So... New Implants Analysis - P2W Confirmed

I've got to ask, how did you burn through them so fast?

I just had regen or that anti-radar implant equipped on all my characters, and whenever I needed it I just threw in a charger. Still meant that I was charged most of the time, but my chargers kept growing. I had over 500 chargers by yesterday.

Also I have more than 20.000 of that ISO-4 right now after I immediately upgraded my Regen to level 5 (bought 2 deluxe bundles with certs), so I've still got enough to upgrade at least 5,4 implants to the max. And I really have no idea yet what else I should put it in. Ammo printer? Don't make me laugh, maybe for one of my vehicle builds, but even at 1 minute intervals it seems quite useless.
Safe fall? I do play LA a lot, but that just means I rarely get fall damage. I might use it for some shotgun build or something, dropping from above and not needing to slow down could be advantageous, but other than that I don't need it.
Target focus? Currently my second implant on most characters, the ability to spot health is nice. I might upgrade it. And I must say I always forget that Hold Breath is a feature in the game, I never use it and don't think it's that useful anyway. The sway on snipers is pretty predictable anyway.
Safeguard? Maaaaybe on a MAX AI build, but other than that I'm not going to be using it.
Sweeper HUD? Yeah is nice, might use it on my MAX and Infiltrator, maaaybe in a vehicle build but probably not.

Now I don't have these yet, but still I can think about them:
Assimilate: Oh please, if there's anything useless it's something like this. Better pick regen. The moment you need the health immediately after you headshot someone it means your shield is down and you are better off waiting rather than engaging anyway. You are better off equipping something that helps you during the fight so you lose less health.
Battle-Hardened: Could be useful. Didn't use it before aside from some testing, didn't seem that important overall although many players swear by it.
Vampire: Like Assimilate, not going to touch it with a 200 foot pole. Seriously if you put in ISO-4 into this you are really wasting your time.
Catlike: Oh hell yeah I'm going to put something into this. Although I do have to call out the community for being a hypocrite. People went apecrap over 0,75ADS speed weapons because that speed was so much better, but when it's reversed that speed difference suddenly doesn't matter? WTH? Now I knew from the beginning that the 0,75ADS was completely not the reason why some weapons were OP, as evidenced in the way these weapons remained just as effective after the 'nerfs', but still.

So... out of the 12 Implants there's 3 implants that I'll never put ISO-4 in and 2 Implants that are immediately maxed. That leaves 7 implants for me to MAX, one of which I already did so 6 left... And some of them are so situationally based that I might not do it anyway! I'll just upgrade my most used secondary implant and wait for future Implant releases I guess.

You do have a point. If we look at veteran players that spent countless hours combining implants, farming chargers and so on they have full right to feel cheated. On the other hand, players, like me, who have been playing this game for less than a year and never really cared about implants (hence they had stocks of chargers/implants) are in a sweet spot. I spent like 2.5k certs this morning on 3 deluxe packs, had like 23k of ISO-4 and got almost everything I needed to make my gameplay even better than before.

Again, I do not consider myself a competitive player even if I aim to have above 1 K/D. For now I play 1 class as main and 2 others as "support" and implants I got so far are more than enough to keep me satisfied. Sure, I would love to play with Minor Cloak or I kinda want Counter Intelbut I think I will get there one day.

Seriously guys. Implants ain't that crucial part of gameplay. Nobody forces you. It's just a nice addition, but you dramatize it like it's something you couldn't live or play without. Fokken chill.

I do not agree with this implant patch at all, The old system was better. I found the charger system kept implants in balance, It made me decide if i wanted to use implants or not. In the new system once the high input cost is met you never have to put anything into it again, also you can run 2 implants which increases demand to get the implants. Now the loot crate style packs are A major issue, the loot crates RNG is a terrible cancer that will make old players quit and prevent new players from starting.

Suggested Changes

1. Make Implants Outright Purchasable with ISO4 - Remove RNG Jesus (this alone with NO OTHER CHANGES would reduce a lot of complaints)
2. Remove RNG Loot crates with a Set ISO4 Amount Purchasable with Certs or DBC. (Loot crates are cancer, I don't play games with loot crates as the only source of something, it is a telltale sign of pay to win)
3. Remove ISO4 Completely, Allow Implants to be purchasable with Certs or DBC directly.
4. Maybe re-introduce a charger system to keep the power creep of the implants in check.

Implant balance for Infantry vs vehicles

• Old System - EOD Hud 4 is pretty much what I spent most of my energy on when doing ground vehicle work, outside of this the only EOD Hud i used was EOD hud 2 on AI max.
• New System - Sweeper 5 - has no cost to running so as Infantry I Always have 35m detection range which will pretty much make Explosives useless, combine this with an infiltrator and Emp's. Hostile Tank Mines / Proxy Mines are pretty much useless. 35m Range is nice for vehicle work, and its what its designed for IMO.
• Suggestion - with the new no upkeep system maybe vehicles should have implants separate from Infantry Implants, when in a vehicle the vehicle would use its implants and your infantry implants would be off, until you exit the vehicle. This would allow for implants to have some reasonable balance for both situations.

General Thoughts
I really think DBG needs to go back to the drawing board on what your consumers are and how much money or time they're willing to spend on a product. I personally do not play many free to play games, Planetside 2 is the only free to play I've put a considerable amount of time or money into. Others being Star Conflict, Path of Exile, and World of Tanks. In general I feel the market for free to plays need to have have a low-medium cash input for things to get to be competitive. In PS2 we already have cert grinding for, Infantry Weapons, Equipment, suit upgrades, Vehicle Weapons, Upgrades, etc. The new implant revamp pretty much pushes things over the limit for the "input cost" for a player to be competitive. I'm already stuck on Connery and cannot character transfer to emerald (RIP CONNERY) This pretty much confirmed I will never start a new character or put any more money into the game.

And as a final note
I highly suggest not purchasing the random packs until a patch hits, there has to be some kind of a change to this, even if its not my suggestions that are infinitely better there has to be something, if this is left as is the game will die.

An everything-goes attitude is why the game is in such a bad state. The main complaint right now about implant 2.0 is the sole fact that new players will NEVER max a single implant. It's only possible for players who have been playing for years. I was only able to max two, and I've been around the game since 2013~2014, save the fact that I've deleted and remade characters numerous times.

Yet again, another thing that new players can't touch. They have to decide whether to gamble on implants they will never upgrade, since duplicates are worth a measly 25 ISO-4 a piece, or buy suit upgrades/weapons. Sure, you start with a useful one to see enemy health. Still wish it would show shields, though.

Implants actually have quite the impact on gameplay now. Ammo Printer 5 ensures you never run out of ammo in a tank if you've already got a large reserve. Sweeper HUD 5 ensures you never run into enemy mines, and have a rangefinder as well. It's useful with the MANA Turret, for example, so that you know how far an enemy is, so you can choose to shoot or not.

Now that less people will have a permanent EOD HUD, more people will die by tank mines, proximity mines/claymores, etc. People that have the implant such as myself, (and max rank) have a significant advantage over the less fortunate new player who will never have that unless they spend significant money on the game, or every cert they earn for the next few years on it.

"It's fine, don't complain about it!" "Doesn't matter!"

If we just look at the impact players having or not having things has on the community and gameplay in general, many things come to light. An advantage is one, no matter how big or small it is. It is the very definition of imbalance.

I know DBG lately doesn't like to change things after they've been implemented. However, this is one of those things that definitely needs to change. ISO-4 needs to be more available, if we're going to have to spend certs to get implants. ISO-4 itself needs to be a random drop. As I've said before, veterans can max a few implants, but new players never will unless they spend, spend, spend. I lost count of the times in-game today that I heard complaints about the prices, and from a few new players, about how they'll never get to use maxed versions of them.

And for 1200 ISO-4 you can upgrade each implant to level 4, effectively doubling the amount of implants you can upgrade. If all that seperates you from another player is 1 implant level, and if you have more choice in what implants are viable because you've got more high-level implants, then you are essentially at an advantage.
And that's assuming you are a completionist that tries to get all the useless implants like Vampire, ammo printer and Assimilate as well.

Excuse me but...



On the serious note: Why is it so important to max out implants? Why everyone are so obsessed with it? They are not game changers, just additional perks. They won't save you from being shot in the face by some BR5 dude.

I just explained why. New player versus veteran. It's not about who gets shot or anything in the generic gameplay area. It's about time spent in the game, and how players are affected by that. Sure, nobody needs to max an implant. However, implants can be much better if you max them, especially a certain few. Systems should be implemented with every player in mind, not only veterans.

I used to be a member, because I don't like what Day Break is doing to the game, I cancelled some time ago, which means that the cap for the amount of certs I could have went down to 10k.

Thing is, I didn't care, I basically really didn't have much to spend certs on that I would use.

Then came the patch, and I spent ALL MY CERTS trying to get all the implants.
You know how there are 3 lines of implants? After spending almost 10k certs I managed to get the first 2, the 3rd line is still blocked.


Clearly what is intended now is for me to take out my credit card, and I know I won't do that. However not everyone will have as many certs as I did, and without paying real cash, they are going to have to wait a longgggggg time to get those implants.

The differences aren't going to be that great.
In-combat there's only a few implants that help the player who put in more time:
Target Focus, but only if you are using a sniper as infil.
Battlehardened.
Catlike
Sweeper HUD, if you can call distance information a good in-combat ability. The distance info won't be useful to a new player anyway as it's still meaningless.
Counter-intelligence, although this only helps you spot and target enemies, it doesn't help you fight.

So... Out of the 5 Implants that can help you in-combat, 1 is semi-useful and only for one class, 2 are good, 2 are small aids that help you spot but not fight.

Not a big difference if you ask me.

It's not implants that make a veteran player better than a novice. And I don't see how implants are actually affect combat performance, except for Catlike. Most of implants are suited for comfort. Regeneration, health bars, spotting and ect.

Implants had impact in PS1, cuz they affected combat performance. Like giving you shield to soak up some damage, or giving you double running speed.

I don't even see point of those vampire implants, cuz amount of health regained is so friggin low!

I agree with you guys on that. Many of the implants are not that useful, save for a couple. Not to be the broken record-- but the problem is just accessibility, or the time it will take to obtain all the ISO-4 to do what you want with it. It's not about a need or must, but more of a..."If I want it, it's going to take forever. Might just sell my soul instead."

It's a problem for those who actually care about it, and clearly you guys don't. You want to understand, and we're trying to help.

Long-time player: Tons of ISO-4

New player/recent: None or very little. After patch new players, definitely none.

Imagine a new player who joins because they wanted to try out the implants? Oh the disappointment there will be. Top it off with VR Training being disabled due to exploits.

I really feel for the newbies, heck, even ones that joined within the past few months. Unless they've played 24/7 and never used a single charger... how will they ever rack up the ISO-4 to ever do anything with this new system? They can buy all the packs they want and get all the implants eventually, but might as well forget upgrading them. Even I as a veteran don't plan on getting anything more than I already have.

The point is not to think about it selfishly. Everyone else who hasn't put in the time is just going to have to put in more than we ever did, if they care about it. Anyway fellas, this is the last time I'm explaining the core issue. If 'ya still don't get it, well... ask someone else.

I do care, but I recognize that to get enough out of your implants, you need maybe 1/50th of the total iso4 required to upgrade everything

I spent 15,000 certs on implant packs, had to stop there as i still didnt have either 'exceptional' one LOL.
Upgraded everything else to lvl 4, and 3 of them to lvl 5 (catlike, sweeper hud, and target focus), and i still have over 10k of the upgrade material left.

• Sweeper HUD - annoys the hell out of me with that range number, never needed it before, its just annoying now....wish i could turn it off....
• Catlike - is meh tbh, the crouch speed is still ******, and of course you cant sprint with it as you stand immediately. Good for stalking into enemy bases a bit quicker but i havent tested whether your visible on radar or not. Also good for LA as it has increased jump height for an initial boost to jetpak, my drifter LA likes.
• Target focus - makes it feel a bit like ps1 enhanced targetting but doesnt do anything else for me really, probs never use it.
• Safe fall 4 is awesome, nothing more to say, will probs upgrade to 5 for the bonus 20% vehicle collision damage reduction, again my driter LA likes this!

Havent dabbled with the others yet.

Very expensive on certs tho, im lucky to have a large reserve, but im not spending my other 35,000 to try and get the exceptional ones. New players are ****ted on, real bad!

They are. New players can get rank 1-2 by investing ~1500 certs (which is not much compared to vehicles or suit slots!). Veterans will have a cert sink to dump thousands of certs trying to max them all. I don't really get why this is bad for newer players. How exactly would you change the system to be more newb friendly, while still maintaining relevant AND something to work on for a long time AND make some cash? Because I don't think you have the answer to that. We do not live in unicornland where all is fun and everybody makes money by simply breathing...

Newbies life is harsh in Planetside. So in the other PvP related MMOs. At least they have bonus certs for the first 15 BRs.

But I always said, if you want comfortable play - you pay. Subscription helps a lot. I yet to test the system, don't know about the prices, EU region was on hold during maintenance. Yet dishing out 400+ certs without stress for couple of hours would help gaining ISO.

Full answer in another post but bascially:

• stuff that used to be expensive (like nano and flak) is free now, just been replaced by new expensive stuff;
• you don't have to grind or pay for chargers any more;
• you don't need top tier of things for them to be useful (get the top tier when you can afford it);
• P2W? sure, why shouldn't getting the best out of the game cost something - even if it is just having to wait longer to build up the certs?

I agree with you when you say you aren't supposed to unlock and upgrade them all, but here is the problem. In order to get the two that I use all the time and really want, but don't have now, I have to purchase with DB Cash or Cert Points a bundle that has random implants that MAY give me one I want - but probably won't. So I might have to unlock them all to get the two I want. If I am using DB Cash or Cert Points, why is it random. To use you weapon analogy above, if I want a new gun I don't buy a weapon bundle that gives me a random gun, and if I want an attachment I don't buy an attachment bundle that gives me a random attachment. I get to pick what I buy. They need to change this so you can buy the implant you want for a few hundred cert points.

Well there's two sides to this.
1: yes, it would be better if you could simply pick your implant. For a price ofcourse. Let the random bundles stay and offer you more implants per cert/DBC, but let players buy specific implants if they choose to.
2: PS2 is not bringing in enough revenue. I actually quite like the way they approached this situation. They added in a bunch of perks that mostly just give you more ease-of-use, then let players acquire them through various means. The impatient players will pay for it, giving the game the revenue boost it needs, the less impatient players will just use certs.

Just keep this in mind: You want to upgrade as much as possible, take it to level 4. That gives you a much wider range of implants you can use at any time with relatively little difference between you and a level 5 user. The added versatility to your implant loadouts should be enough to even the odds. Then when you've got the implants you want and like, then and only then start thinking about level 5. Also keep in mind that in the future more implants might be unlocked.

I would encourage you to hop on reddit and request that subscribers get a bonus conversion for duplicates on ISO-4. Currently, I believe you get 50 for a level 1 breakdown. If you've subscribed, I see no reason why you shouldn't get 100 or 125 per l1 Breakdown.

I may, in fact, do so myself.