Dev Letter: Directives 2024 - Forum Discussion

Wow...I see. Right. You are absolutely right. Why didn't I think of that?

But "Character growth" is also an important element that encourages players to play the game.
So "Something" may be needed instead of that.
For example...lots of new Directives? But it is...umm... Not sure. I am not really interested in Directives either. This is tough issue.

P.S.
Come to think of it... If this will be done, there will be a problem of Certs refund again.

Planetside 2 team, I appreciate your dedication to come up with new exciting content for players . Reading the dev letter I understand you guys are trying to add more Open loops (similar to auraxium guns) to keep players in the game. I would to provide some feedback on the part addressing long term directive rewards. I have a suggestion about current directive rewards, the Auraxium Weapons. The Aurxium weapons need to have a balance pass / check up because not all of them are rewarding to unlock. For example, unlocking the Betelgeuse 54A is much more rewarding than unlocking the PMG-ARX Schrodinger. Please Toadman Games, consider buffing underpowered auraxium weapons to make them all equally rewarding.

Some Underwhelming auraxium gun off the top of my head:

• The Executive- needs a better buff than better COF and the measly 22 extra damage doesn't do much either. Make 222 the default damage for the default magshot aswell . Suggest making the executive have a longer max damage range or even giving it a 380 rpm RoF in exchange for it's COF bloom buff.
• SR-ARX Einstein - 450 max damage to 50m or faster muzzle velocity
• AR-ARX Maxwell - needs slightly better COF , compensator, and .75 ADS speed ( the BAR-ARX Feynman to Bar 100 treatment )
• PMG-ARX Schrodinger - needs a complete rework. Suggest just making a 60 round PMG100 . the same treatment as other Auraxium Smgs

A big problem I see with the Directive Weapons is, that they are old designs. Except for the VS Heat mechanic and the GODSAWS armor piercing (which doesn't do any real damage and seems to have no multiplier against light armor, put on a weapon that was hit by the completly unreasonable Gauss Saw nerf) they don't really offer anything.
Some of them were clearly created as Meme-Weapons (Brawler).
I would start by giving all of them the factions special ammos.
I would also like to seem them optically improved. Maybe instead of a weird flickering texture that is unrecognizable from more than 10m away, actually fgive them Auraxium shimmering bullet trails?

I would suggest making the "meme" ARX weapons into viable A plus and above tier weapons. Buff them to be competitive with the best weapons in their class. Do you have any buff suggestions to their stats ?

I disagree with the way Empire-specific Ammo currently is. In my opinion, instead you should scrap parts of that idea, which means deleting unstable ammo, disruptor ammo and k-cap ammunition. Instead and a version of impact ammo that the TR has to all the factions. In my other post I mentioned a suggestion with Impact Ammo to provide a 167 min dmg version of the Gauss saw with the Gauss saw S + Impact Ammo attachment idea. That would be a better direction for the game, ditching the bad fps mechanics introduced by kcap and UA.

It may seem magic at first, becomes commonplace when explained. The game has an in-game voice chat system. Back when Trident was an actual outfit, we used to talk to each other a lot. More than i do now, anyways. Without revealing our real identities, just talk during those long missions. There was a Dome Domination alert for example that was played on 3 continents at the same time, and took very long to complete, 3 hours i think, don't remember exactly. Then i had friends with whom we did play for hours and hours, dropping in here and there. And talked a lot. One can tell by the wording used if a person is schooled or not, by the behaviour if is high on stims or downers, by desires and ambitions to which social strata belongs, and so on.

What is actually hilarious, the fact no psychology student or professional is tempted to reserach into the behaviour of people in the very virtual world. Might yield some interesting results. We've however strayed off-topic.

Some already existing directives might need to be reworked a bit
Like how Combat Medic directive requires us to kill enemy medics and perform savior kills. Completing both of these objectives relies mostly on luck since stumbling upon an enemy medic (unlike killing an enemy Light Assault as Light Assault because this class has almost exclusive access to roofs and other hard to reach places, which makes a perfect place for Light Assaults to fight eachother) or killing someone who is about to kill your ally are pretty rare situations (you basically have to TRY to create a situation where an enemy shoots your ally and thats when you need to attack instead of just shooting the enemy the moment you see them)
These objectives need to be replaced with something else, maybe something like shotgun kills, because medics tend to stay in safety while providing support to other players, so they can play defensively with shotguns (or offensively with combat surgeon and carapace implants or something)

I would like some of the old directives to be brought back like the aurax slasher for example.

On directives and other improvements:

== directives
- New class directives (infantry) -> Just add Medic v2.0 etc if otherwise not possible
- more in collections tab
- more events --> always 1 active, sometimes more otherwise why whole new tab?
- more leadership directives to entice more platoon leaders & squad leaders
- - More to spend on squad certs not just smokes, like e xtra powerful or stealth beacon, improved medics or improved engi's etc (either/or stuff to improve your squad) --> specialized squads

==Rework low pop scenarios
Need to change sth to make low pop times enjoyable
- I.E. until pop over 200 constant mini alert for 1 territory or sth like that
- AI soldiers (??)
- Add directives for playing low pop times

==Alerts
- Alerts dont mean anything atm. bring back rewards for winning faction (cheaper max, etc) or punishment for loosing


==Drop Pod directive & certs
- EMP/ Smoke/ Mines on landing,
- faster landing or better movement
- on landing BIG autoTurret, router or ammotower for inf + vehicle

==More stuff to spend merit on
- like every vehicle have one aspect to be spec'd with merit
- Merit weapon that costs per bullet or sth like that

==Boat
- useless; make it fly (hover like Vanu tank)-then it can be used in other continents

==Implants
- Make crafting implants cheaper

==Missions
- more variety, more of them

==Automated responses
- anticheat: 100x "/report player" on same player ->auto temp ban till someone can check on it --> let the community self regulate if you dont have the resources or will to do it yourself in real time. 1 flying sundy destroys a night or full weekend of gaming

==Recycle old assets
- Event: old Indar or old Esamir (timetravel event or something the like)

==Rework snipers
- cloak snipers are a pain and unfair in inf. combat situations. must be reworked IMO
- give them camos for sniper only but not cloak
- SMG or Pistol cloak is ok, sniper not

==Post title:
prefix NAME post "Recruit SKULLINK the destroyer"
certed titles w/ directives

==Minimap colour:
- cant see territory colour on minimap. when driving-> important
- Directive to see more on big map screen-leader directive unlocks (see enemy outift for example)

==Merge servers
- if not possible entice ppl to move like you did before with benefits
- Open up extra char. slots for preferred server, i.e. Emerald chars dont count towards max chars. or sth like that
- Since NS ops faction is supposed to be a pop equalizer make it "overpowered" so more ppl play it or pre-populate it (fully spec'ed sundy + galaxy etc), implants unlocked or sth. --> this would also help in low pop situations --> more NSO -> better auto equalizer-> easier to make mini events