Problems with PlanetSide 2 as I see them.

I would like to ask everyone following this thread to look at and critique my list of fixes I posted HERE.

Meow.

I like the bit with the truth

You could have all other stats in 96pt font and K/D at 6pt font and it wouldn't make a single bit of difference. The only stat that people will beat you about the head with and belittle you for is K/D.

When approaching KDR it has to be done heavily and without compromise. Do not bury the stats so that other scores are more prevalent. Do not hide it and allow other websites to data-mine it.

Flat out remove it. Get rid of it. Stop tracking death entirely and only track your kills but bury that. Put your kills at the bottom while keeping your team based statistics at the forefront only.

So long as KDR is tracked in some way shape or form people will be affected by it.

Very good Post. No K/D Tracking in the beginning of Planetside 1 was the one thing that made the battles so awesome. People fought for their Empire and not personal glory.

Couldn't really read through the whole thread but i'm sure i'll be in the minority with this.

I don't think k/d or the death stat is the main culprit here. Yes people obsess about it way to much and it gets annoying but on the other hand having something that makes people want to stay alive is a good thing. Currently the death stat is the only thing that makes you want to survive and even then only affects people that actually care about k/d.

Imagine if it was removed. Zerg that we have now will only get worse, Mindless rushing will have zero penalty and the incentive to come up with some tactical maneuver will further diminish. Not to mention suicide bombing will undoubtedly gain in popularity, crashing hexes a long with it.


The main problem as i see it is the xp distribution. Make no mistake, everything players do is strictly xp motivated. Only time k/d surpasses xp in relevance is when you don't need xp anymore and few people will get to that point. Right now, killing or more precise, making a killing blow is far more productive then anything else. Because it makes the most xp. If running around a rock in circles net you 500 certs per hour, most people would be doing that instead of something fun.

And that's why all the stuff op mentions being bad (which i wholeheartedly agree with) happen. That's why you zepher farm, HE farm, meatgrinders get so popular even tho you do the same stuff for hours on end. Not because it gives you kickass K/D, because it's pays of the most.

Also, that's why some other stuff in the game sucks. That's why people don't AA. You can do 99% damage to a 12 man galaxy, if someone spits on it and kills it you get practically nothing. Or if i am in a 1 on 1 in my lightning, i had some epic battles in which i worked my *** of and managed to pull a kill in the last second. Great feeling but only thing i get is a small vehicle xp and a kill. On the other hand i can fire a HE shell in a 5 man squad and get 3 times more with that one press of a button and do it 5 times faster. Or when im doing a 1 on 1 with an MBT and another teammate is sitting besides me waiting for me to get him on low enough hp so he can one shot him, get the kill and take most of the xp.

Solution ?

Xp overhaul,(obviously) i would do in 2 steps.

First make xp damage based. When something dies, xp is divided by damage, simple as that. Maybe keep a tiny bonus for a killing blow.

Second, make xp scale with a killing method. With knifing someone giving the most xp, and zephering someone far less. Or taking down an ESF with an assault rifle more then dalton one shoting it. This would of course require some subjective discussion to determine how hard is to pull of certain kills so you get rewarded accordingly but i'm sure they can handle it.

The other non-combat stuff seems ok to me. I play a dedicated medic and eng it up when im driving a tank and i think those 2 classes get enough for healing/repairing/resupplying but can't really say about others.

Finally like i said, don't really have the time to go through all the posts, so if all this was already mentioned somewhere, well i agree with whoever said it

I asked my outfit to support this thread because EVERITHING Buzz wrote here is right.
Planetside, at this moment, is too much k/d oriented. If the game will not be changed probably it will die soon.
I hope that SOE will hear at those suggestions.

You cannot support KDR in a game like PS2. I will not compromise on this.

KDR must be removed as it is one of many cancerous things hurting this game at the moment. So long as you have KDR objective driven game play will always take a back seat.

If SC2 can stop tracking losses I am sure PS2 can stop tracking deaths and KDR.

Well that was the point of my post. I don't think this game is kdr driven. I think it's xp driven. If stabbing yourself in the back gave you 2k xp everyone would do it and have **** kdr, especially the pro people chasing br100 (the ones usually most obsessed with kdr as well).

The fact that the methods for getting best xp are the same as the ones for pumping your kdr is just an unfortunate coincidence (or in other words, one of the design fails).

They have already. It's called drop pods and physics deaths. You should have seen it when the galaxy had shields and AMS, I remember the ******* thing was so tough my tactic was trying to use spawn beacons nearby to drop pod them to death because it was the only thing in the game that did reasonable damage. It was also the only reason I'd defend drop pods being capable of causing that much damage. Now IMO they are not necessary.

But what are the effects of KDR? The cert system is going to cause the exact same things you complained about, what was it... oh yeah. Farming, correct? I think a solution they would implement would be tied to facility capture/defense. But how do you make kills worth less without making the even game more grindy?

The effects of KDR have been covered. Have you not read the entire thread?

KDR discourages taking risks. KDR encourages bad behavior as KDR is the only measurement of "success" this game tracks. KDR is not a stat which belongs in PlanetSide.

It's that simple.

I'm not a religious person but f**king AMEN!

This SOE, is the thread you should comprehend and do the PDCA cycle.

I'd actually subscribe if these things were implemented. I agree 100%. Vehicle zergs are out of control I just log out when i see 30 tanks and 10 libs coming down the road. As of now the game is just something I don't really take seriously. Just something I play when I get bored temporarily, on the real games that have proper design.

What evidence is there to support such blanket statements? I have none to say otherwise, but burden of proof etc. I do have a lot of experience from PvP games and in my experience KDR has nothing to do with this. Nothing. At. All. Even if it's not tracked, displayed or before it was even invented, people do not take risks because they do not want to die in a videogame. It's that simple. Removing KDR would do nothing.

Except alienate the new kids in the block who have come from CoD or other similar games where KDR is king. How much of the playerbase do they cover, and how big is the original PS1 fanboy cover? Which one does SOE need more to cover the their expenses? It's not that black and white either, but I'd be damned if SOE would intentionally drive away a (big) part of their playerbase.

As a dedicated Sunderer driver and all-around engie, i totally agree that the PS2 devs need to implement a way to protect AMSes better.

I can support most things in this post with the exception of removing windows from buildings. Are you kidding? Windows are a great way for LAs to sneak into buildings undetected. If you remove them then the doors become choke points and an organized outfit (ahem, Enclave) can just hold the building indefinitely.

I think a compromise would be to put up a force field around windows that stops vehicles and vehicle rounds from going through it. Infantry and small arms fire would still penetrate (so snipers could use them) but that's it.

I totally support the removal of KDR. I think vehicles are important to this game, but combat vehicles (tanks, libs, reavers) should have almost double the resource cost. I think cooldowns should stay the same, but the resource cost should definitely be increased because right now it feels as if resources don't matter.

I also disagree with the last section; the combat downtime. In addition to the removal of KDR (which I support), having shields recharge faster and all medics revive at 100% swings the pendulum too far in the other direction. Death in this game needs to be a consideration when going into a battle, not just a nuisance. Having the pendulum that far left just encourages zerging and not having tactical firefights. Removing KDR encourages teamplay, but fast shield recharge and 100% health revive just removes the threat of death almost completely.

You wouldnt give a **** about a virtual character dieng if how often its happened isnt being constantly thrown in your face...

Nor would you give a **** if it wasnt used as a measurment of your skill. Thats consididered common sense.

Wish you guys would stop blaming the K/D on why this game fails so bad.. Planetside had a K/D and leaderboard display in it too!

That is not why this game sucks compared to PS1, COD, BF... It's all these damn vehicles, all these damn cheaters, the lack of Metagame, and the silly base designs!!!

It's Mat Higby AKA Mr. Everquest!

Leting this guy be the lead for your game is like the people behind Neverwinter Nights allowing Cryptic to develop their MMO.... Another of the WTF were they thinking moments.

Stop blaiming KDR, even if SOE removes it. Nothing changes, you know why?

BECAUSE THE REAL ISSUE ARE THE CERTS

As long as playing selfishly gets you more certs, who cares about some K/D sideproduct? Liberator people will continue to bomb your *** so they can buy a new gun even if they couldn't brag about their kill-stats.


Like the guy above me said, PS1 had K/D and it was the most tactical and fun game ever released. Why? Because it didn't have cert system like this. It had dynamic XP, killing a noob that barely stays alive netted you like 2xp vs a guy taht was on a kill streak giving you like 500xp, so you unlocked stuff naturally just by playing the game as it was supposed to be played. Same thing doesn't happen in PS2, everyone ignores the strategy aspect of the game because it just there and what is there is completely ditched in favor of crown cert farm.