RECAP: Friday Night Ops - Episode 41

Discussion in 'Friday Night Ops' started by Luperza, Aug 16, 2013.

  1. LGhost1904


    You might have a point, but then Planetside would have to rely on another program such as TeamSpeak to ensure all outfit members can communicate to let players just signing in to the game know what server to go to... Then what if that server they moved to ends up full and more outfit members sign on to only be allowed to play on a 3rd server. That's splitting outfits into 2-3 servers.
  2. Czuuk

    I've made my point. Sorry if you've missed it.
  3. Luperza Community Manager

    I understand Czuuk's opinion. He wants us to do Community Play Sessions on servers and factions that need more players. That's something we can definitely do in the future. :)

    This week was primarily because Hamma's character was TR on Waterson and we were going to roll with him and his outfit/other outfits they are allied with. That's the reasoning, as stated in the past. ;)
    • Up x 2
  4. Czuuk

    It would go a long way to bolstering morale. :D
  5. Spookydodger


    I would even be in favor of extending lockon range if the lockon time was sufficiently long, or make "range extender" cert lines to do it so that you are either extending range, accuracy, lockon speed, or travel speed.

    Maybe make Stealth not reduce the range at which a vehicle is detected from firing, but make it increase the effective range of the lockon. If the effective range puts the aircraft beyond max lockon range, then it can't be locked on.

    So max stealth, for example, would bring the lockon requirement to 300 meters, making them lockable at the same range as they render infantry.

    Though I imagine the flak armor would need a big buff in order to make it compete with that sort of ability.

    They could make nanite armor regenerate more per tick or faster, but make the effective range closer, so you can lock onto nanite regenerators from further away.
  6. Wariamu


    Well, I think that's the kind of thing that has to be tried to see what would actually happen.

    And if players could play on different servers, it would have to be possible for players to send messages to each other from a server to another.

    But I agree that this does pose a problem.
  7. Neopopulas

    Also, don't forget.. Briggs is the only server for a lot of the SEA guys (Australia primarily, obviously) and if suddenly there was a big pop imbalance.. well you can't just go to another server.
  8. Wariamu


    I played from France and UK on Waterson and I have no problem at all so.. I'm not sure if that really matters
  9. Irondove

    a more appropriate thread to post on...

    Some suggestions to improve the dog fighting Meta while helping new players learn to fly their aircraft. One suggestion is to place bounties on skilled aircraft pilots that can only be awarded if they are shot down by aircraft fire. The UI updates a bounty level above their name and is color coded.. red for high level, orange for medium, and green for average.

    Next award skill kills over new player kills much the same way that xp is awarded for killing new infantry versus high threat players in the infantry meta game.

    Third, to discourage rocket podding infantry, award kill xp as suppression xp. the rocket pods should only award kills for taking out vehicles.. this was there initial intent. Award kill points for using rotary guns or the new dual wing guns if used to gun down infantry. This restores the original intent of rocket pods (harassing armour). and nose guns/ wing guns for killing aircraft.

    The bounty system could play directly into the player mission system.
  10. Neopopulas

    Lag from SEA, and Australia specifically - which is where i am - is MUCH greater to US servers. Its not unplayable, but its very noticeable. Ping from Europe to the US is, i'd say, different from AUS to the US..

    Here, i'll ping the servers for you.

    • Briggs: 66ms
    • Ceres: 452ms
    • Cobalt: 411ms
    • Woodman: 369ms
    • Miller: 368ms
    • Connery: 268ms
    • Matterson: 307ms
    • Waterson: 313ms
    As you can see, playing on any other server BESIDES briggs, while playable, would be a huge pain in the *** and not something i would do if i had a choice. If i couldn't play on briggs, i would just stop playing and go do something else.

    You can do this for yourself by pasting this into a .txt file and saving it as ping.bat, it'll run a little ping test for you, its good if you want to find which server you think you should connect to. (the IP for the VOIP is in there too, if you're curious).

    Code:
    @ECHO off
    REM PlanetSide 2 Ping Tester by Sh4rkill3rSG
    ECHO Australia: Paddington, New South Wales
    CALL:ps2ping 69.174.220.23
    ECHO - (AU) Briggs:            %ms%
    ECHO ====================================== && ECHO.Europa: Amsterdam, Holanda
    CALL:ps2ping 195.33.132.169
    ECHO - (EU) Ceres:            %ms%
    CALL:ps2ping 195.33.132.169
    ECHO - (EU) Cobalt:            %ms%
    CALL:ps2ping 195.33.132.169
    ECHO - (EU) Woodman:            %ms%
    CALL:ps2ping 195.33.132.172
    ECHO - (EU) Miller:            %ms%
    ECHO ====================================== && ECHO.US West: San Diego, California
    CALL:ps2ping 64.37.174.140
    ECHO - (US West) Connery:        %ms%
    ECHO ====================================== && ECHO.US East: Ashburn, Virginia
    CALL:ps2ping 199.108.194.38
    ECHO - (US East) Mattherson:        %ms%
    CALL:ps2ping 199.108.194.41
    ECHO - (US East) Waterson:        %ms%
    ECHO ======================================
    CALL:ps2ping 74.201.99.82
    ECHO - (AU) VOIP (Vivox.com):        %ms%
    ECHO ======================================
    ECHO.&PAUSE&GOTO:EOF
     
    :ps2ping
    SET ms=Error
    FOR /F "tokens=4 delims==" %%i IN ('ping.exe -n 1 %1 ^| FIND "ms"') DO SET ms=%%i
    GOTO:EOF
  11. Wariamu


    Nice batch thanks! I'm curious what times I get...

    Yeah you do have a point there. I would expect Australia to have a better connection.

    Though it is still possible to have a character on more than one faction now on the same server.

    But, chances are, if the faction caps would be implemented, some people would just start playing on a different faction or server and that would balance itself within a few weeks. but that's something we're not sure of until it has been tested.

    (Yeah I get just under 100ms for US East servers)
  12. Neopopulas

    Lucky.. I'd love to have a sub 100ms ping to the US just for the server sizes they have. Its true, if i couldn't play m main on VS, i might just switch sides. but the problem is, what of most of my outfit is playing already, i have to go play on my own somewhere else and that's just not as fun. I'm more in favour of continent caps (to say.. lock indar and force people onto other continents) because you tend to go as a group than keeping people off an entire empire.
  13. Wariamu

    Yeah continent population locks could be an alternative but I don't think they will be possible once they implement the continent faction conquest lock ..

    (if you haven't heard of it they intend on making the capture of a whole continent possible (including the enemy warpgate))

    But I think players who don't care about faction and outfit will probably switch right away, therefore letting players who do care still play with their own faction.

    Of course a faction balance should be done with an inversely proportional percentage only with an amount of players over a set number and below done with a set buffer. For instance, if there are more than 750 players in-game, there can only be a 7.5% difference. But below that, the difference is always a maximum of say.. 30 or 40 players. Ok those are just fictional numbers just to explain more concretely what I'm trying to say.
  14. LGhost1904


    +1

    Your first idea is very interesting and I would be in favor of it or something similar to it. Your second idea makes plenty of sense as well. I like the intent of your third idea but I can't see it working out.

    Rocket pods have been out for a long while now and Planetside should have fixed that issue way back when the complaints were at their peak, your idea would have been almost perfect at that time. Now after so long, the complaints have simmered down and people have adjusted and/or became certified face rocketing pilots themself. Changing the xp gain like that would probably come with a ******** of complaints and threats to leave the game, not that they aren't used to it already especially if they read these forums. Still, I believe that since they haven't changed/fixed it by now that their data is telling them that it isn't broken (ex: the complaints on the forums don't outweigh the rocketpod users/buyers in their data).

    Or, perhaps there would be other consequences that they want to avoid, they would almost have to remove kill points for tanks that take out infantry as well. That would create even more uproar from the community, essentially hurting the game more than helping it...

    Also, unless I'm just misunderstanding the second part, I don't believe they should award kill points when using nose guns on infantry if they aren't going to award kill points when using pods on infantry, it just wouldn't make sense. I understand that killing infantry with a nose gun takes a little more skill than using pods but you can't just change one thing and not the other especially using the reason you suggest.

    Btw, not to eat your whole post up but while all your ideas were good, none really help new players to learn to fly as you suggested, unless you meant for them not to use pods on infantry...

    We can't just assume that mixing and matching servers will create evenness, unless that stat is public.?

    It's a bold move for them to make and while it may or may not be the best one, I do agree that a bold move will have to be made should they recognize population imbalance is hindering this game's success. What's their options though? Force population balance or persuade into it...

    I'm not certain that force is even one of their options, I would imagine it is though. We've basically already discussed some of the consequences of forcing an even population, it's guaranteed a percentage of angry campers. If they were to go this route, they should have done it at game launch. I'm talking about forcing players/ip addresses into a faction on their recommended server ( which usually goes by your ping if im not mistaken ;) ) to guarantee even population. It's too late now imo...

    What about persuasion though? I'm talking persuasion through advertising. czuuk (above) mentioned this somewhat about Luperza, I think she has brought her fair share of new Vanu soldiers to auraxis with that purple hair and always wearing a vs shirt, while yelling vanu for life whenever she can. That's Vanu advertising 100% whether intentional or not. There are a bunch of ways to advertise for a faction but how do you advertise for a faction on one server and another faction for a different server and actually see results?

    Incentives are another way to persuade a new player to join a faction. Offer an extra gun if they choose a certain faction before hand or even make some new guns only attainable by joining the lowest populated faction.
  15. Wariamu

    Yeah it's just that I'm not convinced whether or not incentives are enough to make a real difference. Maybe if they had some sort of a free faction switch from say TR to NC for a character. You would keep all your levels, it would give back the certs that aren't common between the two factions and possibly refund in SC the factional weapons so that you can pick new ones with your new faction.
  16. DeadliestMoon

    One thing that was talked about briefly was getting a way for newer pilots to learn faster. I'm not sure how this would be implemented.
  17. Wariamu


    It would be a good start if there was an introduction to flying in the tutorial and an introduction to the VR. I think there's probably a bunch of players who don't even know about it and it's very good for piloting practice. I think it would be great too if there was an area of the VR where two teams of the same faction can practice against each other.
  18. Neopopulas

    There needs to be a 'tips and tricks' thing.. maybe a popup tutorial when you fly. Because things like.. You'll go on the forums and ask how to get better and one of the first things people will tell you is to rebind keys.. So obvious those are the 'optimal' keys.. Maybe it should be suggested somewhere.

    The BIGGEST problem is that the air game is very closed. There aren't a TON of pilots and the real ace pilots are always around, when you get into the air (assume you don't crash yourself just trying to fly) you're going to get shot down pretty quick, and then have to wait.. Which is really discouraging.

    On top of being expensive and time consuming to fly, you have no certs, compared to a fully certed out mosquito you're cooked (I feel like the difference between putting a lot of certs into air is MUCH bigger than the difference between an uncerted and fully certed MBT or even infantry), but people are less likely to put certs into a vehicle that they are constantly failing in. So they CONTINUE to suck.. which means they get shot down a lot, which means they still don't put certs into it for the occasional fly around that lasts a few minutes before they are shot down again.

    Suggestions on certs, and some sort of idea that shows you the difference would go a long way. Going into the VR can show you how good putting certs into your ESF is, but since you can't REALLY dogfight in the VR, its really hard to know what its really like.
  19. Wariamu

    Very true. Which is why I was suggesting VR fights between the same faction AND (I forgot) AI (Basically versus computer controlled enemies). Allows for training without being restricted by either timers or resources and to practice against enemies of your own experience level.
  20. Ice

    I liked the panel structure of the session. In the future I believe it could use some more moderation to avoid the awkward silences and the talking over one another. I know it is hard to share air time with people you are not familiar with much less not in the same room as - you have much fewer cues to go on when you want to speak.

    I think everyone did a great job and it was informative to hear the opinions and suggestions of players who have a vested interest in the topic at hand. Looking forward to the next one!
    • Up x 2