I love the devs for finally doing great work . Adding more immersion through the new effects, optimization of the graphics with improved performance and ironically looking better than before. They should head in this direction and tone down the graphics even more, standardize it, no more handicap for ppl that play on the higher settings. But Oshur, no matter how amazing it looks, it feels weird. It feels weird because, and this may be just me as I think differently, cause it's the only map that best suits the gameplay, which fits the devs perception of how Planetside 2 should look. So you have like 3 or 4 trash tier maps, and just 1 map, Oshur that is actually fun. Fun in a way were you just ventilate your head, were nothing matters, no competition, just chaos and therefor you have fun and do whatever. Amerish, Indar, Esamir, Hossin these could have been amazing "strategical" maps. There is plenty of room for strategy and teamplay, everything to be incorporated, for all types of players and still keep it tactical and competitive. But it was never thoroughly improved and possibly worsened for example with the lattice links, removing as much strategy as possible. So simply said you have these 4 'nothing' maps, just different textures and then we have 1 map that fits in the game. It just feels weird and makes me wonder, what is the future? It was obvious that the devs were going for this, but what about the other players that want strategical gameplay, the leaders, etc, what about them? The ones that actually kept the game alive while it suffered. What are they supposed to think, when all resources went into not making the game better, but making it playable when it's lacking the players?
Yeah! Graphics and a continent! Great! Who cares about the basic gameplay being crap, the rewards encouraging players to kill and farm the easiest and cheapest thing they can while avoiding hard targets, the spawnbunkers still being crap despite even the original devs having iterated and changed them half a dozen times, the balance between G2A and A2G still being crap and being made worse over time like the nerfs to AA turrets, infantry being so weak that every single base needs walls and roofs to shield and segregate them from vehicles and aircraft, or the other longstanding imbalances and bugs of the game? How about they focus on QOL updates for a year. Nothing but changes, additions aimed at solving a problem and iterations meant to make the game better playable and align the goals of players with one another.
^ I don't agree entirely with Infantry being "weak" against Vehicles but I think there's a lot to be said about just HOW MUCH cover always has to be "baked into" every Lattice Capture line for the mouth breathers on EMERALD to not just get constantly HESH/Banshee camped all day long. We really don't have that same issue on Connery but that's mainly due to us not having the same Pops and level disparities either. Everyone has on average more robust Kits and optional unlocks or specialized loadouts in order to deal with the threats of Vehicle spam. ...and way more experience too. Though I think a couple of improvements are desperately needed such as splitting up "damage output onto Targets" better for Anti-Armor Rifles/Launchers so that things like the Archer, Lancers, Explosive Bolts, Rocket Rifle & UBGLs etc... are all MORE effective against Hard Amor and Liberators, but still kept relatively less effective against Sunderers and ESF's (& other infantry) And also Construction Turrets ...they desperately need some additional features to make them competitive against Vehicle zergs... That would give Infantry at least a good DISTRACTION / threat logistic to allow Infantry to move more freely around all these Lattice line Hex captures that lack the proper Facilities to give babysitting cover to inexperienced players.
Well what did I say before? Make tanks and special vehicles an outfit asset... And add better anti tank weapons for infantry of course, but this requires a lot of work. From my experience as a Construction player, you know which TR weapon (for infantry classes) is the best against land vehicles? Cause all the turrets fall down in seconds during a defense and you'll need to defend with your small arms against armies of vehicles. The anti-air T2 Striker is the best anti tank gun from my experience, because its the only higher damage, anti tank weapon that can hit a target at any range.
