Planetside 2 has been live for over six months and in that time we have seen a great level of support with regular updates and overhauls of core systems to make it more accessible to new players and enjoyable to all. We have a roadmap that is regularly updated with new systems and fixes, which adapts to players ideas and feedback. There are however a number of issues that I feel need to be addressed as quickly as possible regardless of the roadmap. These issues are: 1. Spawn camping. The nature of the game means that it revolves around spawn points and the ‘economy of force’ of players emerging from them and where they meet the enemy defining where battles take place. With Sunderers we can push the battle closer and closer to enemy positions and play revolves around destroying them or moving them up further. Eventually it reaches a point where a Sunderer is deployed close to the capture point and the attackers hold it and hold the defenders back by camping the spawn building. This occurs in every territory across every continent. The only slight difference is at Biolabs, where it is near impossible to deploy a Sunderer closer to the capture points than the spawn building, so deploying them by the teleporter satellites is often vital as it is the quickest route. This gives rise to some of the best infantry fights as getting to and camping the spawn room is difficult if you do not have an overwhelming force. Recently we have seen facilities change so that the SCU only becomes vulnerable when 75% of the capture is done, which means that rather than the SCU going down first to reduce defender response effectiveness it is taken last, often with only 2 minutes or so on the clock. This means that instead of reducing spawn camping it actually encourages it. It is obvious why this has been done – it allows the fight to continue, but in the majority of cases the attackers have an overwhelming force and it is just 6-7 minutes of spawn camping, which no one enjoys. There is also talk of when the SCU going down it will drop the spawn room shields and pain field dropping, which will allow attackers to clear the room – this should be a good change as it means defenders can’t sit there and camp the exits anyway, and have to come from an external point to resecure which adds to the excitement. This however is a small change, but it will reduce spawn camping. So what to do about the issue? I suggest a combination of existing and past systems. First add SCUs to EVERY territory, just like we had in early beta. It was a huge issue back then, as they could be destroyed with a single magazine of a carbine however if you add the overload mechanic from the facilities it will give defenders chance to actually resecure them. Second adjust the 75% capture taking down the shields and change it to only 50%, giving attackers more reason to bother doing it while still giving the attackers enough time to organise a defence. Third add a new base component called the ‘Deployment Interference Generator’ which stops enemies from deploying Sunderers and squad beacons within a set radius of the base. This can be overloaded at any point once the capture progress is started, so the first people into the base cannot deploy a Sunderer immediately to support them. 2. Coordination Coordination of forces needs work as trying to organise multiple platoons is very difficult, let alone coordinate squads in a platoon or players within a squad. We can thankfully see friendly force amounts as well as the enemy on the map, and with the lattice system there is less strategic choice which makes finding an actual fight much easier and the fights themselves larger. The tools we have are very limited; however squad and platoon management improvements are scheduled on the roadmap for this month. I have put together multiple concepts for how they can be enhanced here: http://vindicore.imgur.com/ With some of those changes we will be able to better coordinate ourselves, and break up ‘zergs’ more effectively as can send our squads and platoons where they are needed. 3. Air balance Air to ground balance is a major problem, and has been since beta. In the original game aircraft were totally dominant, a handful of air cavalry would dominate a fight unless AA was pulled in large numbers and even then the AA could be taken out by a single aircraft very quickly. Aside from MAX units infantry had no defence against aircraft (Flaklet did not count) unless they were very good with AV. In the current game we have seen balance see saw between air being totally overpowered to useless as tweaks have been made primarily to ground based AA, mainly the Burster arms of MAXs, and the introduction of the Striker for the TR. Currently we are in a state of aircraft being near useless around a large fight with 2-3 AA MAXs effectively cleaning the skies. Flying against the TR is also a lesson in frustration due to the sheer number of Strikers. What to do about it? Well I would make a number of changes again. First increase the flight ceiling by 500 feet, allowing aircraft room to play without fear of MAX based AA. This introduces a new problem; that of Liberators hitting ground targets out of the MAX units range. To compensate make it so that infantry does not render to aircraft when they are so far away. Liberators should be able to still hit them, but it would require someone telling them where they are to direct fire. If the ground forces want to deal with these Liberators effectively they would ideally send up some aircraft to get the job done, making air to air combat useful again. The Skyguard however should be buffed to allow it to deal with these high level aircraft, while MAXs should be used to deal with low flying aircraft. 4. Player retention As a free to play game retention is always going to be an issue – some quick research shows that if 10% of people who try the game stick with it for a month that can be seen as good! The key to getting players to stay is to make sure they are having fun experiences. With the lattice system focusing fights this is helped as the fights are larger and easier to find, however the lattice system also restricts options so fights may get more repetitive over time. By adding new areas to fight in (eg Hossin and Searhus) it will keep things fresh, as does overhauling territories to a lesser extent. New continents however take a huge time to develop, the first addition, Hossin, has been bumped back to September on the roadmap. Alternatively we need to look at making players more invested in the game and their characters which can be a lot less time consuming for the developers. Player progression in most MMOs is the draw, yet in PS2 because we do not get any stronger or deal more damage this is not as big of a factor and nor should it be. What we can do is reward progression with more, perhaps by awarding free camouflage or other cosmetics for progressing in battle rank, or free weapons for earning auraxium medals to encourage players to master every weapon. Outfits can also help to retain players as people naturally will want to stay with their friends. As it stands there is no outfit progression or impact on the world besides coordination. Numerous times before release it was mentioned that outfits would be able to set a uniform for their members yet this has not materialised (although outfits like mine have suggested camo to use). Outfits claiming bases is on the roadmap, and should be brought up as soon as possible to give outfits more to fight for and more reasons for players to join one of these communities. Overall I am extremely pleased with PS2 and do not see me playing any other game for a long time to come, yet these are the issues I see as being major ones which mere balancing will not address.
