[NOTICE] Understanding PS2's Current Problems

NOTE: This post was written on 12/18/2012 and reflects the build of Planetside 2 that is current on that date. Also, this thread is about a large technical issue in the game, and not the current balance issues. Please keep that in mind.

It is important to understand the problems this game currently has, but more importantly, any dedicated player must understand that these problems won't kill the game, and that we need to give SOE the time to fix these issues, even if it is their mistake for not foreseeing these problems.

If you do support SOE, and want them to fix the game, then please, for "vanu's" sake, don't denounce the game. Things are going bad right now, and SOE knows it. We all do.

Here is my breakdown of the current problem, created so we can all come to terms with it and figure out how to be patient.

1. Players that are unhappy may leave the game.
2. Server populations fall.
3. Large amount of servers leave scattered populations.
4. Players cannot change servers to correct population imbalances.
5. Servers cannot be merged (for following reason).
6. Player purchases and inventory are tied to the character's data, and cannot be transferred in its current state.

The conclusion of the above breakdown is that SOE cannot correct the server populations with server merges until the data server is able to safely transfer character (and purchase) data. As most of us should know, one of SOE's current priorities is allowing safe character transfers.
Once their system can safely facilitate character transfers, server merges will be able to happen, fixing the population issues.

Thankyou for reading, and your support if you're pledging it. Nothing is perfect, and no man or woman working on this large project is perfect either. This game is important to a lot of people, developers and customers alike, so lets see what we can do with our patience. Even if you choose not to buy Station Cash for the time being, remember that this game is not meant to be finished, and will continue to improve. (Yes, I understand mistakes were made.)

Please, do comment. Just remember before you post that this thread has nothing to do with balance discussions.

Number 1 thing if you ask me is a tutorial. Loads of new players leave because they get dropped into some place. They die for 30 min. And then they come to the conclusion "This game sucks". Alot of my friends said this and I had to coach them and show them this was not the case.

First Impression is worth gold. So better make a slick tutorial that actually excites them for the game.
Hell, putting them in the warpgate is even better than the current system.

I agree about the tutorial. This is my final week of college, and I should be writing a paper right now, but once I am finished, I have a list of more things to create, one of those things being an improved introduction sequence we can have until the formal tutorial is live.

As I said, mistakes were made, but I don't think the game is not salvageable.

What I wish to know from players is if we had the ability to change servers and keep our inventories, would everyone be okay with merges (provided everyone you played with ended up in the same place?)

I would welcome it myself. Playing on USWest Genudine and 2 continents are hardly ever being utilized. We are far and away the most sparsely populated server, and only having an enjoyable time on one continent kind of limits the games overall potential imo.

Glad to see that this is a known issue as I'm not on these forums as much as Steam's. I'll have to pay closer attention as I just bought two 15$ SOE cards at WalMart in anticipation of some deal on the 21st.

I'm new to mmo's and was wondering if I should just start over again, but that's a little rough as I'm level 24 (all F2P up until now) thanks also to the dbl xp weekend. Really a great game though. I'm working on getting others into it so I'm doing what I can to help the game succeed.

Good debrief

I used to do that as well, but ppls first impressions were not so great and they dont play anymore.
As a side effect of that, i no longer play as much.

Also, soe's lack of communication on the progress of the game makes me not want to play.

Yes. I think the only possible issue would be the potential reaching of the population cap on a given server. That is the main reason for the number of servers there are, too many players registered and not enough of them actually playing.

Yeah, it's a meat grinder out there. But I tell them that it's pretty brutal right off the bat and that the games not gonna hold their hand any. I compare it to storming the beaches at Normandy but that you can respawn quickly (generally close to where you get killed if you're playing with others. And if none of that works then I just insult their manhood and move on.

As for your other problem. Give it a little time. I've noticed most developers seem pretty tight lipped about the process in case they run into snags. I've enjoyed being a customer of Stardock as they are pretty transparent as well as communicative, but I understand that they are in the minority. Besides which, from a technical standpoint I'm sure this is a far more difficult genre to launch and the F2P business model is still relatively new. What works for WoW or LOL doesn't really apply to PS2.

agree with you 100% thats why im not gonna spend any certs what so ever till the January patch hopefully they can get some good fixes in and then ONCE THEN if the game is better improved and better optimized il then put money into this game

They expect to release a tutorial in january-febuary , wich i think by then will be too late but they must have something very interesting to keep and get new ppl interested , i hope !

Not being able to re-allocate cert points is a huge, and I mean HUGE, killer for sustained play. The best gaming concept SOE ever applied in any of their games is missing here.

I'm trying to be patient and understanding, but this game makes me hate it. Doubly so when I compare it to what the finished product should be, with all it's potential fulfilled instead of squandered.

This game has a lot of problems, I'm glad you highlighted some of the stuff that people don't bring up as much. I just quit another nightly session early due to badly balanced pops and the futility of trying to play ground against the air zerg. Being able to hop servers would be nice, but it brings problems too. Large guilds have a tendency to hop servers together and throw off balance intentionally.

"a lot" you never play a lot of games that just come out, did you?
The only problems i see are:
-lack of meta games and persistance
-lack of reward and action for little bases defense
-no "active" hacking
-spawn kill not fun (well this is true, depending on your side of the forcefield, but crushing your adversaries like that is kind of meh, not leaving them a chance to fight back. It's better than in PS1 thought)
-render of infantry is a bit disapointing when you snipe or bomb.

All the reported bugs are actively and fixed in time of their priorities, i guess, so thanks for that.
I wouldnt spit on more FPS, but will not fall in "blabla this game need optimization, i run BF3 in Ultra"

Thank you very much for your input. Keep it up. This is all very useful, and again, most of all: the game can only get better if we give it a chance to.

To a degree. My main problem is that my side seems constantly underpopulated and its annoying me to no end. I am not okay with a Merge when in the end 2 server with 40% TR on both get merged into the existing population just keep keep up the "stack".

Also i am not okay with waiting cues, even though i am premium, to extend to 30 minutes again. Honestly, i don't want to have to wait for some team/outfit member or friend to return from a crash or because they have those annoying graphical bugs half an hour later.

Its not fair, especially since there are the real freeloaders and then there are those that spend real money on this game, quite a lot and just didn't get the Premium, which comes at a ridicilous price for nothing. (Seriously, i am using a gametime card for the Premium membership and they can't even give me the promised 500 SC? This is surely the last month of membership for me too)


TL;DR:

So yeah, i am okay with merges if they are fair and balance the population. I am okay with merges as long as they keep the Login cues under 5 minutes (or enter an intermidate priviledges level for people that spend more than 20 or 50 Euro on this game)

I imagine it's hard to balance this game's population when it can fluxuate so much, and we can't change servers easily. I am confident that those guys can think of something though.

At the risk of derailing the thread a bit, I have a character on Genudine and actually like that it's lower populated. Why? Because it gives smaller squads an opportunity to be effective without running into the zerg at every turn. I recently had a 12-person LAN party where we spent a good few hours playing Planetside 2. We were on our main server, Mattherson, trying to get something rolling. It felt like everywhere we tried to go, we immediately got outsed by a full platoon, it was actually getting a bit frustrating. The only option was to join the zerg and off we go.

Now you might think, Planetside 2 is about massive scale combat, tough it out and play how it's supposed to be played! That may very well be true, but a lot of fun can be had with smaller scale engagements. Two squads on opposing factions duking it out over a base is actually a lot of fun, and can be really effective since if the zerg is focusing on a major facility, taking smaller ones contributes to the whole. Unfortunately, on high pop servers, as soon as a base starts flashing three libs appear overhead and wipe everyone out.

On Genudine, I've been involved in several small squad ops and it's not only effective, but a lot of fun! Inevitably, when that base starts flashing, the enemy shows up, but it's usually a single squad in a sunderer and whoa, now you've got a great fight on your hands that hasn't devolved into armor spam and air bombardment. From a pure entertainment perspective, it's really enjoyable.

So anyway, and leading back to the topic, I think server mergers and player migrations are a must. Servers are just going to die off, it happens in every MMO and it's already happening in PS2. That said, unlike a lot of other MMOs, PS2 remains relevant in lower populations, provided those populations are reasonably balanced. It's something to consider...

I agree with Trinith, but my outfit specializes in small battles, and I find that even on populated continents, it's not hard to go off on the fringe of the front line, even if the Zerg is somewhere nearby. Still, a good point though.