Hi everyone Played PS2 for the first time a long time ago, soon after release I believe, with friends, and it was very funny at the begining. We didn't understand much of what was going on, but we laughed a lot and that was great. But for a reason I couldn't quite put the finger on, we stopped playing after a few hours and they never came back. I tried to come back some time ago, but left again fairly quickly. I did come back very recently, like 3 weeks ago, and the game hooked me way more than it did the first and second time. I got hooked for a bit, and in fact I now total 100+ hrs on the game, which is good. However, for a bit now I feel like I'm burnt and don't feel like playing anymore. The reasons are very simple, and I just wanted to share them and see how other people feel about them. Because it's a cool game, and I don't wanna quit playing but nothing motivates me to play right now. - Something that's inherent to the very design of the game. On the paper, having 3 factions fighting at all times for control of territory is very sexy, and something we've probs all thought about before PS was even released. In practice through, it's tough to find a balanced, spectacular battle. You've got zergs that'll choke spawns and won't even allow people to come out of them, which is only a bit fun when you're on the right side of the zerg.You've got people capturing bases while the others aren't paying attention. Not very fun to either participate into or try to stop. Nice change of pace, but you quickly end up with a sundie a few feet away from the spawn and infiltrators and heavies camping you.Then you've got battles that will always go the way of the faction with the most population, after a potential quick stagnation they'll just flood the base and bam, done. And while the underpop faction is throwing everything they have at it, their other bases will get captured by a few squads.I started not caring about winning or losing, but I've come to realize I've been seeing these 3 patterns too often and it spoiled my enjoyment of the game no matter.I do think that encouraging people to take on a tactical leading role would do the game some good. Guild Wars 2 comes to mind as I write that : while there is a vast choice of (good) cosmetics you can buy on the shop with real money, players who go the extra mile and lead others in PvP can get their hands on some extra shiny cosmetics that you can't buy through the shop. Perhaps offering good leaders some great pieces of cosmetics through the "directive" system would encourage good tactical squads and platoons to form, instead of the usual zerg thing the game seems to have going on. - Not enough variation in the weaponry. Guns shoot bullets and that's it. Which is what guns do really, but in a FPS game, I've come to expect a bit more. Aside from the basic "various rates of fire, reload speed and accuracy" stuff. At the start, I was excited to unlock new weapons and perks and farming certs and getting a lot of them was an exciting process, but after a bit I don't feel I have anything too interesting to work towards. Even taking control of a continent doesn't seem to do anything noticeable at all for the controlling faction, let alone controlling three. It seems to grant passive effects to the winning faction, but it's really whatever. - The new alert system adds a BIT of dynamism to the maps, or so it feels at the begining anyway. After participating in a few though, you've seen everything there is to see about them really, and I can't say they are really interesting. In fact very few people are really participating in most of them and a single organized squad can quickly make it impossible for other people to participate. All in all, I'm at a point where I feel the game for me is just a mind-numbing massacre 90% of the time. I don't fight to unlock stuff or win anymore because I stopped caring and I just do it because it's what you're supposed to do, and that's not enough. And as I said earlier, I feel it's a shame, because the game can be very spectacular and immersive. Thank you for reading, hopefully you manage to have more fun on the game than I do right now. For my part, I think I will turn to another game and go on with my gaming journey PS : copy/pasted that from a thread I've opened on Steam, sorry for the potential weirdness you find in there.
The problem of not equal faction population is very overvalued. I almost never saw the difference more than 50. It's a full platoon, ok. But not that scary. Plus there is NSO which mostly high skilled players, who fight for low_pop faction. Much more significant influence is made by organized platoons with skilled commander, who gives orders with voice. If a faction have 1-2 of such platoons, it will win the alert no matter how it underpoped at that moment.
Your first suggestion would encourage more zerging. Leaders would be rewarded for successes, and that success is easier to qchieve with a zerg.
Wish I knew the answer to that question so I could give more substance to the suggestion, but I don't, and god knows I'm too tired to try and think about it. In any case, I do think something has to be done by the devs. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's how I feel about it.
Instead of directives I would focus on stat representation and gameplay. Currently KD is the most represented and used stat. If you have someone who kills 4 tanks per life but scores a 0.5 KD because the occupants leave and tank murder is more difficult, then that guy currently gets laughed at compared to a guy who sits in spawnrooms or is a spawncamper and racks up 10+KD's. So shifting focus from KD to other stats would benefit the game and discourage players from Zerging. For example stats concerning damage dealt against infantry or vehicles can be listed in terms of average damage per life, damage per minute, successful damage that led to a kill (including assists) and total damage this session. Furthermore, gameplay can be altered to have a larger focus on accomplishing objectives. Example: the Router was originally meant to be a Medic deployable. With Spawn Beacons becoming so useful the Router has become much more hassle to create, maintain and place so we could make it the Medic deployable it should have been (preferably as resource costinf utility). This gives Medics an important role on the battlefield, opening new avenues of attacl and keeping friendlies going even if their revive gun cant reach them. But these deployables would also be valuable targets to destroy, and you can reward players for destroying these router. Both with using a counter in the TAB screen applauding the player for destruction of these objectives and by offering directive and ribbon awards. Then you can put these objective counters more to the forefront by introducing a range of objectives. Imagine being able to pick up a point (hold E) which has to stay within the No Build Zones and out of painfields. As long as it's carried the timer runs for that faction. If the facility is captured, anyone who carried the point gets an objective point. Anyone killing the carrier will also gain an objective point to reward hunting and killing the carrier. More of these objectives can be made, various CTF forms, various VIP mechanics (like the point pick-up), using pedestals where construction turrets and modules can be placed to support the base et .
You made valid points about how fights play out a lot of times and how the game functions. PS2 will always be a work in progress because much of Planetside 2's fun is subjective to the individual - some people like aircraft, some tanks, some infantry, others construction, or even playing pure support. The list goes on and changes from player to player as they learn how the game works and its rules. There is one aspect of fun, the most important one IMO, that is pretty universal for the most part. It sounds like you should join an outfit and experience the game with others again. Being on a voice client, or using in-game voice within a squad is what really make a lasting impact on most people playing this game as it did with PS1 as well. You said you started with some friends... see if you can get them to come back and play, and if they wont then you should find an outfit that fits your play style or idea of fun. Maybe i'm presuming too much and you already have an outfit, but I find that I only really get bored when i'm playing by myself. Even if I just take a harasser or something out with a friend gunning I can remain entertained and having fun while not getting many kills at all. Pestering a zerged base's fringes with a Halberd-H is usually pretty entertaining, but there are loads of things you can do with just a few other people that are usually pretty entertaining if you get a little creative.
im all in with you @demkin. i also wrote some posts regarding the subjects and support any changes to the meta and bring back construction! its the only time were i paid the subscription when it was fun! currently im not playing either
Quick summary of today's PS2 session. Connected while the Amerish map just opened. I play TR on Cobalt, and you see, we're often the least populated faction and probably the least skilled aswell. Zerg quickly formed and mindlessly captured bases deep into ennemy territory, forming a big line we could not possibly defend against the overpopulated VS. NC was underpop too and struggling. I was fireteam leader in said zerg and tried to redirect some dudes towards bases we needed to defend. Only 1 or 2 guys followed, the others kept steamrolling, in a seemingly easy-cert obsessed state. When the VS zerg, which was bigger than ours, was done with the NC ( they had like 3 bases left ), they cut our territory off. The TR zerg reacted in an extremely disorganized fashion and with no regard for teamplay whatsoever. Vehicle terminals got hacked and nobody, out of the dozens of defending TR, would ever turn infiltrator or engi to turn it back on, so I had to do it everytime. Most fights quickly turned into a mass of frustrated TR fighting from the spawnroom, completly choked out by the VS zerg. Tons of insults from both sides, VS asking frustrated TR newbies to leave the TR and join the VS, which is obviously not going to help the state of the game at all. Witnessing the improbability, and lack thereof, of any sort of teamplay, I disconnected. Again, what a shame that a game with such potential for immersion is reduced to this state. Did the devs think that intelligent squads and platoons would form and smart plays and counter-plays would be done? But in a game where you have to farm for unlockables especially, obviously people will just go for the easy way. They always do in online games anyway. The devs either overestimated the average player, don't care, or don't know how to do it... My thoughts on the matter as of right now. "More of these objectives can be made, various CTF forms, various VIP mechanics (like the point pick-up), using pedestals where construction turrets and modules can be placed to support the base et ." While I agree that variations in bases would be welcomed, I feel that something like that would turn the game into what would feel like a sucession of mini-games rather than a war thing. Interesting nonetheless... For now, my outfit's leaders are studying for their exams and play another game on their free-time, and no one stepped forward to lead the outfit members. I would, but I don't have enough knowledge of the game I feel like. Wait & see it is.
