Show me another game that gives all this unscriped

In the past month or so I have seen a ton of really good examples of the Huge fights that Planetside and only Planetside can give.

As much as we all have things we have issue with in the game, it's always good to remember that the reason we are so passionate is because nothing else gives us the same experience.



I posted this to reddit a few days ago, but I do know not everyone reads this forum and that one.

The closest thing that comes to planetside is WWII Online

Until the day we get an MMO Battlefield game, Planetside will stand alone on its pedestal of glory.

This is because everybody wants to play a designer and deems the choices PS2 team made stupid or irrational while in fact they are the most qualified personel to deliver a game such as PS2. Remember, ideas are cheap, I saw some on Kickstarter worth less than a dollar. What really matters if you can actualy implement those ideas in a way beneficial for the game and not too time and resource consuming or at least make a prototype. And they did it - we have an MMOFPS. There aren't many MMOFPSes out there you know, mainly because it's a hard thing to pull off. Some may argue PS1 was better than PS2 but the truth is PS2 was meant to be a different game than PS1 from the very beginning. If you really think PS1 was better than PS2 then go on - there's one PS1 server left to play on. And if you think you would do better than the devs then don't hesitate to show us your work when you're done. Otherwise please, don't blame on the devs for something you probably don't understand even if you think you do. PS2 is a great game, it's the only MMO that kept me invested for over one year. And although I see a lot of further potential in it I still have faith in the devs, because if they can't do this properly then nobody can.

TL;DR Story of a real spur-of-the-moment in-game event, not really... important, just hopefully a nice read

I had a great moment the other day, where I was an Engie accompanied by a random Medic. We weren't even in a squad, but just we suddenly started moving together towards Nott Amp from the north east Substation. We occasionally looked at each other to acknowledge we were sort of partnering up (Engie and Medic seems like a good duo), I generally took the lead and he'd ideally heal.

We were checking our flanks emerging past each hill, fended off a few random VS on the way while circumventing this hilly area. There was even a VS Stalker infil along the way to identify and take down. So the game I was playing turned from random fighting to "This is now serious business".

We eventually made it to the tunnel under the Amp station wall, which emerges next to the Spawn room. At this time we had 1 or 2 extra friendlies accompanying us, who had made the same journey just a different route.

We cautiously examined the tunnel, I destroyed a VS AI mine lying in wait for any who approach (Well, one medic didn't see it so I ended up TKing him with it, lel, but one of the extra friendlies around was a Medic to save him).

Now, we should have taken that as a hint really, the AI Mine, that something lie await for us. But it could well have just been a randomly planted mine... but it wasn't. The lot of us charged through into the compound single file, and I KID YOU NOT, there was 2 VS waiting above the tunnel opening on the other side, ready to gun us down from behind, and we took fire from in front from the spawn room at the same time. Usually I'm quite good with audio cues for identifying enemies before seeing, but I did not hear these guys at all.

I was genuinely surprised, they had waited to ambush us. Fortunately one of the VS above was a bit overzealous and he jumped down in front of me chasing two of my friendlies so I shot him in the back like he did so for my comrades. But ultimately their ambush succeeded. I managed to fall back into the Tunnel, but it was just me left alive so I went back through guns blazing, in a vein attempt to redeem my lost fellow friends.

A nice memorable unscripted moment, and I actually have the Ambush itself shadow played (******' love shadowplay), but reading the written story leaves a bit more to the imagination

This thread is now a story thread? lol

What's even better, is that some people (myself included) frequently pull off some manuevers just to add to the scenery. Have you ever passed over an advancing friendly tank column dangerously low, just to make the entire thing look cooler?

Greatest battle of Jaeger, RIP.

i agree that if you enjoy massive combined arms FPS fights nothing comes close to PS2, and its free? win win.
but we will have a real tough time the moment someone else does it, not because PS2 is bad, but because it has stood alone as the only option for so long that yes, it has become dated.
i'll be keeping my eye on the new Battlefront, but i don't really expect it to be thousands of players per server.

Well there is one game that I know that is currently in development that is aiming to have a similar experience like Planetside 2 and its going to be free to play as well it's Line of Defense MMO.

Its still in development but it looks like it should be pretty good in release.

The steam reviews for that look pretty bad though - http://store.steampowered.com/app/266620/

Then again, Early Access can change.

From what I understand a lot of those steam reviews are from when the game was accidentally added to a free to play weekend.

In addition to it's unforgiving nature, this is one of the main reasons why I like this game so much. Of course massive battles are great fun too, it's downright elevating to be part of a massive infantry assault with a few tanks thrown in for a good measure, but these kinds of 'accidental' small scale actions can be sooo immersive and rewarding. You bump into a fellow factioner, you both see what needs to be done and you make a push for it. You might communicate through /say or proxy, but it's not needed. You just look at each other for that minute acknowledgement and then get together.

Nice story.

Bah, logged back into the Fourmns just to reply.


You're so right. That's why we ARE so passionate. People need to understand that a lot of us put so much effort in critique and critical analysis of the game simply because the thing is so rare that we don't want to let it go.

Sadly, for me, I've already let it go having quit earlier this year - but like today? I every once in a while check posts on PS2 to see what's going on.

And as a Direct reply to your question, OP - WW2Online: Battlefield Europe is the closest thing. In fact, so close that it actually released before PS1 did (making it the first) and is still going - no sequel. It had a major graphics over haul I think in '09 but there is only so much you can do on an engine that old.

WW2 online is however, a lot more complicated than Planetside is / was. With actual supply lines and FOB, plus all three branches of armed warfare - Navy, Air and Ground - spread over a 300,000 sq km map is intimidating. PS2 doesn't even scratch a ball hair on getting close to what WW2O has been doing for over a decade now. It's just so archaic, complex and more "Simulator" like that most are scared of it. Planetside's arcade "screw realism" focus makes for way better filming XD

That WWII online reminds me of what I thought when I heard that Elite Dangerous supposedly had 400 billion (400 * 10^9) star systems: Good luck making your players meet each other in that much open space.
A bit more realism would be fine, but I don't want to actually have to fight for every m² of the Auraxis' surface.

That being said, yes PS2 is pretty much the one and only. Also I ******* wish it had the performance it had one and a half year ago. It has a couple rough edges, some of them are so rough that I am amazed how they ever made it to live, but the performance is really my biggest concern right now.
That the game ran better when we had (at least perceived) twice the number of players than it does now is really irritating for me.

Let's not pretend the PS2 devs haven't made their fair share of poor decisions, some that were even totally avoidable if they'd just have listened. There are reasons why things worked in PS1 that don't work in PS2. Vehicle-vs-infantry balance for example. It's not a matter of AV versus tank cannon splash, it was a matter of cover options, which PS2 lacks but PS1 had in spades. There are reasons why sniper rifles didn't one shot, and especially weren't on a class that can go invisible. There are reasons why the heavy assault guys weren't THAT much sturdier than the guys in lighter armor. There were reasons why bases were actually fairly defensible... but had a siege mechanic in the form of an exhaustible power supply.

While PS1 was dated and eventually bled dry, it had good lessons and examples to glean from... and the PS2 developers pretty much ignored ALL OF IT. ...To date. Hence the mess. Some things were rightfully left behind - like gun play. That needed to change. Inventory -> classes was a smart move, though I know people will disagree. Why we have restoration kits for 850 total certs at 50 nanites a pop that heal over time versus medical kits for 800 total certs at 75 nanites a pop that heal instantly, I don't know. I know no one uses the restoration kits, and yet, I'm hard pressed to believe if these were the only option, HA kit spammers would even be an issue. Why for some reason the only weapons to have extended mag options are shotguns and LMGs with already large magazine capacities still escapes me - I'd kill for a rail attachment that adds 20% more rounds to my rifle/carbine's magazine.

There are tons of problems, and no, DGC isn't the most qualified. Fact is, it seems like whenever a player suggests a solution, they go out of their way to mark that solution off as a solution to even explore. Sometimes, players DO have good ideas. Maybe not all of them can be so easily implemented, like forests or rock outcroppings all over every continent for tank-vs-infantry balance or restructuring outposts and bases so that they don't so severely favor either the offense or the defense or worse, turn into horrendous meat grinding bottlenecks for both sides or even nixxing some off the lattice just to improve flow (why are the Abandoned NS offices their own node again?)

Expect their implementation of the rocklet rifle to be completely destroyed by how the player would utilize it. If it's non-class specific but a primary, it'll never see use. If it's HA only, it only exacerbates the current class population issues. If it's a secondary, it'll have to be mostly ineffective (but still a better option that explosive crossbow darts... hopefully) but that would be ideal in my mind. Which is why I expect the former two decisions.

Ideas are cheap.

An MMO game consists of many interlocking systems which impact each other on any change. You may never know how a change of one thing would change the way people play the game as a whole.If you nerf HAs then less players will be playing them so that's an indirect buff to vehicles, for example. Furthermore it runs on F2P model so, unlike PS1, SOE has to make sure people want to buy their stuff or get membership, while in PS1 they had a constant flow of cash so they could focus on delivering exactly what the community demanded, which naturaly attracted more subscribers.

PS2 was meant to be a different game than PS1 from the very beginning, otherwise it just wouldn't survive long. Times have changed, there are very few games which still run on the subscription model. F2P model requires some sacrifices in order to be profitable... Like the painfully long character progression, cattering to the masses(even if they're completely wrong) constant focus on balance and new in-game items instead of actual mechanics, and perhaps most importantly, creating a giant Skinner Box. Pretty much any MMO game relies on a Skinner Box, any MMO has some kind of grinding mechanic which allows them to keep players invested in the game even after they lost all the interest in it. This is the cert farming meta we have, people complain about it but it is probably made so on purpose to keep players invested, because after loosing hours and hours on grinding that precious gear it is much harder to leave.

However I don't think their design decisions were wrong, if anything they were necessary. Despite all it's flaws PS2 is the only MMO which kept me invested for over one year. Maybe partialy it's the Skinner Box but I'm still having fun. I understand that the devs aren't "evil" or "stupid" or that they "don't play their own game", simply they have a much wider view on the situation than we have and if something isn't getting done the way we want it's because it's better for the game as a whole. If anything we should either politely suggest something and show our support for that feature or leave the game completely, because pretending you would develop the game better is dead wrong.

When you remember this just do it

When a big fight begins and guns are blazing take a moment a look at the sky and just observe.

No matter how many problems this game is its the best and we love it and we will always support it

I've seen white knighting but ho boy... WORDS are cheap. Ideas have value, but lack absolute foresight. A bad idea is a bad idea, and a good idea is a good idea. Seldom is it obvious which ideas are good and which ones are bad until after execution in practice.

DGC has made some grievious errors. The proof is in the super nerfing of many things that deserved to be nerfed, but they didn't need to be nerfed as hard as they were if only something else were done. The proof is in the constant release of items that are blatantly broken OP. Or just broken. The old HE tank blasts would be fine... if there were dozens of individual pieces of cover for infantry to hide behind, not one big one with a gathering spot on either side of it. Or spawn rooms so poorly placed they were showered in a hot bath of liquid napalm for the duration of the cap the moment the battle begun. Why are many of the facilities adjacent to the warpgates HARDER to assault from the warpgate side than the incoming side? Why are some of the facilities designed with such a single or double choke that no one can really get in OR out without having the numbers to curb stomp their opponents? Why do you think people insist on sticking around and farming each other until either the region caps or the last sunderer is destroyed? Why is it we can freely redeploy across the continent, reinforcing every bloody front at a moments notice?

Some of these aren't just "let people play how they want to play." issues. Some are TOXIC for the game in that some player behaviors drive others away.

You. Are. Wrong. PS2 is meant to be a different game from PS1, but the hard attempt to be a COMPLETELY different game sans the names of the three factions is a huge mistake and the height of ignorance. It's not even about spitting on former players (they left the former game, so obviously a direct remake was out of the question) - it's about completely ignoring the lessons and mistakes made in the only other example of an MMOFPS just to make brand new mistakes that could have been avoided by gleaning into PS1 and asking WHY this or that was designed to work in such a way. It wasn't haphazardly strewn together and things just worked. That's Warframe's claim to glory, not PS1's. There was thought behind the forests that covered literally every continent in PS1. There was a reason sniper rifles couldn't fit on invisible dudes. There was a reason for the nanite silos in otherwise very defendable bases. There was a reason players weren't required to take the towers nearby before assaulting the base - they simply helped in the assault of the base.

But no... the game is totally fine and player numbers are most definitely growing despite the complete aversion to every lesson PS1 had to offer that gave things oomph and purpose without turning a weapon into a massacre tool or a situation into a blatantly one sided fight. I want PS2 to improve in the right ways. The right ways aren't always number tweaks. As much as I hate boring through HA shields, too much less durability (and that wouldn't be very much less) and they'd come across as cannon fodder with a rocket launcher. When I do drive tanks, it's rarely a rocket launcher (or C4) that finishes me. It takes some poor positioning to get waxed by infantry as an MBT driver.

The resource system and new vehicle AV weapons are evidence DGC actually recognizes that (took them long enough.) What more they'll do to address problems with the game without resorting to adjusting a few stats in the vain hope the problem articles will finally be "balanced," I can only dream. Looking at the state of the game now, medics are in dire need of a player lure. Assault rifles aren't worth a $#!% to infinite ammo, flight, or nearly doubled life span.

Each day I see epicness that makes me stop and watch.
Absolutely love this game and the community it has created

Well there was that on game called MAG, that could possibly throw down with Planetside 2, but sadly that game was destroyed. Because the company had to sink a **** ton of money into another game at the time and it did not fare well.