Cheaters who want to continue cheating do so subtly. Meaning there is a way to kill them, it will just be harder. Take great pride in beating cheaters and care less if they beat you. They had to cheat to do it.

Yes, they absolutely do need to fix the blue-screen errors and disconnects. The latency that keeps everyone on the same level supposedly, seems to be ignored by some people and that makes playing difficult at times. However on average it takes about 2 to 4 hours for me to disconnect when not in the presence of a cheater. Let's face it, if you are playing this long, you need a break anyway. The warning says to only play 15 minutes at a time.

They are slowly fixing the balance issues. T.R. and N.C. were (and to a point still are) extremely unbalanced. Things becoming more fair can be painful to factions that are used to having it so easy. But they will adjust. And to you also say this: You are not going anywhere. They have you, and have had you for some time now. You are hooked and you know it. So relax, exhale, and enjoy it.

This would be hilarious if it wasnt that it is meant to be serious. If it was written by someone else I would have checked if it was written on april fools.

So about that superior playing, why hasnt the VS outperformed on NS weapons and common Pool weapons like snipers, shotguns, Lightning guns etc? In many cases they even lag behind with such weapons... Hmm how strange eh?

Oh ofcourse I forgot! The VS are only playing superior with their faction-specific weapons! The actual weapons have nothing to do with it I swear!

Pretty much because there is nothing they can really do. P.S.N. was able to crush cheaters where they started because you needed a P.S.N. Account to play. Ban the account, and they have to go through the looong process of making another with a different email and more. On P.C. they can really only ban a name thanks to virus protection and I.P. Addresss bouncers Reflactors and Fake Blocks; which eventually results in people named AKDJOIUD and POIUJUHI being made over and over by the same person. D.C. purges. Allow about 3 months of bots to build telling us to ignore them, then go through our list and ban them all. Sadly they now have bots that actually MAKE characters and play through stages now so there is no real stopping them. P.C. is a gateway virus that spawns endless waves of other illnesses, but it is a necessary evil for most games, as eventually only sticking to 1 platform loses vital cash flow that keeps the game in service... Not to mention if and when the game closes on 1 platform, you still have your character on the other, as they usually will cross you over. So two major pluses that make all the suffering worth it.

Probably because we do not pad as often to get the little event and Araxium bonus weapons. Do you know on average how may paders on N.C. and T.R. I find per session during an event? I have actually been payed (in vehicles) to leave them alone... Waves and waves of Lightnings killing freashly spawned Flashes. T.R. soldier killing the same motionless Vanu soldier spawning out of a cloaked truck.... All you need is 2 or more Platforms to pad. Most people have 2 or more computers or Playstations.... It is not against the rules either, so yeah, that would be why.

Also another example of altering numbers. Your "Likes" here. I have noticed just about every post, no matter how silly, gets a one from Champagne, LordK and theirs, Likes by you. From what I can see, your likes would not be what they are without your buddies. It is not hard to boost stats. Hahaha! Heck people pay for positive reviews all the time. I mean there are no laws against it, so.... Eh. But you see what I mean.

God all those emojis are distracting.

On the larger core subject:
I do not think factional balance issues can describe the larger trends in factional win differences sufficiently. The reason for this is very simple: The factions are just too similar for that.

Vanu has consistently done better, and I believe I know the fundamental reason. Its stupid, but honestly no bullet drop is probably a large advantage for the swathes of bad players that define the game. It doesn't look like an issue when two experienced people fight, but it really adds up over the large numbers of bad players.

Vanu MAXs probably aren't that great with their bad factional ability.
Magriders are threatening for sure, but so are vanguards. They might be a better tank than the others with 0-cert investment, which is a continuation of the overly newbie friendly being a problem.
ESF balance is sufficient, I think is clearly not why there is imbalance.
Lashers aren't that great, and Lancers are probably the worst ES Rocket Launcher.

Gun differences are, fundamentally, tiny. The issue is the bullet drop. If factions went more asymetric there might be a solution somewhere in there, but as it stands the easiest solution might be giving a low-cert ammo out to all starting weapons that lets them mimic the Vanu advantages for that weapon only. I hate to see more factional differences die, but this is really the only easy fix (and even then people might not get it, so you would have to start them with it for free).

Think or it like a comic or a bullet point. "This is the feeling behind this statement." I will keep this short and sweet though, I know Bullet Drop is not the reason, because it only seems to be a factor when you are using a sniper. I RARELY snipe or see any others attempting to; and when I play the other factions I do not notice bullet drop at all. They all feel like they fly straight, and I aim for the head. Bullet Drop is the lamest faction perk in the game to me.... Especially with a tank that has greatest bullet drop in the game...

Ah ok, so because you've met stat-padders on the NC and TR, suddenly the NC and TR are completely riddled with them and these scew the stats enough for thousands of players to make the entire VS perform almost the exact same... with only the NS and carbon-copy weapons.

But wait, we have Fisu! Which has a page called the "padding league" which keeps track of statpadders!

https://ps2.fisu.pw/statpadders/

Hey what's that? VS have just as many statpadders as the NC and TR? Well darn it, your argument doesn't fly on account of it being wrong! Who would have thought! Hell looking at the latest 100 statpadders the VS seem to be overrepresented!

Checking the "padder count" section on that site I just posted:

NC: 3429 stat padders (total I assume).
TR: 3290 stat padders
VS: 3282 stat padders. A whole freaking 8 less than the TR, oh wow! That's less than 1% difference!

So your extremely subjective "I've personally seen so many NC and TR stat padders" is wrong.

It's not hard to misrepresent figures, as just proven by how you do it. Also just because some people like the things I say and often hit a like button doesn't mean there's some "numbering altering" going on.

Ooooh wait now I see. You think that people consistently liking someone for whatever reason is "altering numbers". If that kind of thing happens with other stuff, like how you see your own faction vs the rest, most of what you say is very understandable all of a sudden!

My eyes do not lie. And if you opened your eyes, you would actually see there are far worse things happening than stat padding. A site that tracks paders asinine, for one a site that tracks them by name would be used as a contact billboard. Two, you are not going to track even a quarter of padders out there, most of it is done in secret. (meaning, when they see you coming they usually try to stop or act like this was just a chance meeting. All you have to do is follow them around at a distance cloaked a bit and before you know it, padding takes place.) Not unlike roaches, for every one you see, there are 20 more you do not. A site that (so called) counts these players, I do not believe at all; even so, look at your numbers. VS is still the lowest. Which supported my argument of the other factions having more padders... Even with faulty information, you still managed to make my point for me.... You do this a lot. By the by, I knew you would succumb to my wonderful style of typing. Makes posting much more fun doesn't it? I know. Hahaha!

You should try the other factions out. When it comes to sucking at alerts, NC is the one who takes the cake based on a very long track record. If NCs became as self aware of alert victories, we'd see an insane amount of threads about it... I don't mind having a 22% alert victory chance by average in Miller NC, I only wish that VS and TR players appreciate what they have and were capable of tackling real problems instead.


I don't think that VS is all that unbalanced either. But really, don't write these "you can't convince me otherwise" things, just see for yourself instead. Devs have some balance changes in still in store, but meanwhile the balance is in a good place with NC MAXes recently being nerfed. I think game balance is just too easy of an excuse for everything.

The way you write doesn't reflect poorly on us, only on yourself, and if you are doing so deliberately then i'd actually consider it quite disruptive to the board.
I'm not going to insult but I'd like to ask if you could tone it down a little.

Sorry to see you leave wolfborne. I'm not going to try convince you to stay or rebuttal your arguments.

Hopefully you'll return in a 3-6 months after the clean up of DX11 update patch and Oh'sure continent arrival.

Your eyes do lie and all the time. If only because you have a blind spot that needs to be accounted for. But aside from that you are heavily biased. I do open my eyes and lo and behold! The VS also stat pad a lot!

Yes, like horrible emoticons being written in every single post without real cause for them. Or someone who claims something based on personal experience and will ignore cold hard facts gathered by the in-game stats.

The site does not track them by following them around, it tracks them by using the statistics that are given out by the game. These are the same statistics that Fisu, Dasanfall and PS2's site itself use to gather data and show off weapon and player stats. So if you statpad "in secret", your stats will still be recorded. Otherwise the statpadding wouldn't affect the weaponstats right?

Now here's a conundrum for you: If you believe the statistics of the weapon on the site, including the "statpadded" stats of the NC and TR. Then you also have to believe that the site correctly tracks the statpadders.

And no I do not use faulty information and I did not make your point for you, if you actually did some research and used that brain of yours you would know that.

I was trying to show you how absolutely horrendously annoying it is. But it figures that you wouldn't even notice something like that.

Stop living in your own world Exileant, come out of your shell and stop trying to fit everything in your own twisted reference frame. You'll eventually like it, and it will get you support from others if you actually listen to others and don't twist words to suit your world.

1. On Cobalt its NC. And earlier on when I started playing Planetside, it was TR. And in some weeks, VS is absolutely slaying the server. And ofc its the pop, but players decide which faction they play, and this should stay that way.

2. I cant comment on that, I dont fly at all.

3. I dont give a f*** on cheaters. There will always be cheaters, in every online game ever. That's a fact.

4. I don't have that kind of disconnects/crashes, this seems to be only affecting a few players, though the servers are definitely weird, even though I live in Europe, I have about 120ms on Cobalt during primetime, but only during primetime.

My summary: You're complaining on a high level, and about things I don't consider to be gamebreaking. I play games for fun, and when reading through the forums, I sometimes think that a lot of people here consider Planetside to be a annoying job, you have to do every day. If you're pissed off by the game, just take a break, play something else or focus on your reallife.

*

http://stats.dasanfall.com/ps2/server/13
Cobalt

Dominating Faction Vanu Sovereignty (17)

yep bit it`s NC

4. My rig is rather old and I got not a single disconnect in months on Cobalt. So it definitely does not count for all and might actually be a problem on your end.

2. No. Listen to Demigan. The Scythe is the best...and the scatmax was the worst for the last several years. Everyone not NC definitely knows that Reaver has been the best for a long time already(it is just the most versatile one. It doesn't matter if there are some very rare conditions when others may be better...cause well...those situations are rare)...just like Scatmax.

1. This will always be an issue cause it will swing in one direction or the other all the time. Not to mention that some of it is very subjective(a 50/50 will make both sides claim that they are inferior and need a buff). I mean, people like Demigan claimed that Reaver is the worst ESF and Scatmax needs more range cause it is so weak.

Then you got some stuff that is hard to calculate. If Join Combat brings you usually to the biggest fight and TR and NC had a much larger pop most of the last years then it is no surprise that the largest fights are between those 2 factions. So the button forces more players into those fights...and hence VS got easy victories.

Or lets take magriders. They are no real MBTs...they are more heavy harassers. Cause they are no real MBTs(and are really crap compared to its counterparts when played solo) they may be played less. So you may have more infantry players...which on the other means that you can overpop the A points and hence win. As they are no MBTs they may have to rely more on hit and run tactics(cause they just can't win heads on)...and it's very frustrating to play against that tactic. So NC and TR may avoid fighting VS. Or maybe 2 players of VS pull lightnings(due to magrider being not really great) while 2 players of TR sit in one Prowler and the Prowler will likely lose the fight between those 4. So basicly a weakness(like not really having great vehicles) could give VS an edge over the others...as crazy as it may sound.
Others mentioned bullet drop which may matter much more than we all think cause it is a problem for noobs(while it really doesn't matter for experienced players at all and as such is likely the weakest faction specific feature on higher levels).
You can't trust the statistics either. VS on Cobalt was seriously outnumbered for years but still won a lot of alerts(or whatever we had at that time instead)...most of them during off peak hours tho(and those should not matter at all cause only very few players even notice it).
Basicly one weapon giving the subjective(it does not even have to be real) feeling of being stronger(or weaker) may change the whole gameplay for an empire...and make it more or less successful due to some ripple effect.

On top of that you got stuff like overpop, more experienced players on one side or even a better lead. That's way too much to keep in balance all the time and any simple solution like "oh, it's the 0.75 ADS for sure. Let's cut it." will most likely fail.

Same.

I main both VS & TR and an NC alt and still do not know exactly, but speculate on a number of factors:
A. VS has been nerfed too hard, no 0.75x ADS, ZOE max is lacking (I use it still) over a shield or lockdown, no bullet drop on some weapons makes no difference, generally worse recoil patterns (translates into accuracy, lower skill ceiling) than TR and NC, many low recoil guns (low skill floor and ceiling), unstable ammo instead of actually useful special traits, nerfed scythe mag size on I believe maelstrom, nerfed VPC, lasher situational heavy weapon, lancer nerfed a little too hard considering no zoom charge time reload speed ammo pool and beam velocity
B. Constantly low population, has been true for a very long time.
Those two factors combined with possibly a more mature player base that is willing to work together and support each other (not just squads) forged more players that can act as effective squad units with any other nearby VS no matter the circumstances. I always miss this about VS when on TR or NC every single play session.

TR I found is improving though despite the low pop recently, and with DX11 hopefully more players will have consistent FPS to make the faction trait work a little better.

I take issue with faction balance decisions on more than just the Reavers.

This is my number one reason unless things change, right next to ping exploiters and other network related nonsense because the core game design was never built with this in mind - if you're going to build a massive open world game, then do it right so it's truly competitive or stick to arena shooters. I also quit playing off peak hours.

Solid and steady connection here except when they break the servers for weeks at a time. My trouble has been with their choice of voice server which is really hit or miss depending on who you talk to. With free voice services like discord that actually work (but are very hard to organize on the go or sync with in-game names, squad numbers, etc.), there's no excuse for having something so poor in game.