Thoughts on campaign

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by csvfr, Dec 1, 2021.

  1. csvfr

    So i've played all the campaigns chapters so far released, and I must say the last one was the worst so far.

    The first campaign chapter was the best. The cool part was harvesting/hunting for the plants, which even though it was somewhat bugged, placed more than half the population in the shattered warpgate area. For days each faction would fight each other for control over the plant spawn zones. Also fun was seeing the PMBs designed to deny players from interacting with the consoles required for completing a certain mission.

    The second and third chapters featured unique gameplay mechanics such as retrieving derelict vehicles. The most fun I had then was planting AV mines near a vehicle pad where a harasser would need to be driven to. This forced my victim to repull a harasser from Eisa tech plant and drive it to the shattered warpgate once more. Despite this most missions could be completed alone and without interacting with the enemies at all.

    This most recent chapter was just really uncreative. The most menial mission was flying to an empty biolab and interacting with (press "E" on) three consoles. Another mission had the exact same objective but on an AMP station and Tech lab instead. It is funny because I remember doing similar tasks in the earlier chapters.

    So I hope the campaign that releases with Oshur will be more engaging and involve more of the fun elements that made the first campaign chapter a success:
    • Ad-hoc fortifications
    • Fighting in unusual places
    • Scattered teamplay
    • Interaction with hostile players
    and contain less of the "travel to position X and press E for a treasure" that many players will do solo.
  2. Cyropaedia

    Many players (myself included) weren't fans of the chokepoints, camps, and griefing during Shattered Warpgate.

    In particular, some players and outfits would camp at quest NPCs or vehicle terminals (Eisa Tech). It would not be a good player experience.

    The Siren Call part has only one mild chokepoint at the mining drill.
    • Up x 1
  3. JibbaJabba

    Above all the bugs need fixed.

    Just high level looking at the gameplay...
    It's fetch quests. In some form or another it's just "go here".
    This is a PvE kinda thing and it's set in a PVP world so the potential frustration is high. The possibility of griefing is high (ie, stopping someone else quest without a direct benefit to oneself). And it practice all of this happens. It is ... unpleasant.
    So ultimately I don't want to do this stuff. Lots of "not fun" in it.
    But dev wants me to explore this new content so they gate rewards behind the quests.
    So now I'm kinda forced into things (kinda... I just said no on some) which isn't cool.

    So I do them...
    And I hit the bugs.

    I get past all the griefing and make it to these fetch quests and then they are broken. Doesn't work.
    So I come back later and it's not available due to map conditions (no enemy amp station for example).
    And then more griefing (and some co-op at times which is nice!)

    the first set with the "Plant-side" quests nearly made me quit the game. I have never been so frustrated with planetside.
    I skipped the next campaign - really, not joking... I was afraid I would quit the game for good.
    I've dabbled in this most recent and ... bugs. griefing and bugs. I do NOT want to do this stuff. I want to play planetside and this is not playing planetside to me.

    So I've not finished.
  4. RabidIBM

    I just don't see campaigns as belonging in Planetside at all. I would have hoped that they would notice how thoroughly the player base panned the last campaign, but I guess that involved hoping for things which just don't happen with this dev team.

    Running around away from the main game play to press E on things IS NOT FUN. Who would have thought they would need to be told that? Repeatedly?
    • Up x 1
  5. JibbaJabba


    This.

    I've been reluctant to criticize too much because I just figure it's for someone else, not me.

    But no, I just don't dig it at all.

    I think when the shattered warpgate happened the campaign made a great excuse for people to get out in that open terrain and fight. It was pretty awesome stuff and I liked that.

    The rest of it is 100% not for me.
  6. Liewec123

    Hoping this is sarcasm, because c**p like that is why I straight-up refuse to do the missions since the first bunch,
    I look at most of the new missions and see that Wrel hasn't lost any of his sadism,
    sending people to the top of the Crown tower were they can get ganked by a stalker infil.
    I spawned a dervish there a few nights back and when I turned around there was a dude just landing
    I wiggled side to side to let him know "yeah I see you, but you can have it"
    the missions are annoying enough without trolls deliberately making them even more annoying.

    Objectives that can be camped by trolls just illuminate why pve missions don't belong in ps2
    Missions that require interacting with things at specific locations are the worst.

    Followed closely by using cr**py default vehicles as spawn points like the sunderer one from first campaign
    and now the ant one (lodestar would suck too if it couldn't be done with router.)

    The only decent missions are the more open ones like the recent "kill targets with bounties", great! Just hunt a few MBTs,
    Kill enemies with an ant, not too bad.
    Stuff that doesnt require specific locations and can't be camped is good, stuff that trolls can camp is BAD.
    • Up x 2
  7. csvfr

    No wasn't kidding. I did the mission when there were no campers there, and a diplomatic gentleman's agreement was in place around the consoles. Only later did the PMBs start to pop up, which weren't that much of an issue as pocket orbitals were much cheaper back then. 2 strikes on the silo and it is gone for good.

    This highlights that reducing the OS cost if there is a risk of griefing-bases is a good idea. Otherwise I think a mission like "Place 5 constructs at designated faction build-zone" followed by a "Destroy 5 enemy constructs" could create a more unique fight. Idea being that each faction builds a mega-base complex and afterwards fight over them, maybe even adding a requirement like "Defend the construct for 10 minutes". The building missions that were failed to achieve this as the zones were too far apart and within the regular lattice.