If you were head of DBG what would you do to bring back pop?

To make the game a success and bring back pop I would:

- Evaluate the budget, campaign for a bigger budget
- Hire more coders, designers, devs, ect.
- Get really involved with the forums and community, exchange ideas and talk about what's possible and what's not.
- have monthly updates on content but have weekly bug fixes
- advertise on TV , forums , ect.
- rebrand planetside 2 2016 with major content update
- improve new player experience

I think the more important question is HOW you would do these things.

Like old Morpheus said, there's a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path.

Considering the resources available?

-Merge the NA servers into one server. EU servers into another.
-Implement a trading system allowing players to trade implants for implants and certs.
-Allow Kronos to be bought for PS2 and traded for implants and certs
-Reduce or eliminate energy costs on implants for members.
-Look at other options to entice membership (maybe a third boost slot).
-Open a PS2 'Progression' Server*
-Open a PS2 'Seasonal Server'**

*Progression server would be a member required server (hence the reasons for more member perks and the ability to use Kronos in PS2). This server would have cheaper costs on cosmetics (25% off), but no access to purchasing weapons with DBC, weapons already purchased with DBC will likewise not be available.

It would be a true progression server. Everyone starts at BR1, everyone earns weapons through certs. Cert gain would be increased by 25-50% on top of all other boosts. Due to required membership costs, hacking, padding, and other nasty behavior would be reduced, and heavily moderated.

**Seasonal server would be just that, a season based event server. It would differ from the other servers in that it would have special rule sets that change every couple of weeks or so. Maybe some or all vehicles are disabled, certain weapons have different effects, classes work differently and so on. Like the progression server it would require membership.

The great thing about the 2 membership servers is that with the availability of Kronos. F2P players will have an option to buy Kronos with ingame implants and certs. Someone will have to buy the Krono, effectively paying for their membership. This actually already works if you farm plat in EQ or EQ2 and buy a Krono. The membership applies to all games. All I'm suggesting is a means for someone to purchase Krono without having to use one of the EQ games to do it. Kronos seem to generate alot of revenue for the Everquest Franchise and I'd imagine it'd work in PS2 as well.

Those with a disposable income will use Kronos to buy implants and certs. Those with enough time on their hands to farm certs will be able to get the Kronos to get the membership they couldn't afford. And either way, Daybreak gets paid. Pretty much a win-win-win situation for everyone involved.

lol, DBG would have to pay attention to PS2 instead of practicing benign neglect

a few priorities for improving, fixing the game:
-fix pop balance problems (most maps have 80% or more battles with a +20% pop imbalance)
-fix class balance problems (aka HA)
-loose the spawn timer (it baffles me that players have to wait to spawn when there aren't enough players)
-create small balance maps for casual players (TDM and CTF). easy to get into, all fights balanced. every FPS with a long life has done this. When I get tired of searching for a balanced fight, i drop into an area shooter where I know I can find a balanced fight in 10 seconds. more choices for players is a good thing
-drop the whole mess onto the modding community, and they'd do the above for you. DBG could still sell hats and camo.

As I think about it when you mentioned it Teamien, it is kind of interesting/amusing/sad panda that mechanics and other methods for sustainability/engagement have been used by this company for years, decades even, and yet are conspicuously absent here.

i'd try to be more involved in the community, say what you like about Higby,
but you can't deny he was the driving force in community relations!
i'd bring back Command Center, i'd have ingame events and a weekly/twice weekly stream
perhaps rehiring Higby as a community guy would be a good first step?

i'd revert some unwanted changes (like reverting Crown back to its glory!)

i'd also want to buff underused things!

We are at odds about this issue Peanut, but since you're being reasonable today so will I

Here is my reasoning against this suggestion:

Typically I would agree that more choices is better for players. But not in this instance. I played WoW on a pvp server. Whole world map was opened up for pvp. How often did it happen? Almost never.

The team arenas and battleground matches thrived. Fair-ish, balanced-ish, fast food matches. But world PvP disappeared. Nobody would bother to travel, QQ was flowing hard if there was a +5 player advantage, etc.

At the end of my time playing that game I did nothing but pvp, which could be done with varying degrees of efficacy at almost all levels. But the only world pvp left was high levels griefing low levels.

If you do this with PS2, you will be cutting the legs out of this game in the long run, completely. Rather than adapt to the dynamics of combined arms, open world, people will just go back to EZmode fast food matches where you know what you're getting every single time.

You're trying to put the actual final nail in the coffin of this game by doing that. So I disagree on those merits.


Besides that, you make some good points. I'm not sure I really feel the HA imbalance, but I don't want to rehash that in its entirety here. I mean, It's annoying that I can't kill one with my stalker unless I land ONLY headshots, but I just avoid if they have shield. If, as was suggested, that there's a scripting tool to run medkits and shield while shooting, that's a different issue entirely.

I could certainly see the reasoning for pop imbalance concerns BUT how do you accomplish this?

On one hand, you talk about getting rid of spawn timers to get back to the fight faster, and on the other, you want to keep people out of the fight entirely. How should both be accomplished?

You're seriously infringing on gameplay if you start screwing with spawn options. Perhaps the answer lies in limits on redeploying, I don't know.

I believe that advertising is the most cost and time efficient way to bring in new players

Shut PS2 down for a month and relaunch it as PS3
With some big tv commercials

I would change some colors implement some new bugs and nobody would know it's the old game

As a head I would understand that simply asking for more money isn't a legit idea, nor is hiring more people. I would also notice by now that the community is toxic and communicating with them is just as likely to backlash as it is to actually improve communications. It sucks, but, its true. We as a whole are terrible, terrible people who will never be happy

That said,
The second half. Rebranding and advertising is absolute gold. I don't hear about planetside anywhere. That's a problem. This is a great game, but its not getting the word out. Honestly, if they just re-released the game and advertised it would spike populations for sure. The game isn't old. It has a fresh engine. Why aren't they getting the word out!

We don't know anything about dbg's gross profit.

UX changes:
- A more active world: Have lore woven into the world itself. Have them as collectibles in game. Could be logs of Vanu experiments, audio and video cuts. Nothing fancy but lore-wise, most bases have a backstory. Add a bit more depth than simply purple vs blue vs red. If you are too cool to care, good for you. Everyone is very impressed.
- A more active AI command: Rather than simply telling you are losing when you are losing, it could call for you to take out enemy spawn options OR if there is a lot of armor/air present call for air or ground support(and also telling you were the closests option is to do so). This would also teach good behaviour to new players in addition to battles feeling more alive.
- Make the implant system like global loadouts you can flip through instead of having to micromanage every single loudout(similar to how you can do it with preset camo for all loadouts).

Base design:

- Proxy bases for the sole purpose of a forward spawn. The most epic fights are usually when there is a battle line. Instead of sunderers being the sole source of spawn, have command sites and other mini-bases as spawn. Can be overloaded/repaired/capped. Enables spawn-camped bases to get a different foothold if the defenders counter-push. More fun overall since both defenders and attackers have something to do during caps.
- Certain bases makes little sense and encourages total farm-mode. I'm looking at you bio labs. Definsible is great but when a fight devolve into a total lockdown due to one side simply creating a total death zone, it gets old. I'd love to see more layed bases where you work your way through objectives to cap bases(similar to the proxy spawn).

Alt. Game modes:

- Solid infrastructure for outfit vs outfit or simply 24v24/48v48/96vs96 battles. This would also expand on the meta game as outfits comes up with new strats and tactics. Additionally, server smashes and similar events would benefit greatly.

Doing the math, I think this is part of the constructable base idea to go with ANTs.

Personally, as discussed in other threads, I would like to see NPC's in this world. I never realized how much I missed having roaming NPCs and other mobs until they were gone.

Give me some crappy AI bot defenders so that going to Hossin doesn't feel like the twilight zone before it's capped 10 minutes later. Give me some equally crappy lemming bots that will band up in a sundy and push the next base, only to stalemate against the defender bots. They can just stop spawning if a real fight breaks out, as in +3 for either side. Make them have some value, but maybe <50% of a player value.

Or make the spitfire turrets look like Johnny 5 and walk around on patrol.

The issue with Planetside 2 has been and always will be it's lack of end game objectives and purpose. It is essentially trench warfare made into a video game as no one can ever really win. No matter how fun or how bad the game mechanics are you eventually run into this wall where what you are doing amounts to basically an unwinnable war that never ends. This might seem good in concept, because it never ends there will always be action, but in practice it is boring and tears away at people because you can never actually win.

To facilitate this continents need to be redesigned in such a way as to promote 2 factions fighting at a time rather than three. Two factions winning is possible. Three factions fighting is impossible to win. So for example:

Amerish = NC vs TR
Easmir = VS vs NC
Indar = VS vs TR

The third warpgate on each continent would lead to Hossin and would be able to be captured on the other 3 continents but would not be able to travel from Hossin to other continents they are linked to (one way warpgates). This makes Hossin a stretch goal for most empires who will be busy fighting on two other continents against a single opponent.

Every 60 days there would be a point total for something similar to WDL. Incrementally along the way you can earn repeated rewards throughout the season such as after earning X amount of XP you earn an extra battle chest with random rewards from anything such as boosters, implants and even potentially things like possible weapon drops. Players can only earn these rewards for a single faction on an account and they would have to "Activate" the choice of faction when the season starts (this prevents people switching mid season to farm up rewards).

At the end of 60 days the winning faction gets a bonus reward based on their contribution to the cause in a range of rewards. This can range from anything from directive rewards (selectable) to more bonus chests. There would be a 14 day pause period here where any kind of balance changes could go into effect, such as weapon updates, warpgate starting locations could be changed (such as Amerish = NC vs VS now instead) and the next season would start for another 60 days.


There needs to be some kind large scale objective. Toys like construction, base building, etc are all fascinating and neat but they amount to very little reason to keep being part of the meat grinder. DBG and SOE simply never got that and doesn't seem like they ever will.

First things first I'd go back and finish the systems that were originally half-arsed and left incomplete ..

Resource Revamp
Mission system

I'd then see how they affected the flow and depth and then evaluate what needed adding next ..

Ie: Base building or Outfit / Player made missions..

1 Un-NERF all weapons
2 Turn PhysX back on.
3 Ban Cheaters at a drop of a hat.
4 At least do what the players want with balance.
5 Fix the bugs....
6 Kick all dual core PC's from PS2.
7 Only play PS2 with 4 core CPU's
8 Video min spec need to be 2 GB
9 Fix the dam game engine.

Said like only someone with an intel epeen sig can say it, lol.

Let's try that for a week. Would love to see.

LOL -- this is going to be a hot topic.... !! But the dual cores should be on the PS4 servers or have there own server.

I have money but DBGC is not going to see it until physX is turned back on.....! It's that simple.

PS2 use to be fun to play before they NERFED all the weapons. Dolton with 15 meter kill radius. everyone had a rocket laucher.

while i have a good pc myself, i don't think it'd be a good idea to kick 70% of the playerbase lol.
it seems very hitIer-esque to suggest kicking people because you don't like their computer