10 major problems with the game right now

#1. Spot on.

#2. Design or direction or style. Yes, spot on, PS2 is suffering in this department and only the VS seem to be of any kind of level, only they don't really fit in either Amerish, Indar or Esamir. It's like they're from a different... Game I suppose. You could say the other two do match the environment but that only means they are bland and boring enough for it

#3. Base design is so ugly and flawed and unreasonable, it's part of #1 by the way. Agreed.

#4. Inconsistent and greatly varying TTK(On the same weapon) plus bad Hit Reg and compensation are plaguing PS2. PS2 is CQC SpazFest, where it's not, BOOM LOLPOD/SHELL, REKT!

#5. I am not sure what to say, as TR I can safely say I am very disappointed by my Faction, its traits, ES weapons and lack of identity. I feel we're the new Hard Mode after some recent changes and I'd be OK with it if it was done in an intuitive way, not just have us be generic "Bad Guys" with generic EVERYTHING plus disadvantages so we can get shot down easily, as "Bad Guys" are in B-Movies. All that said the other 2 Factions have unique elements. I mean, I say NC and you'll think "WOW MAX CQC AND WINSHIELD and JH, and a Halberd variation and a guided RL and MAX SHIELD!" and I'll say VS and you'll go "Hover MBT SWAG, PEW PEW LAZ0RZ, Orion, Lancer, Lasher, PPA!! DISCO CRABS!"... Now if I say TR what will you think? Uhmm. Red... And... Red. And +5KM/H... And +10 ammo... And RNG. And 2 cannons MBT which has to go through a lot just to fire them, including planning, positioning, Locking Down, BLAH BORED ALREADY, C4 that POS. Game Over.

#6. Resources WILL come late. I suppose SOE took the "If you're still here good for you, if not, we'll bet on new players" route. EVERYTHING points out to this, "Veteran" means nothing. Supporter means nothing as well. Let's just make way for the PS4 release, we had our fun. Or... You know. IN any case we should just leave according to some Forums members and SOE.

#7. The thing about Libs is that they're actually the only FINE, consistently FUN thing to use(Also one that is guilty of being good at EVERYTHING). ALL VEHICLES should be as menacing(Only that should depend on Load-Out, UNLIKE LIBS NOW) and factor heavily where they appear. Allies should want to help them, opposition should prioritize and call in Support. It's just that PS2 is so badly done that bad Base design, terrible Resource system, terrible Map/Unit relation(Why can we always get Libs?!) and there's such a lack of Rock-Paper-Scissors(Too much Random, too many Dead-End situations for one side or the other) that certain elements ruin the whole thing.

#8. Regarding MAX, they are just HAs on RACE HORSE STEROIDS. They offer absolutely nothing and will mow down all targets UNTIL C4 which is not exactly what I call "Balance". The appearance of MAX should make a fun, involving fight. Not force EVERYONE to run except the C4 Fairies, C4 Gnomes(Non JetPack C4 YOLO guys) or an NC MAX.

#9. Community? I couldn't care less. I just became childish right? Well it's TRUE though, if I am not enjoying the GAME, I don't even care about the PLAYERS. In a very weird way this is actually logical. The environment and the vibe are just bad, SOE are a very weird Dev. We're all on edge.

#10. Yeah I commented on that above albeit lightly, saying SOE is weird with PS2. There is literally no structure, it looks half done, Balance is way awkward, there is no purpose and no logic. The only thing they are doing is release 1000K Cert Sinks and cosmetics. Every GU makes PS2 tear at the seams. Yeah it's a joke as a "Full Title" even if it's F2P. They're just milking the shine, until the next MMOFPS. Eternal Crusade can't come fast enough but until then I can't go back to lesser substitutes like BF and SOE knows this is the case with most of us. Instead of being GRATEFULL and sharing the feel, they go $_$ and done F*d it up.

KD and all that crap should be tracked, no problem. IF THE GAME WAS FUN(IE I did not have to create my bubble of fun in it, bursting others' in the process) I WOULDN'T CARE FOR MY KD, show or no show. I'd still want to see how I do but that'd be all, I'd be like "WHOOO WHO CARES THIS WAS SO TENSE AND TOOK ORGANISED EFFORT, BUT WE GOT THIS BASE YEAAAAAAH"... Now I'm like "Ooops, KD lower than 2.5, better step it up. Where's a Spawn Room? Oh look at that, it's been 1Hr and nothing changes. Should I stay? Oh look there's a VG there, I'll see if I can C4 it on foot. Nah F it, done that before. Dude will just get a new one. Besides he's just shelling a F*ING ENERGY FIELD for reasons. Let him. *Log Off*"

I don't know what else you could play, that's a very generic question. I know why I play PS2, and why I won't keep playing when it happens. Do you? I suggest you try The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead 1&2, Trine 2, WarFrame, Dawn of War 2(Plus DLC/XPacks), Garry's Mod, TorchLight 2, Diablo 3, Amnesia 1, Dark Souls 2, the Dead Space series, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Deus Ex 1(If you can bear the GFX), Far Cry 1(Same), XCOM, Sanctum 2, run The Secret World's story through, Beyond : 2 Souls... Should I go on?

Cheers to you too!

I have played all factions including NC up a decent BR(~50), but I only commit to one "main" due to the game's cert grind.

BR 20 can also be achieved in a single day, I've gotten BR 30 on an alt in one double XP weekend.

I posted that knowing NC would object, but I'm not going to leave faction balance out of the picture for popularity sake.

I agree with all the points except for the following ones.

I don't find so much difference.

Facts: an NC MAX has not enough DPM to kill a KA5 MAX unless he's using double grinders with ex-mags , where the other factions' MAXes can use whatever weapons they want.
NC MAX is just good at point blank where the damage falloff makes it a juicy target from everyone
The rest is just "greener grass": I prefer NC weapons but I'm quite proficient with TR ones and while different I don't find them underpowered. I find the VS weaponry a bit inferior to the other factions.

Welcome back from Neptune to Earth

I see fights at 7 in the morning (Central time). I've seen literally thousands of battles that were in no way a spawn camp.

What exactly are you comparing it too? And not everybody has decent computers (me) and would rather actually be able to play the game than for it to look pretty. I play on very low because I have to.

Most bases are very well designed, not every base has to favor the defenders. Bases are meant to be taken. An example of a bad base would be the old Crown. What is wrong with Tower bases? There isn't a single turret out of place. Many bases have teleporters and tunnels to take you to various places within the base. Most small outposts have a spawn room with multiple exits and you can shoot from any one of them. If you are camped you are outnumbered, I've said that so many times. You don't get suppressed in the spawn room with even population, it NEVER happens. Enemy vehicles should be countered by ally vehicles, not heavies behind a shield.

Surviving an extra 2-3 bullets doesn't give you a massive advantage over anything. People normally don't stop firing after the 8th bullet, I don't know why they wouldn't kill the target anyways. Long range weapons are supposed to be for long range. You don't take a Pulsar C into a tower and expect to kill everyone inside. Damage dropoff starts from a long ways away, and really it's just an extra 2 or 3 bullets to kill. Aim.

Complete biased BS.

By "spam" do you mean making the most out of available resources? Because that's what people do, not "spam."

Ground AA is extremely effective against them. 8/10 liberators I encounter end up flying away for repairs and leaving me intact. Unless they get a direct hit(extremely rare for most lib gunners I see) I'll just shrug off the minor splash damage. A single good burster max in a spawn room will deny an entire hex of any air support. Liberators are strong, but they're still not gonna last long after taking 200 rounds of flak. If you don't have the right tools than redeploy.

For every 1 max I see there are 30 infantry. They are not as big a problem as people make them out to be. Without support they're just a big slow heavy assault with no shield. Unless you exclusively play during primetime, support is rare.
Spaming anything makes anything seem too powerful. If everyone decides to pull galaxies and send 50 galaxies towards the enemy, the enemy will be helpless to stop them. that doesn't mean galaxies ruin air fights. Why would maxes be any different?

Yeah people who only point out negative attributes of a game really bum everyone out and ruin the experience. Oh wait...

We've had a lot of bad updates, but we've had a lot more good ones. Why can't people just look to the positive side for once?

I don't understand how anyone wouldn't want to see their personal stats. Why wouldn't you want to see how far you've progressed? Why wouldn't you want to know what you've accomplished and achieved? Would you rather mindlessly shoot things with no reward or even reason? Because there are plenty of games like that, Planetside 2 doesn't have to become one of them.

The game isn't dying. What do you mean "reasonably playable?" Are you not playing the game reasonably? I'm sorry that PS2 isn't the perfect utopia you expect it to be, that it doesn't meet your high standards.

Anything else. You won't find much that compares to this game.

Edit: Sorry if this sounds harsh, there's a storm outside and my internet keeps going out, I'm a little irritated.

Most of the non-peak hours, on Connery, are scattered 1-12 fights and you might find one larger zergy fight of varying quality here and there - often it's going to be extremely one sided and pointless. My SPM has gone down considerably lately, and it's not because I'm playing worse/differently. It's because there's less action to be found.

You're confusing graphics with visual design. The game could look better without worse performance, it's the colors, the models, the base structures, the terrain, etc. that are the problem not the detail of the graphics.

This is hard to even respond to it's so off. "Not a single turret out of place" is...I'm a little lost on how you came to this conclusion honestly. There are clearly many poorly placed turrets. It's not just the base design, you have to consider the terrain around the base that potentially blocks off much of the turret's angles of fire and such. They clearly copy / pasted bases where the terrain didn't suit the turret placements and still haven't done anything about it.

Also you can get suppressed in the spawn room with even population and it does happen regularly. If the enemy has overwhelming air/vehicle presence, infantry can hardly do anything at some bases and the offense barely needs any of their own infantry to hold the point when defender infantry can't make it past explosives spamming the spawn exits to get to the point.

I know how to aim and am well above average in that department, you can check my DA stats if you doubt, it's still up since it lags behind the player site(I deleted Paperlamp today).

2-3 bullets is a massive advantage, that's 30% or more time to kill difference for some guns. Also, stopping firing is not the issue, it's players getting more leeway to make it to cover/medkit or kill you faster due to nanoweave difference.

Damage drop off starts at 10-15m for most guns depending on soft point. That is not a long ways away.

This has nothing to do with taking high TTK weapons into CQC a tower either, that's a red herring.

By spam I mean situations such as "we failed to take/defend this tactically, let's throw tons of MAXes at the point and win through sheer durability / firepower advantage". Or those fights where there's a sea of tanks all camping around a small base's spawn exit.

-_________-

Maybe your server has terrible lib pilots/gunners, that's the only explanation for this response. Honestly I'm surprised anyone is trying to defend libs in their current state.

I run autorep and can usually get several times over the number of kills before dying as I can as HA. And I'm not a bad enough HA for that to skew things. Support is somewhat important but it depends on the BR of the players you're against. If there's no high BR outfit around it's a freaking slaughter with or without support.

MAXes are different because MAXes can go indoors pretty much anywhere infantry can, most importantly to secure points. You can't cram 50 galaxies, libs, tanks, etc. into a cap point or people definitely would.

Right about that.

Yeah, hockey helmets, Haloween and Christmas stuff really damages the immersion into the game. But it fills the pockets of the developers...

I think Planetside 1 has had better base design. Simply because bases were much more interactive then. Spawn tubes were destroyable, base turrets were automated, etc.
Base design in PS2 looks like it wasn't completed. Wherever it will become so, it will be too late, I fear.

Maybe FEWER guns but with more characterfull behaviour each one, would suit the game better.
I personally think, TTK is generaly a bit too low. But that's a sacrifice to the electro-sports-community, which makes out a lot of players, but ruins fully what has been left of this game.

I agree with the Jackhammer. Don't know what weopons the other fractions do have as a pendant, but the Jackhammer is really godlike. The only think I am jelous about the HA-guys... ^^
I do not believe the NC do have the best SMG. I think the TR are supposed to have that, don't they?
The NC-MAXes are really stunning at CQC, right. But they are completely useless if they are more then, let's say about 30m away from the enemy. Maybe a plus in Biolab-fights, yes. But in most other situations, VS and TR MAXes do have the advantage since they are MUCH more versatile and useful at medium ranges.
I have no idea, what ESSR means...

Fully right about that.

I don't think Liberators should be nerfed, but I understand, that they tend to ruin small fights, where they are effectively useless in big fights, since they get blasted within seconds in the later ones.

Right.

Absolutely right. CoD-Generation at play...

Yeah, it's very rare that the updates do really improve the gameplay.

Maybe the most importand problem of the gameplay in my oppinion. Maybe the game would be more fun to play, without that roleplay-upgrade stuff. (I say this, although I am a fan of pen&paper rpgs in real life, in which leveling up is quite important!)


Oh, Planetside 1 did become free-to-play since a few weeks. I'll give it a try. It has been a while. Maybe you'll take a look, too, thread-creator? ^^

I would say I agree with the list pretty much in whole. Things I would add:
1. Various longstanding bugs - hit detection, points flipping on their own, shield diffuser not working, drop pod bouncing. Honestly these are often so bad the developers should feel embarrassed.
2. Lack of real purpose - fight in the same places all the time, every day. Same bases have their stalemates because of design some many bases never a fight in the first place. Alerts mean nothing really, many don't even participate. Flip the point move on play.
3. Slow to react/listen to the community - how long were libs a problem? What about engi AV turrets, or mines not working. Just general large outstanding complaints or needs for fixing revisions do not only not happen, do not even often get recognized or commented on for many months.

#1. Hard to find decent fights + dwindling population/pop imbalances. . The symptom not the disease kind of a deal.
Yep and you're right a symptom rather than the disease itself - I'd just point out that in it's later day ps1 fights were better with far fewer people online.

#2. Lack of ...atmosphere. The game is just ugly and dull and it wears on you.
I'd disagree. I think this is all fine and I never thought all the different camos would be doable in a mmofps, yes in a mmorpg where performance doesn't matter. In any case for me aethetics is not something that would bother me overly.

#3. Base design sucks period.
Absolutely, base design was bad from tech test (anyone remember the tech test Amp Station?). But it's getting better, some of the bases on Amerish are quite nice, only some though. The astounding thing it the time it's taken.

#4. Gunplay. Nanoweave is stupid, and ruins gun balance.
Not something that bothers me.

#5. NC is the best faction
I've never been one for XX is the best stuff....

#6. Resources. The revamp needed to happen sooner
I have to be honest, although I think the resource system doesn't work presently and only acts as a spur to buy a boost I have never really looked at the intended change. I'm not confident though.

#7. Liberators. Out of the blue a buff to their survivability for no perceivable reason, and currently they mostly just ruin good fights
Absolutley. I doubt the recent announced changes will help matters though.

#8. MAXes. I know as well as anyone these are unhealthy to the infantry game.
Not something that bothers me much. I don't think the impact they have is in the same unhealthy class that liberators are in.

#9. Community decline. This is a more subjective observation, but I feel like there's more hostility/childish
I haven't seen this but I do detect a more friendly attitude between empires. This says to me that the competition within the game is not working properly and probably things like Server Smash and Community Class are symptomatic of that.

#10. Lack of clear direction/Confusing updates. This may be a bit vague, but the lack of confidence in their ability to improve the game. We've had a lot of very bad updates,
Yes, my confidence in 'the future' is pretty low.

Honorable mention: Certs and stats. Players are simply not rewarded for objective play, and farming is the most rewarded. KD is tracked when it really shouldn't be and discourages objective play further.
I very much agree with this and I think this is one of the fundamental problems with the game. It should be that players are rewarded by the fun nature of the gameplay itself. and specifically not by XP awards. Imagine if someone came out with Nu-Chess whereby you got one point every time you advanced a pawn and 5 points every time you captured one. It would swiftly turn into a very different game to real chess - after a month of popularily it would then die out never to be seen again.

The game has got to be fun in itself and not because you have been awarded x many internet points.

Slow to react/listen to community is a bit of a damned if you do damned if you don't.

I'd refine this point to say that they're bad at interpreting and filtering community feedback. Understanding what the real cause for complaints are, and which ones are most valid, is not something I feel they've done well with. A lot of overnerfing, a lot of senseless changes, not enough significant revamps of things that needed more than just number tweaks to really work. The striker for example is a weapon that they recently buffed when its problem was not the damage it deal but a bad mechanic.

Mostly I agree, except for graphics and atmosphere. These are pretty good, but you cannot expect the same level of excitement after months of playing.

I would put bad physics as number 2 issue:
Tracked vehicles unable to negotiate a slight rise or bump
Every terrain feels like iced rubber
No weight to vehicles
Icerubber rocks where you get stuck or slide or both (as infantry)
Practically non-existent flight model for AC that does not even resemble physics

Infantry play is quite solid compared to vehicles but ranged performance of guns is way too poor. Good aim at range should be rewarded outside sniper rifles.

I played NC for a long time and I personally find NC guns easier compared to VS weapons.... I must be weird because everyone calls VS easy mode.

NC are defiantly a stronger faction compared to VS from my personal experience, it is one of a couple reasons why NC are more popular. Can't speak for TR