Biased and Uneducated opinion on how to improve the game

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Segnor, Apr 13, 2022.

  1. Segnor

    Too long; Didn't read: Remove Certs and ISO, Unlock everything for everyone.

    Hello thank you for taking some of you time to read this post it will be a bit on the longer side. Some info about me is that my account was created on 2013. I have played on of off since then and have kept tabs on the game ever since TotalBiscuit started covering the game. I still remember the giant 3 youtuber faction event that happened, one of the main reasons I chose to stick with TR every time I play. I currently have about 550 hours in the game rounding up.

    I believe in order to promote a healthy player base and increase its player retention is by removing the grind of certs altogether from the game and unlock all weapons, tools, and toys for everyone. This is my opinion as to why.

    Using certs creates a problem forcing players to cave in and buy membership and weapons with money in order to subvert the grind and play with the toys they want. It is a system that punishes you for buying what you want. New players are forced to buy meta upgrades and weapons in order to maximize the use of their certs removing the joy they could be having by experimenting with various loadouts and switching from between them as they pleased, with the current model they are shoehorned into maximum 2 viable loadouts while they grind out certs to unlock they toy and by then the player is burnt out and is bored of the game due to them not being able to play the way they wish. This problem was created on purpose by the OG devs to milk players of their money and time by creating an artificial problem and its pseudo solution that hurt the new player experience.

    By unlocking all weapons and toys from the start players are no longer constrained to abide by meta weapons and loadouts to earn certs to play how they want. Now they can play how they want whenever they want at an equal playing field to everyone. The enjoyment factor goes up sky high as players are free to experiment and fine tune their loadouts without fear of wasting certs on a upgrade or feeling behind and frustrated as they are fighting players with the same loadouts but fully upgraded. I believe this will also allow player creativity to flourish.

    The main issue I see with this suggestion is money, the company would loose a significant stream of revenue if certs are no longer tied to progression and since the weapons would all be available for free it would remove the need to buy them with money. The answer I could provide to this issue is to keep the current monetization of cosmetics and sell identical weapons such as the Nanite Systems Decimator Rocket Launcher as additional camo's for the gun. There is no need to bloat the weapon selection tab with 4 identical weapons that only have different colors. In the end it is a lose of profit in the short-term but hopefully it will bring in new players to circumvent the loss of profit and increase revenue in the long-term.

    I also understand that removing certs altogether would be a coding nightmare. To this I propose to keep it in the game but use the certs to allow players to buy cosmetics in the game. For example 10k certs for Composite armor and 5k for its helmet, but apply this to all cosmetics not just to one armor piece and headgear. This will incentivize and reward players for their grind and investment by letting them enjoy new styles but still leaving the option to buy them with money. It allows the feeling of progression by changing how your soldier and your arsenal looks without feeling bogged down or weak cause the HA who killed you had a maxed out shield while you had a level 2 or if he had a maxed level implant but you had a level 1.

    I look forward to hearing your opinion on this matter and would be eager to hear your suggestions on what could be improved with the game's player retention and make it a better game for everyone not just new players and not just vets.
  2. Segnor

  3. Clone117

    Agreed. The only thing that should stay priced should be cosmetic only. This would go a long way to leveling the playing field and may actually lead to better balance.
  4. Demigan

    No.

    The aspect of trying to acquire more gear is an important part of the game's leveling system to keep players engaged. Removing that takes a lot of the personal goals players set themselves out and shortens their stay in the game.

    To solve it they should look into a side-grade system. The basic starter weapons and vehicles should be jack-of-all-trades gear. Then players cant buy power, but specializations into a specific area such as CQC or long range. But each advantage the changes give, they should also give you a disadvantage over the vanilla vehicle. You equipped racer frame? You also lose something like mobility or braking.
    • Up x 2
  5. brutes359

    I actually agree with Demigan here. Part of the experience of the game is unlocking items and having a sense of progression. I would state that this process should return to its simplified state. All this stupid new currencies they added offer nothing but frustration to the game. Everything that is not a cosmetic should return to costing certs.
  6. OpolE

    New continents and Planetside 1 metagame. Major!
  7. TR5L4Y3R

    sorry for the amount of text:

    i would very much favor an easier way to lessen the grind ... simply by getting xp through dealing damage than through pure kills ...... would i remove the inclusion of certs entirely ..... i am honestly leaning more towards no .. the thing is that RPG offers membership in order to get consistent certgain over the month and a constant xpboost to severely lessen the grind compared to F2P players ...

    the biggest challenge for PS2 and a number of F2P games is how to be profitable to keep the contentball rolling and the game alive .. cosmetics alone will not sustain PS2 .. for this reason implants f.e. were included ... along with ASP later to give members and longtime players some sort of endgame options ... and as has been mentioned before .. you want the player be kept engaged to hunt for the next content bit .. otherwise the given content will hold you only for so long ...


    let´s take Mechwarrior: online for example .. the general weapon arsenal Mechwarrior offers is ... tiny .. it´s a couple guns/cannons and pew pew machinguns, laserbeams and energycannons and a variety of multitubed missilelaunchers (personally i would very much like a couple additional weaponsystems to mechwarrior from the battletech universe) .. the arsenal could have been maybe expanded with the various battletech producercompanies with each producervariant having its own quirks but that may as well just inflate the weaponoptions making the weapons of each class/type not all that intresting than its baseinclusion

    what MW:O does offer are mechchassis and literal TONS of variants to go for to get that itch of "actual" variety ... this is something PS2 could THEORETICALLY add .... practically .. for this game it would be a mess ...

    why am i talking about this? well at the very least in recent years MW:O more and more offers events for gaining extra in game currency, even premium currency and currency gainingboosts (xp boosts here aren´t really anything else than that)
    it however offers the occasional free mech of the month ... like "hey here is that popular or fairly effective mechchassy you could get" along with a few goodies for simply playing the game with a couple easy to obtain subgoals ..
    MW:O can do that cause it has the content for it ....
    PS2 COULD do something similar ... but that realistically would rather be for bling ...

    PS2 needs its ways to keep players engaged and at the same time something to go for .. weaponunlocks or utilityoptions are something to go for ... you gradually build up your class/vehicle to the way you want to play it ...

    in MW:O you get your credits per match, buy your chassy, buy the weapons and equipment for the chassy and it´s pretty much ready for continuous play ... the gradual build up of the chassy comes in the form of skillnotes .. which i absolutely think should NOT be a thing in PS2 ... might however actualy be a thing in PS2 in a different way as you often invest multiple certifications in one utility ... prime example infantryarmor ... the more certs you put into the more protection or buffs that specific armor gets ...

    have access to the full arsenal from the start you immediately go for the optimal builds for your playstyle ... play them a while until you had your fill ... and move on ..

    back then i played Mechwarrior 3 and 4 which are single player games ... i could access all content, created my favorite mechs and weaponbuilds played them until i got bored .... which was like roughly a week ....
    MW:O despite having to "work" to get stuff i still play for .. 6+ years? ...


    people may HATE (understandably) the grind .. but it´s among the reasons you keep playing ...
    of course what matters is that the gameplayloop is fun to make the grind bareable ...
  8. Johannes Kaiser

    I'd like to see some Cert prices reduced a bit (not for weapons, but for the class/vehicle upgrades) and the removal of the lootcrates from the implant system by whichever way is most convenient.
    Also agree on the sidegrade-theory.