*WARNING WALL OF TEXT AHEAD* (Well this may and probably will very quickly turn into a rant, so please bear with me if you have the patience. Feel free to voice any and all criticism my fellow horrid forum warriors. Actually this will most likely be a rant. I fear no evil, but I do fear the wrath of an internet creature) I love Planetside 2, it's free to play and it's massive, and different due to such. But like everything in this world it's not perfect, far from it. I've been playing planetside 2 since beta, and I played Planetside 1 till the BFR expansion, both are great games in there own regards, both games have flaws (some more than others). Well... there are a few (a lot of) things that break the flow of the game for me. This game is far from fluid, with network lag and glitches here and there (the restrain is real..), but what really drives a stick up my bum is how the game is designed and played. Taking bases... what it grinds down to is destructible spawn points VS a spawn room. With the defenders trying to destroy the enemy's sundy, and the attackers to camp the spawn room, every time like a broken record. The winner usually is the one with higher population. Spawn mechanics in general are also... rocky. Battles turn spawn points into player factories, every damn time. Now I love massive battles but I see a difference between two or three large combine arms forces battling each other, and fighting a flow of players being farted out of a spawn unit at an alarming rate. Death has little to no consequence in this game, and maybe for a good reason. Suicide tactics result from this. Every player is aware of the c4 faires. Slopes and inertia, I know for a fact everyone at one point has attempted to get up a hill which visually looks walkable and has faced a tiny slanted surface in which you try to jump over only to lose forward momentum and begin that struggle in that floating animation. That aggravates me. The entire surface of the planet has been lubricated by the VS (a joke). Although admittedly a lot better since beta, you're more likely to lose your quad to the environment than to enemy players. Tanks have poor traction, and occasionally harassers attempt to turn into an ESF. Spawn room angles, especially on Indar, some spawn rooms are angled so you can camp in them and send munitions to a base a hex over. Well spawn rooms in general. I know that I'm beating the remains of what used to be the area of the remains in a dead horse. If you disagree with anything above let me put a flame shield on right here. All bases should have an SCU gen. There I said it, don't kill me. New players. New games are always scary for the fresh meat. It might be overwhelming at first, an amazing experience, and like above a very, very dead horse. New players are basically worth less than an unmanned MBT and only serve to feed the enemy certs, carry amo packs, and enemy C4. New players are at a disadvantage, with the lowest tier gear without attachments, and upgraded vehicles. New players have to scrape certs from zergs or outfits, and maybe a week of gameplay to compete. The explosive bolt on crossbows. What is it for? Tickling the thick armored nipples of max units? There's the argument that it gives the infiltrator AT abilities, but in all honestly it's not very effective even in large numbers. Grenades render distance, I don't even have to explain this one. But for those of you who have never used your explosive bouncy ball, after 5 or so meters the grenade vanishes into an alternate dimension where physics are slightly changed, and where it's still the 1980s. Good old boomsticks. Well this is a can of worms. A quick TTK, horrible game physics range, and bad latency which makes it very awkward to hit targets, but I love them, and I hope to one day own the directive weapon Barrage, a shotgun with an underbarrel shotgun. And while I do agree that for the player base of planetside 2's playerbase that the shotguns range should be tiny, I believe that it should be able to perform at range with the headshot multipliers. SMG infiltrators. Well this can't turn out well. The only problem I have so far is the range of the darklight flashlight, because at that range I can spot a infiltrator cloaked standing still. I don't use darklight flashlights at all unless I'm in a large fight and need to point out the obvious predator in the middle of the room to my sheep teammates, to avoid friendly fire. On that note... callouts, possible to have cloaked infiltrators whisper callouts? PPA, PPA PPA. PPA? PPA!! ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! Max horns. Still waiting. Independant tank driver and main gunner. Sill waiting. Bipods? Bipods. Bayonets too pretty please? Miscellaneous primary weapons like ESF grenade launchers, and NS flame thrower And don't forget these beauties. These are what I'm dreaming of when I dream of PS2's future.
Some of these vehicles designs are utterly amazing. Every mandex soldier needs a hoverbike, it's just as simple as that. And those car designs would be great for fast ground transportation, heck, they can remove the harasser if they add in those beauties. Really SOE, ES vehicles are more difficult to make but are so much more awesome than NS stuff.
All of those vehicle designs need to be in the game and replace NS vehicles to make the game fun add asymmetrical balance to guns and enforce Empire Abilities like the game was meant to do at the start. Totally agree with the OP.
this is what planet side2 shoud look like more sci-fi. ATM is like and 25xx battlefield or cod... this game should have tons of diferent things, and they should abuse the "this is a sci-fi game exepct things to be diferent", like why the **** theres c-4 in the future didnt they have anything better, call it plasma bomb or something, when i first came to planet side i expected this a ubber sci.fi game. this should be implemented tomorrow!
This is actually a very good point, in my humble opinion. I honestly do not think they are. Pound to a pinch, peeps that happen upon Planetside 2 have already spent some time in another FPS game and so should be used to jumping into a game for the first time. And if they come from a background of previously playing RPS/RPG/TPS games then they should also be aware that, like all games, there is a learning curve. Planetside 2 is no different in this regard. I will always contend that, from the shooting and killing aspect of this game it is actually easier than some. Okay, I should explain that the only PvP FPS games I have played are CS 1.6 and BF3 but even with such little experience I can safely say that I lasted longer as a "Fresh Meat" player in PS2 than in any of those games. In CS 1.6 and BF3 there is nowhere to hide. In PS2, you can stay in the safety of the spawn and at least get the lay of the land before entering the fray. Everything else, Certing options, Classes, Base types, Vehicles etc is a simple learning process. I used a combination of the couple of wiki sites available, Youtube and my Outfit to learn the ropes. At the end of the day, if a new player feels they are not getting to grips with PS2 quick enough, that they are getting splattered by the more experienced (and therefore more powerful) guys, and they do not like that, to the point of quiting the game, then that is their choice. The game, which PS2 is, is obviously not for them. My youngest son plays CS:GO most of the time. I sometimes watch him play over his shoulder. He's good. Very good. But he hates Planetside 2. That's just the way it is. For me, the process of learning, carving out a niche that suits my playstyle (developed over six months or so), has turned me into a long term player. No TB;DR... just rambling early in the morning
This post reminded me of days past when I enjoyed experimenting with psychoactive substances. Well, those above tanks are all VS actually, we just had the lab boys paint them faction colours for the pictures, to taunt the NC and TR. You can see the proper version here;
