PS2 actually isn't P2W enough

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Pie Chasm, Feb 16, 2015.

  1. Freedom Fries

    No,they haven't buffed it. Smedley himself said it was to make people spend money.
  2. Ronin Oni

    it's, mostly, the easiest for vehicles to move around on... apparently.

    Esamir they can move around of course, but the walls kinda make them useless at the actual base fights, and since nobody actually TRAVELS anywhere, there's little point in armor other than protecting/attacking sunderers (or farming a few infantry on their way in)

    but yeah, Indar is easily the worst in base designs.

    Amerish is I think my favorite.

    I actually like Hossin the most for base designs. Some real gems there, but the damn place is ALWAYS empty :\
    • Up x 1
  3. Ronin Oni

    I don't mind the concept, but it seems excessive....

    it seems, to me at least, that T1 implants should be able to be ran for free off normal drop rate, with even gaining a very slow rate of chargers

    T2 should be free if there's literally no wasted power time. A free player could swap between T1 and T2

    T3 and T4 should require cert investment or SC to run all the time. A free player might burn some power now and then on using a T3/4 implant for a single life for a specific purporse on occasion, but not with any real regularity.

    That would be a proper balance IMO. It'd be a tiny P2W advantage fo higher tiered implants, without basically making implants entirely pay to use.

    I seemed to be getting enough implants and charger drops when I played the other day though... I mean, I don't really pay close attention to charger count... I don't even think all my loadouts have implants FFS.
  4. axiom537

    It is not so much that the game needs to become more P2W. The issue is that it is too easy to earn certs and once you advance to a certain point, you have the weapons you like, then it is only a matter of time until you save up enough certs to buy anything else you want and have little need to SC. As a BR100, sure I have a membership, but honestly I could very easily go with out it. I haven't used SC to purchase much of anything other then stupid stuff, because I can and I like supporting this game, but for new weapons and vehicles I just save up my certs, because I do not have anything to spend them on...

    One suggestion I have made in the past is too create a Black Market, that would allow players to purchase weapons from the other factions for SC only. This would generate a lot of revenue as players are grabbing those niche & top of class weapons from the various factions, but the real money generation would come from the fact, that each factions terminals does not provide ammunition for those weapons, so the ammunition would need to be purchased off the black market as well.

    Obviously, ammo would need to be very cheap and I would also suggest, that it be reduced by half is a player has a membership, which would be ideal because membership gives the game a constant and fairly stable income supply. I know there are a few cross faction weapons I would purchase for $10 and I don't think 1000 rockets for $1.00 or 10,000 charges/bullets for $1.00 is a ridicules amount either.
  5. 4wry

    No P2W game was ever truly successful, there are many examples that failed miserably. Most players will recognize this and the majority will leave. P2W = death of game, so definately no to that.

    Planetside has been able to break world records based on the fact that is actually is free to play. Investing money doesn't give the player any palpable advantages apart from faster cert or resource gains, queue priority etc.
    In other words, its paying for convenience and paying money instead of laying down time to unlock weapons with certs.

    However, what is then the overall benefit of being a member after unlocking the essentials? Unless you are a completionist, at BR100 you'll have most of the stuff you want or need. Likewise, would you invest in further cosmetics once you have your favorites or outfit-related ones? I don't think Planetside is really economically viable when trying to keep making players purchase new content, like the new gun X, or camo Y, cosmetic Z etc. There is no benefit in that really, and having harvested the majority of certs, is there any incentive to continue a membership?

    So DGC should consider to find new ways to make memberships more advantageous in the long run, instead of relying on new players getting memberships, or all players to get useless cosmetics. To get there without making it P2W is challenging, though.

    I'd hate to see PS2 become P2W. The charger go in that direction already, because there is no reliable way crafting or ensuring energy, but they are a fading resource that unlike the other content is consumed over time.

    Should the free to play part be more restricted, instead? Examples could be limiting gametime or time per class and day, or number of vehicles available per day etc., commercial breaks even?
    However, that wouldn't be appreciated, unless overall membership cost would be lower on average: i.e. more members at an on-average reduced price.
    Picture a 'kickstarter' of sorts where membership would cost e.g. 5$/month, provided a critical mass of players would be reached. All players participating will get membership if reached, if not the supporters get the equivalent in station cash. I'd support that. ;)
    I do however think that implementing restrictions for non-members would alienate the player community at this point.

    What else then? What is the incentive to continue a long-term membership?
    I picture bonuses for long-term members, e.g. exclusive access to new battle islands and dedicated fighting zones. However, it is hard to come up with bonuses that are not considered P2W.
  6. omfgweeee

    1st i have 90% of lol champs and the only reason i dont have the rest 10% is becuse i dont like them.

    2nd i have 19 rune pages with all usefull runes (and some useess xD).

    3rd only thing i have bought with irl money are 6 or 7 skins.

    question - how is lol p2w game?
  7. WanderingHippie

    I just started playing, I do however have an opinion. pay to win, is not an option, I want you to think about this for one second, you just dropped into your first battle, you start killing new players like you, legit right? well then along comes johnny awesome over here that has spent waaaayyy too much on dis game, and he takes out his BFG and oneshot and your *** is plastered not only to the base wall but through it. then he just follows you around doing it. As a person that just landed into this universe the LAST thing i want is to be competing with people that are winning simply because they have more money than patience, it really just kinda deflates your drive to want to play, if all you have to do is just buy your guns.
    • Up x 1
  8. blzbug

    First...welcome to Planetside :)
    The scenario you painted is because johnny awesome is just an azzhole. He could do that right now against a new player, regardless of what weapon he has. I don't want pay2win either, but it is a totally separate issue from the new player experience. PS2 is hard for new players, which is one of the reasons it struggles to grow.
    How has your experience been as a new player? I hope you stick around through the learning curve. Once you get up a bit, PS2 starts to take shape. Hopefully soon, you will experience a cool battle that would simply never be possible with any other game. Then you'll be hooked :)
  9. mer1c

    Put any weapons only purchasable with SC into the game that are direct upgrades to the weapons currently ingame, me and my whole outfit is gone, I can guarantee it.
  10. DxAdder


    The advantage he had was based on certifications not anything that he bought with SC.

    I define P2W is being able to buy something that gives an advantage over items that are free.

    Spending SC to to skip the grind isn't P2W it's an option that should be available.
  11. Magma52

    They have laid off a tonne of staff and have recently said that there will be no new content for a while. I took that to mean no new content for a long time. They're just fixing things now. That shouldn't be a terribly expensive combination. Things might be more profitable.

    If it became too P2W I would just leave. LoL is P2W? Dayum, glad I don't play those sort of games then.
  12. Taemien


    Game is 26 months old. New players will not come, no matter what you do. Its an OLD game. Everyone we're going to get has already played and stayed or left. What we have is what we got.

    With that said, the game isn't going to be dead anytime soon. Its still got a healthy population, enough to keep it going for another couple of years. At least until PS3.

    If there is a PS3. Still need to see if Columbus Nova is going to allow production of future titles for Everquest and Planetside. Or if they are going to stymie it and milk it dry like Guitar Hero.
  13. DxAdder


    World of Warcraft 10 years old and still has 9 Million + paid subs
    Perfect World ( a real P2W game ) 6 years old 2 Million + players

    These games survive because they have the CONTENT to keep existing players and attract new players.

    Content cost money to produce F2P games need real revenue streams to survive. Overpriced cosmetics won't cut it.
  14. Foxirus

    More pay to win? The only way I could see this game becoming pay to win is if I could drop $20, and have every enemy vehicle within 300m instantly explode with me getting all the kill credit as if I just C4'd them.

    Remember, Its not pay to win if the free base can access it as well. Right now, The only thing the free base can't access is cosmetic items that don't effect gameplay in the slightest.
  15. Billiard

    I agree with increasing the incentives for paying players. I don’t know how the developers feel but I think they should care more about attracting and keeping paying customers than necessarily trying the keep the non-paying or very little paying crowd happy. I have been playing the game since after the beta, I’m not very good and I will never be good but I enjoy the game and I have paid maybe $200 total. I work 60-80 hours a week and I have more money than I have time, dropping $50-100 on a game is not a big deal but I’m not going to buy cosmetic stuff because I don’t care about that. I won’t buy a subscription again because I can only play a few hours a month and there needs to be better benefits/incentives. One thing I may buy the subscription for is if they gave me the passive cert gain without having to log in. If I log in every couple weeks and collect a bunch of certs to buy new stuff to play around with then I would probably pay for the subscription. Nobody ever accuses me of cheating and I think most people with busy lives and jobs never get very good at these games, so if they are the ones paying the money why not give them a few benefits. It may make F2P players upset but the guys with the jobs and the money are who support these games.
  16. travbrad

    I wonder how much of the problem is people not paying, and how much of the problem is people not playing? They've had to merge servers a bunch of times because player populations plummeted (partially because of the state the game was in regarding bugs/lag). This game doesn't seem to get a lot of new players, and doesn't seem to have much marketing or public awareness either. I've talked/chatted to people from other games and most had never even heard of Planetside 2 before.

    With a lack of new players it's hard to get people to buy stuff, even if it was more P2W. The old "bitter vets" that are still playing already have everything unlocked anyway, so unless they just release a new OP gun every month which can only be purchased with station cash, there is nothing to spend money on.
  17. Taemien


    After a year and a half, WoW's first expansion (which cost $50), Burning Crusade came out.

    Where's Planetside 2's expansion? PS1 had a few.. where's PS2's?

    There won't be one. PS2's development outside an occasional bug fix here and there and a cosmetic once in a while, is done. There's even a possibility that the game could be milked for all its worth and then once its shut dowm, the Intellectual Property will be dead. Just Guitar Hero.

    Think about it, when was the last patch? We had a Hotfix a month ago. The only game in Daybreak's lineup who's had a recent hotfix is EQ2. EQ1, Landmark, and others haven't had one in over a month.
  18. Sade

    sometimes Pay to win, doesnt nessesarily mean *to win* sometimes I can just mean paying for something.

    And I kind of agree, there isnt a great deal of incentive to put money into PS2, some of the visual and audio things you can buy are... hmm, well, they are pretty cool but no where near cool enough for me to want to pay for them.

    Having said that, I frequently see people who are subbed and often hear people talking about weapons they've bought.

    But yea, it would be nice to have something more special or more tempting that is unique. Maybe different models of tanks or aircraft.. not just some silly glowing stripe or sound effect, how about a completly new and awesome looking Galaxy model that is Pay only.
  19. DxAdder


    I don't ever think you will see an expansion for PS2, DLC's at some point would be more to the F2P model since almost all F2P games offer the DLC's for free to Paid subscribers.

    The point being they simply don't have the revenue to produce DLC's or any real content at this time. And to be clear I am no advocate for P2W items that would kill the game.

    They tried to Monetize Implants (virtually useless items) and have now lowered the drop rates even further which has only alienated more players and generated no revenue.
  20. Crator

    No, pay-to-win means what it sounds like (at least in the context of what the OP is talking about). If it is something else then you wouldn't/shouldn't call it pay-to-win.

    Adding more models for vehicles and infantry is something that is nonexistent or limited in PS2. Why you ask? Because of FPS (frames per second).