Searhus or Cyssor, or one of the better battle-isle conts... I want the old design of bases back in one continent, available for anyone to jump into, just so we can see PS1 base design juxtaposed against PS2 base design, and see exactly which one the majority of the playerbase preferrs. I know for a fact where I'd put my money. The PS2 bases look cool, but thats as far as cool goes. The gameplay is just naff in comparison. Its chaos. Zero structure to the combat in comparison to the first game. I'd bet money that if PS1 base design was in PS2, players would have a much better experience ACROSS THE BOARD, PS1 vet, or new to the franchise. After 6 months I yearn to see the best parts of PS2 merge with the best parts of PS1. All you PS1 vets KNOW how good this would be. If it was a moddable game I'd have made a battle-isle cont already. I want to rock the new FPS graphics and gameplay in an environment that is WORTHY OF THE NAME PLANETSIDE. In place of the backdoor just put your forcefields with generators right next to them on the outside, so we know when there's an attempt at breach on the back door. So come on SOE, reward the players who kickstarted the franchise, hell, reward ALL THE PLAYERS. We deserve better base design!!! Throw Oshur into the mix, see what happens, give us some alternatives to these crappy bases and let the players decide which is better!
Played PS1 for the first time today, and the base design is so, so much better. With PS2's graphics they could potentially even look cooler than the bases we have now I think, too.
Well, we know Searhus is coming in all his lava fabolousness; and hints of an archipelago-continent were found in some map files if I remember correctly.
Chemicalnurd, had you played PS1 before today ever? Is it so blatantly obvious that PS1 bases are better or what? What stands out to you as better? (everything?) I cant believe we went from PS1 base design to PS2 base design... its reverse darwinism... de-evolution...
Today was the first ever time I played PS1, in my life. The bases are actually defensible, there are multiple ways to attack them (instead of hurr durr run through the hole in the wall and then the game turns into COD), the walls are clear and provide cover that's actually useful, there's large underground areas (granted I wish these were more interesting - they would be on a more modern engine I'm sure).. Etc etc. My only real complaint is that a lot of the bases are very similar even if they aren't the same base type, but again if what was learned when making PS1 was taken into account for PS2, I'm sure we could have had bases just as defensible but more varied and interesting looking. Asides from the bases, even, the inventory and looting system are miles ahead of the cookie cutter class system too. Everything De-evolved. Why?
The bases in PS1 became a nightmare when two heavy zergs were duking it out inside. The spam...dear god the spam.
I am in the same boat as him, never played PS1 until yesterday (I noticed I had a veteran decal from beta and got to thinking, lol) the inventory system is nice, but i hate cuz i hat to use my brain and that hurt! a lot! (other words i loved it!) the gun play is completely depended on CoF, it is not bad, just annoying. o, and you can loot that is... PS: PS1 does contain bases that were designed as bases ! BTW, i like the OPs suggestion.
PS2 has the technology to make PS1 style bases, but bigger and better. More rooms & corridors,...so many things could be done better in a modified PS1 style but are not. EDIT: Also, the spam was mostly grenades / thumper. Soooooooooo many people wanted grenades just flat out removed from the game or severely limited. TBH, I think that could have only made PS1 a better game. Limiting grenades more, not removal.
Yeah, they weren't perfect, but they were much, much, much better than the ones in PS2 at the moment. To be honest the best thing they could do for bases in PS2 is completely redesign the walls to provide proper cover and useful firing positions, and possibly increase the amount of natural cover on the outside too. Also rearrange the clutter on the other side of the walls to somehow promote some direction once you're in (This was something I actually think was lacking in PS1. Once we breached the walls, I could honestly not find anything to do, seemed to be a lot of waiting around for the base to flip). I think all base shields should also be built into the wall, not just covering a massive gap in the wall. I think some bases do this, but I think it should be done everywhere. The top of the wall which you can fire from would just continue and have the shield underneath it at a certain point. I'd also like to see the gate shield block infantry (I feel like the small holes on either side that are only big enough for infantry to go through are there for a reason, and would help control the flow of the battle. The shields need to come down before the floodgates can open.) Another improvement I'd want is something like Planetside 1's spheres of influence, to prevent hot dropping straight into the base (Give it an excuse like automated cannons or an energy field or some **** that destroys drop pods as they come in) specifically, but it could also be interesting to experiment with a minimum distance you're allowed to deploy sunderers. This would give transport like the galaxy and non-ams sunderers an actual role, as they could get players into the base where they take down the shields and let the regular troops in (galaxies existing as they did once in PS2 was the only reason I could ever enjoy solo play. Getting stuck with 10 randoms and dropped into a place where you watch each-other's backs or die. It was awesome. A much less artificial way to promote teamwork than having squads which consist of "Go to this marker on your own along with 11 other people and then don't work with them" (in fact, more often than not it's "Ignore this marker and carry on fighting at the crown until you get kicked from the squad" I find). Promoting teamwork in this way is essential imo - the game should not force you to join an outfit or clan for teamwork, only for fully organised play. Teamwork should just be a natural part of the game that happens because you're a bunch of guys fighting on the same side. Also, adding a spheres of influence system would allow a 'buff' to drop pods, something to make them more important. I want to see a load of them drop out of the sky a short distance away from the facility I'm defending and **** bricks because I know a lot of people are about to come over the top of that hill they landed behind. I guess the way this'd work best would be to kinda combine the current instant action system with the HART shuttle, and give information about how many people are currently waiting for a drop at each place so you can join a large drop. Only issue with that is modern gamer mentality means "I HV 2 W8 2 MINZ 4 DIS?! WTF I WANA SHOT PPL". I think drop podding should be an alternative to more conventional transport (Galaxies, Sunderers) with its own downsides. Long post, lots of ideas that will sadly never get put in. P.S: Beta night. One of the few things that was better than PS1 and they got rid of it.
