Dear Tier 4 implants.

I think implants should have been like the first game, instead of this shoehorned money grabbing system they have going on with energy instead of the toggle on/off tools of the past.

Implants used to serve as an actual tool for your soldier, implants that provided a shield, super sprint, emergency healing, regeneration, noise dampening, sensor canceling, dark light vision, range magnification/amplification, and health/armor status of friend or foe. You could equip up to 3 at the same time.

Currently they sorta function like perks than something you toggle on and off, which we do get regeneration, fall damage reduction, sensor field protection, and more, but they are always on and they drain energy even if you aren't putting them to use. They have straight upgrades for more energy cost making them leaning into p2w feature to make people who pay up for the energy to fund them have a bit of an edge. You can only equip 1 at a time.

My only grip with the current implants is that I can't equip more than 1, and they drain way too much energy, I think tier 1 should be .25, then tier two should be .5 and so on. The whole idea of needing to craft them too is silly, either way I think energy is a waste and they should get rid of everything and just keep a base implants and allow us to equip up to two implants.

They should also give us more utility implants that do things like increased magnification, darklight vision, and some other ideas for another thread.

First game required 14.99 a month to play, just for the priveledge of logging in. And you didn't get to play Everquest along with that membership. They were separate.

Now.. if you want to suggest they should go back to that. I'll agree with you.

I've kind of ignored implants since I started playing again. I just load up tier 1s and forget about them.

However, I was curious about the tier 4s and went to the wiki site and it didn't even show the one you're looking for.

Does it even exist?

In fact there are quite a few tier 1 implants that don't show up at tier 4, at least according to the wiki site.

Because people who buy implants are single for a reason.

You think your subscription money goes straight to the funding of this game, which is fine, I bet when I throw money at Africa it actually goes to making it better than a 3rd world country.

You are simply giving DBG (Previous SOE) money, the subscription before was to ensure a quality product, keeping brazilians and russians out while supporting a quality of life for the game with constant updates.

You're current subscription doesnt do any of that, infact I don't think many games use subscriptions in the same way as they did before. I know when I pay for my FFXIV subscription I'm expecting the game to keep thriving and doing something.

You give DBG money expecting nothing and still getting let down.

Regardless that wouldn't change what I'm suggesting, the implant system isn't going to squeeze more money out of people even if they grab them by the legs and shake them. People support a product that is worth supporting, not a product that holds them at gun point.

You defending this game tooth and nail is purely because you invested so much money into it and feel some sort of financial loss to admit some fault in your blind money spending decision.

If it is actually named this in-game I will buy a membership for a year on an account I will never use.

Regen 1 is Love, Regen 1 is Life!
all other implants are dead to me!

Got EOD HUD 4 on my second attempt to craft a T4 implant. It has saved my magrider alot of times...! The other I've gotten are not too good, but EOD was the one I really hoped to get all along, so Im happy

Here's the fact:

Everquest releases the 'last' expansion it will see. The 21st expansion "The Darkened Sea." Not long after they open two new Time Locked Progression Servers. Servers that REQUIRE a membership to play on. Servers fill up so fast, they add a queue system to a 16 year old game that didn't need one up to that point.

A couple of weeks ago they announce Everquest's 22nd Expansion "The Broken Mirror".

Those subs funded the game those players played. It didn't go to Landmark (hasn't seen a major update in months. It didn't go to H1Z1, same thing no major updates recently. It didn't go to EQNext, they're locking threads asking about it. And it sure as hell didn't go to Planetside 2.

It went right back into the game they were playing. Why? Because they have a crapton of paying members and want to keep them happy where they are.

Feel free to provide your facts to prove me wrong. Facts, not analogies. Not speculations, and not rants. Concede it now, you don't have them.

Play EQ
Deck out a character
Farm some bazaar-able items to sell in off-line trader
Use the proceeds from the sales to buy krono
Apply krono to account to keep it premium

(I know it's unrelated but, this is what eq has become for me.)

I think there was a reddit post by the creative director who basically admit this game is in a bad spot, so much so that fixing it would require making a planetside 3 from the ground up rather than investing money and time to undo the harm done. The PS4 investment was a disaster and it didn't bring in that many players or money, it is basically like taking PS2 launch on PC and putting it on PS4. They got all the problems we've had years ago with an audience that won't have the patience for it.

You are funding a game that is safer to say is a sinking ship, than one that is going to survive or thrive, its the dedicated playerbase, the fans, the remaining veterans that keep this afloat.

But to really argue on your level you place so much importance on your subscription I want to know how much you've actually bought in SC. It is one thing to pay 10 dollars a month than it is to drop 1000 dollars in SC. Since you feel that your subscription screams such entitlement to your broken way of thinking. Just how much have you spent on this game?

If you spent a lot, it means you've got a case of buyer's remorse, if you didn't spend that much on the game then I guess you simply have hope where any veteran of PS1 who bought the "founder" package of PS2, who has seen update after update for these handful of years been a real butchering of this game. From the terrible cosmetics, to the incomplete updates, and all those broken promises.

I've been here taemien, and I'm not happy with where my money has gone over these years. Here you are telling me if I continue to throw money at terrible management, the problem will fix itself. I am here to tell you that simply isn't true. People are getting paid money and they aren't worth their salt.

The developers are on a salary, they will get their money, but this game will not get its proper support nor work done. You can throw all your money at this game, it's your money after all. Just don't try to convince me that it will do anything.

Believe me I'm not suggesting anyone invest a large amount of money into the game. I've actually got a prediction that the game will close for the PC servers in February unless they merge servers. Then it will extend to October next year.

But even with that said, PS2 has done rather well for a MMO without expansions for three years. That's a fact that while frustrating now since we're at the end of the lifecycle.. could show promise for a future game. I've said before that once the PC servers close, run the PS4 ones for a year then announce development for Planetside 3. Sure some disgruntled players right now would blow it off. But the players who left 1-2 years ago would be glad to try it out. At least that's a theory. Its something I would do, I don't see DB doing it.

As for how much I've spent on PS2, quite a bit over the last 3 years. Alot less since SOE became Daybreak. More specifically when they laid off good people across many games. But a steady sub the entire time, as well as a few hundred in SC/DBC. I don't have buyer's remorse truth be told. I didn't stop buying because they laid off people specifically, but truth be told, I haven't had much I've wanted to buy since it happened.

Everything I've purchased (most my weapons were bought with SC/DBC instead of Certs), I don't regret buying. I've enjoyed the game for the last three years and will continue to play until the eventual shut down. And even still I don't think the game has failed. But I am realistic and understand that the game could have thrived if steps were taken. But those are discussions for another thread.

You do what you want to do. Play or don't play. Pay or don't. It really doesn't matter at this point. But one thing is for sure, the game will be what it will be. Its ran its course and is what it is. So its pretty simple to make such a choice.

God damn it how are you so calm about this, EA hasn't even blundered as hard as this and nobody likes them. This makes me mad that you've been through this all the same and you feel that its just fine.

EA hasn't been able to put out a MMO that could last 3 years without an expansion. Their first attempt at a MMO (MPBT:3025) failed before it got out of beta. If it wasn't for Bioware they wouldn't even have SWTOR.

989 Studios who became Verant, who became SoE, who is now Daybreak hasn't changed in 16 years. They use word of mouth advertising, try to keep their playerbases and design teams small, and only really put out expansions on their baby, Everquest.

PS1 was the only other game that did, and that's why it hung in as long as it did and led to the relative success of PS2. SWG really didn't, neither did Freerealms or Clone Wars. Nor did Vanguard or Dragon's Prophet. Same with Wizardry Online, and DCUO. That is why I am calm, they haven't suddenly decided, "PS2 is going to be this smalltime thing." All their games outside EQ have been that way.

You're acting surprised and that is.. well interesting to me because like I said, the company has been this way for decades. I'm going to attribute that to ignorance on your part as I am assuming you haven't played their other games. I have, so I have a little more insight.

As for why I tolerate it. Well like I said, I got what I paid for in every game of theirs I've played. I get a good couple of years out of them. I don't see that from other MMOs and definitely not from most 'Successful' games out there. Think about that, how many 50 or 60 dollar games have you bought that gave you 6-10 hours of single player game play and multiplayer was a second thought?

I'm jealous... I've spent every implant I've gained since the T4s came out and burnt over 12k certs on those packs of 5 implants (200 certs each) last night when I was waiting for my gunner to log on trying to get the EOD T4 and still no joy. Feels like I've had every other t4 atleast 5 times each. RNG is so much fun!

I have only played planetside 1, and Starwars the old republic back in the SOE days.

For EA? Their track record of what used to be good game to now mass produced quick bucks is iffy at best. To some extent there is quality in there games, but then the game itself feels real hollow, like it wasn't made by people who want to make a good game, just a product to sell.

Where as I feel that SOE used to have some real talent in making amazing games but something happened (i blame smedly) where they just got real money hungry and started really trying to squeeze money out of people, they kept changing things to compete with what isn't really a competition. I dont know, were they always this way? I don't recall them being so hard pressed to nickle and dime, and try to really squeeze people of their money like they've done recently.

Their good games just got bad because they wanted "MORE MONEY" not that they weren't successful, they wanted MORE.

They weren't happy at some point that they had a solid product that had a good lively community that was well enough to support the game. They just had to **** the bed over it I guess and bring everything under in the process. However this is obviously what I know, maybe I dont know enough. I probably have to throw more money at DBG for this knowledge to come to me.

To put it simply, look to EQ. 22 expansions in 16 years. That's a little more than an expansion a year. Most MMOs release them once a year or once every two years. Even early on, before Planetside 1, they got a bit greedy by releasing 2 expansions in 2000 and again in 2003, with expansions inbetween one per year. In 4 years 2000-2003 they released 6. Those things weren't cheap, and at the time you had to pay monthly fees. And 14.99 was a bit of money in those days (used to be 9.99, then 12.99 by 2001, and then 14.99 in 2002).

I will give them credit. They did something no other company has ever done. They released expansions quicker than the majority of players could go through them. I was still working on my Planar Progression when Omens of War hit.

I just wish PS2 had that quantity of content.

Not for me. Don't use an auto-refiller and should they run out, take the time to reactivate them the moment you think you'll need them. I run sensor shield 4 most of the time, and otherwise I'll have regeneration 2 on occasionally.

Edit:
Oh, I've so far never had to craft implants, I still have 480 chargers, that's 30 more than when the update came that reduced the income, with crafting I will never run out. I think the biggest problem is that people don't manage it. They slap on their "refill automatically" and don't look back, using implant energy for large stretches of time when they don't even have use for them.

Sure, so you arent using implants full time, so not really running T4 all the time.

I used to do exactly that but being without one when I really needed one and the whole reason I didnt have it was because I was being cheap annoyed me so I worked out my break even rates because id rather step down a tier to a T3 when its late evening and pops are lower so I can use 4 when its more needed, than go T4 to nothing to T4.

I see absolutely no reason why people should be able to run T4 non-stop. In fact, a good system would allow players to only run T2 non-stop without crafting chargers and T3 and T4 would require much more stragetic insight rather than throwing your chargers away. I don't mind it being monetized to allow paying players to keep running them non-stop just for the ease of it, they pay to keep non-paying players playing as well. It's not as if they buy actual power as non-paying players can have it up and running 95% of the time a paying player could have.

Implants as a whole don't provide supa-dupa advantages. They are all circumstantial and depend on the class and type of combat you use to be effective.