Planetside 2 is DYING.

All things must pass.....

But PS2 has never had the development to really sustain or grow numbers, it was changed in developement, released in what honestly would be considered a Beta state (compared to how PS1 was release) and never really finished (even today).

I don't think PS2 today is dying, but it is and likely will continue to decline in player numbers without investment (i.e. an old "expansion" type of development and investment).

They need gratification for playing

We're doomed.

Sure.
I think we also need more ways to make new players feel less frustrated as they get steamrolled by more experienced players.
From this point of view Koltyr was a failure.

What we need is completely move the attention from kdr to score per minute and territory control. New players must realize the scope of the game is not "kill as many as you can to show you're cool" but "get the highest score/time".
The reward system is wrong.

Great part of this also involves a revamp of leadership tools and outfits must also be encouraged to enroll noobs that get out of tutorial and make them actively do their part.

As long as a huge part of players quit because they do not understand what to do and because they feel bad as they get killed hundreds of times there's no way to increase the pop again.

At this point I'd be all for shutting this game down, waiting several years while they start from scratch, have an extensive Beta test to iron out balance issues and bugs BEFORE launch, then release Planetside 3 as a retail game rather than F2P.

They need to completely redo the spawn system. People shouldn't be able to spawn directly at little mini bases. They need to utilize the games squad spawns and vehicle spawns more efficiently. Rely more on taking bases by sheer force rather than zerg caps which are completely stupid IMHO.

As someone else stated... in like 3-4 years... we only got 2 new vehicles. We should have all sorts of Vehicles.....
Another cool feature people have stated were AirShips that can carry a vehicle. Tank or Sunderer w/e... drop it off somewhere...

There is just too many things they could have added but havn't... After 4 years of the same ol crap.. it gets old.. quick. Need more customization vehicle options....

And why do planes not have shields?? That should be a given..... Vehicles should rely on Shield power and have VERY LITTLE actual HP... 1 Rocket should set a vehicle on fire if hit directly while shields down.

it's already dead, wtf are you talking about dying? saying that it's "dying" implies that it had a sustainable population for some time. This game is already dead af.

First of all they are redoing the spawning system I thought... Second.. I don't this game is even CLOSE to dying. There is so many players on the PS4 servers its ridiculous at times, yeah the game will go through its rough patches but it's far from dying. Especially with the new stuff they are coming out with. (The mobile bases that can be built wherever, etc.)

On top of that... It's one of the first massive scale fps games I've seen, and it's very well done and will only continue to get better.

Populations were good at release and to a lesser extent right after first server merge. But usa east coast lost another server before summer. Only Connery since then. Know that back in those days balance and performance and servers and bugs and base design were way worse than today.

Games in today's age require constant content to keep the high end players engaged and enough fun at the low levels to make people accept the grind.

Let's not forget that this IS a f2p model. So the game requires people to constantly buy to keep the game going. You need new content to buy for that to happen.

So because people whine a lot and they have had to focus on that they haven't been able to create a lot of new content. With all the raging people have literally tied the devs hands. So no new content.

Entry is too expensive. The price points are too high. You need to be able to spend a dollar and get some items. It's the icebreaker. It's just a dollar becomes it's just a few dollars instead of oh snap it's 10 bucks.

No new maps. We need more maps. More regions or expand current maps. Create underground outfit bases and let them fight in weekly televised matches on stream. Keep people engaged.

With an entry like that and the content being stifled it's hard to make the game grow. Now get some of the dedicated outfits to field teams for 48v48 and maybe a 128v128 on a few tourney maps. And lower the entry on some of the cool items and your set. Like make the esrl one dollar. Get people to give a buck for that. And their hooked.

So I rambled a bit but I think the ideas are solid.

PS2's problems can be traced to a few bad decisions:

• Releasing the game a year too early, before any meta-game and before final polish
• Chasing the "e-sports" angle (months of wasted developer time)
• Throwing away much of what made PS1 unique and special (only to add it back in later, half-arsed)
• Poor/bad management
• Failure to engage with customers on the official forum / website
• Failure to communicate through normal channels like the login/loading screens
• Buggy releases / patches
• Vastly overpriced items (in SC/DBC) by a factor of about 3x to 5x compared to other F2P games
• Large facilities with a single capture point (Amp stations, Tech plants)
• Cookie cutter base design, prone to abuse and camping of the spawn

Overpowered mechanics that were and are unknown to newbies.

Newbies dying constantly to these overpowered mechanics, getting frustrated because they don't know why and leaving.

Probably one of the biggest reasons the pop never grows to the extent a free shooter should.

These things should be more readily apparent. Like telling newbies in a straight up, non-cryptic manner, like playing HA with this and this gives you 700 more HP. This weapon does this and this.

Newbies don't care about the scheme of things, how this should be played, they just want to shoot, kill and not die.

Learning those things comes later, but that first jump is a big one they must overcome.

Been playing Planetside since 1 came out years ago, and I was there for 2, and been here ever since. I have spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on both games for one simple reason; Planetside is the only shooter I will play, the combined arm experience is as good as it gets on a game. I have also noticed the pop decrease but I see it as a nature of the beast; people get bored and move on, some get disgusted/pissed off, some just take breaks temporally as I have several times, but I ALWAYS keep coming back to this game...and as long as its open I always will. Come January the third I will also extend my year sub to PS2, imho is money well spent.

You don't spend money on advertising something that is underdeveloped. You spend money only when a game is new, and when a major expansion to improve it comes out. There are no major expansions coming.

Ask yourself this: Would you spend a $250,000 on advertising right now, or pay a team $250,000 to develop Searhus. Searhus would provide a ton of draw for new and old players.

Again, you can't spend advertising on something that is underdeveloped.

Lot of great stuff, proven in PS1 that could be added back in. 2nd, quit NERFING everything.. I never buy a new weapon now, I wait a couple of months for the nerf to go in.

Down with the lattice.. what an idiotic idea.. right up there with the warframes from ps1

finally, let's either get a GREAT guide to flying aircraft, or restore the mossy/wasp filght profiles from PS1.. unplayable for the majority of our outfit (if you have a great flying gude.. post it here).

The community wrote all the changes necessary to make the Hex system to work, but SOE ignored that entire avenue. We got the lattice because of three reasons: 1) They wanted to mash more players together to artificially create massive fights and look good PR-wise, 2) They were wasting time trying to artificially create the esport angle, and 3) veteran players were screaming the word "lattice" with the misconception that SOE would implement it just like PS1.

Players avoided non-lattice continents - Amerish - because of a couple reasons. Over time, they kept tweaking the lattice system making it better. And they actually de-enhanced the hex system by removing adjacency, and 1-6 player capture timer variance. So you have a de-enhanced Hex system compared to an ever impoving lattice system. OF COURSE players avoided the Hex system. SOE's development system made it so.

Again, the community wrote in all the changes to make Hex awesome, but SOE ignored it. We even could have had a form of lattice placed on top of it later.

You say there were a lot of changes in development. I disagree. There wasn't enough, and this game has been hamstrung by underdevelopment by several other over-ambitious projects. Let me name the culprits: Forgelight engine, Dragon's Prophet, PS4, H1Z1, etc. An entire Roadmap of discarded changes could have been delivered, if it weren't for all this crap. That old Roadmap of discarded changes proves there wasn't enough put into development. SOE tried to develop too many projects. They should have taken a page from Bethesda or Blizzard. Planetside 2 was, or could still be, a title winner, but SOE robbed from it. You don't maintain a successful title by robbing from it.

Let's focus on what could turn this game's popularity around:

1. Victory Points - Good starting execution, good follow-up tweaks.

2. The ANT vehicle

3. Player base construction and Auraxium mining - turret towers, walls, and VP generators for starters.

4. Better Leadership Mechanics - a sorely needed improvement from the deplorable tools leaders have been saddled with in the last 2+ years. Let's hope these are delivered properly with reducing leadership burn-out as the most important mission.

5. They're bringing back the LLU (Lattice Logic Unit) base capture mechanics.

FIRST. WE KNOW ALL OF THIS ALREADY. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?!!?!? YOU CAME HERE KNOWING NOTHING WE HAVE ACHIEVED THESE FEW MONTHS?!?!? HOW DARE YOU! READ UP ON PLANETSIDE HISTORY KIDDO.

Nah, fix the balance. Right not is zerging or getting zerged. No fun for either side.

Oh, and some of the bases where tanks and air justs sits around the highground and shooting infantry. and some of the bases have such boring choke points.

Infantry still has the largest player base. So give infantry good fights.

I would just like to add that I have been around longer than those names you mentioned and I can say they are nothing special and Madhatta is a dick, who never contributes anything to a faction but flying around upside in his galaxy. Jaegar is where all of your best NC players and outfits leaders came from. They didn't stick around long after they nerfed the NC maxes. People whining about overpowered aspects of this game and the devs listening to them, is why people left PS2. It's that simple, the end.

I'm not sure why people are rambling about bringing back the old players and new maps. This man has won this post and completely and succinctly summed up why PS2 is dying. Additionally he did the other important thing and did not address what to do to correct it because quite frankly the damage is done, this game is doomed. It is a question of can the game survive 2016?

I personally think it will be online into 2017 due to DBG's track record with low population games however I believe the playerbase for each continent (NA/EU) will dip below 1k peak concurrent users by spring of 2016. The key to it all has already begun - the playerbase has now shrunk enough on every server that the few remaining high skill Pvp focused players have quit. All this game has left are the diehards, hyper casuals and the wannabe skilled players remaiNing and the latter two categories will begin their exodus with the new holiday games launching to get in on the ground level.