Granted, there is very little lore, especially for a MMO type game. However, the small bits of lore over the years that has come out has always been a fun read to learn more about each faction and how it go to where it is in the present. However, do we even know who is in control of the TR these days? Who took command after Waterson, and who is in command now that most everyone is immortal? How do the rebirthing tubes actually work? Can you still grow old, "die," then be rebirthed in your young body again, or do people simply no longer age significantly? Do the powers that be that run the NC actually have a plan if they were to win the war? It seems to me that corporations using freedom as the largest inspiration for their fighters(other than bonus checks) would inevitably cause a civil war, should they even win the endless war. What really happened with Henry Briggs? A central part of the Vanu storyline suddenly commits suicide. No explanation, no after thoughts, just a continuation of the foundation he built, but why would he kill himself? Huge gap here! Have any new artifacts been uncovered? This would be such a fantastic way to implement lore in the game, creating battle events to uncover technology, then opposing factions in sequential events to steal or adapt it. It would be awesome(to me at least) if Daybreak decided to add a writer to their roster.
I think it's great Daybreak gave a fairly descent backstory to PlanetSide. When I tell people about the game, I give a little lore on the factions.
The lore in this game is a huge untapped potential. I like how according to lore no faction is entirely good nor entirely evil: TR has the power hungry High Command and their commissars that want to rule with an iron fist, but then there are also regular soldiers who want to restore order, peace and stability to their planet. NC has the corporate lap dog mercs whose loyalty doesn't go beyond their next paycheck but there are also true blue rebels who believe they are fighting for a righteous cause of freedom. Vanu has their "convert or else" turbo zealots but there are also regular scientists who believe Vanu tech is a boon to humanity and developing it could bring another golden age to Auraxis.
We (as in the team) definitely do! The lore we have right now is pretty cool, but it leaves a lot to be desired. We've talked about a couple of ways we could expand the story of Auraxis and better tie it into the game. We have some ideas that we'd love to pursue, there are just other things we have to get done before that can happen.
While I agree there's other bigger things in the gameplay department, I'd say it would certainly be something to consider. There are a lot of people out there who play games because of the story and understand Why They Fight and Who they fight for. Lore brings interest into the game and can keep new and old players into the game without having to create a huge amount of in-game content(at least at first). Immersion is a fantastic element that should be utilized That's why having a dedicated creative writer regularly creating written content for both the history and present day of Planetside would be a good thing to have. Knowing who the commanders and various leaders are Filling in some of the blanks over the huge time gap where no history has been written Developing character lore of the main characters in history, aka people like Briggs New content that causes each faction to question why they've joined their side New content that causes each faction to cement why they've joined their side Daily or weekly briefings by your commanders over server-specific events that may have happened, like multi-continent locks or daily "quests" that are specific. "Solider! We've been getting numerous reports of TR infiltrators on Indar hacking our facilities! Eliminate them!" *kill 25 Terran Republic infiltrators on Indar*
I only have the most basic grasp of the games lore, or at least, I think I do ( TR= Ruling government. NC= Freedom fighter/ mercenaries/ corporate backing for I don't even know why. VS= Techono cultist/ extremists). I certainly wouldn't mind more lore, and honestly, I would love it if the devs could reduce so of NS presence. What I mean is, even if the actual stats are the same, make physical cosmetic differences exist between different factions NS vehicles. Cause frankly, I can't help but think at times that all three sides are basically just NS pawns that are being thrown at each other in an endless slaughter. Obviously, full cosmetic overhauls have issues, since to do it right means refunding station cash, but there is a decently easy one that can be done. Since none of the cosmetics for the lightning affect the turret shape ( That I know of), the turret could be changed to have a different appearance for each faction ( TR would have a heavily sloped, modern looking turret. NC a bulky looking brick of a turret. VS a heavy rounded turret that I imagine looking a little like an oversized aphelion sunken into the hull). Small things like that are things that I feel would help with feeling connected to your faction. Even if 80% of your vehicles are the same as everyone else's, at least they can have unique faction looks that are all their own right from the get go. I mean, my long standing fan canon is basically NS sought to set up a colony on auraxis, but various factors ( resource shortages, political disputes, etc) fractured the colonists into the various factions. TR is the main ruling body to rise from the ashes of NS's political system. NC is composed of the remains of many of the original NS corporate leaders and TR defectors ( with their rail tech having been proprietary NS tech at the time of the break up). And finally VS being comprised of well, scientists who became overly enthralled in their work. Maybe even alien mind control of VS members. Only reason I can up with this is because I felt it explained the seeming over abundance of NS equipment used by each side. I can see a lot of this helping with lore.
I love the backstory of a game, and considering how much hard effort goes into developing a game like this, it's nice to learn more about the universe they created. I'd definitely welcome more lore on the world and the three empires.
Lore makes any game that much more immersive, and fun. Whatever else is released, hopefully it can be tied into the actual gameplay somehow, be it actual cut-scenes, notes to read on walls, audio recordings, and other such info that unlocks based on player progression, and preferably done off-continent, maybe on koltyr.
Thinking out loud but one thing we had in PS1 were specific crystal formations (one per continent but there were more of them) for people to search out not showing up on the map. Why not add similar concept to the map of adding small "localized" lore tidbits to the maps. Talk about how Vanu Squad 13 held the line here while outnumbered by TR, how TR Commander Z got field promoted due to his swift attack on NCs third company etc. Don't need to take a lot of time to add or build but will add small lore snippets to build on later outside of the game. You can even be creative and rotate them depending on who's holding the area; i.e. if NC holds the base it talks about the brave defenders slaughtered brutally to a man where as VS holds it then it glorifies general Xs swift assault and the mercy shown to the prisoners etc.
That's actually my interpretation of the lore, that NS pretty much runs everything. Who owns the equipment terminals? NS does. Who owns the vehicle and air spawners? NS does. Who owns the infantry spawners? NS does. Who owns the orbital drop pods and associated spacecraft? NS does. If they wanted to, NS could very easily win the war in a heartbeat. Just deny access to any one faction (or all of them), and *poof* NS wins the war. Their soldiers and tanks will indefinitely respawn. Yours will not. And that's not taking into account that because NS controls space, they could very easily bombard any faction with orbital weapons (plus all the large "anti orbital" cannons are also NS owned). So then... why is NS making everyone fight? Well, according to the lore a wormhole opens to Earth every ~99 years. There was one in 2345, 2444, 2542, and 2640. It's assumed that the wormhole in 2739 was missed as Auraxis was being colonised. Meaning that the next one would have been near 2838, just 7 years before war broke out on Auraxis. Coincidence? Maybe... My own theory is that NS spotted something coming through that wormhole in 2838, a second mission from Earth. But one that was heavily equipped for war instead of being a friendly rescue mission. NS saw that the Auraxians were in no position to fight off the conquering Earth fleet... unless its inhabitants entered into a never-ceasing combat drill. So through careful political and economic manoeuvring, NS not only caused war to break out, but essentially guarantees that no one ever dies and no faction can ever win. Over time through constant, condensed military struggle, every single Auraxian will become a hardened warrior by the time the Earth fleet finally arrives (which might take longer than the 3 years it took for the Auraxians to find the planet as the Earth fleet might have to randomly search). And then the battle for Auraxis will truly begin, with all current forces uniting under the NS banner.
If I may, just as in the real world, war is a business. Someone is always profiting from the misery it causes. NS systems are definitely profiting, but I doubt they had the clout to create the ideologies presented to us in game. Undoubtedly they pull and make strings, but we as people have formed the marionettes, whatever form they take.
WOW I never even thought about having lore in this game. Never once have i questioned why my NC are up against TR and Vanu. That has now changed! Where do you find this lore? You blew me away TC
I have wondered about profit as a motive, but in this case I don't see it working. Most of the time, NS provides much of the equipment and service for free. Unless you spawn a vehicle, MAX, or special item like C4, NS doesn't seem to make any "nanites" off of the vast uses of their equipment at all. It's arguable if nanites are even currency. You simply get them for the mere act of existing. They just sort of pile in at a fixed rate per minute regardless of how useful you're being or how many soldiers are active. Could there be some sort of licensing agreement that NS gets from each faction outside of the in-game resources? Maybe... but that's sure to lead to economic collapse. Think about the Auraxian landscape... not much in the way of economic activity. When's the last time you saw private enterprise or even a consumer goods factory? When did our characters last enjoy some mass media or ecommerce? Now in early lore entries there did seem to be mention of civilian settlements and infrastructure, but well over a decade into fighting everything seems to be hopelessly militarised. Even the logging plants seem abandoned and turned into heavily-armoured military outposts (hence why a 150mm APFSDS is stopped by mere walls). Pretty much you can't have a civilian economy if everybody is playing the role of immortal soldiers who never really consume anything (apart from the equipment that NS makes). And if there's no civilian economy, then there's no capital that the factions can accumulate to pay off NS.
There's a limited amount of actual lore, but you can find some old school stuff on some Planetside wikis that show diaries of past characters and dialogue between some. There's a few people out there who've made videos on YouTube about the lore that exists, too. This link is a bunch of random backstory shorts of different perspectives, mostly before the war started. The first three are pretty interesting first-person takes on each side. I'm pretty sure there are still civilians on different continents and other areas. If I'm not mistaken, some people went underground to avoid the conflicts, but you can imagine there to be civilian communities from each faction: TR fight for peace, like any military, fight for the public to be at peace....just with martial law, strict curfews, heavily enforced laws/rules. One can imagine a city that looks relatively peaceful where all citizens are law abiding, very little crime, no illegal drugs or acts of vandalism. Probably because every where you look you see scary TR soldiers who've all-but-replaced the idea of police officers. NC fight for freedom backed by many large corporations. One must know that such corporations need buildings to house employees. The corporate gears have to be turning somewhere. I would think NC cities to be much, much more liberal where music, art, and recreational drug use is common. A city-state not governed by strict laws, no curfews; free to do as you choose all day and all night. I'd imagine many areas of these cities being run by mobs, as since there is much less law going on, getting away with murder and robbery would be infinitely more common. VS seem a bit more difficult. According to very, very small pieces of lore, most people in the VS society are all contributing to advancement. There are no freeloaders, no useless people. Each person plays a role in advancing their society, be it through engineering, biology, cybernetics/nanotech, or philosophy of war, leadership, etc. I'd imagine every "citizen" taking their part in experiments on both themselves and others. Scientists readily excited for the newest convert from the other side so they can bring out their toys to ***** and prod each day. I see the VS as embracing robotics and automation much more, effectively removing most labor jobs. I doubt they would even have a currency -- they just live to advance.
