Are the devs EVER going to address the horrible meta that is headshot multipliers? With the release of DX update, a new influx of players has been seen. Some of the numbers are very nice, with SteamCharts recording at least a near 70% increase in playerbase. We are going to lose these new players if the skilled vets keep farming them with their years upon years of playing. We are going to lose these new players once they realize the only viable target is a small sphere in comparison to the whole model. Unless a player just has a drive for this kind of game, we will lose them because there is no form of keeping experienced players from the inexperienced. The devs need to address an ugly truth, that the core foundation of the game's mechanics are flawed and grossly reward experienced players over new ones. Not to say that experience shouldn't be rewarded, but when it is at a level of disparity that is by being capable of landing headshots or not it becomes obvious that if action is not taken the new players Planetside2 will see will continue to dwindle again and again. No matter how hard we try to promote this game, it's just impossible to promote enthusiasm when a vet guns down a new player with chained headshots in a matter of fractions of a second. Mixed with latency, individuals die without even having a chance to react. Is there ever a plan to address this? Or are these concerns just being thrown to the wind?
If they're going to quit from Higher-skilled players engaging them in an Open-world of dynamic engagements.. And those higher-skilled players able to actually achieve results equal to the skill. They're not going to stay, unless It's a dice-roll, or a Lobby-shooter more likely than not. Like, is the higher-skilled play, meant to be essentially worthless, to ensure a lesser effort, has a prayer of winning the contest? You get bested: Perfect, that means you have a ways to go, and a challenge exists. This means, You have a natural reason to get better, as Someone actually is a challenge: You need to put effort to win that fight. If a point, That just hitting the target is near perfectly equal to hitting the smallest section of the target, It's going to be a contest of 'who hits faster', which they still lose, just prolonging their death: Assuming of course, their death isn't faster as the shooter has an easier target to hit.
In my mind, making substantial changes in the hopes of improving player numbers is a fruitless venture. There is absolutely no possibility that this game from 2012 is suddenly going to prosper with an influx of new players, no matter what DBG do. The game has been staying afloat with about 1,000 regular prime-time players on each of the 4 big servers for a while, and that's the way it will be until the game is practically dead in about 4 years time. They may not shut the servers down for another couple of years after that, but generally speaking I firmly suspect that we are playing in PS2's late middle-age. We don't even know if Arena will have a positive or negative impact on this game's population yet. New players will leave for many reasons besides being outplayed by players who know the game better. Removing headshot multipliers will steadily or immediately cause an exodus of a few hundred on each server (I would definitely leave, no question), so making such a change in the hopes of maintaining an unsure and uncommitted group of new players is just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
In a lot of cases getting headshots is less about player skill and more about hardware. The difference between a potato rig that runs the game at 45 FPS with a cheap mouse from Walmart VS a rig that can run the game at 120 FPS, a high refresh rate monitor, and a high end gaming mouse is night and day. Pay2Win brought to you by Nvidia. I find it odd how people complain about 3rd party software like crosshair overlays giving an unfair advantage yet people BRAG about their hardware advantage. Even in the OP's posted video someone in the comments mentions how much of an improvement buying a new compy and mouse made. Between "less skilled"/new players leaving and higher end gaming hardware becoming more common we are starting to reach a critical mass where the entire player mindset is "headshot or don't bother" even if they don't want it to be.
I am going to start off by saying that yes, this is a game, but aspects of this game are based on a fantasy of real life, so we can relate it back to that for a reference. If I shot you in the head, you have a less likely chance of surviving than if you were shot in the leg, arm, or even center mass. Your brain takes up so much of your head that it isn't even funny. You do not want a bullet in your brain. Now lets throw some armor, some shields, and some super powerful guns into the mix. You are now able to withstand a few more bullets to the head, but not as many as the leg, arm, or body. These super powerful guns can kill you fastest if you put the bullets in the right place. Here is my question to you: Why in the world would you punish players who are able to hit the head? Some new player scrubs can't take dying and they go back to CS:GO or some other arena shooter. So what? Planetside would still hopefully be getting more players than they are losing. If you compare the gun damage percentage to player health ratio in CS:GO to the same ratio in Planetside, it would be higher. In CS:GO, if you get the jump on someone and hit all your body shots, you are probably gonna take them down unless they get a headshot on you. The TTK is so fast that it isn't funny. In Planetside 2, the gun damage feels relatively low compared to other games. 150 damage to 1000 health plus other multipliers. That is like 7 shots to kill. Headshots greatly reduce TTK. New players should learn that to be better at FPS games. Skilled players who can hit the head shouldn't be nerfed because others can't. I am not a good shot, but I don't want the people that destroy me to be nerfed just because of that. If a new player leaves the game because they keep dying, chalk that up to a win in your book for making them ragequit.
