[Suggestion] Items that are locked behind Directives that have required factors that are outside of your control

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Arcturusstahl, Apr 10, 2021.

  1. Arcturusstahl

    Hello.

    This will be a very long post in regards to a subject matter that I believe should have been looked out for quite some time now considering this topic was brought up some years ago, it got some traction but no changes have since been made for the subject in question.

    I am an older player to this game, I believe 2013 was when I first picked it up, and I am an older player in the flesh as well, so having time to do a lot of things that I wish I could do, unfortunately I am not able to.

    With the introductions out of the way, let us get into what it is that I am talking about, and let us try and get some opinions in regards to this.

    Starting off I will go over the issue that I am brining up, then we will go into why I think it should change, and why based on what we currently have as a system, does not make sense when you are able to buy cosmetics, and the fact that, this is a free to play game, where it does not matter if you play the game, it matters more if you buy stuff from it, as stated by the game itself when you buy membership its states that you are the one keeping the game alive, so really they want and need your money, not your time.

    So the issue I have is this, should items, cosmetics, should they be locked behind Directives as they are called, that have prerequisite requirements that are based on circumstances, and situations that are not one of skill, but are ones that are based on outside of your physical control.

    What I mean by this is, if you have a Directive that has a core element that relies on other people, i.e, other players, to do or perform such an action that counts towards your specific progress on a Directive that you are farming for, should this still be the norm.

    An example would be going for the NS Commander Helmet for example because it is the the most egregious one.

    It's just a helmet for those that are new here, it does nothing special etc, it is just a just cosmetic item.

    However, the requirements to obtain such a cosmetic item has more outside elements from this game, that are totally out of your control on how to obtain such Ribbons for the Directive, and no matter how long or hard you play, it means nothing to obtaining said item. The simple fact is, you need a lot of people, and no matter how many hours you play if you are not a Platoon leader, you get nothing.

    The things that you require to obtain said item is this, one, enough people, so right away, you can not press a button and have these players, you have to find them.

    Secondly, you have to be a Platoon leader, this means that should you find enough people, they need to agree to put you into that position, again, all elements of skill, or how hard you play in the game, means nothing because this prerequisite requires an outside element to the game.

    Then you need to battle with people's free will, which is something that you can't physically do because you can't force people to join you, you can't join a outfit and force them to make you a Platoon leader as stated above, and to even have one of the prerequisitees, let alone two of the be Ribbons that be in requirement of this, is maddening.

    Next, you need to have either a clan/outfit to do this with, now for that requirement you need to have an Outfit that has enough members to even attempt this. An outfit that is active on the server that you play on. Is active on the faction on the server that you play on, and is active on the game in the first place, and all of these factors need to be constant, otherwise you will make no progress hence why this is such a big issue in my eyes.

    So already the requirements for this Directive is more based on outside elements, and real life people, than playing the game itself, and that is before we have even touched on anything that you have to do inside game.

    My argument is, yes it is an MMO, but it is also a first person shooter, the logic, the reasoning, and the need to do certain things is different to that of a 3rd person, medieval MMO like Runescape or World of Warcraft, where by design you will always have people doing raids, bosses, clearing dungeons etc, where you will never not progress because they make it so that by design, everyone benefits from it.

    Whereas here, having something like that, but having it be based on an FPS game, where for the vast majority of players, are just getting into battles, and blowing stuff up, it's not one of doing quests like a traditional MMO, because nothing is instanced, it's going on around you at all times, so having very specific requirements that require that kind of planning, and sheer luck in actuality, it's not going to work, nor player friendly in it's accessibility, as exampled by, grab a new player and tell them to complete this Directive.

    A brand new player will have no chance, and that to me, is poor game design, and we all suffer for it.

    Coupled with the fact that you can buy cosmetics in his game, then by that logical next step, obtaining items that you do not want to pay for would be one based on skill correct, because if you do not want to pay for something, then earn it, as in, earn, it.

    These requirements are not based on that at all, where is the skill, it is based on, Player population, player willingness to aid, player willingness to get on the game, and luck of the draw, getting people to join you outside of the game should not be relevant to your ability to unlock content in a game.

    To me that is something that is permanently locked off to the player because you have taken all of the aspects of accomplishment, and gratification of a person, and you have driven it down, and made it into, you were lucky, or fortunate.

    Nothing based on skill whatsoever.

    Now this does not just apply to the Leadership Directive, there are other Directives that have requirements that require direct input from others on a scale, that again, is more based on it being outside of the game, than it is inside the game.

    I write this post from a standpoint of playing a little mental game with myself, I do it to try and prove that what I am saying is actually true and it not one of just, hey, I'm bias.

    Five years ago, I put this theory into practive, I spent one year (yeah, I am not ******** you when I say that), to attempt this Directive and those like.

    Five years later, and doing nothing but playing this game, inside the game, not mucking with Discords etc, just what the game gives you, no amount of play time, or skill, has gotten me any closer to completing these Directives.

    If your game requires a thrid party application to run as it is meant to run, then you have an incomplete product.
    Unless you advertise on your game that it states somewhere that "Discord or TeamSpeak is required, as well as stating that player participation is driectly required to unlock content for you, on your side" then you as a devloper have failed to understadn the fundamentals of what this game is.

    So to me, that states that this issue is one that needs to be addressed.

    These Directives that require, (I will use the Leadership Directive as an example seeing as I have used that one as my example), they need to be nerfed.

    The requirements need to be brought way, way down in terms of what you need to do for those requirements, especially if it requires direct input from many other players, i.e, a Platoon, it needs to be brought down, so that players can unlock these things themsleves in this game without needing constant direct input from others, because it is not on of skill or playing hard.

    Nothing in this game should be locked behind something that is so connected to if suddenly the major clans stopped playing this, you would be screwed, and this is something that needs to be changed.

    Have cosmetics items, that require actual skill to unlock, i.e, any video game before 2010.

    Example, Recon armour in Halo, you had to have skill to unlock, if you were rubbish at the game, you were not getting three of those skulls to unlock that armour, you were required that you knew what you was doing, otherwise you lost.

    And even then, the requirements were just 4 people, not 40, something that is hard to get, and is hard to get them to do what you say, and this is with what we call "Randoms", because again we have spoken about this is justing using what is in the game, as you have designed it to be.

    Also this game is old by comparison, newer players do not want to spend hours and hours creating Outfits, getting everyone everyday for one person to farm a cosmetic that want's to 100% a character is too much, and lot of the outfits, are years old, as in, they were formed way back when, the big ones, but many of the veterans move on, there are other games to play, so you are fighting against everything just to progress with Directives in this game, because then what happens when you say we look to the future and the games continuation etc, but when you can't even get the Directives right, why should we believe you.

    Once you have played as long as I have, a battle is a battle, a fight is a fight.
    They lose that initial value, that is why it is always good to add new things such as base building because it added a new element to that game, but that itself again, you have done it a few times, you have done it a thousand, so progressing as a player, and ssing your character grow as it where, is something that is involving, and you know that, because you yourself as a company, have copious amounts of cosmetics, missions etc, so why are these Directives so anti player then?


    Thank you for reading this post, I would like to hear your views on the subject matter itself about Directives and the content locked behind them.

    Not what my view is, or what my experiences have been.

    Please keep to the subject matter, and not off topic, thank you.


    Do you have another solution to this, if so, jot it down.
    Thanks again, and I hope to see you all on the field.
    • Up x 1
  2. csvfr

    Platoon leadership ribbons are easily farmed requiring only two others to help. Place one guy in a solo squad just to count as a platoon. The other guy will be the squad leader of your squad. Then get as much squad bonus XP as possible, e.g. by playing pocket engineer when the squad leader is a MAX. For every third squad leadership ribbon the squad leader obtains, requiring 1 or 2 complete MAX repairs each, there will be a platoon leadership ribbon for you.
  3. Arcturusstahl


    I did not know that you could game it that way.

    As for the other directives, I am sure it is not as simple however.

    What is your stance on the situation.
  4. Arcturusstahl

    Would you be able to jump into a vc and just explain it a little bit in more in detail as I did what you said but it did not work.
    And it would really help out.
  5. csvfr

    With a squad of at least 3 people, drag one of the members into a different squad. This will make you platoon leader as well as a squad leader of Alpha squad. Now pass squad leadership of Alpha over to someone nearby and start earning squad bonus XP. Be aware that if the guy in the solo squad leaves the platoon will be disbanded, and you left as an ordinary member of the squad, so it might be worthwhile to have an extra guy there. But if there are more people most of them should be in Alpha if they are close enough to earn squad bonus XP. This might be what you did wrong, the squad leader needs to be nearby when squad XP is earned to get ribbons, hence why engineering a MAX or a vehicle is ideal.

    While the leadership directive is not that hard IMO and can be gamed, other directives are much harder. Like the engineer directive that requires 1160 kills with either the MANA turrets, sticky grenades, or spitfires - requiring other players to be killed by this thing. The Valkyrie/Galaxy directives might be the worst requiring others to spawn into as well as gun these vehicles that are not designed for frontline combat in the first place. Alternative requirements such as Ammo resupply and Proximity repair for the Galaxy would still need an unnatural playstyle to complete. The Valkyrie could get a Recon requirement as at least that is doable and helps with one of the worst directives there is.

    On Fisu there is a leaderboard for directives: https://ps2.fisu.pw/leaderboard/directive/
    • Leadership directive has been completed by 1612 people
    • Galaxy directive by 298
    • Valkyrie by 107
    • LMG directive by 27040
    • Magrider directive by 1652
  6. Arcturusstahl

    Does the guy over in the other squad become the max, or does the guy in charge of Alpha do that?
    Which ever one it is, does that person need to be the engineer as well.
    So I just follow them as Platoon leader, I don't need to do anything correct?
  7. csvfr

    This should be very easy to understand with basic understanding of the game. So let's rehash the objective: independently obtain Platoon Leadership ribbons that have the description:

    "Earn this ribbon by being a Platoon Leader when your other squad leaders earn Squad Leadership ribbons."

    Okay so what is the conclusion here? A person will need to be platoon leader while another person will need to be squad leader and obtain said squad leader ribbons. These latter ribbons have the description:

    "Earn this ribbon by being near your squad when they earn bonus squad XP."

    There is nothing that prevents the platoon leader from being the squad member that earns bonus squad XP. This can be earned by repairing another squad members MAX suit, resupplying with ammo and other stuff that gives bonus XP (revive, heal, spot, detect, etc. the list goes on). As long as the bonus XP is earned with the squad leader nearby, or (as suggested) is earned by performing bonus actions on the squad leader himself, it will count towards squad leader ribbons for the squad leader, which equates to progress towards platoon leader ribbons for the platoon leader.

    So when you are in a squad with at least two others, and one of them plays MAX in a biolab, make a platoon with this layout:

    Alpha squad
    - MAXmain (SL)
    - You (PL)

    Bravo squad
    - RandomPlayer (SL)

    Note the legends here (SL) = squad leader, (PL) = platoon leader, and the names being example nicknames. Such a platoon can be created from a standard squad by dragging RandomPlayer into a separate squad and afterwards rightclicking MAXmain and pressing the "promote to squad leader" option. It does not matter what RandomPlayer does, he could even be on the other side of the map for all we care. You will now swap to engineer and repair MAXmain.
  8. Botji

    Almost stopped reading when you said:
    "and the fact that, this is a free to play game, where it does not matter if you play the game, it matters more if you buy stuff from it, as stated by the game itself when you buy membership its states that you are the one keeping the game alive, so really they want and need your money, not your time."

    A online game like PS2 needs your time almost more than it needs your money, without people actually playing the game there wouldnt be a single person paying a single $ for anything in it, it would be dead. Anyway csvfr has given you some tips on the leadership stuff so I want to talk about something that is similar to this but imo a far worse crime!

    Newbie/Mentor chat is blocked behind getting 500+ mentor rating and this can only be gained by leading mentor squads with sub BR30 players in it, and it DECAYS with time.

    I want to help new guys, I think its fun to let them gun or drive a vehicle and in general it seems a lot of the new people are more 'reliable' than picking up someone random to gun for you... probably because the newbie doesnt have access to the fancy vehicle weapons and it can be a fun different experience and perhaps better certs than running around as infantry.

    Nope, cant do that because I dont run mentor squads. My game time is spotty, it can go weeks or in some cases months(years...) between times I play PS2 so im not exactly motivated to run mentor squads either because most or all of the progress to get into the mentor chat will probably just be lost over time.

    This has been bugging me a lot lately so I just kinda took the chance to vent here since its semi related.
  9. Arcturusstahl

    I found that out myself not too long ago with the Menotring and I think it is kind of F'ed up.
    We need new people in the game, the elitists, because new prospectives brings improvements.
    Why this has not been changed I will never know but, I think from what I have seen, Wrel is just catering to verterans and not new players.

    We need them more to expand the playerbase.
    Will it change, maybe not, but, people can't complain that they did not see this coming.