Should anything really be 1000 certs?

You only carry non spending players if the bought guns are buying power.

I would pay 10,000 cert points for a colorblind mode. PLEASE!

Items need to cost more points the more you own, so the first few are cheaper and it scales up.

Agreed. Traditionally, a leveling system grants greater power with each level; the appeal being more time invested makes you more effective. The appeal of the FPS genre is typically a level playing field for skill and strategy to dictate effectiveness. For that to happen, all content has to be available to everyone. PS2 has an identity crisis: it plays more like an MMORPG than a MMOFPS, and contrary to FPS appeal...

- High-level players have distinct advantages over low-level players simply by having more certs, especially in vehicular combat.

- It's exclusionary, where one must “put in the time” to gain access to content.

- The main focus has become leveling (cert farming) as quickly as possible to get new weapons.

- A hierarchy exists, with infantry as peasants, armor in the middle, and aircraft as king.

Mind you, this was not done to benefit or enhance the game in any way. The sole purpose is to coerce revenue. Unlocking everything takes far too long with time and is far too expensive with money. Simply laughable. It would have been better for longevity to charge for the game (all weapons unlocked) and provide free online play. I know SOE isn't a charity and their product needs to make money, but PS2 was nowhere near ready to use a F2P model effectively and, so far, it's a blatant cash grab. Their only pitch is “avoid our exhausting and ill-fitting grind.”

I could honestly write a thesis about PS2, so I'll stop here. Not because I like it, but because I wonder, “How is SOE still in business?” every time they release a new game.

i will agree that they need more "stuff" to unlock at lower levels though- like TONS more. Just off the top of my head i can think of 5 grenade variants that they could easily use to make it feel like progression in this game isnt ONLY about earning certs

Nothing should be 1000 certs. It drives away new, F2P players, who provide about 90% of the content of this game. Did you see any population problems during double XP? No.

Doubling say the size of a magazine on an ESF I could see a dedicated air player putting 1000 certs into.

The usual 4 bullets or 4% better, not so much.

And I'm not colourblind SOE, but for the love of ******* God this is a dead easy fix, how are you guys not on top of this?

And you din't think they would make more money if they lured more players into the game and/or if you could buy Cert points?

Well yeah i think you got it wrong MR economist! And so do they.

It might not please to elitist players but i would prefer a full Pay2Win system to a half one like we do have now. More players means more payers! And if they get more money, we get more fun through full servers and good updates by SOE.

I have to say that 1,000 certs is a steep price for some of the gear. Rockets for aircav are a tremendous bargain as they kill everything every which way till next tuesday. On the other hand a Vanguard Walker, a second max burster arm, and a few other items are not even remotely on the same planet as the rockets. I would not suggest buying these items with certs unless you first get rockets and farm, farm, farm with ease. That problem is a matter of balance, which soe needs to address due to the massive difference in value.

Should any item, assume all things are balanced in the future, be worth 1,000 certs? One must ask if SOE is doing work that is worthy of dropping some cash on the game when you have some money available. I have recently dropped $10, though I would have gotten the alpha pack had someone not locked my weapons at the end of beta and not tell me they did so.., but as I was saying, I plan on buying one of the cards soon. Playing for free is one thing if you cannot drop a dime, its another if you can but thnk the work is not worth it.

While 1,000 certs is steep, you need to remember that you are playing for free. You are not only paying for free but you are able to earn certs and use them on anything that is going to have a direct effect upon gameplay. While camo can help give the opposition pause while they try to figure out if you are TR/NC/VS while the Q is not working, the bulk of the pay only items are not going to leave you making comparisons to world of tanks pay to win tanks vs guns in pS2.

Even if someone has a limited budget they are most likely able to sock away $2.50 a week and buy a $10 card each month to buy an item. Those 1,000 cert points that they gather can then be put into their new item. That gives them the items that they want, over time, and the upgrades for it. It also puts some cash into SOE's pocket, which helps them to make a profit, which means they will spend their time on adding to the game so that people have more to play with in order to keep that cycle going.

From what I have seen, I tend to end up with roughly 8 certs over night. If people are on an unsubbed account that is 8certsx30 days a month, giving even the most noobish of players a base of 240 certs per month to play with. This is a deficit of 760 cert points to get that one item at 1,000 certs, per month. This would leave the player 190,000 exp away from hitting that 1000 cert mark per month. This would require them to resupply friendly players with 19,000 times. If they were to play 4 times a week for 3 hours they would need to resupply friendlies a total of 396 times per play session. Depending upon the fights during those times it could be unreasonable to even hit 100, much less pushing 400. However, there have been times where I have ended up banging out a cert a minute, if not two certs per minute because I was making sure that people were not lacking for ammo at a fight. Throw in a few maxes and vehicles that need repairs, and a sunderer with the ams upgrade and the points just roll in. If that rate can be sustained for a few hours even once a week the cert cost of 1,000 does not seem to far out of reach.

If a person throws in a few kills, a few base caps, small facility captures, squad and defense xp bonuses and the cost seems far from being impossible even for someone not raking in the kills. This is without the use of any 1,000 point items, without any real need for upgrades. Eventually you will run into a problem where you have a stack of certs and see that one item you want on sale for SC. If you go to any sporting events,movies, or even just fastfood, you will see that for a price of a soda, or nachos, or a meal will net you 2 high cost items if bought while on sale, or at least a single one. All of those points that you have stacked up can seriously upgrade your new item(s).

In short its not a bad deal, getting to play the full game for free, with the ability to use in game points to unlock all of the gear without having to pay a cent. It also has the option to drop a few bucks and catch items on sale. The game also has ways for people to generate a lot of points without even killing anyone. At times I ended up netting far more doing support work then through direct kills.

The game is not going to be designed to have everything unlocked in an hour of playing. People want to play a game where they have goals, even if they are small ones. This is why F2P players will stick around, because they can play a game and have goals to reach. This gives those that have disposable income to a reason to stick around because they have others to play against.

There are only a few items that are 1,000 points that are unbalanced. Rockets and the MCG. Aside from those two the very basic stuff that each class has is capable of killing anyone just fine regardless if the other guy has the 1,000 gun or not. We are barely coming up on the first month of the game where the last game lasted 9 years. If you knew me then you would know that I am far from being a big fan of SOE, so I tend to be cautious about what they do and that leaves me to evaluate what goes on then a new person would. But in spite of that the current system is pretty damn good and is balanced in a way that should keep people playing and paying. Just as long as they avoid the T-59 syndrome of world of tanks, everything should be fine.

There simply needs to be more cheap stuff to unlock at the lower levels. Because it really sucks to get a bunch of certs, look at all your options and go "...yeah, I don't want any of these. They all kind of suck." I mean, 1.5% faster shield regeneration rate? Ooooh, exciting! And man, that 5% jetpack fuel boost is so awesome!

No, you look at all the cool stuff that really influences gameplay, and it all costs 250, 500, or 1000 certs. AP and HE guns for tanks, different vehicle weapons, rockets and A2A missiles, shotguns, G2A and lock-on rockets for HA, and whole host of cool stuff that, for the most part, is just plain out of reach for your average f2p player. There are a few token 100 cert guns that, of which, only the Infiltrator's provides any sort of difference in playstyles, and then only for the Terrans and Vanu.

There really needs to be more stuff to unlock that isn't just passive bonuses. For example, how about a cheap shotgun? Make it a double-barrel, give it two shots before you need to reload, and cost it at 100 certs. It'll be inferior to the current shotguns since you have to be really good at landing those two shots, but it will still be able to 2-shot someone if you do. It's a cheap, 100 cert weapon that changes your playstyle but still makes you want to get those better shotguns.

It's boring putting your hard earned certs into shields and health upgrades. It's boring being stuck with the same weapon and only being able to choose from a selection of 4 others, especially if you usually only play a single class. Progression in this game is boring because all the certs that change your playstyle are horribly expensive. Two C4 for Light Assault costs seven HUNDRED certs! 300 more and I could get A2G rockets, the best unlock in the game!

The prices are awful, the unlocks are boring, and SOE needs to step up their game if they don't want their decision to release early to bite them in the backside.

This attitude is essentially what SOE is saying and it's such a terrible stance to take for so many reasons I don't even know how SOE is still in business.

Completely agree with the OP.

This is one of the reasons why I consider PS2 to be borderline pay2win.

I can get a single 1000cert item/upgrade if I play the game continuously for 3 to 4 days. That's because I have no life and nothing else to do at this time. What about someone who has a job, family, or whatever? They are screwed. They stand no chance at all of unlocking anything within any reasonable period of time. They still have to pay certs for upgrades for their favorite class/vehicle let alone save for a new gun.

In most other free2play games the ingame-currency is spent on guns and maybe armor unlocks. That's it. PlanetSide 2 has you unlocking guns, gun attachments, class upgrades, class utilities/grenades, vehicle weapons, vehicle weapon attachments, vehicle upgrades, vehicle utilities. Someone who has bought those items or has bought a booster to aquire them is going to be flatout better off than someone who did not. It takes so long to get a class or vehicle to be the way you want it to be that you pretty much have to pay real money or you will be waiting months.

Not unless they raise the cert gains. I'm BR29, I've played everyday for 8 hours a day at least and I only have 3310 certs earned.(no premium or boosts) I just bought the guns I wanted, cause I would never earn them. I'm not going to wait months just to be competitive with the other factions.(NC's default's don't have any high RoF with good accuracy, which is required in cqc specially against factions that get the best guns in the game as their starter weapons)

1000 certs for top level stuff just means you will more than likely only invest in one char and faction. That's not good imo for faction balance, server pops, and general 'lets' have fun' gameplay. Just makes PS2 super duper expensive in the long run: either money or time wise. Or in this case, both.

Nope.

While I get what you're saying, the KEY point you are neglecting is that - unlike "%90 of cases" - PS2 relies almost completely on a huge initial playerbase to keep the game alive. Other successful f2p models that work with what you're talking about ONLY work because they don't require that. League of Legends, BF3, etc... NONE of them require AT LEAST 2000 people per server consistently to make the game interesting. League of Legends could have 200 people online at one time and still work because it's a 5v5 environment. 20 variations of that at all times ensures with each match you'll get paired with new people nearly every time. Same thing with BF3 except on a slightly larger scale. The whales can support the game by themselves because they're all the game might need. They fulfill 'the minimum'. All the f2pers are just a bonus to the community and act as a positive externality.

Games like Planetside 2 CAN NOT adapt this model because they are games that operate on completely different community principles. You unquestionably and undeniably NEED f2pers to keep the game alive.

I'm sorry but I can not agree with what you're saying. I believe the Cert costs are too high for this type of game. If they want to preserve a thriving community in the wake of an early release plagued with bugs, other titles competing, and a schizophrenic development (to say the least), they'd better take a hit to the business NOW while they still can. It's called "investing" and SOE is notoriously ****ty at it.

I think the initial post-release hype is keeping it alive for now, but once midnight hits and Cinderella makes it back to the pumpkin we'll see massive population losses. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but I think a healthy dose of cynicism and caution is key to success. I still think SOE could afford to reduce the cert costs by about 20% across the board and not take a hit anywhere.